RT
February 28, 2014

Art of drills: 10 NATO war games that almost started armed conflicts

AFP Photo / Brendan Smialowski

The world’s largest military alliance seems annoyed about Russia’s “lack of transparency” over military drills at a very “delicate time.” NATO, however, has its own long history of war games all over the globe.

Western politicians have leveled criticism at Russia for planned drills on its own territory, seemingly glossing over the many joint military exercises Western powers, namely the US and NATO forces, have conducted on foreign soil over the years.

South Korea

This week, US and South Korean forces began their annual joint military drills, which will last until mid-April. The Foal Eagle exercise is conducted near Iksan and Damyan, South Korea.

The drills prompted a stern reaction from North Korea, which slammed the exercises as “a serious provocation” that could plunge the region into “a deadlock and unimaginable holocaust.”

(FILE) US soldiers of the Second Infantry Division of US Forces Korea attend a live firing drill at the US army’s Rodriguez range in Pocheon, south of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas. (AFP Photo / Kim Hong-Ji)

Israel

The US joined Greece, Italy, and Israeli forces at Ovda air base in southern Israel for the ‘Blue Flag’ air-training drills in November 2013. The drills were called the “largest international aerial exercise in history,” by Israeli news outlet Haaretz.

According to Israel National News reports the exercises are geared towards “simulating realistic engagements in a variety of scenarios, based on Israel’s experience with air forces of Arab armies in previous engagements.”

An Israeli air force F15-E fighter jet.(Reuters / Baz Ratner)

Poland and Latvia

NATO’s ‘Steadfast Jazz’ training exercise was held in November 2013, in Latvia and Poland. The drills included air, land, naval, and special forces.

Over 6,000 military personnel from around 20 NATO countries and allies took part in the largest NATO-led drills of their kind since 2006.

NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Mark Breedlove (Reuters / Bernadett Szabo)

Bulgaria

In October, NATO also held anti-aircraft drills in Bulgaria, along with the Greek and Norwegian air forces. The exercises were held to test responses in conditions of radio interference, according to the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense.

A C-27J Spartan like those used by Bulgaria in the 2013 NATO drill (Reuters / Bogdan Cristel)

Persian Gulf

In May 2013, the US joined 40 other countries in the Persian Gulf for maritime war games. The US Navy said the mass exercises are aimed at “enhancing capability to preserve freedom of navigation in international waterways.”

The drills provoked a sharp response from the Iranian government who voiced concerns at how the maneuvers came in the run-up to the Iranian elections.

Japan

In August 2012, US Marines joined Japanese troops for military drills in the western Pacific. The drills were held in part in Guam, a US holding, just as an old territory dispute reemerged between Japan and China over islands in the East China Sea.

“China will not ignore hostile gestures from other nations and give up on its core interests or change its course of development,” the Chinese Communist Party stated in response to the drills, warning the US and Japan not to“underestimate China’s resolve to defend its sovereignty.”

A file picture taken on April 24, 2010 shows planes and helicopters stationed at the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma base in Ginowan, Okinawa prefecture. (AFP Photo)

Jordan

The US joined 16 other nations in May 2012 for military exercises in Jordan near the Syria border. The Eager Lion drills included 12,000 soldiers from the participating countries, Turkey, France, and Saudi Arabia among them.

Denying accusations that the violence in Syria had nothing to do with the drills, the US claimed it was “designed to strengthen military-to-military relationships through a joint, entire-government, multinational approach, integrating all instruments of national power to meet current and future complex national security challenges.

Tanks advance during the Eager Lion military exercise near the southern town of Al Quweira, 50 km (30 miles) from the coastal city of Aqaba June 19, 2013. (Reuters / Muhammad Hamed)

Vietnam

In August 2010, the US Navy joined Vietnamese forces for drills in the South China Sea, to the dismay of China. Sovereignty claims in the South China Sea have long been a subject of debate and animosity among Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, and Malaysia, though China’s territorial declarations have been the most aggressive.

Vietnamese Navy’s first submarine class Kilo 636 (C) named ‘Hanoi’ (AFP Photo / Vietnam News Agency)

Ukraine

Ukraine welcomed a fleet of NATO warships for a two-week period of military drills in July 2010. Operation “Sea Breeze-2010” focused on joint anti-terror exercises, despite Kiev’s decision not to enter the NATO alliance. Some 3,000 international military personnel were said to be a part of the drills.

Ukraine began hosting the Sea Breeze exercises in 1997, as part of its commitment to join the alliance. In 2009, the Ukrainian parliament voted against the drills, curtailing then-President Viktor Yuschenko’s efforts to seek NATO membership.

A US naval officer displays an automatic weapon mounted on the USS Taylor in Odessa on July 14, 2010 during the US-Ukraine joint maritime exercises “Sea Breeze 2010”. (AFP Photo / Alexey Kravtsov)

Georgia

In May 2009, 15 NATO countries held a series of controversial military exercises in Georgia less than a year after it launched an offense against its breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia called the maneuvers “dubious provocation” saying it may encourage the country’s regime to carry out new attacks.

Georgian soldiers participate in the joint US-Georgia training “Immediate Response 2009”, 20km from Tbilisi at the Vaziani military base on October 30, 2009. (AFP Photo / Vano Shlamov)

Russian Information Agency Novosti
February 28, 2014

Ukraine Accuses Russian Soldiers in Crimea of ‘Invasion’

KIEV: The interior minister of Ukraine accused Russian troops Friday of blockading an airport in the Crimean city of Sevastopol in what he has described as an armed invasion.

While stressing that no direct violent confrontations had taken place, Arsen Avakov said the matter should be dealt with on a diplomatic level before armed clashes broke out.

Avakov said on his Facebook account that troops from the Black Sea Fleet, which is stationed in the city, could be seen outside Belbek airport, although the inside of the terminal was controlled by Ukrainian troops.

“The airport is not operating. At the external perimeter there are Ukrainian Interior Ministry checkpoints. There have been not been armed clashes,” Avakov said.

The alleged presence of Black Sea Fleet troops at the airport, if confirmed, would be in direct defiance of a demand by Ukrainian interim authorities Thursday for Russian troops to refrain from leaving their quarters. That appeal apparently echoed international concern that Moscow may choose to throw its weight behind pro-Russian groups in Crimea seeking to defy interim authorities in Kiev.

=========================================

Russian Information Agency Novosti
February 28, 2014

Yanukovych Condemns Interim Ukraine Govt as Violent Usurpers

ROSTOV-ON-DON: Viktor Yanukovych said Friday in his first public address since being ousted as president of Ukraine that he will continue to fight for the future of his country and condemned the interim government in Kiev as violent usurpers.

Looking nervous while addressing reporters in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Yanukovych rejected suggestions that he had been overthrown and insisted that he had been forced to leave the country because of threats made to him and his family.

“Power in Ukraine was seized by nationalists, neo-Fascist youths that represent an absolute minority of the people,” he said.

Yanukovych was making his first appearance in public since fleeing the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, over the weekend.

On Saturday, the erstwhile opposition took control over parliament and together with disaffected deputies from the ex-ruling Party of Regions voted to impeach Yanukovych.

“Any movement, particularly with weapons, outside official residences regulated by our agreement will be interpreted by us as military aggression,” interim President Oleksandr Turchynov said.

Already frayed nerves on the Crimean Peninsula were tested Thursday when a group of apparently pro-Russian gunmen occupied the parliament in the Crimean regional capital of Simferopol, only one day after fistfights erupted outside the building between supporters and opponents of the country’s incoming leadership.

Russia, which has a substantial military presence at its leased naval base in Sevastopol, has insisted it will not interfere in its neighbor’s affairs, while at the same time voicing worries about possible discrimination against ethnic Russians in the country.

About half of Crimea’s population identifies as ethnic Russian.

Ousted President Viktor Yanukovych drew much of his support from Ukraine’s Russian population, which has reacted with alarm at what it perceives as an aggressively nationalistic rule now installed in Kiev.

In his statement Friday, Avakov said that 100 men that he said identified themselves as Cossacks attempted overnight Thursday to occupy the airport in Simferopol, which is 80 kilometers northeast of Sevastopol, but were repelled.

“The territory of the airport was vacated by the ‘Cossacks’ at one o’clock – they boarded covered Kamaz trucks and left,” he said.

He said that 119 armed soldiers in camouflage apparently belonging to the Russian armed forces arrived at the airport building at 1:30 a.m. and settled in an airport restaurant.

The soldiers refused to respond to queries from Interior Ministry officers about whether they were soldiers and if they had permission to be in the airport.

“I assess what is happening as an armed invasion and occupation. It is in violation of all international treaties and norms. This is a direct provocation to armed bloodshed on the territory of a sovereign state,” Avakov said.

Ministry of Defence of Georgia
February 27, 2014

Meeting with NATO and EU Military Representatives

The Defence Minister of Georgia pays an official visit to Brussels. Within the visit, Irakli Alasania held meetings at European Defence Agency. While meeting with Chairman of the European Union Military Committee, Gen. Patrick de Rousiers, the sides discussed Georgian soldiers’ engagement in EUFOR RCA [Central African Republic] and the specific details of the peacekeeping mission.

The Chief of the European Union Military Committee focused on the professionalism and high level of combat readiness of the Georgian military. “Georgia’s military cooperation with EU and NATO is developing dynamically. Georgia intends to engage in EUFOR RCA. This was one of the main purposes of the meeting with the Chairman of the European Union Military Committee. We have discussed the details of peacekeeping mission in RCA. EU considers Georgia as a reliable partner which will participate in the mission,” stated Georgian Defence Minister after the meeting.

On the sidelines of the visit to Belgium, the Georgian Delegation also visited the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). Defence Minister Irakli Alasania met with the Commander of the US European Command, General Philip M. Breedlove. The sides talked over the bilateral cooperation in military sphere; they also referred to NATO-led ISAF mission in Afghanistan and upcoming plans. “We have discussed the ongoing mission in Afghanistan and bilateral cooperation issues as well, in which format Georgia will be provided with the additional defence capabilities. Hence, we will refer to improve our military capabilities and to contribute in the post-ISAF mission,” outlined the Defence Minister of Georgia.

In NATO HQ, in Brussels, Minister Irakli Alasania will attend the meeting of defence ministers with ISAF contributing partners and the Afghan Defence Minister. Within the framework of the Ministerial, Defence Minister of Georgia will hold bilateral meetings with his Norwegian, Azerbaijanian and Afghan counterparts.

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Bertolt Brecht: Selections on war

====

Bertolt Brecht
From Threepenny Novel (1934)
Translated by Desmond I. Vesey

The small man, who nevertheless seemed to be the chief, walked across to Fewkoombey and with a rapid movement lifted up his trousers to see his wooden leg. Then, hands in pockets, he went back to the window, looked out and said softly:

“What can you do?”

“Nothing,” said the soldier, just as softly. “I beg.”

“That’s what everyone would like to do,” said the small man scornfully, never even looking around. “You’ve got a wooden leg. And because you’ve got a wooden leg, you want to beg? But you lost your leg in the service of your country? So much the worse. That can happen to anyone. (Unless he’s in the War Office.) When a person loses his leg he’s thrown upon the mercy of others? Of course he is! But it’s equally certain that people don’t like giving away money. Wars – they’re exceptional cases. If an earthquake happens, no one can help that. As if everyone doesn’t know the profit that is made out of the patriotism of patriots. At first they all enlist voluntarily, and then, when their legs are shot away, they won’t accept the situation. Quite apart from these innumerable cases, such as where the driver of a brewer’s dray loses a leg in the course of his duty and then coins money out of the Battle of Something-or-other. And there’s one thing more, the chief thing: why is it so profitable to go to war for one’s country, why are these brave men so loaded with honour and glory? – simply because there’s a chance of losing a leg? If there wasn’t this small risk – well, this big risk if you like – why should they have the heartfelt gratitude of the nation? Actually you are an anti-war demonstrator. No, there’s no use denying it. When you stand about, making no effort to hide your stump, you’re saying to everyone: Look what a terrible thing war is; it takes off a man’s leg! You should be ashamed of yourself. Wars are as necessary as they are terrible. Do you want everything taken away from us? Do you want to see Great Britain full of foreigners? Would you like to live in the midst of enemies? In short, you ought not to hawk your misery around. You haven’t the talent for that…”

Voice of Russia
February 27, 2014

15-year anniversary of NATO aggression on Yugoslavia
John Robles

In March 1999, at the direction of the United States of America, NATO engaged in its first act of illegal aggressive war, beginning what can only be called the “dark age of intervention” in which we are living today. The fact that NATO was allowed to get away with the aggression on Serbia and Montenegro emboldened US/NATO and the US military industrial intelligence banking complex and since that day, under a doctrine of Responsibility to Protect, Humanitarian Interventionism, Preventive War and then the all encompassing “War on Terror”, US/NATO have proceeded to destroy country after country and do away with leaders that they have not found to be submissive enough to their will.

The events of 9-11-2001 were a watershed moment for the geopolitical architects and served as a catalyst to allow them to expand their military machine to every corner of the world and invade countries at will and conduct operations with complete disregard for international law and accepted international norms.

In light of the 15th Anniversary of the NATO aggression the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals and other independent Civic associations in Serbia will hold an international conference from the 21st to the 24th of March 2014. The conference will gather 100 prominent intellectuals from all over the world, in addition to those from Serbia, Montenegro, the Republica Srpska and 10 to 15 guests from Russia, including Academician and retired Russian Army General Leonid Ivashov. The conference will also include the participation of the Veterans Alliance of Serbia and the Club of Generals and Admirals of Serbia.

The President of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals and the last Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Zivadin Jovanovic wrote the following summary of the events in light of the 15 year anniversary of the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. (John Robles)

Do Not Forget, by Zivadin Jovanovic

Fifteen years have passed since the beginning of NATO aggression against Serbia and Montenegro (24 March 1999). This aggression resulted in the loss of 4,000 human lives, including 88 children, and 10,000 people were severely wounded. Over two third of these victims were civilians. How many human lives have been lost in the meantime due to the consequences of weapons with depleted uranium, as well as of remaining cluster bombs, will hardly ever be established.

Breaching the basic norms of international law, its own founding act as well as constitutions of member countries, NATO was bombing Serbia and Montenegro during 78 days continuously destroying the economy, infrastructure, public services, radio and TV centers and transmitters, cultural and historical monuments. NATO bears responsibility for polluting the environment and endangering the health of present and future generations. Economic damage caused by the aggression is estimated at over USD 120 billion. War damage compensation has not yet been claimed, and judgments ruled by our court, by which the leaders of aggressor countries were convicted for the crimes against peace and humanity, were annulled after the coup d’état in 2000.

Governments of aggressor countries seized and occupied the Province of Kosovo and Metohija, and then formally delivered it to former terrorists, separatists and international organized crime bosses. An American military base was established in the Province – “Bondstill”, one of the largest beyond the U.S. territory.

After the aggression, over 250,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians have been forced out the Province of Kosovo and Metohija; even today, 15 years later they are not allowed to return freely and safely to their homes. Ethnic cleansing and even drastic change of ethnic population structure are tolerated by so called international community if only to the detriment of Serbs. The remaining Serbian population in the Province of about 120.000 continues to live in fear and uncertainty. Attacks upon Serbs, detentions and killings, including liquidations of their political leaders, have been continuing up to these days, and nobody is held responsible.

NATO aggression against Serbia and Montenegro (FRY) in 1999 is a crime against peace and humanity. It is a precedent and a turning point towards global interventionism, arbitrary violation of the international legal order and the negation of the role of the UN. The “Bondstill” military base is the first and crucial ring in the chain of new American military bases reflecting strategy of expansion towards East, Caspian Basin, Middle East, towards Russia and its Siberia natural resources. Europe has thus got overall militarization and the new edition of the strategy “Drang nach Osten” (“Thrust to the East”). Destabilization and the tragic developments in Ukraine are just the most recent consequence of that strategy.

15 years after objectives of US/NATO military aggression continue to be pursued by other means. Serbia has been blackmailed to de facto recognize illegal secession of its Province of Kosovo and Metohija through so called Brussels negotiations. The most of the puppet states of the former Yugoslavia are much dependant on and indebted to the leading NATO/EU countries, their financial institutions and corporations so that they could hardly be considered independent states but rather neo-colonies. There is no stability in the Balkans, redrawing of borders has not ended, overall situation is dominated by devastated economy, unemployment, social tensions and misery. Europe, particularly its south-east regions, are experiencing profound economic, social and moral crisis.

Preparations for NATO military aggression against Serbia and Montenegro (FRY) and 1999 aggression itself have been used in the meantime as a blueprint for many other NATO aggressions and occupations – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali and so on. Wherever NATO undertook “humanitarian intervention”, like in former Yugoslavia, it left thousands of dead and mutilated, millions of refugees and displaced persons, ethnic and religious divisions, terrorism and separatism, economic disaster and social misery. NATO expansionist strategy made Europe militarized. There are more US/NATO military bases in Europe today than at the peak of the Cold War era. What for? NATO imperial expansionist strategy has provoked new arms race with unforeseen consequences. Who really needs an organization threatening global peace and stability?

During and after the aggression, 150 Serb monasteries and churches built in the Middle Ages were destroyed. Killed or abducted were some 3,500 Serbs and other non-Albanians, and fates of many of them have not been established until today. Not even one of the thousands of crimes against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija got a court clarification. Even such terrorist crimes as was blowing up the “Nis-express” bus on 16 February 2001, when 12 people were killed and 43 wounded, neither the murder of 14 Serb farmers reaping in the field in Staro Gracko, on 23 July 2009 remained without thorough investigation, be it by UNMIK, be it by EULEX, or by any other of so many structures of the so called international community.

The Swiss senator, Dick Marty, revealed documented report on trafficking in human organs of Serbs abducted in Kosovo and Metohija. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the oldest European democratic institution, adopted his Report as the official CE document. Although all factors stand verbally for an efficient investigation and bringing the perpetrators to justice, for many years now there have been no results whatsoever. The documentation on human organ trafficking submitted to The Hague Tribunal had been – destroyed!

The Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals, with support of other non-partisan and independent associations from Serbia, from the region and from the Serb Diaspora throughout the world, are organizing a number of activities under the common title “NOT TO FORGET”, with the aim to remind domestic and international public of human loss, destructions and other consequences of NATO aggression.

On Friday, 21 March 2014 at 6 p.m., in Sava Conference Centre, Belgrade (Milentija Popovica No. 1) an opening ceremony will launch a photographic exhibition presenting consequences of NATO aggression.

On Saturday, March 22 and on Sunday, March 23rd, 2014, International conference “Global Peace vs. Global Interventionism and Imperialism” will be held (Sava Conference Centre. Conference starts at 10 a.m. Some 100 prominent personalities from all over the world have confirmed their participation.

On Monday, March 24th, 2014, at 09.30 a.m., the International Memorial Marathon Belgrade-Hilandar will start in front of Saint Sava Church.

The same day, at 11 a.m., civic associations, representatives of Serb Diaspora, guests from abroad and individuals will lay flowers at the monument to children – victims of the aggression, in the Tašmajdan park, and the same day at 12 a.m. flowers will be laid at the Monument to all victims of the aggression, Friendship park, Ušće, New Belgrade.

Voice of Russia
February 27, 2014

US/NATO plans to control and dominate space – Bruce Gagnon

With social programs, education, medical insurance and all forms of social aid and assistance being cut in the United States and the people losing their jobs and homes and being forced to pay more and more taxes, the outlook for the future is grim for the common people.

Despite all of this corporations are continuing to maintain huge profits and growth and the military industrial complex in the US continues to grow beyond all reason. Plans by US/NATO to expand their global militarization into space have been the subject of extensive work by peace activist Bruce Gagnon and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.

According to specialists at the organization US/NATO missile and space “defense” are all plans to install a system that will allow the US/NATO a first strike nuclear capability against the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China and any other country they target. Such a military expansion is unprecedented in the history of the world and a threat to world peace and to all of humankind. The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power provided the following press release regarding their latest annual conference.

