{"id":204571,"date":"2022-02-07T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=204571"},"modified":"2022-02-05T09:26:50","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T09:26:50","slug":"stripping-away-the-bullst-u-s-and-russian-threats-over-ukraine-what-theyre-about-and-whos-the-aggressor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/02\/stripping-away-the-bullst-u-s-and-russian-threats-over-ukraine-what-theyre-about-and-whos-the-aggressor\/","title":{"rendered":"Stripping Away the Bulls**t: U.S. and Russian Threats over Ukraine\u2014What They\u2019re about and Who\u2019s the Aggressor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

[Source: tickernews.co]<\/p><\/div>\n

25 Jan 2022 – <\/em>Threats and counter-threats flying between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine have caused a flurry of fear and confusion that escalates and expands daily. Is the world on the brink of war? What is it about, who is the aggressor and who is to blame?<\/p>\n

The dangerous standoff has lasted for most of a year. Each side accuses the other of threatening war\u2014in a way reminiscent of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.<\/p>\n

During a week of intense diplomatic meetings in three European capitals, which appeared to reach a dead end, President Joe Biden seemed to \u201cblink\u201d midweek, on January 19, telling reporters in Washington he had indicated to Russian President Putin that \u201cwe can work out something.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York Times<\/em> senior reporter David Sanger jumped on it: \u201cMr. President, it sounds like you\u2019re offering some way out here, some off-ramp\u2014an informal assurance that NATO is not going to take in Ukraine\u2026 and we would never put nuclear weapons there.\u201d Sanger went on to say Russia \u201cwants us to move all of our nuclear weapons out of Europe and not have troops rotating through the old Soviet bloc.\u201d Biden quickly said \u201cNo, there\u2019s not space for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"US
[Source: dailymail.co.uk<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Biden\u2019s blink was a break in the warlike atmosphere that has prevailed endlessly. Katrina van den Heuvel wrote the day before in The Washington Post<\/em> that \u201cHotheads [were] having a field day. A White House task force that includes the CIA [was]\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0contemplating U.S. support for a guerrilla war if Russia seizes Ukraine; Russian hawks\u00a0talk<\/a>\u00a0of a military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela.\u201d Biden had \u201cinstalled a team of national security managers from the \u2018Blob,\u2019 marinated in successive debacles in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guns and sanctions<\/a> are the U.S. empire\u2019s preferred options, van den Heuvel said: \u201cwith about\u00a0800 military bases<\/a>\u00a0outside the United States,\u201d the U.S. has \u201cmore bases than diplomatic missions. (Russia\u2019s only military bases outside the former Soviet Union are in\u00a0Syria<\/a>.)\u201d She added that Secretary of State Blinken and the Blob \u201ctalk about a\u00a0rules-based<\/a>\u00a0international order but respect it only if we make the rules, often exempting ourselves from their application.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
Katrina Van den Heuval [Source: mediaschool.indiana.edu<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spheres of influence?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cWhen will the U.S. stop lying to itself about global politics?\u201d asked CUNY Professor Peter Beinart, writing in the New York Times<\/em> on January 13. He took issue with Secretary of State Antony Blinken,\u00a0who pontificated<\/a>\u00a0last month that \u201cOne country does not have the right to dictate the policies of another or to tell that country with whom it may associate; one country does not have the right to exert a sphere of influence. That notion should be relegated to the dustbin of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beinart commented: \u201cIt\u2019s a noble principle, just not one the United States abides by. The United States has exercised a sphere of influence in its own hemisphere for almost 200 years, since President James Monroe declared<\/a>\u00a0that the United States \u2018should consider any attempt\u2019 by foreign powers \u2018to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Left-wing
Peter Beinert [Source: jpost.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blinken\u2019s dustbin of history was still around in 2018, Beinart said, when Trump\u2019s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0the Monroe Doctrine \u201cas relevant today as it was the day it was written.\u201d And Trump\u2019s National Security Adviser John Bolton\u00a0boasted<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe Monroe Doctrine is alive and well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blinken wants a one-way street where spheres of influence are concerned. The U.S., for him, has the right to wield influence everywhere,<\/em> while others don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Antony Blinken, left, meeting with Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Friday. [Source: npr.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The same day Biden blinked, French President Macron weighed in<\/a> saying war would be the \u201cmost tragic thing of all.\u201d Speaking in the European Union\u2019s capital of Strasbourg, as new interim EU chair, Macron said he hoped to revitalize the four-way \u201cNormandy format\u201d talks between Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine to find a solution to the Ukraine crisis. \u201cIt is vital that Europe has its own dialogue with Russia,\u201d Macron said. The EU had no part in the talks last week between Russia, the U.S., NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCD).<\/p>\n

\"French
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech at the European Parliament Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022 in Strasbourg, eastern France. Macron called for a revitalization of the Normandy format talks between Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine. [Source: columbian.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Normandy format has been a vehicle for implementing the 2015 Minsk agreements designed to end the separatist war in Ukraine\u2019s Donbas region. This solution has already been proposed and accepted in principle, according to Anatol Lieven, who wrote in The Nation<\/a> that\u00a0the Minsk II agreement was already adopted by France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine in 2015, and endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n

