John Parker’s Fact-finding Trip to Russia and Ukraine

May 22 2022

https://blackagendareport.com/john-parkers-fact-finding-trip-russia-and-ukraine

Black Agenda Report · John Parker’s Fact-finding Trip to Russia and Ukraine

John Parker is a member of the Socialist Unity party and a senatorial candidate on the Peace and Freedom party ticket in California. He just returned from a fact-finding trip to Russia and Ukraine. He is also a member of Black Alliance for peace. He joins us from Los Angeles.
Margaret Kimberley and John Parker will discuss Russia and Ukraine in a webinar  entitled “Eyewitness Donbass and Russia”, on Sunday, May 29 at 5pm ET. 

Free Fall of the Ruble: Who’s Behind it? Is the US being outfoxed?

By Peter Koenig
Global Research
December 19 2014

The world is still hell-bent for hydrocarbon-based energy. Russia is one of the world’s largest producer of energy. Russia has recently announced that in the future she will no longer trade energy in US dollars, but in rubles and currencies of the trading partners. In fact, this rule will apply to all trading. Russia and China are detaching their economies from that of the western financial system. To confirm this decision, in July 2014  Russia’s Gazprom concluded a 400 billion gas deal with China, and in November this year they signed an additional slightly smaller contract – all to be denominated in rubles and renminbi.

A host of other nations increasingly weary of the decay of the western financial system

The remaining BRICS – Brazil, India and South Africa – plus the members of the the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) ) – China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan and considered for membership since September 2014 are also India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Mongolia, with Turkey also waiting in the wings – will also trade in their local currencies, detached from the dollar-based western casino scheme. A host of other nations increasingly weary of the decay of the western financial system which they are locked into are just waiting for a new monetary scheme to emerge. So far their governments may have been afraid of the emperor’s wrath – but gradually they are seeing the light. They are sensing the sham and weakness behind Obama’s boisterous noise. They don’t want to be sucked into the black hole, when the casino goes down the drain.

New sanctions against Russia

IMF to Give US$1.4 Billion Loan To Ukraine

Source:  Telesurtv.net

August 29, 2014

A condition of the funds is a severe austerity program including firing 24,000 government employees, removing gas subsidies, tax increasing and selling of state assets. 

The IMF have given the green light on Friday for Ukraine to receive its next financial assistance payment of US$1.4 billion dollars.

“The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the first review of Ukraine’s performance under an economic program supported by a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA),” the organization said in a statement.

This brings the total disbursements to US$4.51 billion and the nation may be eligible for another US$2.3 billion if a review is passed at the end of the year.

But the IMF also noted that the conflict in the east of the country will be resolved shortly.

Ukraine: UN report shows rising civilian deaths, ongoing rights abuses

29 August 2014

Source:  UN News Centre

Intense fighting, including the use of heavy weaponry by both sides, in densely populated areas of eastern Ukraine, has increased the loss of civilian life, with an average of around 36 people being killed every day, says a new report issued today by the United Nations human rights office.

The report, produced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and covers the period from 16 July to 17 August, expresses dismay at the killing and wounding of civilians who are trapped in urban areas or attempting to flee the fighting in eastern Ukraine using “safe” corridors established by the Government.

There is an urgent need to end the fighting and violence in the eastern regions, before more civilians are harmed or forced to flee, or face intolerable hardships trapped inside the conflict zones

“Deliberate targeting of civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law, and more must be done to protect them,” said High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. “All those involved in the hostilities in the affected areas of the east must at all times comply with the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. This is particularly important in densely populated areas.”

Deteriorating human rights since the onset of violence 

Fidel Castro: An unheard of provocation

Source:  Granma International

July 18 2014

THIS morning the cables were full of reports about the unheard of news that a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane had been hit at an altitude of 10,100 meters as it flew over Ukrainian territory, along a route controlled by the war-hungry government of chocolate king, Petro Poroshenko.

Cuba, which has always stood in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and in the difficult days of the Chernobyl tragedy provided medical care to the many children affected by the accident’s harmful radiation, and is always willing to continue doing so, cannot refrain from expressing our repudiation of the action of the anti-Russian, anti-Ukrainian and pro-imperialist government.

