Dear Readers:
One year into the war: This piece by war correspondent Dmitry Steshin is a powerful reminder, how this conflict started, and why Russians must continue to fight. Their existence as a people is at stake.
A Carnival Of Hatred
Steshin: This Ukrainian “Revolution of Dignity”, how it was all going to end, it was all pretty clear from the very beginning. That old Ukrainian slogan “Moscovites to the knife!” («Москалей на ножи!») has been around for a long time. Sometimes concealing aggression under the guise of ethnic humor. Like the old joke: “Mikola, shall we go off to cut open some Moscovites?” “But what if they try to kill us back?” “Us? Why would anyone want to kill us?”
And so on….
One needs to remember that old Jewish proverb: “When somebody promises to kill you, even if they are joking, sooner or later they will kill you for real.”
It all started in November-December of 2013, like a merry carnival. The heart of the rebellion was a well-constructed sound-stage with good, concert-quality acoustics. People on the stage would start songs, which were quickly taken up by the crowd. People danced and sang. It all seemed innocent, and many were taken in by the carnival nature of it.
A key task at the time was to attract even the ethnic Russians of the Kiev area, who comprised the majority of those milling around on the square. It was important to not rip off the mask too soon. Don’t reveal your bestial Banderite grille before these people were ready, and conditioned, to see it.
yalensis: In modern terms, we might say that these plotters had finely calibrated their opening of the Overton Window. Just the right amount, each day. Luring people into the trap, without scaring them away too soon. I have to say, though, that people like myself, even from a distance, knew instantly what was going on, and I can prove it with receipts. And I am not even that bright, but I could see it all with crystal clarity. However, this wasn’t about me. Like Steshin says, it was about luring the Russian-speakers of Kiev, many of them poorly informed and poorly educated, into an alliance with the old Galician Banderovshchina. A West-Center alliance which spread like a cancer and successfully Nazified the central heart of the nation. This infestation of ideological lice spread everywhere except the Donbass., where people were mostly innoculated against it. But even there, it made some inroads.
Nuland’s Cookies Plus Torture Chambers
Steshin: The Banderovshchina started showing its true, violent face on the Maidan towards the end of January 2014. The Ukrainian government was still standing firm. The Banderites started beating up Russian correspondents. A group of reporters from a certain Russian Federal channel spent an unforgettable night in the cellar of the Trade Unions building, after they had been abducted by Banderites. They were tortured with electric shock, doused with tear gas, and just beaten up. How did our consulate react to this incident? They decided “not to air our dirty laundry” to the public. But the people on the Maidan interpreted this in their own way: They got away with it. Everything was permitted.
At one point I started to encounter, in the center of Kiev, people who had suddenly forgotten how to speak Russian. They had not learned Ukrainian yet, nor did they speak English; so it was quite difficult to communicate with them.
Then our KP correspondents were suddenly refused entry into the hotel where we were staying, on the grounds that we were “Moscovites”. We disguised ourselves by donning Maidan ribbons and trinkets, which one could buy at any street corner; and then we started speaking less and listening more. But people were still trying to catch us, we would get strange messages on our social media, people trying to set up a rendezvous.
Meanwhile, the Maidan sound-stage was starting to fill up with enraged “Westerners”, these very old Nazis were bussed in from Galicia. During the next stage, the Europeans gave their blessing to the coup, that’s when Nuland appeared in the square handing out cookies and reassuring the masses, “The West is with you.”
Only one thing remained now: A blood-letting was needed.
[to be continued]
Awful Avalanche 
Sitting in Canada at the time, observing what like many a colour revolution began so harmlessly, I was not astonished when the news trickled out on CBC that an almost equal amount of both police and demonstrators had been shot suddenly.
And that after wisely, stalling the violence as long as possible, Yanukovich had not permitted the Berkut and police forces to act withy force against protestors, who at that time had progressed to provoke the government forces by throwing Molotov cocktails.
