After losing 20% of Ukraine w/1.5 million casualties she absconded to a Columbia University sinecure & a National Endowment for Democracy Board of Directors’ Chair
There is no evidence for Russian troops "annexing" Crimea. According to Jacques Baud, a Swiss intelligence analyst working with the Ukrainian army on behalf of Nato in 2014, 20,000 of the 22,000 troops of the Ukrainian territorial army based in Crimea joined the separatist movement to police the territory in the period up to the referendum. They removed the insignia from their uniforms, which led to Western claims that Russian troops (the "little green men") had occupied Crimea. In reality, they were Ukrainian troops who had changed sides. The remaining 2,000 Ukrainian troops were allowed to return to Ukraine without their weapons. 20,000 troops are more than enough to police a territory the size of Crimea. There was no need for additional Russian troops.
Interesting, did not know that. Russia, of course, views it as a reunification of lands that had been Russian since 1783, claiming sovereignty over Crimea based on the referendum.
Considering history, the right to self-determination and the ethnic hatred of Ukrainian nationalists who want to "detoxify Crimea" (ie. ethnic cleansing and/or genociding ethnic Russians), Crimea must be Russian. These are just the objective historical facts that cannot be undone.
Notwithstanding, the West has created a powerful narrative of the illegal annexation of Crimea to serve as pretext for waging a proxy war against Russia. The West doesn't care about Ukraine, the West doesn't care about Crimea, the West cares about consolidating its global hegemony by eliminating Russia as a strategic rival in order to make war on China.
Ukraine and Europe have to be sacrificed to prop up a failing US empire for a little longer.
I believe that Trump wants to end the Ukraine war because he knows that the war cannot be won and because he doesn't want to own a US defeat in Ukraine.
Trump doesn't mind throwing Ukraine (and Europe) under the bus, but it's not sure that he can find an accommodation with Russia. The Russians won't make significant concessions because they are winning and the generals want a military solution because they don't trust any deal with the West.
Ultimately, it’s Putin's decision. Putin needs a peace deal because he doesn't want to go all the way to the Polish border and conquer Galicia. Putin also wants a European security architecture to secure Russia's Western border against Nato. I doubt, however, that team Trump has the technical competence to enter into extremely intricate negotiations about arms control, which have become infinitely more complex since the US cancelled most arms control treaties in the last 2 decades.
The Americans also want geopolitical accommodations. I don't believe that Russia will sacrifice its relationship with China or Iran to satisfy Trump, but maybe the Russians agree not to interfere in the larger ME and promise not to establish a Brics currency to compete with the dollar (which they have anyways no intention of doing).
I think the US Deep State always intended to make Europe fight the war against Russia, while concentrating US forces in the Pacific.
Since European leaders have become so engaged in the war, they have to continue if they don't want to lose face. Thus, the US can withdraw without further prodding the Europeans.
Ukraine lost the war before it even started. Sooner or later, the front will collapse - perhaps in the summer - then it's game over for Ukraine. It don't see France or GB deploying troops to Ukraine.
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the one who annexed Krim to the Ukraine. In the 1950s without any vote of the people. Then, after the Nuland inspired overthrow of a democratic government in Kiev, the people who actually LIVE in the Crimea got a chance to vote… and they voted overwhelmingly to return to mother Russia.
It is USA that pushes the “Putin annexed Crimea” meme… need to educate on this.
This isn't correct. The Russian Black Sea Fleet has been there the entire time...since reconquering it from the Nazis in WW2. There was at least 30,000 Russian troops there before the 2014 coup. It was usually about 20,000 but Russia understood what was about to happen so they were already bringing in more troops. Russia had a lease on Sevastopol until 2042 (with a promise to renew indefinitely). It was also agreed upon not to let Crimea be settled by Western Ukrainians. There are a lot of retired Russian military families that have settled in Crimea over the decades. The Russian and Ukrainian militaries did joint exercises until the coup. The coup ended that and many in the Ukrainian military did move over and join the Russian military but Russia already was the real power in Crimea. This isn't acknowledged in the West at all. Well Mearsheimer's video that has 29 million views actually brings up the divide and goes a bit into the actual demographic problems the Necons like Nuland decided didn't matter. That they can just steamroll everyone and force compliance. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4
Ukraine signed a contract for leasing Sevastopol to the Russian black sea fleet, which included the right to station about 24,000 Russian marines in Crimea. At the time of the Maidan coup, there were probably less than 20,000 Russian marines. Under the terms of the contract, the Russians had the right to post military check points at the airport and at certain strategic points on Crimea in times of trouble (such as the aftermath of the Maidan coup) in order to assure the unhindered communication between the fleet and Russia.
