Exclusive: As much as President Obama needs President Putin’s help on Syria, Iran and other global hotspots, he has fallen in line behind U.S. hardliners in seeking to ratchet up the confrontation over Ukraine and now is trying to bring the Europeans along at the G-7, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
By Ray McGovern
The “G-7 summit” at a resort in Germany’s picturesque Bavaria region is likely to show whether “G-7” should be called “G-1-plus-6” number “one” being what President Barack Obama continues to call the “only indispensable country in the world”; the “six” being those countries that Russian President Vladimir Putin has labeled Washington’s “junior partners.”
The “G-7” consisting of Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Japan, Canada and the U.S. formerly was known as the “G-8” until Russia was booted last year after being blamed for the violent aftermath of the U.S.-sponsored coup d’etat in Kiev on Feb. 22, 2014.
Amid the crisis over Syria, President Vladimir Putin of Russia welcomed President Barack Obama to the G20 Summit at Konstantinovsky Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Sept. 5, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Last year, the West was in high dudgeon over what it deemed “Russian aggression” and what Secretary of State John Kerry termed Russia’s “Nineteenth Century behavior.” After all, the U.S. and its allies are well known for always respecting the territorial integrity of other countries regardless of the circumstances. Okay, well, maybe not.
However, at the Bavarian summit, the U.S. is hoping to rekindle some of that old outrage to get the European Union to extend economic sanctions on Russia, though they are hurting the EU’s struggling economies, too.
The main question is whether German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, who have witnessed up-front-and-personal the behavior of Washington’s neocon policymakers and their Ukrainian puppets, will summon the courage to act like adults.
Will the leaders of Germany and France continue to bend to the U.S. diktat? Or are they more likely, this time, to stand up on their own feet and resist pressure from the U.S. and its UK lackey for continued punitive sanctions against Russia?
Merkel and Hollande have had the chance personally to take the measure of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his client relationship with the U.S. At a very different kind of summit on Feb. 11-12 in Belorussia, with U.S. representatives pointedly not invited and only Poroshenko reflecting U.S. objectives, Merkel and Hollande worked out with him and Putin the so-called “Minsk II” package agreement that included a ceasefire which pretty much held until just recently and a mechanism for resolving the political confrontation between the post-coup regime in Kiev and the ethnic Russian resistance in the east.
Merkel and Hollande are no political novices. And, if they know their history, they know what a Pétain or a Quisling looks like. In any case, they cannot have failed to recognize what Poroshenko looks like and how he continues to do the bidding of the neocons running U.S. policy on Ukraine, who are hell-bent on demonizing Putin and ostracizing Russia all with little heed to the economic and longer-term security damage inflicted on “junior partners” like Germany and France.
Shortly after Minsk II was signed, the hard-line Ukrainian parliament, led by U.S. favorite Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, approved implementing legislation that was designed not to implement the political side of the agreement. A “poison pill” was inserted that, in effect, required the ethnic Russian rebels in the east to surrender before negotiations proceeded. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Ukraine’s Poison Pill for Peace Talks.”]
Sinking Peace
Poroshenko signed the law to the delight of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, the neocon operative who had hand-picked Yatsenyuk before the coup, telling U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt that “Yats is the guy” while also repudiating the European Union’s more cautious approach back then with the pithy remark, “Fuck the EU.”
Yatsenyuk remains Nuland’s go-to guy when it comes to not resolving the Ukraine crisis — and surely not restoring the pre-crisis working relationship that Obama had with Putin, a tandem that had undermined neocon dreams of more “regime change” in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iran, by instead working on diplomatic solutions to those difficult problems.
Now, with many EU economic sanctions against Russia due to expire this month, the neocons and their clients in Ukraine understood the need to again kick-start the Putin bashing and almost on cue there was a pre-summit uptick in ceasefire violations in southeastern Ukraine that the West’s mainstream news media predictably blamed on Putin.
