Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV
Posted: Mon May 16, 2022 1:02 pm
Sweden's ruling party pivots to support NATO membership
Xinhua | Updated: 2022-05-16 09:02
Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson gives a press conference after a meeting at the ruling Social Democrat's headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 15, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]
STOCKHOLM - Sweden's ruling Social Democratic Party (SAP) granted on Sunday support for the country's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership application, marking a fundamental change of the party's position as a staunch opponent of military alignment.
"We Social Democrats believe that the best thing for Sweden's security is that we join NATO," Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, also leader of SAP, told a press conference here after the party's extraordinary meeting.
The Swedish Social Democrats' change of its stance toward NATO is regarded as historic, as the party's politics clearly stated that "the military freedom of alliance is a foundation in Sweden's security policy".
It has also stated that "Sweden's partnership with NATO contributes to increased security in our immediate area, while a NATO membership would have the opposite effect".
Andersson quoted the change of security situation to justify the party's decision, which paved the way for the country's widely-speculated NATO membership application early next week.
"The military freedom of alliance has served us well, but it will not serve us well in the future," said Andersson, pointing to the changed security situation, with the Ukraine crisis in particular.
Andersson emphasized the "invaluable" cooperation with neighboring Finland, which made its official decision to apply for NATO membership earlier in the day.
"If Sweden were to become the only country in the Baltic Sea region outside NATO, we would end up in a vulnerable position," she said, adding that Sweden must apply together with Finland and "as soon as possible."
However, the SAP's decision incurred fierce criticism in Sweden.
"Today's message is a big disappointment," said Agnes Hellstrom, chairman of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, adding that "the decision is sad and hasty and leads Sweden and the world in the wrong direction."
"Through this decision, Sweden contributes to making the world more militarized and polarized. A NATO membership does not make Sweden or the world more secure or democratic -- rather the opposite," the society wrote in a statement.
Swedish Social Democratic Youth Union (SSU) also voiced their criticism of the decision.
"Young people are the ones who are most critical of a NATO membership and that is understandable. They are young people who risk being sent to war to defend other countries... Sweden must continue to be a voice and a force for peace," the union's chairman Lisa Nabo said in a statement.
"SSU now demands the government that for future generations they guarantee a Sweden free of nuclear weapons, a nuclear-weapon-free zone across the Nordic region and that foreign military bases are never established in Sweden," the statement added.
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20220 ... 5cdac.html
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Blinken: NATO to Keep Sanctions on Russia for as Long as Needed
"All NATO members are committed to maintaining sanctions against Russia for as long as necessary" - Blinken | Photo: Twitter @Russia9May45
All NATO member states are committed to keep the anti-Russian sanctions in place for as long as is necessary, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference on Sunday.
All NATO member states are committed to keep the anti-Russian sanctions in place for as long as is necessary, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference on Sunday after an informal meeting of NATO top diplomats in Berlin.
“Every member of the alliance wants to bring this war to an end as soon as possible. We are clearly determined to maintain our security assistance to Ukraine, to continue our sanctions, export control and diplomatic pressure on Russia for as long as is necessary,” he said. He added that the United States and its NATO allies are “focused on giving Ukraine as strong support as possible on the battlefield and at a negotiation table.”
Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said earlier that Ukraine’s militarization by the West “directly threatens European and global security.” Moscow is calling on “the sponsors of the Kiev regime to stop instigating bloodshed in Ukraine and think about the consequences of their actions,” he said, commenting on weapons supplies to Ukraine.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bli ... -0003.html
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Russia calls the possible union of Finland and Sweden NATO a mistake
The Russian government has indicated that it has no plans to advance on its borders with Finland and Sweden. | Photo: www.expansion.com
Published May 16, 2022 (2 hours 25 minutes ago)
The Russian deputy foreign minister pointed out that the security of Sweden and Finland will not be strengthened if they join NATO.
Russia on Monday called Finland's and Sweden's plans to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) a serious far-reaching mistake.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian media that the security of Sweden and Finland will not be strengthened if they join the military alliance.
Riabkov assured that the decision of both Scandinavian countries will affect stability and increase the general level of military tension in the region.
The Russian diplomat added that Moscow's response after NATO's overall configuration changes will depend on the concrete steps involved in Sweden and Finland's entry into the military alliance.
On Sunday Finland confirmed that it will seek NATO membership, ending nearly eight decades of non-alignment.
The Swedish government is also expected to announce on Monday, after a debate in Parliament, its decision to apply for NATO membership.
Finland and Sweden argue their intention to join the military alliance to threats to their borders by Moscow, after the military operation undertaken by Russia in eastern Ukraine.
However, the Kremlin has indicated that it has no intention of advancing on the border limits with the Scandinavian countries.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/rusia-ca ... -0008.html
Google Translator
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Burning of Odessa’s House of Trade Unions Building on May 2, 2014. [Source: theguardian.com]
“The once bright city became gloomy and sad:” survivor of 2014 Odessa Massacre reflects back on tragedy
Posted May 16, 2022 by Jeremy Kuzmarov
Originally published: CovertAction Magazine on May 10, 2022 (more by CovertAction Magazine)
On May 2, 2014, at least 48 people were killed when right-wing Ukrainian forces burned down the Trade Unions Building in Odessa. The victims had taken refuge in the building after opposing the February 2014 coup d’etat in Ukraine that was backed by the U.S. State Department.
Eight years after the massacre, the International Action Center, a New York-based anti-war group founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, hosted a public commemoration that included testimony from a survivor named Alexey who currently lives in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
Alexey spoke movingly about his friend and comrade, Andrey Brezevsky, who was beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs with a metal bar after he jumped out of the Trade Unions Building to escape the fire.
Brezevsky’s mother, after her son’s death, lost her teaching position at a local university after being denounced by right-wing groups.
Alexey emphasized that none of the perpetrators of the Odessa massacre was ever punished. In the aftermath of the atrocity, neo-Nazi groups mocked and persecuted the relatives of the victims, like Alexey’s mother.
Memorial to victims of the Odessa Trade Unions Building massacre. [Photo: tass.com]
The once bright city became “gloomy and sad,” Alexey said. The massacre had not happened by accident, but was a “planned act of intimidation” by Ukraine’s post-coup government. It was “designed to intimidate the opposition [and] was an act of political terrorism perpetrated by the Ukrainian state targeting unarmed civilians [the victims in the fire were all unarmed].”
Alexey believes that the power of the Nazis will soon come to an end in Ukraine. He said that now “they are dying every day. The Russians are destroying these murderers, and rapists and justice will prevail. The people guilty of the Odessa trade union massacre will finally be brought to justice.”
