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Crimea,
Georgia and the New Olympic Sport - Russia Bashing
By Felicity
Arbuthnot
“In every age it has been the
tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who
has wrapped himself in the cloak of
patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive
and overawe the People.” (Eugene
Victor Debs, 1855-1926.)
August 26,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Global
Research"
- Oh dear, as the fantasy of Vladimir Putin as “Vlad
the Terrible” ratchets up in the US-UK-NATO driven
new Cold War, the Independent runs a piece headed:
“What lies behind the new Russian threat to
Ukraine”, (1) the sub-heading is:
“Vladimir Putin, his opponents repeatedly point
out, has form on this. The war between Russia
and Georgia took place in 2008 at the time of
the Beijing Olympics”
Trying to
find the “Russian threat to the Ukraine” is, as
ever, a hard task. It was of course the US which
organized the February 2014 coup which replaced the
legitimate government and reduced yet another
country to chaos. Russia however also appears the
victim in a recent incident which triggered the
Independent article which Katehon (2) describes with
admirably clarity:
“A
Ukrainian group of saboteurs was arrested last
week (10th August) by Russia’s secret
service, the FSB. It was revealed that the
Ukrainians had intended to organize terrorist
attacks in Russian Crimea. During the arrest,
two Russian citizens from the Federal Security
Service and military of the Armed Forces were
killed. This tragic incident has provoked
tensions between Ukraine and Russia. The
Ukrainian regime has begun to move its troops
towards the border with Russia and the republics
of Donbass, preparing for an invasion.”
Thus
Ukrainian forces are thus encroaching on Russia, not
the other way round. Moreover, according to The
Telegraph (10th August): “Russian
security agencies said on Wednesday that two
Russians were killed as they thwarted
Ukrainian commando raids into Crimea over the
weekend.” (Emphasis added.) The paper
expands:
“The
FSB said the agent who died was killed during an
overnight operation on Saturday and Sunday, when
officers smashed a ‘terrorist’ group and seized
an arms cache including twenty homemade
explosive devices. The Agency claimed Ukrainian
forces tried to ‘break through’ twice more on
Sunday night and Monday morning, killing a
Russian soldier.”
Katehon
further comments:
“Obviously, this hostile activity is coordinated
with the United States and NATO, which want to
unleash a new war on the border with Russia. At
the same time, the US leadership believes that
Russia will not inflict a crushing defeat on
Ukraine and thereby objectively lower its status
in the geopolitical confrontation by trying to
solve an insolvable conflict. At the same time,
the United States wants to show ‘Russia’s
aggressiveness’ to Europe.”
Faithfully
toeing the West’s misteaching mantra, the
Independent article dropped in: “Crimea has not
experienced serious military action since it was
annexed from Ukraine by the Kremlin in the chaotic
aftermath of the Maidan protests.”
Crimea of
course, was not “annexed” by a marauding Russia as
is implicated.
Only two
years ago the paper wrote (3) of the referendum 16th March
2014 ( held in Crimea – arranged by Crimea, not
Russia – in which over 95% of voters made their
feelings clear over the US engineered coup:
“Fireworks exploded and Russian flags fluttered
above jubilant crowds on Sunday after residents
in Crimea voted overwhelmingly to secede from
Ukraine and join Russia … after the polls closed
late on Sunday, crowds of ethnic Russians in the
regional Crimean capital of Simferopol erupted
with jubilant chants in the main square,
overjoyed at the prospect of once again becoming
part of Russia.” The referendum was monitored by
135 international observers from 23 countries.*
Russia thus
had not aggressively “annexed” Crimea, the people
had voted to secede. Definition of referendum: “A
general vote by the electorate on a single political
question which has been referred to them for a
direct decision.” (Oxford Dictionary.) At the time
of the referendum Russia anyway had a lease on
Crimea until 2042 under the Kharkiv Pact.
On the day
of the referendum the White House released a
statement ending, apparently without irony:
“In
this century, we are long past the days when the
international community will stand quietly by
while one country forcibly seizes the territory
of another. We call on all members of the
international community to continue to condemn
such actions, to take concrete steps to impose
costs, and to stand together …” Breathtaking.
This from a
country that has, since the end of World War 11,
“forcibly seized”, invaded, interfered in or
decimated thirty three countries to 2011 (4) – not
counting Syria and Ukraine subsequently.
As for:
“The
war between Russia and Georgia took place in
2008 at the time of the Beijing Olympics”, in
the Independent’s epic bit of Russia bashing:
“Leaked
State Department documents provide further
evidence that United States authorities knew
that the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia, a key
ally of Washington in the Caucasus region,
initiated the August 2008 war with Russia.
