Burning Ukraine’s Protesters Alive

Exclusive: For the second time in a week, Ukrainian anti-regime protesters holed up in a building were killed by fires set by pro-regime attackers with ties to newly formed neo-Nazi security forces, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

In Ukraine, a grisly new strategy bringing in neo-Nazi paramilitary forces to set fire to occupied buildings in the country’s rebellious southeast appears to be emerging as a favored tactic as the coup-installed regime in Kiev seeks to put down resistance from ethnic Russians and other opponents.

The technique first emerged on May 2 in the port city of Odessa when pro-regime militants chased dissidents into the Trade Unions Building and then set it on fire. As some 40 or more ethnic Russians were burned alive or died of smoke inhalation, the crowd outside mocked them as red-and-black Colorado potato beetles, with the chant of “Burn, Colorado, burn.” Afterwards, reporters spotted graffiti on the building’s walls containing Swastika-like symbols and honoring the “Galician SS,” the Ukrainian adjunct to the German SS in World War II.

Ukrainian Secretary for National Security Andriy Parubiy.

Ukrainian Secretary for National Security Andriy Parubiy.

This tactic of torching an occupied building occurred again on May 9 in Mariupol, another port city, as neo-Nazi paramilitaries organized now as the regime’s “National Guard” were dispatched to a police station that had been seized by dissidents, possibly including police officers who rejected a new Kiev-appointed chief. Again, the deployment of the “National Guard” was followed by burning the building and killing a significant but still-undetermined number of people inside. (Early estimates of the dead range from seven to 20.)

In the U.S. press, Ukraine’s “National Guard” is usually described as a new force derived from the Maidan’s “self-defense” units that spearheaded the Feb. 22 revolt in Kiev overthrowing elected President Viktor Yanukovych. But the Maidan’s “self-defense” units were drawn primarily from well-organized bands of neo-Nazi extremists from western Ukraine who hurled firebombs at police and fired weapons as the anti-Yanukovych protests turned increasingly violent.

But the mainstream U.S. press in line with State Department guidance has sought to minimize or dismiss the key role played by neo-Nazis in these “self-defense” forces as well as in the new government. At most, you’ll see references to these neo-Nazis as “Ukrainian nationalists.”

Turning to the Neo-Nazis

However, as resistance to Kiev’s right-wing regime expanded in the ethnic Russian east and south, the coup regime found itself unable to count on regular Ukrainian troops to fire on civilians. Thus, its national security chief Andriy Parubiy, himself a neo-Nazi, turned to the intensely motivated neo-Nazi shock troops who had been battle-tested during the coup.

These extremists were reorganized as special units of the National Guard and dispatched to the east and south to do the dirty work that the regular Ukrainian military was unwilling to do. Many of these extreme Ukrainian nationalists lionize World War II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera and like Bandera dream of a racially pure Ukraine, free of Jews, ethnic Russians and other “inferior” beings. The slur of calling the Odessa protesters Colorado beetles — as they were being burned alive — was a reference to the black-and-red colors used by the ethnic Russian resistance in the east.

Though the mainstream U.S. press either describes Parubiy simply as the interim government’s chief of national security (with no further context) or possibly as a “nationalist,” his fuller background includes his founding of the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991, blending radical Ukrainian nationalism with neo-Nazi symbols. Last year, he became commandant of the Maidan’s “self-defense forces.”

Then, on April 15,  after becoming the Kiev regime’s chief of national security and finding Ukrainian troops unwilling to fire on fellow Ukrainians in the east, Parubiy went on Twitter to announce, “Reserve unit of National Guard formed #Maidan Self-defense volunteers was sent to the front line this morning.”

Those National Guard forces also were reported on the ground in Odessa when the trade unions building was torched on May 2 and they showed up again in Mariupol as the police station was burned on May 9, according to a report in the New York Times on Saturday.

The Times mentioned the appearance and then disappearance of the National Guard without providing any useful background about this newly organized force. In the language used by the mainstream U.S. press and the Kiev regime, the neo-Nazi brigades are “volunteers” and “self-defense” units while the rebels resisting the post-coup regime are “pro-Russian militants” or “terrorists.” The Times reported the May 9 attack in Mariupol this way:

“Ukraine’s interior minister, Arsen Avakov, wrote on Facebook that about 60 pro-Russian militants had tried to seize the city’s police headquarters. The police called for support from the Ukrainian national guard, a newly formed force of quickly trained volunteers drawn from participants in last winter’s street protests in the capital. Mr. Avakov wrote that 20 ‘terrorists’ had died in the fighting, while those who survived dispersed and hid in a residential neighborhood.”