However, the "little green men" were soldiers of the Ukrainian territorial army who joined the Crimean independence movement. Only 2,000 of the 22,000 Ukrainian soldiers returned to Ukraine. There is a video which shows them leaving their base without their weapons. The uniforms of the Ukrainian territorial army used to be greenish, while the Russian marines have more bluish uniforms. The Ukrainian soldiers simply removed the insignia from their greenish uniforms. That's were the "little green men" narrative comes from.
The West has used the alleged annexation of Crimea as a pretext for waging a proxy war against Russia.
Jacques Baud has published 3 books in French about the conflict since the beginning of the SMO (I think the first may have been translated into English):
There are also dozens of Youtube videos and articles on the web, which give the essential of his message. Most videos and articles are in French or German.
In my archives, I can find the following in English:
Off the cuff, I can't remember in which document you find the precise information you are looking for. If you understand French or German I can also link some recent videos with interviews in which he goes into great detail.
He is crystal clear in this and in interviews that NATO intelligence knew most of the support for separatists opposed to the Maidan coup came directly from defecting Ukrainian military who took equipment with them. Russia was not involved.
Thank you for all your references! Regarding the long years of struggle by Crimeans for Crimean sovereignty that prove that Crimea wasn't "annexed" by Russia, please see:
No, the "little green men" were not Ikrainians who re-badged and switched sides. The uniforms and equipment were Russian, quite distinct from Ukrainian uniforms which are a pixelated brownish pattern. They were a mix of Wagner mercenaries and Spetsnaz troops.
PS: I'm not saying that there weren't any Spetsnaz at all. The point is that the 22,000 Ukrainian troops on Crimea could have easily repelled a few thousand Spetsnaz if they had wanted to. The fact that they didn't offer any resistance shows that most of them joined the separatists.
Therefore, it is irrelevant whether the "little green men" you saw on TV were Russians from Crimea or Russians from Rostov on Don. The overwhelming majority of Crimeans - civilians and military - joined the separatists.
Russia had a lease on Sevastopol until 2042 and a promise to renew indefinetely. Russia and Ukraine had joint military exercises until the coup. Because of the unrest Russia had increased its military personnel at Sevastopol to around 30k from 20k at the time of the coup. Many Ukrainian military personnel... particularly those working with Russia in Sevastopol joined the Russian armed forces after the coup.
We automatically associate the CIA and the intelligence community with evil doings; however, people like Jacques Baud are intelligence annalists. They analyze information so that government can make decisions on an informed basis. That is an important task. It trains people to analyze information in order the separate the true from the false. That government sometimes ignore the advise of the intelligence community in order to pursue a political agenda is a different matter.
Many critics of Western governments are in fact former intelligence analysts. Apart from Jacques Baud, Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson and other come to mind.
Very hard to accurately put all this together in one coherent article… well done, well said, and should be required reading by everyone in the west. Nuland proves the USA has not a single diplomat… only a war party mentality. It sees no (and seeks no) peaceful solution — just destruction of perceived (and wholly manufactured enemies). What has Russia done to America? Nothing… what has America done to Russia? Sought to destroy it; economically, reputationaly, and militarily. And what benefit does average American receive? Extreme risk. A few in the military assets arena make absurd profits from this; but at huge costs to the rest of us.
Hey Biden; hire an actual diplomat or two (if there are any left to hire) — before we are all wiped out by your madness!
Well said as well! It’s a living document so will be updating & improving. Unfortunately, as Alexander Mercouris of The Duran said “the neocons have no reverse gear,” so it’s only going to get worse.
No doubt - these people are like cockroaches - you step on one and there's 2 others waiting to take its place.
