Ukraine

By Dr. Jonathon Levy. First published on Global Research (12 Oct 2014).

Under the influence of an intense disinformation campaign much of the world has tried its best to ignore the existence of the sovereign state of Novorossiya (Federativnoye Gosudarstvo Novorossiya). The Western media when it does mention Novorossiya applies denigrating terms like self declared state, unrecognized state and even puppet republic to describe the status of Novorossiya. In fact under international law, Novorossiya has the same status as any other member of the community nations it is a sovereign independent nation.

The "gold standard" of statehood is the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States enacted in 1933 The Montevideo Convention requires an aspiring state to have it own territory, population, a functioning government and the ability to enter into relationships with other states. Novorossiya while not currently in control of all its territory has maintained an undisputed presence in Lugansk and Donetsk backed up by a seasoned army and security forces. There is a sizeable population in Novorossiya despite ethnic cleansing attempts by the Ukraine government. There is a functioning government and diplomatic efforts are ongoing as evidenced by the Minsk process. In a just and fair world then Novorossiya would be welcomed into the fold of sovereign nations as its newest member. But the world is neither just nor fair and Novorossiya is attacked by enemies in the West and blocked on other fronts by economic sanctions and diplomatic boycotts.

Nonetheless, Novorossiya has friends. The Russian people of course overwhelmingly support this new nation and South Ossetia has welcomed Novorossiya by diplomatically recognizing it. Diplomatic recognition is an important first step towards international legitimacy since South Ossetia itself is recognized by four UN member states &nsash; Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nauru. More recognition for Novorossiya of course would be desirable but is not necessary to establish legitimacy. Somaliland for example which has been sovereign since 1991 and is recognized by no other country yet has maintained its complete independence and conducts business worldwide, issues passports and currency, and defends itself without any disapproval from the major powers. Novorossiya unlike Somaliland is an industrialized nation in Europe and not on the periphery of Africa, its relevance as an independent nation is asdsured.

But how does this relate to war crimes committed by Kiev’s political elite, Ukrainian armed forces and so called volunteer brigades of fascists? Before the brilliant tactical victory by the Novorossiya self defence forces that broke the blockade of Dontesk and Lugansk in late August 2014, it appeared as if the entire command and political infrastructure of Novorossiya might be in real danger of liquidation, summary arrest or exile if Ukrainian forces and their foreign mercenaries stormed Donetsk and Lugansk. The very real scenario of another unfair UN sponsored tribunal like the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia) which mainly persecuted Serbs for defending themselves was looming large in the vent Ukraine prevailed.

Personally, on the 4 months anniversary of the Odessa I was thinking shame on the ICC (International Criminal Court) which has ignored the snipers of the Maidan and the paid thugs who burned innocents alive in Odessa. And God forbid the UN set up show trials to demonize the defenders of Donetsk and Lugansk. As an international human rights lawyer I believed there had to be a way for justice to prevail. I wrote an article suggesting the Council of Europe, a separate organization from the biased European Union, of which both Ukraine and Russia member might be a possible sponsor of a war crimes tribunal. [See:www.globalresearch.ca/crimes-against-humanity-committed-by-kiev-regime-the-case-for-an-independent-ukrainian-war-crimes-tribunal/5399117 ]

One of the Council of Europe’s main organs is the European Court of Human Rights. I was thrilled when the day after my article was published; Foreign Minister Lavrov met with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland. However nothing concrete has emerged and under heavy pressure from the United States the Council of Europe has proven itself no friend to Novorossiya through its inaction and has seemingly become yet another loudspeaker for Kiev’s backers.

Nonetheless, a war crimes tribunal is an important weapon against fascism. Fascists thrive in dark places and times and hide their identities behind masks and hoods; the threat of exposure their identities and deeds scares them greatly. Even during the worst days of the Second World War, Himmler eased his murder of the Jews in Hungary in fear of prosecution after the war. The cowards and the cravens in Kiev, who allow their forces to target schools and mass transit in Donetsk would likely modify their behaviour if they risked indictment for war crimes from a recognized tribunal. But the Kiev regime is currently well protected by backers in United States and NATO and consequently is emboldened in its attempts to intimidate the people of Novorossiya.

Therefore Novorossiya itself as a sovereign state must seize the initiative. Just as Novorossiya and only Novorossiya defended itself from Kiev, it is only Novorossiya that can move forward with a war crimes tribunal. Evidence and testimony has been already been collected and it is abundant. Many of the perpetrators both high and low are known and the rest will be discovered. The enablers, propagandists and funders of genocide outside Ukraine are also numbered and known for the most part. There is no lack of allegations or suspects. What is lacking is the mechanism to bring them to justice.

Currently, Novorossiya is isolated. The threat of sanctions against the companies and persons of those who might help has unfortunately made the cause of justice take a back seat to economics and politics. Yet Novorossiya can act against war criminals and not just symbolically. Section 107 of the Restatement (Second) of Foreign Relations Law of the United States [1965] states that:

"An entity not recognized as a state but meeting the requirements for recognition specified in § 100 [of controlling a territory and population and engaging in foreign relations], or an entity recognized as a state whose regime is not recognized as its government, has the rights of a state under international law in relation to a non-recognizing state…"

See also Article 74 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which states that "The severance or absence of diplomatic or consular relations between two or more States does not prevent the conclusion of treaties between those States." What all this means is that under international law Novorossiya may act avail itself of all the remedies under international law as long as some other states concur.

Novorossiya can set up not just a domestic tribunal but an international one that can reach beyond its borders. This is especially important because the war criminals are for the most, except for their foot soldiers, not on the borders of Novorossiya or inside the territory of Novorossiya. The criminals are in Kharkiv, Denepetrovsk, Kiev, Lviv, Warsaw and beyond. International reach is the key. When the oppressed people of Ukraine finally wake out of their slumber and throw out the rascals in the Kiev government and cleanse the country of Nazis and corrupt oligarchs, the criminals will find a soft landing in Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada just as many blood stained Banderists did after Second World War. The Vatican, MI6, and the predecessor to the CIA did all they could to help certain useful Nazis and their collaborators escape justice via the ratlines and find a new life as assets abroad. A repeat of this travesty of justice must be avoided as these rotten apples have a way of resurfacing later with their message of hate and ultra nationalism.

It is not enough to want justice for crimes. It is not enough to investigate war crimes. The guilty must eventually be chased down and brought back to face justice for these efforts to be credible. The task is even more daunting when most of the major powers in the world are on the side of the killers. Even the international organizations tasked with enforcing human rights, the ICC, the UN, and Council of Europe have abandoned their responsibilities to the people of Novorossiya. Is a war crimes tribunal therefore a mission impossible?

A Modest Proposal

It is impressive that even in the midst of current battle for the Donetsk Airport brave people are collecting and documenting evidence of war crimes committed in the Donbass. The news media and human right activists from Russia have been particularly helpful. But who should be the recipient of the evidence? If the investigation of the downed Malaysian jetliner flight MH-17 is an indication of the sort of justice that can be found outside Novorossiya, I have serious doubts.. Evidence has been destroyed by the Ukrainian government, unfounded allegations of mass murder of innocent passenger of flight MH-17 levelled against not only Novorossiya but the Russian government which has been defamed by the press and politicians from Kiev to Kansas City. The Dutch team who are the lead investigators of the plane crash and from a NATO member state are susceptible to subtle and not so subtle pressure. Everyone has been kept in the dark through a lack of transparency throughout the process.

On the other hand, why not turn the evidence over to a friendly country like Russia? That also creates a problem. Sanctions will flow like wine at a wedding and any results denied and discredited by a thousand naysayers in the Western press. I suggest Novorossiya must act on its own initiative against war criminals however not just domestically but internationally too. As pointed out above, Novorossiya as a sovereign state may engage in foreign relations. It can sue in the courts of other countries because it is an independent sovereign state under international law and its agencies are legal entities. Novorossiya may file cases with international tribunals. However, it is also blocked from membership in the major international organizations and the existing tribunals seem heavily prejudiced against Novorossiya.

Novorossiya therefore must set up its very own International Tribunal and give it independence to act in lieu of the UN, ICC, and Council of Europe. This bold act will result in recognition of the tribunal even when states may still shy away from recognizing Novorossiya itself. Progressive states will recognize the tribunal and its power to seize property and extradite criminals. Perhaps a third party country host can be found too.

But how can this be accomplished and who will do the work when the existence of Novorossiya still hangs in the balance? Much of the field investigation is being done already. However, the most important element is who will staff the Tribunal? Yes people from Novorossiya and Russia but also lawyers and jurists from around the world who seek to advance the cause of justice should be encouraged to participate. It is international participation and support that will give the proposed tribunal substance even as the UN and ICC have failed the people of Donetsk and Lugansk.

We live in a virtual world. While court rooms are still necessary, there exists the technology to supplement traditional methods of justice. Judges often conduct hearings via Internet while the accused are held elsewhere. Jurists and attorneys from around the world could act as judges, advocates for the defence and prosecution. International lawyers commissioned by Novorossiya could file actions to seize assets of blood stained Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians with bank accounts and property outside Ukraine for the benefit of the victims and their families. There are dozens of international lawyers who would help and they in turn know dozens more.

The war criminals are smug in the thought they have powerful friends outside Ukraine who will help them escape justice if their plans to subvert Ukraine and destroy the Donbass ultimately fail. Let us unleash a volunteer corps of a thousand lawyers linked by technology worldwide and undeterred by their governments. Novorossiya must give to them the commission to hunt down the war criminals and seize their assets. Give us lawyers the right to sue the merchants of death and destruction, the purveyors of deadly agitprop, and even the old networks of Nazis who are behind the Banderists.

Lawfare is a strategy of using law as a substitute for traditional military means to achieve an operational objective &nsash; in this case bring war criminals to justice and deter future crimes. The present day legal hurdles are surprisingly low and the proliferation of potential forums adds to the attractiveness of lawfare. Novorossiya can demonstrate standing and jurisdiction and is especially well situated to take advantage of lawfare. Legal action can be accomplished without loss of life or large scale deployment of assets. The only requirements are potential standing and a knowledgeable legal representative. A court filing often generates as much or more publicity than a military skirmish.

The world and its organizations have largely ignored, covered up or even condoned the war crimes committed against the people of Novorossiya. The backers of fascism think they can act with impunity just as they did after the Second World War when Nazi war criminals used the Vatican run "ratline" to escape to South America and Spain. But the world has changed, technology and access to information has levelled the playing field. Novorossiya has demonstrated it can prevail against great odds on the battle field, now let the members of the international community who abhor war crimes use their skills and technology to make the seemingly impossible happen &nsash; to bring Kiev’s war criminals to justice.

The author, Dr. Jonathan Levy, is an attorney member of the International Criminal Bar and holds a PhD in Political Science. He may be reached at info [ AT ] brimstoneandcompany.com

By Anatoly Kucherena (8 Oct 2014). Republished from Global Research

Anatoly Kucherena is a Russian lawyer and professor who has counselled Edward Snowden, the US computer professional who leaked classified information and sought asylum in Russia.

Increasingly, I am receiving requests for legal support from Russian and Western individuals and businesses who are suffering from the economic sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, and from Russia’s counter-measures. The legality of these sanctions is dubious at best. They flagrantly violate the free trade principles enshrined in the World Trade Organisation treaty and a host of other agreements. But putting legal arguments aside, politicians on all sides would do well to study the human cost of sanctions, and genuinely consider alternatives to this self-defeating form of economic warfare.

Economic sanctions rarely achieve anything, even in geopolitical terms. They merely fuel suspicion and hostility between states and peoples. Since the West first imposed sanctions this spring, Russia’s leadership has only further dug in its heels. It is telling that even President Obama and other leading American politicians have, on more than one occasion, admitted that sanctions have had no real impact on the Kremlin’s stance on Ukraine.

Yet the West pursues this strategy with palpable glee, goading an already angered Vladimir Putin.

The most recent round of Western sanctions defies any logic whatsoever, coinciding with the start of the ceasefire and the beginnings of a political settlement between the warring parties in Ukraine. In Russian eyes, this merely proves the West was never interested in peace. It also undermines those in Kiev arguing for political solutions.

Why does this madness continue?

The idea that Russians, feeling an ever-increasing amount of economic pain, would eventually take to the streets and force a change in the Kremlin’s policy is, of course, a laughable pipe dream. It fundamentally misreads the psychological impact of sanctions and the patriotic resolve they create. Never have Putin’s approval ratings reached greater stratospheric levels than today. Even his support among Russia’s middle classes and the highly educated is on the rise, surely not something Washington’s foreign policy hawks had hoped to achieve.

What galls me most, however, is that those who are paying the price for such myopia have no role in the conflict at all. As we Russians say, they are “guilty without guilt”. I find this very hard to stomach. Sanctions are beginning to bite. But it is ordinary businesses and citizens – both European and Russian – who are bleeding, not the Moscow decision-makers who the West claims to be targeting. Contracts are being cancelled, joint ventures shelved, investments cut. Yet which Greek farmer or German manufacturer ever asked or voted for sanctions?

The great irony is that sanctions are a boon for Russian domestic producers, punishing precisely those foreign companies who invested in Russia, having been helped and encouraged to do so by their own governments. Now they are being left to rot, and those same governments are to blame.

I know, of course, that politics is a fickle game, often without recourse to justice. I am not naive. But economic sanctions offend the most basic principles of justice and the rule of law. They target civilian populations to overpower an opponent in a geopolitical conflict. In economic warfare, this makes sanctions the moral equivalent of the London Blitz, the deliberate bombing of residential areas to force an enemy to his knees.

People facing ruin ask me what I can do for them. The only avenue for legal redress is to file suits in national, European or international courts against the governments who initiated the sanctions. But this would be expensive and is unlikely to lead to a quick and satisfactory solution. Even if the courts ruled favourably – and governments abided by the ruling – how likely is it they would also indemnify business losses?

The EU provides compensation to farmers now barred from selling produce to Russia. But while this may placate them for now, asking EU taxpayers to pay farmers for destroying produce that would otherwise be sold to Russians remains a hare-brained policy. It cannot but fail in the long term.

As Russia inevitably lines up a salvo of counter-measures, the West should wake up and stop playing tit-for-tat with sanctions. Not only do sanctions destroy jobs and businesses, they also ride roughshod over the basic rights of individuals and companies. They make a mockery of the age-old principle of no punishment without crime. But above all, the use of sanctions erodes the values of equality, fairness and due process that Ukrainians appear to be fighting (and dying) for.

Video inside. Satire about double standards in international law and democracy, fake evidence, such as Ukraine 'proving' a Russian invasion, and Ukrainian media stories faking looting of a toy and a wedding ring. Relevant to Australia where all these wrongs have been promoted by our press, our primeminster and our minister for foreign affairs. This skit appeared in a regular program on mainstream German TV, amazingly. Can't imagine any real political criticism in Australian mainstream comedy these days.

Click on the small rectangular icon that has two horizontal lines in it to the right bottom of the video to get the English subtitles.

Republished from article of 1 Oct 2014 on Global Research.

Editorial introduction: A search of Google News with the search term "Ukraine" found no mention of this gruesome discovery in the first 4 pages of search results except for the following: Facts distorted as Moscow claims hundreds of bodies discovered in Ukrainian 'mass graves' (1/10/14) by the Telegraph's Moscow correspondent, Tom Parfitt and War Crime Inquiries and a Toppled Lenin as Ukraine Ceasefire Violations Continue (30/9/14) by Harriet Salem.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that more than 400 bodies have been discovered in mass graves near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, in what he described as "horrific" evidence that pointed to a war crime.

"This is obviously a war crime. Already more than 400 bodies have been discovered in [mass] graves outside Donetsk and we hope that western capitals will not hush up these facts [because] they're horrific," Lavrov said, adding there was an apparent blackout of the incident in Western mass media.

Last week, several mass graves filled with bodies of massacred civilians and independence supporters, killed execution-style, were unearthed 35 kilometers northeast of Donetsk.

"I expect [to hear] a clear, unbiased and responsible response from international organizations. OSCE is already working at the scene. We will make the truth known and, of course, make sure that the justice is done," Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference.

Speaking at PACE's fall session in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Russian lawmaker Olga Kazakova called on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to keep an eye on the investigation into this horrendous massacre.

The independence supporters of southeastern Ukraine believe that the civilians were murdered by the National Guard fighters who had stayed in the village of Nyzhnia Krynka, near the city of Donetsk, where the graves had been discovered, since April. Ukrainian authorities later denied this accusation, saying that not a single National Guard fighter had been in the area, adding however that some other Ukrainian units were deployed there at the time.

Lavrov commented on Kiev's recent claim to conduct an open and impartial probe of the alleged massacre as soon as it regained control of the area, saying it was pure hypocrisy because "these crimes were obviously perpetrated there at the time when Ukrainian security forces were in control of this region."

For example, the Ukraine is geopolitically important for many reasons; including its value as a food bowl and as an export route for oil and gas. The Ukrainian people are secondary to the interests of the foreign powers that seek to influence or control the territory and its resources.

The current turmoil in Syria and Iraq has been preceded by French and British military intervention respectively in the early 20th century, combined with imposition of new territorial borders. This was arguably an autocratic foreign assault on the region. People subject to somewhat arbitrarily defined borders have different histories and different vested interests little understood by the foreign autocrats. The same was true of the foreign assault on Australian Aborigines when their territory was first invaded in 1788. Have a look at any capital city in Australia. There are "Boundary Roads" everywhere.

Armchair experts sit around hypothesising about what should or should not be done, based on their subjective versions of humanitarian and strategic principles. Many know little of the history of the regions they discuss and use terms such as "democracy" and "territorial borders" to define right and wrong.

In Australia in particular, neither the Government nor the people have the ethical credentials to justify interference in geographically remote regional conflicts.

