Saturday, March 1, 2014

Ukraine - The Full Scoop

Via Freedom Outpost

  ukraine
 Hi Mish,

The last Ukrainian government was awful, but as someone who speaks the language and has been reading the local news for hours each day, I want you to know there are two sides to this story.

The Western media is not reporting accurately and in a balanced way as to what’s going on in Ukraine, both in the run-up to the fall of the regime, and now, in the aftermath.

There is a “reign of terror” in Kiev and some other areas right now.

Offices and even private homes associated with the former ruling party and its communist allies have been ransacked or burned by militias even though Yanukovich’s mansion has been left alone.

An independent member of parliament who critiqued certain positions of the main nationalist party was assaulted and had to go to hospital with a concussion.  Also, some public officials in the central/western regions have been detained and beaten-up.

Other pro-Russia citizens have been rounded up and taken away by militias, with no warrant.  We have no idea if, how, or where they are being held.

The ultra-nationalist umbrella groups that direct the militias have just announced they will essentially take charge of Central Elections Commission HQ and monitor its work during the upcoming national vote.  How fair will the vote be?

Riot police returning to their bases in western Ukraine were forced to attend public assemblies in which they had to get on their knees and beg forgiveness (whether or not they were involved in any abuses.) Some have already fled their homes and are living as refugees.

Also, one of parliament’s very first post-revolution decisions was to revoke the right of local governments to do business in non-Ukrainian languages, such as Russian. Another law has been proposed to effectively ban the broadcast or rebroadcast of television or radio from Russia.  There are still other proposed bills aimed at provoking and oppressing the Russian or Russian-speaking population.

Lastly, while the new legal authorities are investigating the killing of around 70 protestors, no one is looking into the deaths of at least 13 policemen (at least 10 from gunshot wounds) or several ruling party workers who were killed in an attack on their office.

It’s much easier to pretend this is about democracy, human rights, the peoples’ choice, etc. while looking the other way now that “our guys” have won. We have seen this movie before. And I fear it will only get worse from here.

Yes, the former government led by President Viktor Yanukovych was corrupt. But the leading opposition figure, who was just released from jail was named by U.S. Federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in the massive corruption schemes of a former Ukrainian prime minister who served time in U.S. Federal prison for money laundering and other charges after having made off with what is believed to be hundreds of millions of dollars, much of it not yet recovered.

Feel free to use my name. I put in my time in uniform, and I’m not afraid that some pro-war, pro-intervention chickenhawks might call me a traitor for supporting the “wrong” side. I have earned my right to say whatever I want.

All the best,

Jacob Dreizin

8 comments:

  1. If we were to take a time machine back a bit to say post WW1, we would see that the reason part of the Ukraine that is "Russian" is not an accident. The Communists in the Soviet Union wanted to secure the bread basket region and removed millions of the natives to places like Siberia. The lands were then "resettled" by, wait for it...Russians. I have relatives who left Ukraine to escape and went to Canada and then married into my family during WWII.
    Rick

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  2. Civil Wars are always the worst. There are two sides to every story. It places our country in an unenviable position. Will Europe get us in another one of their conflicts?

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    1. They have little in common, so let them separate.

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  3. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/UkraineNativeLanguagesCensus2001detailed.PNG

    The red areas are predominately Russian speaking in Ukraine, the blue areas speak Ukrainian. I do wish internet reposters would get their facts straight. Disinformation is a real burden when trying to make informed decisions.

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  4. what red area? I see yellow and blue!

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    1. That is from Anonymous' link. Actually on WIKI, there are different maps polled differently.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language_in_Ukraine

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