I like what Smedley Butler said about war (although it'll never happen) - if a war breaks out make everyone take the same pay as the soldiers fighting it - the war would stop before the next sunset.
ER I’d love to see this get a wide audience and help accelerate pushback against The Narrative. I’d share with my Twitter followers but I’m reasonably certain all 3 are bots.
We need to turn shadows into light. We must make Victoria Nuland infamous, a warning against the next unelected warmonger who thinks that human are McDonald toys.
I mentioned her when writing an article on NATO's history. If we all do, she becomes a household name. I don't want her to grow old in government like Kissinger.
It would seem that the dispossessed of the US found a voice in "Rich Men North of Richmond"; people understand that their views don't matter to the rich and powerful. Yet the neocon-neoliberal orthodoxy presses onwards with failure. Out of all these events it's clear that the Russian Federation is better led and that the SMO is broadly supported. In Russia they have, Я РУССКИЙ.
despite my critical comment, I still appreciate your blog deeply, and agree with others that this issue puts all the history on the table in an accessible manner. Dont stop. Also glad to see you follow the Duran, and Mercouris. Hope you check in with Naked Capitalism which has been a long-time supporter of the dissident view and shows thru its comments stream the wide and deep support for the anti- neocon project, and its desperate US attempt to turn the tide of history in its favour again using force, and finance - the favoured American strategy.
glad to see the correction here to the incorrect meme that "Russia annexed Crimea" ahead of Crimeans voting to rejoin Russia. It was a fair and democratic vote. Depressing to see this misinformation in an article broadly correct in its fact-base and timelines. Lets hope "Bucha" is not presented as an example of "Russian atrocities" at a later date.
The Autonomous Republic of Crimea was never a completely organic part of Ukraine after its legally ambiguous administrative transfer to Ukrainine . It had its own ruling parliament, which voted to leave Ukraine and return to the USSR in Jan. 1991, eleven months before the end of the USSR, but the Soviet government was too busy with other urgent items to be able to approve the official request before the USSR came to an end. After Ukrainian independence, the Republic of Crimea's ruling self-governing body asserted its strong autonomy during the 1990s until the Ukrainian military invaded and forced it to accept a very weak interpretation of autonomy. In early 2014 as well, the Autonomous Republic's governing body asserted its dormant strong interpretation of autonomy and took steps toward leaving Ukraine and joining the Russian Federation. It was not passive or subordinated to the Russian military at that point. Its return to Russia was the final step in its long journey to become more than simply a semi-independent republic. Of course it was not "annexed" by Russia. Neither does Ukraine have the clear, unambiguous right to say that it owns Crimea and therefore has the right to invade Crimea and take back its property.
To repeat what I think is an important but overlooked chapter of Crimean history, this is how Wiki deals with the Crimean autonomy question in the 1990s. The articles listed below much clearer than my brief description above:
I believe Putin grew up in Leningrad, and he and his parents nearly starved to death during the Nazi siege. I think nearly a million people died during that great hunger.
For anyone that wants to get the most complete history of the Ukraine, then there only one book you should read.
SCOTT HORTON wrote a book that provides an incisive treatment of the multi-decade background to the Russia-Ukraine War. He demolishes the myth that Western policy bears no responsibility for the current tragedy. The book is called PROVOKED How Washington Started The New Cold War With Russia And The Catastrophe In Ukraine.
This book is all you need to understand the facts and nothing but the facts.
Excellent commentary. Personally, I think public hanging of the neocon club would be too kind. Perhaps staking them out over red ant beds would be more proper.
"The death of 70 protesters triggered an avalanche of international outrage that made President Viktor Yanukovych’s downfall a fait accompli. Yet today these killings remain unsolved."
The killings have been solved. The official judgement has been thwarted, censored and suppressed. That's a little different.
First I must commend you on writing an excellent blog. I would like to point out that the videos didn't play, when I click on the picture only the picture pops out and expands. I'm using Firefox browser. It would be awesome if you can post other links to these videos. Regards and best wishes from India.
