Much of what we have seen with respect to Putin was predictable shortly after the people of Ukraine rejected being forced back into Russia’s evil enduring embrace by going out to protest on late November 2013 in the Maidan (Independence Square) as the cold Siberian winds of winter descended on Kyiv. This people’s protest objected to their president Victor Yanukovych’s rejection of the European Union in favor of a stifling, suffocating, enslavement deal with Russia. They protested through the winter with hundreds of thousands standing in the cold demanding they not be put back under the embrace of a nation where protests like the one they were involved in were forbidden and all the media is controlled by one person.
The protest went on and on despite attempts by Yanokovych’s government to suppress it. Who can forget the huge numbers of young and old Ukranians standing and confronting the black helmeted forces of Yanukovich. The red helmets demonstrators pushing back against the government forces in black helmets. Yanokovych under the direction of Russia was told to go easy on the demonstrators and limit the violence.
This was because Russia was fearful it might interfere with its big show. You know what I’m talking about: the Putin Olympics in Sochi. I’ve written that you can go back through the history of the Olympics and you’ll find only one other that is associated with the leader of the country where the Olympics were being held: the Hitler Olympics. I noted there were similarities in the personalities of those men.
I also predicted that after the Olympics ended and Putin’s desire for glory was sated, when the cheering stopped, the Maidan protests would be suppressed. Shortly after Putin’s Olympics ended Putin turned his attention to Ukraine. It was then that Yanukovich started to get tough. He used snipers to murder almost one hundred of the protestors.
The hoped for response that the people would cower did not happen. The reverse did. The people rose up. The corrupt Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych fled the country settling down in Russia leaving behind his opulent estate.
Putin, having had the Ukrainian people reject becoming his serfs and having them drive out his puppet Yankovych, took revenge by invading and eventually annexing Crimea. He sent in his army but had them remove the insignias from their uniforms and equipment identifying them as Russian. The world played along with this charade. No one would come out and clearly state Putin had invaded Crimea.
After the illegal vote under the gun of disguised Russian troops it was reported the people voted to join Russia. Then Putin came out and admitted what everyone else was afraid of stating clearly. He said those people without identifying marks were Russian troops and the unmarked military vehicles were Russian.
The West did not respond to this other than with some minor sanctions on minor officials. Russia was kicked out of the G-8 making it a G-7. No one asked him why he disguised his forces. With the help of Germany things began to return to normal..
Putin in the meantime put his armed forces on the border of Eastern Ukraine preparing to invade it. He made a speech declaring it part of Old Russia. Then he backed off realizing that to invade outright would strip away all his cover. He decided to use the Crimean strategy.
He went ahead and infiltrated his troops into Ukraine dressed as civilians and posing of Ukrainian separatist. They overtook a couple of cities. As he expected the West pretended that the Russian forces in Ukraine were not Russian.
Putin expected the Russian speaking Ukrainians would rise up in rebellion against Ukraine. That didn’t happen. They too wanted no part of Russia.
He then realized that he would have to take over Eastern Ukraine by force. He started to send in more “volunteers” (Russian troops) and heavy equipment. As with Crimea, he knew the West would pretend that the fighting in Ukraine had nothing to do with Russia. His trickery worked well. Everyone talked of the Russian troops as Ukrainian seperatists.
Anyone who has read the child’s story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” knows exactly what is happening. There the emperor was conned by a couple of swindlers. They took his money and came back with what they said were the finest clothes money could buy. The emperor could not see anything in their hands but he did not want to admit it. They dressed him in these make-believe clothes and told him how wonderful he looked. He was buck naked but pretended he was dressed in finery. With that he got on his white horse and rode off to the town so all his subjects could admire his new outfit. The subjects oohed and aahed pretending he had clothes on. The emperor was quite pleased until a young kid yelled out: “why does the emperor have no clothes on?”
The West knowing of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine kept its silence. It was business as usual. Crimea was forgotten. Merkel strangely kept being buddy-buddy with Putin and has worked to minimize any sanctions on him.
