02/23/2022
Imperialism is a regime of wars and ruin. For any bourgeois government that tries to take advantage of this rotten order and expand its sphere of influence, this also means that it seeks to oppress other peoples. The rationale for expansionist politics is nationalism, racism and chauvinism. This is the main point of Putin's statements yesterday about recognizing the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
The words of Putin, who unfoundedly slandered Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet Union, where the most peaceful policy of equality of peoples in the history of mankind was carried out, are unacceptable. His arguments are devoid of historical basis and are absolutely demagogic. We cannot ignore the system of exploitation and militant nationalist delusions that condemn Russia's working people to poverty just because Putin wants to realize his twenty-first century monarchist "fantasies".
We will not allow a competition to distort historical facts, in which the Russian Federation has begun to demonstrate "great power" ambitions, relying on the economic, political, military and cultural heritage of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and in this it is not far behind the United States and its allies. We will not allow the history of the twentieth century, written by all the oppressed of the world, the proletarians, the October Revolution of 1917, the revolutions in China, Vietnam, Cuba and other countries, the wars for independence, the great victory of the Soviet peoples in the fight against fascism, to be distorted by American and European imperialists, NATO gangs, neo-fascists in Ukraine and Poland, but also Russian nationalism.
This statement by Putin is also indisputable proof of how hypocritically he abuses the prestige of the Soviet Union, especially victory in World War II, to demonstrate his own strength. This demonstration, insincere and not inspiring confidence, is a reflection of his royal aspirations, moreover, these aspirations themselves are the exploitation of the legacy of the USSR. Putin can only be right about this: today's Russia, which has imperial ambitions, has nothing to do with the Soviet Union, which stood for peace, equality and progress for seventy years on behalf of the working peoples of the world.
The main reason for the suffering of the working people of Russia, Ukraine and other post-Soviet states today is the absence of socialism. The protests launched by oil and energy workers in Kazakhstan just a few weeks ago to express their demands that have spread across the country, as well as the unresolved border issues exposed by the Karabakh war last year, are just indicators of this. The peoples of the former republics of the Soviet Union are trying to survive under the threat of unemployment, poverty, reaction, discrimination and war. As a result of the villainous attempts of those who built today's capitalist Russia on the ruins of the Soviet Union, a vast territory has turned into a region subject to constant provocations.
Of course, the decisive role in these events was played by the long-term provocations of the United States in order to restore its shaken hegemony, to revive the Western alliance in order to impose its interests. The hostile aspirations of the United States and NATO towards our people, which for more than seventy years have played a leading role in dividing countries, destroying cities and valuable national property, seeking to isolate Russia, have paved the way for today's conflicts. Those who created hostile nations and puppet states on the ruins of the former Yugoslavia have no right to talk about the territorial integrity, sovereignty and diplomatic rights of the Eastern European peoples, let alone be their defenders.
Moreover, this process made the internal contradictions of the Western alliance more visible and clearly showed that the principle of trust does not work between these forces. The absence of a socialist axis and the collapse of the Soviet Union played an absolutely decisive role in the fact that "unscrupulousness" became the norm in international relations.
The contradictions or deals between the imperialists, as well as the actions they call the "policy of the balance of power", can in no way serve the benefit of the peoples. This also applies to the position of the Erdogan government, which is trying to take advantage of the situation by fomenting nationalism at home and looking for a new economic and political path abroad, and the bourgeois opposition of Turkey, which is counting on the coming of democracy along with NATO.
The prospect of an extremely dangerous and destructive war for all the peoples of the region is now extremely high and alarming. This vital mission falls on all communists and peace activists - to prevent the realization of such a possibility.
Communists do not speak the language of nationalism, racism and militarism, but the language of workers' demands for equality, freedom and fraternity!
https://www.rotfront.su/kp-turtsii-prot ... spansioni/
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NATO TRAINS AND FINANCES NEO-NAZIS AND JIHADISTS IN UKRAINE
Feb 23, 2022 , 8:50 a.m.