Press release:

The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (GN) will hold its 22nd annual space organizing conference in Santa Barbara, California, located near Vandenberg space warfare base on March 14-16. The GN is made up of 150 peace and religious groups around the world who are working to oppose the development of a new arms race in space. The theme for the conference will be Vandenberg’s Role in US Global Domination: Implications of US ‘Pivot’ into the Asia-Pacific.

Vandenberg AFB plays a key role in Pentagon military satellite launching, testing nuclear missiles, and most recently as a deployment site for so-called “missile defense” interceptors. Increasingly the US military is aiming at the Asia-Pacific region as the Obama announced ‘pivot’ of 60% of Pentagon forces moves to encircle China.

The conference weekend will begin with a protest at Vandenberg AFB at 4:00 pm on Friday, March 14. A public forum will be held on March 15 at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara at 7:00 pm.

GN Coordinator Bruce Gagnon stated, “For years there have been peace protests outside Vandenberg AFB with many people arrested for their non-violent witness. GN members are coming from all over the world to honor and encourage these dedicated local citizens. We will share our deep concerns about current US plans to ‘control and dominate space’ and the Pentagon’s pivot into the Asia-Pacific.”

he GN has long maintained, having studied the Space Command’s Vision for 2020 planning document, that space domination was ‘necessary’ in order for full corporate control of everything. With resources declining around the planet corporations are using Pentagon space-directed surveillance and targeting to ensure their control. The public, facing growing cuts in social spending, are paying for these costly military space programs.

Dave Webb, National Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the UK, said, “We are coming from England and other countries to support the groups who are concerned about the role of Vandenberg in aggressive, destabilizing and dangerous military projects such as ‘missile defense’. Far from being defensive, these systems are part of a strategy involving the possible use of nuclear weapons without having to worry about retaliation. The US has so much to offer the world – but the defiling of the Pacific Ocean and its peoples through this expanding militarism is shameful.”

Each year the Global Network holds its space organizing conference in a different part of the world. Last year the group met in the ‘high north’ of Sweden, where the US and NATO are creating a space surveillance and testing center. People will come to the March 14-16 Santa Barbara events from Norway, England, Canada, Japan, India, South Korea, and from throughout the US.

Please contact the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space in the US at (207) 443-9502, Bruce Gagnon at globalnet@mindspring.com or visit their website at http://www.space4peace.org/actions/gnconf_2014.htm

The Voice of Russia is not associated with the above group. Any opinions are those of the author who can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru. Thank you.

Stars and Stripes
February 27, 2014

173rd trading Afghanistan for Africa in upcoming exercise
By Nancy Montgomery

VICENZA, Italy: For the last decade, the go-to place for the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team was Afghanistan. The brigade deployed there four times, after a 2003 tour in Iraq.

Now, with combat tours ended for the foreseeable future as the U.S. prepares to have all combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year, brigade paratroopers are headed, somewhat unexpectedly, somewhere different.

About 135 paratroopers with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment are going to Cameroon, in central Africa. They will be participating starting in mid-March in an annual U.S. Army Africa exercise called Central Accord.

It’s a first for the 173rd, whose soldiers have been busy either deploying to Afghanistan or returning.

…

The 173rd soldiers, comprising the largest U.S. troop component for the exercise, will spend about 10 days in Cameroon training about 1,100 troops from countries in the region in infantry tactics and procedures, peace support operations and aerial delivery — dropping supplies out of C-130s. Also participating will be the 369th Sustainment Brigade, part of the New York National Guard and known as the “Harlem Hellfighters.”

…

The brigade is headquartered in Vicenza, as is USARAF. But it’s a part of U.S. Army Europe, which had to agree to lend the troops to USARAF.

And under the Army’s year-old concept of regionally aligning forces with specific combatant commands, the go-to unit for the U.S. Africa Command is the Fort Riley, Kan.-based 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.

Weisman said the 173rd aims to be the “unit of choice for any commander around the globe” and is positioned to do it.

“One of the best parts of the 173rd being forward-located in Europe is that we can fill operational needs of other geographical commanders,” he said.

“We’ve got the infrastructure in U.S. Army Europe to move troops and support to AFRICOM or CENTCOM rapidly,” he said, referring to U.S. Africa Command and Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Two jumps with Cameroonian paratroopers, using U.S. aircraft and parachutes, have been planned as part of the upcoming exercise. One is sort of a ceremonial “wing exchange” employing Cameroonian jump masters, the other is more tactical. The landing field features 7-foot-tall grass, Weisman said.

…

Trend News Agency
February 27, 2014

U.S. Congress considers support for Georgia’s accession to Action Plan for NATO membership
By Nana Kirtzkhalia

Tbilisi: A resolution supporting Georgia’s accession to NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the upcoming summit of the alliance in the UK has been submitted for consideration to the House of Representatives of the US Congress.

The document was presented by Congressmen Ted Poe and William Keating, the Georgian Premier’s press service reported on Feb. 27. The congressmen stated this at a meeting with the Georgian PM in Washington.

‘Congress considers that the US should demonstrate its leadership in support of Georgia’s accession to the Membership Action Plan (MAP) to NATO, Georgia is a reliable ally which has achieved important progress in the sphere of defence, as well as democratic reform and human rights’, the document said.

The US House Committee on Foreign Affairs submitted the resolution to the US Congress for further consideration and voting.

NATO member countries considered Tbilisi as not being ready for gaining NATO status membership at the meeting of foreign ministers of NATO member countries on 2-3 December 2008 in Brussels, postponing the Action Plan for NATO membership sine die (indefinite term).

Georgia`s initial request for gaining MAP was rejected at the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008. Then it was negotiated that the country will become a member of the bloc in the future.

Translated by S.I.

Edited by S.M.

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
February 27, 2014

THE US ARROGRANCE STIRS ME

 

U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland offered food (and $$$) to pro-European Union agitators as she and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, right, walked through Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine last December

I watched the mainstream national news last night at 6:30 pm.  I did alot of raging at the TV.  One of the networks led off with the story about Russia holding war games inside their own country, near the Ukrainian border.  The White House and Secretary of State John Kerry issued stern warnings to Russia about not trying to “interfere” with the current balkanization of the Ukraine.  In Crimea, riots between pro-EU and pro-Russian citizens broke out.  The Russian Navy has their Black Sea bases in Crimea.

I was ready to throw my slippers at the TV when Obama and Kerry threatened Russia over any “interference”.  Who the hell are they to talk about interfering?  The now famous “Fuck the EU” quote from Victoria Nuland (wife of Bush-Cheney era neocon Robert Kagan) was direct evidence of the deep involvement and interference of the US in Ukraine.  This whole story just reeks of hypocrisy and arrogance on the part of the US.

Talking about war games – the US-NATO in recent months were holding war games in Latvia and Lithuania – practicing flying NATO warplanes right up against Russia.  Were they trying to draw a response?  And the US has been heavily arming Georgia and doing joint war games there, again right along the Russian border. At this very moment the US and South Korea are running war games aimed at North Korea which is bordered by Russia and China. 

But the American people would never know about US war games because the network TV news never reports those facts.  They only report the news that is intended to lead the public in a certain direction – and that direction is demonizing Russia (and China) in order to justify US imperial moves.

During one of the commercials that dominate network TV an actor, about my age, was selling some product.  I had muted the sound but watched this nice looking middle class man appear so genuine and I couldn’t help but feel confident that he was gaining the trust of those across the nation who had not cut the sound off.  I then thought of a lifetime of watching the tube, buying the soap and the bullshit sold on corporate TV.  The false patriotism during the Olympics… the agenda infused news reporting done by reporters who toe the corporate party line…. the false innocence and phony outrage expressed by US politicians about Russia trying to defend their immediate front-door interests as if the US would not be going ballistic if the Russian Bear had its “diplomats” handing out bread during riots in Canada intended to force that nation to break away from the capitalist camp and move into bed with Moscow.  Just imagine that one.

This stuff just drives me crazy.  And the American people keep walking off the cliff in lockstep as the US prods, pokes, surrounds, and stomps on Russia which sooner or later will indeed respond – and when they do we will hear this from Washington – “Holy shit, look what Putin is doing… we told you he was crazy and wants war with us!”

The US pulls this kind of crap daily all over the world… but you’d never know it back here at home because it is not reported on the TV – and that is all that counts.

posted by Bruce K. Gagnon

Stop NATO
February 27, 2014

1) Russia’s western combat aviation to redeploy to emergency airfields
2) Ukraine to see presence of Russian military outside area stipulated by agreement as aggression – acting president
3) Crimean parliament dismisses autonomous republic’s government

1)

Interfax-Military
February 27, 2014

Russia’s western combat aviation to redeploy to emergency airfields

MOSCOW: Western Military District (WMD) aviation wings have begun redeployment to emergency airfields as part of sudden checks being held at the behest of the Russian Armed Forces Commander-in-chief, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“Advanced groups of aviation specialists flew military transport aircraft to designated airfields where they conducted an overnight inspection of the runways. In addition, military transport aircraft delivered specialist ground-based equipment designed for full support of combat aircraft flights from unequipped airfields,” the ministry said in a press release obtained by Interfax-AVN on Thursday.

“On February 27, after receiving reports from advance group seniors on the readiness of emergency airfields to receive the aircraft, the First Command of the Air Force and Air Defense began redeploying combat aircraft,” the statement said.

====================================

2)

Interfax-Ukraine
February 27, 2014

Ukraine to see presence of Russian military outside area stipulated by agreement as aggression – acting president

Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Chairman and interim President Oleksandr Turchynov is calling on the Russian Black Sea Fleet servicemen stationed in Crimea not to leave the boundaries of their base determined by the relevant Ukrainian-Russian agreements.

“I am addressing the Russian Black Sea Fleet command with a demand: all military servicemen should stay within the boundaries of the territories stipulated by the agreement. Any movement of military servicemen with weapons outside this territory will be viewed as military aggression,” Turchynov said while speaking at the Verkhovna Rada on Thursday.

Turchynov also warned that “Ukrainian enemies should not try to destabilize the situation, should not encroach on our independence, sovereignty, and territory.”

He called for “immediately starting to form a government that would be obliged to ensure security of Ukrainians and restore law and order.”

The Verkhovna Rada’s session on Thursday will continue until a new government is confirmed, he said.

“Ukraine will be able to defend its independence, sovereignty, and the inviolability of its territory,” he said.

Turchynov announced also that he had issued instructions that all possible measures be taken to protect people in Crimea and unblock the buildings seized in Simferopol.

“All necessary measures must be taken to protect citizens, punish those guilty of seizures in line with the law, and unblock the building. I am calling on all Ukrainians to stay calm, and on patriots to defend administrative buildings from instigators and extremists. Any attempts to seize administrative buildings will be viewed as a crime against the Ukrainian state,” Turchynov said at a plenary parliamentary session on Thursday.

=====================================

3)

Interfax-Ukraine
February 27, 2014

Crimean parliament dismisses autonomous republic’s government

At an extraordinary plenary session on Thursday, the Supreme Council of Crimea passed a motion of no confidence in the Council of Ministers of Crimea and terminated its powers, a spokesperson for the secretariat of the Crimean parliament Olha Sulnikova has said.

According to her, this decision was supported by 55 of the 64 members of the Crimean parliament.

According to the adopted resolution, the Supreme Council of Crimea declared the work of the Council of Ministers of Crimea in 2013 unsatisfactory and therefore passed a motion of no-confidence in the Crimean government.

Under the same decision, the Crimean parliament terminated the powers of the Council of Ministers of Crimea.

In addition, the parliament dismissed Anatoliy Mohyliov as the chairman of the Crimean Council of Ministers pursuant to Article 136 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

The document takes effect on the day on which it is passed.

Voice of Russia
February 27, 2014

NATO expresses deep concern about Crimean situation

NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said Thursday he was concerned about developments in Ukraine’s Crimea and urged Russia not to do anything that would “escalate tension or create misunderstanding”.

Armed men earlier seized the regional government headquarters and parliament on Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and raised the Russian flag.

“I’m concerned about developments in Crimea. I urge Russia not to take any action that can escalate tension or create misunderstanding,” Rasmussen said on Twitter.

Voice of Russia, Reuters

===================================================

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
February 27, 2014

NATO-Ukraine Commission stresses continued engagement

A meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC) on Thursday (27 February 2014) stressed the commitment of its members to the values of democracy and the rule of law. The meeting was a timely opportunity for Allies to discuss the momentous events in Ukraine.

“NATO has a long-standing partnership with Ukraine. Today we made clear that NATO stands ready to support democratic development, defence reforms, military cooperation and democratic control over the security sector,” said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

He stressed that “we wish to continue our engagement and confirm our support to Ukraine on the path of democratic and inclusive reforms”. The Secretary General highlighted defence reform and military cooperation as key priorities, offering NATO’s continued support to Ukraine as it strengthens democratic control over the defence sector. The Secretary General expressed concern over recent developments in Ukraine’s Crimea region.

“This morning’s action by an armed group is dangerous and irresponsible. I urge Russia not to take any action that could escalate tension or create misunderstanding…,“ he said.

The Ukrainian delegation to the NUC meeting was led by First Deputy Minister of Defence Oleksandr Oliynyk. The NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC) was established in 1997 and provides a forum for consultation between the Allies and Ukraine on security issues of common concern.

Russian Information Agency Novosti
February 27, 2014

Ukraine Warns Russia on Troop Movements

KIEV: The interim president of Ukraine warned Thursday that any movement by Russian forces outside their bases in the southern republic of Crimea will be interpreted as an act of military aggression.

Already frayed nerves on the peninsula reached breaking point after armed gunmen occupied the parliament Thursday in the Crimean town of Simferopol, only one day after fistfights erupted outside the building between supporters and opponents of the country’s incoming leadership.

Russia, which has a substantial military presence at its leased naval base in the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Sevastopol, has insisted it will not interfere in its neighbor’s affairs, while at the same time voicing worries about possible discrimination against ethnic Russians in the country.

About half of Crimea’s population identifies as ethnic Russian.

Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov appealed to Russian Black Sea servicemen to refrain from leaving their quarters, apparently echoing wider international concern that Moscow may choose to throw its weight behind pro-Russian groups in Crimea seeking to defy authorities in Kiev.

“Any movement, particularly with weapons, outside official residences regulated by our agreement will be interpreted by us as military aggression,” Turchynov said.

Russia maintains thousands of military personnel at bases in Sevastopol that it rents from Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered snap military exercises in Russia’s western regions, including those bordering Ukraine.

Eyewitnesses in central Sevastopol reported seeing Russian armored personnel carriers on Tuesday and there have been other unconfirmed reports of Russian troop movements around the city since the weekend.

Acting Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov posted a link Thursday to an article on a Ukrainian news site reporting on a column of Russian APCs heading for Simferopol on a planned exercise being turned back by local law enforcement authorities.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry did not deny the reports about its heightened military activity in the region, but claimed that any movement of its troops was made in accordance with preexisting military agreements with Kiev.

“Movement of individual armored vehicles of the Black Sea Fleet was conducted in full accordance with basic agreements and did not require any approvals,” the ministry statement said.

In recent days, a series of pro-Russian demonstrations have taken place across Crimea. Protesters have said at those gatherings that they do not recognize the current government in Kiev and have called for Russian intervention.

Updated with Russian Foreign Ministry statement on reports of troop movement.

=============================================

Interfax
February 27, 2014

New Ukrainian authorities ready to sign association deal with EU within 1-2 weeks

KYIV: Ukrainian parliament deputy, candidate for vice-premier on European integration Borys Tarasyuk (Batkivshchyna) says the association agreement with the European Union may be signed in the near future.

“If the European Union [insists that the agreement be signed] by the president, a delay is possible until after the presidential election. But if this condition is not set, I believe the government will be prepared to sign the agreement within a week or two,” Tarasyuk told reporters.

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

John Galsworthy: Selections on war

=====

John Galsworthy
From The Burning Spear (1919)

After parting with the scarecrow Mr. Lavender, who felt uncommonly hungry, was about to despair of finding any German prisoners when he saw before him a gravel-pit, and three men working therein. Clad in dungaree, and very dusty, they had a cast of countenance so unmistakably Teutonic that Mr. Lavender stood still. They paid little or no attention to him, however, but went on sadly and silently with their work, which was that of sifting gravel. Mr. Lavender sat down on a milestone opposite, and his heart contracted within him. “They look very thin and sad,” he thought, “I should not like to be a prisoner myself far from my country, in the midst of a hostile population, without a woman or a dog to throw me a wag of the tail. Poor men! For though it is necessary to hate the Germans, it seems impossible to forget that we are all human beings. This is weakness,” he added to himself, “which no editor would tolerate for a moment. I must fight against it if I am to fulfil my duty of rousing the population to the task of starving them. How hungry they look already – their checks are hollow! I must be firm. Perhaps they have wives and families at home, thinking of them at this moment. But, after all, they are Huns. What did the great writer say? ‘Vermin – creatures no more worthy of pity than the tiger or the rat.’ How true! And yet – Blink!” For his dog, seated on her haunches, was looking at him with that peculiarly steady gaze which betokened in her the desire for food. “Yes,” mused Mr. Lavender, “pity is the mark of the weak man. It is a vice which was at one time rampant in this country; the war has made one beneficial change at least – we are moving more and more towards the manly and unforgiving vigour of the tiger and the rat. To be brutal! This is the one lesson that the Germans can teach us, for we had almost forgotten the art. What danger we were in! Thank God, we have past masters again among us now!” A frown became fixed between his brows. “Yes, indeed, past masters. How I venerate those good journalists and all the great crowd of witnesses who have dominated the mortal weakness, pity. ‘The Hun must and shall be destroyed – root and branch – hip and thigh – bag and baggage man, woman, and babe – this is the sole duty of the great and humane British people. Roll up, ladies and gentlemen, roll up! Great thought – great language! And yet -”

Here Mr. Lavender broke into a gentle sweat, while the Germans went on sifting gravel in front of him, and Blink continued to look up into his face with her fixed, lustrous eyes. “What an awful thing,” he thought, “to be a man. If only I were just a public man and could, as they do, leave out the human and individual side of everything, how simple it would be! It is the being a man as well which is so troublesome. A man has feelings; it is wrong – wrong! There should be no connection whatever between public duty and the feelings of a man. One ought to be able to starve one’s enemy without a quiver, to watch him drown without a wink. In fact, one ought to be a German. We ought all to be Germans. Blink, we ought all to be Germans, dear! I must steel myself!” And Mr. Lavender wiped his forehead, for, though a great idea had come to him, he still lacked the heroic savagery to put it into execution. “It is my duty,” he thought, “to cause those hungry, sad-looking men to follow me and watch me eat my lunch. It is my duty. God give me strength! For unless I make this sacrifice of my gentler nature I shall be unworthy to call myself a public man, or to be reported in the newspapers. ‘En avant, de Bracy!'” So musing, he rose, and Blink with him….

Republic News Agency (South Ossetia)
February 26, 2014

Hitler’s Fascism Is Reincarnated In Ukraine
Statement of the South Ossetian political party “Justice Labor Development”

In November 2013 Ukrainian authorities postponed the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU. This was the beginning of civil protest actions staged by the European-oriented part of the population. The result of this process was the overthrow and exile in mid-February 2014 (and soon can be expected the arrest) of the incumbent president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, whose anti-national and anti-state ruling is beyond any doubt.

However, despite the apparent disability of Yanukovych and his entourage during the ruling in Ukraine, the international community has witnessed in the bowels of the civil protests a military-political reincarnation of Hitler’s fascism. Slogans and theses on the surface of these processes, today turned into the Legislative Assembly draft laws of Ukraine, the need to create in Ukraine a mono-national environment, a ban on all other languages except Ukrainian, a ban on other sources of information are the full proof of that and lead us to the inevitability of the specified perception and without in-depth study of the covered processes.

Moreover, we cannot ignore the fact that the above-mentioned postulates of reincarnation of Hitler’s fascism are in complete contradiction with the whole set of fundamental articles of the Ukrainian Constitution (Basic Law), namely : Article 1, Article 3, Article 5, Article 10, Article 11, p. 15, Article 21, Article 22, p. 24.