The Times added: “The national guard, though, pulled out of the city soon afterward . Residents who had gathered around the police station offered an account that differed from the interior minister’s. The city police, they said, were sympathetic to the pro-Russian side and had mutinied against an out-of-town chief newly installed by the interim government in Kiev.

“Armored vehicles had driven into the city to confront the rebellious police, not the militants, residents said. Holes in the brick wall suggested heavy weaponry. Gunfire echoed downtown.”

After the deaths inside Mariupol’s police station, the Kiev regime rejoiced at the extermination of a large number of “terrorists.” As the UK’s Independent reported, “The military action is accompanied by stridently aggressive rhetoric from politicians in Kiev who are crowing about the numbers of ‘terrorists’ killed and threatening further lethal punishment.”

The Kiev’s regime’s concern that some local police forces have at best mixed loyalties has led it again to turn to the Maidan “self-defense” forces to serve as a special “Kiev-1” police force, which was dispatched to Odessa amid that city’s recent violence.

Deniable Forces

Though many Americans don’t want to believe that their government would collaborate with neo-Nazis or other extremist elements, there actually has been a long history of just that. In conflicts as diverse as the revolutions in Central America and the anti-Soviet Afghan war in the 1980s to the current civil conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, it has not been uncommon for the side favored by the United States to rely on extremist paramilitary forces to engage in the most brutal fighting.

In Central American conflicts that I covered for the Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s, some of the “death squads” associated with pro-U.S. regimes were drawn from neo-fascist movements allied with the far-right World Anti-Communist League. In Afghanistan, the CIA relied on Islamist extremists, including Saudi jihadist Osama bin Laden, to kill Russians and their Afghan government allies.

Today, in Syria, many of the most aggressive fighters against Bashar al-Assad’s government are Arab jihadists recruited from across the region and armed by Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf oil sheikdoms. So, it fits with a pattern for the U.S. government to hold its nose and rely on neo-Nazis from western Ukraine to take the fight to rebellious ethnic Russians in the east and south.

The key to all these unsavory alliances is for the American people not to know about the real nature of these U.S. clients. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration advanced the concept of “public diplomacy” to intimidate journalists and human rights activists who dared report on the brutality of U.S.-backed forces in El Salvador and Guatemala and the CIA-trained Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Thus, most Americans weren’t sure what to make of recurring reports about right-wing “death squads” killing priests and nuns and committing other massacres across Central America. Regarding Afghanistan, it took the American people until Sept. 11, 2001, to fully comprehend whom the Reagan administration had been working with in the 1980s.

Similarly, the Obama administration has tried to maintain the fiction that the Syrian opposition is dominated by well-meaning “moderates.” However, as the brutal civil war has ground on, it gradually has become apparent that the most effective anti-Assad fighters are the Sunni extremists allied with al-Qaeda and determined to kill Shiites, Alawites and Christians.

So, it should come as no surprise that the Kiev regime would turn to its Maidan “self-defense” forces formed around neo-Nazi militias to go into southern and eastern Ukraine with the purpose of burning to death ethnic Russian “insects” occupying buildings. The key is not to let the American people in on the secret.

[For more, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Ukraine, Through the U.S. ‘Looking Glass.’”]

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his new book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). For a limited time, you also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.

38 comments for “Burning Ukraine’s Protesters Alive

  1. May 20, 2014 at 15:48

    “The slur of calling the Odessa protesters Colorado beetles — as they were being burned alive — was a reference to the black-and-red colors used by the ethnic Russian resistance in the east.”

    There is an error here, or rather, two. The Colorado beetle is not black and red (aolthough the larvae are), but black and yellow, as is the flag some on the federalist/ pro-Russian side are using. Black and red is, als far as I know, not a combination used by the pro-Russian/ federalist activists, but the color combination that anarchists use, and also, confusingly enough, some of the ultra-Rightists on de Kiev side, referring tio the fascist UDA movement of the 1940s. . Anarchists use diagonally split flags; UDA sympathizers a rectangular slit black-red flag.

