Jonas E. Alexis
Saying that Russia is invading Ukraine is like saying that the United States is invading California.
JEA: I have said over and over that saying that Russia is invading Ukraine is like saying that the United States is invading California. This recent article gives some good reasons as to why this is the case.
What is Ukraine? This is a difficult question. Russia was born in Kiev.
by Karsten Riise
The first historic Russian empire was Kievan-Rus, which was founded by the Vikings and King Rurik, who sailed from the Baltic Sea through the rivers Daugava and Dnepr down to the Black Sea and Constantinople.
In 882 CE they made Kyiv the capital of the first Russian kingdom. The Mongols put a final end to Kievan-Rus in the 13th century, but the Rurik dynasty then ruled from further north, in what was in the 15th century still just a small principality around another river city called Moscow. Only in 1598 did the ruling Ruriks die out in Moscow where they were succeeded by the Romanovs.
Ukraine did not exist as a country for hundreds of years and was only revived (or created) after the Russian Revolution in 1917, just 105 years ago. Immediately after, Ukraine was absorbed again, by the Soviet Union and only reappeared once as an independent country again nearly by accident only 31 years ago in 1991, when Russia’s Boris Yeltsin got Ukraine’s Leonid Kuchma hooked on the idea of dissolving the Soviet Union in a coup declaring Russia and Ukraine independent.
For hundreds of years, Ukraine was run by Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, the Mongols, Turks Austria-Hungary, and Russia. There are few geographical boundaries in the vast plains in the easternmost parts of Europe, so armies and ravaging hordes have always been able to roam freely for thousands of years. First on horses. Later in tanks.
Most of the armies of Carl Gustav, Peter the Great, Napoleon, and even Hitler and Stalin crossed these enormous distances on foot. In just the last 105 years, Ukraine’s borders, language, and identification have changed several times.
More-often-than-not than marked variations in culture, language, and conscience between the various parts of what at any given time in history was identified as Ukraine.
Fig. 1: Historical boundaries of Ukraine since 1917. Wikipedia Commons.
Crimea was part of Russia during Soviet times, and only “transferred” to Ukraine as an autonomous republic in a symbolic gesture as late as 1954. The yellow area on the map fig. 1 in Ukraine’s westernmost part is important also today. The area marked in yellow was until World War I ruled by Austria-Hungary, and its regional capital Lviv then had the German name, Lemberg.
The large green parts of Ukraine in Fig. 1 were part of Russia. Broadly speaking, the yellow area in Fig.1 was influenced by German and Central European culture and ideas. The great green area in fig.1 was influenced by the Russian language, culture, and ideas in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
It was in the western part of Ukraine (yellow on fig.1), that Ukrainian nationalism was born. This was due to the influences when nationalism was invented as an ideology as late as the 19th century. And it was also in this western part of Ukraine, where Fascism and later Nazism grew strong between the two World Wars.
Ultra-fascist Ukrainians influenced by Nazism in Germany in the West killed Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, and Russians who were seen as “un-Ukrainian”. It was also in this western part of Ukraine where Hitler recruited Ukrainian Nazis for SS Division Galizien during World War II. SS-leader Himmler was very careful to make sure that the Ukrainians he recruited for SS were extremely fanatic and loyal to Hitler in their Nazi convictions.
Even as Germany was losing World War II, the Ukrainian SS Nazis kept fighting loyally for Hitler, even on retreat all the way back to Berlin. Only a few weeks before Hitler shot himself in May 1945, did the Ukrainian SS-Nazi soldiers (on paper with SS symbols!) suddenly declare that they were now anti-Communist “freedom fighters” for Ukraine.
The USA probably very soon discovered their potential against Russia, right after World War II, thousands of these SS Ukrainians were discretely sent to Canada, where they formed a community and whitewashed their Nazi past.
