Foreign Intervention and the Ukraine Crisis (2014)

By The Corbett Report

FROM 2014: As supposedly “progressive” outlets once again scramble to throw their support behind the billionaire oligarchs and NGOs that have helped to destabilize the country, and as neocons unite with neoliberals in their agenda to carve up Ukraine for Western interests, it remains to be seen what genuine alternative outlets will stand up against this blatant interference and stand up for the principle that it is up to the Ukrainian people, and no one else, to decide what happens in their country.

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by James Corbett
GRTV.ca
March 5, 2014

As the Ukrainian crisis continues to unfold, the foreign funding and backing for the current destabilization becomes apparent. Now, geopolitical analysts across the board analyze the roots of the situation and whether this conflict is sewing the seeds of the next major war. This is the GRTV Backgrounder on Global Research TV.

In late 2004, protests erupted after Viktor Yanukovych won the 2004 Ukrainian Presidential election, with protestors claiming that the vote had been rigged. The protests forced a revote, in which Yanukovych’s rival, Viktor Yuschenko, was elected president. This movement, dubbed the Orange Revolution for the orange ribbons and clothing sported by its members, was one of a series of so-called “colour revolutions” which swept the former Soviet Republics in the last decade.

As The Guardian noted at the time of the protests:

“[. . .] the campaign [the Orange Revolution] is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes. [. . .] The Democratic party’s National Democratic Institute, the Republican party’s International Republican Institute, the US state department and USAid are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns.”

So it is not without reason that seasoned political observers looked for outside connections to the recent protests in Ukraine that has, in an almost exact repeat of the 2004 protests, sought to overthrow the elected government of Viktor Yanukovych in order to install Viktor Yuschenko’s political allies. Those connections have not been difficult to find.

CNN ANCHOR: We’re talking about Victoria Nuland, the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, assistant secretary. This is about a phone call she was having with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Jeff Pyatt. And I got to say, for a diplomatic reporter like me, it was a fascinating conversation.

VICTORIA NULAND: He’s now gotten both Sary and Ban Ki-moon to agree that Sary could come in Monday or Tuesday. OK. So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and have the U.N. Help glue it. And, you know, f*** the EU.

Audio of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland apparently dictating who the US wanted “in” and “out” of the supposedly grassroots-supported interim government only came as a surprise to those who did not believe Washington or its allies in the Washington Consensus were actively involved with the ongoing protests in the country. As did the revelation of her admission last December that the US had already pumped $5 billion into the funding of the Ukrainian opposition.

NULAND: Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the United States has supported Ukrainians as they build democratic skills and institutions, as they promote civic participation and good governance, all of which are preconditions for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations. We’ve invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic Ukraine.

SOURCE: Victoria Nuland’s [sic] Admits Washington Has Spent $5 Billion to “Subvert Ukraine”

As did the appearance of confirmed terrorist supporter John McCain at a rally with the leader of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Svoboda party.

As did the appointment of a central banker as the interim Prime Minister and his immediate announcement that the country was in talks with the US, EU, and IMF for emergency loans.

CCTV ANCHOR: Ukraine’s acting prime minister, Asni Yatsenyuk, said on Friday he is determined to comply with conditions set by the International Monetary Fund in exchange for loans. An IMF mission is due in Kiev next week for talks with Ukraine’s de facto leaders. We have said the heavily indebted country needs at least 35 billion US dollars to stave off bankruptcy.

SOURCE: Ukraine’s acting PM vows to comply with IMF conditions

As did the appearance of a slick new viral propaganda video in English promoting the supposedly grassroots uprising which was immediately exposed as finding its “inspiration” in Council on Foreign Relations member Larry Diamond, who has worked closely with the same N.E.D. and USAid that were linked to the 2004 Orange Revolution.

YULIA MARUSHEVSKA: And now I ask you to build this freedom in our country. You can help us only by telling this story to your friends, only by sharing this video. Please share it. Speak to your friends, speak to your family, speak to your government, and show that you support us.

SOURCE: I Am a Ukrainian

In the latest startling revelation, Pando.com has published documents implicating the Omidyar Network in the funding of the current Ukrainian protest movement. The Omidyar Network is the NGO of billionaire Ebay co-founder Pierre Omidyar, who recently set up “First Look” as an outlet for (among others) Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras to selectively publish some of the Snowden document archive, 99% of which continues to be withheld from the public.

