Kiev Losing Control

Not having posted on Ukraine since the sham OSCE round table talks the middle of May, there is a good place to dip back. Sabrina Tavernise has an interesting story this morning, "Separatists Storm Border Post in Eastern Ukraine." What is interesting about it is the story undercuts its own headline. But I'll get to that in a minute.

First, a few words about Sabrina Tavernise. I remember her as a reporter in Iraq covering the U.S. occupation during the period of time preceding the surge. She is very attractive, which is memorable, but I also thought she was intelligent. I didn't follow her in Lebanon, but recently she has been covering public health in the United States. (I did a post on a story she did about the low life expectancy in the U.S. compared to other developed countries.)

That's why it is sad for me to find her in Donbass peddling the U.S. Department/Gray Lady line: the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine is experiencing a Putin-contrived violent rebellion against the people-powered democratic government in Kiev.

This morning she reports that a border control headquarters in the city of Luhansk was attacked by "Hundreds of separatist fighters":

The attack in Luhansk, Ukraine’s easternmost province, began at 4 a.m. and fighting was still raging at noon. Oleg Slobodyan, a spokesman for the Ukrainian state border service, said about 500 rebels had stormed the district headquarters building in the Mirny neighborhood, using automatic weapons and rocket launchers with snipers posted in nearby apartment buildings.

Five rebels were killed and eight wounded, Mr. Slobodyan said, though there was no independent confirmation of that count. Seven border guards were injured, he added.

Then five paragraphs later she refutes the first part of the story and says it was the Right Sector dominated Ukrainian National Guard that attacked the border control HQ:

The rebels gave a different view of the fight, saying that their forces were battling members of the ultranationalist Ukrainian group Pravy Sektor and the National Guard, a quasi-governmental force that includes many of the so-called defenders of Maidan who were part of the protests in Kiev that toppled the government this year. 

According to an account from the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, citing the press service of the separatist Luhansk People’s Republic, several hundred armed men took up positions around the border patrol building and began shooting at around 4 a.m. It was not clear who the men were, but the agency characterized the fight as being between Ukrainian nationalist radicals and central government forces. 

It also said that the Ukrainian military had sent a fighter jet to defend the building. Mr. Slobodyan acknowledged that a jet had been dispatched, but he said it flew over without taking action because the fighting was taking place in a residential area.

This squares with plenty of information about the reluctance of the Ukrainian military to get involved in the fighting going back to the beginning of the Donbass uprising. Right Sector is there to guarantee that the Ukrainian military fights. Here is how The Saker describes it in a post from Saturday:

Right now the junta is using an old Bolshevik technique: they send conscript units into combat and right behind them they use "blocking squads" - special Right Sector death squads which will summarily execute anybody not willing fight. While such methods are more or less doable in open terrain they are absolutely impossible to use in an urban environment. Thus, those Ukrainian army forces which might be able to competently execute an urban assault (paratroopers) are rarely willing to do so, while those who would be most willing to do so would either be killed in minutes ("street rioter turned national guardsman in 2 weeks") or to cowardly to try (death squads).

Tavernise basically paints the same picture in her story:

The attack was a deeply troubling sign for Ukraine’s new government, whose president elect, Petro O. Poroshenko, has pledged to crush the separatist movement in the country’s east. That promise may prove difficult to keep, particularly in the lawless areas of southeastern Luhansk, where separatists control large swaths of territory that have become combat zones for Ukrainian forces. 

The assault also raised the question of how strong the central government’s forces are in the east, where many members of the police and other state security forces have either melted away or joined the rebels. Border guards are one of the few forces left in eastern Ukraine, but are not particularly practiced in combat.

If you take the forty minutes or so to watch Frontline's "The Battle for Ukraine," which was broadcast May 27, you come away with a similar impression. The country is being pushed towards anarchy and civil war by the Ukrainian ultra-nationalism of Right Sector. The reporting is strongly skewed toward the Western perspective. The Donbass uprising is portrayed as violent and lawless and paid for by Russia; the bloody attacks on the Maidan in February are entirely the fault of Yanukovych's security forces; Yanukovych abandoned the government in Kiev instead of escaping from a Right Sector death squad; Stepan Bandera was a nationalist hero who fought both the Soviets and the Nazis without a word about the ample role of Bandera's Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in the Holocaust; the strong turnout for the independence vote in Donbass was downplayed; etc.