"Russia annexed Crimea on March 18, 2014"
There is no evidence for Russian troops "annexing" Crimea. According to Jacques Baud, a Swiss intelligence analyst working with the Ukrainian army on behalf of Nato in 2014, 20,000 of the 22,000 troops of the Ukrainian territorial army based in Crimea joined the separatist movement to police the territory in the period up to the referendum. They removed the insignia from their uniforms, which led to Western claims that Russian troops (the "little green men") had occupied Crimea. In reality, they were Ukrainian troops who had changed sides. The remaining 2,000 Ukrainian troops were allowed to return to Ukraine without their weapons. 20,000 troops are more than enough to police a territory the size of Crimea. There was no need for additional Russian troops.
Interesting, did not know that. Russia, of course, views it as a reunification of lands that had been Russian since 1783, claiming sovereignty over Crimea based on the referendum.
Considering history, the right to self-determination and the ethnic hatred of Ukrainian nationalists who want to "detoxify Crimea" (ie. ethnic cleansing and/or genociding ethnic Russians), Crimea must be Russian. These are just the objective historical facts that cannot be undone.
Notwithstanding, the West has created a powerful narrative of the illegal annexation of Crimea to serve as pretext for waging a proxy war against Russia. The West doesn't care about Ukraine, the West doesn't care about Crimea, the West cares about consolidating its global hegemony by eliminating Russia as a strategic rival in order to make war on China.
Ukraine and Europe have to be sacrificed to prop up a failing US empire for a little longer.
exactly... more people need to wake up to this...
I believe that Trump wants to end the Ukraine war because he knows that the war cannot be won and because he doesn't want to own a US defeat in Ukraine.
Trump doesn't mind throwing Ukraine (and Europe) under the bus, but it's not sure that he can find an accommodation with Russia. The Russians won't make significant concessions because they are winning and the generals want a military solution because they don't trust any deal with the West.
Ultimately, it’s Putin's decision. Putin needs a peace deal because he doesn't want to go all the way to the Polish border and conquer Galicia. Putin also wants a European security architecture to secure Russia's Western border against Nato. I doubt, however, that team Trump has the technical competence to enter into extremely intricate negotiations about arms control, which have become infinitely more complex since the US cancelled most arms control treaties in the last 2 decades.
The Americans also want geopolitical accommodations. I don't believe that Russia will sacrifice its relationship with China or Iran to satisfy Trump, but maybe the Russians agree not to interfere in the larger ME and promise not to establish a Brics currency to compete with the dollar (which they have anyways no intention of doing).
I think the US Deep State always intended to make Europe fight the war against Russia, while concentrating US forces in the Pacific.
Since European leaders have become so engaged in the war, they have to continue if they don't want to lose face. Thus, the US can withdraw without further prodding the Europeans.
Ukraine lost the war before it even started. Sooner or later, the front will collapse - perhaps in the summer - then it's game over for Ukraine. It don't see France or GB deploying troops to Ukraine.
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the one who annexed Krim to the Ukraine. In the 1950s without any vote of the people. Then, after the Nuland inspired overthrow of a democratic government in Kiev, the people who actually LIVE in the Crimea got a chance to vote… and they voted overwhelmingly to return to mother Russia.
It is USA that pushes the “Putin annexed Crimea” meme… need to educate on this.
This isn't correct. The Russian Black Sea Fleet has been there the entire time...since reconquering it from the Nazis in WW2. There was at least 30,000 Russian troops there before the 2014 coup. It was usually about 20,000 but Russia understood what was about to happen so they were already bringing in more troops. Russia had a lease on Sevastopol until 2042 (with a promise to renew indefinitely). It was also agreed upon not to let Crimea be settled by Western Ukrainians. There are a lot of retired Russian military families that have settled in Crimea over the decades. The Russian and Ukrainian militaries did joint exercises until the coup. The coup ended that and many in the Ukrainian military did move over and join the Russian military but Russia already was the real power in Crimea. This isn't acknowledged in the West at all. Well Mearsheimer's video that has 29 million views actually brings up the divide and goes a bit into the actual demographic problems the Necons like Nuland decided didn't matter. That they can just steamroll everyone and force compliance. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4
Ukraine signed a contract for leasing Sevastopol to the Russian black sea fleet, which included the right to station about 24,000 Russian marines in Crimea. At the time of the Maidan coup, there were probably less than 20,000 Russian marines. Under the terms of the contract, the Russians had the right to post military check points at the airport and at certain strategic points on Crimea in times of trouble (such as the aftermath of the Maidan coup) in order to assure the unhindered communication between the fleet and Russia.