“A Human Rights Disaster”
Leonid Ilderkin, a Ukrainian communist in exile and member of the coordination council of the Union of Political Refugees and Political Prisoners of Ukraine, followed Alexey, stating that Ukraine has become a “human rights disaster” following the 2014 Maidan coup.
Leonid Ilderkin. [Photo: nitter.net]
Since that time, the Ukrainian government under Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky have tried to demolish all types of political opposition and to hunt down everyone who does not like them.
The CIA, it should be noted, has assisted in these latter operations and helped to produce blacklists that are used to pinpoint dissidents for arrest.
Ilderkin said that he was a witness to the protests in Maidan Square which began in November 2013, and saw the kinds of groups that were supporting them.
The unrest led not only to the coup ousting pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych but the resurrection of Nazi ideals in the country, resulting in this situation where anyone who is progressive and on the left of the political spectrum is being hunted down.
Petro Poroshenko, left, Volodymyr Zelensky, right. [Photo: bbc.com]
According to Ilderkin, the Odessa massacre followed a pattern of state repression that was also exemplified by the crushing of demonstrations after the 2014 coup in Mariupol, Odessa and Zaporizhzhia, where the people almost took back control from the central government.
On May 9, 2014, seven days after the burning of the Odessa Trade Unions Building, an unknown number of unarmed demonstrators were shot and killed by state security forces and neo-Nazi militias in a massacre that was never reported on in the West.
The resistance to the new regime, Ilderkin said, was more successful in Donetsk and Luhansk, where armed struggle developed.
Kyiv army bringing in tanks and shooting at civilians in Mariupol on May 9, 2014. [Photo: rt.com]
Which Side Are You On?
Besides fueling state repression and civil conflict, the disastrous 2014 coup, according to Ilderkin, brought in leaders—Poroshenko and Zelensky—who have demolished workers’ rights and accelerated Ukraine’s deindustrialization.
Far from being a beacon of democracy as is presented in the U.S. and Western media, Ukraine is a police state where people considered disloyal to the regime are arrested and then vanish—no one knows where they are taken. The Azov Battalion is only one of many group of Nazi regiments which constitute the core of the Ukrainian army.
Ilderkin compared the Ukrainian army today to the morally bankrupt armies that fought with U.S. forces under the puppet Lon Nol regime in Cambodia and Thieu-Ky governments in South Vietnam during the Indochina War.
Azov Battalion troops. [Photo: ft.com]
Ilderkin asked audience members: Who are you going to support: the South Vietnamese or Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam?
Zelensky, he said, is like Lon Nol—who courted Western intervention that destroyed his country. Another similarity is to General Francisco Franco and the Fascist forces in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
Ilderkin ended his talk by asking the audience: Which side are you on?
Indeed, which side are you on?
https://mronline.org/2022/05/16/the-onc ... y-and-sad/
The Donbass Diaries Part II: The Azov Battalions – ordinary Fascism
Originally published: United World on May 13, 2022 by Mehmet Perinçek (more by United World) (Posted May 14, 2022)
We gather around the school in Mariupol. All windows without exception are broken. The rooms inside are fully demolished. The Ukrainian have used the school and its surrounding as defense position. At 09:00 in the morning, humanitarian aid will be distributed. We start talking with Mariupol’s locals.
‘The Azov Battalions have bombarded our house’
The biggest and most urgent problem is housing. A great number of houses and building are in a shape they cannot even be accessed. The Azov Battalions have occupied the houses, forced part of the inhabitants to leave and go to the cellars, while keeping others in the flats on purpose. They have placed weapons into civilian flats–in clear violence of international law of warfare. On the rooftops, they have placed snipers.
The local population says that the Azov Battalions have starting bombing some of the buildings even before the Russian arrived. A woman points with her fingers her own flat. “My mothers ashes are still there. The Russian were not around yet back then, it was March 10, and they bombarded our house.”
An old woman tells what happened to her:
“On the very first day of the squirmishes, the Azov have occupied my backyard and placed weapons there. We have become homeless. We lived in an elevator. It was a building with 9 floors, they broke the doors of each apartment and have entered them all. My neighbor had a door made of steel. They used a hand grenade to blow up the door.”
Revenge for the 2014 referendum
“For me, Ukraine as a state is over. I am a citizen of the Ukraine, but for the, that state has ceased to exist.” These are words frequently heard in the streets of Mariupol. A lot of them have not been informed about the humanitarian corridors opened during the clashes. The Azov Battalions stopped those who heard about these corridors and wanted the escape clashes.
There is a specific reason, why the Azov Battalions hate the inhabitants of Mariupol. In 2014, following the Maidan events, Donetsk declared independence and a referendum was also held in Mariupol. The city back then decided in majority to join the Donetsk People’s Republic. But the forces from Donetsk were not able to hold the city and Mariupol returned back to Ukrainian control.
An older man points to the city lying in ruins and says: “They now wanted to take revenge for that from us”, describing how badly the Azov Battalion treated the population.
We are speaking to a young couple. They tell us that, during clashes, the Azovs have not established any communication with the population, have not helped the inhabitants at all. The Russian soldiers on the other side were all the time helping the population, they tell.
A grave in the park: authorities say these temporary graves will soon be transferred to graveyards.
Graves by the roadside
Another important problem in the city is communication. Cell phones or normal lines are not working at all. The people are not able to establish any communication with their relatives who had left city before. Gas, electricity and water supply has also stopped. Mounting waste is another issue. It said that, once the heat increases, this may turn into a serious problem.
Burying the dead causes another pain. A woman that came to the school complains that the remains of her mother are in her backyard since days. Officials promise her to solve the problem. There are even improvised and temporary graveyards by the roadside–for some the only solution right now. We are told that these graves will be transferred later on.
Transition to Rubles has begun
Once it has lost Mariupol, the Ukrainian side also stopped paying and transferring the pensions. Therefore, the city suffers a lack of cash money. It seems that slowly, the Ruble is going to replace the Grivna. The according infrastructure is being prepared currently.
In spite of all the problems: with the end of clashes, people have started to return to Mariupol. Others we have spoken to said, with tears in their eyes: “This is our home, we will not leave what ever happens.”
Leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin and UWI expert Mehmet Perinçek
“Keeping on till the territorial integrity is achieved”
When the humanitarian aid’s distribution begins, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin comes to the school. He has no helmet or body armor, but he carries a pistol on his belly. Pushilin says:
“The Western and Ukrainian press is diffusing constantly lies. We are not only fighting against Ukrainian bombs but also against Ukrainian lies.