The Abuse of Ukraine
After the (re) creation of Ukraine in 1991, Ukraine’s Nazi elements resurfaced as neo-Nazi and extreme right-wing political movements, again in Western Ukraine. I have seen plenty of research on this, and I here refer mainly to the scientific research of Prof. Per Anders Rudling from the University of Lund in Sweden.
As the existence of Ukraine, today is partly a coincidence, and Ukraine never had a unified nationalist movement or identity, these far-right forces have in the past decades been active in efforts to “write”, “design”, and invent a new “old” history of Ukraine, to create a “common” sense of “nation” for all of Ukraine.
This invention of a Ukrainian “nationality” has included the suppression and deletion of Russian culture and language in eastern Ukraine. It has also included disenfranchising the political influence of the people in eastern Ukraine for the benefit of western Ukraine within the power circles in Kyiv.
Nazis and far-right-wing groups supported by the US and then-Vice President Biden and Victoria Nuland were active as violent stormtroopers during the Maidan coup in Kyiv which in 2014 toppled Ukraine’s democratically elected president Yanukovych. In subsequent “free” elections the political parties which represented eastern Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking population were banned or criminalized.
The Abuse of Russia
In 1991, at the same time as Leonid Kuchma declared Ukraine’s independence of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin in Russia also declared the independence of Russia from the Soviet Union. The motivation for both persons was not about ideology, liberalism, democracy, or anything else.
It was about personal power. Better be number one in an independent country, than number two in a union of countries. The economy collapsed in Russia. Using Maddison Data, I calculated in 2016, that Russia’s living standard in the period under Yeltsin fell by 5.3% every year from 1991 to 1999.
Compared to the time in the Soviet Union, Russian living standards fell by about one-third. Probably millions of people died prematurely of undernourishment, lack of medical care, and alcoholism.
For Russia, the 1990s became a decade with one of the worst declines in living standards for a developed country ever in peacetime. US ultra-liberal economists and the CIA ran Russia. Russian Nazis emerged. Russian Nazis took turns with old-time Communists, as they demonstrated on the Red Square and across Russia.
Meanwhile, because of US-designed privatization policies, oligarchs took over Russia’s biggest companies. The Russian Navy rusted, and army officers were not paid. Meanwhile, the US courted Boris Yeltsin in the White House. As Gorbachev once said: Only when Russia is weak, does the US love Russia.
To make matters worse for Russia, jihadists and other insurgents started a war in Russia’s Caucasus region. This war cost Russia 60,000 lives. Russia also faced several deadly incidents of terrorism including in a school and in a theatre and the destruction of the regional capital Grozny. Terrorist activities inside Russia are easy to support from forces operating in neighboring countries like Ukraine and Georgia.
After the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia gained an understanding from the USA that NATO would not expand eastwards, and at any rate, not into parts of the former Soviet Union.
Soon the US forgot that and expanded NATO with the three former Soviet Baltic Republics, with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and so on. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Russia was allowed by the West to participate in peacekeeping, but right from the beginning, Russia was marginalized.
Tensions increased. In 2003, Edvard Shevardnadze, who was on working terms with Russia, was democratically re-elected as leader in Georgia. In a US-financed and organized “color revolution”, Shevardnadze was toppled in a coup, and replaced by the US-friendly but deeply corrupt Saakashvili.
This was a further deterioration for Russia. The turning point came for Russia when Saakashvili started a war against the Russian population groups in Georgia while Russia’s President was being treated with champagne by the US President at the Olympic games in far-away Beijing in 2008.
The final disillusionment of Russia with the West came in 2014 with the US-engineered Maidan coup which toppled the democratically elected but Russia-friendly president Yanukovych in Ukraine. Immediately after this, Russian-speaking Ukrainians were targeted by the new government in Kyiv, and Russian-speaking insurgents rose in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region.
Russia reacted by taking-over Crimea with a subsequent referendum. Ukrainian far-right movements and neo-Nazis organized private oligarch-financed armies to fight the Russian-speaking insurgents in Donbass, and Russia responded by militarily supporting the Russian-speaking insurgents.