Nonetheless, the picture "The Battle for Ukraine" presents is clear. Right Sector is attacking the east and Ukraine is being torn apart. You have Dmytro Yarosh on camera saying so.

Keystone XL, Ukraine and the Disconnect of Ruling Elites

The United States is a nation in crisis. This is clear from the reaction to what is happening in Ukraine. The animal-like shrieking set off by Russia's move to establish control of the Crimean peninsula is evidence of a country seriously off its rocker. And mind you, it is not the masses who have set up this wail. There is more evidence of mass mobilization over Obama's pending approval of the Keystone XL pipeline than anything having to do with what is going on in Ukraine. But you wouldn't know that from reading "the paper of record." Despite the fact that 300 people were arrested this past Sunday protesting Keystone XL in front of the White House, the Gray Lady chose to focus Monday morning on a pro-putsch rally of less than 300, mostly Ukrainian-Americans, that took place the previous day in midtown Manhattan.

The shrieking is coming from the elite. This is clearly on display each day in the pages of the New York Times. Take for instance today's story by Peter Baker, "Debate Over Who, in U.S., Is to Blame for Ukraine":

Most provocative, perhaps, was Senator Lindsey Graham, who faces a Republican primary challenge from the right in South Carolina. He traced the Ukrainian crisis to the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the envoy to Libya and three other Americans. “It started with Benghazi,” Mr. Graham said on Twitter. “When you kill Americans and nobody pays a price, you invite this type of aggression.” He added in another post: “Putin basically came to the conclusion after Benghazi, Syria, Egypt — everything Obama has been engaged in — he’s a weak indecisive leader.”

This is the same Lindsey Graham who threatened punishing consequences for the Karzai government if it went ahead with a release of prisoners suspected of being affiliated with the Taliban. Well, the prisoners were released and as of yet no punishment.

Senator Graham might be forgiven since slapping around the black guy in the White House plays well to the Tea Party primary voters. But what about the U.S. State Department releasing a tendentious reply to Putin's press conference the other day? "10 False Claims About Ukraine" is an embarrassing attempt to staunch the daily information war losses to U.S. credibility. It is somewhat effective in creating the impressive that ethnic Russians are not under direct assault from their Ukrainian brethren. Of course, it never directly engages in the unpleasant facts regarding the looting of the arsenal in Lviv by Banderists, which prompted Yanukovych to flee Kiev after his security detail deserted, nor the prompt rescinding of the official status of the Russian language by the putsch parliament.

Today C.J. Chivers has a story, "One Goal in Hand, Kiev’s Demonstrators Vow to Stay ‘Until the End’," where he strolls the Maidan and describes the continuing mobilization of street fighters. What's noteworthy is how he airbrushes the history of collaboration with the Nazis and participation in the Holocaust by ultranationalist groups from Ukraine's west who hail Stepan Bandera as their patron saint:

The sotni formed in the tradition of western Ukraine’s World War II-era guerrillas, men who fought for Ukrainian independence even after the war, fighting the Soviets well into the 1950s. Some of the groups are nationalistic to the point of being ultra-right-wing. Among them, at least on the margins, are factions that many fellow Ukrainians regard as anti-Semitic and reactionary, including Right Sector, which commands Sotnya No. 23.

Back to the State Department's rebuttal of Putin, what is particularly weak is its defense of the legitimacy of the putsch government:

Mr. Putin says: Ukraine’s government is illegitimate. Yanukovych is still the legitimate leader of Ukraine. 

The Facts: On March 4, President Putin himself acknowledged the reality that Yanukovych “has no political future.” After Yanukovych fled Ukraine, even his own Party of Regions turned against him, voting to confirm his withdrawal from office and to support the new government. Ukraine’s new government was approved by the democratically elected Ukrainian Parliament, with 371 votes – more than an 82% majority. The interim government of Ukraine is a government of the people, which will shepherd the country toward democratic elections on May 25th – elections that will allow all Ukrainians to have a voice in the future of their country.

