Dave Emory’s entire lifetime of work is available on a flash drive that can be obtained here. (The flash drive includes the anti-fascist books available on this site.)
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This description contains information not included in the original broadcast.
Introduction: This broadcast extends our discussion of the crisis in Ukraine.
(We have covered the ascension of the OUN/B heirs in the Ukraine in a number of programs: FTR #‘s 777, 778, 779, 780, 781, 782, 783, 784, 794, 800, 803.)
Expanding material highlighted in FTR #803, this program presents further analysis of the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH 17.
The first part of the program develops information about Michael Bociurkiw at greater length. (Bociurkiw heads the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. He is the “Go-to-Guy” for much of the media coverage of events related to the shootdown of the plane.)
After review Bociurkiw’s close association with the political and historical milieu of the OUN/B, the program details Bociurkiw’s networking with a Malaysian Muslim Brotherhood milieu that overlaps the political elements that figure in the investigation into the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. That same Muslim Brotherhood milieu also networks with Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
In order to further illustrate the fascist character of the Malaysian Muslim Brotherhood milieu with which Bociurkiw networks, we examine Farrakhan’s “politics of slavery.” In addition to blaming African-American slavery on the Jews, Farrakhan has been openly exculpatory of Muslim Brotherhood-connected regimes in Africa that practice slavery today.
Supplementing information presented in FTR #803, we learn that a website catering to global business travelers presented information pointing to Ukrainian military personnel as the “perps” of the shootdown of MH 17.
This allegation supplements information developed by Robert Parry concerning aerial surveillance by U.S. spy satellites showing what appeared to be [possibly drunken] Ukrainian soldiers having fired the missile that brought down the plane.
The global traveler website also notes an important last minute change of course by the MH 17 plane, apparently ordered by Ukrainian air controllers.
A last minute change of course of the doomed plane was confirmed by an Air India aircraft nearby. That change of course brought the plane into the killing ground.
In FTR #803, we highlighted the Azov Battalion, one of many Nazi/fascist combatant militias fighting as part of the Ukrainian military. Another useful post from german-foreign-policy.com highlights the fact that the Azov Battalion was formed by Oleg Lyashko, who also heads the Radical Party. That party looms large as the single most popular political party in Ukraine.Together with Swoboda and Pravy Sektor, it forms a dominant fascist political axis in Ukraine.
Lyashko also revealed that, in addition to Michael Skillt (whom we discussed in FTR #803), the unit contained several foreign snipers, some of whom were present during the Maidan protests and appeared to have fired at Ukrainian police units. This would make the violence that led to the ouster of Yanukovych the outgrowth of a provocation.
This also places what, for lack of a better term, a “political context of provocation” within which the downing of MH 17 must be viewed.
As the world’s attention is focused on the “investigation” into MH 17, Ukrainian security personnel (read “Swoboda,” “Pravy Sektor” and “Social National Assembly”) formed an anonymous informer apparatus to identify collaborators with the rebels.
Program Highlights Include: Review of John Loftus’ work heading the OSI (routinely disparaged in the Ukrainian Weekly); review of Anwar Ibrahim’s links to both the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Zaharie Shah, the pilot of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370; the presence of a large contingent of AIDS researchers on MH 17; the unlikely coincidence of Dutch cyclist Maarten de Jong, who was booked to fly on both Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and MH 17; activism on behalf of the Chechen rebels by members of the Royal Family of the Netherlands; speculation about possible links between the Chechen support of the Royal Family, Maarten de Jonge and the UNA/UNSO’s apparent participation in Chechnya; a call by German officials for an EU/Bundeswehr military intervention in Ukraine after the downing of MH 17; the direct political evolution of Pravy Sektor from the OUN/B.
1. Michael Bociurkiw was one of the first “investigators” at the crash site. He heads the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Michael Bociurkiw was among the very first people to reach the Malaysian jet’s wreckage
A personal handwritten note penned by a passenger reminding themselves to stay on budget during their vacation. Scientific literature belonging to a passenger en route to a major international AIDS conference in Australia.
These are just a few of the things that Michael Bociurkiw, a Ukrainian-Canadian monitor with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has seen up close at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.
Bociurkiw and one other colleague were the first international monitors to reach the wreckage after the jet was shot down over a rebel-held region of eastern Ukraine July 17.
With no other oversight on scene, the two men became the de facto eyes and ears of all those who watched in horror from around the world. More than ten days later, he’s still one of a select group of individuals who has been to crash site almost daily. . . . .
2. In the wake of the rhetorical/political firestorm over the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, we note that the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) is front and center in the “investigation” into the event.
The OSCE has told AM it has finally obtained better access on the ground near the site where MH17 was shot down in eastern Ukraine. The spokesman for the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, Michael Bociurkiw, says they have seen some remains and bodies stored in refrigerated rail wagons in the town of Tores. He says after the earlier chaos, there’s now greater co-operation but there are still plenty of concerns about getting access for crash investigators and of securing the perimeter of the area 24 hours a day.
3a. We put the quotation marks around “investigation” because the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission is headed by one Michael [“Mykhailo”] Bociurkiw. A Canadian citizen of Ukrainian extraction, he was an assistant editor for the Ukrainian Weekly.
Issues of the periodical available online point to a “pro-OUN/B” bias.
PDF copies of issues are available at their website. This issue appears fairly representative, and manifests a definite anti-OSI, pro Republican Heritage Groups Council bias. (The RHGC is the Nazi/ABN wing of the GOP, discussed at length in FTR #465, among other programs. It heavily overlaps the OUN/B.
A 1987 letter from the World Jewish Congress’ general counsel notes an apparent anti-OSI bias on the part of articles written by Bociurkiw. Note that the Office of Special Investigations was the Justice Department unit charged with investigating Nazi war criminals living the U.S.
The unit was formerly headed by John Loftus, who resigned his position as head of OSI as the Reagan administration was taking office because many of the people he was investiagating held staff positions with Reagan.
Bociurkiw’s position with the OSCE apparently places yet another OUN/B advocate in the mix, charged with “investigating” actions taken by a government inextricably linked with OUN/B heirs such as Swoboda, Pravy Sektor and the Ukrainian National Congress.
February 2, 1987 VIA AIR CANADA FOR DELIVERY 2/3/87
Ms. Janet Bendon
Director of Communications
Canadian Jewish Congress
1590 Avenue Docteur Penfield
Montreal, Quebec H3G 1C5
CANADA
Re: Michael Bociurkiw Dear Janet:
Enclosed, in accordance with your request of this date, is a nearly complete run of The Ukrainian Weekly (Jersey City, N.J.) from Vol. LIII, No. 40 (October 6, 1985) through Vol. LV, No. 4 (January 25, 1987). These 61 issues come from my personal library, and I appreciate your assurance that they will be returned to me by courier at your earliest opportunity.