It did not work, as by that time it was clear that to argue against the violence, that was supported by the USA with several billion and involved hired gunmen firing from high points, with nonviolence, was futile.
And so began what is now a full-blown war, and damn all those who still can maintain that Russia is at fault.
Its fault was mainly to NOT incorporate the Donbas and Lugansk areas back into the motherland after the rather hasty referendum. But then to interfere in the destruction of the by that time encircled Ukrainian army, that was on the verge of being liminated by the militias, was an alomost unforgiveable sin by Putin; to keep trusting those who by that time already should have lost the trust of any decent human being.
Were there reasons to fear NATO? I rather think not. Russia could have successfully warned off any interference by NATO. It is one thing to fight some little brown people somewhere far off than an insurgent army just successfully having destroyed the Ukrainian army. Not only having to replace this destroyed army completely, but also having to take into consideration the almost certain help by Russia, would have dissuaded NATO to get involved.
One has to consider the feeling in Europe at the time, to have had the EU’s plans of a peaceful resolution, agreed upon with Yanukovich, then thwarted by Nuland.
Instead, Russia’s still at the time rather naive President Putin clung to the belief in a “partnership” with a country that had been for years on a worldwide romp to invade, destroy, regime change, murder, occupy, steal and create mayhem in any country that would not follow its dictate..or rules-based order, a turn that luckily now just leads to expressions of derision in those nations ever having been on the receiving end of US actions.
Not disturbed in its violence by any ethical considerations, or considering the consequences, the US and now NATO with most of its members resemble more a teenage gang on a rampage, instead of responsible citizens and real leaders of the world.
LikeLike
I agree. Taking everything into account, that we know in hindsight, it was a horrible mistake for Russia to NOT incorporate the Donbass in 2014-2015. The Ukrainian army was still weak at that time, but then they had 8 years to build themselves up to a mighty force, under cover of the Minsk accords.
The people of the Donbass did not deserve to be abandoned like that.
LikeLike
It would have needed Putin to send in 2 battalions of Spetsnaz in 2014.
The stupidest and most persistent idea plugged by those trying to excuse Putin’s failure to act in 2014 is the idea that Russia would have faced a 2022 Ukranazistan military. It would have faced some armed nazi rabble and even according to NATO the Ukrainian military was down to 6000.
Did Putin really believe, after NATO expansion, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the criminal deceit of the bombing of Libya, the destruction of Serbia, the instigation of Georgia to attack South Ossetia, that it was possible to have a peaceful settlement with a NATO project? If he did he is unfit for his position.
LikeLike
One must never forget that Putin formally recognized the criminal Maidan coup as the legitimate government of Ukraine! Still trying to play along…
It seems almost unbelievable, but yes, I think Putin still believed, even after Iraq and Syria, that he could work with the West. And he believed that Merkel was his friend, and that he could have a normal mercantile relationship with Germany, despite its role as an American vassal state.
Such is the self-delusion of the Russian bourgeoisie.
It’s not just Putin, though. The Chinese also have been reluctant to swallow the red pill, although they recently did just that, thank goodness.
If you punch a person in the nose 100 times, eventually they realize, “Hey, this person wants to hurt me!”
Even then, seems like everybody wants to just go on mellowing out in the Matrix, dreaming their happy dreams, while the monsters eat you alive.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I have repeatedly asked the Putin cult to explain the recognition. I have never received an answer.
LikeLike
“It was all part of his cunning plan…”
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am openly pro Russia and anti Putin; unlike masses of bloviating sewer gas like the Faker and Martyanov, I think Putin’s failure to stop the Maidan coup in 2014, or at least to crush the nazis immediately afterwards, was an unforgivable blunder and nothing can ever make up for it. I too could see exactly what was going on, and that while I was concentrating on the Syrian conflict. Putin either was so obsessed with the Sochi Olympics that he forgot about the rest of the world, or else he was so appallingly ill advised that he imagined Russia could buy off the Ukranazi oligarchs in an auction against Obama, and nothing would change.