However, the German and French leaders and of course Putin are acutely aware of which side sees advantage in wielding outrage over the increased fighting as a transparently convenient cudgel to pound Russia and demand that the U.S. “junior partners” renew the economic sanctions.
Europeans have a giant economic stake in what happens at the “G1-plus-6” summit in Bavaria. Trouble is, European press coverage of Ukraine is almost as poor as what you read in the U.S. media. Odd as it strikes me, having analyzed Soviet propaganda for decades, the U.S. fawning corporate media has recently proven to be at least as adept at spreading half-truth and lies as Pravda and Izvestia in the old Soviet days.
Because of my previous professional experience, it is hard for me to accept that President Putin’s account of what went down in Kiev since early 2014 is far more factually based than what we hear from President Obama or read in the New York Times, but it is. For instance, here are excerpts from an interview Putin gave on June 6 to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera:
“What sparked the [Ukraine] crisis? Former President Viktor Yanukovych said that he needed to think about signing Ukraine’s Association Agreement with the EU, possibly make some changes and hold consultations with Russia, Ukraine’s major trade and economic partner. In this connection and under this pretext riots broke out in Kiev. They were actively supported by both our European and American partners.
“Then a coup d’état followed a totally anti-constitutional act. … The question is: what was the coup d’état for? Why did they need to escalate the situation to a civil war? … The result that we have a coup d’état, a civil war, hundreds of lives lost, a devastated economy and social sphere, a four-year $17.5 billion loan promised to Ukraine by the IMF and complete disintegration of economic ties with Russia…
“I would like to tell you and your readers one thing. Last year, on Feb. 21, President Yanukovych and the Ukrainian opposition signed an agreement on how to proceed, how to organize political life in the country, and on the need to hold early elections.
“They should have worked to implement this agreement, especially since three European foreign ministers signed this agreement as guarantors of its implementation. If they were used merely for the sake of appearances … they should have said [after the coup the next day], ‘You know, we did not agree to a coup d’état, so we will not support you; you should go and hold elections instead.’”
However, instead of upholding the Feb. 21, 2014 agreement, the EU under strong pressure from Nuland and the Obama administration hastened to recognize the “legitimacy” of the coup regime in Kiev. The Feb.21 agreement was quickly forgotten and the new Ukrainian authorities, with Yatsenyuk elevated to prime minister and right-wing extremists given key ministries, moved to crack down on the ethnic Russians in the south and east, citizens who had been Yanukovych’s political base and who resisted the unconstitutional coup.
Perhaps now is the time for Merkel and Hollande to remember that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, in addition to Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, mediated the Feb. 21, 2014 agreement and signed it as official witnesses. An envoy from Russian President Putin, Vladimir Lukin, was also involved but did not sign as a witness.
There may be no such thing as a guilty conscience in high-stakes diplomacy. Still, what happened just one day before the Feb. 22 coup in Kiev is a matter of record.
Would it be too much to expect of Steinmeier and Fabius to remind their bosses of this shameless piece of failed diplomacy, before Merkel and Holland cave in once again to Washington’s diktat and to the neocons who could then rush off to a Bavarian Biergarten to celebrate the escalation of Cold War II?
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. During his 27 years as a CIA analyst, he was chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy branch in the 60s, and Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Western Europe in the 70s. McGovern now serves on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
Well, we now know. The G7 is doubling down on their failed sanctions policy. The Ukraine war will continue. The Cold War will heat up. The US taxpayer will continue to be – deservedly due to their stupidity – screwed.
The “G-6” will only stand up to Washington once Russian nukes are landing on Berlin, London, Paris, Rome, Ottawa, and Tokyo.
Excellent article and informative comments.
This may be the most honest, best thread going on in the world right now. Follow.it up Ray McGovern.