Key elements of the Minsk II deal are full autonomy for Ukraine\u2019s eastern regions in the context of decentralization of power in Ukraine, demilitarization, and restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty. Despite agreement by all parties, political analyst Anatol Lieven says \u201cbecause of the refusal of Ukrainian governments to implement the solution and refusal of the United States to put pressure on them to do so,\u201d the settlement is a kind of \u201czombie policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue of NATO expansion is another \u201czombie policy\u201d as the U.S. refuses to acknowledge Russia\u2019s legitimate opposition to it.<\/p>\n

After the first of three negotiating sessions between the U.S. and Russia during the week of January 10, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had declared it \u201cabsolutely mandatory\u201d that Ukraine \u201cnever, never, ever\u201d become a NATO member. In response, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said: \u201cwe will not allow anyone to slam closed NATO\u2019s open-door policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
U.S. Peace Council. [Source: mronline.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Ukraine\u2019s President Zelensky in Kyiv in October, he promised U.S. support for Ukraine\u2019s future NATO membership, and blamed Russia for \u201cperpetuating the war in eastern Ukraine.\u201d Russian President Putin shot back on December 23 that \u201cFurther movement of NATO eastward is unacceptable. They are on the threshold of our house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ukrainian
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in October as he promises U.S. support for Ukraine joining NATO. [Source: 112.international<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last March 24, the Ukrainian president decreed<\/a> that Ukraine would take Crimea back from Russia, with \u201cmilitary measures\u201d to achieve \u201cde-occupation.\u201d The U.S. and NATO voiced \u201cunwavering\u201d support.<\/p>\n

In April NATO backed a Ukrainian offensive in its civil war against Russian-allied separatists in the eastern provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk. That is when Russia moved more troops to its borders with Ukraine, signaling it would defend its allies (Former CIA Case Officer and CAM columnist John Kiriakou has reported that the actual number of Russian troops massed on the Ukraine border, estimated between 70,000 and 90,000, was the same number that had been there for the last eight years<\/a>, and that Western media reports of a Russian troop buildup were inflammatory. Vice-Admiral Kay-Achim Sch\u00f6nbach, the head of the German navy, was forced to resign after saying talk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine was \u201cnonsense\u201d and that Russia was merely seeking \u201crespect\u201d<\/a> for its security concerns in Europe).<\/p>\n

\"Ukrainian
Ukrainian troops walk in a trench on the frontline with Russia-backed separatists near Avdiivka, Donetsk, southeastern Ukraine, on January 8. [Source: news.yahoo.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last summer 30,000 U.S. troops led \u201cOperation Defender Europe 2021,\u201d a set of NATO exercises from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, according to the U.S. Peace Council<\/a>. In December the U.S. staged simulated bombing raids within 12 miles of Russian airspace. NATO warplanes confronted Russian aircraft 290 times in 2021.<\/p>\n

\"Report
In this video grab taken from footage distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, a Russian Air Force\u2019s Su-27 fighter jet, bottom, maneuvers to ward off a NATO F-18 warplane over the Baltic Sea. A new report released this week revealed that most NATO warplane missions involve confrontations with Russian jets. [Source: peoplesworld.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The CIA since 2015 had secretly trained elite Ukrainian Special Forces units in firearms, camouflage techniques, land navigation, tactics like \u201ccover and move,\u201d intelligence<\/a> and other areas.<\/p>\n

On December 7, Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told<\/a> the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the U.S. has given $2.4 billion to Ukraine since 2014 \u201cin security assistance\u201d\u2014$450 million in 2021 alone. (This week, the Biden administration approved an additional $200 million in military aid <\/a>to add to the $450 million given last year).<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Victoria Nuland [Source: nationalinterest.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nuland helped orchestrate the 2014 coup in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, that toppled a government friendly to Russia. The new far-rightist government ended language rights for Russian speakers who are the majority in the Ukraine\u2019s eastern provinces. Donetsk and Lugansk voted to separate, as did Crimea. Russia then annexed Crimea, to protect Russian speakers there and secure its Black Sea naval base. Russia provided humanitarian aid and trade to Donetsk and Lugansk, and stationed troops on their eastern border for protection.<\/p>\n

\"The
CGTNEUROPE.TV [Source: stories.cgtneurope.tv<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPro-Democracy Protests\u201d or a Fascist Coup?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A New York Times <\/em>report<\/a> on January 6 said \u201cRussia intervened militarily in Ukraine in 2014 after pro-democracy protests<\/em> erupted there.\u201d [Emphasis added.] The coup was actually carried out by fascist gangs, according to a May 2, 2018, report in <\/a>The Nation<\/em> by Stephen Cohen.<\/p>\n