Geopolitics
Geopolitically, Ukraine is very sensitive to Russia. From Ukraine, there are only 440 kilometers to Moscow. If Crimea had not voted to become Russian, Russia’s Navy would have lost a foothold in the Black Sea.
From Ukraine, it is very easy to work inside Russia. As mentioned above, after 1991 Russia suffered from internal wars and terrorist attacks – and terrorist activities inside Russia are easy to support from forces operating in neighboring countries like Ukraine and Georgia.
Therefore, it was the last straw for Russia, when NATO decided in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia should become members of NATO with a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP). NATO’s decision to give membership to Ukraine and Georgia was reiterated at the NATO summit in 2021. Russia is therefore under hard pressure to act.
What more to say? The current bs re Ukraine is absolutely legion. The creeps are working overtime and making obvious mistakes….likely due to wearing their bs masks for too long or they realize YOU have been wearing your mask too long and cannot distinction shite from Shinola. From ZH:
‘Question All Of It’ – The Current Western Propaganda For Ukraine Is Epic In Scale’
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/question-all-it-current-western-propaganda-ukraine-epic-scale
As if what is going on in Ukraine is not enough, Rappoport presents an aspect I have seen nowhere else:
Absolutely deserves a read.
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2022/02/25/alert-ukraine-chemical-time-bomb-warning-to-putin-and-the-ukraine-military/
Alert: Ukraine chemical time bomb; warning to Putin and the Ukraine military
by Jon Rappoport
February 25, 2022
THERE ARE MANY STORAGE DEPOTS ALL OVER THE UKRAINE, WHERE DANGEROUS AND BANNED PESTICIDES HAVE BEEN KEPT BADLY FOR YEARS.
Bombing and shelling that happens to strike these depots would cause devastating consequences.
In 2009 (see also here), I researched the problem of pesticides in the Ukraine. Use is not the only issue; so is storage. And the scope and danger are huge.
Here is what I found:
Tamara Gurzhiy, “Expired and prohibited pesticides problem in Ukraine,” Independent Agency for Ecological Information, Kharkiv, Ukraine (English translation):
“Twenty thousand to 25,000 t [tons] of expired or prohibited pesticides are stored on 4,000 Ukrainian depots. This is a serious threat for people and environment. Arsenic compounds are highly toxic for cattle. Death comes within several hours…Majority of pesticide depots were not designed for long-term usage. Chemicals are stolen and illegally sold to people. Depots’ roofs collapsed over the time, pesticides’ wrapping gets [out of] of order, pesticides of different nature may become [a] catalyst of spontaneous chemical reactions with unpredictable results. Spontaneous fire may spread toxins on a wide area. Utilization of expired and prohibited pesticides is Ukrainian national problem.”
Indeed, there was a fire in 2009.
Simferopol, October 17 (Interfax-Ukraine): “A storehouse with pesticide in Dzhankoi (Crimea) is on fire…around 200 tonnes of pesticide and magnesium chloride…around 40 tonnes of pesticide was taken from the storehouse…” How extensive were the toxic clouds? Was this the real reason for fake 2009 reports of a million people ill in the Ukraine with Swine Flu?
“BRNO, Czech Republic, Sept. 23, 2009 /CNW/ – According to Milieukontakts Partner IHPA (the International HCH and Pesticides Association) the health of at least 7 million inhabitants in Moldavia and Ukraine is seriously threatened by a stock of old pesticides. IHPA calls for fast EU action to disarm this ‘biggest chemical time bomb of Europe’.”
“…[in] the former Kalush factory in the west of Ukraine there is a stock of no less than 10,000 tonnes of superfluous Hexachlorobenzene (HCB). It’s particularly the positioning along the Dniester river that makes the situation extremely hazardous: a single flood and the high concentrations of poison would pollute the natural habitat of some 7 million people in the west of Ukraine and Moldavia.”