The international community should not also be blind to discrediting the institutions of the statehood in Ukraine.

Here is the quote from the speech of one of the organizers of the protests, uttered a few days ago at a rally in Kiev on the occasion of the success of the protesters against the Ukrainian authorities: “We should be more organized and continue the fight to rid the country of the internal occupation! ”

Fascism is an ideology that mankind has already experienced in the mid-20th century during World War II and its content and consequences are well known. The world community, especially the countries of the so-called post-Soviet space, which suffered the greatest damage from fascism, should have a special moral obligation and high mission, ensuring the non-occurrence of a similar ideology both at the present historical stage and in the future.

In this sense, we state a significant omission of the fact that at the moment fascism is not equated with international terrorism as a threat to international security and stability.

The Republic of South Ossetia, as the country repeatedly subjected to attacks of the Georgian fascism, including in the modern era, is well aware of all the consequences of triumph of such an ideology. Speaking about the need to recognize fascism as a factor of threat to international security, the political party “Justice Labor Development” also proceeds from the fact that at the end of XX – the beginning of XXI centuries could have been avoided the tragic trajectory of developments in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, if the international community had developed a responsible attitude to all forms of manifestation of fascism, since the end of World War II.

Based on the above, recognizing the high moral and responsible mission against fascism in post-Soviet countries, the political party “Justice Labor Development” considers it necessary to:

a) Recognize fascism as one of the key threats to international security, along with international terrorism;

b) The political party “Justice Labor Development” recognizes competent a uncompromising attitude to all forms of manifestation of fascism by the leading countries of post-Soviet space, proclaiming them as a threat to national security, with appropriate actions against them, wherever they take place.

Permanent link for this article:
http://cominf.org/en/node/1166501156

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
February 26, 2014

NATOs Ballistic Missile Defence Capability

The USS Donald Cook, which arrived at Rota Naval Station, Spain earlier this month, is the first of four ballistic missile defence (BMD) capable destroyers that will be stationed at the base.

NATO Channel TV has produced this video to explain more about NATO’s Ballistic Missile Defence capability.

In the meantime, the USS Donald Cook will be joined by the USS Ross, USS Porter and USS Carney over the next two years. The destroyers will patrol the Mediterranean on four-month rotations under US command and control, but can be put under NATO operational control if threat conditions warrant.

The ships are capable of tracking and shooting down ballistic missiles in flight, using their Aegis radar system and SM-3 interceptor missiles. These capabilities will make the destroyers a key component of NATO’s missile defence shield for Europe.

Interfax
February 26, 2014

Head of Duma committee reports pro-Russian sentiments in Crimea

MOSCOW: Crimea is constructively pro-Russian and is ready to repel a possible armed aggression, head of the Russian State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs Leonid Slutsky has said.

“We saw to ourselves once again that Crimea is the part of Ukraine that is now most pro-Russian and constructive as always, the part that is ready to repel any armed aggression, if one, God forbid, follows in case Kyiv deems that what it regards as separatist feelings prevail in Crimea. Unfortunately, such things are possible,” Slutsky said in an interview with Russia 24 channel on Wednesday.

In his opinion, the conflicts between the protesters in Simferopol who demand that the local leadership should not recognize the new government in Kyiv and Crimean Tatars who support the change of power disorganize the situation in the region.

“Today this is absolutely out of time. It is absolutely unreasonable. It disorganizes the situation in Crimea. It disorganizes the sober-minded forces that can rebuff offer resistance to th

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
February 26, 2014

Voice of Russia
February 26, 2014

NATO expansion a new ‘Drang Nach Osten’ Doctrine – FM Živadin Jovanović

Download audio file

Part I

After NATO military aggression against the former Fedral Republic of Yugoslavia ended in 1999 and after the establishment of the US/NATO Camp Bondsteel military base, American military bases began sprouting up all over Eastern Europe like mushrooms after a drenching rain.

On the 15 year anniversary of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in an interview with the Voice of Russia Živadin Jovanović, the former and last Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Chairman of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals stated that all of these bases are directed against Russia and Eurasia.

All of the NATO infrastructure and military elements have nothing to do with democracy or with some struggle against organized international crime. All of the bases, warships, aircraft, nuclear missiles and anti-ballistic missile systems in Germany, Poland, Romania, Spain and elsewhere are all part of a new “Drang Nach Osten” doctrine (the German Imperial and nazi [sic] “Drive to the East”). Mr. Jovanović believes this push to the East warrants very serious attention and is a very dangerous development.

This is John Robles, I’m speaking with Živadin Jovanović. He is the former Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia and the Chairman of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals. This is part 2 of a longer interview. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at voiceofrussia.com.

Jovanović: In June, 1999, after NATO aggression was ended, then I can recall that soon after that there was a reconstruction and construction of four new American military bases in Bulgaria, and after that four new American bases in Romania. And how many they have in Czech or Slovak Republic, in Poland, in Baltic Republics and so on, it is not really so important, but what is important that after military aggression on Yugoslavia in 1999 and after establishment of the Bondsteel military base, American military bases in eastern part of the continent were mushrooming like after rain.

And now I would like to ask question for your listeners: how to explain the fact that in Europe today there are much more foreign military bases than at the time of the peak of Cold War era? Why they are needed? Is democracy in danger? Who is endangering democracy? Or what are the reasons? Can we believe that these bases are to fight terrorism, or what? It is really what is never recognized.

These bases to my sincere belief are directed against Russia, against Eurasia. And they have nothing to do with democracy, with struggle against organized international crime, with struggling against cyber dangers or anything else. We should be extremely naive to believe that these anti-ballistic systems in Poland, in Romania and elsewhere, in Spain, in Germany, that they are to relieve Europe of the dangers from Iran or from North Korea and so on and so forth.

Robles: Those are all lies. It is just part of the empire, it is part of their military force in order to increase and continue and expand their empire, and surround Russia of course, which they’ve continued to see as a threat even since the Cold War finished. NATO is the foreign military wing of their empire, they are trying to do and they are actually doing what Nazi Germany did: they are taking over the entire world through NATO.
Jovanović: I would only recall that this is new edition of a Drang nach Osten, and it really deserves high attention and very serious approaches. How to discourage, how to stop this extremely dangerous development?

I would like to add to this consideration another element, this is element of the world economic and financial crisis which seem not to be ending in foreseeable future. And I see that this global interventionism which is propped up by United States using NATO as a tool and I see that they actually are trying to pass the burden and consequences of the world economic crisis provoked by themselves to the back bone of other countries, especially to those countries which are rich with strategic minerals, strategic energy resources and so on in order to safeguard their privileged position and their good living standards and their privileged position in world economic relations. They are not ready to give up.

Robles: Can I comment on what you’ve just said about the living conditions? Because people in the West, a lot of people, and this is … it is a myth … the people themselves, they are living worse than they have since the 1960s. Things are bad for everybody. So this is only benefiting a small group of elites, I think.

Jovanović: Yes, I think you are right, because the victims of the world crisis are generally speaking poorer countries of the world, countries rich with energy and strategic mineral resources and the population of the West equally as the population all over the world. I think the hardest hit are peoples of Africa, of Asia, of Latin America and so on. And this using NATO as a tool of corporate capitalism is aimed at preserving privileged position of these corporate capital companies to preserve the monopolies and privileged position of industrial financial capital and especially military-industrial sector. And so, actually, all of us we are victims of militarization of Europe and militarization of the world relations in general.

I think that we should be aware of that military factor is dominating economy, dominating trade, dominating politics. And it is just a reason to ask a question: where we are leading to? Where does it lead to, and what is the future of such a strategy? I think we are faced with a very disturbing development and we should not allow ourselves such a luxury to become wise when it is useless, when it is late. We should be aware now, although we should have been aware much earlier.

I myself as a Minister of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia in 1999, when there was aggression of NATO against my country, I said: ‘Do you understand who is next?’ Today we know who were, who have been next so far. But each time, each stage has, let’s say, more ambitious objective of this military-industrial sector.

So, Serbia was a very tiny, small sanctions exhausted country, it was not perhaps so risky to attack by the strongest military alliance in the history of civilization. But later on they were going on and we know that they were attacking much bigger countries and having a plan to expand this. And I think all leads us to one conclusion: developments in the world relations, and especially in Europe, are very, very disturbing. Let us be aware about it.

Robles: Libya, Syria, Ukraine – it is basically one formula they are using. You mentioned supporting terrorists, you mentioned synthetic revolutions. What other mechanisms did you see as the Foreign Minister to bring about the destruction of Yugoslavia? And what can you say about Libya, Syria, Ukraine, the Middle East, Egypt? The list is almost too long to mention already.

Jovanović: Well, let me first of all say that NATO aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999, exactly 15 years ago, was a turning point in world relations point of starting global interventionism. NATO did empower itself, illegally of course, contrary to all the laws existing in the world relations to intervene in any spot of the globe.

Just it was necessary to proclaim that United States or NATO have national or state interests in certain part of the world and they then prepare for aggression for invasions. To do so they in most instances use so called formula of humanitarian interventions. They invoke obligation to protect as they recently reformulated this humanitarian intervention pattern.

They in Yugoslavia accused Yugoslav government of massively violating human rights of Albanian national minority in Kosovo and Metohija. There was not anything similar to that. We have, let’s say, documents including written documents of German diplomats, of Austrian; one German general said: ‘before the aggression there were no systematic, no organized violations of human rights of Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija’. Another German diplomat Dietmar Hartwig said that accusations of that sort were perceived by himself as preparation for the aggression and so on.

In Libya you recall that they said that civilians were in danger and that they needed protection, in Mali they also said that terrorists were endangering stability and civil life in general. In Syria they say sarin gas was used by the government forces while the UN observers never indicated such a thing. They said only that there were proofs of sarin having been used but they could not state who used the sarin gas, while later on it was linked to the opposition forces and to Saudi Arabia, and whomever else.

In various other places this was also formula: protect civilians, protect human rights, and when such a signal comes from Washington then the whole network of so-called NGO, financed from Washington, from Soros Foundation, from Norway, from Great Britain, from Germany – they accelerate such an accusation and they make atmosphere of transforming lie into truth. Because mass media would accept such directives, and like CNN and some other networks of global nature would be disseminating such accusation. And they would at the same time later, at a later stage that were parallel with this, they finance opposition, inside opposition of targeted country.

They finance so-called democracy, democratization apparently to counter or to remove the totalitarian regimes. Then they would arm them. Next stage they would finance armament and train them in many directions for military actions: how to write paroles and symbols like symbol of OTPOR or the other symbols that we have seen in Maidan in Ukraine, in Kiev or in Cairo or in many other places, in South America and so on and so forth. So they then would provoke a staged event which should be signal that there is no other solution than to use military force. In case of Yugoslavia that was Reka case, in Bosnia and Herzegovina that was Markale Incident, we know the places in Syrian and other countries.

And then sometimes they have apparent diplomatic efforts, but not aimed at finding a political diplomatic solution, only saving diplomatic efforts in order to show that the regimes, so-called regimes, are unbearable and that they are not cooperating and that there is no other means than military means to resolve the problem. So this is mainly the pattern: humanitarian or intervention or responsibility to protect.
Robles: Right. Can you give us your opinion on what is going on now in Ukraine? So we’ve seen everything you’ve been talking about, we’ve seen everything that a lot of analysts and experts have been talking about, we‘ve seen this artificial outside implemented color revolution, we’ve seen and we’ve heard US officials having conversations about who is going to be in power. It is, just everything is out in the open now. But do you see something like a terrorist act or some big act going to happen soon in Ukraine? That would be the next step, I think.

Jovanović: Of course, I presume that Russian analysts and journalists and editors, like yourself, would be much better to interpret the events in Ukraine because it is not only geographically closer to you, but from any point of view, but I can imagine that most thinking people in Europe and the world would have their own assessments of events in Ukraine. As far as I’m concerned I think it is a repetition of the colored revolutions, so-called colored revolutions, and some of the elements of the pattern that I have previously elaborating are being clearly seen in developments in Ukraine.

But perhaps I would like first of all to say that it is part of the Western strategy of expansion toward East. It is indeed to my profound belief the part of strategy to reach Russian borders and, well, they are abusing social, economic and other problems which partly resulted from their strategies and their policies of crediting or not crediting, policies implemented through IMF and World Bank, through European banks and so on. Sometimes I believe that they make people hungry in order to finish their strategy.

You were listening to part 2 of an interview with Vivadin Jovanovic, the former Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia. He is also the Chairman of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at voiceofrussia.com. Thanks for listening and we wish you the best.

Itar-Tass
February 26, 2014

Putin orders surprise drills in two military districts

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the Defence Ministry to hold surprise military exercises to check combat readiness of armed forces in Western and Central Military Districts as well as several branches of the armed forces, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday.

“According to the orders given by the Russian president, troops in the Western Military District, detachments and military units deployed in the district, the 2nd Army of the Central Military District, the Command of Aerospace Defence Troops, Airborne Troops, long-range and military transport aviation were suddenly put on alert at 14:00 Moscow time (10:00 GMT),” Shoigu said at a meeting in the Defence Ministry.

“The Supreme Commander-in-Chief has set tasks to check capability of troops to take actions to settle crisis situations that pose a threat to military security of the country as well as terrorism-related, sanitary epidemiological and man-made emergencies,” Shoigu noted.

“The surprise drills are planned to have two stages from February 26 until March 3. I order the Chief of the General Staff to put on high alert troops involved in the surprise military exercises at their first stage on February 26-27 and to deploy them at multiservice and sea-based firing grounds,” Shoigu said. At the second stage of the drills from February 28 until March 3 the chief of the General Staff is ordered to hold “a tactical drill involving the 6th and 20th Armies in the Western Military District, the 2nd Army in the Central Military District and the Command of the Airborne Troops.”

Meanwhile, bilateral tactical exercises with formations and military units of the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet will be held at the second stage of the surprise military exercises. Some part of aviation of the 1st Command of the Air Force and the Air Defence Troops will be redeployed to operational airfields, including with mid-air refuelling.

“You should be ready for bombing at unknown firing ranges,” Shoigu said. Meanwhile, anti-terrorism measures will be taken at all military townships in the Western Military District. The minister ordered commanders to report to him daily about fulfilment of these instructions.

“Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov must inform military attaches of foreign countries about surprise military exercises to check combat readiness of troops in Western and Central Military Districts,” the minister said. He noted that the Defence Ministry had planned a meeting over fulfilment of the state defence order, but this meeting is delayed for a later date over the surprise drills ordered by the Russian president.

The troops are to return to permanent deployment bases before March 7.

Interfax-Military
February 26, 2014

Tbilisi welcomes U.S. readiness to back NATO accession plan for Georgia

TBILISI: Georgian Foreign Ministry Maia Panjikidze has called “a pleasant surprise” the statement by the United States Department of State in favor of giving a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Georgia, an Interfax correspondent said on Wednesday.

“The U.S. clearly acknowledge the success of our government in the cause of our integration with NATO, as well as the achievements in the country’s democratization, which could become a good help for Georgia getting the MAP,” she said.

Panjikidze was commenting on the reply by the State Department to a letter from 40 senators calling for the Obama administration to support the awarding of a MAP to Georgia at the NATO summit in the United Kingdom.

Georgia continues advancing its reforms. “We admire the way Georgia organized its presidential election in 2013 and note its participation in NATO activities, in particular, in the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) in Afghanistan. In this and other spheres Georgia has proved being a functional and loyal partner,” the State Department said in its letter.

At the upcoming summit Georgia should receive a NATO membership action plan, the State Department said.

“We believe Georgia deserves trust based on the progress it has achieved and on the responsible attitude it shows toward NATO operations and standards. We support Georgia’s aspiration to reach an agreement with NATO and obtain a MAP,” the U.S. State Department said.

The State Department’s statement was timed to coincide with the visit to Washington by a Georgian delegation led by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Panjikidze said.

Georgia is waiting to be given a MAP setting a clear timeframe for the country’s accession to the alliance, Garibashvili said before the Atlantic Council on Tuesday.

Interfax
February 26, 2014

NATO to hold political discussion on Ukraine

BRUSSELS: Ukraine is a close partner of the North Atlantic Alliance, and NATO is its sincere friend, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrote on Twitter ahead of a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.

“#NATO #DefMin will discuss #Ukraine situation & hold a NATO-Ukraine Commission,” the secretary general wrote on Twitter.

He also mentioned the upcoming important political discussions on Ukraine, Afghanistan and (NATO’s) defense capabilities. 

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Herbert Read: Bombing Casualties

====

Herbert Read
The Happy Warrior

His wild heart beats with painful sobs,
His strain’d hands clench an ice-cold rifle,
His aching jaws grip a hot parch’d tongue,
His wide eyes search unconsciously.

He cannot shriek.

Bloody saliva
Dribbles down his shapeless jacket.

I saw him stab
And stab again
A well-killed Boche.

This is the happy warrior,
This is he…

Taylor Report
February 24, 2014

Coup in Ukraine
“Weimar Triangle” emerges
February 24th, 2014
Featured Guest: RICK ROZOFF

Description:

Rick Rozoff returns to the program to follow-up on his previous interview about the possibility of a coup in Ukraine.

Rozoff’s most dire predictions have come to fruition. The events in Ukraine “have been long in the making” and “methodically planned out.”

The only thing that isn’t materializing is EU aid to Ukraine. “If you’ve pledged yourself unconditionally, why would they buy you?”

Audio Files:

Stars and Stripes
February 25, 2014

Despite cuts, NATO still accounts for most of world’s military spending
By Slobodan Lekic

Despite impending cuts in the armed forces of many of its member nations, NATO remains by far the largest military force in the world, outstripping any potential rivals in terms of numbers and defense expenditures, according to annual statistics released by the alliance.

The data also show that the United States still accounts for more than 70 percent of the total defense expenditures of NATO’s 28 member countries.

The release of the latest NATO figures comes ahead of a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels and coincides with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s proposal for continued cuts in U.S. military spending after 13 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hagel’s plan would result in slashing the active-duty Army down to between 440,000 and 450,000 troops, its smallest size since before World War II. Congress has already mandated nearly $500 billion in defense spending cuts in coming years, triggering a major re-evaluation of U.S. military needs.

Among NATO’s European members, only Estonia, Greece and Britain spent more than the alliance’s target sum of 2 percent of gross domestic product on their armed forces last year. The U.S. dedicated 4.1 percent of its GDP to defense, or $735 billion, according to the NATO data.

The combined defense expenditures of all NATO nations in 2013 amounted to $1.02 trillion. This figure includes research and development expenditures related to purchase of major equipment and pensions.

By comparison, the total of military budgets for all countries in the world was $1.745 trillion in 2012, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden.

In 2012, China’s expenditures amounted to $166 billion and Russia’s were $90 billion. Iran trailed with just under $7 billion, according to SIPRI.

By troop numbers, NATO also held a lopsided advantage over any other nation, with a total of 3,370,000 servicemembers in 2013, according to NATO’s statistics. This contrasts with Russia’s 766,000 troops and China’s estimated 2.3 million active-duty personnel, according to Sam Perlo-Freeman, director of SIPRI’s program on military expenditures.

“NATO still accounts for a clear majority of world military spending, over 60 percent, and a substantial number of other top spenders are American allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel,” Perlo-Freeman said. “In terms of military capabilities, the U.S. and NATO will remain absolutely unmatched for the foreseeable future.”

But Perlo-Freeman warned that although China’s military capabilities “are far, far shorter” than America’s, it doesn’t mean that Washington can impose its will in China’s “near-environment.”

As for Russia, Perlo-Freeman said it could compare with the West only in its nuclear capabilities.

“But its conventional forces have a lot of serious deficiencies in terms of command and control and mobility, (and) in terms of actually being able to fight modern warfare, they are far behind Western countries,” he said.

Defense budgets in most European nations have come under increasing pressure since the start of the economic recession six years ago. Although military expenditures appear to have escaped major cuts during that period, analysts expect that, with the withdrawal of NATO combat troops from Afghanistan at the end of the year, they will fall to levels hard to imagine just a decade ago.

