Et tu Poland? Putin Excluded from Holocaust Commemorations

New Eastern Outlook
January 20, 2015
Ulson Gunnar

Glancing at the headlines one might believe Russian President Vladimir Putin had inappropriately decided not to attend Holocaust commemorations in Poland.

In one breathtaking display of misinformation, Reuters would report in its article Putin will not attend Holocaust commemorations in Poland that, "Sources told Reuters on Monday that Putin was unlikely to join world leaders gathering at the site of the Auschwitz death camp because distrust caused by the conflict in Ukraine has cast a pall on arrangements."

In reality, The Russian leader was never invited by Poland, the nation hosting the commemorations.

The geopolitical thrust and accompanying misinformation is designed to reinforce the perception that Russia is now a hegemonic threat, on par with Nazi Germany during World War II. Reality could not contradict this contrived narrative more.

On June 22, 1941, Operation Barbarossa was launched. Three massive German armies moved at lightning speed into the Soviet Union as part of a long anticipated Nazi attempt to conquer Russia. The invasion would quickly overwhelm unprepared Russian forces bringing German armies up to the gates of several major Russian cities, Moscow included.

Economic War, BRICS, and the Power of Self-Sufficiency

New Eastern Outlook
January 20, 2015
Ulson Gunner

The toughest, most resilient people as both individuals and as societies all generally have one thing in common - self-sufficiency. This by no means suggests isolationism, but rather the ability to survive, even thrive through one's own work using resources at their own disposal. 

As a principle, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and individualism defined young nations like the United States, catapulting it upon the world stage as a global leader after spending time racked in debt and in England's shadow. By establishing its own industry, its own institutions (including those of a financial nature) and its own military might, the United States transcended the tangled webs of interdependency locking Europe's ever-shifting, fragile alliances together. 



The evolution of human civilization along the lines of socioeconomics and technology has changed the roles, effectiveness and relevancy of those industries and institutions that had once made America great and in turn, those nations that had attempted to emulate such features have now all found themselves within the same boat - the boat of globalization.

Globalization is the hitherto pinnacle of interdependency, crippling any nation that falls foul of those sitting at the center of this entangled geopolitical order. There are many examples of nations that haven fallen foul including Cuba, Iraq, Iran and more recently Russia. In each case, respective economies depended heavily upon imports or exports or both. The response in defense against crippling economic warfare is self-sufficiency. 

From Ukraine to Syria: UN's Selective Defense of Human Rights

New Eastern Outlook
Ulson Gunnar
October 5, 2014

For the past several years, the United Nations has served as a platform for Syria's enemies to air allegations of human rights abuses and even attempts to use such allegations to justify military aggression against Syria itself. Tales of "barrel bombs" being used against civilians, the bombardment of enemy positions at the cost of civilian lives and the destruction of vital infrastructure have all been constructs in the West's narrative against the Syrian government.

Now that the US is itself bombing Syria, killing Syrians including innocent men, women and children, as well as vital infrastructure local populations depend on for their survival, the UN has grown suddenly quiet. The Western press too seems to have reverted to its observance of the notion of "collateral damage." Suddenly, the very terrorists the Syrian government has tried to warn the world about for years as it fought them in its city streets and countrysides, are now bad enough for the end of defeating them to justify the means of occasionally killing civilians, so long as they are killed with US rather than Syrian weapons.

The startling hypocrisy combines with the fact that Syria's military is operating within its territory, conducting security operations to secure its own borders and all territory within it, while the US is operating thousands of miles from its own shores, in a foreign country, with both a doubtful pretext and an even more doubtful agenda in mind as it does so.

Where is the United Nations? The airstrikes in Syria carried out by the US, Persian Gulf states, and several European nations are done so without the Syrian government's approval, no recognized opposition party has approved of them, and certainly no UN resolution has provided the West with a mandate to exercise military force inside of Syria. On this point alone, the UN should be standing up in vocal protest, leveling sanctions against those participating in this act of unilateral, illegal military aggression. Additionally, the UN should be speaking out against the loss of civilian lives, just as it did during the past several years of chaos in Syria's ongoing conflict, as well as preparing monitoring teams and investigations into the impact of these attacks.

Aside from Syria, there is another battlefield the UN is suspiciously absent from. Ukraine. In Ukraine, Kiev has been carrying out increasingly atrocious campaigns of violence against its own people. As it steadily loses control over territory in the east of Ukraine, grisly scenes of mass murder, torture, and extrajudicial executions are being uncovered. Yet there is no protest voiced within the UN, no teams being mobilized to investigate unearthed crime scenes and no measures taken against the perpetrators which include ultra-right wing militant groups espousing modern-day Nazism like the notorious Right Sector.

