Dismantling Ukraine, CIA blunder or Russia?

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS); FEMEN.org; DemocracyNow.org; Greg Palast (Connect the Dots with Lila Garett, InfoWars with Alex Jones); Dennis Kucinich

Vlad Putin gives topless FEMEN protester the reptilian snake eyes as Germany's Merkel and others make a mad dash to get out of the way (femen.org)

FEMEN coming to the USA

Who fomented the uprising in Ukraine -- the progressives of Kiev and the powerful women of the Maidan?

Or was it the CIA working behind the scenes hand in hand with Sen. John McCain, who was creeping around the country for weeks, while topless demonstrators were calling attention to the plight of westward-leaning cosmopolitans? 

Dirty girl, cover your dirty body! (FEMEN)

Then there was the U.S. Ambassador making statements about who would be installed once Pres. Yanukovich was deposed. It's true the wealthier city dwellers wanted to move into the Euro zone and out of the Soviet sphere, but not so most of the rural residents.

Pres. (Dictator) Putin and Russia caught on to the spread of N.A.T.O. and stood in the way. Not content to lose a strategic region, they took some of it back. No doubt they would gladly take all of it back and more. They must have a long-term plan: military aggression and overreach builds an empire like it did in the time of the czars.

The way to peace is proactive (codepink.org)

Who's side are we on to question the source of the Western-style freedom aspirations of Ukraine? We are progressive, cosmopolitan city dwellers, so it's easy for us to side with FEMEN and say GO EURO MAIDANS! 

But we cannot deny that this "revolution," like many recent uprisings, hasn't been what it seems. We think and are told by the mainstream media that it is grassroots and inspired by the "unintended consequences/benefits" of social media. Bull.

The attempt to depose Castro and the Cuban regime with ZunZumeo shows that these things are carefully plotted and implemented. Facebook, Twitter, and cellphones are not instruments of liberation -- but all part of the spying apparatus. Manipulated to stir up trouble for governments and police departments with predictable results. 

"Stop racism" (femen.org)

If the CIA, NSA, FBI, DHS wanted people to get on the Internets and make trouble (Arab Spring, Occupy, Orange Revolution, Green Revolution, Saffron Revolution, Pink Revolution, Red Shirts vs. Yellow Shirts, Kill Kony Kampaign, and the next brainchild of some shy college nerd who never thought of him/herself as a revolutionary but was just trying to bring a little attention to some social justice cause), why do these clandestine operations look the other way or actively help police departments when they come down hard on participants? 

Occupy LA protest of racism and injustice, Spring St. (citizenside.com)

.

Balaclava-clad protester (latimes.com)

Mass arrests, mass incarcerations, jail sentences, fines, probation, police records, suppression by attention because "We've got our eye on you!" And everyone is still walking around carrying their own shiny, sleek monitoring devices proudly sporting/supporting their corporate brands.

• AUDIO: Greg Palast, David Swanson, Sen. Alan Grayson, Bernie Sanders, Public Citizen Pres. Robert Weissman (Exposing the Koch Brothers) all Connects the Dots
• OverturnMcCutcheon.org (Public Citizen)

Nadia, Pussy Riot (willworth.co.uk)

Brands are for cows, and branding is for slaves. Apple logo, anyone? An F for your Facebook cause? How about a "little bird" that quickly flies back to the police chief and whispers in his ear: "It was so-and-so talking, here's what they said, arrest them for saying it" [but develop a pretext first since our eavesdropping evidence can't be used without a warrant]. It's a whole new way to police, spy, control, and pit us against one another.

*Mocking* No, social media's the best! Look, I can save the warbler in my community and stop LAPD spying by liking this movement then spreading the message to all my Facebook friends and tweeting about it on my iPhone and ultralight Mac book, while I stand in line to buy a pair of Google Glass glasses to ogle for G-men. They sit in their cubicles, and I do the footwork then incriminate myself and my friends on email, top-secret SnapChat exchanges. Then I'm free to get a little sexting in on the side with all my UK friends.

NSA: We will end "privacy" until no one in America remembers what that ever meant.

 
It's not true. While the "instruments of change" can be anything from a strong voice and a point of view to a private meeting, we have to be aware when we are being monitored and manipulated. The solution is not to say, "Let them spy on me." 