Australia is a country founded upon the principles of invasion and dispossession of "indigenous" peoples. That foundation remains the cornerstone of government policy to this day. It is an autocratically imposed policy that has nothing to do with democracy. This "invasion" does not prioritise humanitarian intake. In its current form it focuses on attempting to cherry pick healthy and relatively wealthy, educated people for their alleged "financial" value; at the expense of refugees.

Government media seeks to justify a government policy of invasion and dispossession in the interests of something it vaguely refers to as economic growth, although the economic impacts of extreme population growth are not investigated in the public interest. Politicians control decision-making on what lines of public inquiry deserve due diligence. Mass migration has always been the "robot-mode" status quo in Australia and politicians don't even question a policy that many other countries would regard as outlandish.

Between 1788 and 1900 Australia's population rose to 3.7 million. From 2002 to 2014 it rose another 3.8 million. This invasion is accelerating. This is extreme, unsustainable, Government imposed, amoral, financially motivated "developed world" population growth.

The ABC is not governed by any laws that can be enforced to hold it accountable for failing to comply with its Statutory Duties of impartiality and integrity. ABC agendas appear set by politicians rather than by analytical thinking.

The ABC's approach to the climate change debate has been the ABC–branded Carbon Tax debate, analogous to a doctor advising a patient that the only therapy for treatment of obesity is exercise (economic incentives to reduce carbon emissions), while encouraging the patient to eat fattening food (extreme population growth driving extreme emissions growth) from a company the doctor owns. The doctor also deliberately conceals the fact that eating is the primary cause of explosive weight gain.

So we have a lawless, government sanctioned, propaganda machine purporting to act as a humane and democratic voice of the people, while failing to address some of the most pressing moral and environmental issues in Australia. Population growth stands out as an issue of critical importance.

The Challenger Space Shuttle disaster occurred in similar circumstances. The Solid Booster Rocket seals failed causing a catastrophic explosion because NASA approved the launch at an unacceptably low ambient temperature in full knowledge of the risk. The 7 astronauts killed in the explosion were not informed of the risk.

NASA abused its position of dominance by prioritising a political desire for launch over competent risk management.

The ABC is a news and current affairs broadcaster. It has limited, if any, expertise in the sciences or in risk management. Yet it uses opinionated bias as a basis for concealing critically important information from public policy debate. Whether that bias is driven by Government or the ABC itself is immaterial. It is clearly contrary to the public interest and it is defined as unlawful, if not criminal, by the ABC Code of Practice.

The relationship between the adverse humanitarian, social, environmental and economic outcomes of population growth and the rate of that population growth is off the ABC agenda.

Original Source of article posted on 18 Sep 2014 by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:17 am : Russian Union Of Engineers Accuses Ukraine Air Force In MH17 Crash. 22 Sep 2014: Malaysian Flight MH17 Crash Analysis, by The Russian Union of Engineers published on Global Research.
The full original Russian language report (2.5MB) and its English translation (2.8MB) can be downloaded as Microsoft Word documents here. The same full English translation, but in an open-source ODT format, which can be read by either of the free LibreOffice or Open Office programs is attached to this page here (2.7MB).
See also: New findings confirm Malaysian Airlines MH17 was shot down by Ukraine fighter-jet (5/8/14).

The Russian Union of Engineers has issued a report on what happened to flight MH17. The report has now been translated. It doesn’t leave open the option that MH17 was downed by a ground-to-air missile, something all other sources have so far labeled the most likely explanation for what happened on July 17. The Russian Union of Engineers instead claims the plane was attacked by a fighter jet, and that, since the east Ukraine rebels have no such jets, and multiple sides have confirmed there were no Russian jets in the vicinity, this jet had to have been Ukrainian air force.

At the very least the report should be broadly discussed in western media, and western experts asked to refute what parts of it they find fault with.

Here is the conclusion of the report:

Based on the above, we can draw the following conclusions:

9.1. In relation to the circumstances of the crash of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 jet.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was carrying out the 17.07.2014 flight Amsterdam – Kuala Lumpur in the flight corridor established by the dispatchers. At the same time, it is likely that manual control was turned off and the plane was on autopilot, flying in a horizontal plane along the route laid out and adjusted by air traffic controllers on the Ukrainian side.

At 17.17-17.20, the Boeing 777 was in Ukrainian airspace near the city of Donetsk at the height of 10100 m. An unidentified combat aircraft (presumably a Su-25 or MiG -29), which was a tier below, on a collision course, in the cloud layer, sharply gained altitude and suddenly appeared out of the clouds in front of the civilian aircraft and opened fire on the cockpit, firing from a 30 mm caliber cannon or smaller. The pilot of a fighter jet can do this while in “free hunting” mode (using onboard radar) or with the help of navigational guidance using airspace situation data from ground-based radar.

As a result of multiple hits from shells there was damage to the cockpit, which suddenly depressurized, resulting in instant death for the crew due to mechanical influences and decompression. The attack was sudden and lasted a fraction of a second; in such circumstances the crew could not sound any alarm as the flight had been proceeding in regular mode and no attack was expected.

Since neither the engines or hydraulic system, nor other devices required for the continuation of the flight were out of commission, the Boeing 777, running on autopilot (as is standard), continued on its horizontal flight path, perhaps gradually losing altitude.

The pilot of the unidentified combat aircraft maneuvered to the rear of the Boeing 777. After that, the unidentified plane remained on the combat course, the pilot provided a target tracking aircraft equipment, took aim and launched his R-60 or R-73 missiles.

The result was a loss of cabin pressure, the aircraft control system was destroyed, the autopilot failed, the aircraft lost the ability to maintain its level flight path, and went into a tailspin. The resulting overload led to mechanical failure of the airframe at high altitudes.

The aircraft, according to the information available from the flight recorders, broke up in the air, but this is possible only in the case of a vertical fall from a height of ten thousand meters, which can only happen when the maximum permissible overload is exceeded. One reason for stalling and going into a tailspin is the inability of the crew to control the aircraft as a result an emergency in the cockpit and the subsequent instantaneous depressurization of the cockpit and the passenger cabin. The aircraft broke up at a high altitude, which explains the fact that the wreckage was scattered over the territory of more than 15 square kilometers.

9.2. In relation to the party responsible for the death of 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

On 17.07.2014, the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk National Republic had no relevant combat aircraft capable of destroying an aerial target similar to the Boeing 777, nor the necessary airfield network, nor the means of radar detection, targeting and tracking.

No combat aircraft of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation violated the airspace of Ukraine, which the Ukrainian side confirms as well as third parties who conduct space surveillance over the situation in Ukraine and in its airspace.

To establish the truth, it is necessary to objectively and impartially investigate all the circumstances of the destruction of the Malaysian Boeing 777, to interview the thousands of citizens who may have seen something. Naturally, experienced professionals should conduct the surveys. To ask the right questions – this is a rigorous science, and a great art in advancing the truth. Important information is contained in the wreckage of the aircraft and the remains of the dead, but this precise information is easy to destroy, distort and hide. And there are plenty of parties interested in concealing the real facts.

As confirmation, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia signed an agreement on August 8 providing that information about the crash investigation would be disclosed only upon the consent of all parties. “The investigation is ongoing, [utilizing] expertise and other investigative actions” – announced the Spokesman of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuri Boychenko. “The results will be announced at the conclusion of the investigation and with the consent of all parties that have executed the agreement.”

Procrastination and the evasion of an objective investigation by all sides, with the participation of prestigious international organizations, raises doubts whether the concerned parties will make public the true circumstances surrounding the crash of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.

Dear Russian friends,

I am dismayed by the pretences and actions of the Australian government in relation to the shooting down of MH17 by Ukraine, as well as dumbfounded by the complete failure of any media organisation or public commentator to question or contradict this mendacity.

I have been trying to support the statements and actions of Russia and its various ministers by writing to the ABC as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs, since the start of the Syrian ‘campaign’. It must be said I have had little or no success, even in getting a response.

Last year I had the great fortune to accompany Mother Agnes Mariam on a visit to Malcolm Fraser, former PM. I can assure you that he at least is very well aware of just how criminal and dangerous the leaderships of NATO countries and Australia have become; as someone with ‘inside knowledge’, as well as experience in Serbia in the ‘90s he suffers no illusions about US intentions and global dominance, or Australia’s submission to it. Yet remarkably he is a lone voice.
With today’s news about the Dutch investigators’ preliminary report being quickly passed over, the situation has become intolerable. Remarkably this report actually supported evidence for Russian observations and elsewhere that MH17 was shot down by a hail of bullets from a Ukrainian fighter jet – ‘a large number of high-energy objects’. No other conclusion is possible from the available physical evidence – photos of the cockpit damage. But so corrupt and stupified are our media organisations that they allow the lies of the leaders to go unchallenged.

I write to you just to show that there is a least one person in Australia who has no doubt about both Russia’s innocence and the Novorussians’ innocence of this terrorist act; there is little more I can do, beyond writing to my local newspaper ( national papers will not publish this viewpoint), but I nevertheless would like to offer my support in any way that you would consider useful. I believe that there must be processes by which such issues can be pursued with government, even though at all levels people do not accept the case we must make.

Lastly I should just note a comment in an article today in the Sydney morning herald. Talking of the MH17 report it quoted a Pravda editorial:

“Russia is unlikely to accept the report if it suggests they were involved in shooting down the plane.

A recent editorial in Pravda said

"Most likely the story of the downed plane will be hidden away carefully … it is clear that neither the [separatist] militia nor Russia were involved in the terrible disaster.

"The only question is whether Ukraine incidentally shot down the Boeing or it was a carefully planned but ineptly executed act of provocation."

The established narrative in Russian state-controlled media is that the plane was shot at by Ukrainian forces, either by a jet fighter or ground-based missile.”

This clearly articulates my own viewpoint – that the only thing we DON’T know is the degree of assistance from Western agencies to Kiev in committing this act – one which so favoured the plans of NATO and US aggressors who put the Kiev ‘government’ in place.

I hope that you will pass this message to the appropriate people.

kind regards,

David Macilwain,

Sandy Creek, Victoria, Australia 3695

This article of 4 Sep 2014 by Binoy Kampmark has been republished from Global Research. See also, of great importance, recent transcript and press conference from East Ukraine which has been suppressed in western press.

Barking up the wrong tree has been a specialty of the Australian diplomatic corps for some years. Piddling on that same tree in some misguided understanding of ownership has been another. The announcement by Prime Minister Tony Abbott – that an interim embassy mission will open in Kiev, and that military advisors will be sent – is one such example. Here, the forest, with its trees, is truly far and distant.

An argument making the rounds is that Australia is showing its "middling" power status in making such gestures. The idea of Australian middle power status is articulated with such insistence you might actually believe it. In truth, it struggles to make the grade, wheezing its way along the track of competition in the hope that someone might notice. That someone, of course, is the United States. Other powers, such as Russia and China, are to be regarded as studied villains of the peace (current and future), notwithstanding the trade being done with them.

The other dreary remark made is that Australian occupation of a seat on the Security Council, or its presence in such forums as the G20 has actually made a difference to both muscle and influence. If you are looking for the role of honest broker, the bridge between dissenting parties, the answer is no. (Abbott's suggestion that Russia is essentially motivated by roguishness, funding and equipping murderers hardly suggests such a line.) If you are looking for another seat occupied for reasons of clerking duties, that is quite another matter. It that area, Australia excels.

So, into the Ukraine she goes, with promises of "non-lethal" action as a form of payment for "its support and friendship."₁ Australians perished in the deadly affair, but Abbott is truly misreading the picture if he thinks Australian personnel are needed as a gesture of assistance. "Australia is truly grateful for Ukraine's help in recovering the victims and bringing home our dead."

For one, the Ukrainian authorities did not cover themselves with glory in that affair. There were denials and counter-denials that they did have the necessary weapons system that might have been used in the downing of the flight. There was the practice of charging flights running routes through eastern Ukraine when there should have been a steadfast prohibition of the use of the corridor.

Ultimately, under international aviation law, Ukraine was responsible for activities taking place on the ground, irrespective of whether it was being contested by rebel separatists. None of this matters for a historically disinterested Abbott, who had the answers in advance of any investigation into circumstances around the event. "We are also grateful for Ukraine's strong support for the criminal investigation into this particular atrocity and in their determination which we share to bring the perpetrators to justice." The issues are already determined: rebel fighters did it, with Russian help.

The link with Moscow is drawn with unenviable certainty, justifying the need for Australia to rally to the Ukrainian cause with schoolboy conviction. "So, Madam Speaker, the government and I believe the Australian people, would like to repay Ukraine for its support and friendship, especially as Ukraine continues to be subject to active destabilisation and indeed outright invasion from Russia, a country it has never sought to harm."

Sanctions are being reiterated, and the uranium supply line is being cut. "There will be no uranium sales to Russia until further notice and Australia has no intention of selling uranium to a country which is so obviously in breach of international law as Russia currently is."

Such talk takes place in a vacuum of history. Russian interests in Russian nationals – very much part of the nationality principle at international law – is not even a footnote in conversation. Ukrainian agitation, Russian response and its very mixed relationship with the separatists, and the interference mounted by foreign powers, have all done their part in making a dangerous situation incendiary.

Particularly troubling are the ever pressing problems posed by a burgeoning NATO alliance. Formed in 1949 to combat the Soviet Union during the Cold War, it has over extended its remit. Foreign wars and engagements keep its soldiers busy. With 28 members, it is one of the largest military alliances in history, boasting a combined expenditure of 1 trillion dollars a year. Its presence is a reminder of continuing US dominance on the European continent. An olive branch, even if a somewhat bare one, is being held out to Kiev by Washington – the door is open for those on our side.

Former US ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker₂ argued for belligerence to "prove [Putin] wrong." The suggested recipe is a military one: "For the sake of Ukraine's integrity as a country, for future European security and for NATO's credibility as a defence organization, NATO leaders need to make some tough decisions and push back militarily against Russia."

The dangers posed by this militarisation, along with Canberra's desire to be more relevantly engaged with NATO activities, has seen that worst tendency in Australian foreign policy realise itself: the longing to be noticed. Many a year has passed since an Australian foreign minister realised that the dictates of geography come first. The political dross, dressed up as strategic wisdom, should come a distant second.

Notes

1. ↑ Abbott government considering 'non-lethal' military assistance in Ukraine at http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-government-considering-nonlethal-military-assistance-in-ukraine-20140903-10bwj7.html

2. ↑ NATO must stand up to Putin's threat to invade Ukraine at http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nato-must-stand-up-to-putins-threat-to-invade-ukraine/2014/08/28/6097f77e-2ee6-11e4-994d-202962a9150c_story.html

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark [ AT ] gmail.com

by Dmitri Orlov. Previously published by Paul Craig Roberts, Information Clearing House, DarkPolitricks and Conspiracy Analyst on 1 Sep 2014. Also by Dmitri Orlov: Orlov on the Ukraine (29/8/14), Saving Face (29/7/14), Collapse and Systemic Failure at All Levels Coming to U.S. (19/3/14), Collapse and Systemic Failure at All Levels Coming to U.S. (19/3/14), Ukraine-Crimea Update and U.S. on Suicide Watch (19/3/14), Dmitri Orlov highlights the Crimean "crisis" and the Western bias (12/3/14), On western engineered fascist coup d'etat in Ukraine: "U.S. citizens are being systematically conditioned to hate Vladimir Putin" (2/3/14) This article includes embedded Youtube video of the Donetsk Republic Council of Ministers, which is also included in the article The Donetsk National Republic states the facts about its conflict with the Kiev regime (31/8/14) on candobetter.

"If you think that Russia is sending its regular units here, then let me tell you something. If Russia was sending its regular troops, we wouldn't be talking about the battle of Elenovka here. We'd be talking about a battle of Kiev or a possible capture of Lvov."

Alexander V. Zakharchenko, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk National Republic
addresses press conference, answers questions

Lvov is in western Ukraine near the border with Poland. In other words, if Russia invades Ukraine, the fighting will move from the east side to the west side of the country.

As I observed in a recent column, the fantasy spread by Western governments and their media whores that 1,000 Russian troops have invaded Ukraine is the height of absurdity. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/08/28/washington-piles-lie-upon-lie-paul-craig-roberts/

Despite the absurdity of the claim, some of the Western tabloids, which is what all Western newspapers now are, have declared these 1,000 troops to be a "full-scale invasion." All of this nonsense is a buildup to the upcoming NATO conference in Wales. Disinformation is being used to create hysteria and justification for a NATO military buildup on Russia's borders that could easily result in the final war. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39543.htm

Ask yourselves this question: Is the entirely of the Western media so ignorant and incompetent not to realize that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would not consist of 1,000 troops (the evidence of which no one can find), or is the entirety of the Western media simply willingly serving as a propaganda ministry for Washington's warmongers, as the Western media did for George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq based on fabricated evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. There are only two conclusions that can be reached about the Western media: Either it is completely stupid or completely corrupt.

Dmitry Orlov tells you what a Russian invasion of Ukraine would look like:

How Can You Tell Whether Russia Has Invaded Ukraine?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39547.htm

Footnote[s]

₁

Updates 1 Sep 2014: republished on Global Research as The Donetsk National Republic (DNR); "This is a Fight for Independence Now; English Transcript previously published separately here added as appendix; 7 Sep 2014: this press conference was also published in English and other translations on The Vineyard of the Saker on 26 August.

Alexander Zakharenko, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk National Republic

The included article, with an embedded video has been adapted from The West, the greatest cause of War in human history, stands stripped of all Legitimacy (30/8/14) by Paul Craig Roberts. It has also been republished on PressTV and Dissident Voice. Behind the avalanche of fabricated Western newsmedia reports of direct intervention by the Russian Army Ukraine conflict which started on 28 August1 the Ukraine regime has suffered a catastrophic military defeat at the hands of the rebels.2 In a Press Conference of 24 August 2014, Alexander Zakharchenko, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk National Republic described the victory of the Donetsk People's self-defence forces and their consequent decision to formally announce the the Donetsk National Republic to the world.