  2. Bill Jones
    May 13, 2014 at 17:44
  3. Mark
    May 12, 2014 at 14:39

    “Ukraine’s interior minister, Arsen Avakov, wrote on Facebook that about 60 pro-Russian militants had tried to seize the city’s police headquarters. The police called for support from the Ukrainian national guard…”

    The real story is, according to the Mariyupol locals, is that the city’s newly appointed chief of police met some resistance from the fellow officers that didn’t accept him as their superior and disagreed to act against their own people. Since the police didn’t support the regime, the local militia came in to express their gratitude and support, hoping to join sides with them. In response to the denial of the authority of Kiev, the chief wounded one of the officers, barricaded himself in his cabinet and called for help from the “national guard”. That’s when the real horror began.

    First of all, it was 9th of May – a sacred day for millions of slavic people, that commemorates the astronomical human sacrifice of the World War II, so a lot of locals were out on the streets celebrating the victory. When the troops arrived, or should I say “bandits”, the locals voiced their displease with their interfering and were growing angry by the minutes. And, well… this is what happened… (Warning! The videos are very graphic!) watch?v=mEJx-t6ahGg , watch?v=LU3sfUwcVC0

    You can clearly see from the videos that these “nat-guards” were shooting battle rounds at unarmed civilians, in total killing over 30 people! (Although the officials call them terrorists and claim that they were interfering with the counter-terrorist operation). What is more, when the troops finally arrived to the police station, they used heavy-grade weaponry from their Armored Vehicles, unintentionally killing a family of three, due to one of the projectiles hitting their kitchen. In total, after this massacre, 60 people were reported dead (~40 civilians, 20 militia/police officers) all of which were claimed to be terrorists for easier explanation.

    However, in the process, the locals managed to take the chief of police in “peoples’ custody” and held on to him until yesterday. For his crimes against the people of Mariyupol, he was hanged on the tree near the highway outside the city.

    So, to conclude, it was a punishment operation that was supposed to strike fear and obedience into the hearts of the people of Eastern regions and police forces alike. It was supposed to be an example of how newly appointed regime deals with those who opposes him. The results however, were totally different.

    You can cross-check the story I’ve shared via a quick Google search. Not sure if the news search will show up in english, but in russian and ukrainian it does.

  4. JNDillard
    May 12, 2014 at 04:28

    US support for fascism includes Hitler’s rise to power and his prosecution of the Second World War. US business was aligned with the interests of German industrialists who paid for Hitler to do two things: 1) Crush labor; 2) crush its major ideological defender, Russia. Most Americans don’t understand that capitalism doesn’t care if a government is fascist or not as long as it increases profits.
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/profits-ber-alles-american-corporations-and-hitler/4607

  5. Jay
    May 11, 2014 at 11:46

    Quote:

    “Regarding Afghanistan, it took the American people until Sept. 11, 2001, to fully comprehend whom the Reagan administration had been working with in the 1980s.”

    Right the Reagan administration really ramped up the support for these extremist thugs in Afghanistan, but US support for these same thugs started while Jimmy Carter was president. In the late 1970s, the US was playing an extension of the 19th century’s “great game” in central Asia.

    The abuses of the “Contras” in Nicaragua and the death squads in El Salvador in the 1980s were fairly widely reported in the US. Not so the death squads in Guatemala.

  6. IlyaMuromets
    May 11, 2014 at 11:38

    To anyone seeking to trivialize the influence of the Right Sector on what is happening in Ukraine, consider the fact that instead of abiding by the Geneva agreements to disarm all illegally armed factions, the regime in Kiev has deputized the Right Sector (RS) into the ranks of its National Guard. In effect, the illegal government in Ukraine has “legitimized” the RS in a cynical attempt to circumvent their commitment to the Geneva accords. They are now heavily relying on the RS controlled National Guard to carry out their brutal crackdown in Eastern Ukraine. Equally ominous is the fact that the RS have garnered five key posts within the acting “government’s” cabinet of ministers. This alone should cause any intelligent person to question just how trivial the Right Sector really are.

    Today’s (5-11-14) referendum allows the people of Eastern Ukraine to tell the world that they want no part of a “government” that uses violence to hijack their right to self-determination.

