Moscow News: The foreign hand behind Ukraine’s protests

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Vicky Pelaez – December 17, 2013) Examine everything you see/Then ask yourself/Who are they this time? (Taras Shevchenko, “The Friendly Epistle”)

The protests that broke out in Kiev on November 21 in response to President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to postpone the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union have brought the country to the brink of a political and economic crisis.

Violent clashes between protesters and riot police on Independence Square, in central Kiev, prompted the world’s press to unleash a media war against the Ukrainian government, accusing it of human rights violations, and, sure enough, expressing its solidarity with the protesters’ demand for government change in Ukraine and the country’s integration into the EU.

European and U.S. politicians respond in unison, bringing to mind the famous proverb about fishing in troubled waters. Not only are they demonstrating their solidarity with the Ukrainian opposition, but they are personally getting involved in the protest rallies. This has been the case with Foreign Ministers Guido Westerwelle of Germany and John Baird of Canada, as well as with many other statesmen from countries such as Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Georgia, and the United States.

Just imagine what would happen to Russian politicians attempting to join a rally of “enraged citizens” somewhere in Spain or the United States or to offer some $15 million in aid to opposition parties there – something U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has done for Ukraine’s opposition. Lady Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the European Union, also came by to say “hello” to the protesters rallying on Kiev’s Independence Square and to meet personally with their leaders.

Many foreign “specialists” skilled in orchestrating “color revolutions” came to Kiev from Serbia, Germany, Great Britain, the United States, and Georgia long before November 21, claims Oleg Zarev, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, the Supreme Rada. Some of those “specialists,” such as the U.S.’ Fink Brian, recommend that the Ukrainian opposition should resort to violent action, even if victims should ensue, in order to set the stage for a government overthrow. The most experienced of the “color revolution” experts come from Serbia’s Otpor, the organization that brought an end to Slobodan Milosevic’s government in Yugoslavia and paved the way for the country’s disintegration. U.S. journalists Steve Horn and Carl Gibson of the Counterpunch magazine claim that Srdja Popovic, the late former leader of Otpor who has taken an active part in all “color revolutions” since the breakup of the Socialist bloc, was bankrolled by the U.S. State Department and worked for the Strategic Forecasting Income (Stratfor), a private U.S.-based organization specializing in espionage and intelligence. Popovic was often invited to attend meetings of the U.S. National Security Council, they say.

Ukraine has long been the object of geopolitical interest with the United States and the European Union, and this interest grew dramatically following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In the 1980s, former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski came to the conclusion that Russia would be normal nation state if it did not control Ukraine, but as it was, it  could only be considered an empire. Hence the West’s primary task was to do everything possible to alienate Ukraine from Russia and integrate it into NATO, so as to be able to corner Russia militarily. From 1989 onwards, Brzezinski devoted himself to the elaboration of a plan to gain Ukraine’s independence, thus preventing the resurgence of Russia as a superpower. The “orange revolution” in Ukraine in 2004 was part of that plan. Among other things, it was aimed at destabilizing the Russian regions bordering Ukraine.

Surprisingly, the Russian government has never responded to Brzezinski’s projects concerning Russia’s future and has never called into question his behavior toward the country. Yet, during a visit to Siberia, he floated the idea of the region seceding from Russia and integrating instead with the U.S. — something that, in his words, should bring prosperity and well-being to the Siberians. Another globalization guru, Henry Kissinger, who spoke recently at The World in 2014 forum in New York, said it was a strategic error for U.S. and European politicians to focus on the human rights situation in Ukraine as this would jeopardize the country’s prospective integration with the EU. According to Kissinger, it is highly important for Europe to bring Ukraine into its fold and to be able to do so, U.S.’ and EU’s policies toward Ukraine should be disassociated from the issue of human rights.