[If the subtitles are not in your language, click on the small white rectangle at the base of the video; this will give you a window to select another language.]

The video is also embedded at http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/08/watershed-press-conference-by-top.html

You might have to put the video on full screen to read the subtitles.

Whilst representatives of all the newsmedia including the Australian newsmedia were given the chance to attend this press conference, this was not reported on any of the Australian newsmedia. None of the articles listed in Washington and mainstream media pile lie upon lie about Ukraine and Russia (30/8/14) make any reference tothis press conference. A broader search, made just now, failed to find any reference to it in the Australian mainstream media.

by Paul Craig Roberts

The Donetsk National Republic States The Facts

"Every time you come to Russia with a sword, from a sword you will perish."

The former Russian provinces, which Soviet party leaders carelessly attached to Ukraine at a time when it seemed to make no difference as all were part of the Soviet Union, are now independent republics with their own governments. The West pretends that this isn't so, because Washington and its puppet capitals don't recognize the independence of formerly captive peoples. But the West's opinion no longer counts.

In the last couple of days the newly formed military units of the Donetsk National Republic have defeated and surrounded large portions of the remaining Ukrainian military. Russian President Putin asked the Donetsk Republic to allow the defeated Ukrainians to return home to their wives and mothers. The Donetsk Republic agreed to Putin's mercy request as long as the Ukrainians left their weapons behind. The Donetsk Republic is short on weapons as, contrary to Western lies, the Donetsk Republic is not supplied with weapons by Russia.

Washington's puppet government in Kiev declined the mercy extended to its troops and said they had to fight to the death. Shades of Hitler at Stalingrad. Western Ukraine has remained the repository of Nazism since 1945, and it is Western Ukraine with which Washington is allied against freedom and democracy.

You will be impressed with the ease with which Zakhar­chenko handles the ignorant and corrupt Western media represent­atives

Thanks to The Saker we are provided with a press conference with English subtitles that Alexander Zakharchenko, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk National Republic, held with media. Present are Russian and Western press.

You will be impressed with the ease with which Zakharchenko handles the ignorant and corrupt Western media representatives, and your sides will burst with laughter at his reply to the media question: "Are there there regular Russian military units fighting on your side?"

The British and American journalists were the most stupid, as we already knew. You will die laughing at the response to the question, "why did you parade the prisoners."

This person Zakharchenko puts to shame every politician in the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, all of the puppet politicians of the American Empire. If only the United States had people of the character and quality of Zakharchenko.

Now that Zakharchenko has revealed himself and made mincemeat of the stupid Western media, he will be demonized and misrepresented. So use this opportunity to see for yourself who has integrity and character. Hint: no one in political and media circles in the West.

Appendix: English transcript of Donetsk National Republic press conference

(See also article "The Donetsk National Republic states the facts about its conflict with the Kiev regime".)
In this video Alexander V. Zakharchenko, who is now Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Donetsk National Republic, declares, "Let me clarify. No federalization can be possible today. There is time for everything. We asked for the federalization 3 months ago, then we asked for a permission to hold a referendum. That time has passed, now we want to live independently. The Ukrainian authorities are using police methods to subdue us: they arrest us, cordon us off, and conduct anti-terrorist operations against us. By now so much blood has been spilled and so many people have died for freedom. How can we speak of federalization?"

0:00
[Alexander V. Zakharchenko, Chairman of The Council of Ministers of The Donetsk National Republic] As you all know, a week ago we announced our plan to attack. We started it yesterday.
0:11
Until yesterday we have been preparing for the attack, examining trophy equipment, arming the crews, and testing communication between different military formations.
0:26
I can now proudly announce that we formed 2 tank battalions, 2 full artillery brigades, 2 Grad divisons,
0:36
1 mechanized infantry battalion, 3 infantry brigades and a special purpose assault airborne brigade.
0:44
All these units have now received Army numbers.
0:49
The communication system have been regularized and 2 field hospitals and 1 maintenance brigade have been formed.
0:58
We have begun testing all these units in battle. Yesterday we began an attack on Amvrosiyivka enemy group.
1:08
According to our data, in the course of the offensive, the enemy lost about 45 units of military equipment, we captured 14 units of military equipment, and about 1,200 people were killed and wounded.
1:23
There are two cauldrons at the moment, in Amvrosiivka and Starobeshevskaia.
1:33
We started to advance at 4 a.m. on Elenovka, where the fighting is still going on.
1:39
2/3 of Elenovka is under our control. We hope to clean up these areas before the night. However, the offensive will not end at that.
1:50
We will continue until we free all populated areas in the Donetsk National Republic.
2:01
The army is ready and we have the support of the people. There will be more and more prisoners.
2:12
Now regarding the Parade. I deliberately put the trophy equipment on display on Lenin Square.
2:18
Everything that will come to us from Kiev, will end up in the same condition sooner or later.
2:25
The more will come, the easier it’ll be for us to restore our economy.
2:30
As you may know, metallurgy is one of our main industries.
2:41
I would like to thank the Minister of Defense for the close cooperation, understanding of the challenges facing the government, for his unlimited capacity to work and for his personal courage.
3:01
[Vladimir Kononov, Defense Minister of DNR] Dear journalists, TV audience, I would like to appeal to you.
3:13
The Ukrainian aggressive occupation army came on our soil. They brought a nationalistic ideology that has no respect for human life.
3:35
Their only interest is in our territory and resources.
3:45
They launch their vile attacks on residential civilian complexes with grandmothers, women, and children.
3:55
Just yesterday they fired on a residential quarter and killed a 9-year-old girl. There was no militia there.
4:07
They use sneaky tactics of mobile mortar groups that come to a place, shoot at it for 10-20 minutes, and quickly leave.
4:23
We already have all data on the movements of these mortar groups. They will be neutralized soon.
4:35
Now regarding the armed forces.
4:38
This is a uniform force with the principle of undivided authority that prevents disobedience and disorder, contrary to those who call the DNR army Makhnovist, etc.
4:48
It's a lie disseminated by the Kiev’s junta as well as by those who have unleashed tanks, Grads, and artillery against its people.
5:09
You can now ask your questions.
5:23
Does the militia fire on the houses?
5:31
Let me correct you right away. We were the militia 10 days ago. Today, we are the armed forces of the Donetsk National Republic.
5:38
The DNR’s armed forces by no means try to strike on residential neighborhoods and houses.
5:48
We don't and never will practice this. This is our homeland, our soil, and our Motherland.
5:55
This is a war on our territory that we want to preserve. We're not animals. We are not fighting in Kiev, we are fighting at home.
6:09
Channel 1, Moscow. How would you characterize the Ukrainian armed forces’ response to your offensive? Were they aware of it? Are they in confusion, resisting or rolling back?
6:26
Most likely they knew about our counter-attack as we did not make a secret of this. They didn’t know the time and place of the attack.
6:38
There are regular army officers who, unfortunately, at some point graduated from the Soviet military schools and the Academy.
6:46
They were preparing for different options, and have guessed some of them. The fighting was heavy because the regular units fight well.
6:58
The regular army really fights, gets defeated, but never gives up.
7:07
Those who roll back are the battalions of Shakhtersk, Aydar etc. They are usually easy to attack because they retreat at the first shot and never engage in direct fire contact.
7:22
They usually retreat and call on the regular units, and then they start to attack together.
7:27
Again, the fighting is very heavy.,You can feel the enemy’s superiority in their quantity of equipment.
7:35
To give you an idea of the intensity of the fighting: we cross about 40 km in the day.
7:45
The Parade of prisoners of war we’ve seen this afternoon, isn’t it against all humanitarian conventions and motions of dignity?
8:10
As a lawyer, I can say that we did nothing against international law.
8:16
The prizoners were not undressed or starved.
8:22
Show me a single international law, which prohibites parading prisoners. We have not done anything illegal.
8:34
What was the purpose of this parade? Were you trying to send a message to Kiev? Why did you make a decision to parade the prisoners of war?
8:53
Kyiv said that they will march in parade in Donetsk on the 24th. So they did.
9:19
Poroshenko didn’t lie: they were here together with their hardware.
9:27
This week Lugansk received humanitarian aid from Russia. Are you waiting for such help, and when do you think you can expect it to come?
9:34
We expected it yesterday, even before Lugansk.
9:38
Our city’s population is bigger than Lugansk, so it was logical to send it to us first.
9:44
But situation in Lugansk is much harder, so it was sent there first. I hope that we will receive our help soon.
9:51
Are there any negotiations about the terms of delivery?
9:54
Yes, the negotiations were conducted on the same day as Lugansk, but, unfortunately, we didn't get it.
10:00
Will Lugansk share their received help with you?
10:04
As practical business managers, we would like it. However, from the humanitarian position we understand that the situation is more difficult there.
10:16
We have to rely on our own resources for now. Hopefully, help will come soon.
10:25
there are historical parallels with July 1944 and the March of the Nazis. Did it happen by accident or was it done on purpose?
10:31
Honestly, we have recently seen one of the insignias of the 2nd separate brigade: the complete emblem of the Galicia SS Division, a 79 SS Galicia badge.
10:51
When we saw the full symbol of this Division... Many Russian families suffered losses in the Second World War. One of the ancestors in my family fought against the Galicia SS Division.
11:13
This is not just a parallel, this is generational: my great-grandfather, and now I, and the same division…
11:20
That’s why a desire was born to repeat 1944 so they would realize that it all already happened before, it has repeated itself with the same result.
11:29
Every time you come to Russia with a sword, “from a sword you will perish”.
11:33
Unfortunately, dear journalists, the West tries to invade us with a regularity of 30-50 years.
11:42
That is, every 30-50 years the Western civilization tries to impose on us their opinion and their way of life.
11:52
The First World War, the Great Patriotic war, the Crimean war before that and so on well into the depths of history.
12:03
As a result, the West traditionally gets the fall of Berlin, Paris, etc.
12:10
There is Maidan every year In Kiev – “Those who don’t jump are Moskals”.
12:16
The West comes every 30-50 years to get what it deserves. Now in 2014, they are slightly delayed.
12:30
What kind of aid do you now get from Russia?
12:41
individuals and certain organizations send us food, clothes, and medicine.
12:58
Ramzan Kadyrov has collected humanitarian aid worth of $70 million, which is now waiting in Rostov.
13:05
It was not a state program, it’s from the Republic and the President of Chechnya.
13:11
....experts in artillery from Samara?
13:21
I will invite several officers of the French Navy, who want to fight with us.
13:30
They are willing to give an interview. We have Europe fighting amongst us.
13:38
The European ideals of equality, fraternity, and the French revolution, as in the Marseillaise, resonate with the patriots of France.
13:49
It means, the nation is not dead, since it has such representatives who are willing to go to the far away place to fight for their ideals, which the Bastille was once taken for.
13:59
Yes, there are volunteers: the French, the Russians. Is it a bad thing? It’s great.
14:08
Are there regular Russian military units fighting on your side?
14:28
If you think that Russia is sending its regular units here, then let me tell you something.
14:38
If Russia was sending its regular troops, we wouldn't be talking about the battle of Elenovka here.
14:46
We'd be talking about a battle of Kiev or a possible capture of Lvov.
14:55
Now there is a war on our soil for our territory. We have an influx of volunteers from all over the world.
15:06
Of course, the Russian help would be very desirable, but from a political point of view it is impossible and unrealistic.
15:13
Thanks, by the way, to the European countries. You do not acknowledge this war just as you did not acknowledge the great Patriotic war, didn’t you?
15:19
You support the anti-terrorist operation against terrorists and separatists.
15:22
Have you not developed a Charter of free territory, I believe, in Switzerland?
15:30
A Territory has a right of self determination and separation after a referendum.
15:35
Germany lives by the same principles. There will be a referendum in Scotland soon.
15:41
That is, you call your own principles democratic and carry them out (almost) democratically.
15:48
The example of Czechoslovakia was peaceful. Yugoslavia, unfortunately, was torn into a thousand little pieces by you. Using military methods by the way.
15:57
We have the same thing happening here.
16:00
That is, if you stop pursuing a policy of double standards and will be able to understand that people live here.
16:07
What is our fault? The fault of Donetsk, Donbass, our land?
16:13
That we are asked to live independently? That we wanted to live the way we want? To speak our language? To make friends with whom we want?
16:23
We didn't want to go to Europe. We have different mentalities, religion.
16:37
But we have a different religion. We want to go East.
16:40
We wanted to live the way we want, but we were not allowed to. We were called terrorists and separatists.
16:47
Please note, we did not capture any regional administrations, nor did we scorch district departments. That’s what the Maidan did.
16:56
Slogans: "No oligarchy”, “Equality and brotherhood", "Freedom of religion and language", "Freedom of choice".
17:07
All these slogans are from the Maidan. We want the same thing. So why are we the bad guys?
17:12
What did we do to deserve being bombed from planes?, shot at from tanks?and have phosphorous bombs dropped on us ?
17:22
Explain to me what an anti-terrorist operation is?!
17:26
There police forces and intelligence services are involved, and not regular military units, military vehicles and aircrafts.
17:36
Dear journalists, please correct me if I am wrong.
17:39
If we are terrorists, then the police and the security service of Ukraine must fight us.
17:44
30, 25, 95, 72, and 76 - the entire Ukrainian army is present on our territory.
17:55
Three conscriptions, the national guard, territorial battalions, private battalions Aidar, Azov, Shakhtersk, Donbass, Dnieper-1, Dnieper-2, Dnieper-3, battalion Kiev, and now Kryvbas.
18:09
What have we done? What is our guilt? The fact that we have shale gas, for which you want to erase entire Slavyansk from the face of the earth?
18:20
Or any other financial interests?
18:25
We are all descendants of the glorious ancestors. We all have ancestors that we are proud of.Only between the two of us there are two Heroes of the Soviet Union.
18:36
We are still able to hold weapons in our hands. We swallowed with our mothers’ milk a pride and desire to live in free and happy Donbass.
18:44
We’ll tell anyone who comes to harm us on our soil: we will fight tooth and nail for our Motherland.
18:51
Kiev and the West made a big mistake by awaking us.
18:56
We are the hardworking people. While others were jumping on the Maidan for 300 grivnas, our people were down in the mine, mining coal, melting metal and sowing crop.
19:07
None of us had time to jump, we were busy working.
19:11
When a person who just yesterday worked with a jackhammer or operated a harvester, today got behind a steering wheel of a tank or Grad, or picked up a machine gun, the line has been crossed and you cannot stop him.
19:23
The one who left his job knows that he will fight to the end and to his last breath.
19:29
You may pass it on to others: do not wake the beast. Just don’t.
19:35
While there is still an opportunity, let mothers spare their sons.
19:44
For some, perhaps this will be terrible news: there still lie several hundred soldiers of the armed forces of the Ukrainian army under Panovka, Saur-Mohyla, who are unaccounted for.
19:58
Families receive “missing in action” letters. They are actually dead. Kiev authorities do it on purpose.
20:05
Hundreds and thousands dead in more than a dozen graves. I announce it officially.
20:14
Let everybody know if you received a "missing in action" letter, then most likely, your husband, brother, or son got killed.
20:26
[Vladimir Kononov] I can you give an example from the battle of the 72nd and 25th batalions against us in Shakhtersk. I have all the documents of the soldiers who burned near the wrecked machinery.
20:43
We returned the bodies to the Ukrainian army. Two weeks later, we received information that they were “missing in action”.
20:55
Why did they bother to pick up the bodies?
21:01
It was reported that the Ukrainian army from the beginning of the conflict had 12,000 killed, 19,000 wounded and 5,000 missing.₃
21:15
They are not missing, they were killed and buried under Karachun, in Krasnyy Liman…
21:26
They were dumping bodies from a helicopter with stones tied to their feet into the Blue lakes near Slavyansk.
21:33
Vladimir Petrovich, let's not excite our press with such gruesome details.
21:38
Poroshenko said that all 120 people out of 1200 who participated in the Parade in Kiev, will go to the East.
21:47
Now I want to say: I don't want to fight. It wasn’t my choice, but I'll fight till the end for my land, no matter who, when and how numerous they were.
21:59
This is a battle of annihilation. Unfortunately, the Slavs are fighting among themselves and destroying their best people.
22:11
We want to reach out to all the relatives and mothers: do not send your sons here.
22:15
Leave us alone. Let us live free and in peace.
22:20
We didn’t come to you in Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, or Zaporozhye. We are not marauding your villages, raping your women, killing your elders and stealing their military decorations.
22:28
Remember decorations for Stalingrad, the capture of Berlin, Gold Star medals, Orders of Glory, Orders of the Red Banner, mixed up with women's earrings?...
22:38
We don't do that. We want to live on our land the way we want. We don't need you. We are different.
22:46
Ukraine of the East and the West is an artificially created conglomerate. However, we didn’t start this war.
22:57
If someone has a political conscience, a will and a courage of a real man, I'm just suggesting to stop this operation.
23:11
You don’t have to recognize our status, just leave us alone within our borders of Donetsk and Lugansk republics, and we will kiss each other goodbye.
23:23
A question from the French newspaper Libération. When will a press conference with the French internationalists, that you mentioned, take place?
23:40
They will arrive tomorrow. Talk with Vladimir Petrovich tomorrow. Contact him through his press Secretary.
23:52
Do you think the meeting with Poroshenko will bring any positive solutions?
24:26
Let me clarify. No federalization can be possible today.
24:35
There is time for everything. We asked for the federalization 3 months ago, then we asked for a permission to hold a referendum.
24:51
That time has passed, now we want to live independently.
24:59
The Ukrainian authorities are using police methods to subdue us: they arrest us, cordon us off, and conduct anti-terrorist operations against us.
25:15
By now so much blood has been spilled and so many people have died for freedom. How can we speak of federalization?
25:26
What is federalization? This is a series of bureaucratic procedures that need to be done.
25:38
But we want to live independently. We have very rich land.
25:43
Talks about subsidies is a lie perpetrated by thieves to steal money. Each President understood this very well and always participated in it.
25:58
We are a self-sufficient region with its agriculture, developed industry, forests, fields, and seas.
26:07
We have everything from a “Switzerland” to the sea.
26:13
Resort areas, agriculture, chemical and coal industry, rich minerals, gas deposits, etc.
26:27
Despite close ties with the rest of Ukraine, we can and must be able to feed ourselves.
26:40
If they do not understand it in a good way, then we will ask them in a hard way.
26:44
I hope that the meeting between Poroshenko and President Vladimir Putin will lead to the taking of our position into account.
27:06
About the law in relation to people who are in prison.
27:20
Please specify what kind of law you are talking about.
27:24
On what basis these people have been arrested?
27:39
We have recently adopted a new criminal code and the creation of court-martials and tribunals. Is that what are you talking about?
27:49
This is not a law, this is a provision that we have discussed in the Council of Ministers and then submitted to the Supreme Council.
27:58
The Supreme Council gave us a go-ahead. Are you asking about people who were arrested prior to this or after?
28:08
At the moment we have mostly detained soldiers who violated military discipline and the oath of allegiance.
28:22
A court-martial will have to deal with it. Now regarding the rest.
28:27
Since the adoption of this law, all detained civilians were transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security for their hearings.
28:37
Depending on the sentence, they will either be released, or subjected to administrative punishments in the form of community service from 10 to 30 days.
28:52
Donetsk Detention Center came over to our side, so civilized places will be used for detentions.
29:04
For further clarifications you can enquire at the reception desk of the Deputy Prime Minister or to appeal to the Prosecutor General.
29:27
A question about the death penalty.
29:31
I'll be honest, I think the death penalty is the highest form of protection of society.
29:40
You probably remember that my first decree was to fight banditry.
29:45
Yes, this is a widespread phenomenon, because all sorts of criminal elements penetrate under the guise of a revolution.
29:57
We must fight it now so we wouldn't have to hunt these paramilitary groups down later. That was the reason behind this decision.
30:15
After the long discussions it has been decided to adopt the death penalty.
30:21
You all know perfectly well that the abolition of the death penalty does not reduce crime.
30:29
Statistics show that with the death penalty abolished crimes “for some reason” tend to go up.
30:40
The society, ordinary people, and private entrepreneurs have to be able to live and work in the safety. We made a decision to guarantee their security.
31:00
For details, please familiarize yourself with the code. It is written in quite clear language.