  7. Michael Kenny
    May 11, 2014 at 11:31

    I always say that Americans start waving the swastika, it means that they’ve run out of serious arguments. And, of course, as always, Mr Parry gets his facts wrong. The only part of Ukraine that ever had an ethnic Russian majority is Crimea. In literally every other province, the Russians are in the minority (there’s a map in Wikipedia!). And every sovereign state claims for itself the right to enforce its laws in its own territory, using such force as is necessary for that purpose. And there will be an election in two weeks time, so that it hardly now matters who is or is not in the interim government. So, much ado about nothing.

    • Jay
      May 11, 2014 at 11:49

      Are there not generally more Russians in the east of Ukraine than the west?

      Not asking where the majority is.

      So big misdirection there, Michael K.

      Fact: NeoNazi gangs backed the putsch in Kiev, and then forced any member of parliament who opposed the coup to flee, leaving a rump parliament.

    • May 11, 2014 at 12:28

      So why was not the law upheld and force used against the neo-nazi putchists?

    • Yaroslav
      May 11, 2014 at 18:56

      Oh, yea, much ado about nothing. Just for fun. Some recreational deaths. Fools, they don’t read Wikipedia.

      In spite of killing objections from the “government” the referendum in Eastern Ukraine has took place.
      But obviously the results will not be accepted by US warmongers and you.

    • Igor
      May 12, 2014 at 16:09

      Michael,
      I was born in Province of Lugansk, lived there 18 years, and then 6 years in Kharkov. My close relatives still live there in Donetsk region. I tell you that your Wikipedia based arguments about “ethnic Russian majority” are just ridiculous. I lived in big cities as well as little villages, and Russians constituted an absolute majority there on East of Ukraine. In my native town there were about a couple of dozen schools for Russian speaking children, and only two schools with Ukrainian study. You can guess the percentage.

    • MarkU
      May 13, 2014 at 11:24

      “I always say that Americans start waving the swastika, it means that they’ve run out of serious arguments”

      Funny how you never pointed this out when discussing Iraq, Iran, libya, Venezuela, Syria or any other country that the US wants to demonize by comparing their leaders to Hitler. Very curious indeed that the only time that real swastikas are involved, you are actively denying it and even rooting for them.

  8. May 11, 2014 at 10:11

    I was wondering what black caucus thought about the confederate flags and Celtic crosses in the Kiev city hall. Are they aware of what is going on?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=q-dHVZTtTxQ

    And I was also wondering if the South African leadership could work with Obama and the black caucus to help to get the message through. If they sent a delegation to Washington they would not be able to simply dismiss it as Putin’s propaganda.

  9. Ulli Gundacker
    May 11, 2014 at 06:43

    Robert, you write important articles about Ukraine but regarding the “fire victims” storyline you are terribly misinformed. Most of the people in the labour union building in Odessa DID NOT DIE as a result of the FIRE. The fire served only to DISTRACT ATTENTION from what was really going on inside: a massacre in the style of a Nazi-pogrom (that explains the comment of Sergei Lavrov on Odessa):

    on the same day, May 2 in 1933 Hitler’s private armies the SA and SS stormed labour union buildings all over Germany and deported the unionists to concentration camps … some of them were tortured and killed
    http://www.zerschlagung-gewerkschaften1933.de/zerschlagung/2-mai-1933/

    Photos of the victims in Odessa show that the people were strangled with cables, shot in the head, or beaten to death. Pools of blood can be seen on the floor – hardly typical of fire victims. Their bodies were then dosed with an inflammable substance to hide the real cause of death. As the corpses clearly show because they are only partially burned (sometimes only the head and shoulders) while the rest of the body (including the clothes) are untouched.

    http://www.voltairenet.org/article183676.html

    You are also (unintentionally, I am sure) misleading the readers when you mention how under Reagan close ties were formed with Neo-Nazis groups in Latin America including the funding and training of “death-squads” against the rebellious poor. While this is certainly true, US-support for old and new Nazis goes back much further.

    In 1945 tens of thousands of Nazi war criminals were brought to the US under the guise of the status as “displaced persons”. One of them, Mykola Lebed had been the head of the Ukrainian Gestapo “SB” http://www.thefullwiki.org/Sluzhba_Bezbeky (fused with a paramilitary group named UPA, which committed unspeakable atrocities against Poles in Volnya (100,000 victims) and also against the Jewish population.

