by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Ukraine matters. It’s territory is Europe’s largest after Russia’s. It borders seven countries in Europe’s heartland – Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Russia.
It shares a strategically important 1,500-long land and sea border with the Russian Federation.
The country is resource rich. Zbigniew Brzezinski once said “without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.”
Separately, he said if Russia reunites with Ukraine, it’ll be a Eurasian powerhouse. If Ukraine allies with Western Europe, Moscow will be significantly weakened geopolitically.
The Obama regime’s February 2014 coup d’etat replaced democratic governance in Kiev with Nazi-infested fascist tyranny. Political crisis continues to grip the continent since that time, flashpoint conditions risking East/West confrontation.
Obama bears full responsibility for what happened. Hardcore neocon extremist Victoria Nuland was his point person involved in staging the coup, its aim to border Russia with a hostile menace to its security.
Brussels shares blame for what happened, partnering with Washington’s coup. Britain, France, Germany and other EU countries virtually always go along with its imperial agenda, even when harming their own interests, operating as a virtual US colony.
Washington stops at nothing to advance its imperium. Replacing independent governments with subservient pro-Western ones is longstanding US policy – by color revolutions or naked aggression.
US-installed putschists in Kiev represent mob rule. Puppet president Poroshenko and others surrounding him are societal misfits, waging war against their own people, risking war with Russia over staged provocations like Black Sea/Kerch Strait incident – likely planned and orchestrated in Washington and London.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman minced no words, saying the following:
“After Poroshenko said that Russia is allegedly planning to seize Mariupol and Berdyansk, I can say, putting his own pronouncements in other words, that it is Russia that protects Europe from barbarism, tyranny, terrorism, aggression and militarism looming large over our continent,” adding:
“It is due to the current Kiev regime that the present-day Ukraine is characterized by the frenzy of extremists and paramilitary groups, warfare against own people, propaganda and manipulation as a key tool of governance, provocations as a foreign policy concept, rampant corruption, intimidation of journalists and overall control over the mass media, nationalism as a national idea, dictation of law enforcement agencies, the lack of mechanisms of public control, and erosion of power institutions.”
Former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel blasted Kiev’s war party, saying “we by no means should allow Ukraine to drag us into” war with Russia. Earlier, “Ukraine tried to do so.”
He slammed Poroshenko for urging NATO to provocatively send warships to the Black Sea in response to the Kerch Strait incident, along with closing international ports to Russian ships coming from the Sea of Azov, adding:
“The only way out of this completely hopeless conflict is to establish a truce, achieve heavy weapons withdrawal from both sides and then take the first step towards lifting (illegal, unacceptable) sanctions” on Russia.’’
France, Germany and other EU countries rejected Poroshenko’s call for tougher sanctions on Moscow over the Kerch Strait incident – what US and UK hardliners support.
Trump regime neocon hardliners urged EU nations to get tougher on Russia over the incident. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Europe should review support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project that “helps the Russian government.”
She called for increased EU toughness against Russia, saying the US “has taken a very strong position in…support of Ukraine. We would like other countries to do more as well.”
On December 10, EU foreign ministers will discuss the Kerch Strait provocation. EU leaders are expected to extend existing illegal sanctions on Russia.
Theresa May regime’s spokesman James Slack turned truth on its head, calling the incident “further evidence of Russia’s destabilizing behavior in the region and its ongoing violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity. Russia must not be allowed to use force to exert greater pressure on Ukraine.”
Sergey Lavrov explained that documents found aboard the seized Ukrainian vessels showed their crew provocateurs “did everything to fulfill an order, the text of which was found when our border guards boarded these gunboats.”
Kiev ordered the vessels “to secretly enter the neutral waters without any pilots and notifications and break under the Crimean Bridge through the Kerch Strait to Azov.”
The order showed the incompetence, arrogance, and militancy of Poroshenko and his cronies – Russia clearly able to monitor navigation of foreign vessels near and in its waters, able to act swiftly against anything potentially dangerous to its security, precisely what happened.
Putin explained what he told Trump at the G20, saying “I answered his questions about this incident in the Black Sea. He has his own position. I have my own position. We each stuck to our own views, but in any case I informed him about our perspective on this incident.”
What happened was a “planned provocation,” he stressed. Captured Kiev documents prove it.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin gave an exhaustive explanation of the Black Sea border incident, illustrating it clearly. He even drew a map” – explaining the provocation to Germany’s Angela Merkel.
Separately, Poroshenko lied claiming Russia intends to seize Ukrainian territory.
Fallout from the likely US/UK planned, Kiev implemented, Kerch Strait provocation continues.
With US/UK neocon extremists supporting Ukraine’s fascist regime against Russia, anything is possible ahead – even unthinkable war in Europe’s heartland.
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