Ukraine has a constitutional process for removing a sitting president. It is called impeachment. We have it in the United States too. A trial must be conducted. It takes time. The States Department knows this. The State Department knows the the putsch government is illegitimate. The State Department is lying.

But let's return to the top of the post and those young college students who are willing to go to jail to prevent the export of tar sands via pipeline from Canada to port terminals in Texas. The U.S. strategy to weaken Russia is to speed the export of North America's natural gas bonanza by means of rapid construction of liquefied natural gas terminals at the nation's ports. Coral Davenport and Steven Erlanger have the story, "U.S. Hopes Boom in Natural Gas Can Curb Putin." Thomas Friedman indulged this fantasy in his column yesterday. The idea is that if the U.S. can flood overseas markets with natural gas, Europe will not be so vulnerably dependent on Gazprom and Putin will be neutered.

Of course there is hardly any mention how controversial this method, fracking, is that led to the current U.S. abundance of natural gas. Los Angeles recently banned it in the city limits.

Once again, governmental elites are totally disconnected from reality. Given the current trajectory, the situation cannot be maintained for too much longer.

Vlad Speaks, the Putschists Freak

The situation in Ukraine grows more complex. For days the Western press has been keening over Vlad Putin's silence, interpreting it as a sign that the Kremlin was caught flatfooted and overrun by the U.S.-backed Banderist-led putsch last week. But now Putin has spoken, and it is a masterpiece of ambiguity. Here is the statement as it appears on the President of Russia's web site:

Vladimir Putin instructed the Government to continue contacts with partners in Kiev on developing Russian-Ukrainian trade and economic ties.

Mr Putin also gave the instruction to hold consultations with foreign partners, including the IMF and the G8 countries, on organising financial assistance for Ukraine.

Also, following an appeal from Crimean regional authorities for humanitarian aid, Mr Putin instructed the Government to examine this matter, including possibilities for the Russian regions to provide assistance.

It is an "all options are on the table" statement which, while holding open the possibility of negotiations with the putsch government in Kiev, reserves the right to intervene in the Crimea, based on the preferred Western rationale for the use of force, "humanitarian aid."

The vaunted multi-dimensional chessmaster Obama is feeling queasy about now. His poll numbers are steadily heading south. The politician who successfully sold himself as an agent of hope and change will very shortly find his approval ratings in the thirty-percent range, a purgatory from which there is no return. The Democratic rank and file are deserting him. No small number of these deserters are motivated primarily by the Nobel Peace Prize winner's covert war against Syria, and now, his backing of a fascist putsch in Ukraine.

It is with this in mind that Obama steps into the ring with Putin, a leader who has bested him toe-to-toe in the last two "title fights" -- Edward Snowden and the response to the Ghouta sarin attack. Granted, a well-orchestrated information war (which clearly illustrated the totalitarian nature of the Western corporate media), adversely affected  the Sochi Winter Olympics. But the games, despite some warm weather, received high marks. Now it is once again Vlad's time to shine.

And that is what is important to realize here. Time is on Russia's side. Once the putsch parliament accepts the IMF austerity mandates any tenuous grasp on power will quickly come undone. That's why the latest news, weapon-toting men in fatigues without insignia stationed in front of two airports in the Crimea following a move by the pro-Russian parliament in the Crimean capital of Simferopol to pursue greater autonomy from Kiev, might bring events to a climax faster than Putin would prefer.

The putschists are freaking out. This from Andrew Higgins and Patrick Reevell, "Armed Men Take Position at Two Airports in Crimea":

“Tension is building,” Mr. Avakov [putsch interior minister] wrote on Facebook, adding: “I regard what is happening as an armed invasion and occupation in violation of all international treaties and norms. This is a direct provoking of armed bloodshed on the territory of a sovereign state.” 

Igor K. Tresilaty, who identified himself as assistant to the general director at the international airport, said Friday that the soldiers were remaining in common areas outside the airport, in the restaurant and in parking lots. 

He added that he did not know who they were and expressed no curiosity about them, saying only that they looked professional. 

“They’re walking around, but we, nor the police, can’t have any complaint against them because they’re not violating anything, they’re not touching anyone,” Mr. Tresilaty said. 

He said that some of the soldiers had tried to occupy the working areas of the airport overnight but that the authorities there had not allowed it. 