    The immigration authorities tried to block this because Lebed had been sentenced for planning the murder of the Polish Interior Minister in 1934 but the CIA and the DOJ intervened several times to ensure that this Nazi war-criminal (CIC files describe him as “known sadist and Nazi-collaborator) could not only enter the US but became a US citizen in no time.

    Allen Dulles personally wrote a letter to the DOJ to stress how important this man was for the CIA and that it must be guaranteed that his movements in and out of the US would not attract media spotlight to avoid drawing attention on the “operations” he was involved in.
    https://iwpchi.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/cia-wwii-war-criminals-files-ukrainian-fascist-mykola-lebed/

    “When blood is up to the knee then the Ukraine will be free” (battle-chant of the “Banderas”, UPA members)

    http://en.wolyn1943.pl/exhibition/the-ukraine-for-ukrainians/

    The US government not only protected these war criminals and Nazis for decades against prosecution but also supported a propaganda network to whitewash their crimes during the war. In return these people were employed to demonize the role of the Soviet Union which – in reality – had saved Europe and the Ukraine from the evil reign of the Nazis (which left 27 million “Russians” dead). The CIA used these criminals (in their own words) to “keep the flame of nationalism alive” (in the Baltics and especially in Ukraine).

    See also the book America’s Nazi Secret by John Loftus (fmr. attorney for the DOJ)

    It is now clear to me that the evil seed of Nazism, sown by the Anglo-American power elites after WWI and never weeded out after WWII but instead “used” for Cold War purposes has now come into full bloom again … the UPA in Ukraine is back … another “indigenous monster” created by the puppet masters for their own geo-political games (like “Gladio” in Europe or Al Qaeda in the Caucasus, the ME and now Africa…)

    God help us against these crazy, self-righteous bastards who run the “foreign policy” of the only “superpower” … and my sincerest apologies to the Russians for the treatment their president gets in our disgusting media …

  10. Alexander
    May 11, 2014 at 04:22

    Thank you, Mr. Robert Parry!
    Kiev Junta and neo-Nazis committed new crime in Mariupol on Victory Day, may 9. Now volunteers in Donbass arming including the famous weapons of their ancestors, as they had defeated the Nazis in 1945. All Nazi – to hell!

  11. May 11, 2014 at 03:17

    Сейчас довольно легко стало искать информацию в сети. И Украина это не Африка, и от туда очень много видео-фактов вкладывается на разных ресурсах. Так что если кто-то из американцев захочет то он без труда сможет найти много интерестного. Да и есть такой канал как RT кореспондент котрых находится непосредственно в Славянске.
    Кому нужно услышит – зрячий увидит, а глухой услышав не поверит – увидев скажет монтаж.

    • elmerfudzie
      May 11, 2014 at 17:19

      Konstantin, could you please download and use Google’s translator page or something equivalent to it?, then do a re-post of your commentary? Even a Russian dictionary wouldn’t help, the language is so complex!

  12. elmerfudzie
    May 10, 2014 at 23:04

    Speaking here as a person of Slavic origin, the Stepan Bandera or Andriy Parubiy belief system in a racially pure Ukraine free of “inferior” beings, really hurts! Historically, it was the Slavic peoples who rescued the world from Nazi fascism. Polish pilots sacrificing all, while flying in British Spitfires over London and fighting, over and over again, against Germany’s JU-88’s and Messerschmidt 109′ s. The call to war (Stalin) gathering millions of culturally and religiously disparate Russian peasants to oppose all the ferocity that Saxony and it’s weapons technology could muster….just water under the bridge now but certainly worth one tear?, in memory? Yes, the ugly truth of Polish antisemitism, when, after all, the Jews gave the Poles a tremendous leg up in cultural diversity. The Russian hate for Germans, misplaced and disproportionate in light of so many professional agitators and war mongers (German bankers and Nazi militarists) who kept dreaming up new and awfully slick black flag operations, example; the Reichstag fire; allegations of Polish soldiers raping German women near the border, etcetera. Incessant Nazi propaganda and careful scheming, simply overwhelmed the common German folk (most of whom never read Mein Kampf) There’s much, much to forget, and to forgive. In terms of actually pointing to the culprit, it was the Seventh World Congress (in 1935) of the Communist International, famously defined fascism as quote: “the openly terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital” AKA, and more recently known as, those international corporations who want to confiscate national treasures of the Ukraine (corn and wheat). Sometime during 1922, it was King Victor Emmanuel III, of Italy who refused to sign the order to open fire on Mussolini and his march(ers) on Rome. This action would certainly have crippled the threat and rise of WWII. I do not believe that Putin is anything like King Victor III and will never permit such a historical blunder to repeat itself in any way, shape or form…