As I indicated on the phone, Michael Bociurkiw is a frequent contributor to the newspaper. Indeed, one of his articles appears on the front page of the oldest of the enclosed issues (October 6, 1985), under the byline “Mykhailo” Bociurkiw. Vol. LIII, issue no. 50 (December 15, 1985) reports that he has been named Assistant Editor of the newspaper. As you can see, I have made a practice of noting on the front page of each issue those pages which contain articles of interest (which, of course, would include all articles, editorials, opinion pieces, advertisements, etc. regarding Nazi crimes and their perpetrators). Where more than one article of interest appears on a particular page, I generally have noted this fact through the use of parentheticals. I am convinced, by the way, that many of the unbylined “Nazi stories” were penned by Mr. Bociurkiw. In any event, the anti-OSI, anti-Nazi prosecution bias in Bociurkiw’s written output and in the newspaper generally will be readily apparent as you read through the enclosed issues. . . .
Sincerely yours,
Eli M. Rosenbaum
General Counsel
3b. Representative of The Ukrainian Weekly’s pro-OUN/B coverage is this obituary of OUN/B leader Jaroslav Stetsko (also “Stetzko”). Note that the OUN/B is also known as the OUN’s “revolutionary faction.”
Nowhere in this story do you see anything about OUN/B’s murderous collaboration with the Nazis, nor the fascist nature and Third Reich origin of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations.
Yaroslav Stetzko, head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (revolutionary faction) and prime minister of Ukraine during World War II, died Saturday at the age of 74 after a prolonged illness. He is survived by his wife Slava, head of the ABN Correspondence. . . .
. . . In February, 1940, following the split in the OUN, Mssrs. Bandera and Stetzko assumed the leadership of the OUN’s revolutionary leadership.
Plans were immediately set in motion to proclaim the establishment of Ukraine’s independence. This was further expanded with other political parties through Mr. Stetzko’s role in the Ukrainian National Committee.
Independence was proclaimed on June 30, 1941, less than two weeks after Nazi Germany invaded Soviet Russian occupied territories. Mssrs. Bandera and Stetzko, the revolutionary leadership and other nationalistic figures were imprisoned in concentration camps by the Nazis. Mr. Stetzko’ s work on behalf of the Ukrainian nation and its independence continued after the war.
In 1947 he was elected chairman of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, which had its roots in the clandestine Conference of Captive Nations convened by General Taras Chuprynka in 1943. Mr. Stetzko served as its only chairman.
In 1968, Mr. Stetzko was elected head of the OUN® central leadership.
Mr. Stetzko’s anti-Communist activity extended beyond Ukrainian affairs. As chairman of the European Freedom Council and a member of the presidium of the World Anti-Communist League. Mr. Stetsko met with international leaders and various statesmen impressing on them the need to wage a freedom campaign on behalf of captive nations.
Among the Western leaders he met were President Ronald Reagan and Vice-President George Bush.
The funeral liturgy was to be offered on Saturday, July 12, at the Ukrainian catholic cathedral in Munich. Burial was to follow at the Walfriedhoff Cemetery.
4a. Bociurkiw has networked with a Malaysian Muslim Brotherhood-connected milieu that overlaps the International Institute of Islamic Thought and–by extension–that of the pilot of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.
Interestingly and, perhaps significantly, Bociurkiw edited a puff-piece book about Dr. Mahathir Mohammed, a hardline fundamentalist Muslim and–like prominent Malaysian Muslim Brother Anwar Ibrahim–a former Malaysian Prime Minister. Mahathir Mohammed is a raving anti-Semite, as are the OUN/B knock-off groups like Swoboda and Pravy Sektor.
The book is titled: Mahathir: 22Years, 22Voices.
In addition to an introduction written by Michael Bociurkiw, another was written by Abdullah Badawi. Both Mahathir Mohammed and Abdullah Badawi were proteges of Muhammad M. Abdul Rauf, a Malaysian Muslim Brother and a personal student of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan El-Banna.
In turn, Abdul Rauf was very close to the IIIT, one of the organizations raided in the Operation Green Quest Raids of 3/20/2002. The IIIT is an offshoot of the Al-Taqwa nexus, having been founded by the Muslim Brotherhood following a 1977 meeting at Al-Taqwa director Ali Galeb Himmat’s home in Lake Lugano. The Operation Green Quest raids were instituted after an investigation of Sami Al-Arian, who declined to give grand jury testimony about the IIIT, out of fear for his safety.
Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 was piloted by Zaharie Shah, a devotee of Anwar Ibrahim, another former Malaysian Prime Minister and prominent Malaysian Muslim Brother. Ibrahim was also a co-founder of the IIIT and a lobbying client of Grover Norquist. Recall that the flight computer on 370 appears to have been re-programmed in the cockpit.
For more about Shah, Ibrahim and the downing of Flight 370, see FTR #790.
Also worth noting is the fact that Rauf has networked with the milieu of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam!
As strange as it might appear to be at first, a jihadist/Nazi link vis a vis Russia is not strange at all. Russia appears to be undergoing a pincers movement, with Western intelligence-connected fascist elements driving East through Ukraine and Western intel-backed jihadists coming from the south.
It should be remembered that there is evidence that Western intelligence elements appear to support jihadists in Chechnya and elsewhere in the Caucasus. The IIIT and the El Haramain charity discussed in FTR #381 are linked to Al-Taqwa. The Operation Green Quest raids–with the IIIT at the epicenter of the SAAR network raided in that operation, is inextricably linked to Al-Taqwa and Third Reich intelligence agent Youssef Nada. Al-Taqwa, in turn, dovetails with the Underground Reich in a number of ways.
“Name: Muhammad M. Abdul Rauf”; Unmasking the Muslim Brotherhood in America.
SUSPICIOUS AND/OR HOSTILE ACTIVITIES:
- Strongly advocated establishment of sharia law in America
- Established Islamic “trust” controlling land and management of New York Islamic Cultural Center, which employed at least two Egyptian MB imams, that, after 9/11 blamed the atrocities on Israel. One said American would “exterminate” the Jewish people like Hitler if they knew.
- Co-authored book and regularly collaborated with hard line MB leader Ismaʾil R. Al-Faruqi, a mid 1980s co-founder of the Herndon, Va.-based IIIT, long suspected of broadly funding terror.
- Regularly collaborated with IIIT and Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), both among the 29 “friends” listed in the 1991 Mohammed Akram internal MB memorandum outlining secret plans to replace U.S. Constitutional democracy with sharia law.
- Instructed hard-line Islamic leader Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who served as Malaysian prime minister from 2003 to 2009.
- Close associate and friend of former Malaysian prime minister and active anti-Semite Mahathir Mohamad, who in 2002, incited global anti-West financial war as a “jihad worth fighting for.” . . . .
- Rauf also greatly admired the “accomplishments” of American Muslim Society (AMS) founder W. D. Mohammed (Oct. 30, 1933–Sept. 9, 2008), the former Nation of Islam leader who regularly met Muslim Brotherhood leaders, attended their meetings and accepted gifts from their chief donors. In July 1997, Mohammed attended the 22nd annual Islamic Circle of North America convention in Pittsburgh. In 2000 Mohammed joined Muslim Brother and Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) general secretary Sayyid Sayeed in welcoming Louis Farrakahn into the “mainstream” of American Sunni Islam.