Make out, not war (CP)

The answer is to resist and avoid being spied on or taking it as given then doing all the organizing we normally would. Listen to Snowden, listen to Manning, listen to Greenwald, Scahill, Poitras, and Assange -- and their are plenty of other voices in the wilderness. Listen but think. We know network news is lying and spinning all day long. Even good voices can be twisted and spun to work against themselves.

Greg Palast exposes US/NATO meddling in foreign countries

Putin: "Crimea [river, cry me a sea!]" (video)

Amber Larson, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Sergei L. Loiko (LAT); Amy Goodman (DN!); FEMEN

Femen sexstremists spur Ukrainian Revolution with Tymoshenko braids (femen.org)

Authoritarian Russian KGB/President Vlad Putin faces off with young, topless FEMEN demonstrator as European leaders, including Germany's Angela Merkel, shrink and cower.

 

Who is provoking unrest in Ukraine? Role of USA (CIA) and Russia

 

Russia is vowing to keep its troops in the Ukrainian region of Crimea in what has become Moscow’s biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War. Ukraine’s new prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said Pres. Putin had effectively declared war on his country. Concern is growing that more of eastern Ukraine could soon fall to the Russians. Earlier today, Russian troops seized a Ukraine coast guard base in the Crimean city of Balaklava.

 

On Sunday, the new head of Ukraine’s navy defected to Russia. To talk more about the crisis in Ukraine, Democracy Now! spoke to Yale history professor Timothy Snyder. His latest article for The New York Review of Books is "Ukraine: The Haze of Propaganda." DN also spoke to retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern. He focused on Russian foreign policy for the first decade of his 27-year career with the agency and recently wrote an article titled "Ukraine: One 'Regime Change' Too Many?" More

Russians invading Crimea, Ukraine

Anti-Putin protests, EU consulate (FEMEN)

BAKHCHISARAI, Ukraine - The tense military standoff in Crimea continued today as Ukraine’s army and naval forces were blockaded by invading Russian troops and supporters, at some sites demanding that the Ukrainian units surrender their bases and swear allegiance to the Kremlin and Russia’s armed forces.

The demand represented an alarming sign that the fresh Russian forces had come here to stay, some analysts said.

Stop Putin. Ukraine must be free! (FEMEN)

“The fact that Russians openly demand that Ukrainian officers and soldiers in the Crimea take a military oath to Russia may mean one thing: The Kremlin intends to keep them here for a long time, if not for good,” said Kost Bondarenko, head of the Ukrainian Policy Institute, a think-tank based in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

“It means that Ukraine is steadily losing the Crimea to Russia, and it will be extremely difficult to get it back as the Ukrainian army is incapable of opposing Russia," he said. More

VENEZUELA: Tens of thousands march in anti-government protests

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• Coup or Revolution? Ukraine seeks arrest of its ousted president [now hiding in Russia] following deadly street protests

I am a Ukrainian girl (video)

Ashley Wells, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Michele Kirk (bizpacreview.com, 02-20-14)

  

This clip is being called “a must-see video of a Ukrainian girl asking the world for help against [police] oppression and corruption.” It has gone viral and left an impression on millions of people. Here is a brief description from the Facebook page linked to the video on YouTube:

Russia's Putin is to blame! (FEMEN.org/en)

This is Yulia. She is a post-graduate student in literature. After the first people were killed on Hrushevskogo St., she posted about it on Facebook. She felt like screaming about every- thing that had been happening in [Ukraine].

How are democratic citizens supposed to react?
(Kostyantyn Chernichkin/kyivpost.com)

Her friend suggested to make the video of the same statement for more people to see and hear her. They made the video on Hrushevskogo next to the destroyed makeshift hospital. It was very cold then and her speech is uneven sometimes.” I wanted to show that here I am -- a person. If you say there are radicals and terrorists in our streets, then I am a terrorist too,” explains Yulia.

Life in Kiev, Ukraine before police and military began killing civilians

Pussy Riot whipped, beaten, tear gassed by Russian police in Sochi

The head of the Udar (Punch) party Vitali Klitschko speaks to a man as anti-government protesters gather on Independence Square (Maidan) in Kiev on February 21, 2014. Pres. Yanukovych and three main opposition leaders signed a deal to end three-month crisis over the ex-Soviet country's future that has led to ~100 murders by police (AFP/Bulent Kilic).