The Azov Battalions have tried to turn Mariupol into a heroic city in their perspective, they tried to turn the city into a symbol. But it did not work out. They have committed lots of war crimes, which we are all documenting. The population of Mariupol has been under strong pressure during the last 8 years, before the military operation.
Now, we are facing new tasks that cannot be delayed. We will reconstruct Mariupol and solve the problem of infrastructure. As a first step, we have cleaned the mines in the city.
Ukraine is by the way attacking also areas where there are no military units. We will continue our work until the territorial integrity of Donetsk is achieved. Our goal is to eliminate the maximum number of enemies while minimizing the civilian casualties.”
Will Donetsk join Russia?
We ask Pushilin about the future of Donetsk, and remind him of the referendum to unite with Russia. He emphasizes that the people voted in the referendum in favor of the unification with Russia, but adds that their first goal is to ensure territorial integrity. Pushilin says the process of unification with Russia will begin after that.
There is also mosque in Mariupol. The Azov Brigades have held more than 150 Turkish people hostage there, which were liberated by Russian Special Forces upon President Erdoğan’s request. We cannot visit the mosque because it is located in a different part of the city.
Burned out tanks, fired missile parts
We are leaving the city center of Mariupol. Our next stop is another spot of intense clashes: the harbor of Mariupol. We are taking quite a detour in order not to get too close to current Ukrainian positions.
Ukrainian Tochka missile
We see lots of civilian cars on the road, almost half of them has the windows broken. A hand-written paper note sticks on some cars, saying “Children inside”. On the road we also observe lots of destroyed Ukrainian armored vehicles and missile parts. Several Russian check-points provide security.
The Hitler portrait found in the headquarters
The road is quite long, and not to waste time, we immediately begin the asking and talking. Mariupol was one of the main centers of the Azov Battalion, we are told. All its members, without exception, were educated with Nazi ideology. The Russian have discovered recently the Azov’s secret headquarters in Mariupol. An official shows photo he has taken there. From Hitler portraits to Nazi symbols … all kinds of decoration representing fascist ideology was there.
I suddenly remember the famous Soviet documentary ‘Ordinary Fascism’ from 1965.
Hitler portrait and symbols found in the Azov Battalion’s headquarters.
‘Hitler: a Democrat’
Though I had hears a lot about these Azovs, the posters on their walls are still shocking. The walls are full of slogans and posters of hatred against the Russian state, against the Kremlin, against basically everything that is Russian, and claiming to eliminate all of that from the earth. There is even a book with the title: ‘Hitler: a Democrat’.
Drugs in the Ukrainian army
Some videos filmed by the Azovs themselves were also captured. They show ceremonies originating from medieval times. They gather around the totems placed in a garden, cut their arms and let blood flood into the earth, while collectively swearing in. I tell to myself that this ceremony is probably impossible to stand without using drugs. And I am confirmed that drug use was very common in the Azov Battalion and the Ukrainian army. We are shown the testimony of a Ukrainian captive: He says that, upon command from the high-level officers, drugs were distributed called “pain-killers” among soldiers.
No difference left between the Ukrainian military and the Azov Battalion
Then I ask: “Is there no difference between the Ukrainian army and the Azov Battalion? He army is coming from the Soviet tradition, and although the enemy, they still have a military tradition and culture, don’t they?” I receive the following answer:
“We try to lay emphasize on this in the very beginning. We told to the Ukrainian army: ‘You are true soldiers, come and lets talk’.” They have tried to support them in a way. I also remember elements in Putin’s operation announcing speech, which were directed at the Ukrainian Military’s command.
Commercial vessel taken as hostage and shield by the Azovs.
But it soon became obvious that there was no difference left between the Ukrainian military and the Azov Battalions. A very serious purge had taken place within the army, in which the NATO took part with its full force and influence. Neo-fascism, already the official ideology of the Kyiv Regime, has taken over the army as well.
Khrushchev’s faults
Meanwhile, there is also a certain criticism among Russian officials against Khrushchev in that context. He leaves the Crimea to Ukraine. But more over, it was him who provided amnesty and released the Baderistas, who in the Second World War had collaborated with Hitler Germany. There is the thought that Khrushchev had his part in things getting where they are today. Let us remind that the Soviet leader was of Ukrainian origin.
The ships taken hostage in the port of Mariupol.
And we finally arrive at the harbor of Mariupol. The intensity of the clashes is visible at the very first glance. The port is like a ghost town. We see mines at the port entrance that have not exploded yet. The same tactics as in the city center or the Azovstal was applied in the harbor too. The Azovs have not permitted the exit of the civilian commercial vessels and instead, have deployed mines into the sea around the harbor. This time, they have used ships as civilian shields. The crews were meanwhile not permitted to leave ship and go on land.
Minesweeping
The port was the last part of Mariupol that the Russian forces gained control over. The activities of sweeping mines at the sea and land are still continuing. We are witnessing them personally. The responsible official from the Donetsk People’s Republic provides information about the work going on. He says that until now, more than 10 thousand explosives have been secured in the territories of Donetsk liberated from the control of Ukrainian forces.
One can see from the port the Azovstal. Artillery and shelling is heard again, followed by dark smoke rising.
In Moscow the NATO expansion, in Donetsk the danger of fascism
We are heading towards Donetsk to spend the night. This is the main message that the people of Donetsk tell us: “The war here has not started yesterday. It has been going on in the last 8 years. Kyiv has never fulfilled the Minsk Agreements. The West has never said a word to them. We are humans too, we deserve to have a life too! The Russian military operation is a result of this process, not the beginning of a war. Quite the opposite: This operation will put an end to a 8-year-war.
And truly: from the hotel that we stay at that night, we hear the sound of the missile attacks to neighborhoods of Donetsk. Next morning we learn that some civilians have lost their lives.
In Moscow, the Ukraine crisis is discussed in the framework of the NATO enlargement and U.S. aggression. In Donetsk, the context is the Kyiv Regime and the danger of fascism.
https://mronline.org/2022/05/14/the-don ... s-part-ii/
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Biden’s ‘Holodomor’ Policies to Hurt Ukrainians, Americans & Backfire on Whole World
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 14, 2022
Ekaterina Blinova
On 11 May, President Joe Biden announced that the US and its allies are planning to ship over 20 million tonnes of grain out of Ukraine to tackle the global food crisis. However, Biden’s policy could cause a famine in Ukraine, according to Russian Federation State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin.
Since the beginning of the Russian special operation, the US and its NATO allies have stepped up lethal arms deliveries to Ukraine, with the Biden administration vowing to bleed Russia white.