Footnote[s]

1. ↑ Washington and mainstream media pile lie upon lie about Ukraine and Russia (30/8/14).

2. ↑ See Ukraine Troops Suffer Catastrophic Defeat in Novorossiya. Kiev Regime in Disarray (30/8/14) on Global Research.

3. ↑ Whilst almost nothing in Alexander Zakharchenko's account was challenged by any of the journalists present and nothing was effectively challenged, the figure of 17,000 fatal casualties (12,000 dead and 5,000 'missing'), suffered by the Ukrainian Army, seems extraordinarily high and, I would have thought, politically catastrophic for the Kiev regime long before now. So, I would be interested to see if the Donetsk National Republic is able to verify those figures.

See also: Fabricated “Russian Invasion”: Big Lies Risk Confrontation with Russia (29/8/14) by Stephen Lendman on Global Research.

This article published as Washington piles lie upon lie by Paul Craig Roberts was published earlier on paulcraigroberts.org and Global Research.

Yesterday, Friday 29 August at 7:00PM the ABC news reported that there was "satellite evidence" of Russian armour and soldiers going over the border and that the Russian government had lied about it. It also claimed that "former and serving Russian army soldiers" were fighting in Ukraine alongside the rebels. Whilst the online version of the same story is a little more more circumspect, public opinion tends to be more affected by live audio visual reporting. This report is part of the current avalanche of 'reporting' of the Ukraine crisis by the mainstream media, which is barely a day old. Other 'reports' about Ukraine include:

Ukraine accuses Russia of 'direct invasion' after aid convoy crosses border without permission (ABC), Ukraine crisis: NATO condemns Russia's 'illegal' military action; says Moscow continues to disregard obligations (ABC), US openly accuses Russia of sending combat troops to Ukraine (SMH), NATO says Russia blatantly violating Ukraine sovereignty, Ukraine crisis: T-72 tank shoots hole in Russian denial (BBC), Alarm over Russian troops in Ukraine (Sky News), Exclusive - Over 100 Russian soldiers killed in single Ukraine battle - Russian rights activists (Reuters), What does Russia tell the mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine? Not much. (Washington Post), Russia has up to 100 battle tanks fighting in Ukraine, UK believes (The Guardian), Relatives of Russian Soldiers Captured by Ukraine Demand Answers (New York Times), Ukraine Accuses Russia of Invasion, West to Consider Sanctions, Obama rules out military response to Russian moves in Ukraine (LA Times), Ukraine crisis: Obama blames Russia for violence (BBC), Obama Blames Russia For Violence In Ukraine; Calls Moves 'Incursion' (NPR), Russia Lies About Invading Ukraine as It Invades Ukraine (Daily Beast), Russia sends tanks and troops into Ukraine, seizes a strategic town

This global whirlwind of deceit, that even George Orwell could not have imagined, is intended to whip much of the public into a frenzy about claimed transgressions by Russia and the East Ukraine and gain from the rest of public opinion acceptance for plans by the Western leaders to increase their sanctions against Russia, increase their aid to the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev and to more directly militarily intervene against the East Ukrainian rebels and Russia.

Washington piles lie upon — Paul Craig Roberts

The latest Washington lie, this one coming from NATO, is that Russia has invaded Ukraine with 1,000 troops and self-propelled artillery.

How do we know that this is a lie? Is it because we have heard nothing but lies about Russia from NATO, from US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, from assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland, from Obama and his entire regime of pathological liars, and from the British, German, and French governments along with the BBC and the entirety of the Western media?

This, of course, is a good reason for knowing that the latest Western propaganda is a lie. Those who are pathological liars don’t suddenly start telling the truth.

But there are even better reasons for understanding that Russia has not invaded Ukraine with 1,000 troops.

One reason is that Putin has invested heavily in diplomacy backed by unprovocative behavior. He would not risk his bet on diplomacy by sending in troops too few in number to have a decisive effect on the outcome.

Another reason is that if Putin decides he has no alternative to sending the Russian military to protect the Russian residents in eastern and southern Ukraine, Putin will send in enough troops to do the job quickly as he did in Georgia when the American and Israeli trained Georgian army invaded South Ossetia and was destroyed in a few hours by the Russian response. If you hear that 100,000 Russian troops accompanied by air cover have invaded Ukraine, it would be a more believable claim.

A third reason is that the Russian military does not need to send troops into Ukraine in order to stop the bombing and artillery shelling of the Russian populations by Washington’s puppet government in Kiev. The Russian air force can easily and quickly destroy the Ukrainian air force and artillery and, thereby, stop the Ukrainian attack on the secessionist provinces.

It was only two weeks ago that a fabricated report spread by the UK Guardian and the BBC that a Russian armored convoy entered Ukraine and was destroyed by the Ukrainian Military. And two weeks prior to that we had the hoax of the satellite images allegedly released by the US State Department that the corrupt US ambassador in Kiev spread around the world on social media allegedly showing that Russian forces were firing into Ukraine. One or two weeks from now we will have another lie, and another a week or two after that, and so on.

The cumulative effect of lie piled upon lie for most people is to build the view that the Russians are up to no good. Once this view is established, Western governments can take more serious moves against Russia.

The alleged entry of 1,000 Russian soldiers into Ukraine has been declared by NATO Brigadier General Niko Tak to be a “significant escalation in Russia’s military interference in Ukraine.” The champion liar Samantha Power told the US Security Council that “Russia has to stop lying.” The UK ambassador to the UN said that Russia was guilty of “a clear violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory.” UK prime minister Cameron warned Russia of “further consequences.” German chancellor Merkel announced that there would be more sanctions. A German Security Council advisor declared that “war with Russia is an option.” Polish foreign minister Sikorski called it Russian aggression that required international action. French president Hollande declared Russia’s behavior to be “intolerable.” Ukraine’s security council imposed mandatory conscription.

West's suicidal drive towards war

This suicidal drive toward war with Russia by Europe’s leaders is based entirely on a transparent lie that 1,000 Russian troops crossed into Ukraine

Of course the Western media followed in lock-step. The BBC, CNN, and Die Welt are among the most reckless and irresponsible.

The mountain of lies piled up by Western governments and media has obscured the true story. The US government orchestrated the overthrow of the elected government in Ukraine and imposed a US puppet in Kiev. Washington’s puppet government began issuing threats and committing violent acts against the Russian populations in the former Russian territories that Soviet leaders attached to Ukraine. The Russian people in eastern and southern Ukraine resisted the threat brought to them by Washington’s puppet government in Kiev.

Washington continually accuses the Russian government of supporting the people in the territories who have voted their separation from Ukraine. There would be no war, Washington alleges, except for Russian support. But, of course, Washington could easily stop the violence by ordering its puppet government in Kiev to stop the bombing and shelling of the former Russian provinces. If Russia can tell the “separatists” not to fight, Washington can tell Kiev not to fight.

The only possible conclusion from the facts is that Washington is determined to involve Europe in a war with Russia or at least in an armed standoff in order to break up Europe’s political and economic relations with Russia.

Europe’s leaders are going along with this because European countries, except for Charles de Gaulle’s France, have not had independent foreign policies since the end of World War II. They follow Washington’s lead and are well paid for doing so.

The inability of Europe to produce independent leadership dooms Russian President Putin’s diplomacy to failure. If European capitals cannot make decisions independently of Washington, there is no scope for Putin’s diplomacy.

Notice that the very day after Putin met with Washington’s Ukrainian vassal in an effort to resolve the situation, the new lie of Russian invasion was issued in order to ensure that no good can come of the meeting in which Putin invested his time and energy.

Washington’s only interest is in hegemony. Washington has no interest in resolving the situation that Washington itself created in order to bring discomfort and confusion to Russia. With the caveat that the situation could be resolved by Ukrainian economic collapse, otherwise the longer Putin waits to resolve the situation by force, the more difficult the task will be.

Republished from Global Research, RIA Novosti. See also: Serbian Volunteers Destroy Ukrainian Artillery in Donetsk Region (12/8/14, RIA Novosti), Donetsk Militia Defend Ilovaisk, Ukrainian Armed Forces Sustain Losses (15/8/14, RIA Novosti), Moscow Slams Kiev's Use of Aircraft, Heavy Weaponry Against Civilians as Unacceptable (15/8/14, RIA Novosti).

DONETSK – Ukrainian servicemen largely switch sides to join the independence supporters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, DPR’s Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko said Saturday.

“One of the commanders of the 25th Airborne Brigade took his infantry combat vehicle and switched to our side. As of today, he has assumed command of the troop. And such cases are numerous,” Zakharchenko said, adding he expected more brigades to yield themselves prisoners.

The prime minister and former battalion commander explained the mass switches to the militia side saying the Ukrainian forces did not understand “why they are here, what they are fighting for and what they are dying for.”

“Whereas we fight for our land, our children, our homes. We are on our land, we have something to fight for. The moral spirit of any subdivision that fights for its home is a step above that of a subdivision fighting for money without the understanding of what it is fighting for,” he said.

In June, Ukrainian troopers from Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk fought against each other at the Luhansk airport.

Since the start of Kiev’s special operation in eastern Ukraine in mid-April, a total of 1,367 people have been killed and another 4,087 wounded, including 2,589 civilians and 29 children, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). At least 117,000 people have been forcibly displaced.

See also: Steven Seagal plays at concert for pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine, 10 August in the Guardian. This article is republished from Global Research article of 11 August. The New York Times article linked to below is here. - Ed

The New York Times reported almost in passing on Sunday that the Ukrainian government's offensive against ethnic Russian rebels in the east has unleashed far-right paramilitary militias that have even raised a neo-Nazi banner over the conquered town of Marinka, just west of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

That might seem like a big story – a U.S.-backed military operation, which has inflicted thousands of mostly civilian casualties, is being spearheaded by neo-Nazis. But the consistent pattern of the mainstream U.S. news media has been – since the start of the Ukraine crisis – to white-out the role of Ukraine's brown-shirts.

Only occasionally is the word "neo-Nazi" mentioned and usually in the context of dismissing this inconvenient truth as "Russian propaganda." Yet the reality has been that neo-Nazis played a key role in the violent overthrow of elected President Viktor Yanukovych last February as well as in the subsequent coup regime holding power in Kiev and now in the eastern offensive.

On Sunday, a Times article by Andrew E. Kramer mentioned the emerging neo-Nazi paramilitary role in the final three paragraphs:

"The fighting for Donetsk has taken on a lethal pattern: The regular army bombards separatist positions from afar, followed by chaotic, violent assaults by some of the half-dozen or so paramilitary groups surrounding Donetsk who are willing to plunge into urban combat.

"Officials in Kiev say the militias and the army coordinate their actions, but the militias, which count about 7,000 fighters, are angry and, at times, uncontrollable. One known as Azov, which took over the village of Marinka, flies a neo-Nazi symbol resembling a Swastika as its flag.

"In pressing their advance, the fighters took their orders from a local army commander, rather than from Kiev. In the video of the attack, no restraint was evident. Gesturing toward a suspected pro-Russian position, one soldier screamed, 'The bastards are right there!' Then he opened fire."

In other words, the neo-Nazi militias that surged to the front of anti-Yanukovych protests last February have now been organized as shock troops dispatched to kill ethnic Russians in the east – and they are operating so openly that they hoist a Swastika-like neo-Nazi flag over one conquered village with a population of about 10,000.

Burying this information at the end of a long article is also typical of how the Times and other U.S. mainstream news outlets have dealt with the neo-Nazi problem in the past. When the reality gets mentioned, it usually requires a reader knowing much about Ukraine's history and reading between the lines of a U.S. news account.

For instance, last April 6, the New York Times published a human-interest profile of a Ukrainian nationalist named Yuri Marchuk who was wounded in the uprising against Yanukovych in February. If you read deep into the story, you learn that Marchuk was a leader of the right-wing Svoboda from Lviv, which – if you did your own research – you would discover is a neo-Nazi stronghold where Ukrainian nationalists hold torch-light parades in honor of World War II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera.

Without providing that context, the Times does mention that Lviv militants plundered a government arsenal and dispatched 600 militants a day to Kiev's Maidan square to do battle with the police. Marchuk also described how these well-organized militants, consisting of paramilitary brigades of 100 fighters each, launched the fateful attack against the police on Feb. 20, the battle where Marchuk was wounded and where the death toll suddenly spiked into scores of protesters and about a dozen police.

Marchuk later said he visited his comrades at the occupied City Hall. What the Times doesn't mention is that City Hall was festooned with Nazi banners and even a Confederate battle flag as a tribute to white supremacy.

The Times touched on the inconvenient neo-Nazi truth again on April 12 in an article about the mysterious death of neo-Nazi leader Oleksandr Muzychko, who was killed during a shootout with police on March 24. The article quoted a local Right Sektor leader, Roman Koval, explaining the crucial role of his organization in carrying out the anti-Yanukovych coup.

"Ukraine's February revolution, said Mr. Koval, would never have happened without Right Sector and other militant groups," the Times wrote.

Burning Insects

The brutality of these neo-Nazis surfaced again on May 2 when right-wing toughs in Odessa attacked an encampment of ethnic Russian protesters driving them into a trade union building which was then set on fire with Molotov cocktails. As the building was engulfed in flames, some people who tried to flee were chased and beaten, while those trapped inside heard the Ukrainian nationalists liken them to black-and-red-striped potato beetles called Colorados, because those colors are used in pro-Russian ribbons.

"Burn, Colorado, burn" went the chant.

As the fire worsened, those dying inside were serenaded with the taunting singing of the Ukrainian national anthem. The building also was spray-painted with Swastika-like symbols and graffiti reading "Galician SS," a reference to the Ukrainian nationalist army that fought alongside the German Nazi SS in World War II, killing Russians on the eastern front.

The death by fire of dozens of people in Odessa recalled a World War II incident in 1944 when elements of a Galician SS police regiment took part in the massacre of the Polish village of Huta Pieniacka, which had been a refuge for Jews and was protected by Russian and Polish partisans. Attacked by a mixed force of Ukrainian police and German soldiers on Feb. 28, 1944, hundreds of townspeople were massacred, including many locked in barns that were set ablaze.

The legacy of World War II – especially the bitter fight between Ukrainian nationalists from the west and ethnic Russians from the east seven decades ago – is never far from the surface in Ukrainian politics. One of the heroes celebrated during the Maidan protests in Kiev was Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, whose name was honored in many banners including one on a podium where Sen. John McCain voiced support for the uprising to oust Yanukovych, whose political base was among ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine.

During World War II, Bandera headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-B, a radical paramilitary movement that sought to transform Ukraine into a racially pure state. OUN-B took part in the expulsion and extermination of thousands of Jews and Poles.

Though most of the Maidan protesters in 2013-14 appeared motivated by anger over political corruption and by a desire to join the European Union, neo-Nazis made up a significant number and surged to the front during the seizure of government buildings and the climatic clashes with police.

In the days after the Feb. 22 coup, as the neo-Nazi militias effectively controlled the government, European and U.S. diplomats scrambled to help the shaken parliament put together the semblance of a respectable regime, although at least four ministries (YouTube video embedded below - Ed), including national security, were awarded to the right-wing extremists in recognition of their crucial role in ousting Yanukovych.