…

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Maritime Command
February 24, 2014

Exercise Dynamic Mongoose wraps up off the coast of Norway

Bergen, NORWAY: NATO’s submarine warfare Exercise DYNAMIC MONGOOSE 2014 (DMON 14) concluded today off the coast of Norway, as the ships, submarines, aircraft, and personnel from eight participating Allied nations wrapped up the simulations and began to take stock of the lessons the exercise provided for future operations.

Rough weather provided a challenging environment for the participants, who were given the opportunity to train for a variety of high end maritime war-fighting skills. During the exercise, the participating surface ships also had the opportunity to conduct the difficult manoeuvres involved in replenishment-at-sea (RAS) training.

Submarines from Portugal, Norway and France, under operational control of Commander Submarines NATO (COMSUBNATO), and surface ships from Norway, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Poland under the command of Standing NATO Maritime Group ONE (SNMG-1) Commodore Nils Andreas Stensønes simulated combat against one another in a stressful multi-threat environment.

The increasingly challenging exercise scenario incorporated several warfighting areas, including submarine detection, tracking and engagements of surface units and other submarines, aircraft detection, tracking and attacking of submarines, as well as naval task groups escorting high value units and protecting them from the submarine threat. The exercise challenged participants’ ability to seamlessly integrate multinational forces, including submarines, ships and aircraft into a coherent fighting force.

“During this exercise, SNMG-1 has grown from two to a task group of ten vessels. This demonstrates how the group can seamlessly integrate vessels from Allied nations and expand in accordance with the demands of the current situation,” said Commodore Stensønes. “The contributions from all the nations have been outstanding. I believe we have made a significant step forward in anti-submarine warfare capability, as single units, as an integrated task group with ships and aircraft and as a task force.”

Maritime Patrol Aircraft and helicopters operating from Sola Air Base under operational command of NATO Maritime Air Command (COMMARAIR) added to the complexity and realism of the training by incorporating the air element of anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare.

“We appreciate the excellent host nation support Norway provided for ships, submarines, and aircraft from Haakonsvern Navy Base in Bergen and Air Station Sola in Stavanger. This is an ideal venue for such exercises, and our Norwegian Allies are superb hosts,” said Rear Admiral Bob Kamensky, COMSUBNATO. “Moreover, the contribution of all participating units and personnel from Norway, Portugal, Poland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States provided a great opportunity for all units to test and hone their skills, equipment and tactical procedures in such a complex war environment.”

Story by HQ MARCOM Public Affairs Office

Civil Georgia
February 25, 2014

Obama, Biden Meet with Georgian PM

Tbilisi: U.S. President Barack Obama joined Vice President Joe Biden’s meeting with Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili at the White House on February 24.

The White House said in a readout of the meeting that President Obama and Vice President Biden both congratulated for Georgia’s “success in completing the country’s first peaceful, democratic transition of power, and urged the Prime Minister to continue working with all of Georgia’s leaders and with civil society to advance the rule of law and to consolidate Georgia’s significant democratic achievements.”

“The President and Prime Minister further discussed opportunities for strengthening U.S.-Georgia strategic cooperation, including on increasing trade and investment ties between our two economies.”

“The President and Vice President also reaffirmed the United States’ strong support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. They also assured the Prime Minister that the Georgian people had the United States’ unwavering support as they pursue their Euro-Atlantic aspirations and pledged continued U.S. assistance to help the new Georgian government as it pursues political, economic, and defense reforms,” the White House said.

It said that the President and the Vice President thanked Georgia for being “a valued friend and reliable partner in supporting our most challenging regional and global priorities.”

“In doing so, the President expressed the United States’ deep appreciation for Georgia’s significant contributions to the NATO mission in Afghanistan and honored the sacrifices made by Georgian soldiers and their families,” the White House said.

President Obama joined the meeting for about 20 minutes, according to a senior administration official.

PM Garibashvili said after the meeting “Georgia is moving actually to a new stage of relations with the United States.”

“Our government has received full support from the U.S. President and the Vice President. They have reiterated U.S. support to Georgia,” Garibashvili said.

“It was a very positive and fruitful meeting. I want to stress that the United States is the most important, strategic partner for Georgia and we will maximally contribute deepening and strengthening of these relationships,” the Georgian PM said and also added that the U.S. reiterated readiness to “deepen trade and economic” ties with Georgia.

Meeting with the U.S. President was not announced beforehand; Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said that the meeting was pre-planned but not made public in advance upon request from the White House. “Of course we knew it in advance, but it was a request from the White House not to pre-announce details of scheduled meetings,” she said.

Panjikidze, who was present at the meeting, said President Obama reaffirmed that “Georgia has full support, the Georgian government has full support” of the United States. She told Imedi TV that the U.S. President reiterated support to Georgia’s territorial integrity and its European and Euro-Atlantic integration and noted “importance of Georgia’s constructive steps” towards Russia.

Georgian State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Alexi Petriashvili, Deputy Foreign Minister Davit Zalkaliani and Georgian ambassador in the U.S., Archil Gegeshidze, were among the Georgian officials present at the meeting in the Roosevelt Room of White House. U.S. ambassador to Georgia, Richard Norland, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, were also present.

The Georgian PM’s office said in a readout of the meeting with the U.S. Vice President, that “the U.S.-Georgian strategic partnership, Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic perspective, as well as reforms carried out by the Georgian authorities were the main topics of the meeting.”

“The Georgian PM stressed on installation of barbed wire fences [by the Russian troops] across the occupation line of Tskhinvali region and Abkhazia and thanked the United States for its unambiguous position on this issue.”

“PM Garibashvili noted that the [Georgian] authorities appreciate highly U.S. condemnation of building dividing lines by the occupying Russian troops and expressed hope that the U.S. support in this respect will continue in the future as well,” the Georgian PM’s office said.

“The Prime Minister noted that process of Georgia’s NATO integration is dynamic like never before.”

“During the meeting with Vice President Joe Biden, the Prime Minister noted that Georgia will sign the Association Agreement with the European Union before autumn, 2014 and the Georgian government welcomes readiness of the United States to support Georgia in implementing commitments under the agreement.”

“Prime Minister Garibashvili has urged the Vice President to continue supporting further improvement of the U.S-Georgian relations because it is of vital importance for Georgia taking in the view upcoming [local] elections, signature of the Association Agreement with the EU and NATO summit [in Wales in September],” PM’s office said.

Also on February 24, the Georgian PM met separately with Republican Senators Roy Blunt and Jeff Sessions, as well as Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Carl Levin.

Voice of Russia
February 25, 2014

US pushes NATO membership for Georgia
Ilya Kharlamov

While the world’s attention is riveted on dramatic events Ukraine, the United States is making strides to bring Georgia closer to NATO. Experts are warning that this scenario may destabilize the situation in the Caucasus and strain relations between NATO and Russia. But the warnings fall on deaf ears. Vying for control of that important part of former Soviet territory, Washington has long stopped heeding experts’ opinions.

An ideological offensive on Georgia comes from two directions. On the one hand, the European Union has forcing its values upon Tbilisi within the framework of the so-called Eastern Partnership Program, while offering nothing in return, no dividends, rights or privileges, in an apparent bid to destroy whatever ties may still exist between Georgia and Russia and expand the EU influence in the region. On the other hand, the United States is stepping up efforts to engage Georgia into NATO. In 2008, the population of South Ossetia fully experienced the aftermath that policy after being attacked by Georgian troops, armed and trained by NATO.

The political turmoil and uncertainty in Ukraine smooth the way for other geopolitical projects, Georgia being one of them. It’s a fine moment to frighten Georgians with a Ukrainian scenario and assure them that America, their best friend, will not let it happen.

Not long ago, dozens of US congressmen from both the Republican and Democratic parties signed a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, in which they encourage continued efforts to make enlargement a key priority for the United States and urged him to support NATO membership for Macedonia and Montenegro and a MAP (Membership Action Plan) for Georgia. Those tasks were repeatedly outlined by President Barack Obama and his NATO allies.

“At all its recent summits, NATO repeated that it held the door open. The latest events in Ukraine where local nationalists have actually seized power arouse deep concern. Washington’s policy will damage both the US-Russian relations and Moscow’s relations with Georgia and Ukraine if the latter become full-fledged NATO members. The experience of the former Soviet republics and former Warsaw Pact countries which have joined NATO shows that their military and military-technical plans have been completely overhauled. Anti-Russian sentiments emerge. Large-scale military exercises take place near our borders. The atmosphere surrounding Russia’s relations with NATO and its newly-admitted members is on the whole deteriorating,” political analyst Vladimir Kozin told the Voice of Russia.

NATO continues to expand eastwards. And as it does so, it heaps Kremlin with assurances that the alliance’s expansion is not directed against Russia or harms its interests in any way. But missile defense systems and tactical nuclear weapons deployed in the newly-admitted member-states make those assurances meaningless. It’s naive to believe that Georgia will be free of NATO bases if it joins NATO. A MAP for Georgia will probably be up for debate at NATO’s September summit, said Leonid Savin, Chief Editor of the Geopolitics magazine.

“Georgia’s possible admission to NATO means that foreign could bases will appear not far from the Russian border. That might jeopardize stability and security in the entire region. Armenia is planning to join the Customs Union and the Eurasian Union. It will hardly like the prospect of NATO troops and hardware controlling the territory. After Georgia enters NATO, Tbilisi may resume attempts to regain Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” he said.

Naturally, Russia cannot remain unresponsive to those far-reaching plans. Western politicians are seeking to provoke Moscow into making some rash and ill-considered steps in Ukraine, which would hopefully discredit Russia in the eyes of the world. But, as the situation around Syria has shown, Moscow is quite capable of playing a sensible and effective geopolitical game.

State Information Service
February 24, 2014

Egypt posts NATO on road map developments

Assistant Foreign Minister for Multilateral Affairs and International Security Hisham Badr left on Sunday 23/2/20147 to Brussels to meet the assistant Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

He said a round of negotiations will start on Monday 24/2/2014 for discussing means of expanding cooperation in the field of combating terrorism and training Egyptian cadres within the framework of the NATO role in upgrading potentials of Mediterranean partnership states.

He added that he will post NATO officials on the steps taken for implementing the political road map and the progress of the Egyptian war on terrorism.

==========================================

Daily News Egypt
February 24, 2014

Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hold talks with NATO officials in Brussels
Ali Omar

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Sunday that Assistant Foreign Minister for Multilateral Affairs Hisham Badr will be travelling to Brussels to hold bilateral talks with officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

According to a statement released by the ministry, the talks will focus primarily on NATO cooperation in the fight against terrorism and organised crime. Badr also hopes to coordinate efforts in hosting a NATO seminar in Egypt concerning the fight against terrorism.

The statement added that Egypt has a “bilateral plan” to increase cooperation with NATO, specifically in the fields of science and skills development. Crisis management, peacekeeping operations, mine-detection training, as well as disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation policies will be discussed.

State-run MENA reported that training for ambassadors and media professionals, organised by NATO, will also take place.

Badr will also take this opportunity to present Egypt’s transitional roadmap to the NATO community.

The talks, which will last three days, commemorate the 20th year of cooperation between the organisation and Egypt.

Itar-Tass
February 25, 2014

NATO-Ukraine commission to meet February 27 as part of NATO defense ministers meeting

BRUSSELS: The NATO-Ukraine commission (NUC) is going to meet in Brussels on February 27 as part of a meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers, NATO official spokesperson Oana Lungescu said on Thursday.

“The NATO — Ukraine commission is a reliable platform for supporting democracy,” Lungescu went on to say.

Though not officially confirmed, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister is expected to represent Ukraine at this meeting.

The NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC), established in 1997, is the decision-making body responsible for developing the NATO-Ukraine relationship and for directing cooperative activities. It also provides a forum for consultation between the Allies and Ukraine on security issues of common concern.

=============================================

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Defence Ministers’ Meetings – Brussels, 26-27 February 2014

NATO HQ, Brussels

26 February 2014

12:30 NATO Secretary General’s Doorstep Statement

14:00 NAC Meeting – Opening remarks

18:40 Press conference by the NATO Secretary General

27 February 2014

09:30 NAC Meeting with non-NATO ISAF Contributing Countries – Opening remarks

12:00 Meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission – Opening remarks

13:15 Press conference by the NATO Secretary General

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Bertolt Brecht: Selections on war

====

Bertolt Brecht
From Mother Courage and Her Children (1939)
Translated by Eric Bentley

MOTHER COURAGE:…The Chief had his troubles lately, I hear. There was unrest in the Second Regiment because he didn’t pay ’em. He said it was a war of religion and they must fight it free of charge.

…

MOTHER COURAGE:…Then you don’t think the war might end?

CHAPLAIN: Because a commander’s dead? Don’t be childish, they grow on trees. There are always heroes.

MOTHER COURAGE: Well, I wasn’t asking for the sake of argument. I was wondering if I should buy up a lot of supplies. They happen to be cheap right now. But if the war ended, I might as well just throw them away.

CHAPLAIN: I realize you are serious, Mother Courage. Well, there’ve always been people going around saying some day the war will end. I say, you can’t be sure the war will ever end. Of course it may have to pause occasionally – for breath, as it were – it can even meet with an accident – nothing on this earth is perfect – a war of which we could say it left nothing to be desired will probably never exist. A war can come to a sudden halt – from unforeseen causes – you can’t think of everything – a little oversight, and the war’s in the hole, and someone’s got to pull it out again! The someone is the Emperor or the King or the Pope. They’re such friends in need, the war really has nothing to worry about, it can look forward to a prosperous future.

…

CHAPLAIN:…You have your leg shot off, and at first you raise quite an outcry as if it was something, but soon you calm down or take a swig of brandy, and you end up hopping about, and the war is none the worse for your little misadventure. And can’t you be fruitful and multiply in the thick of slaughter – behind a barn or somewhere? Nothing can keep you from it long in any event. And so the war has your offspring and can carry on. War is like love, it always finds a way. Why should it end?

Itar-Tass
February 24, 2014

Russia’s FM source: Susan Rice had better advise US, not Russia

MOSCOW: Russia has declared that the US president’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, would better counsel the White House, not Russia, a Russian Foreign Ministry source told Itar-Tass on Monday in a comment on Rice’s statement that Russia’s intervention in Ukraine “would be a grave mistake”.

“We have brought to notice Susan Rice’s expert estimates based on repeated introduction of US forces in different parts of the world, especially where, according to the US administration, values of Western democracy are endangered or where the incumbents get out of hand too obviously,” said the source.

“We hope it is such advice on the wrongs of using force that the current national security adviser will give the US authorities if they decide on another intervention.”

Asked on broadcaster NBC on Sunday whether the US was concerned that Russia may bring its troops to Ukraine, Rice said “it’s not in the interest of Ukraine or of Russia or of Europe or of the United States to see a country split. It’s in nobody’s interests to see violence return and the situation escalate.”

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

John Galsworthy: Selections on war

=====

John Galsworthy
From The Burning Spear (1919)

Mr. Lavender lay with his eyes fixed on the ceiling, clucking his parched tongue. “God,” he thought, “for one must use that word when the country is in danger – God be thanked for Beauty! But I must not allow it to unsteel my soul. Only when the cause of humanity has triumphed, and with the avenging sword and shell we have exterminated that criminal nation, only then shall I be entitled to let its gentle influence creep about my being.”

***

Mr. Lavender sighed. “At a time like this,” he said, “we must all be prepared to sacrifice our health. No public man, as you know, can call his head his own for a moment. I should count myself singularly lacking if I stopped to consider – er – such a consideration.”

“Consider – er – such a consideration,” repeated the nephew, jotting it down.

“He carries on,” murmured Mr. Lavender, once more identifying himself with the journal, “grappling with the intricacies of this enormous problem; happy in the thought that nothing – not even reason itself – is too precious to sacrifice on the altar of his duty to his country. The public may rest confident in the knowledge that he will so carry on till they carry him out on his shield.” And aware subconsciously that the interview could go no further than that phrase, Mr. Lavender was silent, gazing up with rather startled eyes.

***

“Never,” he was saying, “will we admit that doctrine of our common enemies. Might is not right, gentlemen, those who take the sword shall perish by the sword. With blood and iron we will ourselves stamp out this noxious breed. No stone shall be left standing, and no babe sleeping in that abandoned country. We will restore the tide of humanity, if we have to wade through rivers of blood across mountains of iron.”

***

“Glorious print!” cried Mr. Lavender suddenly, for a journal had fallen from his pocket, and the sight of it lying there, out of his reach, excited him. “Glorious print! I can read you even from here. When the enemy of mankind uses the word God he commits blasphemy! How different from us!” And raising his eyes from the journal Mr. Lavender fastened them, as it seemed to his anxious listeners, on the tree which sheltered them. “Yes! Those unseen presenes, who search out the workings of our heart, know that even the most Jingo among us can say, ‘I am not as they are!’…”

***

On Thursday, the day fixed for his fresh tour of public speaking, he opened the great journal eagerly. Above the third column was the headline: OUR VITAL DUTY: BY A GREAT PUBLIC MAN. “That must be it,” he thought. The article, which occupied just a column of precious space, began with an appeal so moving that before he had read twenty lines Mr. Lavender had identified himself completely with the writer; and if anyone had told him that he had not uttered these sentiments, he would have given him the lie direct. Working from heat to heat the article finished in a glorious outburst with a passionate appeal to the country to starve all German prisoners.

Mr. Lavender put it down in a glow of exultation. “I shall translate words into action,” he thought; “I shall at once visit a rural district where German prisoners are working on the land, and see that the farmers do their duty.”

***

“This glorious land!” he thought, walking away from the beech clump, with Blink at his heels; “how wonderful to see it being restored to its former fertility under pressure of the war! The farmer must be a happy man, indeed, working so nobly for his country, without thought of his own prosperity. How flowery those beans look already!” he mused, glancing at a field of potatoes. “Now that I am here I shall be able to combine my work on German prisoners with an effort to stimulate food production. Blink!”

Voice of Russia
February 23, 2014

Soviet Republics and Russian allies US/NATO color revolution targets – Rick Rozoff
John Robles

Recorded on Februay 18, 2014

Audio: Download audio file

Part I

It is unprecedented that simultaneously three countries that are allies of Russia are being threatened by color revolutions: Venezuela, the Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) and Ukraine. These synthetic uprisings orchestrated by the US/NATO/EU would have been identified as the uprisings of fascistic guttersnipes 100 years ago, but in 2014 they are being portrayed as democracy or freedom movements, by the same people who are organizing them to destroy country after country. Voice of Russia regular contributor Rick Rozoff says that if something like this was to happen in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin or Rome, this would not have been tolerated for hours, much less days, weeks and months.

Mr. Rozoff also stated that since the fragmentation of the Soviet Union the US and other Western nations have insinuated themselves very deeply into the political structures of former Soviet states, especially in Ukraine, and into its internal security apparatus and military through a NATO integration and Partnership for Peace Agreement and the NATO-Ukraine Commission. It should be known, says Mr. Rozoff that the NATO Association Agreement with Ukraine is meant to: “… bring a country with a 1400 km border with Russia firmly into the military pen of the United States and NATO.”

This is John Robles, you are listening to an interview with Rick Rozoff – the owner and manager of the stop NATO website and international mailing list. This is part 2 of a longer interview. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at voiceofrussia.com

PART 1

Robles: The timing Rick – protests in Venezuela, Bosnia at the same time. It is like they are working on some schedule or something. The Olympics are going on right now and this is all happening in the background. Anything on the timing that you could comment on?

Rozoff: That’s a keen point you are making. There is no question but that somebody has decided to ignite several fires simultaneously, so as to prevent the timely response, particularly I would argue by Russia, which is a close political and even, ultimately, military ally of Venezuela, as well as the Bosnian Serb Republic (The Republika Srpska) and Ukraine. So that, what you see is three nations, one of them a quasi-nation or, let’s say, an autonomous Bosnian Serb Republic, with close political affiliation with Russia being threatened simultaneously through these wretched color revolution scenarios.