I find it very difficult to comprehend the Polish European Council President Donald Tusk comments in the aftermath of the “G7”: “So let me state clearly given the current situation, if any one wants to start a discussion about changing the sanctions regime, it could only be about strengthening it.” How could he say that when president Putin made the following very apologetic comments about the Eastern European Soviet-policy during his public phone-in on Russian state TV from 16th April 2015: “After WWII we tried to impose our model of development on many Eastern European countries and did it by force. We have to admit this. And there’s nothing good about it.” What does Tusk expect from the Kremlin? Shall they surrender and invite John McCain to become president of Russia before sanctions are lifted? Or perhaps that Russia dissolves itself and applies to be taken over by the Ukraine? Japan is still to make a comment like that about their atrocities conducted during WWII and Abe joined in the no-sanctions-lifting rhetoric during the “G7”. It’s just embarrassing, impolite and arrogant.
Coming from Germany, I can tell you (from German sources) that there is high friction inside the German deep-state. The very core and backbone of German economy are not the big companies like Siemens or banks like Deutsch Banke (mostly not even German owned anymore), but rather what we call Mittelstand. These are middle-sized companies – often family owned and deeply rooted in their particular region – that produce specialized and often high tech products in mechanical engineering, chemistry, pharmaceutics and energy. They provide for most of well-paying jobs in Germany and they are the ones most suffering from those idiot sanctions (makes me think that this sanction regime is an attempt by the global finance mafia to kill “real economy” in competing countries – and Germany has always been a main competitor of the Anglo-American empire economically).
Those, but also the big companies, are anything but satisfied with Merkel’s constant kowtow to Washington and London. I believe that her and Hollande traveling to Putin and brokering that Minsk-2 deal was a result of that pressure (Hollande faces the same in France). That deal meant a huge blow in the face of Washington neocons and their finance masters on Wall St and the City of London. The answer followed stat: BILD and Spiegel, Germany’s major Atlanticist propaganda slingers, started this anti-Merkel campaign about the spy affair with the BND and NSA (nothing that Snowden hadn’t already revealed, but suddenly they yelled “treason”). That brought her back into line swiftly and now look at her kowtowing to O’Bomber in Bavaria (ironically a landscape scenery that before her Hitler liked to proudly impress foreign guests with – just before world war).
I have no idea how Washington and London manage to manipulate continental European leaders to be so unbelievably stupid. I can understand that for historically paranoid Poland and the Baltics or for “too-well-off-to-think” Scandinavia and Netherlands, but Germany, France, Italy, Austria and others actually have a completely different stance at their core – not just regarding the US, but especially considering Russia. Coercion seems too far-fetched to me, even with the NSA and all, but I believe its a mix of ivory tower effect on EU-ropean politicians (they’re as close to their people as the Sun King was) and their narcissism and desperate eagerness to stay in office. After all, what Washington does best is controlling our media (German mainstream media is totally under control), the media controls what people vote and there you go (“democracy”).
I only wished that Germans, French, Russians – essentially all continental Europeans – as well as Muslims, but also Israelis and American and British citizen realized they’re all victims to an Anglo dominated very small elite group that seeks nothing short of world domination. And if they can’t have it (BRICS are lost to them and I believe they have already won over most of the globe), they will at least desperately try to swipe as much as possible – even if they have to destroy it, like they’re currently destroying both Europe and America.
If you haven’t seen the move The Downfall yet – about Hitler’s last days in his bunker in Berlin – you should, because I can’t shake off the feeling that we’re about to reach a similar state soon.
Debating the Pros and Cons of NATO in the Führerbunker
https://vimeo.com/105783995
this sanction regime is an attempt by the global finance mafia to kill “real economy†in competing countries – and Germany has always been a main competitor of the Anglo-American empire economically
BINGO!