As extraordinary as it was for a modern European state to hand ministries over to neo-Nazis, virtually the entire U.S. news media cooperated in playing down the neo-Nazi role. Stories in the U.S. media delicately step around this neo-Nazi reality by keeping out relevant context, such as the background of coup regime's national security chief Andriy Parubiy, who founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991, blending radical Ukrainian nationalism with neo-Nazi symbols. Parubiy was commandant of the Maidan's "self-defense forces."

Last April, as the Kiev regime launched its "anti-terrorist operation" against the ethnic Russians in the east, Parubiy announced that his right-wing paramilitary forces, incorporated as National Guard units, would lead the way. On April 15, Parubiy went on Twitter to declare, "Reserve unit of National Guard formed #Maidan Self-defense volunteers was sent to the front line this morning." (Parubiy resigned from his post this past week for unexplained reasons.)

Now, however, as the Ukrainian military tightens its noose around the remaining rebel strongholds, battering them with artillery fire and aerial bombardments, thousands of neo-Nazi militia members are again pressing to the front as fiercely motivated fighters determined to kill as many ethnic Russians as they can. It is a remarkable story but one that the mainstream U.S. news media would prefer not to notice.

BBC Newsnight video "Neo-Nazi threat in new Ukraine"

The video below is undated, but was propbably made in late February 2014 shortly after the coup of 22 February.

See also: The Myth of Russian Aggression (NEO, 3/8/14), US, NATO Support the Ukrainian Army’s Bloody Offensive (GR, 3/8/14).

Brave Crimean prosecutor, Natalya Poklonskaya, was offered her job after several men refused such a dangerous position. She showed leadership when Crimeans wanted to quit Ukraine, saying that the will of the people was the only rule of law. She became an involuntary internet sensation, however, because of her passion and beauty as she delivered her defense of democracy at a press conference. Her looks and gutsy presentation inspired admiring anime-style images throughout the world, gaining her overwhelming popularity, particularly in Japan. NATO policy makers, however, seem impervious to her honest message and she is now among forty officials put on a sanctions list by Tokyo. This can probably only extend her popular impact because she is already seen, rightly, as an iconic heroine battling fascists.

Editor Candobetter.net: This article was originally published as " "Japan's darling Natalia Poklonskaya on Tokyo Russia sanctions list," on RT, August 5, 2014. We republish it here with some concerns that we could be seen to be furthering sexist treatment of a courageous public servant. The important educational content of her speech and actions, however, are embedded in the package and the principles she espouses are as attractive as her personal presentation. If she were modelling clothes, she would not be an internet sensation, but she is not modelling clothes; she is modelling principles that humans everywhere value highest.

The Sanctions list

The list, made public by the Japanese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, includes former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, a number of top figures in the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as people believed to be "directly responsible for the annexation of Crimea."

"Japan will continue our coordination with G7 nations and the international community to achieve a peaceful and diplomatic resolution of the Ukraine situation," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular briefing, according to AFP. "We have made our decisions to select those who were directly responsible for the annexation of Crimea and destabilization of eastern Ukraine, and after we reviewed sanctions by the United States and EU."

Adoration by the Japanese online community did not save the Crimean prosecutor, Natalya Poklonskaya, from being added to Tokyo's black list.

Poklonskaya took up her post just days ahead of the March 16 Crimean referendum on independence from Ukraine, after four of her male colleagues refused to take the risk.

Her first press conference gained her YouTube stardom, garnering 3.7 million views in just three days. Her youth, good looks, quiet voice and emphatic statements inspired a lot of anime-style images of Poklonskaya, and earned her the nickname of 'Prosecutie'.

In Russia she received an online nickname "nyasha" (sweetie), to which Poklonskaya reacted by saying she would prefer to be perceived as a prosecutor and will not tolerate any meaningless "nyash" or "myash" while at her post. That secured 'Nyash-Myash' as a popular nickname for the young prosecutor.

She has not yet reacted to being included on Japan's list of sanctioned officials. The response to Tokyo's sanctions has mainly come from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Moscow now believes it "inappropriate" to hold diplomatic consultations between deputy head of the Foreign Ministry, Igor Morgulov, with his Japanese counterpart, Shinsuke Sugiyama, scheduled for the end of August.

"Now that Tokyo has adopted additional anti-Russian sanctions, we consider it inappropriate to hold this meeting. Consultations have been postponed," deputy head of the ministry's information department, Maria Zakharova, told journalists.

Apart from individuals, two Crimea-based companies have also fallen under Japanese sanctions – energy company Chernomorneftegaz and oil base Feodosia. Tokyo has also banned all imports from Crimea.

Japan has announced sanctions against Russia before. In April, it said it would not issue visas for 23 Russian officials.

Switzerland also expanded its sanctions against Russia on Tuesday. It announced the addition of 26 individuals and 18 companies to its sanctions list. This comes despite comments over the weekend from Switzerland's Economy Minister, Johann Schneider-Ammann, who said his country wouldn't duplicate EU sanctions against Russia.

Previously published in Consortium News as Obama Should Release Ukraine Evidence (29/7/14).

With the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine turning a local civil war into a U.S. confrontation with Russia, U.S. intelligence veterans urge President Obama to release what evidence he has about the tragedy or to stop poisoning the waters. They note that claims the US has made of having useful satellite imagery have not materialised and say they are not at all sure that the US appreciates the gravity of its escalation of tensions in the region, through apparently empty accusations against Russia.

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

SUBJECT: Intelligence on Shoot-Down of Malaysian Plane

Executive Summary

U.S.–Russian tensions are building in a precarious way over Ukraine, and we are far from certain that your advisers fully appreciate the danger of escalation. The New York Times and other media outlets are treating sensitive issues in dispute as flat-fact, taking their cue from U.S. government sources.

Twelve days after the shoot-down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, your administration still has issued no coordinated intelligence assessment summarizing what evidence exists to determine who was responsible – much less to convincingly support repeated claims that the plane was downed by a Russian-supplied missile in the hands of Ukrainian separatists.

Your administration has not provided any satellite imagery showing that the separatists had such weaponry, and there are several other “dogs that have not barked.” Washington’s credibility, and your own, will continue to erode, should you be unwilling – or unable – to present more tangible evidence behind administration claims. In what follows, we put this in the perspective of former intelligence professionals with a cumulative total of 260 years in various parts of U.S. intelligence.

—

We, the undersigned former intelligence officers want to share with you our concern about the evidence adduced so far to blame Russia for the July 17 downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17. We are retired from government service and none of us is on the payroll of CNN, Fox News, or any other outlet. We intend this memorandum to provide a fresh, different perspective.

As veteran intelligence analysts accustomed to waiting, except in emergency circumstances, for conclusive information before rushing to judgment, we believe that the charges against Russia should be rooted in solid, far more convincing evidence. And that goes in spades with respect to inflammatory incidents like the shoot-down of an airliner. We are also troubled by the amateurish manner in which fuzzy and flimsy evidence has been served up – some of it via “social media.”

As intelligence professionals we are embarrassed by the unprofessional use of partial intelligence information. As Americans, we find ourselves hoping that, if you indeed have more conclusive evidence, you will find a way to make it public without further delay. In charging Russia with being directly or indirectly responsible, Secretary of State John Kerry has been particularly definitive. Not so the evidence. His statements seem premature and bear earmarks of an attempt to “poison the jury pool.”

Painting Russia Black

We see an eerie resemblance to an earlier exercise in U.S. “public diplomacy” from which valuable lessons can be learned by those more interested in the truth than in exploiting tragic incidents for propaganda advantage. We refer to the behavior of the Reagan administration in the immediate aftermath of the shoot-down of Korean Airlines Flight 007 over Siberia on August 30, 1983. We sketch out below a short summary of that tragic affair, since we suspect you have not been adequately briefed on it. The parallels will be obvious to you.

An advantage of our long tenure as intelligence officers is that we remember what we have witnessed first hand; seldom do we forget key events in which we played an analyst or other role. To put it another way, most of us “know exactly where we were” when a Soviet fighter aircraft shot down Korean Airlines passenger flight 007 over Siberia on August 30, 1983, over 30 years ago. At the time, we were intelligence officers on “active duty.” You were 21; many of those around you today were still younger.

Thus, it seems possible that you may be learning how the KAL007 affair went down, so to speak, for the first time; that you may now become more aware of the serious implications for U.S.-Russian relations regarding how the downing of Flight 17 goes down; and that you will come to see merit in preventing ties with Moscow from falling into a state of complete disrepair. In our view, the strategic danger here dwarfs all other considerations.

Hours after the tragic shoot-down on August 30, 1983, the Reagan administration used its very accomplished propaganda machine to twist the available intelligence on Soviet culpability for the killing of all 269 people aboard KAL007. The airliner was shot down after it strayed hundreds of miles off course and penetrated Russia’s airspace over sensitive military facilities in Kamchatka and Sakhalin Island. The Soviet pilot tried to signal the plane to land, but the KAL pilots did not respond to the repeated warnings. Amid confusion about the plane’s identity – a U.S. spy plane had been in the vicinity hours earlier – Soviet ground control ordered the pilot to fire.

The Soviets soon realized they had made a horrendous mistake. U.S. intelligence also knew from sensitive intercepts that the tragedy had resulted from a blunder, not from a willful act of murder (much as on July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian civilian airliner over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 people, an act which President Ronald Reagan dismissively explained as an “understandable accident”).

To make the very blackest case against Moscow for shooting down the KAL airliner, the Reagan administration suppressed exculpatory evidence from U.S. electronic intercepts. Washington’s mantra became “Moscow’s deliberate downing of a civilian passenger plane.” Newsweek ran a cover emblazoned with the headline “Murder in the Sky.” (Apparently, not much has changed; Time’s cover this week features “Cold War II” and “Putin’s dangerous game.” The cover story by Simon Shuster, “In Russia, Crime Without Punishment,” would merit an A-plus in William Randolph Hearst’s course “Yellow Journalism 101.”)

When KAL007 was shot down, Alvin A. Snyder, director of the U.S. Information Agency’s television and film division, was enlisted in a concerted effort to “heap as much abuse on the Soviet Union as possible,” as Snyder writes in his 1995 book, “Warriors of Disinformation.”

He and his colleagues also earned an A-plus for bringing the “mainstream media” along. For example, ABC’s Ted Koppel noted with patriotic pride, “This has been one of those occasions when there is very little difference between what is churned out by the U.S. government propaganda organs and by the commercial broadcasting networks.”

“Fixing” the Intelligence Around the Policy

“The perception we wanted to convey was that the Soviet Union had cold-bloodedly carried out a barbaric act,” wrote Snyder, adding that the Reagan administration went so far as to present a doctored transcript of the intercepts to the United Nations Security Council on September 6, 1983.

Only a decade later, when Snyder saw the complete transcripts — including the portions that the Reagan administration had hidden — would he fully realize how many of the central elements of the U.S. presentation were false.

The intercepts showed that the Soviet fighter pilot believed he was pursuing a U.S. spy aircraft and that he was having trouble in the dark identifying the plane. Per instructions from ground control, the pilot had circled the KAL airliner and tilted his wings to order the aircraft to land. The pilot said he fired warning shots, as well. This information “was not on the tape we were provided,” Snyder wrote.

It became abundantly clear to Snyder that, in smearing the Soviets, the Reagan administration had presented false accusations to the United Nations, as well as to the people of the United States and the world. In his book, Snyder acknowledged his own role in the deception, but drew a cynical conclusion. He wrote, “The moral of the story is that all governments, including our own, lie when it suits their purposes. The key is to lie first.”

The tortured attempts by your administration and stenographers in the media to blame Russia for the downing of Flight 17, together with John Kerry’s unenviable record for credibility, lead us to the reluctant conclusion that the syndrome Snyder describes may also be at work in your own administration; that is, that an ethos of “getting your own lie out first” has replaced “ye shall know the truth.” At a minimum, we believe Secretary Kerry displayed unseemly haste in his determination to be first out of the starting gate.

Both Sides Cannot Be Telling the Truth

We have always taken pride in not shooting from the hip, but rather in doing intelligence analysis that is evidence-based. The evidence released to date does not bear close scrutiny; it does not permit a judgment as to which side is lying about the shoot-down of Flight 17. Our entire professional experience would incline us to suspect the Russians – almost instinctively. Our more recent experience, particularly observing Secretary Kerry injudiciousness in latching onto one spurious report after another as “evidence,” has gone a long way toward balancing our earlier predispositions.

It seems that whenever Kerry does cite supposed “evidence” that can be checked – like the forged anti-Semitic fliers distributed in eastern Ukraine or the photos of alleged Russian special forces soldiers who allegedly slipped into Ukraine – the “proof” goes “poof” as Kerry once said in a different context. Still, these misrepresentations seem small peccadillos compared with bigger whoppers like the claim Kerry made on August 30, 2013, no fewer than 35 times, that “we know” the government of Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical incidents near Damascus nine days before.

On September 3, 2013 – following your decision to call off the attack on Syria in order to await Congressional authorization – Kerry was still pushing for an attack in testimony before a thoroughly sympathetic Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. On the following day Kerry drew highly unusual personal criticism from President Putin, who said: “He is lying, and he knows he is lying. It is sad.”

Equally serious, during the first week of September 2013, as you and President Vladimir Putin were putting the final touches to the deal whereby Syrian chemical weapons would be given up for destruction, John Kerry said something that puzzles us to this day. On September 9, 2013, Kerry was in London, still promoting a U.S. attack on Syria for having crossed the “Red Line” you had set against Syria’s using chemical weapons.

At a formal press conference, Kerry abruptly dismissed the possibility that Bashar al-Assad would ever give up his chemical weapons, saying, “He isn’t about to do that; it can’t be done.” Just a few hours later, the Russians and Syrians announced Syria’s agreement to do precisely what Kerry had ruled out as impossible. You sent him back to Geneva to sign the agreement, and it was formally concluded on September 14.

Regarding the Malaysia Airlines shoot-down of July 17, we believe Kerry has typically rushed to judgment and that his incredible record for credibility poses a huge disadvantage in the diplomatic and propaganda maneuvering vis-a-vis Russia. We suggest you call a halt to this misbegotten “public diplomacy” offensive. If, however, you decide to press on anyway, we suggest you try to find a less tarnished statesman or woman.

A Choice Between Two

If the intelligence on the shoot-down is as weak as it appears judging from the fuzzy scraps that have been released, we strongly suggest you call off the propaganda war and await the findings of those charged with investigating the shoot-down. If, on the other hand, your administration has more concrete, probative intelligence, we strongly suggest that you consider approving it for release, even if there may be some risk of damage to “sources and methods.” Too often this consideration is used to prevent information from entering the public domain where, as in this case, it belongs.

There have been critical junctures in the past in which presidents have recognized the need to waive secrecy in order to show what one might call “a decent respect for the opinions of mankind” or even to justify military action.

As senior CIA veteran Milton Bearden has put it, there are occasions when more damage is done to U.S. national security by “protecting” sources and methods than by revealing them. For instance, Bearden noted that Ronald Reagan exposed a sensitive intelligence source in showing a skeptical world the reason for the U.S. attack on Libya in retaliation for the April 5, 1986 bombing at the La Belle Disco in West Berlin. That bombing killed two U.S. servicemen and a Turkish woman, and injured over 200 people, including 79 U.S. servicemen.

Intercepted messages between Tripoli and agents in Europe made it clear that Libya was behind the attack. Here’s an excerpt: “At 1:30 in the morning one of the acts was carried out with success, without leaving a trace behind.”

Ten days after the bombing the U.S. retaliated, sending over 60 Air Force fighters to strike the Libyan capital of Tripoli and the city of Benghazi. The operation was widely seen as an attempt to kill Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who survived, but his adopted 15-month-old daughter was killed in the bombing, along with at least 15 other civilians.

Three decades ago, there was more shame attached to the killing of children. As world abhorrence grew after the U.S. bombing strikes, the Reagan administration produced the intercepted, decoded message sent by the Libyan Peoples Bureau in East Berlin acknowledging the “success” of the attack on the disco, and adding the ironically inaccurate boast “without leaving a trace behind.”

The Reagan administration made the decision to give up a highly sensitive intelligence source, its ability to intercept and decipher Libyan communications. But once the rest of the world absorbed this evidence, international grumbling subsided and many considered the retaliation against Tripoli justified.

If You’ve Got the Goods…

If the U.S. has more convincing evidence than what has so far been adduced concerning responsibility for shooting down Flight 17, we believe it would be best to find a way to make that intelligence public – even at the risk of compromising “sources and methods.” Moreover, we suggest you instruct your subordinates not to cheapen U.S. credibility by releasing key information via social media like Twitter and Facebook.

The reputation of the messenger for credibility is also key in this area of “public diplomacy.” As is by now clear to you, in our view Secretary Kerry is more liability than asset in this regard. Similarly, with regard to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, his March 12, 2013 Congressional testimony under oath to what he later admitted were “clearly erroneous” things regarding NSA collection should disqualify him. Clapper should be kept at far remove from the Flight 17 affair.

What is needed, if you’ve got the goods, is an Interagency Intelligence Assessment – the genre used in the past to lay out the intelligence. We are hearing indirectly from some of our former colleagues that what Secretary Kerry is peddling does not square with the real intelligence. Such was the case late last August, when Kerry created a unique vehicle he called a “Government (not Intelligence) Assessment” blaming, with no verifiable evidence, Bashar al-Assad for the chemical attacks near Damascus, as honest intelligence analysts refused to go along and, instead, held their noses.

We believe you need to seek out honest intelligence analysts now and hear them out. Then, you may be persuaded to take steps to curb the risk that relations with Russia might escalate from “Cold War II” into an armed confrontation. In all candor, we see little reason to believe that Secretary Kerry and your other advisers appreciate the enormity of that danger.

In our most recent (May 4) memorandum to you, Mr. President, we cautioned that if the U.S. wished “to stop a bloody civil war between east and west Ukraine and avert Russian military intervention in eastern Ukraine, you may be able to do so before the violence hurtles completely out of control.” On July 18, you joined the top leaders of Germany, France, and Russia in calling for an immediate ceasefire. Most informed observers believe you have it in your power to get Ukrainian leaders to agree. The longer Kiev continues its offensive against separatists in eastern Ukraine, the more such U.S. statements appear hypocritical.