The paramilitarization of war through extremist mercenaries has served the United States to regionalize conflicts and make the approach to their consequences more diffuse (Photo: File)
After eight years of Ukrainian conflict after Euromaidan and the declaration of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent republics, the Russian government recognized the entities in the Donbas as a geopolitical, even existential, watershed. Meanwhile, Kiev cannot advance its actions without attacking citizens with Russian passports from these republics who, at any time, could apply to join the Russian Federation.
Incidents with Ukrainian "saboteurs" are becoming more and more frequent, including civilians killed in explosions and others killed for trying to enter Russian territory.
Also, in the midst of the operation to evacuate the Russian-speaking population, the presence of Ukrainian trolls on social networks has been highlighted, who try to make montages about the alleged "negative posture of Russian citizens" towards people evacuated from the conflict zone.
Although they seem isolated events, there is a thread that connects them: the financing of paramilitary groups and mercenary militias by the United States and NATO. This is not a new act of war, it is the expansion of a doctrine applied in different scenarios such as Western Asia, Latin America and Africa for many years.
A SPONSORSHIP DISGUISED AS AN OMISSION
Bob Menéndez, a Democratic senator, presented a law last January to grant 500 million dollars to Ukraine to buy weapons, also to impose the so-called "mother of all sanctions" on Russia if it invades it, as dictated by political dogma. -media. While he calls for rapid progress on the matter and calls for expanded US propaganda information, he makes no mention of monitoring whether US weapons go to white supremacists like the Azov Battalion.
When asked if his bill includes surveillance provisions, the senator told The Intercept that "that's a level of detail that I'm not sure of," but he assured that the Department of Defense "would have the conditions to ensure that they lead the Ukrainian armed forces, not others. He added that "there is a risk that in any part of the world these weapons could be used by others", even knowing the existence of neo-Nazi groups in the Ukrainian army.
A photo of the Azov Battalion, a NATO-sponsored Ukrainian National Guard regiment that openly promotes Nazi ideas and symbols (Photo: File)
The so-called " Leahy investigation " process is supposed to certify whether foreign forces have committed "serious human rights violations" before greenlighting US government support, yet it is clear that Washington does not have effective procedures in place to track where their weapons go and prevent them from ending up in the hands of extremists.
When a defense bill reached the Senate in 2021, the amendment sponsored by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, was cut from its final version. This change proposed to investigate forces receiving US military assistance for violent ideologies, "including those that are white identity terrorists, anti-Semitic, or Islamophobic."
Also in 2021, Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat MP, called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to label the Azov Battalion a foreign terrorist organization, stating that it "uses the internet to recruit new members and then radicalizes them into using violence to further its agenda." white identity politician. She was left on seen.
NATO and the CIA sponsored numerous Stay-Behind networks (spies and armed groups "behind enemy lines") in many European countries during the Cold War, the intention being to activate them in case Warsaw Pact countries attacked or attacked them. that some communist party of these countries came to power democratically, or even had some "threat" to the status quo favorable to US interests. In this way the American CIA and the British MI6 have supported neo-Nazi groups to launch them against Russia. Today they are highly dependent on Western financing.
According to the US Congressional Research Service, between 1991 and 2014 the United States contributed up to 4 billion dollars to Ukraine through military assistance, another 2 billion since 2014 and another 1 billion through NATO. The list continues with the United Kingdom and other Western countries with no less onerous contributions that have raised Ukraine's military spending from 3% of its GDP in 2014 to 6% in 2022, just over 11 billion dollars.
SCENARIO OF THE SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN NEO-NAZISM AND NATO
The war that is being forged from Ukraine has clear ideological features that promote values far from freedom, equality or fraternity with which Western propaganda makes continuous noise through the extraordinary number of networks available to it.