5. In order to better understand the Muslim Brotherhood-connected Malaysian Islamist political milieu with which Micael Bociurkiw is networking, examining the political character of Louis Farrakhan may prove useful.
In addition to blaming African American slavery on–you guessed it–the Jews, he has ardently defended Arabs in the Sudan and Mauritania against condemnation for their active, ongoing enslavement of black Africans.
Here in the Bay Area, the ripples are subsiding after Farrakhan drew a standing ovation from an African American audience at the University of California at Berkeley. Criticized from many quarters, Farrakhan’s appearance was defended by the school administration under the rubric of “free speech.”
It seems that a tree-blight is spreading through the groves of academe.
(Shortly after 9/11, a close friend counseled me that, if I continued in this line of research, I should be prepared to clash intellectually to an increasing degree with Holocaust deniers. Prominent “Truther” Jim Fetzer has indeed attempted to open the debate on that subject to “both sides.” Blaming African American slavery on “Da Jooz” is of the same intellectual fabric. So is the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center/cruise missile hit the Pentagon drivel. I’m now braced for the onslaught of the Holocaust deniers–“But what about this?”)
It appears that Farrakhan’s defense of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Sudan, which has pursued the slavery/genocide against the black population of that unfortunate country is based on a professional relationship with that murderous regime.
When Farrakhan’s defense of black African slavery was shattered by journalists, many of them were terrorized by his goons.
“Farrakhan’s Secret Relationship” by Charles Jacob; The Daily Californian; 5/16/2012.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan addressed an estimated 600 students at UC Berkeley last Saturday, and told Black students not to befriend any Jew without first reading The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, a book whose thesis is that “the Jews” were behind the black slave trade. Heck of a way to start up a friendship!
Scholars both black and white have exposed the NOI book as a pack of lies, a modern day calumny which, much like their medieval analogues — “the Jews poisoned the wells,” “the Jews make matzo with the blood of Christian children” –is meant to incite hatred for Jewish people. Dangerous hatred. The Daily Californian reports that Jewish students were hurt and shocked. No doubt.
But what will be more shocking perhaps is Minister Farrakhan’s own semi-secret relationship with the modern day slaving of African Blacks by people, and in countries, that the NOI leader has an interest to protect. In 1994, an African Muslim from Mauritania – Mohammed Athie — and I broke the story of a modern day slave trade in Mauritania and Sudan, in The New York Times. We reported that “perhaps 300,000” African Muslims were still serving Arab/Berber masters. “Black Africans in Mauritania were converted to Islam more than 100 years ago,” we wrote, “but while the Koran forbids the enslavement of fellow Muslims, in this country race outranks religious doctrine. These people are chattel: used for labor, sex, and breeding. They may be exchanged for camels, trucks, guns or money. Their children are the property of the master.”
In Sudan, Africa’s largest country, we reported that slavery was “making a comeback, the result of a 12-year-old war waged by the Muslim north against the black Christian and animist south. Arab militias, armed by the Government, raid villages, mostly those of the Dinka tribe, shoot the men and enslave the women and children. These are kept as personal property or marched north and sold.” We based our reports on government documents, human rights publications and a stunning interview with a UN official .
The op-ed shocked many. We were encouraged to launch the American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) which would document a modern day slave trade around the globe, but would focus on Sudan and Mauritania as the worst case of slavery, and the most controversial, and therefore least likely to be covered by others.
PBS’s Tony Brown Show, the most popular Black news program at the time, invited Mohammed and me to speak about slavery. Immediately after our appearance, we were attacked by Farrakhan’s spokesman who denied that Blacks served Arab masters in Sudan or – worse from NOI’s point of view, that Black Muslims served Arab Muslim masters in Mauritania. Farrakhan’s “calling,” after all, funded in part by Arab dictator Muammar Khadafy, was to break the Black/Jewish civil rights alliance while teaching American Blacks that Islam was their path to freedom. Not in Sudan and Mauritania it wasn’t!
NOI was serious about shutting us up. Samuel Cotton, a black reporter for the City Sun, NY’s second largest black paper conducted a thorough investigation that resulted in a five part series. “Arab Masters, Black Slaves” screamed across the front page in NYC’s news kiosks. NOI warned Sam. They followed and menaced him when he spoke in Chicago, not far from their headquarters. Sam’s book, Silent Terror, has become an underground classic.
At a press conference in D.C in 1996, Farrakhan was asked about reports of slavery in Sudan. According to the NY Times , he angrily challenged them: “If slavery exists, go … to Sudan, and come back and tell the American people what you found.” The Baltimore Sun sent two reporters to Sudan. They found and liberated slaves and published a special four page insert in the paper’s weekend edition. Farrakhan refused their request for an interview — and pretty much went radio silent on slavery issues… until fairly recently. . . .
6. “Calypso Louie” (as Farrakhan used to call himself) has gone out of his way to stigmatize the black African victims of contemporary slavery for the color of their skin and their kinky hair!!
. . . This was clearly demonstrated during his Savior Day address on February 25, 1996, and in subsequent speeches, where the Minister graphically described the people of South Sudan as being very, very, very . . . very dark with kinky hair as compared to the brown (white!) Northern Arabs, who according to Farrakhan, looked exactly like him! He used the adverb -very- 15 times to emphasize his color prejudice against the Southern Sudanese. . . .
It is also worth noting in passing that there is disturbing evidence that AIDS was deliberately created. IF any of the now-deceased researchers was aware of, and/or investigating this, that would have provided motive for the Underground Reich elements that appear to have created the disease to dispose of them.
More than 100 AIDS activists, researchers and health workers bound for a major conference in Melbourne were on the Malaysia Airlines flight downed in the Ukraine.
It is believed that delegates to the 20th International AIDS Conference, due to begin on Sunday, will be informed today that 108 of their colleagues and family members died on MH17.
Stunned researchers, activists and development workers arriving at Melbourne Airport paid tribute to AIDS researcher Joep Lange and the other attendees believed killed aboard MH17. . . .
8. Supplementing information presented in FTR #803, we learn that a website catering to global business travelers presented information pointing to Ukrainian military personnel as the “perps” of the shootdown of MH 17.
This allegation supplements information developed by Robert Parry concerning aerial surveillance by U.S. spy satellites showing what appeared to be [possibly drunken] Ukrainian soldiers having fired the missile that brought down the plane.
The global traveler website also notes an important last minute change of course by the MH 17 plane, apparently ordered by Ukrainian air controllers.
ETN received information from an air traffic controller in Kiev on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
This Kiev air traffic controller is a citizen of Spain and was working in the Ukraine. He was taken off duty as a civil air-traffic controller along with other foreigners immediately after a Malaysia Airlines passenger aircraft was shot down over the Eastern Ukraine killing 295 passengers and crew on board.
The air traffic controller suggested in a private evaluation and basing it on military sources in Kiev, that the Ukrainian military was behind this shoot down. Radar records were immediately confiscated after it became clear a passenger jet was shot down.
Military air traffic controllers in internal communication acknowledged the military was involved, and some military chatter said they did not know where the order to shoot down the plane originated from.