As geopolitical analysts from across the board explain, the Ukrainian coup has been deliberately provoked by outside agents to promote a combination of US, EU, NATO and IMF interests.

F. WILLIAM ENGDAHL: We have the publication on YouTube of the extraordinary open telephone discussion between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the ambassador in Kiev, her ambassador, Pyatt. And this was a phone call made while she was in Kiev in early February, where she literally talked person by person who the US, who Washington, who Victoria Nuland and her faction anyway, were going to place in the government. And they said, for example, Klitschko, I want on the outside and the Svoboda, this neo-Nazi right-wing party that got a huge amount of votes in the last election. I want them on the outside, and let’s have Yulia Tymoshenko’s man on the inside as prime minister and so forth, because he has more international credibility.

And then she, in the video, this famous statement of hers with eloquent English, she said, fuck the EU, they want Klitschko in there, and so forth. So it became very clear this was a direct U.S. State Department coup d’etat instrumentalizing to the person who they were going to bring in to oust a democratically elected in an election, which Western election monitors claim was relatively fraud free.

So Yanukovych, because people were fed up with the previous government of Yushchenko, this was the pro-NATO government. They voted Yanukovych because they felt maybe they would get a little bit better situation under him. This was an elected government. The US comes in and says, we don’t like what you do, so we’re going to change you by essentially our color revolution part two.

SOURCE: Interview 830 – William Engdahl Exposes the Western Agenda in Ukraine

MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY: We’re dealing with a situation whereby foreign countries are now, well, we know that this is regime change. We know it. it. But for an intergovernmental organization such as the World Bank or the IMF to take a stance on regime change is ultimately, you know, it’s another set of concepts. But it’s not something which doesn’t have precedent.

And the IMF says we like a particular president. We don’t like that particular president. And they will also put barriers, for instance, on any type of social legislation which might emerge, such as increasing the minimum wage, such as spending more on hospitals and schools. And I mean, I’ve seen this in numerous countries. So that what is likely to emerge if a neo-Nazi government or a neo-Nazi coalition government is formed is, in fact, the reinforcement, ironically, of the neoliberal shock treatment agenda for the Ukraine.

Perhaps more worrying than the interference itself are its potential implications. As Russia’s every move is now being scrutinized for a possible military response to the ongoing crisis, the specter of a larger military operation now hangs over Eastern Europe. Part of the decade-long encirclement of Russia by NATO and deliberate provocations on Russia’s doorstep, this process of brinksmanship now threatens to plunge the region into a war the consequences of which cannot be foreseen, let alone contained.

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: We’re talking about, as you said, an unfolding situation and what I’m discussing is the risk. And what we see is the carelessness and recklessness of Washington in pushing these risks. There’s no reason for this. What does it matter if Ukraine is in the EU or not? I mean, how insane is it to expect to have American missile bases in Ukraine?

So regardless of the outcome, even if we get the best possible outcome, we still have the situation where Washington has created extremely reckless events that are full of risk for the entire world. The entire world.

So how can you have such a dangerous, reckless, careless government running around as a superpower? I mean, the United States is a threat to life on Earth. That’s what we are facing here.

Now, these risks may never develop. Putin may calm them down, keep everything on a diplomatic level. That’s entirely possible. He’s inclined that way. He has these skills. They will resort to force only as a last resort when they are strategically threatened. But the United States is the one who brings these extreme reckless risks to the world. And when is the world going to recognize that and disassociate and stop enabling this extreme recklessness that emanates from Washington? It is a danger to all life on Earth. And it’s enabled by the EU, NATO.

What do you need NATO for? NATO was there to stop the Red Army from overrunning Europe. The Red Army disappeared 23 years ago. Well, why is NATO being expanded all over the world? They’re even talking to Japan about it.

So this kind of recklessness is what is the danger. It’s a far greater danger than the right-wing elements in Western Ukraine. And that’s what the world has got to realize and come to grips with. And the Americans themselves have got to realize that this is an act of insanity to take a direct strategic threat to a major military power. This is insane.

SOURCE: Interview 829 – Paul Craig Roberts Connects the Dots on the Ukrainian Revolution

As supposedly “progressive” outlets once again scramble to throw their support behind the billionaire oligarchs and NGOs that have helped to destabilize the country, and as neocons unite with neoliberals in their agenda to carve up Ukraine for Western interests, it remains to be seen what genuine alternative outlets will stand up against this blatant interference and stand up for the principle that it is up to the Ukrainian people, and no one else, to decide what happens in their country.

Source: The Corbett Report