In November 2021, Dimitro Yarosh, founder of the ultra-nationalist and paramilitary Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) party, was appointed adviser to General Valeri Zaluzhni, head of the armed forces, by the President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky. The "activist" is a veteran member of NATO's Stay-Behind networks . In 2007, during the second Chechen war, he was instructed by the CIA to coordinate Nazi and Islamist cells against Russia from Ternopol, in western Ukraine.
In 2014, Yarosh played a central role in the Euromaidan , then he was a deputy and a candidate for the presidential election, the following year he was seriously injured. He is responsible for leading the Azov Battalion, and young foreign fighters, in the bombardment of several towns in the Donbass during the Munich Security Conference held from February 18 to 20. There are reports that among the foreign fighters who participated in this provocation there were several jihadists brought to Ukraine from Syria.
Pravy Sektor is an armed gang that fights against the Dombás groups and is led by Dimitro Yarosh, the current Ukrainian military leader wanted by Interpol for inciting terrorism and extremist activities (Photo: File)
The Azov Battalion, now a mechanized special forces regiment trained and armed by the United States and NATO, is renowned for its ferocity in attacks against Russian populations in Ukraine and recruits neo-Nazis from all over Europe under a banner inspired by on the insignia of the SS Das Reich Division, one of the 200 Hitlerite divisions that invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. It is under the command of Andrey Biletsky, its founder, now a colonel by the regime that rules from Kiev.
According to the military analyst Manlio Dinucci , it is not "a military unit but an ideological and political movement with Biletsky in the role of charismatic leader, especially in the eyes of a youth organization whose members have been educated in hatred of the Russians by reading Biletsky's own book, the title of which is very revealing: The White Fuhrer's Words".
The Leahy Law has been ineffective in ensuring that neo-Nazis in the Azov Battalion do not receive American training, the Daily Beast reported in 2015. Ukrainian-American researcher Oleksiy Kuzmenko reported last September that members of an informal group called Military Order Centuria, linked to the international Azov movement, they have been trained in a Western-backed military institution.
Members of Pravy Sektor are in Pávlopol, a town in Dombás, accompanied by an information and psychological operations center and the film crew of a Ukrainian channel, as reported by the deputy commander of the militia of the self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk, Eduard Basurin.
TRANSMISSION BELTS: PARAMILITARISM, JIHADISM AND NATO
While the media reports that the Pentagon has withdrawn from Ukraine 160 military instructors who were training Ukrainian forces, former CIA and Homeland Security officials say there remain advisers and other military instructors belonging to the US Special Forces and from other NATO countries, insist that they are the ones who lead the army and the National Guard of Ukraine.
Some of the events seem to be repeated from scenes in Syria, the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has denounced the presence of US mercenaries equipped with chemical weapons in the Donbas to blame the Russian population and justify a "response" by the troops and paramilitaries from Kiev, who outnumber the defenders of the region.
Leonid Pásechnik, leader of the Lugansk People's Republic, denounced in an interview with Sputnik the sending of mercenaries to Ukraine who pose as NATO advisers and stated that there are many fighters who "speak other languages, wear foreign camouflage uniforms And they behave quite provocatively."
A report published on Yahoo! News refers to a program that Barack Obama implemented in 2015 in the southern United States and has been expanding during the presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It includes training in the use of weapons, camouflage techniques, land navigation, "cover and move" tactics, intelligence and other "tactical things" that can be used as "offensives if the Russians invade Ukraine."
In addition, the private military company Blackwater (called Academi and later Constellis) markets mercenaries in order to carry out extralegal operations (torture and assassination) for the CIA, the Pentagon and the State Department. Its founder, Erik Prince, planned last July to create a private army in Ukraine together with Lancaster 6, a British company through which he has already sent mercenaries to Africa and the Middle East. This plan adds up to 10 billion dollars and includes Ukrainian intelligence, also controlled by the CIA.