Obviously it happened after a series of errors, since the very same plane was escorted by two Ukrainian fighter jets until 3 minutes before it disappeared from radar.
Radar screen shots also show an unexplained change of course of the Malaysian Boeing. The change of course took the aircraft directly over the Eastern Ukraine conflict region. . . .
9. A last minute change of course of the doomed plane was confirmed by an Air India aircraft nearby. That change of course brought the plane into the killing ground.
. . . . An Air India Dreamliner flight going from Delhi to Birmingham was in fact less than 25km away from the Malaysian aircraft, a distance covered by a Dreamliner or Boeing 777 in about 90 seconds, when the latter was hit. Because of this closeness, the Dnipropetrovsk (local Ukrainian) air traffic controller asked the AI pilots to try and establish contact with pilots of the Malaysian aircraft who had stopped responding to its calls.
Minutes before the crash caused by a missile strike, the AI pilots had also heard the controller give the Malaysian aircraft MH17 what is called “a direct routing”. This permits an aircraft to fly straight, instead of tracking the regular route which is generally a zig-zag track that goes from one ground-based navigation aid or way point to another. “Direct routing saves fuel and time and is preferred by pilots. In this case, it proved fatal,” said an airline source. . . .
10a. Possibly apocryphal under the circumstances, we note the unlikely coincidence of a Dutch cyclist who was booked to fly on both Malaysia Air Flight 370 and MH17. While possible, it is unlikely from an actuarial standpoint. Might there be more to Mr. De Jong than meets the eye? (De Jong, by the way, is one of the most common of Dutch surnames, not unlike “Smith” in English. This would be useful IF he were an operative of some kind.
A Dutch cyclist has revealed how he twice cheated death after changing his plans to fly on both the Malaysia Airlines passenger jets involved in international aviation disasters over the past four months.
Maarten de Jonge, 29, has to travel around the world to compete for Malaysia’s Terengganu cycling team – and in doing so has now had two extraordinary near misses. . . . .
. . . . The cyclist said that he only decided to swap flights at the last minute, after discovering that travelling via Frankfurt today would prove cheaper.
Tweeting a link on Thursday to a Dutch article about the MH17 disaster, De Jonge said: “Had I departed today, then…”
During his interview with the local broadcaster, the cyclist revealed something even more remarkable – that he had also been planning to travel on flight MH370, the Malaysia jet which vanished on 8 March and which remains missing somewhere in the Indian Ocean. . . .
11. In a previous post, we noted the Underground Reich heritage of the Dutch Royal Family, stretching back to former SS officer and I.G. Farben spy Prince Bernhard. The family through generations appears to have “kept the faith,” so to speak.
Bernhard’s grandaughter is Mabel Smits, the daughter-in-law of a former Wehrmacht soldier, Prince Claus.
Prince Friso’s wife Mabel Smits has been an active supporter of Islamist causes (operating under the rubric of humanitarian aid). Specifically, she has been active on behalf of Bosnia and Chechnya.
Mabel Smits is a protege of George Soros, the so-called leftist, who in reality gives every indication of being a “Bormann Jew,” having gotten his start in business aiding the Nazis with the “Aryanization” of Jewish property during the Holocaust in Hungary. Smits’ charitable outlet in Chechnya may well have been lending support to the Islamist combatants in Chechnya, which has led to the suspension of that chapter of the organization.
Some key questions: Is there any connection between Mabel Smits’ apparent pro-Chechen activism and Maarten de Jong? In turn, we note the apparent presence of UNA/UNSO fighter in Chechnya. Are they part of an anti-Russian phalanx, attacking with Islamists from the South to break up Russia?
. . . She was the chairwoman of the EU branch of George Soros’ Open Society Institute and also chaired a charity called ‘War Child’.”….the ‘charity’ (whose Dutch branch founder Mabel Wisse Smit (employed by George Soros), went from being the lover of jailed Bosnian foreign minister Muhammed Sacirbey, to the wife of Prince Friso of Holland,has announced they ‘have decided to stop all support to their partner organisation in Chechnya ...euphemistically saying that they ‘could no longer guarantee the effective and controlled managing of War Child project activities’ .Translation: the money was ‘finding it’s way’ into the hands of terrorists.” . . .
12. In FTR #803, we highlighted the Azov Battalion, one of many Nazi/fascist combatant militias fighting as part of the Ukrainian military. Another useful post from german-foreign-policy.com highlights the fact that the Azov Battalion was formed by Oleg Lyashko, who also heads the Radical Party. That party looms large as the single most popular political party in Ukraine.Together with Swoboda and Pravy Sektor, it forms a dominant fascist political axis in Ukraine.
Lyashko also revealed that, in addition to Michael Skillt (whom we discussed in FTR #803, the unit contained several foreign snipers, some of whom were present during the Maidan protests and appeared to have fired at Ukrainian police units. This would make the violence that led to the ouster of Yanukovych the outgrowth of a provocation.
This also places what, for lack of a better term, a “political context of provocation” within which the downing of MH 17 must be viewed.
“Ukrainian Patriots”; german-foreign-policy.com; 7/30/2014.
Five months after the Kiev coup, vigorously supported by Berlin, a rightwing extremist party may become pro-Western Ukraine’s strongest political force. According to a recent survey, the Radical Party, of the ultra-rightwing politician, Oleh Lyashko, could currently expect 23.2 percent of the votes. Lyashko made himself a name with his brutality against the Kiev regime’s eastern Ukrainian opponents. He is also co-founder and supporter of the Azov Battalion, a militia of over one hundred — mainly fascist — combatants, including a Swedish Neo-Nazi sniper. He has reported that other snipers had already been in action for the opposition during the Maidan protests. It has never been revealed, who fired the fatal shots on February 20. In this highly charged atmosphere, the Ukrainian government is taking steps that indicate a political cultural development even further to the right. It is planning to censure films and books from Russia or to restrict their sales. . . .
Nearly a Third for the Ultra-Right
Five months after the Kiev coup, vigorously supported by Berlin, an extreme rightwing party may become pro-Western Ukraine’s strongest political force. According to a survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, the Radical Party of the ultra-rightwing politician, Oleh Lyashko, could currently expect 23.2 percent of the vote — more than any other party.[1] Already at the presidential elections on May 25, Lyashko received 8.3 percent — a surprise success, practically out of nowhere. His popularity has grown through his public display of brutality against the Kiev regime’s eastern Ukrainian opponents. On his website, on May 7, for example, he published a video of him interrogating a nearly naked, bleeding Eastern Ukrainian insurgent prisoner. In last May’s municipal council elections, leading members of the fascist organizations Social-National Assembly (SNA) and “Patriot of Ukraine” ran on the electoral list of Lyashko’s Radical Party. According to the survey, the fascist Svoboda party would receive 5.7 percent and the militarist Pravy Sector 1.9 percent of the votes. Together with the 23.2 percent for the Radical Party, ultra-rightwing parties would poll nearly one third of the votes.