We reiterate our recommendations of May 4, that you remove the seeds of this confrontation by publicly disavowing any wish to incorporate Ukraine into NATO and that you make it clear that you are prepared to meet personally with Russian President Putin without delay to discuss ways to defuse the crisis and recognize the legitimate interests of the various parties. The suggestion of an early summit got extraordinary resonance in controlled and independent Russian media. Not so in “mainstream” media in the U.S. Nor did we hear back from you.

The courtesy of a reply is requested.

Prepared by VIPS Steering Group

William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)

Larry Johnson, CIA & State Department (ret.)

Edward Loomis, NSA, Cryptologic Computer Scientist (ret.)

David MacMichael, National Intelligence Council (ret.)

Ray McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA analyst (ret.)

Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Middle East (ret.)

Coleen Rowley, Division Counsel & Special Agent, FBI (ret.)

Peter Van Buren, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Officer (ret.)

Ann Wright, Col., US Army (ret.); Foreign Service Officer (resigned)

Here is a description of a Kiev army fighter plane hiding behind a civil airline in order to bomb East Ukraine and cause a response. This video was uploaded June 18, 2014, a month before Malaysian Airlines MH17 crashed in Ukraine. Originally published at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39234.htm Following this video is the detailed report of 21 July from Moscow of a fighter plane close to MH17, and claiming that the United States had satellites that must have provided images that would corroborate the Russian ones, but that the United States is refusing to release these.

The woman in the video does not say she saw the plane; she says that it happened to another plane before M17 and was posted on Youtube a month before M17. Fighter jets can get very close to another plane. B52s flew their first runs in Iraq at low altitude then moved to high altitude out of the range of Iraq's fighter jets and anti aircraft rockets. Their service ceiling was 50,000 ft (15,000 m) much higher than M17 and they continued bombing. They don't need to look out the window to bomb any more.

The commercial airline pilot would not have seen anything if the fighter was behind and below it.

It seems that M17 changed its course twice and finished up over the war zone, while US planes avoided that flight path. The fact that no data has been released from Kiev air control might be an indication that Kiev has been using passenger planes as shields regularly.

Ukrainian Su-25 fighter detected in close approach to MH17 before crash - Moscow

On 21 July Moscow released this detailed report of a fighter plane observed close to MH17. They further assert that the United States should have satellite photographs which would confirm this.

The Russian military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet gaining height towards the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe. Kiev must explain why the military jet was tracking the passenger airplane, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“A Ukraine Air Force military jet was detected gaining
height, it’s distance from the Malaysian Boeing was 3 to
5km,” said the head of the Main Operations Directorate of
the HQ of Russia’s military forces, Lieutenant-General Andrey
Kartopolov speaking at a media conference in Moscow on Monday.

“[We] would like to get an explanation as to why the military
jet was flying along a civil aviation corridor at almost the same
time and at the same level as a passenger plane,” he stated.

“The SU-25 fighter jet can gain an altitude of 10km,
according to its specification,” he added. “It’s
equipped with air-to-air R-60 missiles that can hit a target at a
distance up to 12km, up to 5km for sure.”

The presence of the Ukrainian military jet can be confirmed by
video shots made by the Rostov monitoring center, Kartopolov
stated.

At the moment of the MH17 crash an American satellite was flying
over the area of eastern Ukraine, according to Russia’s Defense
Ministry. It urged the US to publish the space photos and data
captured by it.

‘Ukrainian Buk missile system transported to militia-held area’

In addition, MH17 crashed within the operating zone of the
Ukrainian army’s self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air
‘Buk’ missile systems, the Russian general said.

“We have space images of certain places where the Ukraine’s
air defense was located in the southeast of the country,”
Kartapolov noted.

The first three shots that were shown by the general are dated
July 14. The images show Buk missile launch systems in about 8km
northwest of the city of Lugansk – a TELAR and two TELs,
according to the military official.

Another image shows a radar station near Donetsk.

While the third picture shows the location of the air defense
systems near Donetsk, he explained. In particular, one can
clearly see a TELAR launcher and about 60 military and auxiliary
vehicles, tents for vehicles and other structures, he elaborated.

Buk missile defense units in Donetsk Region, 5km north of Donetsk city, on July 14, 2014.Photo courtesy of the Russian Defense Ministry

“Images from this area were also made on July 17. One should
notice that the missile launcher is absent [from the scene].
Image number five shows the Buk missile system in the morning of
the same day in the area of settlement Zaroschinskoe – 50km south
of Donetsk and 8km south of Shakhtyorsk," the Kartapolov
said.

The question that has to be answered is why the missile system
appeared near the area controlled by the local militia forces
shortly before the catastrophe, he stated.

Images taken on July 18 show that the missile systems left the
area of the MH17 crash, the military official said.

Kartapolov also pointed to the fact that on the day of the plane
crash Ukraine’s military increased activity on the part of
Ukraine’s Kupol-M1 9S18 radars, which are part of the Buk system.

"..there were 7 radars operating on July 15, 8 radars
operating on July 16, and 9 radars operating on July 17 in the
area. Then, starting with July 18, the intensity of radar
activities radically decreased, and now there are no more than
two or three radars operating a day. The reason behind this is
yet to be found."

In response to Moscow’s evidence, Kiev said on Monday it had
proof the missile that brought down a Malaysian airliner last
week came from Russia.

"There is evidence that the missile which struck the plane
was fired by terrorists, who received arms and specialists from
the Russian Federation," spokesman for Ukraine's Security
Council Andrey Lysenko told a news conference. "To disown
this tragedy, [Russia] are drawing a lot of pictures and maps. We
will explore any photos and other plans produced by the Russian
side."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Monday that Kiev has
“strong evidence” of the causes of the MH17 crash.

“We know exactly the place [the surface-to-air missile was]
launched, we know exactly the place where it hit the civilian
plane and the place where the plane crashed.”

Kiev is ready to hand the information to the international
investigation commission, according to the presidential
press-service.

From Global Research article, Conscripted Soldiers of West Ukraine Refuse to Fight against Donbass Rebels (25/7/14). Includes embedded YouTube video. Mass Protests By Families of Men Drafted into the Ukrainian Army Transcript of the Video Location of Protests: Prykarpattia Region, West Ukraine

News Anchor: In the Ciscarpathian region (Prykarpattia, West Ukraine) mass protests took place. The main participants are the families of men summoned for military draft. People trust neither local authorities nor military leadership in Kiev. They have many questions to the authorities and they demand immediate answers. More in our video report, coming up next.

Video: Mass Protests By Families of Men Drafted into the Ukrainian Army – w/ENG subtitles

Note: Video Report Published by Channel 112, Ukraine

Narrator: Yuri Lukyanuk already did his military duty – about 20 years ago. Now he got summons once again. But under his care are two small children. He has nobody to leave them with.

Yuri Lukyanuk: I take care of two small children. My daughter is in hospital on bed rest [for pregnancy complications], my wife, a migrant worker, is away. What am I to do?

Lubov Dibrova: Why would they take my husband? He is the only breadwinner in the family. And he is not in good health. If they take him to war – let them take me too. How can I live without him?

Narrator: People are afraid that if they let their men go to war they will never see them again. Dmytro has already participated in ATO, today he is protesting with others. He is on 10- day leave. He calls his comrades every day.

Dmytro: Now we are dealing with heavy weapons: tanks, mortar launchers, "Grad" rocket launchers ... How can we go against them armed with machine guns? It is impossible. It is like a hell over there.

Narrator: Dmytro tells us how they waited for 3 weeks to get reinforcements. All in vain. The local commissary confirms: it is impossible to fight like this.

Igor Pavlyuk, Military Commissary of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast: One can't fight against Grad rockets. Not with the weapons they are given. You know perfectly well that I complained about it. Though it is above my pay grade.

Narrator: That's why people question the authorities.

Irina Seredyuk: We want explanation from the authorities, we want guarantees, we want to know why is it that only Western region men are sent to fight in the East. Why the bulk of "Cargo-200" [casualties] arrives to Lviv.

We want to know why Easterners, who should know their territory well, are escaping to the West, hiding here in Mochary, hiding in Bukovel, [BUT members - of Block of Yulia Tymoshenko] hiding in Ivano-Frankivsk, camping in their tents, swearing at locals.

Narrator: Protests in Ciscarpathia are in their third day. People are blocking enlistment headquarters, highways, chasing out medical commission experts. They warn – if Kiev doesn't hear them they will go to Kiev.

In a political situation that could just end up as World War Three, Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott has been barging about like a frightening drunk with his atrociously prejudiced and premature statements assuming Vladimir Putin and Russia’s guilt in the MH17 airline tragedy. Even more alarming that his pathetic bids to make world stage on the matter have been reported with such hokum gravitas by the Australian mass media.

Appendix video: MH17 Crash: Ukrainian media stories about looting of toy and wedding ring proven FAKE!

The Australian mass media have jumped on the anti-Putin bandwagon like dogs attacking a [politically] chained bear on command, after showing almost no interest in the Odessa Massacre and other world-class atrocities carried out by the Ukraine regime they all back. Added to this, Bill Shorten’s remarks about uninviting Putin make him seem like some shadowy ape jealously mimicking Abbott’s hysterical antics on the world Punch and Judy stage. The remarks of the British Prime Minister have been similarly ill-judged and Hilary Strangelove-Clinton’s were sinister. “To put Putin on notice that he has gone too far and we are not going to stand idly by.” (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/mh17-hillary-clinton-says-russian-backed-rebels-likely-shot-down-plane) In fact, the anti-Russian side has still not produced evidence that Russia has been supplying any help to the separatists in Eastern Ukraine over the past few months and it has not produced evidence that Russia or the East Ukrainian rebels had anything to do with the shooting down of MH17.

We have been collecting a few headlines over the past few days and shaking our heads with dismay at the hopeless obedience to their masters and the political ignorance of Australian journalists. We wonder, are they all just syndicated real-estate ad writers in their day jobs?

Here are some examples of apparently uninformed and prejudicial reporting:

Australian Financial Review, 20-22 July 2014 (Weekend edition): Jamie Walker, “Furious Abbott demands Putin account for ‘unspeakable crime’.

So, no need for an investigation, apparently?

Weekend Australian, July 20-22, 2014. “A crime against humanity”. In this article, the author proceeds as if they have hard evidence against Russia, whereas there was none: ”The nation has been plunged into mourning over the deaths of 28 Australians in a missile attack by Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine on a packed Malaysia Airlines flight, an attack that Tony Abbott condemned as a crime against Australia and the world.” Well, it was a crime against Australia and the World but we still don’t know who did it or why, although early evidence points more at the Kiev regime.

ABC, 22/7/2014: “Obama increases pressure on Putin to influence rebels at MH17 site,” www.abc.net.au/news/world.

What would Obama have the rebels and Putin do that they are not already doing, other than surrender the evidence to the Ukrainian government so that it can hide it?

“Stay away Mr Putin”, Sunday Mail, July 20, 2014 by Jason Tin, Stephen Drill and Samantha Maiden. It continues, “Australia doesn’t want Russian President Vladimir Putin in Brisbane for November’s G20 summit, unless he co-operates fully with the manhunt for the terrorists who blew MH17 out of the sky.”

We might just as well call for the United States and Australia to cooperate and yield to the international investigators the evidence they have that proves their allegations against Russia and Putin or stay away from the jolly G20.

The Australian, 21 July 2014, front page:”Irate West demands Putin’s help”, by Brendan Nicholson and Stefanie Balogh. […]The international community is outraged over Mr Putin’s denial of any Russian involvement and his refusal to support an investigation or to exert influence over pro-Russian militia controlling the crash site.”

In fact, the pro-Russian militia is fully cooperating and there is no reported obstruction by these anti-Kiev Eastern Ukrainians (pro-Russian is a bit of a misnomer), however there is evidence that Kiev has prevented an international team from joining international observers in East Ukraine, where they are awaited.

The Australian, 21 July 2014,page 4, “Sad truth is the ability to pressure Moscow is limited.” Greg Sheridan, Foreign Editor, Washington: “The growing worldwide condemnation of Vladimir Putin over Russia’s involvement in the downing of MH17 has been effectively led by Tony Abbott, but may yet yield little in concrete results.”

Sheridan shamelessly flatters Australian PM Abbott for his reprehensible behaviour, predictably jumping on the anti-Russian bandwagon.

The Australian, 22 July 2014, front page: “Putin backs recovery of bodies,” by Jamie Walker and Brendan Nicholson. This is another ‘when did Putin stop beating his wife’ kind of article. It begins by pretending that Putin was recalcitrant about cooperating with an international investigation into the MH17 tragedy, implying that he is now responding to pressure: “Vadimir Putin has bowed to international pressure and pledged Russian support to recover bodies and key evidence…” […]

The article goes on to imply, without any evidence at all, that Russia is obviously responsible for the downed airliner, but not admitting to it: “Despite fresh buck-passing over who was responsible for shooting down the Malaysia Airlines plane[…], the Russian President promised ‘full co-operation’ to end an impasse with Russian-backed rebels and enable the dead and the crucial black box recorders to be handed over.”

All through these disinformative articles the idea has been promoted that East Ukrainian separatists who do not approve of the US-backed oligarchy in Kiev are in favour of becoming Russian and are supported and backed by the Russian Government. In fact, they are primarily seeking independence from the Kiev regime, which would like Russia to close its border against hundreds of thousands of women and children refugees who are fleeing it. Those remaining have been fighting with few weapons against heavy aerial bombardment from the Kiev-regime military and para-military who have committed many atrocities which have not been reported by the media and which do not seem to bother Mr Abbott or Mr Shorten or the various ‘journalists’ employed to pen propaganda in the Australian mainstream press.

Appendix video: MH17 Crash: Ukrainian media stories about looting of toy and wedding ring proven FAKE!

Republished from Truthseeker article of 29 June 2014 on RT.

Find out why Ukraine is making the world a scarier place. There are parliamentary moves to quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; Nazis are making 'regular reconnaissance visits to nuclear power stations'; Billionaire governor, whose Privatbank is top recipient of new IMF bailout has been being placed on international wanted list for 'banned methods of warfare and aggravated murder'. In 'Seek Truth from facts', Daniel Bushell interviews intelligence expert, William Engdahl and reports on Ukraine's oligarch mafia's relations with the United States and interviews economist Professor Michael Hudson; former US intelligence officer Scott Rickard; and the prosecutor who put Yulia Timoshenko's partner behind bars, Martha Boersch.

Below is the transcript of the June 29, 2014 episode of Seek Truth from Facts, minus some introductory material.

Announcer: Ukraine's new coalition calls officially for “pre-emptive nuclear strikes”.
Governors on the international wanted list.
And the sordid past of the new oligarch President.

RT: Pensions halved to $3 a day, heating costs doubled, forced sell-off of the country’s land and resources - all part of IMF “knee-breakers” imposed round the world, now in Ukraine.

In a bombshell announcement ignored by mainstream media, even the IMF itself now admits austerity doesn’t work, cuts and economic slumps are vicious circles.

Let’s speak to leading economist and author Professor Michael Hudson, great to talk to you, so why are Ukraine’s new oligarch leaders doing this?

Prof. Michael Hudson, author of The Bubble and Beyond:There was a Chilean-type military coup d'etat there. The people of Ukraine do not sign off on the IMF IOUs and sign the transfer of property. The coup d'etat leaders in Kiev signed up and what do they want? Their aim is not to help Ukraine, their aim is to get rich for themselves and to move as much of their money into London, New York and other centers as they can.

RT: To run Ukraine, assistant secretary of state Vic Nuland appointed the Fatherland party led by Yulia Timoshenko.

Martha Boersch, trial lawyer and former Federal Prosecutor: Because the money was being siphoned off by Lazarenko and Timoshenko, Ukraine at that time, as they have today, ran up a huge gas debt.

RT: Timoshenko’s business partner Pavel Lazarenko has served six years for stealing huge sums from the public, as the pair ran vast gas transit monopoly United Energy Systems.

Boersch: You could characterize her as an unindicted co-conspirator.

RT: Documentary Stealing Popcorn notes US political protection keeps her clear of those massive criminal charges to this day.

Jason Felch, investigative reporter:So we know that the political interests of the United States Government at the highest level probably didn’t want Yulia Timoshenko drawn into theLazarenko case.

RT: WikiLeaked cables from the US Embassy state “oligarch” Timoshenko has stolen vast sums from Ukraine and “hid” them in London to pretend “she wasn’t involved in business”.

BBC reports she was wanted for alleged involvement in the murders of the Head of Ukraine’s National Bank, Members of Parliament as well as business rivals.

This is her on Interpol’s international most wanted list.

Timoshenko denies the claims and her campaign slogan is “fighting the oligarchs”. Unless she means her alleged hits on rival billionaires, George Washington University reports the slogan causes “epic laughter” and notes Ukrainians shout “vorovka” - Mrs Thief - to her face.

Let's talk to former US intelligence officer Scott Rickard, really great to see you. Is the US still protecting Ukraine’s criminals?

Scott Rickard, former U.S. intelligence officer: Certainly they’re protecting them, and they’re bolstering them, they’re putting them in a position where they can basically control the financial outcome of Ukraine, hiding the money in Isle of Man, hiding in the Cayman Islands and then Cyprus and working with the Western oligarchs to launder money. Poroshenko’s right in bed with the right guys.

RT: Timoshenko’s party has been joined in power by this man as the country’s President, or as the US ambassador to Kiev in a leaked cable admitted “disgraced oligarch”.
“Weapons, prostitutes, drugs, these are the things Poroshenko is associated with” in Ukraine, claims investigative reporter Greg Kolyada, adding Poroshenko’s not “self-made” as claimed by mainstream media. He got rich by “plundering state property with armed gangs” with his convict father, who was jailed for “large-scale theft” of state property.