When a reporter suggested removing the soldiers, he invited journalists to attempt ejecting them if they felt up to the task. He said the airport was functioning normally, with no delays or cancellations. 

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which is based in Crimea, denied that its forces were involved in the deployment at one of the airports. But the national Parliament in Kiev issued an appeal for Russia to “stop moves that show signs of undermining national sovereignty” in Ukraine, Reuters reported, and it urged the United States and Britain to honor commitments made in the early 1990s to protect the country’s territorial integrity. 

Parliament also called on the United Nations Security Council to debate the issue, apparently seeking to broaden the dispute.

This reaction for a few guys with guns in front of a couple of airports? Compared to what happened in Kiev since last November, the violent occupation of many government buildings by well-armed Banderists? Really? It makes Yanukovych look fearless in comparison.

This moaning for "big daddy" Uncle Sam and his poodle Tommy shows that the putschists don't command popular support to prevent a Russian-speaking region from going its own way. That's important because there is no lever, popular or otherwise, for the West to intervene.

Ukraine: a Fascist Putsch?

A tentative agreement has been announced, an agreement that was apparently brokered with assistance from Russia, Poland, France and Germany. The U.S., EU and the opposition apparently have secured what they want -- new elections and a commitment to curtail presidential power. But will now everyone pack up and go home?

What is a putsch? It is an attempt to violently overthrow a government by a small group. When we think of "putsch" we usually think of the Beer Hall of Putsch of Hitler and Ludendorff. A putsch is like a coup d'état with the difference being that we usually associate a coup d'état with the capture of the state by the military or a branch of the military.

What we saw last July in Cairo was a coup d'état. Chairman of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces Abdul Fatah el-Sisi ousted the elected President Mohamed Morsi, abolished Morsi's government and installed a new one. What we are seeing in Kiev is a putsch. Street fighters from the western part of Ukraine are attempting to topple the elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych.

In both Egypt and Ukraine the popular element in opposition to the elected presidents cannot be discounted. At the same time it is important to recognize that without the intervention of the military in Egypt or the mobilization of far-right, pro-fascist goon squads in Ukraine the people-power uprisings would have amounted to nothing more than another "Occupy Wall Street"-type non-violent protest.

The role of the media in the West is to do all it can to obscure the fact that what we are witnessing in Kiev is a putsch. To achieve this goal the Gray Lady's two reporters, Andrew Kramer and Andrew Higgins, aided by their editors, have mustered all their talents to obscure the fact that the escalation of the violence this week in Kiev is due to the actions of the organized street fighters of the far right.

First, on Tuesday, street fighters attacked security forces in front of Parliament after opposition members were unsuccessful in passing measures to limit presidential power. This caused a spike in violence and many fatalities. Then, after a truce had been struck, street fighters broke the truce and attacked police lines, which led to another spike in violence and even more fatalities.

In neither case has the New York Times been honest in its reporting. In both instances, the Yanukovych government is blamed for a lack of restraint and for the use of excessive force. The esteemed Gray Lady is indistinguishable from any run-of-the-mill administration press secretary who must sing for her supper.

Sensing that their credibility might be tarnished, Higgins and Kramer publish a piece today where they acknowledge the role played by the far right in the uprising. Titled "Converts Join With Militants in Kiev Clash," it is, as one would expect, a mostly tendentious portrayal of right-wing Ukrainian nationalism that airbrushes away its roots in the fascism of ultra-nationalist Stepan Bandera.

Higgins and Kramer fail to mention the Nazi connection, something odd since comparisons to Hitler and Nazi crimes are a favorite theme in the Western media, but they do allow a small window on a reality they are struggling to obscure:

Many Ukrainians, who doggedly oppose the government, look with horror at the use of firebombs, rocks and, on occasion, guns to oust the president, who was democratically elected in 2010 and whose future is scheduled to be decided at the ballot box in 2015. 

Revulsion is particularly strong in the east of the country, where Mr. Yanukovych first made his career in politics, where most people speak Russian rather than Ukrainian, and where Ukrainian nationalist heroes like Stepan Bandera are viewed as fascist traitors. 

“We have a genetic memory of fascism here,” said Anatoly Skripnik, a businessman in the eastern city of Dnepropetrovsk.