The gangs, including self-declared neo-Nazis, were encouraged by Nuland, Biden and other prominent U.S. politicians. The neo-Nazis were integrated into Ukraine\u2019s official military which, since 2014, has been trained, armed and reorganized by the U.S., Britain, Canada and other NATO countries.<\/p>\n

Stephen Cohen wrote that \u201cthe pogrom-like burning to death of ethnic Russians and others in Odessa later in 2014 reawakened memories of Nazi extermination squads in Ukraine during World War II.\u201d These horrors have been all but deleted from the American mainstream narrative, despite being well-documented<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cohen added that \u201cstormtroop-like assaults on gays, Jews, elderly ethnic Russians, and other \u2018impure\u2019 citizens are widespread throughout Kyiv-ruled Ukraine, along with torchlight marches reminiscent of those that eventually inflamed Germany in the late 1920s and 1930s\u2026 The police and official legal authorities do virtually nothing to prevent these neo-fascist acts or to prosecute them. On the contrary, Kyiv has officially encouraged them by\u00a0systematically rehabilitating and even memorializing<\/a>\u00a0Ukrainian collaborators with Nazi German extermination pogroms and their leaders\u00a0during World War II, renaming streets in their honor, building monuments to them, rewriting history to glorify them, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Men
Neo-Nazis in Ukrainian army. [Source: buzzfeednews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The people of the self-declared people\u2019s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine suffer under a complete economic blockade by Ukraine and its Western allies. Historically known as the Donbass region, eastern Ukraine is a mining and industrial center. Donbass miners played a crucial and heroic role in the defeat of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II. Many Russians revere the Donbass as \u201cthe heart of Russia<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of Ukraine east of the Dnieper river is predominantly Russian-speaking. U.S. claims of a \u201cRussian invasion\u201d are reminiscent of claims of North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam after the artificial separation of Vietnam in 1954. The entire U.S. narrative about Ukraine is a cynical fabrication designed to justify aggression.<\/p>\n

Russian Security Proposals<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In mid-December Russia took a diplomatic initiative and presented a list of security proposals to the United States. According to the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, they include ending NATO\u2019s expansion further eastward to include Ukraine, a promise for each side to refrain from hostile activities, and an end to NATO military activities in all of Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Central Asia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no other option,\u201d Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov told reporters, \u201csince a characteristic feature of the current stage of relations between Russia and the collective West is a complete lack of trust.\u201d The Russian diplomat also said \u201cwe have no intention to invade Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Russian
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov. [Source: Interfax.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the \u201csevere consequences\u201d threatened by the U.S. against Russia, the Financial Times<\/a> has said sanctioning Russia\u2019s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany was \u201ctop of the list.\u201d Western Europe is already facing an energy crunch, with skyrocketing prices for natural gas.<\/p>\n

\"The
Route of Nordstream 2 Pipeline. [Source: pipeline.journal-net<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Europeans need energy security and are wary of war. They want the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as soon as possible, while the Biden administration\u00a0calls<\/a>\u00a0it a \u201cbad deal\u201d and claims that it makes Europe vulnerable to Russian \u201ctreachery.\u201d Texas Senator Ted Cruz has pressed hard against the pipeline, which offsets opportunities for U.S. energy companies to supply gas to the European market. U.S. foreign adventures have often constricted Europe\u2019s energy sources.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Senator Ted Cruz questions Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a hearing on Capitol Hill in September 2021. [Source: foreignpolicy.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A 2021 survey by the European Council on Foreign Affairs<\/em> found that most Europeans want to remain neutral in any U.S. war against Russia or China. But new NATO member-states align with the U.S. against Russia. They have installed terminals to receive U.S. liquid natural gas deliveries, to reduce dependence on Russian gas.<\/p>\n

Despite all the diplomatic efforts, powerful institutional and economic forces in the U.S.\u2014the military industrial complex and big energy companies among others\u2014are eager for a new Cold War with Russia, which would provide them with boundless opportunities for profitable deals. \u201cThe U.S. military-industrial complex needs enemies like human lungs need oxygen,\u201d the saying goes. \u201cWhen there are no enemies, they must be invented.\u201d<\/p>\n

The demonization of Vladimir Putin and Russia by the U.S. media is part of this policy of inventing enemies. There is a long list of foreign leaders and nations whose attempts to defy the dictates of Washington and pursue an independent foreign policy have brought down upon them the wrath of the U.S. Capitalist Empire.<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dee Knight is a member of the DSA International Committee\u2019s Anti-War Subcommittee. He is the author of <\/em>My Whirlwind Lives: Navigating Decades of Storms<\/em>, soon to be published by Guernica World Editions. Dee can be reached at: deeknight816@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – covertactionmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

25 Jan 2022 – Threats and counter-threats flying between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine have caused a flurry of fear and confusion that escalates and expands daily. Is the world on the brink of war? What is it about, who is the aggressor and who is to blame?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":204574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[225],"tags":[2197,1035,253,278,961,70],"class_list":["post-204571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlight","tag-biden","tag-eastern-europe","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}