Freedom of Expression
Typical for the Berlin supported Kiev government are its efforts to eliminate as much Russian influence as possible. Benefitting from the current right-wing trend, it is planning cultural restrictions. The State Film Agency has announced that, in the future, it will closely “examine” Russian films before they may be shown in the Ukraine. Several films have already fallen victim to this censorship. Restrictions will also affect the sale of books. According to the Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Sych, so far only one fifth of the books sold in the country are of Ukrainian production. In fact, throughout the ex-Soviet region, Russian books have been widely sold because of the still widespread knowledge of the Russian language. The Deputy Prime Minster affirms that the government is “forced to protect the Ukrainian consumers from xenophobic publications.” The government is now “introducing licensing for Russian books and a quota for foreign books.”[2] Sych is a member of the fascist Svoboda party. This party’s chief, Oleh Tiahnybok, once made headlines, when he announced that Ukraine must be “liberated” from a “Jewish mafia from Moscow.”[3] . . . .
“Liberation of the White Race”
. . . . While efforts are made to outlaw the CPU, the “Social National Assembly” (SNA) has nothing comparable to worry about. Founded in 2008 as a merger of various fascist organizations, it had been very engaged in creating the Right Sector in November 2013 during the Maidan protests. According to its own admission, it is struggling “for the liberation of the entire white race from the domination of internationalist speculative capital” — a well-known anti-Semitic codeword — and “to punish severely sexual perversions and any interracial contacts that lead to the extinction of the white man.”[4] Anton Gerashchenko, a high-ranking advisor of the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior, explicitly affirmed that the Social National Assembly is “not a neo-Nazi organization,” but rather a “party of Ukrainian patriots.” He felt called upon to make this clarification to a BBC journalist’s statement about a leader of the assembly, Andriy Biletsky, who is currently a commander of the Azov Battalion, a unit of several hundred, which was founded and armed for warfare in Eastern Ukraine by Kiev’s Ministry of the Interior. In fact, numerous activists from the Social National Assembly and its “Patriot of Ukraine” paramilitary wing are members of the Asov Battalion. “Patriot of Ukraine” was commanded in the 1990s by Andriy Parubiy. Today, Parubiy, in his function as Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, bears a major responsibility for the war in the country’s east.
Snipers
The Azov Battalion recently caused an international stir, when it was reported that neo-Nazis from various other European countries e.g. from Italy, France and Sweden, are also members of the unit. Apparently, the battalion is being trained professionally. A Georgian special forces trainer is said to be among the instructors.[5] The Azov Battalion is one of three special commandos — with the Dnipro and Donbass Battalions — being set up in pro-western Ukraine.[6] The Swedish neo-Nazi Mikael Skillt is a member of the Azov Battalion. Skillt, a member of the fascist Svenskarnas Parti (Party of the Swedes), says that he has “at least” three purposes in the unit: commander of “a small reconnaissance unit,” a “sniper” and sometimes he works “as a special coordinator for clearing houses and going into civilian areas.” The person, who is rumored to have been captured by East Ukrainian insurgents, had been a sniper for six years in the Swedish military. He says, he has only been engaged in the Ukrainian conflict since March. He admits, however, to having spoken to at least two snipers, who, during the Maidan protests had shot at police from the Trade Union House in Kiev — at the time, the headquarters of the protestors. “Their mission was to take out Berkut’s snipers,” explained Skillt.[7] The deadly shots from the Maidan, which in Western propaganda had been used to legitimize the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych, have never been investigated by the putsch regime, and Berlin has never applied pressure for an investigation.
Political Prisoners
The Azov Battalion has close ties to Oleh Lyashko, whose “Radical Party,” would currently be able to poll a fourth of the votes if elections were held. Lyashko is considered to be one of the Azov’s founders. For internet videos, he allows himself to be filmed at joint actions with Asov combatants. The Azov Battalion’s second in command, Ihor Mosiychuk, had been elected to Kiev’s Municipal Council on the electoral list of Lyashko’s Radical Party. This was not the first time Lyashko had intervened on his behalf. January 10, 2014, Mosiychuk and two other fascists had been found guilty and sentenced to several years in prison for a planned August 2011 bombing attack. On the evening of January 10, ultra-right-wingers staged demonstrations protesting the sentence. The demonstrations degenerated into violent confrontations with the police. These confrontations, in turn, were then used by Berlin, Brussels and Washington to accuse Yanukovych of excessive use of force on the “movement fighting for democracy.” The protests were unsuccessful. However, immediately after the Kiev coup, Mosiychuk and his accomplices profited from the amnesty, the pro-western Ukrainian parliament granted on February 24, 2014 to “political prisoners”. Due to Lyashko’s decisive engagement, Mosiychuk profited from the amnesty, was liberated from prison and could participate in the organization the Azov Battalion. . . .
. . . . . [1] Jakov Devcic: Jazenjuks Rücktrittsversuch. www.kas.de 29.07.2014.
[2] Ukraine will russische Kultur zurückdrängen. www.n‑tv.de 29.07.2014.
[3] S. dazu Termin beim Botschafter.
[4] Dina Newman: Ukraine conflict: “White power” warrior from Sweden. www.bbc.co.uk 16.07.2014.
[5] Daniel McLaughlin: Foreigners join far-right militias in Ukraine’s fight against rebels. www.irishtimes.com 17.07.2014.
[6] Hal Foster: A special-forces unit, started from scratch, wins a key battle in Ukraine. en.tengrinews.kz 21.06.2014.
[7] Swede Patrols Ukraine’s Streets with Right-wing Paramilitaries. www.friatider.se 26.03.2014.
13a. Insight into the nature of the “liberation” manifested by the Ukrainian government forces occupying Slovyansk can be gleaned by reading between the lines of the following story. In FTR #803, we noted that the Pravy Sektor flag was flying over the Interior Ministry building after the city was captured by government forces.
“A Test for Ukraine in City Retaken from Rebels” by Andrew Higgins; The New York Times; 8/1/2014.
. . . . The new authorities, promising anonymity, have set up a hotline for residents to inform on rebel collaborators, and they have printed fliers warning that a new law mandates up to 15 years in jail for separatism. “Of course people are afraid,” Dr. Glushenko said. “They are frightened of being punished.” . . . .
13b. Illustrating the direct line of institutional evolution from the OUN/B to the present, Pravy Sektor is the political arm of the UNA-UNSO, the latest iteration of the OUN/B’s military cadre, the UPA. It elected Yuriy Shukheyvch as its head. Shukheyvch is the son of OUN/B commander Roman Shukhevych, declared a “Hero of Ukraine” by the Yuschenko government. Roman also headed the Nachtigall Battalion in their liquidation of the Lvov Ghetto in 1941.
Note that the UNA/UNSO organization–the political parent of Pravy Sektor–has apparently been active in Chechnya as well.
“The Durability of Ukrainian Fascism” by Peter Lee; Strategic Culture; 6/9/2014.
. . . . One of Bandera’s lieutenants was Roman Shukhevych. In February 1945, Shukhevych issued an order stating, “In view of the success of the Soviet forces it is necessary to speed up the liquidation of the Poles, they must be totally wiped out, their villages burned … only the Polish population must be destroyed.”