The Chechen battalion, named after Sheikh Mansour, has been fighting since 2014 on the Ukrainian side in Shyrokyne, near Mariupol (Photo: File)
United World International reported that the United States has prepared a plan that seeks to provoke tensions between Turkey and Russia by moving Syrian jihadists and mercenaries to the Donbas region to fight against Russian and pro-Russian forces. According to international sources, it would be thousands of ISIS militants, including Tatars and Chechens, who know the region well. In 2020 the Ukrainian newspaper Zoborana published an article that provides some data:
"Several hundred former Caliphate fighters have chosen Ukraine as a place of settlement. With weak public institutions, corruption, porous borders and ongoing skirmishes, Ukraine offers great opportunities for those who want to stay hidden."
"Ukraine is attracting militants who have lost in Syria and Iraq. The country is a good and safe place to stay, hide and wait until they have a chance to return home to the European Union or a former Soviet Republic." .
It is noteworthy that Trump openly declared that the CIA had founded ISIS, in addition that the organization includes Chechen militants who served in the war in Georgia, then were transported from 2011 to Syria and, according to leaked news, about 300 began the fight in the Donbás region since 2014.
Other jihadists come from former Soviet republics and Central Asia, including some 500 Crimean Tatars, militants from the terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir who have been operating since before Euromaidan, and others from the Chechen separatist Caucasus Emirate whom Yarosh reportedly asked in 2014 to join forces against Russia.
The paramilitarization of war through mercenaries has served the United States to regionalize conflicts and make the approach to their consequences more diffuse. Along the same lines, the Ukrainian parliament has just approved a bill on "the right to self-defense" and "the right to carry firearms" for the civilian population, where all the arms brokers and trained extremist groups sneak in in the region and also brought from other latitudes.
Ukraine is a state in an accelerated process of decomposition at the hands of an oligophrenic elite that delves into criminality to sustain geopolitical tension encouraged by the United States and its allies. Meanwhile, Europe attends a function in which Nazism, which destroyed it, is what it must defend.
https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/ot ... en-ucrania
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WHO WINS AND WHO LOSES WITH THE "SANCTIONS" AGAINST RUSSIA?
Feb 23, 2022 , 10:28 a.m.
Europe puts the noose around its neck with the economic, financial and commercial blockade against Russia (Photo: AP Photo)
*The 27 countries that make up the European Union (EU) have a 41% dependency ratio on Russian gas.
*A group of 13 European countries depend on Russian gas for more than 95%.
*Medvédev assures that Europe will pay 2 thousand euros for 1 thousand cubic meters of gas.
Russia's now formal support for the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk places the center of gravity of European politics on the response of the West, which, as expected, has imposed a first package of economic measures against the Federation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated that Russia is prepared for such scenarios. He also added that the West, regardless of Russia's actions, was already ready in any way to apply new coercive measures against his country.
THE "SANCTIONS" AND THEIR REAL DIMENSION
The foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) have unanimously agreed on a first battery of coercive and unilateral measures, misnamed "sanctions", against the Russian economy, specifically 27 entities and individuals who, according to the EU, have had a role in favor of the Russian side of the crisis.
Josep Borrell has said that the measures "will harm Russia and will harm it a lot", indicating that they will deprive that country of access to the capital market in Europe, theoretically, to affect the financing of its debt, this being one of the first levels of scope of the measures and the most representative of the "hellish" scale of Western response.
The United States did the same, repeating the sanctioning loop without satiety, highly ineffective.
However, data from the Central Bank of Russia indicates that Russia's debt reached just 19% of its GDP by 2021 and by 2022 it was expected to reach 18%. An extremely manageable debt, accompanied by the internal fiscal surplus that the Russian government has.
These data suggest the lack of congruence between the announcements of the Europeans and the real dimension and status of the Russian economy.
However, when referring to coercive measures against Russia, the fundamental critical knot lies in energy.
The set of 27 EU countries depend on 41% of Russian gas, being key in this dependency, countries like Germany (49%) and Italy (48%), the first and third economy of the euro zone respectively.
