...The situation in Ukraine has been painted as a conflict between Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the so-called bad guys, and Ukrainian rebels, the so-called good guys who seek to oust Russia from a position of influence in Ukraine and install a new government that will be responsive to the Ukrainian people.
Don’t believe a word of it.
The Ukrainian nationalists are fascists. Washington’s original purpose for staging a coup in Ukraine was to move Ukraine away from Russia and bring Ukraine into the European Union. In other words, the neocons and the bought-and-paid-for “moderates” in the Obama administration wanted to wrest control of Ukraine from Putin’s hands and gain economic and energy control over the country. As Dr. Stephen F. Cohen has pointed out, Western nations, with the U.S. leading the way, have been provoking Putin for decades. We’ve expanded NATO to include former Soviet states – Ukraine looks like the next target – and we’ve attacked allies of Russia, including Libya and Iraq. The U.S. – along with other Western nations – through our incursions into the politics, economics and national security of Russia and several of its allies, has effectively caused the situation that is now unfolding in Ukraine. Cohen is right....
Putin has also been forced to deploy military assets to Crimea, an important region that Russia ceded to Ukraine in the 1950s, when the USSR was reaching the height of its power and Ukraine was one of its puppet states. The majority population in Crimea is Russian, and its warm-water Black Sea ports are critical to Russian military and trade interests. Russia cannot afford to let the Crimean region fall into the hands of the insurgents who are trying to take over Ukraine.
In addition to deploying military assets in Crimea, Putin has contacted his allies in at least eight other strategically located countries to assure that Russia has access to those countries’ military facilities so Putin’s forces can extend their long-range naval and strategic bomber capabilities. In other words, the U.S. interference in Ukrainian politics has resulted in Putin expanding his military influence, while at the same time Barack Obama is bent on shrinking our own military to pre-World War II levels.
DRUDGE HEADLINES
◼ NATO: EUROPE'S PEACE AT RISK OVER UKRAINE - Telegraph
PUTIN TIGHTENS GRIP...
◼ Sets stage for showdown - NYT
◼ Obama faces his own 'chicken Kiev' moment - FT
Plans economic warfare against Russia...
Medvedev Predicts 'New Revolution, New Bloodshed'...
Ukraine navy chief switches allegiance...
◼ West looks 'weak' - Telegraph
Moscow catches world off guard...
Russia Cancels Oscar Coverage...