That, again, if they were occurring a hundred years ago – say, in the 1920’s or 1930’s in Europe – would be identified for what they were, which is an uprising of fascistic guttersnipes. And the fact that this is being portrayed in any way or form as a democracy or freedom movement is outrageous. And it just shows how far the US domination, if not almost monopoly, control of international news dissemination has led to black being portrayed as white and vice versa.

Robles: It was 6 p.m. Moscow time when the Ukrainian security services announced that they would be clearing out Maidan Square. They gave them a warning and the Russian Foreign Ministry has called on these oppositionists not to use violence etc. They had a chance to peacefully just break camp and call it a day, just clear the square.

Again, you’ve commented on the violent tactics already, but I just wanted to get that out there, that they were warned in advance. This wasn’t some sudden swoop or something by the security forces. It wasn’t a surprise thing, they knew it and I think it’s a long time in coming. Why do you think they took so long? In my opinion they took way too long to react.

Rozoff: Again, to reason by analogy, were something like this to happen in Washington or in London or Paris or Berlin or Rome, this would not have been tolerated for hours, much less days, weeks and months. If nothing else, the established authorities would have portrayed the existence of so-called tent cities as being a threat to public health, to impeding the flow of traffic, security obviously problem or threat and it would have been cleared up right quickly. That you could be assured of that.

But if you are a government that is under siege by the US and its allies, then no matter what you do it’s wrong. If you demonstrate any lack of resolve, you’re seen as weak and ready for the kill. If you attempt, howsoever timidly, to enforce the basic functions of a government by ensuring public security, then you are seen as being heavy-handed and overbearing and violent and so forth, and I would have to say, if I were Viktor Yanukovych – and this applies, by the way, to a lot of heads of state. You know, Maduro in Venezuela, perhaps Lukashenko in Belarus, I don’t know how many around the world – have got to be thinking that what we’ve seen in the past 15 years is that any time a head of state tries to defend his nation against a Western onslaught, he ends up in a prison cell and he ends up dead.

And this has happened with several heads of state, from Ivory Coast to Yugoslavia, from Libya to Iraq. And the message is: it is riding a tiger, it is literally that. If you continue with the process, you are going to be mauled and killed. And if you try to get off, you are going to be assaulted.

Robles: I’m sorry, I think you are right, you are absolutely right. And I think putting that out there like that, I think the presidents of all the countries in the world, especially countries that may be targeted, I don’t think they should be afraid to make a move.

I think the opposite. I think they should get together – all of the independent thinking and all the presidents of countries that are seeking to maintain an independent or sovereign foreign policy, stance or decision, or policies, I think they should all get together and form some sort of alliance so this does not happen again. And I think this stuff has to be just cut off before even it is allowed to grow.

We already know, and I think it is obvious to the world, who the actors are, who the puppeteers are, who is pulling the strings, where the financing is coming from. I just don’t understand why, for example, presidents don’t get together and just make this not possible anymore.

Rozoff: You are absolutely correct about that, John. And if I could, there is the Aesopian fable, many of your listeners may know about, about the cat and the mice, where its decided the cat is picking off a mouse, a different mouse every day to devour it. The mice hold a council and they determine they have to put a bell around the cat in order to know when he is coming. And the world has to bell this cat right now, it should have done it a long time ago.

But on the upside, the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States, CELAC as it from the acronym is known, held a meeting a couple of weeks ago in Havana, Cuba, where they declared the Western hemisphere to be a nuclear free zone and a zone of peace. And that is the sort of initiative that has to be taken not only throughout Latin America, but throughout the world.

We have to declare the world to be a zone of peace, free of nuclear and all other weapons, and certainly free of interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign nations and plunging capital cities of countries into violence, such as we are seeing in Kiev right now.

Robles: For one goal, and that’s to replace the president, as far as I see it.

Rozoff: To implant a puppet regime that will be brought into the military orbit of the United States and NATO. That’s the objective.

Robles: I don’t understand it myself. These people they are organizing a coup d’etat… I mean, the minute they started storming government buildings, I think they forfeited every possible reasonable right, that even unreasonable right they had, to be called an opposition or to be dealt with peacefully. I don’t understand why he is even negotiating with them. They should all be, in my opinion, arrested immediately on the spot.

Rozoff: We have to keep in mind that since the fragmentation of the Soviet Union in 1991, that the US and other Western nations have insinuated themselves very deeply into the political structures of former Soviet states, Ukraine I think as much as any other. And that means into the internal security apparatus of the Interior Ministry, through the military, through NATO integration and Partnership for Peace and the NATO-Ukraine Commission and similar measures where it is a question of how much you can even depend on people within the internal and the external security apparatus because of 23 years of penetration by the West.

Incidentally, before I sign off, I just want to read a couple of brief excerpts from title IIof the Association Agreement between Ukraine and European Union. The agreement, that not having been signed on November 21st, was the alleged cause for this violent uprising in Ukraine. It included comments like the following:

“The Association Agreement will promote gradual convergence on foreign and security matters with the aim of Ukraine’s ever deeper involvement in the European security area.”

It calls to “strengthen cooperation and dialog on international security and crisis management,” and so forth. It talks very precisely about the military integration of Ukraine into that of Western Europe, into the European Union in the first place, which itself is almost…

Robles: NATO.

Rozoff: Yes, it is NATO, Through the Berlin Plus and other agreements. It also calls for: “taking full and timely advantage of all diplomatic and military channels between the Parties” and so forth.

And this goes on. People should know what this Association Agreement is. It is not meant to have workshops on multiculturalism or humanitarian festivals or something of the sort. This is a security-military agreement which is meant to bring a country with a 1,400-kilometer border with Russia firmly into the military pen of the United States and NATO.

Robles: And last comment, if you would Rick. You are US-based, you live in Chicago. A lot of people here still entertain an idea, and some of them might be listening right now, people in Ukraine, people in Bosnia, people in Serbia, that somehow the answer to all their problems lies in the West. That somehow, if they welcome the United States into their countries, that they are going to be taken care of and they are going to have better lives and everything else. Can you comment on that?

Rozoff: Yes, two scores. All they need to do is ask the people of Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy – the southern flank of the European Union – what integration into the Western power structures portends for them.

It portends misery, insecurity, unemployment, indebtedness, bankruptcy, old pensioners jumping out of windows because life doesn’t mean anything to them anymore. This is what subordination to the West means for the people of southern and eastern Europe, and ultimately for the people of the world. That is number one.

Number two, we have to remember that Arseniy Yatsenyuk was foreign minister during the government of Viktor Yushchenko – the US puppet who was implanted in the so-called Orange Revolution – and while he was foreign minister 2,000 Ukrainian troops were dragooned to be stationed in a war zone in Iraq.

This is what integration with the West means. It means supplying cannon fodder – unemployed Ukrainian men and women who will be sent to war zones around the world to kill and die. This is what the new world order is. If this is what the West offers the people of the world, the world would be well advised to reject it.

Robles : Are you serious Rick? Come on! Everything is great in America! Isn’t it?

Rozoff: Yes, well they can have Lady Gaga, but they are going to have their son coming home in a coffin.

Robles : Hey Rick, thank you very much. We’ll be speaking with you again next week. I really appreciate it.

Rozoff: Thanks for the opportunity John.

This is John Robles, you were listening to an interview with Mr. Rick Rozoff – the owner and manager of the stop NATO website and international mailing list. This is a weekly feature of the Voice of Russia. You can find other work by me and Mr. Rick Rozoff on our website at the voiceofrussia.com. Thank you very much for listening and we wish you the best wherever in the world you may be.

Russian Information Agency Novosti
February 23, 2014

Obama Official Warns Russia on Military Action in Ukraine

WASHINGTON: A senior US official on Sunday warned Moscow not to send troops into Ukraine amid the political crisis gripping Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbor, saying such a move would constitute a “grave mistake.”

“It’s not in the interests of Ukrainian or of Russia or of Europe or the United States to see the country split. It’s in nobody’s interest to see violence returned and the situation escalate,” White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Rice’s comments followed a report by the Financial Times last week quoting an unidentified senior Russian official as saying that Moscow could intervene to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s Crimea territory, home to a Russian naval base.

“If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war. They will lose Crimea first [because] we will go in and protect [it], just as we did in Georgia,” the official was quoted as saying in a reference to Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

…

Ukrainian lawmakers impeached Yanukovych on Saturday, though he remained defiant in a statement issued the same day from a location in his political stronghold in the east of the country, describing attempts to unseat him as a coup.

Rice said that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with a message delivered by his American counterpart, Barack Obama, in a phone call between the two leaders Friday.

“The president’s message was, look, we have a shared interest in a Ukraine that remains unified, whole, independent and is able to exercise the will of its people freely,” she said.

In a telephone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed the United States’ “strong support” for the Ukrainian parliament’s decision to transfer presidential duties to speaker Oleksander Turchinov, the State Department said in a statement.

Kerry also “underscored the United States’ expectation that Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and democratic freedom of choice will be respected by all states,” the State Department said.

Lavrov told Kerry, meanwhile, that the Ukrainian opposition has “effectively seized power,” refuses to lay down arms and “continues to place its stake on violence,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Lavrov emphasized to his US counterpart that an agreement signed Friday between Yanukovych and Ukrainian opposition leaders calling for early presidential elections and constitutional reforms must be enforced, noting that the United States welcomed the deal at the time.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
February 23, 2014

NATO Secretary General statement on Ukraine

I am closely monitoring the important developments in Ukraine. The people of Ukraine must determine their own future in freedom and democracy. I continue to call for calm and restraint, so that all sides can focus on pursuing the path of democracy, stability and prosperity through peaceful dialogue and early elections.

I commend the statement of the Ukrainian army that it will in no way intervene in the political crisis. It is important that this continues to be the case.

Ukraine is a close partner to NATO and NATO is a friend of the Ukrainian people.‎ We look forward to continue cooperation with Ukraine based on the NATO-Ukraine Charter.

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Russian writers on war

Fyodor Dostoevsky: Selections on war

====

Fyodor Dostoevsky
From The Diary of a Writer
Translated by Boris Brasol

Undeniably, from the diplomatic standpoint, and consequently from the standpoint of common sense, all world questions are always explained by the mere fact that such and such states sought to expand their borders; or this or that brave general had this or that desire; or that some prominent lady was displeased with this or that, etc. (Let this be undeniable; I will concede it because this is superlative wisdom.) Nevertheless, even were we to accept these realistic causes and explanations, isn’t there a certain moment, a certain point in the progress of human affairs, a certain phase, when suddenly there appear some strange forces – which take possession of everything at once, and which drag everything irresistibly, blindly, as it were, downhill or, perhaps, into an abyss?

1877

***

(On plans by European nations to league against Russia)

In fact, all nations in Europe have been doing so throughout their whole histories whenever the possibility arose of strengthening themselves at the expense of their neighbors.

This has been the case from the most savage primordial times down to the recent contemporaneous Franco-Prussian war. And what became then of their whole civilization? – The most learned and enlightened of all nations fell upon another equally learned and enlightened nation, and seizing upon the opportunity, devoured it as a wild beast, drank its blood, squeezed out of it all its sap, in the form of billions in indemnity, and chopped off its whole side, in the form of its two best provinces.

1877

***

It is asserted that supposedly somewhere there was a war in progress, I have even heard that there actually was a war in progress, but I am told – this I read everywhere – that if somewhere there is something on the order of a war, – all this is understood in a wrong sense…

At all events, it has been decided that war will impede nothing, that is, no healthy function of the nation which – according to the latest views of everything that is called “supreme wisdom” – are pre-eminently and solely centered in diplomacy; and that all these military promenades, manoeuvres, and so forth – admittedly necessary – in truth constitute but one of the phases of superior diplomacy, – nothing else.

1877

***

“…Permit me to remind you that just now I gave in and agreed with you, for form’s sake, that diplomats are nevertheless clever; but you have driven me, madam, to the point where I am compelled not to conceal from you the most secret underlying reason for my view on the subject. Several times in my life, madam, the thought has occurred to me that in diplomacy at large, among all nations, there have been but very few clever men. It is even surprising. On the contrary, the dullness of this caste in the European history of the present century…That is, you see, they are all clever – more or less – this is undeniable; they are all witty but what are their minds? Has a single one of them penetrated the substance of things and foreseen those mysterious laws which lead Europe toward something unknown, strange, dreadful, which, however, is already obvious at present, which is taking place quite evidently in the sight of those who are at least a little capable of foresight?…”

1877

***

On the Earl of Beaconsfield/Benjamin Disraeli

And how swiftly does he strike! For it was he who permitted the massacre of the Bulgarians; nay, more – he also plotted it, for he is a novelist, and this is his chef-d’oeuvre. And yet, he is seventy years old, and he will soon have to retire into the earth – this he knows himself. And how he must have rejoiced over his rank of viscount! Surely, he must have dreamed about it all his life, when he was still writing his novels! What do these people believe in? How do they manage to sleep at night? What kind of dreams are they dreaming? What do they do in the solitude with their souls? – Oh, their souls must be full of elegance!…Day in and day out they eat such delightful dinners in company with such refined and witty interlocutors; in the evenings they are fondled in the cream of society by such lovely ladies – oh, their lives are so respectable; their digestion – so wonderful; their dreams – so light, like those of infants!…

1876

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
February 21, 2014

VIDEO: SKY HIGH CAPABILITIES SHARED AT ICELAND AIR MEET

Voice of Russia
February 21, 2014

NATO moving east, building ‘Roman Empire’ in Europe – FM Živadin Jovanović

Audio

NATO’s first act of illegal “humanitarian” aggressive war called “Operation Deliberate Force” in 1995 against the Republic Srpska which it got away with and emboldened it to later carry out “Operation Allied Force”, the merciless brutal air campaign against civilian targets in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The fact that NATO was allowed to get away with these acts of aggressive war and that the US/NATO architects were allowed to carry out such scenarios emboldened the “alliance” even further and has led to the recent global expansion by NATO and the scores of “regime change” and “resource wars” presented as “humanitarian interventions”. The scenario is almost identical every time and is currently being played out in Ukraine. On the 15 year anniversary of the aggression on Yugoslavia, in an exclusive interview, the Voice of Russia spoke to the last Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Živadin Jovanović.

This is John Robles, I’m speaking with Živadin Jovanović. He is the former Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia and the Chairman of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals. This is part 1 of a longer interview. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at voiceofrussia.com.

PART 1

Robles: Hello Sir! How are you this evening?

Jovanović: Fine, John. I’m glad to be able to talk for the Voice of Russia.

Robles: Thank you! And it is a pleasure for me to speaking with you. I’ve read a lot of your work. Given your background as the Foreign Minister of the former Yugoslavia, you were the Foreign Minister during the upheavals and the foreign-initiated revolutions that destroyed the country, can you tell us a little bit about the histories, maybe, something we don’t know about and give us your views on what is happening now in Ukraine and in Bosnia etc?

Jovanović: Well, I would like to recall that the Dayton Peace Agreement about peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina was reached in 1995 and the key figure in reaching the peace in Bosnia was Slobodan Milosevic, at the time President of the Republic of Serbia and later on the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

I would like to say that his role was widely recognized, at that time, as a peace-maker in the Balkans. And indeed, no one of the other leaders of the former Yugoslav republics did contribute to reaching peace in the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Slobodan Milosevic did. This was repeatedly stated at the Paris Conference which formally marks the signing of the peace agreement and he was hailed by the presidents of the US, of France and many other countries.

But we know now that in Dayton Americans wanted also to discuss the problem of the Serbian southern province of Kosovo and Metohija. And they wanted to include this into the Dayton Negotiations agenda. Slobodan Milosevic and the Yugoslav delegation decisively refused this, even saying that if the Americans want to discuss the internal issue of Yugoslavia, of Serbia, at an international forum, they would not take part in such an exercise.

So, faced with this refusal of Slobodan Milosevic, Americans, first of all, Richard Holbrook (the then State Secretary) and the other officials of the US accepted to discuss only how to reach the peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And the peace was really reached in Dayton.

But later on they needed Milosevic in the process of implementing the Dayton peace agreement. Many conferences, many meetings were held all over Europe: in Geneva, in Rome, in Berlin and various other capitals and in Moscow too, as to how secure the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

All this time Yugoslavia and President Milosevic were needed as a key peace factor. Without Yugoslavia and President Milosevic nobody could imagine reaching the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. But this was also a period when Yugoslavia was freed from UN sanctions, which were based on accusations that Yugoslavia was committing aggression in the Bosnian civil war.

The sanctions were adopted at the Security Council in May 1992 and they lasted until 1995 when the Dayton Peace Agreement was reached. They were afterwards abolished, first suspended and then, finally, abolished. But the USA did not abolish its own sanctions, the so-called “outer wall” of sanctions. That means that the Americans did not allow Yugoslavia to renew its membership in OSCE, in the UN, position in the World Bank, in IMF and many other international organizations.

They kept these tools for the reason that they had other plans. And they didn’t actually forget that Milosevic was not willing to allow treatment of the internal issue of Kosovo and Metohija on the international scene.
So, after the stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina was settled, after Milosevic was not needed any longer to cooperate on Bosnia and Herzegovina, they opened the problem of Kosovo and Metohija.

Well, they not only opened, but they were financing, training and organizing terrorist organization: the so-called KLA. It was not actually only the US who did it, but the American European allies, like Germany, like Great Britain and some other countries were very cooperative in supporting separatist movements and the terrorist organization of KLA in Kosovo and Metohija.

So, they were bringing up this internal problem of Serbia in various international forums and they were actually provoking clashes on the territory of Serbia. Many policemen, many teachers, many soldiers and many Serbian public workers were killed in 1997-1998. And so in 1998 the government did not have any other possibility than to confront the rising terrorism in Kosovo and Metohija.

At that time the US started to initiate negotiations with Milosevic. Richard Holbrook was leading negotiations, tere were rounds and rounds of negotiations. All the time it was clearly seen that Americans are siding and propping up separatism in Kosovo and Metohija, and squeezing Serbia, squeezing Milosevic to accept various conditions that in principle were not acceptable.

So, in June 1998 the American administration actually recognized the terrorist organization called KLA as a “liberation” organization. And we have a witness in British Colonel John Crosland, who was the British military attaché in Belgrade who had (gave) a written a testimony to the Hague Tribunal stating among other things that in June 1998 President Clinton, Richard Holbrook and Madeline Albright decided to overthrow Milosevic and they considered that the KLA (terrorist organization KLA) in Kosovo could be a “tool” in achieving this objective.

John Crosland said: “From that moment onwards it was absolutely irrelevant what we thought about KLA, whether it was a terrorist or a liberation organization, because “the center of power” decided it was an ally.”

This organization will later on, when there was a military aggression of NATO against Yugoslavia in March 1999, it turned to be a ground force of NATO. NATO was in the air and KLA was on the ground.

So, we actually see a certain period of preparation of this aggression. Preparations were going on to stigmatize the Government of Yugoslavia with Milosevic as not cooperating, not predictable and authoritarian. And the whole network of western propaganda, of NATO propaganda was repeating what was the position of the State Department and of the Foreign Office in London. The stigmatization was the first stage of preparing the European and international public for what was to follow later.

Then, they staged the so-called massacre of Albanian civilians in Račak, in Kosovo and Metohija. In Račak there was a security action of the security forces of Yugoslavia against units of KLA. And it was announced to the OSCE and to the so-called “international community” that there will be a security operation against the terrorist organization.

And everybody in place, in Kosovo and Metohija and from the international community were informed. And some of them really did observe, some of them even filmed the operation. It was a legitimate operation of the government forces against terrorism.

But nevertheless, the American Ambassador Walker who was in charge of the OSCE mission in Kosovo and Metohija proclaimed: “It was a massacre of civilians!”

This was like a triggering moment for NATO to take action. And this is a detail which was to be repeated in many ways later on.

Before that we had, in Bosnia, the so-called Markale incident when civilians queuing in front of a bakery were bombed and killed and accusations were immediately directed at the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while today we have even the military from the former Muslim side and Izetbegović’s side, and Russian experts and other experts from the UN claiming that there was no proof of the Serbian side being involved in that. Everybody says that Muslims had provoked this massacre themselves in order to attribute it to the Serbian “enemy”.

