The price of oil has dropped. Russia is sad, and we’re all glad, it seems. Except for someone like me, who understands that when we make a government suffer, the innocent population suffers as well. Venezuela and other Latin-American oil producers are suffering as well. But it’s cause for jubilation here in the new exclusively singular world super-power.
For some reason, the OPEC oil cartel has decided to let prices remain low. I think we should be suspecting the United States of leaning upon them to do just that.
For the Russian government to be teetering on the edge of financial collapse is not enough for us, though. Congress has put a new round of unprecedented sanctions into effect against both Venezuela, and Russia. This is to further punish Russia for their “meddling” in the affairs of Ukraine. Our news commentators merely parrot the government’s line, which are variations on the theme of this: “For no reason whatsoever, Vladimir Putin insists on destabilizing Ukraine, causing the entire problem in that country, single-handedly bearing the responsibility for the crisis.”
For one thing, those who have closely followed events in Ukraine know that Europe and the USA actually had a lot to do with sparking the crisis that led to the regime-change which Ukrainian President Yanukovych called a coup d’état. He was not alone in his assessment of the events. As you can see from his article in Truthdig, former Congressman Dennis Kucinich agrees that it was a coup [link below]. I understand also that it was a violent overthrow of an elected government, influenced by the USA and the European Union. The E.U. had been courting Ukraine to abandon trade and relations with Moscow, in favor of closer ties to the ‘West’, including a path to joining NATO. This was completely enraging to Mr. Putin, and, by the way, disappointing to Michael Gorbachev, who had been promised by the then U.S. President that NATO would never expand into the former Soviet Republics. Gorbachev has vocally complained, recently, about this. Another factor was the insistence of the E.U., at the time, that it had to be an all-or-nothing deal. They couldn’t have both Russia and the E.U. as partners. The E.U. insisted that they had to completely reject the Russian deal (which was a much better deal). When Yanukovych refused, and went for the Moscow deal, the coup was set in motion. Does this look like Russia making an unprovoked intervention? To me, it looks like the western powers started the war. And it looks like the U.S. was shaping events, and choosing the future leaders of Ukraine even in February, as was revealed in the leaked conversation of Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State, with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. Here are some quotes:
Nuland: “What do you think?”
Pyatt: “I think we’re in play. The Klitscho piece is obviously the complicated electron here. Especially the announcement of him as deputy prime minister…
Nuland: “Good. I don’t think Klitch should go into the government…
“I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience.”
[‘Yats’ is Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who actually did become Ukraine’s present interim prime minister.] Nuland speaks of the events leading to what I call a coup as if they are constructing a project: “So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and to have the U.N. glue it, and, you know, f*ck the E.U.”
Later, Pyatt says: “But anyway we could land jelly side up on this one if we move fast. So let me work on Klitschko and if you can just keep… we want to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing.
For the BBC article on the events, see
http://www.bbc.com/...
Victoria Nuland admits that the U.S. has “invested” $5 billion toward Ukrainian “democracy”. And we can clearly see that she and others in the U.S. government were there acting as provocateurs, influencing events, as hired thugs patrolled outside parliament and even inside, leading to the rightful leader of Ukraine being abruptly ousted, fleeing for his life. This whole chain of events and revelations, which I thought was absolutely shocking, was briefly mentioned in the media, and then forgotten, it seems. Now, it’s been swept under the carpet, and we act as though we haven’t done anything to provoke the anger of Moscow. A new member of NATO is being formed, right at their doorstep! This was obviously going to force some kind of move from Vladimir Putin. Was he to let a valuable Russian military naval base go to a coup d’état, a future member of NATO?
But most Americans have no idea of what led up to the war in Ukraine. We’re all just being spoon-fed the propaganda, repeated mindlessly by the news anchors, that for no reason, Putin just began meddling in the affairs of Ukraine, and caused the entire mess, unprovoked. What the hell is going on in this country, the USA? Are we sweeping the truth of how history is occurring under the rug, covering it over with government propaganda? Have our news media outlets become puppets of some government P.R. firm?
But regardless of who is to blame for the subsequent war that has boiled over since then, let’s just look at what the USA is doing now. We’re leveling new sanctions on Russia, on top of all that’s been done already. Also in the sanctions is a resolution to get Ukraine accepted into NATO. Vladimir Putin is expected to simply slink away in defeat, leaving a big, important former Russian military base behind, as well as thousands (millions?) of pro-Russian, Russian-speaking Ukrainians.
Does our government think Russia is so weak? Do they think that Putin will just acquiesce and give up so easily? Do we not have any fear of confrontation with a nuclear power? I think we had better think twice about squeezing too hard, when Putin’s very success or failure as a leader is on the line. It’s a cliché, but do I have to remind Congress and our President that an animal, when backed into a corner, will violently lash out in self-preservation.
I try to be as self-deprecating and humble as possible. I am only a writer, and a reader of the news, being reported by real reporters. But it seems so simple to me, that a child should be able to see that we are headed dangerously close to a confrontation with a nuclear power. We should be more alarmed than ever, that a catastrophic escalation of events could occur in this situation.
Look at this quote, from the Al Jazeera news site, Dec. 27.
A new military doctrine signed by President Vladimir Putin identified NATO as Russia's number one military threat and raised the possibility of a broader use of precision conventional weapons to deter foreign aggression.
The new doctrine was signed on Friday, and it maintains the provisions of the 2010 edition of the military doctrine regarding the use of nuclear weapons.
The doctrine, which came amid tensions over Ukraine, reflected the Kremlin's readiness to take a stronger posture in response to what it sees as US-led efforts to isolate and weaken Russia.
Russia's relations with the West have plummeted to their lowest level since Cold War times, and NATO cut off ties to Moscow after it annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March.
The doctrine says Russia could employ nuclear weapons in retaliation for the use of nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction against the country or its allies, and also in the case of aggression involving conventional weapons that "threatens the very existence'' of the Russian state.
For the first time, the new doctrine says Russia could use precision weapons "as part of strategic deterrent measures", the Associated Press reported.
http://www.aljazeera.com/...
___________________
With such conversations and actions taking place inside the Kremlin, I think it’s about time we all woke up to the danger that’s facing the world.
But this is the way we deal with a desperate, angry Russia: our congress slipped the new round of sanctions against Russia, next to a plan to get Ukraine accepted into NATO, into the last-minute spending bill recently signed by the President. We heard about the big deregulatory gift to the big banks, but this has hardly been mentioned. Well, it has been noticed in Moscow, and they are responding to it as I write!
These new sanctions against Russia are quite strong. I won’t list them here. But please look at this article, by Dennis Kucinych. He lists them all. He is worried as well, and he is a wiser and more experienced man than me.
http://www.truthdig.com/...
This is a heck of a shocking article, to me. Oh, we also allocated fifty million dollars for a corporate takeover of Ukraine’s gas and oil sector. Just to make sure that we not only shit on Russia, but rub it in, as well. I will be surprised if a real military conflict between these two nuclear powers doesn’t happen soon.