    • May 11, 2014 at 10:01

      The Bandera movement is really strange. I will not try to resolve all the Polish-Ukrainian-Russian history here. OK, I understand the Ukrainians were oppressed by the Poles and perhaps by the Russians, and they wanted independence. But how did this get twisted into the murderous UPA ideology? There is certainly no way to justify it, but I do not even know how to explain it. And Bandera was a son of a priest!

  13. Katerina
    May 10, 2014 at 21:47

    Please, read this.
    How the thugs killed Odessa inhabitants in the Trade Unions House – the details of bloody scenario
    http://ersieesist.livejournal.com/813.html

  14. John
    May 10, 2014 at 19:26

    I am not sure if it is correct, in case of Odessa event, to speak about ethnic Russians.The people burnt in the building are called as “pro-Russian sepparatists” by the new Kiev goverment (better would be to call them anti-new government protesters). This does not mean necessarily they are ethnically Russian (might have simply Ukrainian passport). Yes, there is a Russian ethnicity living in Ukraine speaking Russian but being of Ukrainian citizenship. But there is also a portion of Ukrainians speaking Russian as their main languague (like Austrian speak German but are of Austrian ethnicity but not German one, or Americans speak English but are not “the English”… This is very complicated for people outside of Ukraine to understand and very confusing. Of course, majority of Ukraine citizens are “Ukraine speaking Ukraines”. But except of Russian speaking Ukraines, there are also Rusins in the west of the country (another ethnicity), Polish, Volynian Czechs, Hungarians, Belorussians…
    In case of Odessa massacre, language of the victims is not know, but people who survived (many witnesses on Youtube) say that they were simply Odessans, locals, and they knew each other.
    Odessa locals also say that 116 people died in the building (shot, beaten, burned by Pravy sektor -Right Sector aktivists), hundreds injured and about 150 taken to prison but released the next day after the Odessa citizens protested in front of the police headquarters.

  15. Yaroslav
    May 10, 2014 at 18:54

    Evil terrorists are dying at their homeland (and pregnant women, young girls and some children) and brave self-defence forces are defending from them in their homes attacking with mashine-guns, tanks and sniper riffles.

    Poor americans… This is a national dementia at its best…

  16. May 10, 2014 at 18:28

    OK, so the U.S. press does not cover this. How about the press elsewhere?, in Europe, China, India, South America?

  17. Mike
    May 10, 2014 at 17:18

    Is anyone else kind of annoyed by consortiums very one sided coverage of the Ukraine crisis? I agree that there was a lot more U.S. involvement appreciated, and that the role of neo-nazis has been heavily down-played, but there has been no discussion of the potential rigging of the crimea referendum by the cremlin(1), or the 100,000 yes ballots in the possession of Pro-Russian forces intended for the upcoming referendum that have been intercepted(2). I’m a big fan of Parry and I’ve read a lot of his books but he really is giving a pass to Putin and the obvious meddling the Kremlin has been doing. I think it would be beneficial to portray this issue for what it is, two countries vying for influence with dirty tricks. I can’t take his criticisms of Western policy seriously when he rarely mentions the dirt Putins up to. It is wholly possibly that Putins latest shenanigans are just his attempts to deal with Western aggression in Ukraine, or it’s possible that the Wests meddling has been an attempt to offset Putins growing power in the Ukraine. I only feel like I get the anti-Western perspective from consortium, and I’d really like a more holistic picture.

    1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/05/06/russian-government-agency-reveals-fraudulent-nature-of-the-crimean-referendum-results/
    2.http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/100000-yes-ballots-for-referendum-intercepted-2-347222.html

    • May 11, 2014 at 09:48

      The majority of of the Crimean population are Russians. And I think it is pretty obvious that a vast majority did not want to be a part of Ukraine. Is it so hard to believe this considering what the neo-nazis have been doing? Like I said the Banderovsty murdered 80 000 Polish peasants at the end of WWII. Were the Russians supposed to wait until it happens to them? Should they have let events like those in Odessa happen? Mind you, the elected, legitimate government in Kiev was overthrown by neo-nazi shock troops. What would you do if you were a Russian in Ukraine?

