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.)
COMMENT: In FTR #781, we noted that Viktor Yuschenko–married to top OUN/B official and Reagan Deputy Director of Presidential Liaison Ykaterina Chumachenko–institutionalized the Bandera political cadre, rewriting Ukrainian World War II history and paving the way for the rise of Swoboda and Pravy Sektor.
We now learn that “new” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has reconstituted the old Yuschenko team, including American-born Roman Zvarych (“Svarych”), Yuschenko’s Minister of Justice and the personal secretary to OUN/B leader Yaroslav Stetsko in the early 1980’s.
Stetsko was the World War II head of the Ukrainian Nazi satellite state and headed the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and its primary element, the OUN/B. Stetsko was an adherent to Nazi ethnic cleansing doctrine, practicing it vigorously against ethnic Poles, ethnic Russians and Jews during the Second World War.
(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.)
“Ukraine’s New President Poroshenko Leads Old Team”; Deutsche Welle; 6/7/2014.
EXCERPT: . . . . But a close look at his team quickly shows that Poroshenko has surrounded himself with officials from the Yushchenko era.
For example, Poroshenko’s election campaign was planned by Ihor Hryniv. The 53-year-old member of parliament and former director of the Kyiv Institute for Strategic Studies was once Yushchenko’s adviser. He later represented his party “Nasha Ukraina” (Our Ukraine) in parliament.
The 43-year-old foreign policy expert and diplomat Valeri Chaly was also part of Yushchenko’s team. During Poroshenko’s election campaign Chaly was in charge of foreign policy issues. The 60-year-old Roman Svarych is also back in politics: Yushchenko’s former justice minister now consults with Poroshenko on legal issues. [Svarych was the personal secretary to OUN/B leader Yaroslav Stetsko in the early 1980’s–D.E.]
Elsewhere in the country the picture is the same. Viktor Baloha, for example, was the head of Yushchenko’s secretariat during his presidency. He headed Poroshenko’s election campaign in the western Ukrainian province of Transcarpathia. . . .
With Ukraine still on track to brutalize itself in coming years with austerity policies, it will be interesting to see how long it takes before the same phenomena spreading across Europe of the far right achieving mass appeal by seizing the mantle of an anti-EU/anti-corruption/anti-austerity movement spreads to Ukraine. It seems kind of inevitable at this point:
Ukraine’s politicians are starting to hint at a plan for dealing with separatists in the east: build a giant wall:
With people from both Tymoshenko’s and Klitschko’s parties backing some variant of the the wall, it’s looking like a giant wall with Russia could be in Ukraine’s future. Austerity and a giant wall. How uplifting.
And, yes, Andriy Parubiy, co-founder of Svoboda, is still secretary of Ukraine’s Security Council.
Here’s a wonderful example of the logic of the austerians from the director of the Center for International Trade and Economics at the Heritage Foundation: Ukraine needs to slash its subsidies for the poor in order to fight corruption. Specifically, the corruption of market distortions caused by subsidies for the poor:
You have to love the sentiment expressed: Ukraine’s a country with complicated problems that can’t be solved with quick fixes or magic bullets. What it needs is an “open, market-based economy”. Yeah, that should solve everything.
Continuing...
Here’s a wonderful example of the logic of the austerians from the director of the Center for International Trade and Economics at the Heritage Foundation: Ukraine needs to slash its subsidies for the poor in order to fight corruption. Specifically, the corruption of market distortions caused by subsidies for the poor:
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/06/24/ukraine-jewish-billionaires-batallion-sent-to-fight-pro-russian-militias/
Ukraine: Batallion Backed by Jewish Billionaire Sent to Fight Pro-Russian Militias
June 24, 2014 4:45 pm 2 comments
Author: Dave Bender
Despite cease-fire declarations, pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian militias are still reportedly clashing at several locations in south-eastern Ukraine.
Among those going into battle from the Ukrainian side are some 500 trained fighters in the self-declared Azov battalion, backed by Jewish energy magnate and Dnipropetrovsk region governor, Igor Kolomoisky, according to Israel’s Ma’ariv daily.
A Ukrainian military spokesman said pro-Russian separatists on Tuesday opened fire at Ukrainian army positions in the Donbass region and vandals blew up railway tracks in Logansk in order to impede rail traffic in the area.
A source at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, cited by Voice of Russia, claimed that “Kolomoisky is the most outspoken opponent of the plan on settling the situation in the East of Ukraine.”
In April, Kolomoisky placed a $10,000 bounty on the head of any Russian “saboteur,” caught, according to the UK’s The Guardian, which added that turning over a grenade launcher to Kiev authorities would net finders $2,000, and $1,500 for every heavy machine gun handed in.
Meanwhile, on June 21, Russia’s Investigative Committee (IC) ruled to indict Kolomoisky and parliament-appointed Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on war crimes charges, according to Russia’s Itar-Tass News Agency.
“In the near future the investigators will put Avakov and Kolomoisky on the international wanted list and request a court warrant for their arrest,” according to IC spokesman Vladimir Markin
On Monday, American President Barack Obama spoke with Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin, calling on the latter to support efforts to defuse tensions in the area or face sanctions, the White House said, according to Voice of America.
“Russia will face additional costs if we do not see concrete actions to de-escalate the situation,” White House Spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
“The president called upon President Putin to press the separatists to recognize and abide by the ceasefire and to halt the flow of weapons and material across its border into Ukraine,” Earnest said.
“The president emphasized that words must be accompanied by actions and that the United States remains prepared to impose additional sanctions should circumstances warrant, in coordination with our allies and partners,” he said, according to a Reuters report.
Good luck with that:
Notice that Yatseniuk “fairly positive hopes” were simply the hopes that Ukraine would recieve the second tranche of the $17 billion ‘bailout’/austerity package under the existing agreement. They weren’t hopes that the IMF would actually let up on its austerity treatment.
So how hopefull should Ukrainians be that the IMF will actually ease up on the austerity and make their lives better? That probably depends quite a bit on the individual citizens. More specifically, it probably depends on their current socioeconomic status:
@Vanfield: It’s worth noting that Igor Kolomoisky, the oligarch fielding his own militia, is the same oligarch that owns the bank getting ~40% of the IMF’s “emergency liquidity funds”. Imagine that.