“In total, tens of millions of inhabitants in Europe, Central Asia and the former Soviet Union are being threatened by pesticides. In Ukraine alone there are 4,500 storage locations with more than 30,000 tonnes of old pesticides, a legacy from the Soviet era. The substances have been prohibited since 2001. As a rule the packaging only lasts five to ten years. If nothing happens in that time, then the substances could simply end up in the soil or in the water…”
Today (2/25/22) I looked for evidence that these horrendous problems in the Ukraine have been solved. So far, I haven’t found any. However, I did come across a 2020 study, “Environmental monitoring and recommendations on decreasing the levels of pesticide pollution in Zhytomyr region of Ukraine”:
“Environmental monitoring was conducted of facilities for storage and disposal of banned and unsuitable pesticides. Pesticide content in the soil, water, and products of agriculture in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine was examined, and the accumulation of organochlorine pesticides by freshwater bivalve mollusks was assessed. Storage facilities of the Zhytomyr region contain nearly 392.18 t [tons] of pesticides in 137 warehouses, of which 11 meet the requirements, 36 are tolerable, and 90 are in poor condition…”
Not encouraging.
I doubt the Russians or even the Ukrainians have supplied precise maps of all these pesticide depots to their military commanders.
WATCH OUT.
I’m going to ask this. I do not expect an answer. But I must ask.
What’s the possibility we are being played as far as this “war” goes? Do not say it is not possible. it’s entirely possible. Anything to take the heat off the failed covid hoax.
Why Is A 6 Million Views Video Of The Attacks In Ukraine Actually A Video Of A Nasty Thunderstorm From January? (Videos)
https://redstatenation.com/why-is-a-6-million-views-video-of-attacks-in-ukraine-actually-a-video-of-a-nasty-thunderstorm-from-january-videos/
Not impossible but, in my opinion, it’s highly improbable. Putin has to clean up a mess in his back yard and appears to be proceeding to do precisely that in a very methodical and thorough fashion. More to come.
Or less to come. It may be a close contest as to who folded quicker–the Afghan or Ukrainian military. The clear loser in all this will be the once-prosperous Ukraine, which has dropped to the bottom of the European economic ladder and has lost 25% of its population in recent decades. Once Russia destroys its military, the EU will run from Ukraine faster than a wildebeest from a lion. For those nations around the world who hope the US and West can help them with their revolution, take heed and beware your greatest wish comes true.
I think this will become known as the “One Day War.”
Improbable is good enough for me until I see absolute proof and some reporters from on the ground. If we could fake a moon landing in ’69, what capabilities have we now? There is a short video of a child on a bike being killed by a near-by missile strike. Looks fake with the usual “break-away”. Then there’s the usual old woman shot…dirty and war torn face….typical of “Wag the Dog”. Would it be that difficult for Putin to get Ukraine to go along under fear of real devastation? I know this stand will get all sorts of flack, which is fine….just show me some real proof and I will step away.
https://generaldispatch.whatfinger.com/the-children-are-always-victims-here-you-see-a-child-struck-by-missile-for-what-so-an-empire-can-be-built-great-%f0%9f%98%a2/
…and the notorious Daily Mail has all the following pics that could easily be from another time. If someone can identify them from the present, go right ahead. The 31st pic is of the old lady.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10549113/Kiev-fall-weekend-troops-encircle-capital-taking-Chernobyl-despite-EU-sanctions.html
Vladimir Putin’s a serious guy and would not participate in mass deception. Here’s my colleague, Scott Bennett, former Army psyops and intel officer, providing his take, with which I agree: https://media.urmedium.com/video//2022/02/24/637813175735319487video.mp4
Zelensky wants to negotiate 1 on 1 with Russian President Putin. This is a great idea. Progress will be easy if the US State Department is removed from all negotiations.
https://www.rt.com/russia/550607-zelensky-suggests-negotiations-to-putin/
(It’s presently very difficult to connect to RT. I have to use a VPN connection from Russia, and even then the connection is frequently broken. So much for the idea of freedom of information in the US.)