“Cables
from US diplomats in the Georgian capital,
Tbilisi, were released through the whistleblower
website WikiLeaks. They show that Washington was
well aware that the Georgian government was
intensifying its military build-up near the
breakaway province of South Ossetia in the weeks
before the outbreak of full-scale hostilities.”
(5)
Further:
“A
cable records that US embassy observers
witnessed 30 government buses ‘carrying
uniformed men heading north’ towards South
Ossetia the day of the Georgian attack.
“The
Georgian assault on South Ossetia, launched
August 7, involved the shelling of the main city
of Tskhinvali followed by a ground invasion by
1,500 troops. The operation destroyed hundreds
of civilian properties and claimed the lives of
an estimated 160 South Ossetians and 48 Russian
military personnel.
“Despite this knowledge of Georgian military
preparations, once the war began, US ambassador
John Tefft simply relayed the claims of Georgian
President Mikhail Saakashvili that Russia was
the aggressor.”
The pretext
for the attack was US ally Georgia’s allegation of
an imminent Russian attack.
The
subsequent investigation into the invasion and
destruction, held under Swiss diplomat Heidi
Tagliavini, found that: “None of the explanations
given by the Georgian authorities in order to
provide some form of legal justification for the
attack”, were valid.
“In
particular, there was no massive Russian military
invasion under way, which had to be stopped by
Georgian military forces,” Tagliavini confirmed.
“There is
the question of whether the force by Georgia during
the night of 7/8 August was justifiable under
international law. It was not …”, the investigators
found.
It was:
“The
shelling of Tskhinvali by the Georgian armed
forces during the night of 7 to 8 August 2008”
which “marked the beginning of the large-scale
armed conflict in Georgia”, the Report stated.
Thus Georgia’s belligerence triggered Russia’s
response in defence of an allied country,
Russia’s own military personnel and Russia’s
three military bases there.
The
parallels between the Georgia and Crimea
disinformation are stark, whether orchestrated by
political Western Cold Warriors, or media ones.
Russian
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov has said
relating to the Crimea insurgents:
“We
really don’t conceal what is known, we show
people who were detained, stores with weapons
and munitions, which were detected in the
Crimea. Of course we cannot show everything on
TV, but we have irrefutable evidence that it was
sabotage, which had been masterminded by the
main directorate of intelligence of the
Ukrainian Defence Ministry and aimed to
destabilize the Russian Crimea.” (6)
He added:
“Russia
is open for provision of additional facts … to
our Western partners, who are seriously
interested in avoidance (of a repeat) of what
happened in the future. For that to happen, one
should influence Kiev”, he added pointedly.
So why the
Independent’s strange interpretation of above events
and creating a fantasy of Russia planning an Olympic
timed war? Heaven forbid it would be anything to do
with their owner, Russian billionaire and former KGB
agent (7) Alexander Lebedev, who bought the ailing
newspaper for just a £1 in March 2010, pledging
major financial backing.
The
Independent, built a name on foreign policy
expertise, but this year has been forced to shut
down the main daily print version and the
Independent on Sunday. Whilst the Independent is
still on line, the only hard copy in it’s stable is
the good, but more limited daily “I.”
Billionaire
backers are rare in these straightened times. Mr
Lebedev is a Putin critic. The cynic might say there
could be a connection given the slant of the Crimea
story. However with titles Alexander Lebedev has
backed (8) at home and abroad, he has always vowed
never to interfere with editorial policy, so many
would surely regard such thoughts as conspiratorial
rubbish.
Notes
1. http://www.independent.co.uk/
voices/the-rio-olympics-are-a-
distraction-russia-is- positioning-itself-for-
further-action-against- ukraine-a7186736.html
2. http://katehon.com/agenda/
europe-worried-prospect-war
3. http://www.independent.co.uk/
news/world/europe/crimea-
referendum-how-why-and-where-
next-for-soon-to-be-divided- ukraine-9195310.html
4. http://www.globalresearch.ca/
list-of-countries-the-usa-has-
bombed-since-the-end-of-world- war-ii/24626
5. https://www.wsws.org/en/
articles/2010/12/geor-d06.html
6. http://www.pravdareport.com/
video/16-08-2016/135337- crimea-0/
7. https://www.theguardian.com/
media/2010/mar/05/lebedev-
buys-independent-newspapers
8. http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/content/article/2006/
06/07/AR2006060701166_pf.html |