We have in Syria, you know, about the Sarin gas and so on.

Robles: If we could, before we get too far along here, because I have a lot of questions, because this is the exact same thing that they’ve done in Libya, in Syria, in Ukraine, now in Bosnia they are trying to do it again, in Egypt… Every country they want to overthrow they do the same thing. They’ll support any terrorist. In Ukraine they are supporting neo-Nazis. It doesn’t matter, as long as they can overthrow the government. In the Middle East they are supporting Al-Qaeda. In Libya, in Syria it is Al-Qaeda terrorists. I agree with you 100%. I’d like to ask you some questions. If you could, give me some more details about… you were the Foreign Minister, you knew what was going on: why and when exactly did they start talking about Kosovo? That appears to be their initial goal – Kosovo – from the beginning.

Jovanović: Exactly!

Robles: Why is that?

Jovanović: Well, I always claimed from the very beginning, it was not for regional or local objectives. It was a matter of geopolitical objectives of the US and of the leading NATO countries.

Recently at one conference in Germany I was asked: “What were the geopolitical reasons for the aggression of NATO on Kosovo?”

I said: “Well it is first of all the realization of the policy of expansion of NATO towards the east. The objective was to make a base for further military expansion towards the Russian borders.”

I was even blunt to say that they want to get closer to the resources of Siberia, to the resources of the Middle East, to the Caspian Basin and so on and so forth.

And the people who asked me the question were quite silent after that, they didn’t have any other comments. I think everybody realized that we completely understand the essence of the American strategy.

The American strategy has been tabled in April 2002 at the NATO summit in Bratislava. We have a written document of the German politician Willy Wimmer, who was present at that NATO summit, in the form of his report to the then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Willy Wimmer among other things in his report quotes that the American strategist informed the NATO allies in Bratislava in April 2000 that the NATO strategy is to establish a similar situation in Europe as it was in times when the Roman Empire was at the peak of its might.

So, they said from the Baltic to Anatolia in Turkey there should be the same situation as in the era of the Roman Empire. And they quoted some concrete examples. They said Poland should be surrounded by friendly countries. Bulgaria and Romania should be a bridge towards Asia. And Serbia should be permanently kept out of European development.

So, we see that Kosovo was a starting point of a military expansion towards the East. In 1999, exactly 15 years ago the Americans established their military base Bondsteel, which by many political analysts is considered to be the largest American military base in the world outside of the American territory.

Robles: Yet it is!

Jovanović: And if we presume that it is the largest or one of the largest, the question is why it should be based in Kosovo, when Kosovo and Serbia are so small, so tiny places. And there is no explanation from a regional point of view.

You were listening to part 1 of an interview with Živadin Jovanović. You can find the rest of this interview on our website at voiceofrussia.com.

Interfax
February 22, 2014

Yanukovych says “coup” carried out in Ukraine

KYIV: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday described the current turmoil in Ukraine as a “coup.”

“The events that our country and the whole world have been able to see are an example of a coup,” Yanukovych told UBR television.

===============================================

Interfax-Ukraine
February 22, 2014

Yanukovych refuses to resign, won’t leave Ukraine

President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych has said he intended to stay in Ukraine.

“Every day I’ll inform public what we gonna do next…I stay on the territory of Ukraine, I’ll urge all international monitors, all intermediaries, who were involved in this political conflict, for them to stop the thugs, this is not an opposition, these are thugs,” the president said in an interview with UBR TV channel on Saturday.

================================================

Interfax-Ukraine
February 22, 2014

Yanukovych says all decisions taken in Rada today unlawful, refuses to sign them

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych says that all the decisions taken by the Verkhovna Rada recently are unlawful and he won’t sign them into law.

“The decisions they are now taking [in parliament] are unlawful. I won’t sign anything,” he said in an interview with UBR TV Channel on Saturday.

“These are not opposition-minded people, these are gangsters… Lawmakers are beaten, stoned, intimidated at the parliament building’s exit,” he said.

====================================================

RT
February 22, 2014

Ukraine’s Southeast seeks to restore constitutional order, thousands gather in Kharkov

The public gathering of deputies from local councils of southeastern Ukraine have declared they are taking responsibility for constitutional order in the country, as thousands of people have assembled in the city of Kharkov.

“We, the local authorities of all levels, the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Sevastopol region decided to take responsibility for ensuring the constitutional order and the rights of citizens on their territory,” their resolution said.

The Kharkov public gathering has announced a number of measures local authorities should take in response to the developments in Kiev. They should take full responsibility for all decision in respective regions with no regard to authorities in Kiev until the constitutional order in Ukraine is restored, a resolution of the gathering says.

They authorities should take measures to protect arms depots and prevent their take-over and looting by radical opposition activists.

The deputies have criticized the decision adopted by the Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) in the last few days, saying they are raising doubts about its legitimacy.

The gathering says the legislative acts may have been passed involuntary and are neither legitimate nor lawful.

The resent decisions of the national parliament were taken in conditions “of terror, threats of violence and death,” the resolution says.

Meanwhile, citizens are encouraged to form local militias to protect public order. Local authorities are to fund and support those militias.

Over 10, 000 people have gathered at the city’s Sport Palace, where a total of 3,477 deputies have been holding a meeting.

The situation remains generally quiet with the crowd being partly in good spirits and partly subdued and concerned, Itar-Tass news agency reports from the Palace.

“3, 477 deputies from local councils in southeastern Ukraine have gathered. We have gathered here not to separate the country, but to save it,” the regional governor, Mikhail Dobkin, told the crowd.

The head of the Kharkov administration, Gennady Kernes, has called the public gathering “an attempt by qualified deputies from the east of the country to stabilize the situation.”

“My colleagues and I have been personally threatened. But today we have gathered to change the situation,” he said. “We will not give in; we will fight till the end.”

The statement has been echoed by Rada’s Party of Regions deputy, Vadim Kolesnichenko, who also said that politicians are being threatened and “their families are basically hostages [of the situation].”

Russia sent several officials in the capacity of observers to the gathering, including Aleksey Pushkov, the head of Russian parliamentary commission on foreign affairs, Mikhail Markelov, Pushkov’s counterpart in the Council of Federation, the upper chamber of the parliament, and several governors from regions in eastern Russia.

“The decisions taken here are positive and concrete. What is important is that everything voiced here was implemented in the interests of the Ukrainian people and the entire Ukraine. What Ukraine needs now is common sense and a survival instinct,” said Evgeny Savchenko, Governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, commenting on the Kharkov gathering.

Meanwhile, parliament (Verkhovna Rada) is holding a new emergency session on Saturday. While the whereabouts of Ukrainian President Yanukovich remain uncertain, opposition leaders passed the law on the return to the 2004 Constitution without the president’s signature.

They have also elected Aleksandr Turchinov the new head speaker of the Supreme Rada. He will be taking over the cabinet’s work until the formation of a coalition government.

Among new appointees is Arsen Avakov, who was named the acting head of the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine.

With 233 voting in favor, the Ukrainian Rada has ruled to free the former PM Yulia Timoshenko from prison.

A day after Yanukovich agreed to opposition demands and signed an EU brokered deal, his residence in Kiev was abandoned and left virtually unguarded. Some media reports speculate that the president has left for Kharkov in the east of the country.

Russian Information Agency Novosti
February 22, 2014

Ukraine Parliament Considers President’s Ouster, Early Vote

MOSCOW: Opposition figures in Ukraine signaled their intent Saturday to seek the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in parliament and call elections by the end of May as the government showed signs of total capitulation following days of bloody protests.

After midday Saturday, as the legislature was convening, Yanukovych loyalist and parliament speaker Volodymyr Rybak announced his resignation, citing ill-health. The decision came on the heels of the resignation of dozens of deputies from the ruling Party of Regions.

Speaking in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, UDAR party leader Vitali Klitschko said deputies should consider a resolution requiring the president to resign and for the holding of elections before May 25.

As rumors abounded about Yanukovych’s whereabouts – some reports suggested he had left Kiev for the city of Kharkiv in the ethnic Russian-dominated east, where his main support base is located – anti-government crowds freely milled around the district housing the main government buildings.

Developments on Saturday came a day after parliament granted a key opposition by restoring the 2004 constitution, designed to limit presidential powers and make Ukraine a parliamentary republic. A deal overseen by EU envoys and Kremlin-appointed mediator stated that an interim government should be formed in the coming days.

The agreement between the government and the opposition coincided with the withdrawal of riot police from an area in downtown Kiev where most government buildings are located, including the parliament, the Cabinet of ministers and the presidential administration.

The street violence seen in Ukraine’s capital this week is the worst the nation has seen since it gained independence in 1991.

Mass protests initially erupted in late November after the government backed away from deals to deepen political and economic cooperation with the European Union and instead opted for closer ties with Russia.

Although discontent was at first focused on that about-face move on EU ties, rallies took on a more general anti-government quality, calling for the president’s ouster and early elections.

…
===========================================

RT
February 22, 2014

Ukraine downfall: President’s whereabouts uncertain as opposition push for resignation

The whereabouts of Ukrainian President Yanukovich are unknown a day after he agreed to opposition demands. Parliament is trying to replace its resigned speaker to push for presidential resignation and an early election.

Ukraine remains chaotic amid the worst political crisis the country has seen in modern history. Viktor Yanukovich has gone missing, with even his immediate staff declining to say where he is.

The presidential residence in Kiev has been abandoned and left virtually unguarded. Some media reports said on Friday that the residents had packed up and left.

Some media reports suggest that Yanukovich is in Kharkov, a city in Eastern Ukraine, which is a stronghold of his Party of Regions. The president is supposedly going to take part in a summit of members of regional parliaments from Eastern and Southern Ukraine. The emergency gathering will be discussing the ongoing crisis and the strategy the Euromaidan-skeptical regions will follow after the opposition gains in Kiev and in the west of the country.

Neither presidential staff nor local authorities in Kharkov confirmed Yanukovich’s visit. The local airport said the presidential plane had not landed there.

Meanwhile in Kiev, the Ukrainian Parliament gathered for a new emergency session. The session started with an announcement that Speaker Vladimir Rybak and First Deputy Speaker Igor Kaletnik have both resigned.

The Party of Regions faction in the parliament lost eight more members on Saturday, as MPs rushed to abandon the sinking ruling coalition. Over the past few days, a total of 34 parliamentarians announced they were parting ways with Yanukovich’s government.

Opposition parties are pushing for adoption of a resolution demanding that Yanukovich resigns the office of the president. If he submits, Ukraine would have to hold early an presidential election by May 25.

Due to the president’s absence, the bills passed by the parliament on Friday have not been passed into law from a technical point of view, because Yanukovich never signed them. Opposition leader, Arseny Yatsenyuk, told fellow MPs that this gives grounds for the president’s resignation.

The bills, previously agreed to by the president and opposition leaders, include a constitutional reform, which strips the presidential office of a lot of power in favor of the parliament, forming a national unity government and holding early parliamentary election.

The opposition-dominated parliament is also seeking Yanukovich’s impeachment and a criminal code reform, which would annul the sentence of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko, currently serving a prison term for overstepping her authority in signing an unfavorably gas deal with Russia, is one of the most adamant critics of the president. During the three months of the confrontation, she called on her supporters to put more pressure on Yanukovich and force him out of power.

On the ground the governmental area of Kiev is under complete opposition control. In a sharp contrast to the deadly confrontation of just days before, there is no police presence in the center of the capital. Opposition fighters are calling on police officers to join their ranks and patrol the streets as members of the “Maidan self-defense force.”

============================================

RT
February 22, 2014

Eastern Ukraine rises against Kiev LIVE UPDATES

A gathering of local MPs from the Euro-skeptic east and south of Ukraine has gathered in the city of Kharkov to form a joint response to the developing collapse of the national government.

Saturday, February 22
12:14 GMT:
“The territorial integrity of Ukraine is at risk,” the gathering stated in the resolution.

It added that instability in Ukraine is highly dangerous and may cause unpredictable consequences, considering that the country hosts five nuclear power plants with 15 reactors in total, which some extremists have threatened to attack.

12:08 GMT:
The resent decisions of the national parliament were taken in conditions “of terror, threats of violence and death,” the resolution says. The gathering says the legislative acts may have been passed involuntarily and are neither legitimate nor lawful.

12:08 GMT:
The opposition has broken the agreement with the government signed on Friday, the resolution says.

“Armed gangs have not given over their weapons, they continue taking over governmental buildings, killing citizens and officers of the law,” it says.

11:56 GMT:
The Kharkov public gathering has announced a number of measures local authorities should take in response to the developments in Kiev. They should take full responsibility for all decision in respective regions, with no regard to authorities in Kiev until the constitutional order in Ukraine is restored, a resolution of the gathering says.

The military commanders should take measures to protect arms depots and prevent their take-over and looting by radical opposition activists.

Meanwhile citizens are encouraged to form local militias to protect public order. Local authorities are to fund and support those militias.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
February 21, 2014

Secretary General discusses European Defence and Ukraine in Greece

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen discussed European efforts to develop military capabilities with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Friday (21 February 2014), wrapping up a two-day visit to Athens which included attending an informal meeting of EU defence ministers. “As the holder of the presidency of the European Union, Greece is especially well placed to make sure that the countries of Europe do develop their capabilities and their strength. This would benefit NATO, the EU and the world,” the Secretary General said.

It is vital that European countries play their full part and “and take their full share of responsibility for security,” Mr. Fogh Rasmussen said after his talks with the prime minister. He said that it is important that EU nations carry through on commitments made by EU leaders at their December European Council to improve defence capabilities. This is the message the Secretary General also gave at the informal EU defence ministerial on Thursday.

The Secretary General said that in September at the NATO Summit in Wales “we will put new energy” into the relationship between Europe and North America. “We all need Europe to be strong, so that we can continue to protect our values, and our interests”, said Mr. Fogh Rasmussen.

During a press conference with Prime Minister Samaras, the NATO Secretary General also spoke about Ukraine: “I condemn the outrageous bloodshed in Ukraine. I urge all parties to stop this tragic spiral of violence. The Ukrainian government has a special responsibility to ensure that the armed forces do not get involved in this political crisis. The Ukrainian military and special forces should not turn on the people of Ukraine. That would have severe consequences for our partnership with Ukraine. The only way forward is dialogue. So I welcome all efforts to find a peaceful solution. NATO is an alliance based on values –freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. And we stand together against all threats to our security”.

Voice of Russia
February 21, 2014

© Photo: Golos Stolitsy

A monstrous crime is being committed in Ukraine right before the eyes of the world and the western media is helping to cover it up and distract the attention of the entire world from the core fact that the events in Ukraine are not a popular uprising but a carefully orchestrated synthetic coup d’état brought about by long entrenched western color revolution infrastructure that was installed by US/NATO/EU to bring about the illegal act of regime change on the sovereign country of Ukraine.

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

John Galsworthy, 1911: Air war last and worst hideous development of the black arts of warfare

John Galsworthy: Achieving perpetual peace by securing the annihilation of our common enemies

John Galsworthy: Friend becomes foe with war psychosis

John Galsworthy: Grandiloquent phrases are the very munitions of war

John Galsworthy: History, made up of wars and intrigues which have originated in the brains of public men

John Galsworthy: The monstrous injustice of conflating chauvinism with common drunkenness

John Galsworthy: No one who disagrees with me must say anything if we are to save the cause of freedom and humanity

John Galsworthy: On the drawbacks of uttering pro-war cant

John Galsworthy: On the embarrassing consequences of bellicose pontification

John Galsworthy: Only a helpless or wicked God would allow the slaughter of millions

John Galsworthy: The procreative demands of war

John Galsworthy: The pure essence of humanitarian warfare sentiments

John Galsworthy: War moves mankind towards the manly and unforgiving vigour of the tiger and the rat

John Galsworthy: “The war! The cursed war!”

John Galsworthy: War, where Christ is daily crucified a million times over

CBS
February 20, 2014

Ukraine: Opposition Leader Warns Yanukovych ‘You Will End Like Gadhafi’

Excerpt:

Opposition lawmaker Oleh Lyashko warned that Yanukovych himself was in danger.

“Yanukovych, you will end like (Moammar) Gadhafi,” Lyashko told thousands of angry protesters. “Either you, a parasite, will stop killing people or this fate will await you. Remember this, dictator!”

Stephen Lendman Blog
February 21, 2014

Unconditional Surrender in Ukraine
By Stephen Lendman

As things now stand, Obama won. EU partners won. Fascist extremists won. Russia lost.

So did ordinary Ukrainians. Months of struggling for something better apparently turned out in vain. More on this below.

Events remain fast-moving. Overnight negotiations produced an early Friday morning deal.

Talks lasted eight hours. Opposition leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Oleh Tyahnybok and Vitali Klitschko were involved.

So were Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russian Human Rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.

Ukraine’s ruling Party of Regions called on “everyone involved in the confrontation to lay down their arms.”

“This deed will be your greatest contribution to Ukraine’s future,” it said. “We should all consolidate around the common goal of restoring peaceful life on our soil.”

“We should stop this fratricidal war for the sake of peace, for the sake of justice and for the sake of Ukraine’s future.”

On Thursday, Ukraine’s parliament passed a resolution near unanimously. It condemned the use of force against protesters.

It prohibits Ukrainian Security Council counterterrorism. Yanukovych expressed willingness to hold early presidential and parliamentary elections later this year.

He’s amenable to constitutional change before summer. He’s willing to form a national unity government in days.

In a Friday national address, he said:

“I am announcing steps needed to restore peace and avoid further victims of the standoff.”

“There are no steps we should demur from taking together in order to restore peace to Ukraine.”

His web site said “I declare the initiation of early presidential elections. I also invoke a return to the Constitution of 2004 with the redistribution of powers in the direction of a parliamentary republic.”

“I summon to begin formation of the government of national trust.”

His comments sounded more like unconditional surrender. If so, it’s bad news for most Ukrainians.

It likely means new pro-Western government. Spurning EU membership last November let him dodge a bullet.

He did the right thing. EU countries covet Eastern expansion. Doing so adversely affects Russia.

It’s disastrous for vulnerable populations like Ukraine’s. EU membership involves harsh neoliberal austerity.

Financial demands include mass layoffs, deregulation, deep social spending cuts, wage freezes or cuts, unrestricted free market access for Western corporations, corporate friendly tax cuts, marginalized trade unionism, and harsh crackdowns on nonbelievers.

Ukraine will be pushed to join NATO. Doing so encroaches further on Russia’s borders. It makes future confrontations more likely.

Ukrainians were manipulated against their own self-interest for months. They’ve been through this before. They ended up losers.

Promises made were broken. Exploitation followed. They should have known better. Once deceived should be enough. EU membership assures harder than ever hard times.

Poland’s Sikorski said progress was made “but important differences remain.” A statement released said the peace deal would be formally signed at noon Friday Kiev time. No further details were given.

An unnamed EU diplomat called it a “temporary agreement.” The devil is more than in the details.

It resides in Washington. Obama wants regime change. He orchestrated violence to achieve it.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said “we cannot say anything definitive before the end of the morning.”

“The opposition…wants to be able to consult with some of its members…”

“In this sort of situation, as long as things haven’t really been wrapped up, it’s important to remain very cautious.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said an agreement hadn’t been reached – “only the content of an eventual agreement, since the proper subjects to build such an agreement are people.”

Reuters quoted opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko saying: “We will sign the deal. We are prepared to do everything to obtain a peaceful solution.”

“All arguments must be considered before it comes to a signature,” he added.

Voice of Russia said Moscow’s ombudsman Lukin “refused to sign the final document.”

On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin met with Security Council members to discuss ongoing events.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev issued a toughly-worded statement. He aimed it at Yanukovych, saying:

“We shall, of course, continue cooperating with our Ukrainian partners in all areas that have been agreed.”

“We shall bend every effort to honor the pledges we have taken with regard to Ukraine.”