In exchange for foreign weapons and ammo, the Ukrainian authorities have increased exports of grain, corn, oil crops and farm animals from the country on a daily basis by road and rail, even though Ukrainians are facing shortage of foodstuffs and a lack of crops for the spring sowing campaign in many of Ukraine’s regions, as Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Centre, told reporters on 30 April.
“The US is essentially recolonising Ukraine to get a financial return from its arms investment in the country, which produces much of the world’s exports in wheat and grain (which the gold half of its bicolour flag symbolizes), all while instigating and dragging out needless death and destruction,” says US independent journalist and geopolitical analyst Max Parry.
According to the journalist, Biden’s new lend-lease agreement aimed at streamlining weapons to Kiev not only unnecessarily prolongs a proxy war where NATO is using Ukrainians as cannon fodder, but economically shackles Kiev in debt slavery to the West for many years to come while the US depletes it of its resources, including grain and rare earth minerals.
Meanwhile, on 27 April, the European Union announced that it was planning to suspend all tariffs and quotas on Ukrainian exports coming into the bloc for one year thus further encouraging Ukrainian food exports.
Joe Biden’s latest call for shipping out a whopping 20 million tonnes of grain from Ukraine may lead to a hunger inside Ukraine, warned Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin in a Wednesday Telegram post.
“Ukrainians need their grain reserves to live until the new harvest,” wrote Volodin. “Washington does not believe in the victory of Kiev. They think about how to get a return on their money as soon as possible, arranging a ‘holodomor’ in Ukraine.”
“Holodomor” (“death by hunger”) is a term used by Ukrainian and Western historians, including Robert Conquest and Timothy Snyder, to argue that a 1933 famine in Ukraine was man-made and artificial. Other Western historians, including Mark B. Tauger, conclude that the 1933 famine, which engulfed a considerable part of the USSR at that time, had natural causes, adding that there is no evidence that the Kremlin deliberately starved the Soviet people.
The Holodomor narrative has long been used by Ukrainian nationalists and Western authors such as Snyder to vilify the USSR and later Russia, according to Parry. He forecasts that while creating the conditions for a genuine “holodomor” in Ukraine by sucking its food reserves dry, the US and EU will try to shift the blame to Moscow for food shortages in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.
“[As the US] is deliberately extending the conflict, Ukraine will not be able to produce as much wheat which will have enormous consequences for the global wheat market,” says Parry. “While it is true Kiev’s grain exports go mostly to North Africa and the Middle East, it will cause the price of wheat to soar internationally. The lowering of the wheat supply from one its chief sources will drive its price up everywhere, including in the US.”
‘American Holodomor’
Meanwhile, American conservative observers have raised the alarm over Joe Biden’s military spending spree. American journalist and Human Events Daily host Jack Posobiec slammed the US president for historic $40 billion commitment for Ukraine.
“We can’t feed our children, we can’t prevent foreign incursion in our own land, and yet $40 billion for a war that’s 5,000 miles away that has nothing to do with the United States of America,” Posobiec said on 12 May.
According to Parry, many have noted “the callous hypocrisy of the Biden administration to continue to send billions in aid to Ukraine as food scarcity is on the rise here in the US with worsening rates of inflation not seen since the 1970s”.
“If this continues there could very well be an ‘American Holodomor’, so to speak, here domestically,” says the journalist. “Biden’s policies toward Russia and in Ukraine are going to result in surging food prices, rationing and greater food insecurity which only hurts lower and middle income families and the lower half of people in income distribution.”
On a global scale, the consequences of the West’s sweeping anti-Russian sanctions and closure of Western ports to Russian vessels, have already led to soaring food prices, according to Parry. Most of Russia’s economic sectors, including banking, logistics, trade and energy have been sanctioned by the West over Moscow’s special operation in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine together account for roughly 30% of global wheat exports and 20% of corn exports.
In mid-March, Moscow temporarily halted grain shipments, including the export of wheat, rye, barley and corn to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) until June 30 to protect its own supply amid the West’s sanctions spree. Grain is still allowed to be exported for humanitarian purposes and as part of international transit traffic.
Furthermore, Russia had been forced to reduce exports of grain by the end of January 2022 to stabilise the internal market amid the emerging post-COVID food crisis and global inflation, according to the Russian newspaper Izvestia. Nevertheless, between July 2021 and January 2022, Russia had exported 25 million tonnes of the commodity, according to the newspaper. For comparison’s sake, in the 2020/2021 season Russia exported a total of 34 million tonnes of grain.
Under these circumstances, Biden’s incentive to drag Moscow and Kiev into a continuous fight “to exhaust Russia” would inevitable backfire on the world, according to the American journalist.
“Rising costs of wheat for the third world could mean a ‘worldwide Holodomor’, all as a result of Biden’s disastrous policies,” says Parry. “The billions being sent to Ukraine could alleviate the financial hardships of Americans but lining the pockets of defense contractors is a bigger priority to the Biden administration, which could care less about the plight of ordinary people.”
US Conservative Intellectuals Against Escalation: “Not in My Name”
Meanwhile, a group of American intellectuals, including conservative pundits, political advisers, scholars, and pastors, who don’t buy into Biden’s “Putin prices hike” narrative, wrote an open letter entitled “Not in my name” to the US president. Apart from the unfolding food crisis, they are highly concerned about Biden’s escalation in Ukraine which, according to them, could lead not just to hunger but to an all-out nuclear disaster.
“At this dangerous moment in history, the US must exert its power to become a force for just peace, urging Russia and Ukraine to come to the negotiation table in order to agree on compromises that would enable and ensure peace in the region,” they wrote. “The US should not engage in a policy of intensification of conflict with Russia that could lead to the deaths of millions of innocent people. There are grave consequences of cumulative provocations.”
According to Parry, this letter is an interesting political phenomenon: while traditionally it was the Left who struggled for peace, now it’s Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rand Paul, rather than the Democrats, who are opposing US militarism.
“There has been a complete failure on the part of the so-called ‘progressives’ in Washington, including Bernie Sanders and ‘The Squad’, and the American left generally when it comes to Ukraine,” says the journalist. “Not only have they all fallen in line behind the anti-Russian narrative and foreign policy consensus, AOC and her cohorts collectively approved this latest aid package to Kiev, with no questions asked.”
At a time when the left should be leading the charge against fueling a proxy war which is driving up the price of goods and services and worsening the US economic downturn, the left has totally missed an opportunity to connect the dots between American foreign policy and economic inequality, according to Parry.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/ ... ole-world/
'red' added.
