Former USSR

Not often you agree with me ! What? 😉

The backdrop to the coup cannot be understood without looking at the U.S. strategy to open Ukrainian markets to foreign investors and give control of its economy to giant multinational corporations. After early steps to integrate with the West, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych turned against these changes and ended trade integration talks with the European Union. Months before his overthrow, he restarted economic negotiations with Russia, in a major snub to the Western economic sphere.

The IMF had long planned to implement a series of economic reforms to make the country more attractive to investors. The reforms included cutting wage controls (i.e., lowering wages), reforming and reducing health and education sectors (which made up the bulk of employment in Ukraine), and cutting natural gas subsidies to Ukrainian citizens that made energy affordable to the general public.

Coup plotters like Victoria Nuland repeatedly stressed the need for the Ukrainian government to enact the “necessary” reforms. After the 2014 coup, the new government quickly restarted the EU deal. After cutting heating subsidies in half, it secured a $27 billion commitment from the IMF.

The U.S. was fueling anti-government sentiment through mechanisms like the National Endowment for Democracy. As I previously highlighted, the National Endowment for Democracy president Carl Gershman wrote a piece in the Washington Post that described Ukraine as the “biggest prize” in the East/West rivalry.  After the Obama administration, Nuland joined the National Endowment for Democracy board of directors before returning to the State Department in the Biden administration as undersecretary of state for political affairs.

The NED board of directors also includes Elliott Abrams, whose record runs from the Iran/Contra affair in the ’80s to the Trump administration’s effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government. He also happens to be a signatory to the Project for a New American Century, co-founded by Victoria Nuland's husband Robert Kagan.

The Washington Post‘s David Ignatius once wrote that the National Endowment for Democracy organization functions by “doing in public what the CIA used to do in private.”

All I have posted you choose to pick up on the point about pig fat? I think that could be construed as a straw man argument. Alas, It is indeed probably just propaganda, but shows the mindset of these idiotic and dangerous Azov bigots. As British-Pakistani comedian Tez Ilyas said in a tweet, “Being killed by a lard covered bullet doesn’t disqualify one from entering Muslim heaven. Far-right racists made that up and the official Ukrainian National Guard is endorsing it. These are the forces my Foreign Secretary wants British civilians to go fight with?”

He’s the worst but there are a few other bad eggs / bad actors / idiots who post absolute sh**e on here as well. 

You brought up the pig fat bit, I merely commented as it's ridiculous, it's obviously aimed to cause anger.

I didn't comment on the rest because quite frankly it's a waste of my time.

Out of all that has happened you still concentrate on American or Israeli involvement yet no word of condemnation on what Putin has done.

The ousting of the Ukrainian president wasn't a coup, he left when the Ukrainian parliament was going to impeach him following the deaths of innocent civilians. As he couldn't do his job they replaced him and there have been elections since to validate the current President.

The Azov Battalion is not representative of Ukraine, far right parties have something like 2% of the seats in parliament. Hardly anything and probably comparable to other countries including Russia.

No word about Chechnya, where Russia assassinated the leader and replaced him with their own choice. Was that not a coup? No real comment on the Chechen mercenaries and their brutal tactics. No mention of the indiscriminate bombing of Ukraine cities or the 1 million refugees.

You've mentioned Isreal in Syria and the bombing in Yemen elsewhere, terrible events that are sickening. Yet no mention of the Russian air force levelling Aleppo.

At least 14 British citizens with links to Russia have died in suspicious circumstances in the UK, one by radioactive polonium taken around the streets of London and another death and attempted murder of two others by biological agents in Salisbury.

The invasion of Crimea and 14,000 deaths in the east with the fermenting of unrest there.

All this in breach of the Budapest agreement to respect existing borders.

It's all very well looking for ghosts in the shadows, but invariably once you look, there is nothing actually there.

Putin has chosen to invade, there was no reason to do so despite what he says. Just tonight he's banned independent reporting, prevented Twitter and Facebook access and is clamping down on dissent. He has ordered 100,000 soldiers to kill with probably thousands dead. It's appalling, unjustified, illegal and immoral.

Don't fall for the Kremlin's narrative, it does you no favours.

Do us all a favour, please confirm that you think the invasion is wrong, without caveat.

He’s the worst but there are a few other bad eggs / bad actors / idiots who post absolute sh**e on here as well. 

And right on cue…… up pops Mr 100% wrong . 🙄

You brought up the pig fat bit, I merely commented as it's ridiculous, it's obviously aimed to cause anger.

I didn't comment on the rest because quite frankly it's a waste of my time.

Out of all that has happened you still concentrate on American or Israeli involvement yet no word of condemnation on what Putin has done.

The ousting of the Ukrainian president wasn't a coup, he left when the Ukrainian parliament was going to impeach him following the deaths of innocent civilians. As he couldn't do his job they replaced him and there have been elections since to validate the current President.

The Azov Battalion is not representative of Ukraine, far right parties have something like 2% of the seats in parliament. Hardly anything and probably comparable to other countries including Russia.

No word about Chechnya, where Russia assassinated the leader and replaced him with their own choice. Was that not a coup? No real comment on the Chechen mercenaries and their brutal tactics. No mention of the indiscriminate bombing of Ukraine cities or the 1 million refugees.

You've mentioned Isreal in Syria and the bombing in Yemen elsewhere, terrible events that are sickening. Yet no mention of the Russian air force levelling Aleppo.

At least 14 British citizens with links to Russia have died in suspicious circumstances in the UK, one by radioactive polonium taken around the streets of London and another death and attempted murder of two others by biological agents in Salisbury.

The invasion of Crimea and 14,000 deaths in the east with the fermenting of unrest there.

All this in breach of the Budapest agreement to respect existing borders.

It's all very well looking for ghosts in the shadows, but invariably once you look, there is nothing actually there.

Putin has chosen to invade, there was no reason to do so despite what he says. Just tonight he's banned independent reporting, prevented Twitter and Facebook access and is clamping down on dissent. He has ordered 100,000 soldiers to kill with probably thousands dead. It's appalling, unjustified, illegal and immoral.

Don't fall for the Kremlin's narrative, it does you no favours.

Do us all a favour, please confirm that you think the invasion is wrong, without caveat.

I'm sure many legitimate protesters were fed up with Yanukovych’s rule and the allegations of corruption and creeping authoritarianism etc, but the protests were piggybacked on by mercenaries, extremists, agent provocateurs and neo-nazis whose violence would eventually lead to Yanukovych’s downfall.

There is no doubt the US had been meddling in the country for years with "$5 billion invested" (Nuland quote) and the likes of the National Endowment for Democracy and other NGO's "doing in public what the CIA used to do in private". Not to mention the CIA themselves actually training Ukrainian special forces and intelligence officers since at least 2015.

Let's face it, Ukraine will put up one hell of a fight but will eventually fall. Until Putin makes the mistake of going for a NATO Country he'll take what he wants.