The link I am providing is too an interesting Op-Ed by Bryan MacDonald. Mr. MacDonald reports on how Putin feels about the G7-1 meeting. Putin talks about how the G6 as they stand only represent 32% of the world’s GDP. Putin goes on to explain how if China, India, Brazil, and Russia were to be included this would represent 53% of the planets GDP. Putin also suggest how the United States, since the fall of communist in Russia, now needs a new enemy.
http://rt.com/op-edge/265651-g7-russia-putin-fear/
This other link is to an articled describing how Obama sided with Victoria Nuland over John Kerry. I will say this is most disturbing considering the optics of how the president is ignoring his own chain of command. Also, disturbing is why would Obama prefer anything Nuland has to say over what Secretary Kerry has to say…Hmmm! Makes me wonder who took the camera to the Whitehouse Christmas Party. I mean what do they have on Obama!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-07/obama-sidelines-kerry-ukraine-policy
You had it right, Juan.
see start Democracy Now broadcast — minutes 0:12-0:18
“leaders of the seven wealthy debt… democracies known as the Group of Seven, or G7”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=22&v=1P7KZ5u9DFc
Well, they didn’t waste any time gettin’ to those ‘brewskies’. Obama’s looked like a hefe weizen to me, but the condensation on that glass made it hard to tell. There was a little huggy bear-kissy face action with Angie wearing a darker lipstick than usual. She was radiant against that mountain meadow backdrop in her chartreuse suit, and it looked like nobody even busted a sweat on that chummy little volksmarch. Then, it was right down to some serious beer drinkin’. Yep, they got through all the ‘official’ stuff quick – almost like it was scripted. Back in my day, when the entire staff was coached on how to evaluate the data, we called that ‘calibration’. It was just an administrative appeasement policy to preclude the appearance of bias. Belch. So, now that we’ve allied ourselves with all those new NATO countries we have to reassure, and their spring rallies for the Galician SS and the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Association are over, Dietrich Eckart’s old stomping grounds was the perfect place to commemorate the birth of a new international norm. Everybody keeps gettin’ wrapped around the axle about whether or not the events of February 21-22 really matter. You’d almost think the truth could start WWIII…or somethin’. If I was Putin, I’d probably round up ‘Fast Eddie’ and deliver him to the American Consulate. It would be fun to watch them all tap dance around looking for excuses why they don’t really want him back. That won’t happen. Putin appears to be a man of his word.
Ach Barack, while you’re in the Heimat, trek south on the E533 to Telfs-Buchen. A few dozen glasses of Pichler 2008 Dürnsteiner Kellerberg Smaragd Grüner Veltliner will nicely warm up the Riedel for the Bilderberg Führer-Konferenz.
Putin ain’t comin’ back “now that we’ve allied ourselves with all those new NATO countries we have to reassure”
—–
At the moment it is quite ok in the periphery countries of the European Union. The standard of living is twice as lower as in other European countries, the migration of the population, as expected, is still high, and only social stratification is becoming more and more noticeable. During the first five years after joining the European Union, the population of Latvia in a situation of extreme poverty increased 1.5 times.
If the European Union has to face a new wave of the crisis and the burst of bank debt that I mentioned, it is highly possible that social tensions will explode.
In the context of such large oncoming changes in Europe, the migration of people from Africa and the Middle East to Europe might not be such a good idea, but still better than just being quickly killed by the ISIS militants.
EU is Not a Place for Newcomers
By Konrad Stachnio
http://journal-neo.org/2015/06/08/eu-is-not-a-place-for-newcomers/
The relevance of the group is unclear. It still represents the major industrialized countries but critics argue that it has now become unrepresentative of the world’s most powerful economies.
In particular, China has surpassed every economy but the United States, while Brazil has surpassed Canada and Italy (according to the IMF). Also according to the International Monetary Fund and the CIA World Factbook, India has already surpassed Canada, Italy, Germany, France, and Japan in terms of purchasing power parity, although remaining on the 10th position when it comes to nominal GDP. This has given rise to the idea of enlarging the group to include these other economically powerful nations. Other critics assert, however, that the concept of a country’s net wealth is different from the nation’s GDP.