And so again we ask, "which side are they on?"
Xinhua | Updated: 2022-05-16 09:02
Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson gives a press conference after a meeting at the ruling Social Democrat's headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, on May 15, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]
STOCKHOLM - Sweden's ruling Social Democratic Party (SAP) granted on Sunday support for the country's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership application, marking a fundamental change of the party's position as a staunch opponent of military alignment.
"We Social Democrats believe that the best thing for Sweden's security is that we join NATO," Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, also leader of SAP, told a press conference here after the party's extraordinary meeting.
The Swedish Social Democrats' change of its stance toward NATO is regarded as historic, as the party's politics clearly stated that "the military freedom of alliance is a foundation in Sweden's security policy".
It has also stated that "Sweden's partnership with NATO contributes to increased security in our immediate area, while a NATO membership would have the opposite effect".
Andersson quoted the change of security situation to justify the party's decision, which paved the way for the country's widely-speculated NATO membership application early next week.
"The military freedom of alliance has served us well, but it will not serve us well in the future," said Andersson, pointing to the changed security situation, with the Ukraine crisis in particular.
Andersson emphasized the "invaluable" cooperation with neighboring Finland, which made its official decision to apply for NATO membership earlier in the day.
"If Sweden were to become the only country in the Baltic Sea region outside NATO, we would end up in a vulnerable position," she said, adding that Sweden must apply together with Finland and "as soon as possible."
However, the SAP's decision incurred fierce criticism in Sweden.
"Today's message is a big disappointment," said Agnes Hellstrom, chairman of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, adding that "the decision is sad and hasty and leads Sweden and the world in the wrong direction."
"Through this decision, Sweden contributes to making the world more militarized and polarized. A NATO membership does not make Sweden or the world more secure or democratic -- rather the opposite," the society wrote in a statement.
Swedish Social Democratic Youth Union (SSU) also voiced their criticism of the decision.
"Young people are the ones who are most critical of a NATO membership and that is understandable. They are young people who risk being sent to war to defend other countries... Sweden must continue to be a voice and a force for peace," the union's chairman Lisa Nabo said in a statement.
"SSU now demands the government that for future generations they guarantee a Sweden free of nuclear weapons, a nuclear-weapon-free zone across the Nordic region and that foreign military bases are never established in Sweden," the statement added.
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20220 ... 5cdac.html
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Blinken: NATO to Keep Sanctions on Russia for as Long as Needed
"All NATO members are committed to maintaining sanctions against Russia for as long as necessary" - Blinken | Photo: Twitter @Russia9May45
All NATO member states are committed to keep the anti-Russian sanctions in place for as long as is necessary, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference on Sunday.
All NATO member states are committed to keep the anti-Russian sanctions in place for as long as is necessary, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference on Sunday after an informal meeting of NATO top diplomats in Berlin.
“Every member of the alliance wants to bring this war to an end as soon as possible. We are clearly determined to maintain our security assistance to Ukraine, to continue our sanctions, export control and diplomatic pressure on Russia for as long as is necessary,” he said. He added that the United States and its NATO allies are “focused on giving Ukraine as strong support as possible on the battlefield and at a negotiation table.”
Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said earlier that Ukraine’s militarization by the West “directly threatens European and global security.” Moscow is calling on “the sponsors of the Kiev regime to stop instigating bloodshed in Ukraine and think about the consequences of their actions,” he said, commenting on weapons supplies to Ukraine.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bli ... -0003.html
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Russia calls the possible union of Finland and Sweden NATO a mistake
The Russian government has indicated that it has no plans to advance on its borders with Finland and Sweden. | Photo: www.expansion.com
Published May 16, 2022 (2 hours 25 minutes ago)
The Russian deputy foreign minister pointed out that the security of Sweden and Finland will not be strengthened if they join NATO.
Russia on Monday called Finland's and Sweden's plans to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) a serious far-reaching mistake.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian media that the security of Sweden and Finland will not be strengthened if they join the military alliance.
Riabkov assured that the decision of both Scandinavian countries will affect stability and increase the general level of military tension in the region.
The Russian diplomat added that Moscow's response after NATO's overall configuration changes will depend on the concrete steps involved in Sweden and Finland's entry into the military alliance.
On Sunday Finland confirmed that it will seek NATO membership, ending nearly eight decades of non-alignment.
The Swedish government is also expected to announce on Monday, after a debate in Parliament, its decision to apply for NATO membership.
Finland and Sweden argue their intention to join the military alliance to threats to their borders by Moscow, after the military operation undertaken by Russia in eastern Ukraine.
However, the Kremlin has indicated that it has no intention of advancing on the border limits with the Scandinavian countries.
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/rusia-ca ... -0008.html
Google Translator
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Burning of Odessa’s House of Trade Unions Building on May 2, 2014. [Source: theguardian.com]
“The once bright city became gloomy and sad:” survivor of 2014 Odessa Massacre reflects back on tragedy
Posted May 16, 2022 by Jeremy Kuzmarov
Originally published: CovertAction Magazine on May 10, 2022 (more by CovertAction Magazine)
On May 2, 2014, at least 48 people were killed when right-wing Ukrainian forces burned down the Trade Unions Building in Odessa. The victims had taken refuge in the building after opposing the February 2014 coup d’etat in Ukraine that was backed by the U.S. State Department.
Eight years after the massacre, the International Action Center, a New York-based anti-war group founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, hosted a public commemoration that included testimony from a survivor named Alexey who currently lives in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
Alexey spoke movingly about his friend and comrade, Andrey Brezevsky, who was beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs with a metal bar after he jumped out of the Trade Unions Building to escape the fire.
Brezevsky’s mother, after her son’s death, lost her teaching position at a local university after being denounced by right-wing groups.
Alexey emphasized that none of the perpetrators of the Odessa massacre was ever punished. In the aftermath of the atrocity, neo-Nazi groups mocked and persecuted the relatives of the victims, like Alexey’s mother.
Memorial to victims of the Odessa Trade Unions Building massacre. [Photo: tass.com]
The once bright city became “gloomy and sad,” Alexey said. The massacre had not happened by accident, but was a “planned act of intimidation” by Ukraine’s post-coup government. It was “designed to intimidate the opposition [and] was an act of political terrorism perpetrated by the Ukrainian state targeting unarmed civilians [the victims in the fire were all unarmed].”
Alexey believes that the power of the Nazis will soon come to an end in Ukraine. He said that now “they are dying every day. The Russians are destroying these murderers, and rapists and justice will prevail. The people guilty of the Odessa trade union massacre will finally be brought to justice.”