“But for this to happen, our partners should be in good shape. Ukraine’s authorities should be legitimate and effective and should not allow anyone to walk all over them.”

Veronica Krasheninnikova heads the Russian Institute for Foreign Policy Studies. Opposition leaders Yatsenyuk, Tyagnibok and Klitschko by no means represent most Ukrainians, she said.

Yanukovych lost credibility by surrendering to their demands, she added. He’s “part of the problem,” she stressed.

He “opted out of the use of the mechanisms that he’s been invested with by the constitution.”

He failed to “tak(e) required measures to preserve the constitutional system, which is his presidential duty.”

On Friday, thousands of protesters remained in Kiev’s Independence Square. Violence continues. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said:

“Rioters opened fire at police officers and tried to break through in the direction of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament).”

Reuters quoted one protester calling the deal “just another piece of paper. We will not leave the barricades until Yanukovych steps down.”

Ukraine’s Health Ministry said at least 77 people died since Tuesday. Dead bodies remain on Kiev streets.

Accurate death and injury counts are hard to come by. Calm may not be easy to restore.

Events so far very much benefit Washington and EU partners. They disadvantage Russia. Days earlier, Putin offered to buy $2 billion worth of Ukrainian eurobonds straightaway.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said it’s part of the $15 billion loan agreed on earlier. On Friday, doing so remains undecided in the wake of ongoing events.

Russia is very much concerned about possible new pro-Western Ukrainian government if new elections are held.

It wants clarity before committing cash. The advantage it gained earlier looks lost. It’s a huge setback.

How Moscow reacts remains to be seen. Expect ordinary Ukrainians to awaken too late to realize they’ve been had again.

They endured plenty for something better. Opposition leaders duped them to expect it.

They deserve better than they got. As things now stand, they lost out entirely. Harder than ever hard times await them.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

Interfax-Ukraine
February 21, 2014

28 MPs quit Party of Regions faction in Rada

Rada passes bill allowing Tymoshenko’s release

17 MPs leave Party of Regions faction in Rada

Yanukovych declares Feb 22-23 days of mourning victims

Rada passes bill preventing prosecution of protestors

Riot police getting ready to leave presidential HQ

Right Sector does not believe Yanukovych, vows to continue fight against authorities

Interfax
February 21, 2014

Rasmussen meets with Ukraine envoy to NATO

Tymoshenko likely to be freed on March 1 – aunt

Ashton hails Ukraine govt-opposition deal, demands punishment for rights violators

Maidan cheers at Rada decision over Tymoshenko

Yatsenyuk hopes Rada forms constitutional majority

People injured in Kyiv riots can fly abroad without passports – agency

Rada passes bill preventing persecution of protestors

About 20 Maidan activists approach Verkhovna Rada

Bildt: killers, rights violators in Ukraine must be called to account

Western Ukrainian town’s lawmakers ban Party of Regions, Communist Party activities

Stop NATO
February 21, 2014

1) White House demands Ukrainian government withdraw all security force from center of capital
2) Putin meets Russia’s Security Council members to discuss Ukraine crisis
3) European Union agrees to fast-track sanctions against Ukraine
4) Russia foreign minister slams threat of sanctions against Ukraine
5) Ukrainian Health Ministry: Kiev death toll reaches 75
6) Interior Ministry: Sixteen police officers killed
7) Belarusian president sends condolences to his Ukrainian counterpart

1)

UNIAN
February 20, 2014

White House demands from Yanukovych to withdraw forces from center of Kyiv

The leadership of the USA demanded from the Ukrainian President to withdraw all security forces from the center of Kyiv and to allow opposition to hold the protest actions.

The United States calls the Ukrainian authorities to withdraw special subdivisions from the center of Kyiv and calls opposition to hold peaceful protests,  Press Secretary of the President of the USA Jay Carney said this”, RIA Novosti reports.

“We call President Yanukovych to withdraw security forces immediately from the center of Kyiv and to respect a right for a peaceful protest. We call protesters to express their opinion peacefully”, – said Carney.

He also called the army of Ukraine not to interfere in the conflict, which, according to the opinion of the White House, should be solved by political means.

==============================================

2)

Voice of Russia
February 21, 2014

Putin meets Russia’s Security Council members to discuss Ukraine crisis

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a conference with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council to address the situation in Ukraine on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other high-ranking officials.

The conference was also attended by Federation Council Chair Valentina Matviyenko, State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin, presidential chief of staff Sergei Ivanov, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, his deputy Rashid Nurgaliyev, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov, Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Mikhail Fradkov, and Security Council permanent member Boris Gryzlov.

“The situation in Ukraine was discussed at the conference,” Peskov said.

Putin emphasizes it’s imperative to immediately stop bloodshed in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has held telephone conversations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister David Cameron, the Kremlin press service said. “The sides voiced their extreme concern over the sharp escalation of the armed confrontation in Ukraine that happened through the fault of the opposition’s radical wing,” it said.

“Putin emphasized that it is imperative to immediately stop the bloodshed and take urgent measures to stabilize the situation and suppress any extremist and terrorist sorties,” the press service said.

“The Russian president informed Merkel and Cameron that Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Vladimir Lukin was heading to Kiev for the purposes of mediation,” it said.

At Yanukovych’s request, Russia’s President Putin sending envoy to Kiev as mediator

President of Russia Vladimir Putin sends Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin to Kiev, as a mediator in negotiations with the opposition, at the request of President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, Press-Secretary of the Russian leader, Dmitry Peskov, said.

“A telephone conversation between President Putin and President Yanukovych was carried out on the initiative of the Ukrainian side, during which the President of Ukraine suggested that the head of the Russian state should send a Russian representative to Kiev to participate in the negotiation process with the opposition as a mediator,” Peskov said.

The Russian leader’s Press Secretary said that “Putin has made the decision to send Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin on this mission”.

It is known, that Vladimir Petrovich (Lukin) has an abundance of experience in diplomatic service, and a considerable reputation among human rights defenders; he has headed a major opposition party,” Peskov reminded.

Sanctions threat against Ukraine looks like blackmail – Sergei Lavrov

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has condemned Western threats of sanctions against Ukraine as blackmail and double-standard approach.

The foreign minister is on a working trip in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. He said at a press conference that Ukraine’s opposition couldn’t or simply wouldn’t “dissociate itself from extremist forces.”

“The possibility of sanctions is nothing but an attempt at bullying,” Lavrov said during a news conference in Baghdad, in remarks translated from Russian into Arabic.

Mr. Lavrov accused the United States of double standards as it piled all the blame on the Ukrainian government.

“The EU is mulling sanctions while paying uncalled-for visits to Ukraine,” he added. “This behaviour looks like blackmail [to me].”

Ukraine and western countries should stand apart from radicals – Russia

Ukraine and the West should stay apart from radicals, Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, said. “Russia thinks that Ukraine opposition as well as western countries should stay apart from extremists and other radicals,” said Lavrov during the press-conference in Bagdad on Thursday. This Tuesday, mass disorders escalated in Kiev again.

During the Verkhovna Rada meeting, the opposition insisted on return of the parliamentary-presidential form of government and on putting the Constitution of 2004 in force again.

Aggressive protestors wanted to approach the building of Ukrainian Parliament, they seized the buildings in the center of Kiev, burned tire-covers, threw stones and Molotov cocktails in the law enforcers. According to the police, the radicals use fire arms.

Russia’s Lavrov blames West for forcing Ukraine into EU

The demand to hold early elections in Ukraine is aimed at forcing Ukraine to choose Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“You probably heard more than once that the capitals of Western European countries have demanded that the people of Ukraine should be given the freedom to choose, and they added that the choice should be in favor of the European Union,” Lavrov told a press conference in Baghdad.

“Their purpose in the current initiatives is to essentially force this choice is evident to the Ukrainian administration: the demand to hold parliamentary and early presidential elections as soon as possible and to form a coalition government. That is, they are trying to decide everything for them,” Lavrov said.

West misinterprets Ukraine extremist violence, threatens to sanction gov’t – Russian FM Lavrov

The West is incorrectly interpreting the extremists’ actions in Ukraine and threatening Kiev with sanctions instead, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“Our Western partners in Europe and the U.S. are laying all the blame on the country’s authorities and fail to properly qualify the extremists’ actions,” Lavrov said at a press conference in Baghdad.

“We are really concerned about this, because double standards are obvious here, and instead they are threatening [the government] with sanctions, and not only threatening, but the Americans have already imposed them, thereby encouraging the opposition to dismiss any compromises,” he added.

Russian FM accuses Western media of distorting truth about Ukraine unrest

The Western mainstream media are distorting the situation in Ukraine, Russia’s foreign chief Sergei Lavrov has said.

Speaking at a press conference in Baghdad, Lavrov accused Western media of giving biased coverage on the Ukrainian political crisis.

The latest accounts estimate the number of casualties at 35 following clashes that have been erupting across the country. Over 500 have been injured in Kiev alone.

Moscow has accused extremist and opposition of pushing the country towards the edge, adding that the rhetoric of foreign officials was inciting radicalism and contributing to unrest.

==============================================

3)

Radio Poland
February 20, 2014

Update: EU agrees to fast-track sanctions against Ukraine

The EU will introduce sanctions against Ukrainian authorities, a meeting of EU foreign ministers has decided, as Thursday’s death toll in Kiev reportedly reached 60.

Italian foreign minister Emma Bonino was the first to break the news on Thursday evening, after crisis talks in Brussels.

“The decision is to proceed very rapidly, in the next hours, to a visa ban and asset freeze on those who have committed the violence,” she told reporters on leaving the meeting.

The talks took place amid the worst day of violence in Kiev since protests began in November after President Viktor Yanukovych pulled out of signing an association agreement with the EU.

…
==============================================

4)

Xinhua News Agency
February 21, 2014

Russia FM slams threat of sanctions against Ukraine

BAGHDAD: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized on Thursday the West’s threat to impose sanctions on Ukraine as a blackmail and double standards.

“The opposition cannot or do not want to distance itself from extremists. The West led by Europe and the United States assume all responsibility for Ukraine situation,” Lavrov said in a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari during his official visit to Baghdad.

“They do not blame the extremists’ acts, while threaten to impose sanctions. These are double standards,” Lavrov said, adding “these sanctions encourage rioters.”

“The EU also wants to impose sanctions and sending missions to Ukraine, such actions can be seen as blackmail,” he said.

He also said that “we are deeply concerned about the events in Ukraine and worried about the attempts of influencing the situation in the country.”

Lavrov pointed out that his country stresses on the need to discuss the situation between the Ukrainians themselves in an internal dialogue without interference from others.

…

Earlier in the day, Lavrov arrived in Baghdad on an official one-day visit, during which he and his accompanying delegation were received by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki in his office in Baghdad. The two sides discussed a range of “bilateral and regional issues, in particular the need for political solutions for the Syrian crisis, as well as means to fight terrorism,” said a statement by Maliki office.

Maliki stressed Iraq’s desire to cooperate with Russia to defeat terrorism, while emphasizing Iraq’s need for weapons that are “specialized in fighting and chasing terrorist groups,” as well as its interest in “exchanging security information.”

The meeting comes at a time when Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in recent years, as militant insurgents launch nearly daily attacks and bombings on security forces and civilians.

Baghdad had signed weapons contracts with Russia worth more than 4.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, making Moscow Baghdad’s biggest arms supplier after Washington.

Lavrov’s visit to Iraq is the second for the top Russian diplomat to the country since the toppling of former president Saddam Hussein by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003. His last visit to the country was in May 2011.

==============================================

5)

Interfax-Ukraine
February 20, 2014

Death toll of Kyiv clashes grows to 75, says Health Ministry

At least 75 people have died as a result of street clashes in Kyiv since February 18, the Ukrainian Health Ministry reported on its Web site.

According to the ministry, a total of 571 people in Kyiv sought first aid since Tuesday morning, 363 of them were hospitalized.

…

=========================================

6)

Interfax-Ukraine
February 21, 2014

16 policemen killed in Kyiv unrest – Interior Ministry

MOSCOW: The number of Ukrainian police officers killed in the latest riots in Kyiv has risen to 16, the Interior Ministry said on its website on Friday.

“The number of deaths among officers of law enforcement agencies has grown to 16. A total of 130 policemen have been admitted to hospitals with gunshot wounds,” the ministry said.

As many as 565 policemen have requested medical care, it said. Of them, 410 have been hospitalized.

=========================================

7)

Belarusian Telegraph Agency
February 20, 2014

Lukashenko sends condolences to Yanukovych over Kyiv unrest victims

MINSK: President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has expressed condolences to President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych over a massive loss of life caused by the unrest in Kyiv, BelTA learned from the presidential press service.

“Belarus has always condemned wrongful acts of the participants of political conflicts and unconstitutional methods of resolving domestic policy issues which inevitably lead to the escalation of violence,” the message of condolences reads.

On behalf of the Belarusian people and himself Alexander Lukashenko has also sent condolences to the families and friends of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

====

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Arnold Zweig: Selections on war

Henri Barbusse: Selections on war

====

Arnold Zweig
From The Crowning of a King (1937)
Translated by Eric Sutton

Those hours were for Bertin a time of passion and upheaval. He had read a volume of short stories, Men in War, and Man is Good, and meanwhile had hurried through the numbers of the Weisse Blätter, published in Zürich by the best man in Alsace, equally distinguished for his courage, his independence, and his admirable German style. And at the same time Bertin wandered as though in person through all the ramifying trenches of a novel called Le Feu which described the destinies of a platoon on the fields of Northern France which he knew from the opposite side – between the ravines of earth which he himself had helped to excavate, and which, half ruinous in summer and a mass of slime in winter, enclosed the vision of his near-sighted eyes. It all came back to him: the smell of it, the whistle, the crash, and clatter when the aviators dropped their bombs, and the dash for shelter from the hail of shrapnel that always followed. In the next company a man had hanged himself because he was given no leave and would not go on – Was all this happening there, or here? Barbusse or Bondues? Which word stood for an author, and which for a patch of earth dug out and walled, vaulted with concrete and roofed with tiles and grass? Both equally immortal and anonymous. Then the storm waves in the blue steel helmets appear, lines of black-faced men from Senegal. Heroes these, thinks the narrator, and so do all those who read of them. With their bayonets across their arms they wait, peering motionless across the steel-swept spaces between the lines. Shades of colours, parties, countries – what do they matter? This is human fellowship flung into the mire and abomination of this war; there is a common task, to find the outlet from this slaughter-house into what is called ordered society, where men can live together in good will. A fire came forth from the pages of the book and filled Bertin; its message was: Never again! and: Towards a better time! And in that night hour he felt that millions and more millions round the globe bore within them this same impulse that throbbed in the very pulsations of their blood: Never again! and: Towards a better time!

Voice of Russia
February 20, 2014

Ukraine: sick fascist filth and gangland violence as political opposition – Rick Rozoff

Audio

With the release of a recent conversation between the US ambassador to Ukraine and Victoria Nuland plotting the downfall of the current legitimate elected government in Kiev, it is clear who is behind the attempted coup in Ukraine. US backed “activists” with sniper rifles and hand guns are openly firing on police something that would not be tolerated anywhere in the world but which is being portrayed by western leaders as being legitimate opposition protest behavior. However such cold-blooded murder would lead to brains being swept off the street in their cities. According to Voice of Russia regular Rick Rozoff, who spoke on these issues, what we are color revolution techniques in action and the western media is playing along as a propaganda tool for those behind the scenes.

Hello. This is John Robles Rick Rozoff, I am speaking with Rick Rozoff the owner and manager of the Stop NATO website and international mailing list. This is a regular feature of the Voice of Russia.

Robles: Can you give us an update on what is going on with NATO? A lot of stuff is going on, a lot of attention on Ukraine. And I’d like to ask you about Ukraine. But, first, what is going on with NATO right now?

Rozoff: Well, it is acting true to its new purpose in the post-Cold War period as an international military bloc. For example, just in the last week or so, for the first time ever a delegation from the NATO Military Committee, and the Military Committee in its full form consists of the military chiefs of staff of all the 28 full NATO members, visited Georgia. And this, again, is a first, it is unprecedented, and clearly acknowledging or demonstrating how strategically important Georgia is to NATO’s Eurasian but ultimately European plans. That is number one.

NATO’s also commenced its air patrols over the North Atlantic nation of Iceland, including warplanes from both Finland and Sweden with the express intention of further integrating Finland and Sweden, and of course Finland has a lengthy border with Russia, those two countries into NATO as ultimately four NATO members.

We have to recall that both those nations have troops fighting under NATO command with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, that Sweden supplied Griffin military aircraft for the war against Libya three years ago…In parts of the world

Also, NATO warships have docked in both Puntland, which is a semi-autonomous, really at this point independent part of Somalia, as well as in the Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa in recent days. This is part of the – permanent – NATO military operation, military presence in the Indian Ocean called Ocean Shield, which complements their permanent military naval deployment in the Mediterranean, Active Endeavor, and so forth.

We also noticed the first US guided missile warship arriving at the Rota naval base in Spain, on the Atlantic coast of Spain, as part of what eventually will be four US warships with interceptor missiles, part of the European Phased Adaptive Approach, but ultimately part of the international US and allied missile shield program, interceptor missile program. So, this gives you some indication of what is going on throughout the world.

There have been other initiatives shown by NATO in other parts of the world, including in Africa most notably. Something that isn’t directly NATO but for all the difference it makes it may as well be, just a few days ago in Brussels, which is the headquarters of both the European Union and NATO, the European Union announced a joint military operation in the Central African Republic (CAR). This is done through the Military Committee of the European Union, comparable to what was done in Chad, neighboring Chad a few years ago.

But it is noteworthy that NATO has recruited several non-EU member states to provide troops for that mission, including Georgia, Serbia, Canada, Norway, Turkey and the United States. This was at an alleged, quote, force generation conference in Brussels on February the 13th, five days ago. That gives you an idea of what is happening internationally.

To segue into our main topic of discussion, today the Secretary General of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, again called on, quote, “all parties in Ukraine” to desist from violence.

I could only imagine if a comparable situation, one that’s…what is occurring in Kiev right now were to be occurring in Brussels, if, say, “all parties in Belgium to refrain from violence”, when state security personnel were being shot to death and set on fire with Molotov cocktails, if he would have such a balanced perspective – of course he would not.

Robles: Regarding Ukraine, how many policemen have been injured already there?

Rozoff: The number is rising of course. But the latest report I see is that over 184 police officers have been wounded, 35 of them critically, and at least seven of them have been shot to death.

Robles: What is the reaction from the US right now? Has Nuland come out condemning any of this? Has anybody in the US condemned this or are they all supporting it?

Rozoff: The US ambassador to Ukraine, the same Geoffrey Pyatt who was caught on tape with Victoria Nuland in recent weeks plotting the downfall of the current legitimate, elected government in Kiev, threatened sanctions, mentioned the fact that sanctions could be enforced against, again, “all parties.” It is impossible to levy sanctions against fascist guttersnipes and mobsters who are on a rampage, they have no assets that can be seized and no trade that can be halted and so forth. So, this is a unilateral threat to the government of Ukraine, which is under siege, quite literally under siege, with government buildings being stormed, personnel being seized captive, even killed in the case of the central headquarters of the ruling party in the country, the Party of Regions, where a member… presumably a member… a security office by one account, at their central headquarters in Kiev was murdered.

What we are seeing is almost gangland violence trying to pass itself off as political opposition. What is very important to noted is that the president of the country Victor Yanukovich is to meet with three major opposition leaders: Yatsenyuk and Klitschko and Tyagnibok at 11:00, Kiev time. So something is going to be breaking at that point but there is a clear coordination between the opposition figures within the Parliament, within the Verkhovna Rada, and the Molotov-cocktail-hurling, rifle-wielding so-called opposition outside.

Robles: I’m sorry, Rick, are there charges? Haven’t charges been pressed against Klitschko and, what is his name, Yatsenyuk? Aren’t they facing charges already? And if you could, can you tell us about..you told me before we started about videos you saw, that they were actually… someone had a sniper rifle or something, a rifle with a scope and they were actually just shooting policemen.