NATO expansion and the military dimensions of this conflict in eastern Ukraine.
“Just like Israel, Ukraine has the right to defend her territory – and it will do so”
Unfortunately for Obama, lapdog Cameron has neutralized any influence he might have exerted on his master’s behalf through his desperation to clutch at the reins of power before the last election. Hollande and Merkel are going to bring up his promised referendum on EU membership if he even tries to open his mouth. It’s an ill wind.
Fully agree to this article, I wrote a similar article in our local Danish newspaper in Flensborg (which is a city at the German-Danish border with a large Danish minority) last year in September which was printed in full length because our local Danish newspaper, so far, has not been on the list of European medias to be brought in line with neo-con thinking (we probably all remember H. Res 758 from last December), they are probably too insignificant. While things in the Ukraine hang on a balance the neo-cons have obviously found new playing fields to corner Russia: Successful removal (this time a colourless revolution!!) of FIFA-president Blatter in order relocate the football (soccer) world cup 2018 from Russia to, probably, England and a new coloured revolution in Macedonia to stop the Russian gas-pipeline from being build through that very country. I am just wondering, why can’t those neo-cons and militarists not leave us alone? What have we done to them here in Europe? They must be really bored with their lives…..
Quite the contrary, I imagine. They are all excited in bringing about the Fourth Reich, and dreaming of being the Fuhrer.
I’m afraid it is the same old people you’ve seen so much of in the past Helge. See Prescott Bush…
Neocons never stop. They do not know shame and never recognize defeat. Ceasing to pursue their destructiv plans for global dominance is akin to death for them.
And slaps EU in face
http://www.globalresearch.ca/obama-sidelines-kerry-on-ukraine-policy/5454038
Obama Sidelines Kerry on Ukraine Policy
Is ‘regime change” merely a guise under which we can keep the weapons industry well fed? It doesn’t seem to accomplish much else.
It isn’t only the neocons who are involved with Ukraine. There’s the Biden connection: US Vice President Biden’s son, Kerry fundraiser take positions with Ukrainian gas firm By Patrick Martin – http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/05/15/bide-m15.html
Washington is patently evil – the new fascists. European politicians are stupid and have no comprehension of the historical shift that is taking place. A shift that is being recognised by the people of Europe. The US is in rapid and irreversible decline and becoming less and less relevant. Washington has nothing to offer except chaos to try and slow its decline.
Will the leaders of Germany and France continue to bend to the U.S. diktat?
My guess is “yes”. Whatever the neocons have on these two must be pretty good stuff for them to have hung in as long as they have. Hollande kissed off the sale of those two Mistral-class ships, and news accounts say the Russians no longer even want them. That leaves France the option of finding another buyer (which Russia can veto) or scuttling them for a total write-off.
Nuland still has a job, so that means BHO is also hanging on with the nutty policy.
It’ll surprise me if there is any change in the Ukraine situation for the good.
Hello
Do you have a link or some reference as to the developing status of the ale of the Mistral class ships?
I don’t have a single link covering the entire saga, but there is one from a few weeks back which suggests the French are desperately looking for a way out of the corner they’ve painted themselves into.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/14/inside-china-french-flotilla-in-shanghai-fuels-tal/?page=all
By an odd chance a French naval group including one of their Mistrals made a visit to China. That nation could possibly be interested in two modern and ready-made naval vessels, and the Russians probably wouldn’t object. What BHO and his merry band of neocons will say about such a deal is another matter, but their leverage may not be enough in this case if the Chinese are interested in the two ships. France is in a double bind – money and prestige – with the latter likely the larger factor.
It seems the Russians have that “veto” because the back parts of the two ships were assembled in St. Petersburg and towed to France back around 2013.