This deal helps [Ukrainian President] Yanukovych, who can now get the support of Putin's KGB as Pres. Putin will no longer be busy with Sochi [and the Winter Olympics]. If I were a Ukrainian then I would keep the protest going until Yanukovych is finally out and not replaced by another Putin puppet. If Ukrainians do not win now then they will ALWAYS be under Putin's KGB dictatorship. - Donovan Pullen (Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool)

 

Protesters threaten violence if Ukraine's Pres. Yanukovych does not resign now (Kyiv Post)

 
EuroMaidan rallies in Ukraine (Feb. 21 LIVE updates)

Ex-Ukraine PM Tymoshenko to go free after 30 months in prison

Embattled Yanukovich, opposition sign deal to end Ukraine crisis

Military bloodlust: At least 75 killed in week of carnage

Ukrainian protesters take police hostages in conflict
 

How is one meant to respond to police abuse when protesting a police state? (kyivpost.com)

Ukraine: Demonstrators flood Kiev for EU deal

Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Oksana Grytsenko in Kiev (Nov. 24), Shaun Walker and Oksana Grytsenko (theguardian.com, Dec. 15, 2013); FEMEN.org/en

The biggest demonstrations since the "Orange Revolution" are continuing in the Ukraine after Pres. Viktor Yanukovych allegedly aborted a trade deal with the European Union under Russian pressure to stick with the former USSR. 

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have flooded the streets of Kiev in the biggest anti-government protest since the 2004 Orange Revolution to demand President Viktor Yanukovych reverse a decision not to sign a key pact with the European Union. 

Ukrainian Nordic beauty, human-deva hybrids?

The rally, which may herald the most serious challenge to Yanukovych's authority since he came to power in 2010, ended with scuffles with police outside government offices.

Police [reacted] with teargas. Ukraine was to have signed a historic free trade and association deal with the EU at this week's Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. EU officials said Ukraine's abrupt U-turn came as a result of Kremlin pressure.

Riot police clash with Ukrainians near the cabinet building in Kiev (Alexey Furman/EPA)

 

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, wants Kiev to join a Moscow-led customs union. [Allegedly] an estimated 45% of Ukraine's population support closer ties with the West instead.

 

Ukraine president is unpopular

"We want to be in Europe" said 46-year-old Liudmyla Babych, a saleswoman from Kiev, holding a placard reading, "Mr. President – the Ukrainian nation will not forgive you this treason."

 

The protesters marched through the streets of Kiev as part of a nationwide day of protest chanting the slogans "Out with the gang!" and "Ukraine is Europe" and singing songs popular during the Orange revolution. Tens of thousands of people held a peaceful meeting on... More

Who rules the Ukraine, people or gov't?

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

FEMEN stands against dictators in Ukraine

That was the headline in November. By the middle of December, the sides had grown in intensity. The police and politicians are conservatives, the people radicals for change -- greater trade and affiliation with the West. The EU versus RU (Russia, or what's left of the USSR), who will win the hearts and minds of the Ukrainians?

Oops, it's already been won by the EU. That will not stop Vlad Putin from putting inordinate pressure on its president to remain a Russian ally -- even if it means a massive and bloody police state intervention. Paramilitary police and secret forces are already on the scene beating civilians, deploying teargas, and planning for a major crackdown. People can simply not be allowed the delusion that their voice matters. When it comes to governing a modern "democracy," what matters most is what those tricky enough to rig elections decide. 

Ukraine protesters return en masse to central Kiev for pro-EU campaign

Shaun Walker and Oksana Grytsenko (theguardian.com)

Kiev, Dec. 15, 2013 (theguardian.com)

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians brave freezing weather to demand EU integration despite suspension of negotiations on the agreement due to Russian interference.
 
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians braved freezing temperatures and aggressive [paramilitary] policing to return to central Kiev on Sunday to demand political change, sending a message to authorities that the crisis over the government's failure to sign an EU integration pact is unlikely to end soon.

With the news that the EU has suspended negotiations on the agreement likely to further inflame the mood, at least 200,000 people packed into Independence Square, known as the Maidan, to hear music and speeches from the trio of Ukrainian politicians who have attempted to lead the spontaneous outpouring of anger. More