As a matter of additional embarrassment, Shukhevych was also a commander in the Nachtigall (Nightingale) battalion organized by the Wehrmacht.
Today, a major preoccupation of Ukrainian nationalist historical scholarship is beating back rather convincing allegations by Russian, Polish, and Jewish historians that Nachtigall was an important and active participant in the massacre of Lviv Jews orchestrated by the German army upon its arrival in June 1941. . . .
. . . . Yuriy Shukhevych’s role in modern Ukrainian fascism is not simply that of an inspirational figurehead and reminder of his father’s anti-Soviet heroics for proud Ukrainian nationalists. He is a core figure in the emergence of the key Ukrainian fascist formation, Pravy Sektor and its paramilitary.
And Pravy Sektor’s paramilitary, the UNA-UNSO, is not an “unruly” collection of weekend-warrior-wannabes, as Mr. Higgins might believe.
UNA-UNSO was formed during the turmoil of the early 1990s, largely by ethnic Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet Union’s bitter war in Afghanistan. From the first, the UNA-UNSO has shown a taste for foreign adventures, sending detachments to Moscow in 1990 to oppose the Communist coup against Yeltsin, and to Lithuania in 1991. With apparently very good reason, the Russians have also accused UNA-UNSO fighters of participating on the anti-Russian side in Georgia and Chechnya.
After formal Ukrainian independence, the militia elected Yuriy Shukhevych—the son of OUN‑B commander Roman Shukhevych– as its leader and set up a political arm, which later became Pravy Sektor. . . .
14. After the downing of MH 17, there were calls in Germany for military action to be taken by the EU in Ukraine. This story also notes a history of error and/or deliberate misrepresentation in the context of civilian airliner shootdowns.
With 25% of the world’s proven natural gas reserves in Ukraine–most of them concentrated in the Eastern part of the country–we should not forget the cooked intelligence that led to the bloody misadventure in Iraq.
“Establish Facts”; german-foreign-policy.com; 7/21/2014.
After a jetliner was shot down over Eastern Ukraine, influential German foreign policy experts have begun calling for a military intervention, which may include German Bundeswehr units. “A Blue Helmet mission under the umbrella of the United Nations” should now be taken into consideration, declared Andreas Schockenhoff, Co-Chair of the CDU/CSU Group in the Bundestag. “Germany may also be asked” to contribute troops. For the Chairman of the Bundestag’s Defense Commission, Hans-Peter Bartels (SPD), a Blue Helmet mission is also “conceivable.” It is yet unclear, who bears responsibility for downing the jetliner. This is not an essential question for him, as past experience with Western interventions have shown: The EU and the USA must politically establish the facts. The war against Yugoslavia was justified with a massacre. Substantial doubts about central aspects of this massacre still persist. The sniper killings on Kiev’s Maidan Square on February 20 have never been elucidated, once they served as legitimation for overthrowing the government of President Yanukovych. Suspicions persist that sectors of today’s governing Maidan opposition may have played decisive roles in these murders; however that is of no interest to the West. On the contrary, there have never been political consequences for a US warship’s downing of an Iranian airliner in 1988.
No Proof
Several days after the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was shot down over Eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people, it is still unclear, who bears the responsibility. US intelligence agencies claim that Russia had recently delivered a BUK anti-aircraft missile system to the rebels in Eastern Ukraine and that movements have been registered over the past few days to bring that system back to Russia. However, those same agencies have, in the past, repeatedly lied to justify going to war. For example, it has been proven that, under the Saddam Hussein government, the allegations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and supported Al Qaeda were lies. The Russian defense ministry has reported that, right at the time of the downing of the jetliner, it had registered relevant activities of Ukrainian air-defense forces, which do possess “Buk” anti-aircraft systems; and that it is quite conceivable that inexperienced soldiers may have caused the crash through incorrect handling of that highly sophisticated system. Also for this allegation, there is no proof, albeit the Ukrainian military has actually made such a mistake. On October 4, 2001, they accidentally shot down a Tupolev of the Siberian Airlines en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, killing all 78 people on board.
Jumping to Conclusions
On Thursday, Christian Mölling, an expert in the Security Policy Research Group of Berlin’s Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), had already warned against jumping to conclusions. He recommends caution in dealing with all of the information about the downing of the jetliner — particularly information propagated by official sources. “Both sides will seek to pin the blame on the other.”[1] This has been fully confirmed, not only by the declarations of politicians. German media is peddling, without comment, US intelligence reports, while at times openly discrediting Russian information as “conspiracy theories.” In a regional newspaper, the Chair of Germany’s Federal Press Conference preempted the results of future investigations. “Evidently, they wanted to down another Ukrainian military transport plane.”[2] Referring to the political consequences, he said, “the worldwide outrage over this act of terror increases the pressure on Putin.”[3]
Manipulation of Public Opinion
Previous cases used by the West to justify military interventions, show that an impartial investigation of the downing of the Malaysian Boeing — being now used to call for a military intervention — can hardly be expected. The allegation that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was an exception. It has been proven to be a complete fabrication. A second exception was the so-called Operation Horseshoe. The German government used this lie to justify its war on Yugoslavia. It had claimed to possess a document, which showed how Belgrade was deploying its army in the form of a horseshoe to ethnically cleanse the Albanian-speaking population from Kosovo and that this was confirmed by information from intelligence services. Throughout the war, German media continuously repeated this allegation without verification. It helped to provoke public outrage at the Yugoslav government that can still be felt today. In the meantime “Operation Horseshoe” is generally seen as a fiction. Already back in 2005, “Internationale Politik,” a journal close to the government wrote that “the minister of defense had manipulated public opinion by falsely claiming in parliament that Serbs have developed the so-called Operation Horseshoe.”[4]
Unproven but Effective
Strong doubts persist about the so-called Racak Massacre (mid-January 1999), which the German Foreign Minister, Josef Fischer, primarily used to justify the aggression against Yugoslavia. On January 16, 1999, the US diplomat, William Walker presented 45 dead Kosovo Albanians to the press in the village of Racak, claiming they were the victims of a Yugoslav army execution. Western media extensively echoed this story without further investigation. Evidence that the deaths had not been the result of an execution, but rather of military combat between Yugoslav army units and units of UCK militia were disregarded. This evidence was already accessible and has since been documented by The Hague Tribunal (ICTY) as well as elsewhere. German ret. Brig. Gen. Heinz Loquai, who had been dispatched to Kosovo at the beginning of 1999, accuses Walker of being more interested in finding reasons to go to war, than in investigating the civil war already raging. “With his unverified version of what had happened in Racak, Walker lit the fuse leading to the war on Yugoslavia.”[5]
No Interest
Responsibility for the fatal sniper fire at the Maidan Square in Kiev, last February 20 is still unresolved, to say the least. At first the shots were attributed to snipers working for the Yanukovych government, which contributed to the legitimacy of it being overthrown. Since March, however, there have been reasonable grounds for the suspicion that sectors of the Maidan opposition at the time — which is now part of the current government — were involved in firing the fatal shots. This suspicion arises from a secretly recorded telephone conversation between the Estonian Foreign Minister and the EU head of foreign policy, Catherine Ashton, as well as from considerable research undertaken by the German TV program “Monitor.” (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[6]) The regime brought to power in Kiev by the putsch, so far has consistently refused to allow an independent investigation into the killings. And the West is obviously not interested in pressuring Kiev into reversing its stand. An investigation possibly would implicate its own supporters.