According to data offered by Eurostat , some 13 European countries depend on Russian gas for more than 95%. Hungary, Finland and the Czech Republic are in this select group, accompanied by Slovenia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Bosnia Herz and Moldova, which depend 100% on Russian gas.
The possibility of an escalation of economic pressure against Russia, with gas as the main modulating element of Europe's energy matrix, sets off alarms, not only because of the possibility that an adverse scenario could be generated in the flow of gas, it is that regardless of whether the taps are not closed in the framework of excessive European pressure, what will undoubtedly happen is an increase in said source of energy.
"SANCTIONS" AGAINST RUSSIA ARE PAID BY EUROPEANS
As a result of the crisis in raw materials and the increase in energy that has been recorded strongly for the last quarter of 2021, added to the increase in the price of gas due to the boreal winter, the rise in the price of gas has been undisputed, and Given the new factors of instability that have emerged from the crisis between Russia, Ukraine and the West, prices have only risen.
The relevance of the impact on gas prices is clearly correlated to the increase in raw materials and also in electricity. The latter is a highly sensitive factor in Europe, particularly in countries such as Spain and Portugal, which are clearly affected even though their dependence on Russian gas supply is low.
In figures, only in 2021 there was an increase in euros per megawatt hour: from 19.07 euros at the beginning of the year, to 86.59 euros at the end of it.
The price of gas reached levels not seen since 2018 and not in vain Dmitri Medvedev, former Russian president and vice president of the Russian Security Council, has "welcomed" "a new world, in which Europeans will soon pay 2 thousand euros for 1 thousand cubic meters of gas".
The statement by the Russian politician is due to the decision of the German government to suspend the certification of the sabotaged Nord Stream 2 project, already completed months ago, but awaiting certification.
Germany has taken the step forward in the measures against Russia and has dispensed with, at least temporarily, the Nord Stream 2, for which the Germans themselves dealt with "sanctions" on companies and geopolitical pressure from Washington.
In addition, Medvedev's ironic statement also alludes to the role that the United States will have as a new and self-declared "reliable supplier" of gas to Europe, making its way through the coercive measures against Russia trying to create a market among its "European allies".
The cost factor is not minor, when it comes to exporting gas from the United States to Europe by sea, compared to the cost ratio of gas exported from Russia by pipeline.
*In late January, US gas placements in Europe were shown to be 40% more expensive than Russian gas.
These elements come together without weighing other factors, such as the increase in gas consumption in China expected for this year, in the midst of the change in its energy matrix that is driving the Chinese to do without coal. These factors, which are new pressures on global demand, do nothing but push gas prices up.
The possibility of a tightening of "sanctions" on Russia in the sensitive area of energy would literally put the costs of the geopolitical and expansionist adventures of the Americans on the shoulders of the Europeans.
MEANWHILE IN RUSSIA...
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has said his country has been preparing "for months" for the retaliation that would come after the recognition of Donetsk and Lugansk as republics.
He said that in terms of importing technologies, his country has already advanced countermeasures. He assured that they have advanced actions in substitution of imports and have considered the risks of the decision, in strategic matters of the economy.
The official has already referred in other instances that the country has accumulated huge amounts of gold and has a fiscal surplus to avoid the so-called "infernal sanctions" that Washington has promised.
Although not everything must be concluded on the Russian economy, especially due to the impacts that are already palpable with the fluctuation of the ruble and the risks that include the pressures on Russian energy, it is evident that an arc of economic instability has a long cost.
According to the objective facts, there is a clear disproportion in the accumulation of balances that is already foreseeable, and it is precisely Europe that will probably be the most affected. The Europeans put the noose around their necks while the Americans applaud from the stands.
https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/qu ... ntra-rusia
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Biden gives Big Oil a win, gas prices going up
February 24, 2022 Gary Wilson
On Feb. 22, President Joe Biden announced new sanctions on Russia and on the company that built Nord Stream 2 and its German CEO. These sanctions will mean higher gas prices in the U.S. as well as in Europe.