However, the "little green men" were soldiers of the Ukrainian territorial army who joined the Crimean independence movement. Only 2,000 of the 22,000 Ukrainian soldiers returned to Ukraine. There is a video which shows them leaving their base without their weapons. The uniforms of the Ukrainian territorial army used to be greenish, while the Russian marines have more bluish uniforms. The Ukrainian soldiers simply removed the insignia from their greenish uniforms. That's were the "little green men" narrative comes from.
The West has used the alleged annexation of Crimea as a pretext for waging a proxy war against Russia.
Do you have a link to the Baud article? It sounds important. Thanks very much!
Jacques Baud has published 3 books in French about the conflict since the beginning of the SMO (I think the first may have been translated into English):
- Poutine, maitre du Jeu?
- Operation Z
- Ukraine entre guerre et paix.
https://www.amazon.fr/Jacques-Baud/e/B001K7ETPE
There are also dozens of Youtube videos and articles on the web, which give the essential of his message. Most videos and articles are in French or German.
In my archives, I can find the following in English:
- https://www.thepostil.com/the-wests-debacle-in-ukraine-a-conversation-with-jacques-baud/
- https://www.sott.net/article/466340-Is-it-possible-to-actually-know-what-has-been-and-is-going-on-in-Ukraine
- https://www.sott.net/article/466340-Retired-Swiss-Military-Intelligence-Officer-Is-it-Possible-to-Actually-Know-What-Has-Been-And-is-Going-on-in-Ukraine
- https://www.moderntimes.review/operation-z/
- https://civilek.info/en/2023/05/13/shocking-letter-of-a-swiss-secret-service-expert-about-the-antecedents-of-the-outbreak-of-war/
- https://www.thepostil.com/our-interview-with-jacques-baud/
- https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/
- https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine-an-update/
- https://www.thepostil.com/author/jacques-baud/
Off the cuff, I can't remember in which document you find the precise information you are looking for. If you understand French or German I can also link some recent videos with interviews in which he goes into great detail.
Wow, that is some great info, thanks so much!
Jaques Baud wrote an essay in April 2022 where he goes into much of this. The article is available in English.
https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/
The Military Situation In The Ukraine
April 1, 2022 Jacques Baud.
He is crystal clear in this and in interviews that NATO intelligence knew most of the support for separatists opposed to the Maidan coup came directly from defecting Ukrainian military who took equipment with them. Russia was not involved.
He is excellent.
Late to the party. Anyway, Jacques Baud has now published a book in English: The Russian Art of War: How the West Led Ukraine to Defeat.
Great read.
Baud has a lot of his work on The Postil Magazine website. I have read all his articles there and parts of his books.
Baud is a great read.
He is great!
I just came across two more recent interview with Jacques Baud in English
- https://mronline.org/2023/06/12/background-and-elements-of-the-war-in-ukraine/
- https://tntradiolive.podbean.com/e/colonel-jacques-baud-on-war-of-the-worlds-15-july-2023/
- https://tntradiolive.podbean.com/e/colonel-jacques-baud-on-war-of-the-worlds-22-july-2023/
Thank you for all your references! Regarding the long years of struggle by Crimeans for Crimean sovereignty that prove that Crimea wasn't "annexed" by Russia, please see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Crimean_sovereignty_referendum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Republic_of_Crimea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Crimea_(1992%E2%80%931995)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Crimean_referendum
No, the "little green men" were not Ikrainians who re-badged and switched sides. The uniforms and equipment were Russian, quite distinct from Ukrainian uniforms which are a pixelated brownish pattern. They were a mix of Wagner mercenaries and Spetsnaz troops.
PS: I'm not saying that there weren't any Spetsnaz at all. The point is that the 22,000 Ukrainian troops on Crimea could have easily repelled a few thousand Spetsnaz if they had wanted to. The fact that they didn't offer any resistance shows that most of them joined the separatists.
Therefore, it is irrelevant whether the "little green men" you saw on TV were Russians from Crimea or Russians from Rostov on Don. The overwhelming majority of Crimeans - civilians and military - joined the separatists.