Indymedia describes Poroshenko as the most corrupt person in Ukraine. In a country branded by a former State Department official as “the global epicenter of badness”, being the most corrupt is some achievement.

But “disgraced oligarchs” can do what they like, writes the SCF Foundation, as long as they carry out White House orders.

Leaked cables reveal secret meetings before the coup with the US ambassador, other top officials, as well as Mrs. Clinton, where among various instructions she told him the quickest ways to steal Ukraine into NATO membership.

If previous administrations made at least some pretense of being for the public, Ukraine is now literally a government “of the oligarchs, by the oligarchs, for the oligarchs”. Eighteen of the country’s 24 regions have had oligarchs and cronies parachuted into power by the new regime.

Igor Kolomoysky, “the head of the Ukrainian mafia” the US put in charge of an extremely sensitive Eastern region. He owns Ukraine banks, metals, resources, food, transport, military and oil industry.

The multibillionaire has a fetish for “gold statues”, notes Ukraine Business Insight, and lives in Switzerland.
“Looting of state property, bribes and murdering rivals” were part and parcel of becoming an oligarch in the “global epicenter of badness”.

Their appointment to actually run the country has now blown everything into the open.

Leaked conversation between governor Kolomoysky and presidential candidate Tsarev:
Kolomoysky: Tomorrow, f***, they will go after all your family, f***. Because we’re gonna hang them right in the town square, f***. And put a contract on your life, f***, big money. One million dollars. For your life. They’ll be looking for you everywhere.

RT: The newly-appointed oligarch was recorded putting an alleged hit on a presidential candidate and his family in Eastern Ukraine.

In another leaked call an official reveals Kolomoysky’s also behind the Odessa massacre, the deadliest attack so far in Ukraine’s civil war, where he paid Nazis from the infamous Right Sektor Party that burnt, slaughtered and strangled dozens of civilians to death, including elderly women.

In a fairly predictable development, handing state power to an oligarch and criminal suspect has turned him “crazy”.

Kolomoysky has his own private army, and set up the Azov Battalion of openly Nazi mercenaries, which London’s Sunday Times admits is behind the bloodshed that has caused revulsion among the population.

He’s now been placed on the international wanted list sent to Interpol in connection with “banned means and methods of warfare, aggravated murder, and abductions in Eastern Ukraine”, all in a few months since he was put in power.

Leading intelligence author William Engdahl’s investigated post-coup Ukraine he finds what’s happened is “so astonishing as almost to defy belief”.

Dr. Engdahl joins us, really great to speak to you, why do you write “US policies have put gangsters and murderers in Ukraine in power”?

William Engdahl, investigative journalist: I’ve already seen reports that the government has signed over the pipeline, the gas pipeline distribution network, they’ve signed that off to Chevron. German companies have grabbed metallurgical assets in Eastern Ukraine and coal assets, extremely prized coal assets there, so they’re already looting the crown jewels of Ukraine and the, I don’t know what you want to call it, the puppet regime that’s sitting in Kiev is doing their bidding. Now you’ve got a chocolate king as president, his opponent was the gas queen Yulia Timoshenko who looted billions from her country, from her fellow countrymen and is associated with figures of organized crime. So you’ve got a bunch of gangsters essentially and Nazi thugs running Ukraine and that is hardly a stable thing for peace in Europe.

Germany wants to go to war to defend a bunch of Nazis in Kiev because they get hot-headed and start creating incidents with Russia? I don’t think so but they better realize that’s the agenda that some people in Washington have. Because they want, not the American people and not the United States, but this tiny power cabal that have so much power in Washington, they want not only a new cold war, they want a new hot war. That’s a pretty dangerous thing to be playing around with. This is an escalation toward a new dimension of horror for mankind.

RT: Timoshenko revealed her real oligarch face in a leaked call pledging to nuke the Eastern part of Ukraine.

Leaked conversation between Deputy Nestor Shufrich and Fatherland leader Yulia Timoshenko:
Shufrich: What shall we do with the eight million Russian(-speakers) in Ukraine?
Timoshenko: Kill them with nuclear weapons.

RT: The openly Nazi Svoboda party, led by Oleg Tyagnibok, was rewarded for its appalling violence during the coup with six major cabinet posts, including Security Chief in charge of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Svoboda’s official manifesto calls for building nuclear weapons again in Ukraine, and “pre-emptive nuclear strikes without declaring war”, in other words open and supreme violation of international statutes.

Gunmen from Ukraine’s other big Nazi coalition Right Sektor were caught attempting to break into Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant.

Ukraine: Triumph, Tragedy, or Farce? report: The neo-Nazis are paying regular reconnaissance visits to nuclear power stations, with obvious intent to hold the whole world hostage. They have paid visits to bacteriological laboratories and, according to the people working there, got hold of bacteriological material that can be used for biological warfare. Other terrorists have merely been dreaming of such weapons – Ukrainian ones, with the connivance of or on direct orders from someone in the junta, may actually use them – to Senator McCain’s delight.

RT: Turkey is reportedly in talks with Ukraine’s new rulers to buy the project documentation for one of the world’s most powerful nuclear strategic weapons, the intercontinental ballistic missile NATO calls Satan.

Governments are now voicing concern that Kiev may be violating the international Missile Technology Control treaty, and the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation.

Having “gangsters and murderers” in charge is unlikely to end well for Ukraine. When that country also has nuclear weapons technology, with plans to use them, it’s an international threat. Seek truth from facts, this is the Truthseeker.

See also: Who shot down the Malaysian jet over Ukraine? on VoltaireNet, Sanctions and Airliners by Paul Craig Roberts, Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane crash in Ukraine LIVE UPDATES on RT.
Appendix: links to mainstream media disinformation about Flight MH17.

July 18, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - With Kiev's forces being encircled and decimated in eastern Ukraine, western Ukrainians in Kiev protesting the war, and US sanctions receiving global ridicule as feckless - the downing of a Malaysian Boeing 777 airliner with over 280 on board in eastern Ukraine - allegedly shot down over a conflict zone - will undoubtedly be exploited by NATO to vilify Kiev's opponents, particularly fighters in the east and Russia who NATO accuses of "destabilizing eastern Ukraine."

Originally published at Landdestroyer.blogspot.com by Tony Cartalucci: Kiev Losing, Sanctions Flopped, Airliner Down, War Back On?

Preceding the downing of Malaysian flight MH17, just hours beforehand, Ukraine claimed Russia had shot down one of its SU-25 ground attack aircraft. The BBC's article, "Ukraine conflict: Russia accused of shooting down jet," stated that:

A Ukrainian security spokesman has accused Russia's air force of shooting down one of its jets while it was on a mission over Ukrainian territory. 

Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, said an Su-25 ground attack plane was downed on Wednesday evening. 

Russia's defence ministry called the accusation "absurd", Russian state media reported. 

Rebels in eastern Ukraine say they shot down two Su-25 jets on Wednesday. 

Ukraine also alleges rockets were fired at its forces from Russian territory.

While the weapon systems used to down the Ukrainian SU-25's were not mentioned, previous aircraft lost to separatists in eastern Ukraine were most likely hit by Igla man-portable anti-air systems. The downed 777 was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet - unreachable by the Igla system. To down it would require a sophisticated weapon system most likely inaccessible to eastern Ukrainian fighters. This was confirmed by the regime in Kiev itself. New York Daily News reported in an article titled, "Malaysia Airlines plane feared shot down in Ukraine near Russian border," that:

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister, said on Facebook that the plane was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, reported Interfax, a Ukranian news agency.

The Buk system is maintained by both Russia and Ukraine. Russia would most likely not supply the sophisticated weapon system to fighters in Ukraine even if it were backing them militarily, because it would be nearly impossible to prevent its use or abuse from being traced directly back to Moscow. Ukrainian Buk systems, had the regime in Kiev lost control of one or more, should have been reported missing and international precautions taken to divert vulnerable aircraft around the conflict zone.
Western Reaction

US Senator John McCain, who had been standing in Kiev on stage with Neo-Nazis of the Svoboda Party shortly before they overthrew the elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych, stated in an NBC interview:

"To leap to conclusions could be very embarrassing and really inappropriate until we have more information," he told NBC's Andrea Mitchell. "But there have been, as you mentioned, previous incidents of shot down of Ukrainian aircraft. This was an airliner headed towards Russian air space. And it has the earmarks, and I'm not concluding, but it has the earmarks of a mistaken identification of an aircraft that they may have believed was Ukrainian. 

"If that's true, this is a horrible tragedy event which was certainly unanticipated by anybody, no matter who they are," he said. "And there will be incredible repercussions if this is the case. Exactly what those will be will have to be determined by how we find out who was responsible."

McCain added, "If it is a result of either separatists or Russian actions mistakingly believing that this was a Ukrainian warplane, I think there's going to be hell to pay and there should be."

McCain never mentioned what should or could happen if it was the regime he helped put into power that was responsible for downing the airliner.

With the most likely weapon system responsible being the Buk launcher, and the regime in Kiev ascertaining so quickly how the plane was downed and who was responsible, it is now up to Kiev to explain how a Buk system ended up in the hands of separatists and why they would have fired at a plane flying at 33,000 feet heading toward the Russian border at speeds consistent with an airliner.

Cui Bono?


The remote possibility that separatists obtained a sophisticated Buk anti-air missile system, was able to maintain and operate it, failed to identify the Malaysian 777, and exercised the poor judgement to fire on it - would make the tragedy a catastrophic case of mistaken identify - for the separatists have no conceivable reason to fire on a Malaysian passenger liner - and absolutely nothing to gain by doing so.

However, for the regime in Kiev facing decimated and unraveling military forces in the east, growing dissent in the west, and Western sponsors who are unable to materialize any form of meaningful aid militarily, economically, or politically - shooting down a civilian airliner and blaming it on the separatists could unite public opinion and the leadership of European nations behind NATO and the US for a more direct intervention on behalf of Kiev and change the tide of what is now a battle they will otherwise inevitably lose.

The West is already working hard to set the stage for such a scenario. The BBC in an article titled, "Malaysia airliner crashes in east Ukraine conflict zone," stated that:

Sir Tony Brenton, a former UK ambassador to Russia, told BBC News it would not be a huge surprise if suspicion initially fell on the rebels. 

"That would be very damaging both for them and for their Russian supporters," he said.

"The Russians have undoubtedly been supplying them with weapons, almost certainly with anti-aircraft weapons, so Russia would very likely be implicated and that would raise the volume of international criticism of Russia."

Only the West and their proxies in Kiev would stand to benefit from this - and commentators like Tony Brenton and the BBC intentionally prey on the ignorance of their audience in hopes that they don't know the difference between the Igla systems separatists most likely have, and the Buk system they most likely don't have or are unable to operate.

This is the second Malaysian 777 to be lost under extraordinary circumstances this year. Malaysian flight MH370 disappeared in March, 2014, and has yet to be found despite unprecedented international search efforts.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Appendix: Links to Disinformationabout about Flight MH17

Malaysian airlines flight MH17: Tony Abbott says 'Russian-backed rebels' likely to blame on 'grim day' for Australia (ABC), Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17: 'Terrible tragedy', Tony Abbott offers condolences to families for what would be 'unspeakable crime' (smh), Tony Abbott criticises Russia's response to MH17 tragedy as 'deeply unsatisfactory', Tony Abbott says Moscow must not protect Russian-backed rebels accused of downing MH17 (The Australian).

Flying over warzone Ukraine, the probable & convenient happens. July 18, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - LD) - At no juncture during the Ukrainian crisis could the downing of Malaysian Boeing 777 flight MH17 have been more convenient for NATO and its proxy regime in Kiev. Kiev's forces were being picked apart in eastern Ukraine with several units encircled and destroyed. In the west of the country, dissent was growing by Ukrainians unwilling to march off to fight in the east. NATO's attempts to bait Russia into moving into Ukrainian territory and shift global opinion against Moscow had repeatedly failed.

Originally published here:Flight MH17 Down Over Ukraine

Yet another Malaysia Boeing 777 is lost under extraordinary circumstances this year.

The final card to be played by the US was another round of sanctions that almost immediately was ridiculed as ineffective and impotent. Even US corporate-financier interests condemned the latest round of sanctions claiming they were "unilateral" in nature and thus limited US enterprise from interacting with Russia while leaving European competitors free to move into the void.  An effective US policy of confronting, containing, and undermining Russia would require multilateral sanctions with almost universal support - but the impetus for such sweeping sanctions did not exist - until now.

The US FAA Declared Ukrainian Airspace Off-Limits 3 Months Ago 

Indeed, the stars have aligned for NATO. While the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declared Ukrainian airspace off limits to all aircraft under its jurisdiction, it appears other airlines continued flying over what has been a warzone for months. The Atlantic in a report titled, "The FAA's Notice Prohibiting Airline Flights Over Ukraine," stated clearly that:

Did aviation authorities know that this was a dangerous area? 

Yes, they most certainly did. Nearly three months ago, on the "Special Rules" section of its site, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration put out an order prohibiting American pilots, airlines, charter carriers, and everyone else over whom the FAA has direct jurisdiction, from flying over parts of Ukraine.

Fighters Use Man-Portable Air Defense Systems That Can't Reach 33,000 Feet

Image: Igla man-portable air defense missiles.

For months fighters in eastern Ukraine have been downing Ukrainian military helicopters, warplanes, and even a military transport aircraft - all using various forms of man-portable anti-air missiles - all of which are incapable of downing the Malaysian 777 which was flying at approximately 33,000 feet - well above the effective range of man-portable air defense systems.

The system cited as responsible for the downing of flight MH17, was the sophisticated Buk radar guided, tracked-vehicle mounted, anti-aircraft missile system. The New York Daily News reported in an article titled, "Malaysia Airlines plane feared shot down in Ukraine near Russian border," that:

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister, said on Facebook that the plane was flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher, reported Interfax, a Ukranian news agency.

Video interview inside.Western support will allow more IMF and European lending to prop the Ukrainian currency so the Ukrainian oligarchs can move their money safely to British and US banks, explains economist and author, Professor Michael Hudson. '[...] Finance today is war by non-military means. The aim of getting a country in debt is to obtain its economic surplus, ending up with its property. The main property to obtain is that which can produce exports and generate foreign exchange. For Ukraine, this means mainly the Eastern manufacturing and mining companies, which presently are held in the hands of the oligarchs. For foreign investors, the problem is how to transfer these assets and their revenue into foreign hands – in an economy whose international payments are in chronic deficit as a result of the failed post-1991 restructuring. That is where the IMF comes in.'

'[...]Governments are told to balance their budgets by selling off public assets – mainly natural monopolies whose buyers can raise excess prices to extract economic rent. The effect is to turn the economy into a renting “tollbooth economy.” Hitherto free public roads are turned into toll roads, and other transportation, water and sewer systems also are privatized. This raises the cost of living, and hence the cost of labor – while overall wage levels are squeezed by the financial austerity that shrinks markets and raises unemployment."

"What is at issue is whether economies throughout the world will let financial leverage dismantle the power of elected governments, and hence of democracy. Governments are sovereign. No government actually needs to pay foreign debts or submit to policies that negate the three definitions of a state: to create its own money, to levy taxes, and to declare war."
(Article by Michael Hudson, first published on Global Research, July 7, 2014.) Original videoed interview by RT's Daniel Bushell (Truthseeker program) was on June 29, 2014.

Western support for oligarchs via IMF

Western support will allow more IMF and European lending to prop the Ukrainian currency so the Ukrainian oligarchs can move their money safely to British and US banks, economist and author Michael Hudson told RT’s Truthseeker.

RT:Could you summarize for us the tried and tested steps that will lead from IMF loans, to Ukraine’s best assets ending up in private Western hands – the IMF’s ‘knee-breaker’ role as you memorably described it as?

Michael Hudson: The basic principle to bear in mind is that finance today is war by non-military means. The aim of getting a country in debt is to obtain its economic surplus, ending up with its property. The main property to obtain is that which can produce exports and generate foreign exchange. For Ukraine, this means mainly the Eastern manufacturing and mining companies, which presently are held in the hands of the oligarchs. For foreign investors, the problem is how to transfer these assets and their revenue into foreign hands – in an economy whose international payments are in chronic deficit as a result of the failed post-1991 restructuring. That is where the IMF comes in.

The IMF was not set up to finance domestic government budget deficits. Its loans are earmarked to pay foreign creditors, mainly to maintain a country’s exchange rate. The effect usually is to subsidize flight capital out of the country – at a high exchange rate rather than depositors and creditors getting fewer dollars or euro. In Ukraine’s case, foreign creditors would include Gazprom, which already has been paid something. The IMF transfers a credit to its “Ukraine account,” which then pays foreign creditors. The money never really gets to Ukraine or to other IMF borrowers. It is paid to the accounts of foreigners, including foreign government creditors, as in IMF loans to Greece. Such loans come with“conditionalities” that impose austerity. This in turn drives the economy even further into debt – forcing the government to tighten the budget even more, run even smaller budget deficits and sell off public assets.

RT: Can Ukraine expect the so-called ‘IMF effect’ of 1 in 5 of the impoverished population emigrating to work abroad, and what consequence could this have on a country to lose its brightest minds?

MH: Ukraine already draws in foreign emigrants’ remittances equal to about 4% of its GDP. (About $10 billion a year.) Most of this money comes from Russia, the rest from Western Europe. The effect of IMF austerity plans is to drive more Ukrainians to emigrate in search of work. They will send some of their earnings back to their families, strengthening the Ukrainian currency vis-à-vis the ruble and euro.

RT: How are the IMF’s tools in reality “weapons of mass destruction” as you quoted it?