At the same time, coinciding with the Malaysian aircraft crime, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the nuclear state, ordered his army to invade the Gaza Strip, where, over the last several days, hundreds of Palestinians have died, many of them children. The President of the United States supported the action, describing the repugnant act as legitimate defense.

Obama does not support David against Goliath, but rather Goliath against David. As is known, young men and women from the Israeli people, well prepared for productive work, are being exposed to a death without honor, without glory. I am not aware of the Palestinian’s military strategy, but I know that a combatant prepared to die can defend even the ruins of a building, as long as he has his rifle, as the heroic defenders of Stalingrad demonstrated.

I only wish to express my solidarity with the heroic people who defend the last sliver remaining of what was their homeland for thousands of years.

Fidel Castro Ruz

July 17, 2014

11:14 p.m.

World Peace Council Issues Statement on the Massacre in Odessa

STATEMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY OF WPC ON THE MASSACRE IN ODESSA

 On behalf of the Presidency of the World Peace Council, we forcefully repudiate the increasing military actions of the government of Ukraine against federalist movements of the East and the South of the country, and the explicit support which this government is giving to criminal actions committed by Neo-Nazis.

We consider a very serious violation of Human Rights, the massacre committed on 2^ndMay in Odessa, in the House of Trade Unions, where demonstrators were imprisoned in the burning building, while groups of Neo-Nazis were blocking the exits. With a deep sense of pain, we send our condolences and solidarity to the families of the victims.

The current Ukrainian government does not have any legitimacy as it took power amidst a coup d’état orchestrated by the imperialist United States and the European Union (EU). Behind this action was the hidden agenda of destabilizing the country and installing a puppet regime, which would accept NATO’s expansion up to the borders of Russia. The presence of ultranationalist organizations in Kiev’s government, inspired by Fascism and Nazis should be condemned by all peace lovers of the world.

As the world remembers the centenary of the First World War and the 75^th anniversary of the Second World War, two important episodes inspired peoples of the world to promote the building of peace, it is  unacceptable for the US and EU to remain in Ukraine to boost conflicts, which could result in grave tragedies of large proportions.

We express our solidarity with the peoples of Ukraine in their struggle for their rights.

Socorro Gomes
President of World Peace Council

Source:  Jamaica Peace Council

Regime Change in Ukraine and the IMF’s Bitter “Economic Medicine”

Source: GlobalResearch

Interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk meets President Obama at White House, March 2014 (White House photo)

In the days following the Ukraine coup d’Etat of February 23, leading to the ousting of a duly elected president, Wall Street and the IMF–in liaison with the US Treasury and the European Commission in Brussels– had already set the stage for the outright takeover of Ukraine’s monetary system. The EuroMaidan protests leading up to “regime change” and the formation of an interim government were followed by purges within key ministries and government bodies.

The Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Ihor Sorkin was fired on February 25th and replaced by a new governor: Stepan Kubiv.[right]

Stepan Kubiv is a member of Parliament of the Rightist Batkivshchyna “Fatherland” faction in the Rada led by the acting Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk (founded by Yulia Tymoshenko in March 1999). He previously headed Kredbank, a Ukrainian financial institution largely owned by EU capital, with some 130 branches throughout Ukraine. Ukraine Central Bank Promises Liquidity To Local Banks, With One Condition, Zero Hedge, February 27, 2014).

Kubic is no ordinary bank executive. He was one of the first field “commandants” of the EuroMaidan riots alongsideAndriy Parubiy co-founder of the Neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (subsequently renamed Svoboda) andDimitry Yarosh, leader of the Right Sector Brown Shirts, which now has the status of a political party.  

Kubiv was in the Maidan square addressing protesters on February 18, at the very moment when armed Right Sector thugs under the helm of Dmitry Yarosh were raiding the parliament building.

A few days later, upon the establishment of the interim government, Stepan Kubiv was put in charge of negotiations with Wall Street and the IMF.

The new Minister of Finance Aleksandr Shlapak [left] is a political crony of Viktor Yushchenko –a long-time protegé of the IMF who was spearheaded into the presidency following the 2004 “Colored Revolution”. Shlapak held key positions in the office of the presidency under Yushchenko as well as at the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). In 2010, upon Yushchenko’s defeat, Aleksandr Shlapak joined a shadowy Bermuda based offshore financial outfit IMG International Ltd (IMG), holding the position of Vice President. Based in Hamilton, Bermuda, IMG specialises in “captive insurance management”, reinsurance and “risk transfer.”

