Ukraine on the brink
By Israel Shamir
Half a year ago, in the very last day of May I
came to an age-old tiny and tranquil Ukrainian
town with its ancient church of Our Lady of
Intercession looking onto a slow river from its
high bank, and I was swept off my feet by a
flash-flood of young maidens, fresh and sixteen,
celebrating their high school graduation in a park
under an open warm blue sky, wearing white bands
and garlands of flowers in their golden hair, and
white ceremonial aprons on top of dark and
mercilessly short skirts leaving open their
graceful knees above high white socks and dark
sleeveless tops flashing tender arms and elbows,
blue eyes a-gleaming in the shade of black
poplars. My Greek friend also fell silent and
pensive, and told me with stifled voice: the
Ukrainian girls are the most beautiful; we have
nothing like that in our part of the world.
This image came back to me as totally different
images of the Orange Revolution flowed from
television screens; and the disintegration of
Ukraine became a question of weeks, if not days.
This country in its present borders came into
being quite recently, in 1991; the chances are,
Ukraine will be split between West and East; with
or without a civil war. The important achievement
of Stalin who brought back the Western Ukraine
into the Orthodox fold from its long captivity
under the Western yoke was undone. It is possible
that the border between the two parts will move
further East, where it was in the beginning of the
17th century. Geopolitically, it is an additional
(on top of dismembered Yugoslavia) catastrophe for
the Russians and for Eastern Orthodoxy. The
Western forces will advance eastward and threaten
Russia from the positions they lost in the long
series of wars that started with Ivan IV's
Livonian War and ended in the partition of Poland
in XVIII century. For geopolitics, ideology plays
only a subservient role in the long-term
confrontation and cooperation of civilisations.
The Orthodox, the West and Islam are three big
constants; from this point of view, the Orthodox
had lost, and the West gained in the
centuries-long game. The net gainer is the US who
realised its wet dream expressed by Brzezinski:
break Ukraine away, for Russia can't be superpower
without Ukraine.
In Ukraine, the US attained victory that eluded
them in Iraq. However, the identification of the
US with the West is far from perfect. Carl Schmitt
preferred to view England and the US as an
"Atlantic" force of the Sea opposing the
Continental forces of Western Europe, Russia and
the Islamic world. In my view, the "Atlantic"
force is as religiously grounded as the three
others; I called it "Neo-Judaic civilisation".
Ukraine, together with other East European states,
will present an American 'Neo-Judaic' outpost,
so-called "New Europe", flanking
independently-minded Europe from the East and
Russia from the West. Western Europe stood by the
US in its confrontation with the East (The Cold
War), but the New Europe will forever keep the
old, Western Europe in the siege ring. Thus the US
victory in Ukraine is a cause for grave concern
for Europeans and for Russians, as well as for the
Islamic world.
For the people of Ukraine, the future is gloomy.
The pro-American claimant for Presidency Victor
Yushchenko is a devotee of neo-liberal economics;
a supporter of full privatisation and forced sale
of Ukrainian assets to US companies for their
soon-to-be-worthless dollars. In the part of
Ukraine he will succeed in keeping (if any), a new
American colony will be established, where US
troops will threaten Moscow and control the
profitable oil route. They could learn of their
fate from an amazing book by John Perkins, a
self-described "economic hit man" - a US
intelligence professional who cheated countries
around the globe out of trillions of dollars. In
an interview[1] Perkins explained his job:
"Our job is to build up the American empire. To
create situations where as many resources as
possible flow into this country [the US], to our
corporations, and our government, and in fact we'
ve been very successful. We've built the largest
empire in the history of the world. This empire,
unlike any other in the history of the world, has
been built primarily through economic
manipulation, through cheating, through fraud,
through seducing people into our way of life. We
give countries debts they can't repay, most of it
comes back to the United States, the country is
left with the debt plus lots of interest, and they
basically become our servants, our slaves."
American support of Yushchenko means that
Yushchenko agreed to do its will, to turn the
people of Ukraine into American slaves. Yushchenko
is also supported by the World Bank and by the
IMF. Neo-liberal 'market doctrine' promoted by the
World Bank had killed millions of Russians,
Africans, Latin Americans whose governments
followed their blue-print. Ukraine has also had
its fair share of 'market economy' and its
population is steadily decreasing. Yushchenko
pushed for neo-liberalism when he was the prime
minister; now he promised to push even stronger
for it.