LikeLike
I’m with you on this one, Raghead. In that crisis, which started in 2014, Russia needed a Peter the Great, and it got another Nicholas II instead.
LikeLike
I’ve come across this criticism of Putin before, but have also read replies that maintain the Russian military was not in a particularly strong condition to contemplate the risks of a potential full-scale war with the US/Nato at that time — think of all the unknown and uncertain variables that the Russian leadership confronted in 2014. By 2022, the Russian military had been considerably strengthened, and America’s debacle in Afghanistan was plain to see, as were its deepening internal divisions. Am I missing something that needs noting to clarify the actual situation in 2014?
LikeLike
It’s true that the Russian military had been under-funded for years and even decades. From what I understand, the Russian General Staff focused on air-defenses (which is a good thing) and building “wonder-weapons”, while neglecting more basic things like infantry. Not to mention the navy, which, as I understand, is not in very good shape either right now.
LikeLike
Thanks for clarifying! I think navies everywhere are going to have trouble in the new tech environment, and ground forces as well with the dramatic rise in the effectiveness of relatively low cost drones.
LikeLike
Very true! The whole drone thing took all the militaries by surprise, and now everyone is scrambling to keep up. Chinese, Iranians, Russians. They have to stay current with the latest technology. Like a shark: Keep moving forward, or die!
LikeLike
That wretched fat neo-con wench Victoria Nuland passing out cookies to the demonstrators says it all. She knew exactly what was coming to pass with the putsch and installation of Yatsenyuk who let loose the Bandaras against those who demonstrated against the putsch. I don’t think this American-instigated global conflict will ever end until the hated neo-cons are all removed from public office, disgraced and hopefully jailed.
LikeLike
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. The American neo-cons will stay in power for probably the next century.
It is up to the rest of the world to stand up to their violence and provocations.
The key task is just to make sure, that everybody knows exactly what is going on.
LikeLike
Neocons still in power by the year 2123!? That’s an incredibly pessimistic outlook. Nothing is as uncertain as what the future holds for anybody, or anything. Especially given the increasing speed of change globally, even predicting what the geopolitical situation will be in 10 years is anybody’s guess. If de-dollarization continues apace in Asia, Saudi Arabia and the global south, along with China and Russia implementing alternatives to SWIFT global payments, the USA will no longer be able to fund its forever wars on the back of the petro-dollar. There is hope that a better world is coming 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks, deschutesmaple! I needed somebody to buck me up, out of my pessimistic funk!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Same shit during the run-up to the 2020 elections, the 3LAs-[ie Security-State] needed a US President that was a willing tool, somebody to light the carefully placed tinder in Ukrainia. Biden was a poor choice but, clearly, the most useful on the 3LA-approved list of tools.
Cue the once every four-year BLM movement, Cue the “summer of love” riots. Cue a US funded plague. Biden gets elected and suddenly civil protests, where the violence is orchestrated by federal agents/assets becomes…sedition. The whiplash was so quick that media script -readers had trouble reading their line without a smirk.
3LA’s overthrow methodology practiced worldwide is now openly practiced in the USA…attacking every aspect of the United States Constitutional government. These domestic enemies of the US Constitution are also the primary enemies of Russia in Ukrainia and as we saw in 2000-2023, anybody not signing on to their usurpation of the US Constitution is an “enemy of the state”.
LikeLike
That’s a very good point, about Color Revolution technology being used in the U.S. itself. That in itself crossed a certain line, because the U.S. used to have a sort of “Chinese wall” set up between the foreign and domestic technologies. But now the ruling class just egregiously foments stuff and even rigs their own elections, as happened with Biden. (Twice!)
Once America had evolved into a full-fledged oligarchy, then all the barriers went down. There is certain to be a Revolution at some point. I suspect it will resemble more the French than the Russian Revolution, when it does finally happen.
LikeLike