All this explains why the U.S. and the EU do not call into question the participation of Neo-Nazi parties in the Independence Square rallies. One of the most seasoned and vociferous of these organizations is the Svoboda (Freedom) party, linked with France’s National Front. A short time ago, the party replaced its old emblem – a Germanic rune – with a new image, that of a hand with three fingers stretched out. Svoboda-affiliated activists were behind the recent toppling of a statue of Lenin — an act imitating the style of the Taliban in Afghanistan and of al-Qaeda operators in Iraq, Libya and Syria. The party’s leader, Oleg Tyagnibog, then urged his compatriots to “struggle against Moscow’s Jewish mafia.”

Another Ukrainian party, the Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR-Golpe), has called for the removal of the Yanukovych government despite its having been elected through a legitimate vote. The party’s leader, professional boxer Vitaly Klitchko, promises that if it accedes the EU, within 15 years Ukraine will become one of Europe’s strongest nations and that a Ukrainian national will be at the helm of the European Commission. The darling of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Klitchko enjoys financial support from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. But his promises are illusory. It was he and other Ukrainian opposition leaders, such as Tyagnibok and Yazeniuk, who sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama with a request for aid and economic and political sanctions against the Ukrainian government.

By signing the Association Agreement with the European Union, Ukraine’s incumbent leadership will have to automatically commit itself to EU and IMF austerity measures and neoliberal reforms – in a style infamously known as the Washington Consensus, which destroyed the industrial infrastructure of Latin America in the 1980s. According to the scholar Jozsef Borocz, the EU also demands that Ukraine get rid of all the institutional mechanisms that the nation developed over the centuries to protect its economy from the unfair competition  and possible crises.

The IMF and the European Commission are now putting forward various conditions for Ukraine’s Association, stressing the need for the nation to restructure its entire productive system in line with EU standards. This implies the shutdown of many production facilities, the replacement of domestic producers with Europeans, and greater unemployment and impoverishment for the native population. The IMF also insists that Ukraine should raise its natural gas and heat prices by 40%, along with freezing salaries and eliminating all kinds of subsidies.

This process of refashioning the national system in line with EU standards is a costly one, and Ukraine would hardly be able to finance it single-handedly, without any aid from Brussels. Initially, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said between 150 and 180 billion euros should be granted to Ukraine for the country to decide in favor of its European integration. Obviously, the EU cannot pay this amount of money as it is still in the grips of an economic crisis. According to the The World in 2014 forum, Europe’s economies aren’t expected to post any economic growth next year.

The EU responded by pledging 610 million euros in macro-financial loans on the condition that Ukraine end its reform program with the IMF. Ukraine then reduced its bid to 20 billion. In response, the European Commission pledged 120 million euros in annual aid plus another 50 million per annum to advance democratic reform in Ukraine. From the economic point of view, now it is not the best time for the EU to take a new country under its care, especially one as populous as Ukraine, with its 46 million inhabitants. But in today’s globalized world, politics and ideology seem to have more clout than economic indicators.

Ukraine itself would be better off now if it maintained a close commercial relationship with Russia rather than integrating with the EU. Sixty percent of Ukrainian exports end up in Russia. But European and U.S. globalists fear that Ukraine’s potential rapprochement with Russia could further consolidate President Vladimir Putin’s aim to create a Eurasian Union with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, with the aim of forming a pole of stability in the region. To prevent this, EU politicians are now trying to separate Ukraine from Russia and integrate it into Europe, with a view to benefiting from its rich breadbasket potential and its skilled yet cheap workforce.

In these circumstances, the Yanukovych government is oscillating between its Customs Union treaty with Russia and its Association Agreement with Europe. It is in two minds as to whether it should accept Russia’s terms or agree to go the opposite way, toward the EU and the U.S.

Driven by foreign interests, the euphoric and vehement Independence Square protesters are meanwhile demanding Ukraine’s accession to the EU. They seem happy to blindly accept all ensuing consequences, including the austerity measures and neoliberal reforms that would be imposed by the IMF.

Kiev, where the protests are taking place, is home to 2.8 million people. The country’s remaining 40 million inhabitants are not protesting, so the globalist media just do not take them into account. But it is the will of those 40 million that will eventually define Ukraine’s future. It is just a matter of time.