The Ukraine coup -- and beyond

President Yanukovych has fled Kiev and the right-wing media -- which, in this case, means pretty much all of the media -- is in a joyous mood. The National Review is using the occasion to drag out the old canard that fascism and socialism are one and the same.

So what's really going on? I'm not entirely sure myself, but I don't like the smell perfuming the air. I don't often link to Zero Hedge, but this map does indeed seem to explain much...

I also hate to quote a contributor to Daily Kos, but a comment here seems to put the situation in the fewest possible words:

Yanukovych is an a-hole for sure, but it's hard for me to celebrate a neo-liberal coup d'etat against an elected government.

From Dennis Trainor Jr. At OpEd News:

The violent clashes unfolding in Kiev are directly linked to policy decisions and money flow from Washington DC.

The Obama Administration's version of the Bush Doctrine lacks the theatrics of the shock and awe campaign of Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld. However, the Obama administration is still generating an army of chickens, be they in the form of future military of terror attacks or in the form of the neoliberal house of cards set to crumble, that will certainly come home to roost.

Well, this is a day when I feel compelled turn to a lot of sites to which I rarely link. If you can get past some old-school Marxist verbiage, the World Socialist Web Site has a very hip view of what's going on:

Even Western media outlets, which have propagandized in support of the opposition, could not entirely ignore the role of ultra-right forces in the violent protests. The Financial Times reported, “Some demonstrators wearing camouflage clothing, military helmets and bullet proof vests responded with what appeared to be hand guns.” The same newspaper wrote: “Right Sector, one of the most militarized protest groups, urged citizens with guns to join the encampment.”

German news channel N24 reported that the “radicals of Right Sector have hijacked the protest movement.” Noting that the group consists of “supporters of ultra right-wing organizations across the country,” it added, “With their faces hidden behind masks or helmets, they attack the police in Kiev with batons and iron bars.”

The US and German governments are supporting these paramilitary neofascist groups in order to increase pressure on Yanukovych and his government. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung expressed this bluntly. It “no longer matters if it was radical opponents of the regime or the security forces who first resorted to violence on Tuesday,” the paper stated. “Now only one thing can help: the rapid resignation of Yanukovych.”

The battle for Ukraine is part of efforts by the US and the European powers to incorporate all of Eastern Europe into their sphere of influence and isolate Russia.

The installation of a client regime in Ukraine or imperialist carve-up of the country is ultimately aimed against Russia itself. Various think tanks are studying the ethnic and political tensions that could be exploited to bring about regime change in Russia and dismember that country as well.

Remember Syria? Same thing. The embattled leader is no hero. Nobody is arguing that. What worries me is that his overthrow will probably open the way for something even worse. A revolution is not a true revolution if it is manipulated by powerful people in foreign lands.

And now those same powerful interests are taking the same act to Venezuela.

The US-supported opposition in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is taking its cue from the anti-government protests taking place across the Atlantic Ocean in Ukraine. Failing to win any of Venezuela’s elections by earning a popular mandate from the majority of the population in the last few years, the leaders of the mainstream opposition are now resorting to colour revolution tactics and a Ukraine-style disruption strategy. The aim of these opposition leaders in Venezuela is to manipulate the galvanized anti-government protesters into creating a political crisis in Caracas. Mainstream opposition leaders are doing this by instigating the protesters into taking steps that are geared at toppling the Venezuelan government.

Good god. The rebels of Tahrir Square have had some very disturbing offspring, have they not?

Paradoxically enough, perhaps my readers will now better understand why I never want to see a revolution in this country. Rebellions can be hijacked: This is the great lesson of Syria, the Ukraine and now Venezuela. The neo-liberals (or libertarians) are superb hijackers. They know how to disguise themselves. They know how to make outside manipulation appear to be the work of disaffected grassroots dissenters.

If you haven't read The Shock Doctrine by now, you really should.

Added note. Will I get in trouble if I ask the reader to glance over these words from -- yikes! -- The Voice of Russia?

It is illegal under international law for any country to carry out measures to bring about the illegal change of the government in any other sovereign state, this includes support of any kind for insurgent forces, the implementation of economic and other measures to pressure the government to step down or dissolve and all other instruments and measures both covert and overt that may be used to bring about what is now popularly called "regime change" by the West and the US Government.

What is alarming in Ukraine is the violent and militarized nature of what the West is endlessly painting as a legitimate opposition. This portrayal runs contrary to what the most of the world is seeing right in front of their eyes on their TV screens. Even multiple statements by US officials themselves and a recently released telephone conversation between US official Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, show that these are not members of a legitimate internal opposition, but rather radicalized, militarized, trained, planted, funded and supported members of western "color revolution" infrastructure.

The US/NATO/EU continue to egregiously blame the government and are criminally silent when the opposition they support, and in fact planted, murder members of the security forces and policemen. The outright murder, kidnapping and extreme violence against police and security forces should be something that would cause an outcry among police officers worldwide, especially in the US, where their police are given almost god-like reverence, yet the so called "international community" and members of the world’s law enforcement bodies are silent.

Nothing that the insurgents have done would be supported in any US/NATO/EU country or city, yet they continue to call on, threaten and pressure the authorities in Ukraine to not interfere or take required measures. The violent insurgents have made a mockery of law and order and have literally set the capital of a civilized, democratic European country on fire.

Storming, seizing and burning down the buildings which house the instruments and bodies of the state; openly shooting, murdering, kidnapping and falsely detaining members of law enforcement; destroying and setting alight the property of the state and the people; organizing the pogrom we are seeing in Ukraine; violating the law and acting against their own constitution; blackmailing and threatening officials to step down or be complaint and finally promoting policies that are not in keeping with the desires of the Ukrainian people, are all factual aspects of the Ukrainian "opposition". So why is US/NATO/EU openly supporting them?

The western mass media continues to promote and spread a phony slanted narrative of the events in Ukraine and their attempts have been formidable and almost impossible to counter. This concerns mostly the nature and portrayal of the police murdering opposition which, like the cop killers in the Caucuses, the West portrays as heroes and some sort of freedom fighters.