Jim, that’s a great analysis from Scott and I have qualms with very little. I just don’t see this as a action by Moscow of protection IF….and big IF from my original comment…..those pics I just provided are real, they sure as hell do not portray defensive moves. As I said, I have no way to prove those pics from Daily Mail are current and authentic, but they are being used to indicate the offensiveness of the Russians.
Scott is absolutely correct. Ukraine is just another example of US aggressiveness (likely spurred behind the scenes by the small hats) that has to be stopped. Putin was more than patient since 2014. If the shoe was on the other foot (Russia invading, let’s say, Hawaii), all hell would have broken loose fairly instantly. Putin’s no fool and would never have tried this under Trump (even as much as he had a right to).
Exactly what I am talking about:
Photo of “Kyiv Burning” Goes Viral, But It’s Actually a Picture of a U.S. City During a BLM “Peaceful Protest”
https://waynedupree.com/2022/02/photo-kyiv-minneapolis/
Agreed Jim, this is not some far out psyop. This war will most likely have worldwide effects. It becomes more real with each hour. Its extremely concerning.
As of February 27….. rumors say Putin is very angry that Ukraine is resisting like a cornered tiger. He has placed Russian thermobaric rocket launchers on the roads that are lethal in the extreme. He may launch them at any pocket of resistance… to devastating effect. Some call this a desperate ”scorched earth” reaction.
Someone should advise him not to use these.
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I have no doubt “Vladimir Putin’s a serious guy”. They’re all serious guys…and girls……because that’s the role they play and have been playing for thousands of years. Our role is to listen to them and continue to vote them in again and again (Trump has officially thrown his hat in the ring). Dylan’s words that we live in a political world have never rung more true. The very president of Ukraine played a president in an apparently very popular TV series. In your face hubris, eh? They laugh at us and we laugh at them. Who gets the better laugh? I would say they do, as we always seem to wind up being the victims. Ah, the way of the world. We all have our roles. My favorite Shakespearean soliloquy from As You Like It:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Who could not love that monologue. It’s almost something Carlin would have put in one of his routines.
Anyway, here’s a very good vid with some great scenes from Wag the Dog….
https://153news.net/watch_video.php?v=U8ANM55BN4U8
In October of 2014, I took my daughter to Delray Beach for her 48th birthday. We stayed in a great old hotel on Atlantic Avenue called “The Colony”. This was on the front page of USA Today on Oct 21st 2014:
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Don…See what you think of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vdiEABLFoo
Adding to my comment with the pic of that woman from USA Today in 2014:
Recycling News
Here’s another woman whose face gets around, eh?
https://153news.net/watch_video.php?v=K161MR6M7DKO
Will2 at 11:37
That guy is a warmonger. I really can’t comment intelligently at this time because the situation is too confused with ego, false news and personal and historic issues.
That whole area is a tinder box because of TOO many powerful ideas and people too close to each other.
What do you think?
Don…I know nothing about this guy or his credentials or even if he is actually in Ukraine. What he says about Putin’s strategy makes sense. Putin is not an idiot. Biden is. That all aside, from all I have watched and read, this is a Wag the Dog scenario. I thought that would have been obvious from the majority of my comments. The entire ‘vid failure needs a distraction. The possibility of WW III certainly fills that need. Check out that article from ZH that I posted.
Wagging the Dog or not, this man exposes our hypocrisy and speaks the truth:
https://153news.net/watch_video.php?v=NHK6OY9U6X11
Putin’s Blitzkrieg troops have seized a huge prize city …..Chernobyl.
They can now meet the few babushkas who live there and even grow food to eat. They usually offer visitors some food and tea. I’ll take a pass on that, thanks anyway.
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