Both Ukrainian and Russian armies used greenish Dubok camouflage pattern uniforms since Soviet times in the 1980s.
The Ukrainian army changed its uniforms to the Galeteika pixel camouflage pattern uniforms after the 2014 Maidan coup.
Therefore, Ukraine was still using the greenish Dubok pattern during the cessation of Crimea.
Russia had a lease on Sevastopol until 2042 and a promise to renew indefinetely. Russia and Ukraine had joint military exercises until the coup. Because of the unrest Russia had increased its military personnel at Sevastopol to around 30k from 20k at the time of the coup. Many Ukrainian military personnel... particularly those working with Russia in Sevastopol joined the Russian armed forces after the coup.
We automatically associate the CIA and the intelligence community with evil doings; however, people like Jacques Baud are intelligence annalists. They analyze information so that government can make decisions on an informed basis. That is an important task. It trains people to analyze information in order the separate the true from the false. That government sometimes ignore the advise of the intelligence community in order to pursue a political agenda is a different matter.
Many critics of Western governments are in fact former intelligence analysts. Apart from Jacques Baud, Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson and other come to mind.
Thanks for putting the pieces together so we can see through the curtain...
What an unnecessary tragedy.
He is a well respected commentator on all things Ukraine, let me see if I can find the reference.
Very hard to accurately put all this together in one coherent article… well done, well said, and should be required reading by everyone in the west. Nuland proves the USA has not a single diplomat… only a war party mentality. It sees no (and seeks no) peaceful solution — just destruction of perceived (and wholly manufactured enemies). What has Russia done to America? Nothing… what has America done to Russia? Sought to destroy it; economically, reputationaly, and militarily. And what benefit does average American receive? Extreme risk. A few in the military assets arena make absurd profits from this; but at huge costs to the rest of us.
Hey Biden; hire an actual diplomat or two (if there are any left to hire) — before we are all wiped out by your madness!
Well said as well! It’s a living document so will be updating & improving. Unfortunately, as Alexander Mercouris of The Duran said “the neocons have no reverse gear,” so it’s only going to get worse.
Long live the document. Hat off.
How do we get rid of these warmongers for good? asking for a friend.
Good question, Trump brought in Elliott Abrams, so it's Neocon tag team.
No doubt - these people are like cockroaches - you step on one and there's 2 others waiting to take its place.
I like what Smedley Butler said about war (although it'll never happen) - if a war breaks out make everyone take the same pay as the soldiers fighting it - the war would stop before the next sunset.
The neocons have no reserve gear, unfortunately, it’s going to get a whole lot worse.
Yep, you're right. I like that "no reverse gear" comment - very àpropos!
Victoria Nuland was in Sudan just weeks before the coup attempt.
Yes, we've only seen the tip of the iceberg on the Sudan affair, as far as gaining any understanding of the underlying causes.
ER I’d love to see this get a wide audience and help accelerate pushback against The Narrative. I’d share with my Twitter followers but I’m reasonably certain all 3 are bots.
I agree about the need to accelerate pushback and the 3 bots, haha! Please share if possible.
We need to turn shadows into light. We must make Victoria Nuland infamous, a warning against the next unelected warmonger who thinks that human are McDonald toys.
Please share widely, she is still mostly unknown, lurking in the shadows.
She is not unknown to people paying attention. There is no excuse not to know of that wretched bitch.
By the way, very good work. I fully intend to support you once my ship comes in.
Thanks!
I mentioned her when writing an article on NATO's history. If we all do, she becomes a household name. I don't want her to grow old in government like Kissinger.
Biden just hired Elliot Abrams, Neocon tag team!
They don't bother to hide their devilish tails anymore.