“As I said last week, defending freedom will have costs, for us as well and here at home,” Biden said. “We need to be honest about that.” Biden added that he will take measures to “blunt” gas price increases, “to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump.”
Biden said he’s doing this in coordination with the major oil producers, but gave no details, meaning that there’s really no limit planned. It’s a signal of support to Big Oil profits, particularly in the heating gas market in Europe.
An inflation rate in the U.S. at 7.5% — higher prices for gas, food and rent — has been a severe wage cut for all workers here. At the same time, corporate profits have reached a 70-year high.
“Two dozen of the most profitable oil and gas companies — a group that includes Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron — recorded $74.9 billion in net income” in the third quarter of 2021, reports Common Dreams. “Big Oil’s soaring profits come as gasoline prices have hit a seven-year high in the U.S. … with Americans now paying about $3.40 for a gallon of fuel compared with around $2.10 a year ago.”
The sanctions on Russia and Nord Stream 2 — the ones that will drive gas prices even higher, with some predicting pump prices going up to $7 a gallon — are driven, in part, by the demands of Big Oil. The sanctions were announced after Russia gave recognition to the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic in Donbass. Biden calls this an invasion of Ukraine, which it is not.
If the goal of U.S. sanctions was really for peace in Ukraine, why didn’t the Biden administration demand implementation of the 2015 Minsk 2 agreement, which is the policy supported by both France and Germany? Minsk 2 requires Ukraine to negotiate with the two Donbass republics on autonomy, but no serious negotiations have been held.
EU gets gas from Russia
The European Union imports 40% of its gas from Russia. The primary route for gas from Russia is through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany. Nord Stream 2 was built to provide a more secure and stable pipeline that has at least double the capacity.
Biden really spilled the beans earlier when he indicated that he wanted to block Nord Stream 2, a pipeline built to bring Russian gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany.
On Feb. 7, Biden threatened to take control over the German-Russian project that the U.S. has no relation with. From the White House transcript:
[By previous arrangement, the first question went to a Reuters reporter.]
Reuters. Andra- — Andrea. You’ve got the first question.
Q: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Chancellor Scholz. Mr. President, I have wanted to ask you about this Nord Stream project that you’ve long opposed. You didn’t mention it just now by name, nor did Chancellor Scholz. Did you receive assurances from Chancellor Scholz today that Germany will, in fact, pull the plug on this project if Russia invades Ukraine? And did you discuss what the definition of “invasion” could be?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: The first question first. If Germany — if Russia invades — that means tanks or troops crossing the — the border of Ukraine again — then there will be — we — there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.
Q: But how will you — how will you do that exactly, since the project and control of the project is within Germany’s control?
PRESIDENT BIDEN: We will — I promise you, we’ll be able to do it.
Blocking Nord Stream 2 has been a goal of Big Oil and therefore of the U.S. government. It was near the top of Donald Trump’s agenda. Despite what reports may say, the record of the Trump administration is a long series of sanctions and hostile actions against Russia, as the Brookings Institution has detailed.
Mostly unknown here, Trump worked overtime to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. In 2018, Trump got German Chancellor Angela Merkel to agree to spend $1 billion building a new liquified natural gas (LNG) port to import highly priced U.S. LNG. The plan was canceled after Trump lost the election and Merkel left office.
With the U.S. pushing a NATO expansion to Russia’s borders and supporting a coup government in Ukraine, the Biden administration found another way to block Nord Stream 2. As Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland explained in a State Department press briefing on Jan. 27: “If Russia invades Ukraine one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”
On Feb. 22, when Biden announced his sanctions on Russia, Germany announced it was halting the certification process for Nord Stream 2. The Nord Stream 2 project was finished in September, but has stood idle pending certification by Germany and the EU.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and now deputy chairman of its Security Council, tweeted: “Welcome to the new world where Europeans will soon have to pay 2,000 euros per thousand cubic meters!” — suggesting prices were set to double.
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/ ... -going-up/