“A Human Rights Disaster”
Leonid Ilderkin, a Ukrainian communist in exile and member of the coordination council of the Union of Political Refugees and Political Prisoners of Ukraine, followed Alexey, stating that Ukraine has become a “human rights disaster” following the 2014 Maidan coup.
Leonid Ilderkin. [Photo: nitter.net]
Since that time, the Ukrainian government under Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky have tried to demolish all types of political opposition and to hunt down everyone who does not like them.
The CIA, it should be noted, has assisted in these latter operations and helped to produce blacklists that are used to pinpoint dissidents for arrest.
Ilderkin said that he was a witness to the protests in Maidan Square which began in November 2013, and saw the kinds of groups that were supporting them.
The unrest led not only to the coup ousting pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych but the resurrection of Nazi ideals in the country, resulting in this situation where anyone who is progressive and on the left of the political spectrum is being hunted down.
Petro Poroshenko, left, Volodymyr Zelensky, right. [Photo: bbc.com]
According to Ilderkin, the Odessa massacre followed a pattern of state repression that was also exemplified by the crushing of demonstrations after the 2014 coup in Mariupol, Odessa and Zaporizhzhia, where the people almost took back control from the central government.
On May 9, 2014, seven days after the burning of the Odessa Trade Unions Building, an unknown number of unarmed demonstrators were shot and killed by state security forces and neo-Nazi militias in a massacre that was never reported on in the West.
The resistance to the new regime, Ilderkin said, was more successful in Donetsk and Luhansk, where armed struggle developed.
Kyiv army bringing in tanks and shooting at civilians in Mariupol on May 9, 2014. [Photo: rt.com]
Which Side Are You On?
Besides fueling state repression and civil conflict, the disastrous 2014 coup, according to Ilderkin, brought in leaders—Poroshenko and Zelensky—who have demolished workers’ rights and accelerated Ukraine’s deindustrialization.
Far from being a beacon of democracy as is presented in the U.S. and Western media, Ukraine is a police state where people considered disloyal to the regime are arrested and then vanish—no one knows where they are taken. The Azov Battalion is only one of many group of Nazi regiments which constitute the core of the Ukrainian army.
Ilderkin compared the Ukrainian army today to the morally bankrupt armies that fought with U.S. forces under the puppet Lon Nol regime in Cambodia and Thieu-Ky governments in South Vietnam during the Indochina War.
Azov Battalion troops. [Photo: ft.com]
Ilderkin asked audience members: Who are you going to support: the South Vietnamese or Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam?
Zelensky, he said, is like Lon Nol—who courted Western intervention that destroyed his country. Another similarity is to General Francisco Franco and the Fascist forces in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
Ilderkin ended his talk by asking the audience: Which side are you on?
Indeed, which side are you on?
https://mronline.org/2022/05/16/the-onc ... y-and-sad/
The Donbass Diaries Part II: The Azov Battalions – ordinary Fascism
Originally published: United World on May 13, 2022 by Mehmet Perinçek (more by United World) (Posted May 14, 2022)
We gather around the school in Mariupol. All windows without exception are broken. The rooms inside are fully demolished. The Ukrainian have used the school and its surrounding as defense position. At 09:00 in the morning, humanitarian aid will be distributed. We start talking with Mariupol’s locals.
‘The Azov Battalions have bombarded our house’
The biggest and most urgent problem is housing. A great number of houses and building are in a shape they cannot even be accessed. The Azov Battalions have occupied the houses, forced part of the inhabitants to leave and go to the cellars, while keeping others in the flats on purpose. They have placed weapons into civilian flats–in clear violence of international law of warfare. On the rooftops, they have placed snipers.
The local population says that the Azov Battalions have starting bombing some of the buildings even before the Russian arrived. A woman points with her fingers her own flat. “My mothers ashes are still there. The Russian were not around yet back then, it was March 10, and they bombarded our house.”
An old woman tells what happened to her:
“On the very first day of the squirmishes, the Azov have occupied my backyard and placed weapons there. We have become homeless. We lived in an elevator. It was a building with 9 floors, they broke the doors of each apartment and have entered them all. My neighbor had a door made of steel. They used a hand grenade to blow up the door.”
Revenge for the 2014 referendum
“For me, Ukraine as a state is over. I am a citizen of the Ukraine, but for the, that state has ceased to exist.” These are words frequently heard in the streets of Mariupol. A lot of them have not been informed about the humanitarian corridors opened during the clashes. The Azov Battalions stopped those who heard about these corridors and wanted the escape clashes.
There is a specific reason, why the Azov Battalions hate the inhabitants of Mariupol. In 2014, following the Maidan events, Donetsk declared independence and a referendum was also held in Mariupol. The city back then decided in majority to join the Donetsk People’s Republic. But the forces from Donetsk were not able to hold the city and Mariupol returned back to Ukrainian control.
An older man points to the city lying in ruins and says: “They now wanted to take revenge for that from us”, describing how badly the Azov Battalion treated the population.
We are speaking to a young couple. They tell us that, during clashes, the Azovs have not established any communication with the population, have not helped the inhabitants at all. The Russian soldiers on the other side were all the time helping the population, they tell.
A grave in the park: authorities say these temporary graves will soon be transferred to graveyards.
Graves by the roadside
Another important problem in the city is communication. Cell phones or normal lines are not working at all. The people are not able to establish any communication with their relatives who had left city before. Gas, electricity and water supply has also stopped. Mounting waste is another issue. It said that, once the heat increases, this may turn into a serious problem.
Burying the dead causes another pain. A woman that came to the school complains that the remains of her mother are in her backyard since days. Officials promise her to solve the problem. There are even improvised and temporary graveyards by the roadside–for some the only solution right now. We are told that these graves will be transferred later on.
Transition to Rubles has begun
Once it has lost Mariupol, the Ukrainian side also stopped paying and transferring the pensions. Therefore, the city suffers a lack of cash money. It seems that slowly, the Ruble is going to replace the Grivna. The according infrastructure is being prepared currently.
In spite of all the problems: with the end of clashes, people have started to return to Mariupol. Others we have spoken to said, with tears in their eyes: “This is our home, we will not leave what ever happens.”
Leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin and UWI expert Mehmet Perinçek
“Keeping on till the territorial integrity is achieved”
When the humanitarian aid’s distribution begins, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin comes to the school. He has no helmet or body armor, but he carries a pistol on his belly. Pushilin says:
“The Western and Ukrainian press is diffusing constantly lies. We are not only fighting against Ukrainian bombs but also against Ukrainian lies.