It would seem that the dispossessed of the US found a voice in "Rich Men North of Richmond"; people understand that their views don't matter to the rich and powerful. Yet the neocon-neoliberal orthodoxy presses onwards with failure. Out of all these events it's clear that the Russian Federation is better led and that the SMO is broadly supported. In Russia they have, Я РУССКИЙ.
despite my critical comment, I still appreciate your blog deeply, and agree with others that this issue puts all the history on the table in an accessible manner. Dont stop. Also glad to see you follow the Duran, and Mercouris. Hope you check in with Naked Capitalism which has been a long-time supporter of the dissident view and shows thru its comments stream the wide and deep support for the anti- neocon project, and its desperate US attempt to turn the tide of history in its favour again using force, and finance - the favoured American strategy.
m
Thank you, please share if possible.
glad to see the correction here to the incorrect meme that "Russia annexed Crimea" ahead of Crimeans voting to rejoin Russia. It was a fair and democratic vote. Depressing to see this misinformation in an article broadly correct in its fact-base and timelines. Lets hope "Bucha" is not presented as an example of "Russian atrocities" at a later date.
The Golan Heights were well & truly annexed, haha.
The Autonomous Republic of Crimea was never a completely organic part of Ukraine after its legally ambiguous administrative transfer to Ukrainine . It had its own ruling parliament, which voted to leave Ukraine and return to the USSR in Jan. 1991, eleven months before the end of the USSR, but the Soviet government was too busy with other urgent items to be able to approve the official request before the USSR came to an end. After Ukrainian independence, the Republic of Crimea's ruling self-governing body asserted its strong autonomy during the 1990s until the Ukrainian military invaded and forced it to accept a very weak interpretation of autonomy. In early 2014 as well, the Autonomous Republic's governing body asserted its dormant strong interpretation of autonomy and took steps toward leaving Ukraine and joining the Russian Federation. It was not passive or subordinated to the Russian military at that point. Its return to Russia was the final step in its long journey to become more than simply a semi-independent republic. Of course it was not "annexed" by Russia. Neither does Ukraine have the clear, unambiguous right to say that it owns Crimea and therefore has the right to invade Crimea and take back its property.
To repeat what I think is an important but overlooked chapter of Crimean history, this is how Wiki deals with the Crimean autonomy question in the 1990s. The articles listed below much clearer than my brief description above:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Crimean_sovereignty_referendum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Republic_of_Crimea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Crimea_(1992%E2%80%931995)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Crimean_referendum
Nuland the evil crypto jewish epiphany of hell does a great job of killing Russians and destroying the EU(the EU deserves this by the way)
But she won't live as long as the satanic monster Albright
I have a feeling that her days are numbered
It makes one wonder if she hates Ukrainians as much as she hates Russians! So much blood 🩸 on her horrid hands… and for what?
Very disturbing, not sure why.
Most people don't know that cows are often more dangerous than bulls. Putin must have grown up near a farm.
I believe Putin grew up in Leningrad, and he and his parents nearly starved to death during the Nazi siege. I think nearly a million people died during that great hunger.
Putin was born in 1952 - the siege was long over by then.
As far as I know, he never met his older brother. Because, he did starve to death.
For anyone that wants to get the most complete history of the Ukraine, then there only one book you should read.
SCOTT HORTON wrote a book that provides an incisive treatment of the multi-decade background to the Russia-Ukraine War. He demolishes the myth that Western policy bears no responsibility for the current tragedy. The book is called PROVOKED How Washington Started The New Cold War With Russia And The Catastrophe In Ukraine.
This book is all you need to understand the facts and nothing but the facts.
Funny how that book has received so little coverage (sarc)
Reading this in 2024, not even sure how I found your Substack but I'm glad I did and immediately subscribed.
It's not easy to summarize events of the last 10 years but you have done an excellent job. Thanks for including links/references, it's very helpful.
Thanks so much, appreciate it, unfortunately it's a living document.
I update my Substack pieces weekly if not daily.
Excellent commentary. Personally, I think public hanging of the neocon club would be too kind. Perhaps staking them out over red ant beds would be more proper.
"The death of 70 protesters triggered an avalanche of international outrage that made President Viktor Yanukovych’s downfall a fait accompli. Yet today these killings remain unsolved."
The killings have been solved. The official judgement has been thwarted, censored and suppressed. That's a little different.
James,
First I must commend you on writing an excellent blog. I would like to point out that the videos didn't play, when I click on the picture only the picture pops out and expands. I'm using Firefox browser. It would be awesome if you can post other links to these videos. Regards and best wishes from India.
Thanks so much! I don’t recall posting any videos, just photos. Thanks for your feedback, Jim