Ambiguous Basis
In the case of the recently downed jetliner, the focus is again on the responsibility of the insurgents in Eastern Ukraine and, above all, of Russia, regardless of the evidence. Political facts are once more being established on an ambiguous basis — for example, the debate concerning a UN Blue Helmet mission in Ukraine, with the possible participation of the Bundeswehr.[7] Should these accusations against the insurgents and Russia later prove to be founded, the West will savor its triumphant. However should they prove false, it will carry no consequences.
Double Standards
The question must be raised as to the standards used by Berlin, Brussels and Washington in their judgment. July 3, 1988, a US Navy warship that was trespassing in Iran’s territorial waters, shot down a civilian Airbus A300 Iran Air jetliner. The jetliner- like the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 — was clearly recognizable as a civilian plane. 290 passengers lost their lives. There have never been political consequences for this. On the contrary, upon leaving the military, the ship’s commander was explicitly decorated with the Legion of Merit for his activities during his service in the Persian Gulf. Following the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, Germany’s foreign minister declared, “If the investigations do actually show that one of the parties to the conflict has the lives of hundreds of perfectly innocent people on its conscience, it would be an atrocity beyond all imagining. No one responsible for such an atrocity any longer has any right to push for their own interests in the name of humanity.”[8] There has never been a comparable Western declaration following the downing of the civilian Iranian Airlines jetliner. . . .
Martin Borman, Nazi in Exile
Here’s a Swedish report on the Swedish neo-Nazis operating in the Azov battalion. While Swedish police confirmed their presence in the unit, Ukrainian authorities decideded to “stay tight-lipped” on matter:
Over 300 Ukrainian troops crossed into Russia during heavy fighting near the border. Russia claims they’re defectors. Kiev states otherwise. Either way, a new set of very awkward negotiations between Russia and Ukraine over the fates of those troops is now on the agenda:
It’s looking like a very big battle is about to be waged over Donetsk and which is pretty ominous since it’s not at all clear that Ukraine’s forces will be able to retake the city without inflicting heavy civilian casualties. Fortunately, escape corridors are set up up for fleeing civilians so Hopefully as many civilians as possible are taking that option because, based on the intensity of battles leading up to Donetsk, the invasion of Donetsk might turn into an extended siege with heavy casualties:
In another sign of how long this conflict could potentially go for, the Pentagon is rushing more aid or Ukraine that includes armored personnel carriers and patrol vehicles. It also includes a proposal to send US military trainers, starting in 2015:
The request of anti-tank weapons is a reminder that the upcoming urban warfare in Donetsk is probably going to include tanks. On both sides. Let’s hope people get the hell out of there soon. Ditto Luhansk.
The shelling of Donetsk continues, one blown up piece of critical civil infrastructure at a time:
The rebels in Donetsk are calling for a humanitarian cease-fire while vowing to turn the city into a new “Stalingrad” if the Kiev forces try to take the city. And since there’s no indication so far that Kiev is interested in a cease-fire, that probably means there’s a lot more shelling in Donetsk’s future, along with a lot more calls for humanitarian cease-fires:
Kiev’s strategy appears to revolve around playing chicken with the bear:
In another development relating to the need to get humanitarian aid into Donetsk, it sounds like Angela Merkel has been in negotiations with Petro Poroshenko to get Germany to play a role in overseeing the transfer of aid from Russia to Donetsk via Ukrainian run checkpoints:
“And what do you do when the war is over and you get veterans from Azov swaggering down your high street, and in your own lives?”
This is somewhat fascinating: Russia has announced that it’s going to be sending in a humanitarian aid convoy to Donetsk this week in coordination with the Red Cross, but over opposition from the West and with an unclear commitment from the Red Cross. At the same time, Kiev appears to be coordinating its own humanitarian aid convoy to Donetsk with the West while NATO’s chief expressed fears that this is really a plan to set up a pretext for a Russian invasion. So there’s now a complicated international convoy competition to get aid to the people of Donetsk while preventing the other side from getting there first. Considering all of the other developments that have taken place in this crazy conflict, and assuming we’re not about to see the situation spiral out of control and into a WWIII scenario, it could be worse:
Note the sentiment expressed by the commander of the Azov battalion at the end: “Taking the town is an extremely complicated business and painful ... It will take, at the very least, several weeks”. Also keep in mind that the neo-Nazi infested Azov battalion is tasked with clearing urban areas for Kiev. It’s a reminder that the talk by Ukraine’s government of the army being in the ‘final stages’ of recapturing Donetsk should probably not be interpreted as suggesting that this will be over quickly. When the leader of the crazy neo-Nazi death squad is saying that it will take “at the very least, several weeks”, we should probably assume that a multi-month long period of shelling and blockades is in store for Donetsk, if not worse. And since groups like the Azov battalion are leading the charge in the urban combat, that means that in addition to all the shelling there could be several months of neo-Nazi death squads fighting across Donetsk in intense urban combat in a city still filled with civilians. The ‘convoy competition’ between Moscow and the West could grow quite a bit more complicated going forward.
The convoy competition is turning into a convoy showdown:
Now that the convoy showdown is poised to heat tensions up even more, it might be a good time to recall that even if the crisis in Ukraine is miraculously resolved tomorrow, the crisis in Ukraine is far from the only unresolved conflict currently pushing Russia and the West towards some sort of larger conflict. Especially if the ‘Russian Aggression Act’ becomes US law:
With a dozen people reportedly killed from a Right Sector battalion and Dmytro Yarosh vowing revenge, here’s another article indicating that the plan is for these “volunteer battalions” to play a key, front-line role in executing the street-to-street fighting in the urban areas following shelling by Kiev’s artillery:
Given the outsized role the far right groups were given in new Kiev government as a sort of reward for their outsized role in the Maidan Square protests, what kind of perks will this kind of role win them?
The convoy showdown just got violent: Kiev announced that it destroyed most of a column of Russian military vehicles that reportedly cross into Ukraine last night. Russia claims this is a fantasy and that the vehicles weren’t from the Russian military but hired by private businessmen. Meanwhile, the Russian aid convoy is reportedly still stuck at the border with Kiev’s military first claiming it has begun inspections but later denying that, saying they did not have the proper paperwork detailing the trucks’ contents. Additionally, Kiev’s military spokesman claimed that it wasn’t Kiev’s artillery that shelled downtown Donetsk. It was the rebels that did it. No explanation for that was given. So the situation continues to become violently surreal in Ukraine while the aid convoys remain in place and the shelling of Donetsk continues:
Dmytro Yarosh is threatening to “campaign in Kiev” if the government doesn’t give in to his demands:
Here’s a good article on the ongoing hush-hushing of extremely relevant history:
Also: Shhhhh....