The Azov Battalions have tried to turn Mariupol into a heroic city in their perspective, they tried to turn the city into a symbol. But it did not work out. They have committed lots of war crimes, which we are all documenting. The population of Mariupol has been under strong pressure during the last 8 years, before the military operation.
Now, we are facing new tasks that cannot be delayed. We will reconstruct Mariupol and solve the problem of infrastructure. As a first step, we have cleaned the mines in the city.
Ukraine is by the way attacking also areas where there are no military units. We will continue our work until the territorial integrity of Donetsk is achieved. Our goal is to eliminate the maximum number of enemies while minimizing the civilian casualties.”
Will Donetsk join Russia?
We ask Pushilin about the future of Donetsk, and remind him of the referendum to unite with Russia. He emphasizes that the people voted in the referendum in favor of the unification with Russia, but adds that their first goal is to ensure territorial integrity. Pushilin says the process of unification with Russia will begin after that.
There is also mosque in Mariupol. The Azov Brigades have held more than 150 Turkish people hostage there, which were liberated by Russian Special Forces upon President Erdoğan’s request. We cannot visit the mosque because it is located in a different part of the city.
Burned out tanks, fired missile parts
We are leaving the city center of Mariupol. Our next stop is another spot of intense clashes: the harbor of Mariupol. We are taking quite a detour in order not to get too close to current Ukrainian positions.
Ukrainian Tochka missile
We see lots of civilian cars on the road, almost half of them has the windows broken. A hand-written paper note sticks on some cars, saying “Children inside”. On the road we also observe lots of destroyed Ukrainian armored vehicles and missile parts. Several Russian check-points provide security.
The Hitler portrait found in the headquarters
The road is quite long, and not to waste time, we immediately begin the asking and talking. Mariupol was one of the main centers of the Azov Battalion, we are told. All its members, without exception, were educated with Nazi ideology. The Russian have discovered recently the Azov’s secret headquarters in Mariupol. An official shows photo he has taken there. From Hitler portraits to Nazi symbols … all kinds of decoration representing fascist ideology was there.
I suddenly remember the famous Soviet documentary ‘Ordinary Fascism’ from 1965.
Hitler portrait and symbols found in the Azov Battalion’s headquarters.
‘Hitler: a Democrat’
Though I had hears a lot about these Azovs, the posters on their walls are still shocking. The walls are full of slogans and posters of hatred against the Russian state, against the Kremlin, against basically everything that is Russian, and claiming to eliminate all of that from the earth. There is even a book with the title: ‘Hitler: a Democrat’.
Drugs in the Ukrainian army
Some videos filmed by the Azovs themselves were also captured. They show ceremonies originating from medieval times. They gather around the totems placed in a garden, cut their arms and let blood flood into the earth, while collectively swearing in. I tell to myself that this ceremony is probably impossible to stand without using drugs. And I am confirmed that drug use was very common in the Azov Battalion and the Ukrainian army. We are shown the testimony of a Ukrainian captive: He says that, upon command from the high-level officers, drugs were distributed called “pain-killers” among soldiers.
No difference left between the Ukrainian military and the Azov Battalion
Then I ask: “Is there no difference between the Ukrainian army and the Azov Battalion? He army is coming from the Soviet tradition, and although the enemy, they still have a military tradition and culture, don’t they?” I receive the following answer:
“We try to lay emphasize on this in the very beginning. We told to the Ukrainian army: ‘You are true soldiers, come and lets talk’.” They have tried to support them in a way. I also remember elements in Putin’s operation announcing speech, which were directed at the Ukrainian Military’s command.
Commercial vessel taken as hostage and shield by the Azovs.
But it soon became obvious that there was no difference left between the Ukrainian military and the Azov Battalions. A very serious purge had taken place within the army, in which the NATO took part with its full force and influence. Neo-fascism, already the official ideology of the Kyiv Regime, has taken over the army as well.
Khrushchev’s faults
Meanwhile, there is also a certain criticism among Russian officials against Khrushchev in that context. He leaves the Crimea to Ukraine. But more over, it was him who provided amnesty and released the Baderistas, who in the Second World War had collaborated with Hitler Germany. There is the thought that Khrushchev had his part in things getting where they are today. Let us remind that the Soviet leader was of Ukrainian origin.
The ships taken hostage in the port of Mariupol.
And we finally arrive at the harbor of Mariupol. The intensity of the clashes is visible at the very first glance. The port is like a ghost town. We see mines at the port entrance that have not exploded yet. The same tactics as in the city center or the Azovstal was applied in the harbor too. The Azovs have not permitted the exit of the civilian commercial vessels and instead, have deployed mines into the sea around the harbor. This time, they have used ships as civilian shields. The crews were meanwhile not permitted to leave ship and go on land.
Minesweeping
The port was the last part of Mariupol that the Russian forces gained control over. The activities of sweeping mines at the sea and land are still continuing. We are witnessing them personally. The responsible official from the Donetsk People’s Republic provides information about the work going on. He says that until now, more than 10 thousand explosives have been secured in the territories of Donetsk liberated from the control of Ukrainian forces.
One can see from the port the Azovstal. Artillery and shelling is heard again, followed by dark smoke rising.
In Moscow the NATO expansion, in Donetsk the danger of fascism
We are heading towards Donetsk to spend the night. This is the main message that the people of Donetsk tell us: “The war here has not started yesterday. It has been going on in the last 8 years. Kyiv has never fulfilled the Minsk Agreements. The West has never said a word to them. We are humans too, we deserve to have a life too! The Russian military operation is a result of this process, not the beginning of a war. Quite the opposite: This operation will put an end to a 8-year-war.
And truly: from the hotel that we stay at that night, we hear the sound of the missile attacks to neighborhoods of Donetsk. Next morning we learn that some civilians have lost their lives.
In Moscow, the Ukraine crisis is discussed in the framework of the NATO enlargement and U.S. aggression. In Donetsk, the context is the Kyiv Regime and the danger of fascism.
https://mronline.org/2022/05/14/the-don ... s-part-ii/
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Biden’s ‘Holodomor’ Policies to Hurt Ukrainians, Americans & Backfire on Whole World
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on MAY 14, 2022
Ekaterina Blinova
On 11 May, President Joe Biden announced that the US and its allies are planning to ship over 20 million tonnes of grain out of Ukraine to tackle the global food crisis. However, Biden’s policy could cause a famine in Ukraine, according to Russian Federation State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin.
Since the beginning of the Russian special operation, the US and its NATO allies have stepped up lethal arms deliveries to Ukraine, with the Biden administration vowing to bleed Russia white.