Obama under immense pressure on Wednesday, July 16, 2014, hit Putin with some more sanctions. He assured us that they would cause no harm to the world’s economy. The invasion went on. Obama talks, Putin walks.
Then on Thursday, July 17, 2014, with the shooting down of Malaysian Airline MH17 it became apparent that the West has no clothes. Through its silence in allowing Putin to invade Ukraine on the sly it also must share the blame for the crash. Despite the strong evidence of Putin’s evil the West stands buck naked in its response.
It’s time the West recognized Putin is invading another sovereign country, that the timid sanctions won’t stop him, and only one thing will. He should be told that the World Cup in Russia in 2018 is out of the question and if it is not moved to another country (how could the Dutch every play in Russia?) it will be boycotted unless he immediately removes his forces from Ukraine. That is the only type of language he will understand.
However, it is one thing that happens between 2 terribly pretty
people.
Matt – congratulations – you have your very own Kremlinoid troll, albeit in a “kinder, gentler” variant
Of course, you are correct in your response.
On another note:
http://www.ocnus.net/artman2/publish/Analyses_12/Calm%20Before%20the%20Storm.shtml
Calm Before the Storm
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph 26/7/14
Jul 26, 2014 – 7:07:54 AM
Russia is battening down the hatches. The central bank was forced to raise interest rates this morning to 8pc to defend the rouble and stem capital flight, $75bn so far this year and clearly picking up again.
The strange calm on the Russian markets is starting to break as investors mull the awful possibility that Europe will impose sanctions after all, shutting Russian banks out of global finance.
Yields on 10-year rouble bonds jumped to 9.15pc, the highest since the emerging market “taper tantrum” last year. The cost of insuring against a Russian default through CDS contracts surged by 17 points to 225. The MICEX index of equities fell to a three-month low.
Lars Christensen from Danske Bank said the inflexion point will come if the EU does in fact impose “Tier III†measures aimed at crippling the Russian banking system, as now seems likely. “That is when the lights will turn off for the Russian market. We will see face capital flight of a whole different nature,†he said.
This moment of reckoning is suddenly drawing closer. The EU’s 28 ambassadors met for a second day this morning to grapple with draconian proposals put forward by the European Commission.
They appear to have reached broad agreement. A cell at the Commission will draw up the legal acts over the weekend.
There will be haggling over compensation for those on the front line when the package goes to foreign ministers for final ratification early next week. The sanctions may yet unravel. But the message from diplomats this morning was that even Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Hungary seem to be acquiescing, however reluctantly.
There is no longer a rift between Britain and Germany. The two powers are working in tandem, backed by the Dutch, Swedes, Danes, Poles and Baltic states. The French are not as dovish as might have been inferred from the debacle over Mistral warships sale to Russia, seen in Paris as a painful embarrassment.
Matt: my approach to Russia is different: I recommend not punitive measures and sanctions, but what the psychologists call “positive reinforcement.” I see the wonderful Russian students in Boston, the ballets (Bolshoi), the plays, the theater, the movies, the cultural leaps forward, although I recognize some political steps backward, by and large Russia is today what it has always been or at least always desired to be: A Modern European Nation.
Work with Russia to lessen tensions worldwide.
The age of I-Pads and Internet will assure open communications. In America, the liberals control the major media outlets and major newspapers, but their voice is marginalized with the voices of bloggers, independendent radio and t.v. and cable shows.
Same will be true in Russia, provided NATO does not continue to be Napoleonic and the Neo-Con War Mongars like John McCain are kept at bay.
(2) William Connolly’s new book: CHARACTER ASSASSINS II, WHO WILL LIVE IN INFAMY? is slated for publication by the end of September 2014. The subheading is startling and eye-catching: essential the book’s cover includes the names of James Bulger, Bill Bulger, Howard Carr, JOhn Connolly, Allen Dershowitz, (but not Major Dreyfus) but also Doctor Samuel Mudd , H. Paul Rico, and Federal Prosecutor Fred the Fed Wyshak. The book asks who are the character assassins and who will live in infamy? The answers, fully documented, thoroughly researched, meticulously recreated, with a cast of characters approaching thousands, will surprise many.