Rozoff: That’s exactly it, and anyone who e-mails me at rwrozoff@yahoo.com, I’d be glad to give then a link to that video. It is circulating, somebody in Italy has sent it out and there are several similar videos, but this is one of the more stark I’ve seen.

It shows a young so-called activist, as US would portray him, with, exactly, a sniper rifle with a scope firing presumably at police or other security personnel; somebody else has a handgun he’s firing. So there are weapons on the street. And clearly the fact that seven security personnel have been shot dead confirms the fact that firearms are being used.

Again, I don’t know in which other capital city in the world this sort of behavior would be tolerated, much less portrayed by Western leaders as being legitimate opposition protest behavior when what you are talking about is cold-blooded murder.

Robles: Can you imagine in the US that people have started shooting police just openly on the street?

Rozoff:I hate to put it in such stark and graphic terms, but the only way I could characterize this is: they’d be sweeping their brains off the street for the next day.

Robles: I mean how can they possibly get away with trying to support this? What are the American people, I mean the average people, thinking about this?

Rozoff: Unfortunately, the average person does not go to the Internet and look up videos, which are readily accessible. But I would have to say largely in the Russian media as I don’t know anywhere else in the world where we’re seeing these videos, even there are often times Western news agencies – Reuters, BBC and so forth – but because of the controlled nature of news, particularly in relation to foreign affairs, in the United States and other NATO countries we’re only seeing the doctored and sanitized version.

I’ve often argue this, John, I think perhaps even on your show, it’s the equivalent of somebody walking into a movie theater where the hero has finally taken enough from the villain and starts fighting back. And when you see that, and only that, it’s very difficult to confuse the characters and to believe that the perpetrator is the victim and vice versa. This is one of the methods used by the Western establishment so-called news media, which are really propaganda outlets, to portray the “peaceful protestors being assaulted without provocation by brutal security forces.”

But again, you are correct in stating: were something like this to happen in Washington DC or Paris or London, I can assure you the first police officer who was injured in any manner would be the cause for a crackdown the likes of which wouldn’t be forgotten in a hurry. However, this trick about the “regime change”, so-called color revolution technique, which is to place the targeted government in a situation where if they do not respond harshly they are seen as vulnerable and then the violence is escalated. If they make any effort, no matter how belated, to even defend themselves it is seen as being a gross violation of human rights and portrayed that way by the Western governments and their rather formidable media outlets.

And this is a situation that I believe is occurring right now in Kiev. But we have to..anyone who has seen this, who has gone to my website or Russian websites and has seen the actual fires in downtown Kiev, this is again the capital city of a European country going up in flames, for the second time in 15 years, we saw Belgrade similarly set of fire by NATO bombers what will be 15 years from next month, if this is a new world order what you are seeing is a resumption of fascistic, brutal violent uprisings which ultimately are backed by the US and its cohort of NATO military powers. And what I fear right now, if the violence is not halted very quickly in Ukraine, you are going to see full-fledged, if not civil war, you are going to see foreign-backed armed insurgency, if not comparable in every particular to what’s happening in Syria at least similar in terms of its basic dynamic.

Robles: I’d like to make a comment here for… and this might be a little unusual… for American law enforcement officers, police officers in the US. I’d like to make a plea for them, look at what’s happening to their colleagues in Ukraine and call their senators or whoever and ask them: “How can they possibly support this?” What do you think?

Rozoff: That is a very good point. A lot of Chicago police officers incidentally are of Ukrainian ethnic background, there is a neighborhood not terribly far from where I am called Ukrainian Village, as a matter of fact. And to see their colleagues and there is, let’s be honest, there is a special sense of fraternity or comradery between people of the same professions around the world particularly those that entail some degree of personal danger, and for police officers around the world to be watching this: you know, I would suggest that there is an understanding they themselves could be next if some Western-supported insurgent uprising of the sort that is occurring on the streets of Kiev…Incidentally, there is a report by Interfax-Ukraine that armed groups in Western Ukraine, in Lviv, have been intercepted by security personnel en route to Kiev. So what you’re talking about is something almost comparable to, say, Generalissimo Franco’s march on Madrid, Spain in the late ’30s counting on the fifth column, the infamous fifth column, supporters within the city to assist them and so forth. But this is nothing less than an effort to topple a legitimate government in Europe in the 21st century through vicious street violence, the sort one may have associated with Adolf Hitler’s attempted Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 or Mussolini’s March on Rome. This is the kind of sick fascist filth we are seeing in Ukraine.

Robles: I see.

This is John Robles. You were listening to an interview with Mr Rick Rozoff, the Owner and Manager of the Stop NATO website and international mailing list. This is a weekly feature of the Voice of Russia. You can find other work by me and by Mr Rick Rozoff on our website at voiceofrussia.com. Thank you very much for listening and we wish you the best wherever in the world you may be.

Stop NATO
February 20, 2014

1) Western news media coverage of Ukraine perverted: Russian foreign minister
2) “The West makes no comment on throwing of cocktail bombs or seizing of buildings”: Russian foreign minister says U.S. responsible for armed extremists in Ukraine
3) Speaker of the Crimean parliament: Well-train and well-armed contingent of 5,000 foreign mercenaries active in Kiev
4) Russian Foreign Ministry blames extremist gunmen for Ukrainian violence
5) Russia demands Ukrainian opposition halt violence
6) In consultation with Western patrons, Ukrainian insurgents engage in delaying tactics in order to accumulate arms: Presidential administration
7) Ukrainian Interior Ministry: Rioters employing specialized ammunition
8) Conflict with Moldova and Romania pending? Transdniester now effectively blockaded
9) British foreign secretary: “Violence against peaceful protestors is unacceptable and the Ukrainian gov should be held accountable”
10) Weimar Triangle meets Maidan Triumvirate: French, German, Polish foreign ministers meet with Tyagnybok, Klitschko, Yatseniuk
11) As the foreign ministers cancel scheduled meeting with Ukrainian president
12) French foreign minister orders new elections in Ukraine
13) United States bans visa issuance to 20 senior Ukrainian government officials
14) Mob moves to attack presidential administration building

1)

Interfax
February 20, 2014

Western media coverage of Ukraine “perverted” – Lavrov

BAGHDAD: Moscow is concerned by how the West has been trying to impact on the situation in Ukraine, and also notes that the situation in this country is being misrepresented, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“We are most deeply concerned by what is going on in Ukraine, and in particular by how Western capitals have been trying to comment and influence on this situation,” he told a press conference in Baghdad.

“The Western media coverage of the situation is extremely perverted,” the minister said.

“They have been peddling simple formulas such as “The West is calling on the government to stay away from Maidan’, although they choose not to say what Maidan amounts to,” Lavrov said.

Western media outlets maintain silence over the instances of violence against governors in various Ukrainian regions, and about attempts to attack weapon storage facilities, and urge only the government to stop violence against peaceful demonstrators, he said.

“Both the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian president have more than once demonstrated their good will and proposed a compromise. In particular, they agreed to free those arrested in Maidan in exchange for the freeing of the occupied administrative buildings. The government has honored its part of the agreements, but the opposition have disrupted theirs,” the Russian minister said.

“In Western reports from the scene you will hardly find a mention of the organization such as Right Sector which openly stated that it will cooperate neither with the government, nor the opposition, and that this movement will operate in a way it sees fit. And they operate by using radical extremist methods, including regular use of force,” the Russian foreign minister said.

“The opposition is either unable or reluctant to distance itself from extremists,” he said.

================================================

2)

Itar-Tass
February 20, 2014

The USA assumes all responsibility for Ukraine’s authorities

BAGHDAD: The West’s threat to impose sanctions on Ukraine is a blackmail and double standards, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“The opposition cannot or does not want to dissociate itself from extremists. The USA assumes all responsibility for Ukraine’s authorities. These are double standards,” Lavrov said, adding “America’s sanctions encourage rioters.”

“The EU is also trying to discuss sanctions and sending missions to Ukraine,” the Russian minister said.

“Such actions can be considered blackmail,” he said.

“As for the West’s accusations against Russia, there is a proverb saying an uneasy conscience betrays itself. We voice deep concern about the events in Ukraine. We’re worried about the Western capitals giving influencing the situation in the country,” the Russian minister said.

“The situation is interpreted wrong. Mass media circulate reports saying the West urges the government not to disperse Maidan although the West prefers to keep silent on Maidan’s essence,” he said, adding “The West makes no comment on throwing of cocktail bombs or seizing of buildings.”

Ukrainian authorities to concentrate on protecting people – Medvedev

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Russia’s government will fulfil the promises it has made to Ukrainian partners, if the authorities are legitimate and effective.

“Of course, we will continue cooperation with Ukrainian partners in all directions we have agreed on and will try to do our utmost to fulfil our promises,” he said.

“At the same time we need to see our partners keeping themselves in good shape and the authorities remaining legitimate and effective,” he said. “We proceed from an assumption that the authorities should focus on protection of people and law enforcement structures that defend interests of the state and people.”

Moscow says it doesn’t interfere in Ukrainian conflict

Earlier Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich commented on the United States’ intention to take unilateral measures against Ukraine’s political leadership, saying sanctions can’t be aimed at individuals and should be approved by the UN Security Council.

“The United Nations alone can adopt and implement restrictive measures towards other states. In that sense we firmly adhere to the assumed commitments,” the diplomat said. Lukashevich emphasised, that from the standpoint of international law such measures are absolutely illegitimate and many other UNSC member states think likewise.

===============================================

3)

Interfax
February 20, 2014

Foreign army composed of 5,000 militants active in Kyiv – speaker of Crimean parliament

MOSCOW: A foreign army composed of 5,000 militants who are ready to fight is active in central Kyiv, Volodymyr Konstantinov, speaker of the Crimean parliament, said at a meeting with a delegation of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in the State Duma in Moscow.

“An actual foreign army composed of well-trained, armed, bold, well-paid people is active in the center of the city. We estimate the number of these people at some 5,000 people,” Konstantinov said, adding that “those 5,000 people are ready to fight.”

Konstantinov said what is now happening in Ukraine is a challenge to the entire Russian world. “Ukraine is just a stage here,” he said.

Despite the danger of the situation, the central administration can still be saved, and Ukraine needs help with that, the politician said.

Konstantinov believes it would be very important for Ukraine if the Russian administration “represented by the president or the Foreign Ministry” issue a tough statement sending “a very clear signal to those who plan and finance this anti-constitutional coup.” He said the signal should be as follows: “If you succeed in that [in carrying out an anti-constitutional coup], all actions happening from this time on are illegitimate.” That is, Russia should make it clear to these forces that all interstate agreements are liquidated “if the lawful administration is overthrown.” This means that Ukraine is facing a complete collapse and this should be made very clear, Konstantinov said.

Konstantinov also pointed out that the administration of Crimea has more than once asked the president of Ukraine to use force to prevent dangerous developments in the situation. “However, we were not heard,” he said. Thus, he said he believes time was seriously lost.

Konstantinov also reiterated that Crimea will not recognize any illegitimate decisions made by the central administration under pressure, including statements issued by politicians, specifically, possible public statements on resignation.

===============================================

4)

Interfax
February 20, 2014

Moscow lays blame for violence in Kyiv on radicals

MOSCOW: Radical gunmen are responsible for the ongoing violence in Kyiv, as the Ukrainian Interior Forces and the special task police force Berkut do not have firearms, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said at a news conference in Moscow on Thursday.

“I have said absolutely clearly that the radical gunmen, who have taken up arms and are calling for an armed uprising and the toppling of the government, bear primary responsibility,” Lukashevich said when asked whether the Ukrainian legitimate authorities are responsible for the violence in Kyiv.

“Our information indicates that some military servicemen and law enforcement officials were killed today,” Lukashevich said.

“You can see videos literally every minute in which the gunmen say openly that state-of-the-art firearms are coming into their possession. There have been reports that the gunmen got over 1,500 rifles, assault rifles, and other firearms today alone by plundering military depots,” he said.

Lukashevich pointed out that “members of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s Interior Forces and the Berkut special task force do not have firearms, which you have seen perfectly well in the videos.”

“Concerning the casualties’ affiliation and the specifics of the injuries caused, most of them are law enforcement members anyway,” he said.

“Some European politicians have gone as far as to say that our Russian special forces were seen on Maidan [Independence Square]. This had to be denied, including through social media,” Lukashevich said.

==============================================

5)

Interfax
February 20, 2014

Russia demands Ukraine protest leaders stop bloodshed – Foreign Ministry spokesman

MOSCOW: Russia demands that the Ukrainian protest leaders put an end to the bloodshed and continue a search for peaceful ways to settle the crisis.

“We reaffirm our demand that the Maidan leaders immediately stop the bloodshed and continue looking for peaceful solutions to the crisis without threats and ultimatums,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

The situation in Kyiv can and should be settled within the framework of the incumbent Ukrainian authorities’ constitutional prerogatives, he said.

The fact that extremists have been using firearms increasingly more often indicates “an open attempt at a coup and forcible seizure of power,” he said.

“We strongly condemn the radicals’ and extremists’ actions and believe they bear primary responsibility for violence and bloody lawlessness. Serious responsibility also rests with the opposition activists who have proven to be unable to fulfill the agreements reached with the authorities,” he said.

“The situation can and should be settled within the framework of the incumbent Ukrainian authorities’ constitutional prerogatives,” Lukashevich said.

“The continued attempts of meddlesome mediation from the outside, the threats of sanctions and other methods to affect the situation are inappropriate and can’t do any good but can only worsen the confrontation,” he said.

==============================================

6)

Interfax
February 20, 2014

Opposition trying to buy time with talks to arm militants – Ukrainian presidential administration

KYIV: The Ukrainian presidential administration said it was concerned about the fact that the opposition ignored attempts for peaceful settlement of the conflict in Kyiv and forceful clashes occurred again.

“The assurances of the opposition leaders on the necessity of a truce and a return to dialogue turned out to be just a maneuver to buy time, to mobilize and arm militants from Maidan,” the administration said in a statement released by the Ukrainian president’s press office.

With firearms “radical-minded protestors from Maidan started to push the law enforcement officers on February 20 at 9 a.m. [11 a.m. Moscow time] despite the truce declared,” the document said.

“Militants have ignored all the attempts of the authorities to establish dialogue and work toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict. They have started to attack. They act in organized armed groups and use firearms, including sniper rifles, with the intent to kill. While law enforcement officers are unarmed and use special equipment only,” the statement said.

According to the information of the presidential administration, dozens law enforcement officers were killed or injured and all possible means are being used to stop the bloodshed and resistance.

==============================================

7)

Interfax
February 20, 2014

Ukrainian rioters use special ammo – Ukrainian Interior Ministry

KYIV: The Ukrainian Interior Ministry has ordered an expert evaluation of the physical evidence of the use by rioters of special ammunition intended for damaging special equipment.

An examination of the law enforcement’s special equipment damaged in the riots indicates that special ammunition were used against it, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s public relations department has reported.

“About a dozen shots were fired from various types of firearms, some of which were probably equipped with special ammunition. Investigators and operatives said the shooters aimed at people who were driving the special equipment as most of the shots hit the cabins and the windscreen,” a report posted on the Interior Ministry website says.

A group of investigators said they had found seven holes in the hull of one water canon and two holes in the hull of another water canon. “Some of the holes were made by shots that were able to break the metal hulls of special vehicles,” the police said.

The Interior Ministry provided photos of the holes, saying that an expert evaluation has been ordered.
===============================================

8)

Interfax
February 20, 2014

Transdniestria suspends bus traffic to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv over incident in Ukraine

TIRASPOL: Regular bus traffic from Tiraspol to Moscow and St. Petersburg and from Bendery to Kyiv has been suspended for the sake of the security of Transdniestrian residents, head of the unrecognized republic’s state transportation and road service Vladimir Trandasir told reporters on Thursday.

“Our mini-bus was stopped in the vicinity of the Mankovka village in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine last night with the use of special means, the so-called Molotov cocktail. The driver was advised at gunpoint to go back, and he followed that advice,” he said.

In the words of Trandasir, the driver works for a Moldovan transportation company operating this route.

“The traffic will be suspended until further notice,” he said.

A number of Ukrainian media outlets circulated in Transdniestria said that a mini-bus traveling from Tiraspol to St. Petersburg had been set on fire by unknown persons with Molotov cocktails on the Odesa-Kyiv road.

The Ukrainian journalists said the attack was perpetrated by local residents who set up a roadblock to hinder the transportation of the opponents of opposition forces to Kyiv.

===============================================

9)

Interfax
February 20, 2014

UK foreign secretary says Ukrainian govt “should be held accountable” for violence

KYIV: UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that the Ukrainian authorities “should be held accountable” for the ongoing violence in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

“Violence against peaceful protestors is unacceptable and the Ukrainian gov should be held accountable,” Hague said on his Twitter page.

==================================================

10)

Interfax
February 20, 2014

Ukrainian opposition leaders meet with foreign ministers of France, Germany, and Poland

The opposition leaders Arseniy Yatseniuk (Batkivschyna), Vitali Klitschko (UDAR), and Oleh Tiahnybok (Freedom) have met with the foreign ministers Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, Laurent Fabius of France and Radoslaw Sikorski of Poland.

“A meeting between the opposition leaders and the foreign ministers of Poland, Germany, and France has just ended,” Yatseniuk’s press officer Olha Lappo told Interfax-Ukraine.

Lappo said the meeting had addressed the possible ways of stopping the bloodshed and preventing further escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.

“The only way to do that is to create a demilitarized zone and take the conflict to parliament,” Lappo quoted Yatseniuk as saying.

Klitschko, for his part, blamed the current events in central Kyiv on the authorities, reiterated that the only way to stop the bloodshed is “full resignation of the administration.”

“A truce was declared. It was violated by the Berkut police, who tried to burn down the Conservatory…That was the end of the truce,” Klitschko was quoted as saying by his press officer Oksana Zynovyeva.

Klitschko also restated that the protesters “stayed peaceful at night, but they were deceived.”

=====================================================

11)

UNIAN
February 20, 2014

EU Ministers left Kyiv without meeting with Yanukovych – mass media

The Ministers of the European Union left Ukraine, having not met with President of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych. BBC Ukraine reports this.

The meeting was canceled due to security reasons.

=====================================================

12)

Interfax-Ukraine
February 20, 2014

EU demands elections in Ukraine – French foreign minister

The Ukrainian administration should conduct elections, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in an interview with BFM TV on Thursday before the meeting between an EU delegation and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

“Our purpose is to cause the Ukrainian administration to conduct elections. There is no solution other than elections,” he said.

=======================================================

13)

Interfax-Ukraine
February 20, 2014

United States bans visa issuance to about 20 senior Ukrainian government officials

The United States has banned visa issuance to some 20 senior officials of Ukraine’s government who are considered liable for acts of violence in Ukraine, the U.S. Department of State said.

“So today [Wednesday], we moved to restrict visas, to deny – to ban visa issuance to some 20 senior members of the Ukrainian government and other individuals who we considered responsible for, complicit in, or responsible for ordering or otherwise directing human rights abuses related to political repression in Ukraine,” a senior State Department official told reporters on Wednesday.

The names of those involved haven’t been disclosed.

“In the event that things go well, these visa sanctions that we’ve put in place are reversible, but in the event that they do not go well, there are other steps that we can take in close coordination with the EU in coming days,” the official said.

==================================================

Interfax-Ukraine
February 20, 2014

Unknown people heading towards Ukrainian presidential administration building; shots audible

A group of people have tried to break through to the building of the Ukrainian presidential administration from the side of Khreschatyk Street.

At around 1500 a group of unknown individuals headed towards the administration surrounded by several police cordons. Shots and explosions can be heard, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent said.

Internal Troops who formed a live cordon have been put on alert.

Meanwhile, law enforcement declined to comment on the situation, asking to refer to their bosses.

A warning has already been issued that police will use firearms if protestors continue attacking law enforcement, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said.

It was reported that Maidan self-defense repeatedly called from the stage on the protestors not to go outside the Independence Square perimeter. Opposition leaders stated possible provocations.