In exchange for foreign weapons and ammo, the Ukrainian authorities have increased exports of grain, corn, oil crops and farm animals from the country on a daily basis by road and rail, even though Ukrainians are facing shortage of foodstuffs and a lack of crops for the spring sowing campaign in many of Ukraine’s regions, as Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Centre, told reporters on 30 April.
“The US is essentially recolonising Ukraine to get a financial return from its arms investment in the country, which produces much of the world’s exports in wheat and grain (which the gold half of its bicolour flag symbolizes), all while instigating and dragging out needless death and destruction,” says US independent journalist and geopolitical analyst Max Parry.
According to the journalist, Biden’s new lend-lease agreement aimed at streamlining weapons to Kiev not only unnecessarily prolongs a proxy war where NATO is using Ukrainians as cannon fodder, but economically shackles Kiev in debt slavery to the West for many years to come while the US depletes it of its resources, including grain and rare earth minerals.
Meanwhile, on 27 April, the European Union announced that it was planning to suspend all tariffs and quotas on Ukrainian exports coming into the bloc for one year thus further encouraging Ukrainian food exports.
Joe Biden’s latest call for shipping out a whopping 20 million tonnes of grain from Ukraine may lead to a hunger inside Ukraine, warned Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Volodin in a Wednesday Telegram post.
“Ukrainians need their grain reserves to live until the new harvest,” wrote Volodin. “Washington does not believe in the victory of Kiev. They think about how to get a return on their money as soon as possible, arranging a ‘holodomor’ in Ukraine.”
“Holodomor” (“death by hunger”) is a term used by Ukrainian and Western historians, including Robert Conquest and Timothy Snyder, to argue that a 1933 famine in Ukraine was man-made and artificial. Other Western historians, including Mark B. Tauger, conclude that the 1933 famine, which engulfed a considerable part of the USSR at that time, had natural causes, adding that there is no evidence that the Kremlin deliberately starved the Soviet people.
The Holodomor narrative has long been used by Ukrainian nationalists and Western authors such as Snyder to vilify the USSR and later Russia, according to Parry. He forecasts that while creating the conditions for a genuine “holodomor” in Ukraine by sucking its food reserves dry, the US and EU will try to shift the blame to Moscow for food shortages in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.
“[As the US] is deliberately extending the conflict, Ukraine will not be able to produce as much wheat which will have enormous consequences for the global wheat market,” says Parry. “While it is true Kiev’s grain exports go mostly to North Africa and the Middle East, it will cause the price of wheat to soar internationally. The lowering of the wheat supply from one its chief sources will drive its price up everywhere, including in the US.”
‘American Holodomor’
Meanwhile, American conservative observers have raised the alarm over Joe Biden’s military spending spree. American journalist and Human Events Daily host Jack Posobiec slammed the US president for historic $40 billion commitment for Ukraine.
“We can’t feed our children, we can’t prevent foreign incursion in our own land, and yet $40 billion for a war that’s 5,000 miles away that has nothing to do with the United States of America,” Posobiec said on 12 May.
According to Parry, many have noted “the callous hypocrisy of the Biden administration to continue to send billions in aid to Ukraine as food scarcity is on the rise here in the US with worsening rates of inflation not seen since the 1970s”.
“If this continues there could very well be an ‘American Holodomor’, so to speak, here domestically,” says the journalist. “Biden’s policies toward Russia and in Ukraine are going to result in surging food prices, rationing and greater food insecurity which only hurts lower and middle income families and the lower half of people in income distribution.”
On a global scale, the consequences of the West’s sweeping anti-Russian sanctions and closure of Western ports to Russian vessels, have already led to soaring food prices, according to Parry. Most of Russia’s economic sectors, including banking, logistics, trade and energy have been sanctioned by the West over Moscow’s special operation in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine together account for roughly 30% of global wheat exports and 20% of corn exports.
In mid-March, Moscow temporarily halted grain shipments, including the export of wheat, rye, barley and corn to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) until June 30 to protect its own supply amid the West’s sanctions spree. Grain is still allowed to be exported for humanitarian purposes and as part of international transit traffic.
Furthermore, Russia had been forced to reduce exports of grain by the end of January 2022 to stabilise the internal market amid the emerging post-COVID food crisis and global inflation, according to the Russian newspaper Izvestia. Nevertheless, between July 2021 and January 2022, Russia had exported 25 million tonnes of the commodity, according to the newspaper. For comparison’s sake, in the 2020/2021 season Russia exported a total of 34 million tonnes of grain.
Under these circumstances, Biden’s incentive to drag Moscow and Kiev into a continuous fight “to exhaust Russia” would inevitable backfire on the world, according to the American journalist.
“Rising costs of wheat for the third world could mean a ‘worldwide Holodomor’, all as a result of Biden’s disastrous policies,” says Parry. “The billions being sent to Ukraine could alleviate the financial hardships of Americans but lining the pockets of defense contractors is a bigger priority to the Biden administration, which could care less about the plight of ordinary people.”
US Conservative Intellectuals Against Escalation: “Not in My Name”
Meanwhile, a group of American intellectuals, including conservative pundits, political advisers, scholars, and pastors, who don’t buy into Biden’s “Putin prices hike” narrative, wrote an open letter entitled “Not in my name” to the US president. Apart from the unfolding food crisis, they are highly concerned about Biden’s escalation in Ukraine which, according to them, could lead not just to hunger but to an all-out nuclear disaster.
“At this dangerous moment in history, the US must exert its power to become a force for just peace, urging Russia and Ukraine to come to the negotiation table in order to agree on compromises that would enable and ensure peace in the region,” they wrote. “The US should not engage in a policy of intensification of conflict with Russia that could lead to the deaths of millions of innocent people. There are grave consequences of cumulative provocations.”
According to Parry, this letter is an interesting political phenomenon: while traditionally it was the Left who struggled for peace, now it’s Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rand Paul, rather than the Democrats, who are opposing US militarism.
“There has been a complete failure on the part of the so-called ‘progressives’ in Washington, including Bernie Sanders and ‘The Squad’, and the American left generally when it comes to Ukraine,” says the journalist. “Not only have they all fallen in line behind the anti-Russian narrative and foreign policy consensus, AOC and her cohorts collectively approved this latest aid package to Kiev, with no questions asked.”
At a time when the left should be leading the charge against fueling a proxy war which is driving up the price of goods and services and worsening the US economic downturn, the left has totally missed an opportunity to connect the dots between American foreign policy and economic inequality, according to Parry.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/05/ ... ole-world/
'red' added.
And so again we ask, "which side are they on?"