THE NEOLIBERAL ECONOMY OF EASTERN UKRAINE
Ray McGovern and Zachary Smith (in comment) make some telling
points. I agree with Z. Smith that should France and Germany
finally oppose the US juggernaut this would be a shocker.
As a basis for an analysis of the situation in the Ukraine a more
in-depth comprehension of the neoliberal program now in
effect there is needed. Michael Hudson has provided an excellent
basis for assessment in “Michael Hudson’s Blog”, reprinted in
TRUTHOUT of today under title ” UKRAINE LABOR DARES
OPERATION VULTURE” of June 7.Hudson does not only focus on
labor but also on other economic factors such as
investment (capital flight”) and related matters. As a result,
one may conclude that it is not only Vladimir Putin’s
statements which seem more accurate but in particular
the neoliberal economic policies of the neocon Ukraine
government. (Incidentally, I am fairly certain that the USA
and its allies have no intention whatsoever of injecting
large amounts of cash into neoliberal Ukraine. Both the
USA and Europe are dealing with their own serious
economic problems, issues which all would much prefer
to sweep under the rug.)
—Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
Peter, I agree with your assessment that the US and its allies have no wish, basically, to pour too much cash into the Ukrainian sinkhole they have created. Ukraine is shaping up to be the Western-Atlanticist powers’ (i.e., American, British and French) biggest strategic blunder in decades. This is the result of those powers’ arrogant but short-term maneuverings in various crises from a position of fundamental weakness in a changing world.
They are obviously no longer in a position to stop or even to alter significantly the pace of change in the “world order” (rather, disorder). If those Atlanticist powers persist in their present belligerent course, they risk being buried by history.
As dependent as the US is on the Russian Federation to soften its own ongoing crash landing as a superpower, it has nevertheless become too used to playing the game of the doomed “hostage taker” in practically every crisis. In its growing panic, it is taking millions hostage in Ukraine with the unending threat of large-scale war; just as it has the millions of innocent people in the Middle East, who are now threatened by a barbaric Wahhabi plague concoted in the boardrooms of the Israel lobby and the neocon cabal of American traitors.
Obama is maneuvering around ground facts which it creates and which it desperately needs as rear-guard actions. A policy of hostage-taking for ransom, which is the way of gangsters, has become characteristic of American relations with Russia and Iran, in partciular, without whose cooperation it faces a quick (as opposed to a slow) expulsion from the Middle East.
US strategists think they can apply the same beligerence in the South China Sea, but a much ruder awkening awaits Obama and his brilliant strategists there too, if he continues on that path. But let’s face it, they simply have no qualms about putting the security of the entire at risk or taking us hostage. And they will likely continue to countenance the illegal behavior of the race colony of Israel (which clearly has no future in the Middle East), of the terrorist Wahhabi regime of Saudi Arabia, and of a Turkey ruled by two complete flakes (Erdogan and Davutoglu) who are seriously compromising their own country’s future.
But then, the United States has never had a bad conscience either about taking us all hostage on the urgent matter of the environment, which is poised to decide everything for everyone, I suppose!
My guess is that what the neocons’ paymasters have on the German and French puppets is the Banksters’ Straitjacket, same one on BHO’s “Gold Mansacks” Administration. They hope to “shock-n-awe” the populace into submissive compliance with Bankers’ Management of the Western Empire, and sabotage BRICS somehow, which they see only as a rival “Eastern Empire” through their Geopolitics lens. How to get them to see China’s non-Geopolitical “Win-Win” policy?
It’s not a question of submitting to a diktat. They are bought and paid for. They are employees.
The events of February 21-22, 2014 must be described over and over again. It’s the only way to overcome the propaganda that has engulfed the US and Europe. Thank you, Ray, for keeping the truth front and center.
I agree Berry, and thanks to Robert Parry and Consortium News for keeping the truth front and center. Unbelievably, the truth is a rare thing these days in America.
The U.S. will Start WW #3
The Neocons and their goy stooges are certainly trying.