      • Mike
        May 11, 2014 at 22:09

        It’s totally reasonable, and again I do think the West had a large role in overthrowing the Ukrainian government, but to totally ignore Putins actions is ridiculous. (Not to mention intuition means nothing in the face of evidence. If there is evidence Putin interfered with the referendum we must entertain it, even if it goes against our intuition) There are a lot of other really informed commentators who, while buying the anti-Putin propaganda, do make very good points regarding Putins attempts to pull the Ukraine closer and make them a member of the trade union/dictator club. The U.S. had a role, but only a fool would set this issue in black and white. I want to know what Putin was doing that lead up to this circumstance as well, as I have no doubt he was meddling long before the coup. A holistic view isn’t ignorant, its realistic. We can not let our disgust with Western politicians and media lead us to reject everything they say wholesale. Remember the best lies are mixed with truth.

        • Yaroslav
          May 12, 2014 at 03:07

          Congratulations. Truly paranoiac thinking. We are good (or bad, it’s unimportant) guys then they MUST be bad. Because it cannot be else. Touchet.

        • May 12, 2014 at 12:29

          You want to know what Putin was doing that lead up to this circumstance. He has been subjected to demonization. That is what led to this circumstance.

    • F. G. Sanford
      May 11, 2014 at 13:24

      After reading this comment, I long for the days of Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtin on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update”. I can hear Akroyd now….”holistic approach? HOLISTIC APPROACH? Jane, you ignorant slut…”

  18. May 10, 2014 at 14:36

    Putin may have eased his rhetoric in support for the Eastern anti-junta movement because he remembers the USA’s now openly admitted massive sponsorship of Islamic jihadist terrorism for its “Afghan Trap”, which contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union:

    http://empireslayer.blogspot.com/2014/05/us-attempts-replay-of-its-afghan-trap.html

    More provocations are sure to come, as obama gives the finger to WW2 vets and supports Ukraine’s descent into Nazi fascism, with a likely repeated goal of also drawing in Russia to try to weaken or collapse it.

  19. F. G. Sanford
    May 10, 2014 at 14:11

    Looks like ‘Gleichschaltung’ is progressing smoothly in Ukraine. But why are the EUnuchs so quiet? Seems I remember Austria put David Irving in jail for this stuff. And Germany put Ernst Zundel in jail too. And Italy put Erich Priebke in jail. I can’t remember – did John Demjanyuk die before they could convict him? Speaking of Gleichschaltung, I think theres a definition for that in the Holocaust Dictionary. I guess B’nai B’rith, ADL, Yad Vashem and AIPAC lost their copy. They’re awfully quiet. Maybe they could call DC and ask if the Holocaust Museum could spare a copy. Elie Wiesel got old, Abe Foxman retired, and the whole network looks like it’s just falling apart. They just can’t spare any righteous indignation these days? Or What? Oi Vey! What you could do?

    • TheAZCowBoy
      May 13, 2014 at 21:40

      Great post!

      If the site minders ‘bother’ you – Call me, I’ll co-sign for ya! :)

  20. MarkU
    May 10, 2014 at 13:31

    For anyone still uncomfortable with the neo-nazi label.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDOWt9V2bjs#t=21

    These are the people being funded and supported by the US.

  21. Mark Kaplan
    May 10, 2014 at 13:22

    I’m reading that the pro-Russian demonstrators who retreated into the trade union headquarters in Odessa where not ‘burned alive,’ but rather executed at point-blank range, in many cases, and then partially immolated. This information is being covered up by the US State Department (GESTAPO). Please advise.

    • Mike
      May 10, 2014 at 23:13

      They was not “pro-russian”, just antifascists city ​​residents. Pregnant woman for example was just cleaning woman that worked there.

      Here is photos of corpses with analyse: ersieesist.livejournal.com/813.html

      Be carefully, very terrible photos.

  22. Herb davis
    May 10, 2014 at 12:03

    Is the government great at PR or do the German people just not want to know? I meant “American people” but, it makes my point

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