With neither side showing an interest in negotiations the street to street fighting and urban warfare rages on:
Here’s some background on Mark “Franko” Paslawsky, the Ukrainian-American member of the Donbas Battalion that died yesterday while trying to capture the town if Ilovaysk. In addition to an intense hatred of the Russians, Pawlawsky was reportedly motivated by a deep opposition to endemic corruption, and predicted that, once the war is over, the volunteer Battalions will set their sights on the authorities in Kiev with a “Maidan 3.0”:
“He predicted that the volunteer battalions — which have emerged as a formidable force alongside regular Ukrainian troops — would set their sights on the Kiev authorities with a “Maidan 3.0,” as he called it, to push for reforms after the war was over.” Now where did he get that idea...:
Yes, one of Right Sector’s main demands is that it be allowed to keep the weapons it captures in the battlefield, and if those demands aren’t met, Dmytro Yarosh threatens to make an armed march of Kiev. He’s quite a negotiator.
@Pterrafractyl–
The relationship between the Ukrainian government and Pravy Sektor’s “Maidan Battalions” sounds somewhat similar to that of the German fascists who sponsored Hitler and the SA of Ernst Rohm.
Whether there is some sort of “Ukrainian Night of the Long Knives,” or some kind of accommodation can be effected between the austerity oligarchs in Kiev and their EU/German allies/controllers remains to be seen.
Best,
Dave
@Dave: Part of what make a future showdown between the oligarchs and the neo-Nazi components of the “volunteer battalions” seem so likely is that if the rebels manage to withstand the assaults on Luhansk and Donestsk long enough to force a negotiated peace the entire “anti-terrorism” campaign is possibly going to be viewed as a massive bloody failure by the populace at large. And that could empower groups like Right Sector, especially if the the fighting goes on for an extended period and the civilian casualties keep building. But if they succeed at quelling the rebels, jubilant battalions of neo-Nazis are probably still going to converge on Kiev for “anti-corruption” campaigns and transition into a “Maidan 3.0″-mode anyways. What’s going to stop them at that point? Maybe more high level government appointments could halt their ambitions, but for how long? It’s another situational parallel with the rise of the Nazis: a thorough grassroots rejection of the far-right by the Ukrainian populace at large is, at this point, probably the best hope going forward. Once the elites start trying to use and profit from the craziest far-right elements of society, any institution mechanisms that might have previously prevented a Nazi-like takeover have already been compromised.
The convoy showdown has entered a new stage: the “get it out or there will be consequences” stage:
With a military parade in Kiev showing off the military hardware about to head east and a parallel prisoner march in Donetsk following the surprise convoy run to Luhansk, it can be hard to imagine the tensions getting much higher in Ukraine any time soon. The 50% increase in defense spending over the next three years that was just announced by President Poroshenko makes it much less hard to imagine those tensions rising:
Even more alarmingly, as the article below suggests, the capture of Donetsk and Luhansk is turning out to be far more difficult than Kiev’s military planners were predicting several weeks ago. It’s now looking like the cities are either going to have to be leveled to the ground with artillery or a lot more street-to-street fighting using with light infantry units like the Azov Battalion is going to be required. Or maybe both:
Along with Kiev declaring that Russia sent a column of tanks into the Ukraine today but were stopped by Kiev’s military, new elections were just announced with an eye on replacing any MPs that backed former president Yanukovych:
To use Poroshenko’s language, the parliament needs a “cleansing”:
Given the earlier threats of Dmytro Yarosh to “campaign in Kiev”, and with the volunteer battalions’ fortunes rapidly reversing this week, one of the open questions going forward is what’s going to happen to those battalions if retreat becomes the only viable option? Are they going to disband or will retreat, itself, become the justification for a far right “campaign in Kiev”? If this article from earlier in the week is any indication of what to expect, with the commander of the Donbas battalion publicly pleading for more support from Kiev on Facebook, any retreat back to Kiev on Facebook, followed by claims of Kiev’s betrayal. It’s a tension worth keeping in mind if a permanent retreat becomes a reality:
And here’s a piece from today updating the situation: it’s still a growing disaster for the volunteers and they appear to still feel very betrayed:
And here’s a peak at what we might expect for Ukraine if the volunteer battalions end up successfully “campaigning in Kiev”:
Yes, it was rather odd to hear the head of the Azov battalion likening the conflict to WWII given the obvious historical connotations associated with that analogy. Far less surprising was Vladimir Putin’s use of the same analogy on Friday, although the global reminder that Russia has nukes and shouldn’t be “messed with” was somewhat alarming:
So we have Kiev clamoring to be let in to NATO, which would basically guarantee WWIII at this point, Russia threatening “don’t mess with us”, and volunteer battalions that are poised to turn on Kiev if the conflict end. As far as nightmare scenarios go, that’s pretty nightmarish. And yet, if the conflicts aren’t ended soon, the nightmares for the civilians in the east will just go on and on. If we see peace in the east under rebel rule, we might see the volunteer battalions wage a war on Kiev (and possibly a far right pro-Russian government in the east too). But if we see Kiev taking the east, the security of that ethnic Russian population is very unclear given the overtly anti-Russian nature of the volunteer. Yep, a nightmare scenario.
Part of what makes this situation so dire is the fact that if Ukraine joins the EU, NATO membership will eventually follow and NATO and, at this point, NATO is basically an anti-Russian alliance. So here’s a thought that might be a little too outlandish, but whatever: Let eastern Ukraine become a separate, independent buffer state, and then make a joint offer to Russia, West Ukraine and East Ukraine to all join NATO together. All at once or none at all. Yes, Russia can join NATO. Two retired German generals (including a former Chairman of the NATO Military Committee) made just such a proposal back in 2010 which would include the withdrawal of both US and Russian tactical nukes and development of a join missile shield, so it’s not an unthinkable idea. There could be lots of political reform strings attached and getting currently warring parties to sign onto a mutually defense-pact could be a big step towards creating the kind of global NATO humanity needs to end all war in an age of super-weapons. After all, there’s already a global war against humanity and most life on earth currently being waged by ourselves via climate change and eco-collapse. Maybe we should all be focusing on that war instead?
Andrei Beletsky, leader of Avoz Battalion, just made an announcement on Facebook that should surprise no one:
So this just happened:
#Pterrafractyl–
No surprise, here. Poroshenko’s advisory team were Yuschenko’s old cronies.
Roman Svarych, Jaroslav Stetsko’s personal secretary in the early 1980’s, is one of his top advisers.
Check out FTR #800:
https://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-800-meet-the-new-bosses-same-as-the-old-bosses-update-on-ukraine/
Best,
Dave
The BBC has quite an update on the investigation into the Maidan square sniper mystery and the differing accounts of Andre Parubiy, then the head of security for the Maidan protestors, a one of the snipers:
@Pterrafractyl–
Of course, NEVER lose sight of the fact that Parubiy is not only from the Svoboda party of OUN/B heirs, but is the former defense minister under the provisional government that came to power during the Maidan coup.
He is now deputy speaker of the Ukraine parliament.
Best,
Dave