MH: Lower budget deficits cause even deeper austerity and unemployment. The result is a downward economic spiral. Lower incomes mean lower tax revenues. So governments are told to balance their budgets by selling off public assets – mainly natural monopolies whose buyers can raise excess prices to extract economic rent. The effect is to turn the economy into a renting “tollbooth economy.” Hitherto free public roads are turned into toll roads, and other transportation, water and sewer systems also are privatized. This raises the cost of living, and hence the cost of labor – while overall wage levels are squeezed by the financial austerity that shrinks markets and raises unemployment.

RT: The IMF’s perhaps also a weapon of mass destruction in a more literal sense. The organization has publicly threatened and blackmailed Ukraine that it will ‘re-design’ its aid package, unless Kiev goes to war on fellow Ukrainians in the East of the country and stops them protesting. Does that not make it now literally a criminal accomplice or instigator of war and murder?

MH: The IMF’s “conditionality” is that it “pacify” the East. Pacification may occur violently in today’s Orwellian rhetoric. The only way in which actual political and economic peace can be achieved is by a loose federalization of Ukraine, to make each region independent of the kleptocrats in Kiev, who are appointed mainly from the West.

As for accusations of criminality, this always depends on who is the prosecutor, and what is the court! No country has yet prosecuted the IMF. All that voters can do is reject governments submitting to IMF conditionalities. Many voters who are able will “vote with their feet” and simply leave the sinking economy. So the IMF’s defense is that Ukraine and other clients are voluntarily committing suicide rather than being murdered. Austerity is ultimately a policy – nobody is holding gun to their head, except when political leaders are assassinated as in Chile in 1974 under Pinochet with the US Government behind it. In this sense, Ukraine today is a replay of Chile four decades ago.

Participants in the nationwide Ukrainian rally against bank outrage and for the rights of borrowers under the slogan “No to currency slavery!” by the building of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada. (RIA Novosti)

RT: Everyone knows austerity’s effects on Greece and elsewhere; polls show most Ukrainians don’t want it; even the IMF itself now admits austerity doesn’t work. Why will Ukraine’s leaders allow it to happen, are they guaranteed a cushy job in the West when they’ve voted out or something?

MH: Ukraine’s leaders are mainly kleptocrats. Their aim is not to help the country, but to help consolidate their own power. George Soros has written that their best way to do this is to find Western partners. This will provide US and European backing for the kleptocrats tightening their hold on the economy. Western support will provide more IMF and European lending to support the currency so that the Ukrainian oligarchs can move their money safely to the West, to British banks and US banks.

RT: Do you think that the EU isn’t stupid enough to make Ukraine a full member, so under the one-sided association agreement, member states will just strip the country of its best assets, and use its workers as near slave labor, with Ukraine’s 91 US cents an hour minimum wage?

MH: The EU hardly can really make Ukraine a member. One reason is that a key policy underlying French and German creation of the original Common Market in 1957 was the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Ukraine has rich Western land, and that part of the country is largely still rural. Foreign investors would like to buy it out and “re-feudalize” it, creating large business farms. But the EU is unlikely to provide the subsidies that financed mechanization and capital investment in Western European agriculture.

The EU does not need to formally integrate with Ukraine to benefit from its inexpensive labor. Wrecking the economy Greek-style or Irish-style or Latvian-style is sufficient to send its workers to the West. And the most mobile traditionally are the best educated youth in their 20s, able to speak foreign languages and with skills in demand in the West.

RT: You noted Ukraine ‘must have asked the US first’ before blowing up that gas pipeline. Do you think NATO will support anything even terrorism to make Russian gas seem less reliable, especially while US fracking giants currently are waging a big PR campaign in Europe.

MH: The US has pressed Europe to make its own economy much more high-cost and to rely on US gas exports mainly in order to deprive Russia of foreign exchange. The NATO rationale is essentially that which Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk tweeted on Monday, June 16: Ukraine “won’t continue subsidizing Gazprom [to the tune of] $5 billion annually, so that Russia can arm itself against us [with this money].”

The US position today is what it was in 1991: Without manufacturing, Russia cannot be a serious military power to defend itself. And without purchasing foreign technology and without large state subsidy – as US and European governments provide their own economies – Russia cannot create a manufacturing economy. So NATO is trying to prevent Russia from earning enough money to modernize its economy, on the principle that any industrial power is potentially military, and any military power my potentially be used to achieve political independence from the US sphere.

RT: Anything else you would like to add?

MH: What is at issue is whether economies throughout the world will let financial leverage dismantle the power of elected governments, and hence of democracy. Governments are sovereign. No government actually needs to pay foreign debts or submit to policies that negate the three definitions of a state: to create its own money, to levy taxes, and to declare war.

At issue is who shall rule the world: the emerging 1% as a financial oligarchy, or elected governments. The two sets of aims are antithetical: rising living standards and national independence, or a renting economy, austerity and international dependency.

This article, with the embedded video has been copied from the article of the same name of 29 June 2014 on Global Research. As is said in the introduction, the video should not be viewed by children.     See also: About Ukraine.

We bring to the attention of Global Research readers a film by Russian TV journalist, author and host of the "Moment of Truth" Andrei Karaulov. "Ukrainian fascism." The film is dedicated to the tragic events in Ukraine.

The film's title refers to the classic tape Mikhail Romm's "Ordinary Fascism."

In an interview with IA "Tatar-Inform" Andrei Karaulov said that work on the movie began 10 days ago.

"It turns out, there is still no documentary in our country, which would gather together at least some of the crimes that occurred in the south-east of Ukraine in April, May and June this year. Here we have done the job. And the most important thing in this film, of course, no questions asked Karaulova, and the testimony of those witnesses (over 10 people), who found the courage and strength to tell the truth, having gone through hell in Mariupol, Odessa, etc. " – he said.

The film is intended for Europe, United States, United Nations.

"I talked with the Foreign Minister of the country, and asked him for help – to make it look the ambassadors of all countries in the UN. Those ambassadors who have a conscience and a genuine interest in the events that are currently taking place in the People's Republic of Donetsk " – said the journalist.

On Monday, June 23 disc with pictures will be on the table at the UN Secretary General. Andrei Karaulov also able to contact the Chief of Staff to Barack Obama and to deliver a letter and drive to U.S. President saw the movie and voiced his opinion on it. A similar request by the picture appealed to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.

"All Western media accredited in Moscow, ignored not only the picture, but that came to the show specifically leader Donetsk Republic, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the DNI Dennis Pushilin. Afraid to look!" – Said Andrei Sentries.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is trying to save the world from war. We should all help him. Today Putin's presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov reported that President Putin has asked the Russian legislature to repeal the authorization to use force that was granted in order to protect residents of former Russian territories that are currently part of Ukraine from the rabid Russophobic violence that characterizes Washington's stooge government in Kiev.

Washington's neoconservatives are jubilant. They regard Putin's diplomacy as a sign of weakness and fear, and urge stronger steps that will force Russia to give back Crimea and the Black Sea naval base.

Inside Russia, Washington is encouraging its NGO fifth columns to undercut Putin's support with propaganda that Putin is afraid to stand up for Russians and has sold out Ukraine's Russian population. If this propaganda gains traction, Putin will be distracted by street protests. The appearance of Putin's domestic weakness would embolden Washington. Many members of Russia's young professional class are swayed by Washington's propaganda. Essentially, these Russians, brainwashed by US propaganda, are aligned with Washington, not with the Kremlin.

Putin has placed his future and that of his country on a bet that Russian diplomacy can prevail over Washington's bribes, threats, blackmail, and coercion. Putin is appealing to Western Europeans. Putin is saying, "I am not the problem. Russia is not the problem. We are reasonable. We are ignoring Washington's provocations. We want to work things out and to find a peaceful solution."

Washington is saying: "Russia is a threat. Putin is the new Hitler. Russia is the enemy. NATO and the US must begin a military buildup against the Russian Threat, rush troops and jet fighters to Eastern European NATO bases on Russia's frontier. G-8 meetings must be held without Russia. Economic sanctions must be put on Russia regardless of the damage the sanctions do to Europe." And so forth.

Putin says: "I'm here for you. Let's work this out."

Washington says: "Russia is the enemy."

Putin knows that the UK is a complete vassal puppet state, that Cameron is just as bought-and-paid-for as Blair before him. Putin's hope for diplomacy over force rests on Germany and France. Both countries face Europe's budget and employment woes, and both countries have significant economic relations with Russia. German business interests are a counterweight to the weak Merkel government's subservience to Washington. Washington has stupidly angered the French by trying to steal $10 billion from France's largest bank. This theft, if successful, will destroy France's largest bank and deliver France to Wall Street.

If desire for national sovereignty still exists in the German or French governments, one or both could give the middle finger to Washington and publicly declare that they are unwilling for their country to be drawn into conflict with Russia for the sake of Washington's Empire and the financial hegemony of American banks.

Putin is betting on this outcome. If his bet is a bad one and Europe fails not only Russia but itself and the rest of the world by accommodating Washington's drive for world hegemony, Russia and China will have to submit to Washington's hegemony or be prepared for war.

As neither side can afford to lose the war, the war would be nuclear. As scientists have made clear, life on earth would cease, regardless of whether Washington's ABM shield works.

This is why I oppose Washington's policies and speak out against the arrogance and hubris that define Washington today. The most likely outcome of Washington's pursuit of world hegemony is the extinction of life on earth.

Editorial introduction: Seven decades ago, the civilised world, including Australia, fought a terrible and bloody war to save humanity from German Nazism, Italian Fascism and the murderous Japanese Empire. The cost to humanity was appalling: 60 million died and much of the world's productive capacity was destroyed.₁ Had the Nazis won, the cost to humanity would have been even more terrible as a new era of enslavement and mass murder would have commenced.

Russia's Investigative Committee has put Ukraine's interior minister Arsen Avakov and governor of Dnepropetrovsk Region Igor Kolomoysky on international wanted list

Arsen Avakov

The Russian Investigative Committee has declared Ukrainian interior minister Arsen Avakov and Dnepropetrovsk regional administration head Igor Kolomoisky internationally wanted, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Interfax on Saturday.

"Investigative Committee investigators have issued a directive on declaring Arsen Avakov and Igor Kolomoisky wanted in a criminal case dealing with the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare, aggravated murder, the obstruction of professional activities of journalists, and abduction. This directive has been forwarded to the Interior Ministry's main criminal investigations department.

Avakov and Kolomoisky have been put on the international wanted list valid on the territories of all Interpol member-states," Markin said.

Avakov and Kolomoisky have been accused of organizing a number of crimes, including murder, the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare, the obstruction of professional activities of journalists, and abduction, which are covered by Russian Criminal Code Articles 33, 205, 356, 144, and 126, he said.

Russian investigative committee charges Ukrainian officials with war crimes₂

Russian investigative committee charged Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Dnepropetrovsk Region Governor Igor Kolomoyskyi with war crimes, the committee's official spokesman Vladimir Markin said Friday.

"Under the criminal case, launched on the grounds of a crime of using forbidden warfare, a first degree murder, interfering with the professional activity of journalists and kidnapping of people, a notice has been given of charges against Igor Kolomoyskyi and Arsen Avakov," he said in a statement.

Markin said earlier, the investigators believed the recent kidnapping of Zvezda television channel journalists and the preceding illegal detention of journalists from the same channel, as well as several other Russian journalists were conducted with the knowledge of Avakov, Kolomoyskyi and Defense Ministry officials.

On June 14, Russia's Zvezda (Star) channel reported the second detention of its journalists in Ukraine in the past two months reporter Evgeny Davydov and sound engineer Nikita Konashenkov were captured in Dnepropetrovsk and held in the Justice Ministry building. The journalists were released and arrived in Moscow two days later.

Both journalists were visibly bruised, and were ushered to an ambulance to be taken to a hospital for screening.

On Tuesday, a Russian TV journalist and a sound engineer were killed in a mortar attack near Ukrainian city of Luhansk.

A total of five media workers have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the year.

Read also:

It's beyond understanding that killings of journalists occur in 21st century Europe – expert

Five media workers killed in Ukraine since beginning of year - Reporters Without Borders

Russian reporters' death shows criminal essence of Ukraine's punitive operation - CSTO

East Ukrainian self-defence forces reject Kiev's ultimatum to disarm, republished from article of 22 June 2014 on PressTV.

Appendix: Russia puts Ukraine minister, governor on wanted list

– republished from PressTV.

Russia's Investigative Committee has put Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Igor Kolomoisky, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, on the international wanted list over charges of war crimes.

The committee spokesman, Vladimir Markin, said Saturday that the two Ukrainian officials have been put on the international wanted list, which is valid in the territories of all Interpol member states.

Avakov and Kolomoisky are wanted in a "criminal case dealing with the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare, aggravated murder, the obstruction of professional activities of journalists, and abduction," said Markin.

The committee spokesman did not rule out the possibility of adding more Ukrainian officials to the wanted list.

"Investigators are taking measures to establish all persons from among commanders and servicemen of Ukraine's armed forces, 'the National Guard of Ukraine' and (far-right ultra-nationalist movement) Right Sector militants involved in conducting a punitive operation against the civilian population in Ukraine's southeast, which has killed many civilians," said Markin.

The spokesman continued by saying that more than 40 investigators are working with people arriving from Ukraine, who have suffered from crimes. According to Markin, the investigators have so far questioned 2,400 eyewitnesses and over 1,000 people who have arrived in Russia from Ukraine's troubled east and who have filed applications to Russian investigators for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

On June 20, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko ordered the government forces to observe a week-long unilateral ceasefire in the country's southeastern region. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday that he is concerned that despite the truce, Kiev's military operation "is increasing."

Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking parts in the east have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in the southeastern regions in mid-April in a bid to root out the protests there.

The government in Kiev says it is targeting armed protesters, but reports say many civilians have been caught in the fighting. According to the United Nations, at least 356 people, including 257 civilians, have been killed in the clashes since May 7.

CAH/HJL

Footnote[s]

1. ↑ Even if the Second World War could not have been avoided — and some political participants believe it could have been, notably UK Labor politician Konni Zilliacus (1894-1967), — the death toll should not have been anywhere near as great for the Western Allies. (As terrible as these losses were, they were still only a fraction of the death toll suffered by countries like the Soviet Union, Poland and China.) The Second World War, in the West could easily have ended by 1943. The overthrow of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in July 1943 and the all-too-brief liberation of the entire Italian Peninsula from the yoke of fascism is only one of a number of examples where the opportunity for a quick victory over Nazi Germany was thrown away. Evidently because the manufacturers of the Western Allies' war materials stood to gain far more by prolonging the war than by ending it, the war was needlessly prolonged. This will be the subject of another article. How the terrible defeats of 1941 and the vastly more terrible death toll — at least 20 million — suffered by the Soviet Union in that war, could have been avoided will be the subject of another article too. - Ed

2. ↑ At times, the link to the Voice of Russia web-site is not good in Australia. When I clicked on the link my browser displayed the message: "502 Bad Gateway — nginx". In fact, no pages from Voice of Russia (http://voiceofrussia.com/) can be downloaded at the moment. - 10:31PM 22 June 2014, Ed

Valery Bolotov, Lugansk self-defence forces' commander, rejecting Kiev junta's ultimatum

Pro-Moscow forces have rejected a 'truce' plan proposed by Western puppet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as the war against eastern parts of Ukraine by Nazis and their mercenary and NATO allies continues. The leader of the self-declared Lugansk People's Republic, Valery Bolotov, said on Friday that pro-Russia forces will not lay down their arms until a full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the area.

On Friday, Poroshenko announced a one-week cease-fire plan aimed at curbing the militancy in the restive east. The plan reportedly includes an amnesty for anti-government protesters who lay down arms, and tighter controls over Ukraine's border with Russia. Poroshenko also urged that pro-Russians should use the opportunity to disarm and leave the Ukrainian territory.

On the same day, the Kremlin issued a statement, saying the move was "not an invitation to peace and negotiations but an ultimatum".

Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking parts in the east have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in the southeastern regions in mid-April in a bid to root out the demonstrations there.

The government in Kiev says it is targeting armed protesters, but reports say many civilians have been caught in the shelling. According to the United Nations, at least 356 people, including 257 civilians, have been killed in the clashes since May 7.

HRM/MHB/MAM

Snapshots of the PressTV Broadcast

I was not able to embed the short PressTV broadcast, so, instead, I have included snapshots of the Broadcast, below. If you wish to view the 40 second broadcast, please visit the PressTV page. - Ed

PressTV presenter

Valery Bolotov rejects ultimatum from Kiev Junta

Western puppet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko

The Kiev Junta

Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov

Editorial comment

Whilst this report is helpful, informative, and an indispensible alternative to the lying mainstream presstitute media, I find the presenter's style in describing the fight for survival by East Ukrainians against the Kiev Nazis and their mercenary allies to be unnecessarily restrained. - Ed

Transcript from http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/165688-media-propaganda-john-pilger/

The Ukraine government has stepped up its assault in the eastern part of the country. Tensions are running high between the NATO bloc and Russia, as both sides carry out military exercises. Journalists are being arrested and deported from the battlefields in Ukraine. The media war goes full speed. What will the conflict bring in the future? Will the civil war in Ukraine spill over the borders? Today we ask these questions to a veteran journalist and war correspondent. John Pilger is on Sophie&Co.

Follow @SophieCo_RT

Sophie Shevardnadze:John Pilger, veteran journalist, war correspondent, author, director – welcome, its really great to have you on our show today. Now, we’re just going to go ahead and start with Ukraine. Not a week goes by without journalists detained and assaulted in Ukraine – so why aren’t we hearing any condemnation of these incidents from the West?

John Pilger: I think in your part of the world you must be used to a pretty one-sided view coming from here. Over here in the West we don’t believe we’re biased at all – in fact, we believe we’re the essence of objectivity and impartiality, but of course when it comes to great power politics, that simply is not true. Ukraine has been presented here generally as an act of Russian manipulation and aggression. There has been some better reporting than that, but that generally is the view.