Samir Amin: The Russia-Ukraine Crisis and the Triad Imperialist Policies

Source: Monthlyreview

by Samir Amin

Moscow, March 2014

1. The current global stage is dominated by the attempt of historical centers of imperialism (the US, Western and Central Europe, Japan — hereafter called “the Triad”) to maintain their exclusive control over the planet through a combination of:

1. so-called neo-liberal economic globalization policies allowing financial transnational capital of the Triad to decide alone on all issues in their exclusive interests;
2. the military control of the planet by the US and its subordinate allies (NATO and Japan) in order to annihilate any attempt by any country not of the Triad to move out from under their yoke.

In that respect all countries of the world not of the Triad are enemies or potential enemies, except those who accept complete submission to the economic and political strategy of the Triad — such as the two new “democratic republics” of Saudi Arabia and Qatar!  The so-called “international community” to which the Western medias refer continuously is indeed reduced to the G7 plus Saudi Arabia and Qatar.  Any other country, even when its government is currently aligned with the Triad, is a potential enemy since the peoples of those countries may reject that submission.

2. In that frame Russia is “an enemy.”

Whatever might be our assessment of what the Soviet Union was (“socialist” or something else), the Triad fought it simply because it was an attempt to develop independently of dominant capitalism/imperialism.

After the breakdown of the Soviet system, some people (in Russia in particular) thought that the “West” would not antagonize a “capitalist Russia” — just as Germany and Japan had “lost the war but won the peace.”  They forgot that the Western powers supported the reconstruction of the former fascist countries precisely to face the challenge of the independent policies of the Soviet Union.  Now, this challenge having disappeared, the target of the Triad is complete submission, to destroy the capacity of Russia to resist.

Cuba Rejects Interference in Venezuela and Ukraine

Source:  Presna Latina

Havana, Mar 6 2014

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez condemned today pro-interference policies against Venezuela and Ukraine that encourage violence and prevent citizens in those countries from exercising their rights.

In a press conference, Rodriguez rejected the resolutions approved by the UN Senate and House and the pro-interference attempts by the Organization of American States against Venezuela.

He expressed Cuba’s unswerving, full solidarity with Venezuela against attempts to destabilize and topple the government and the interference into its internal affairs, mainly by the United States.

He commented that violence generated in that country by right-wing groups has caused several deaths and numerous wounded, and prevented Venezuelan citizens from exercising their rights, and all this deserves condemnation.

“Venezuela has the right to defend its independence and sovereignty,” said Cuba’s top diplomat, who added that Cuban workers will continue fulfilling their duty and sharing the fate of the heroic Venezuelan people under any circumstance..

Preparing for War with Russia

by Bruce K. Gagnon
Organizing Notes

I’ve been writing for many years about US-NATO efforts to militarily surround Russia.  The oil-i-garchy wants to get ahold of the natural gas (the world’s largest supply) that sits on Russian territory.  It also wants full control of the Arctic region now that climate change will make it possible to drill for oil there.  Russia has a huge northern coastal border with the Arctic and thus stands in the way of western oil control.

Already the war drums are sounding after Russia moved more troops into Crimea to protect its Navy base and the large pro-Russian population in the region.

Writing yesterday in Foreign Policy Admiral James Stavridis (Ret) called for NATO to immediately increase “all intelligence-gathering functions through satellite, Predator unmanned vehicles, and especially cyber” and to sail “NATO maritime forces into the Black Sea and setting up contingency plans for their use.”  This is full-blown war talk – with Russia. Admiral Stavridis was Supreme Allied Commander at NATO from 2009 to 2013. He is currently dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

If Stavridis is saying these things you can just imagine what plans are underway inside the Pentagon and at NATO HQ in Europe.

The Russians know that they are being set up.  Reporting for Asia Times, Pepe Escobar wrote, “Even before neo-con Victoria ‘fuck the EU’ Nuland’s intercept, [Russian intelligence] had already identified the wider mechanics of the CIA-style coup – including Turkish intelligence financing Tatars in Crimea… And what will the Tatars in Crimea do? Stage a jihad? Wait: the ‘West’ will surely try to FINANCE THIS JIHAD.”

It’s Syria all over again, this time right on the Russian border.