The pro-American forces in the Western Europe,
yesterday's predator, also want to get a share of
the spoils, as German observer Susanne Scheidt
wrote:
"If Yushchenko will get hold of the government, he
will make sure that the privatization programme
drawn up by the World Bank will go on as
scheduled. On behalf of this programme, German
banks have planned huge investments in Ukraine
that amount to a take-over of Ukrainian public
utilities, networks and gas transport. The German
giant Ruhrgas AG has already signed a deal with
Yushchenko to import gas through the Ukrainian
corridor from US investors in Azerbaijan, whereas
the present Ukrainian government has always
refused to sign such a deal".
Another great supporter of Yushchenko is a group
of Russian Jewish oligarchs kicked out of Russia
by Putin. Extremely wealthy, dreaming of revenge,
hating Putin's Russia, this offshore gang of
Berezovsky, Gusinsky and other ex-Yukos oilmen
provide a big share of financial support for the
Orange revolution. They also pay for the services
of Russian Israeli PR experts who organise the
show in Kiev. They are supported by the network of
the powerful Ukrainian Jewish community; while
behind them stands George Soros, the Jewish
international magnate actively pumping money and
organisational capacities into the Orange forces
of Yushchenko. These external forces rely upon
local young men who received training and advice
from the experts who already organised similar
putsches in Georgia, Serbia, Romania.
Internal supporters of Yushchenko consist of two
quite different groups. The biggest is the
nationalists of Galichina, West Ukraine. While
Galichina is a beautiful land with its own
traditions, friendship with the Russians is not
one of them. For centuries Galichina belonged to
Poland or to the Austro-Hungarian Empire; their
religion is Uniate Christianity; their language is
half-way between Polish and the language spoken in
Kiev. Galichina has a strong nationalist tendency;
during the World War Two they formed an SS
division fighting on the German side. Nowadays,
they form the base for such groups as
swastika-bearing Svoboda (formerly Ukrainian
National Socialist Party), UNA and UNSO who
venerate Bandera, the Ukrainian nationalist and
supporter of Hitler. Today they are united in
support of Yushchenko.
They do not mind that Yushchenko is supported by
the Jewish oligarchs; the oligarchs do not mind
them, either. Soros even financed them. So much
for antisemitism: the Jews remember to mention it
only when it suits them. In my view, nationalism
is often used as cheese in mousetrap. Bandera the
nationalist supported Hitler, but Hitler did not
even think to establish a strong Ukrainian state;
he just used the Ukrainian nationalists to
undermine Russia. The same thing happened
everywhere: Breton nationalists supported Hitler
for they thought he will establish an independent
Brittany. They were disappointed, for Hitler
thought they are unnecessary after he took over
France. Arab nationalists undermined the Ottoman
Empire on the service of the West just to find
themselves sold out to the Zionists. Now the
Ukrainian nationalists do the same mistake again -
they support the US; but eventually they will lose
for the US does not need a strong independent
Ukraine.
Another group of Yushchenko supporters is liberal,
relatively wealthy and pro-Western. Many people,
especially in the capital Kiev find their
livelihood connected with the West. There are
dozens of very rich bankers and businessmen,
thousands of those who work in NGOs, receive
grants of Soros or of the EC, there are small
importers, upmarket tarts; there are tens of
thousands of aspiring young men and students who
still hope to 'make it' in the capitalist
competitive society. We know that they will be
disappointed just as it has happened in so many
countries; the West is not going to wait for
millions of educated Ukrainians to take their
place at the top. But in Ukraine, as in Russia
there are millions who still believe in the
American dream, and America spends a lot of money
to keep this dream alive.
The future of Ukraine may be bleak: the beautiful
girls I saw on the shores of Dnepr River will be
shipped to cathouses of Tel Aviv and Istanbul;
their boyfriends will fight for America in Iraq
and elsewhere, their coal mines will be
privatised, sold for peanuts and closed down.
Ukraine can be free in union with Russia - or in
thrall to the West and the Jews. Whatever the
final result of elections - and it will be
disputed - Eastern Ukraine probably will join
Russia; Western Ukraine will be taken up by Poland
or will remain an 'independent' stub of a state.
There is still a chance to repeat the victory of
Chaves or the Miracle of Minsk, where Lukashenka
succeeded to defeat the local agents of Soros and
Berezovsky, for they are not invincible; but
Yanukovich is not made of stern stuff; Putin is
not a daring politician, and the Slav Orthodox
world feels itself lost. Maybe that is why tens of
thousands of Russians came spontaneously to visit
the tomb of Joseph Stalin on 21 December, on 150
year jubilee of the great man who restored
fortunes of Russia, beat off the western attacks
and united the Ukraine.
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[2]1
democracynow.org
Proposed Reading in Russian: www.left.ru
Proposed Reading in Ukrainian:
bratstvo.info
Proposed Reading in English: |