Ukrainian Weapons of Mass Destruction

New Eastern Outlook
Ulson Gunnar
September 1, 2014

In July, the Kiev-based regime deployed OTR-21 Tochka ballistic missiles also known as SS-21 “Scarabs,” against the people of eastern Ukraine. The missiles measure 6.4 meters in length and carry warheads of up to 454 kg, making them without a doubt a weapon of mass destruction (WMD). Despite Kiev utilizing weapons like the SS-21, there was little outcry in the United States or across Europe. The deafening silence over the use of such weapons in Ukraine stands in stark contrast to wild hysteria exhibited just in 2011 when the Libyan government allegedly deployed Scud missiles against NATO-backed militants fighting Tripoli, Sirte, and the desert city of Bani Walid.

Ukraine's Nuclear Legacy 

As a former Soviet state, Ukraine possesses a large variety of advanced weaponry and industrial capacity, aspects of a developed nation now in the hands of a state descending into third world-like chaos. Among Ukraine's industrial and technological inheritance is nuclear power. In total Ukraine possesses 15 nuclear reactors including the largest facility in Europe, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. It also, until 1994, possessed nuclear weapons. Having been nuclear weapons-free since 1994, the new regime in Kiev has expressed interest in once again obtaining such weaponry for the purpose of "defending itself" from "Russian aggression." 

But absent of nuclear weapons, the possibility of Kiev committing to a course of action that threatens both Ukraine itself, as well as other nations across the region with nuclear catastrophe should weigh on the minds of all policymakers and analysts. Already, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant served host to clashes between Kiev-backed Neo-Nazi militants from Right Sector and local police.

Fighting Back Against Western Sanctions

New Eastern Outlook

Ulson Gunnar

August 24, 2014

While the impact of sanctions leveled against Russia is being debated, one fact is perfectly clear; the dangerous interdependence cultivated by the concept of "globalization" leaves nations vulnerable amid a global order dominated by hegemonic special interests that use such interdependence as a weapon.

Two rounds of sanctions have been leveled against Russia targeting Russian banking, arms manufacturing, and oil industries. Even as the sanctions are marketed to the world as Russia "paying a price" for its role in "destabilizing" Ukraine, Russia has been busy cultivating ties and expanding markets that are increasingly found outside the West's spheres of influence and therefore, beyond the reach of these sanctions. Russia is also looking inward to diversify its markets and seek socioeconomic independence.

Instead of viewing the sanctions as an impassable obstacle requiring capitulation to Wall Street and London, Russia has viewed them as a challenge to sever reliance on unstable markets. More so, Russia's quest for alternative markets is a means of applying its own form of pressure back upon the West. While the West attempts to portray the sanctions as "cutting off Russia," the restrictions do at least as much to isolate the West itself.

Multipolar World Vs Western Hegemony  

In a unipolar world, supranational geopolitical blocs like the EU (European Union), the African Union, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and regional free trade agreements serve to consolidate and open up the collective socioeconomic potential of the planet to those at the top of this international order. Currently, this constitutes the special interests on Wall Street, in the city of London, and among the special interests converging in Brussels. Interdependence is intentionally cultivated among the various members of individual blocs and between supranational blocs themselves. This ensures that leverage is constantly maintained over each individual national entity, making individual nations incapable of sidestepping collective initiatives of the blocs they are a part of.

Kiev Deploys WMDs Against Eastern Ukraine

New Eastern Outlook
Ulson Gunnar
August 7, 2014

Ukraine's Kiev-based regime has deployed OTR-21 Tochka ballistic missiles also known as SS-21 "Scarabs," against the people of eastern Ukraine. The missiles measure 6.4 meters in length and carry warheads of up to 454 kg, making them without a doubt a weapon of mass destruction (WMD). Their use was revealed by a CNN report released just as US President Barack Obama announced that the US and EU would be issuing more sanctions against Russia. 

CNN revealed that, "there were reports that Ukraine's government in the past 48 hours used short-range ballistic missiles against the rebels, three U.S. officials told CNN. The weapons have a range of about 50 miles (80 kilometers) and pack up to 1,000-pound (454-kilogram) warheads." 

What You Should Know About Azerbaijan

New Eastern Outlook
Ulson Gunnar
June 16, 2014

Azerbaijan and its population of nine and a half million, sits along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, bordering Russia to its north, Iran to its south, and Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey to its west. Its geostrategic position alone makes it an attractive target of political destabilization, regime change, and client state status for aspiring global empires, however its position in terms of energy production and transportation make such aspirations irresistible.

With the stated US-EU agenda of encircling and eventually integrating the Russian Federation into their "Europe Whole and Free," leaders from Washington to Brussels have taken turns describing their goal of reducing dependency on Russian energy, and "diversifying" Europe's energy markets. Already the US-EU has attempted to stall the creation of a Ukraine-circumventing Russian pipeline, the South Stream Pipeline, running through Bulgaria and Serbia to supply Europe with Russian natural gas. The next step is to replace Russian natural gas all together by commandeering the governments of entire nations and aligning their geopolitical posture to European and American designs.

Bloodbath Follows Ukrainian Elections

New Eastern Outlook
Ulson Gunnar
May 28, 2014

What can only be described as "show elections" in Ukraine have been promptly followed by combined arms operations in the eastern region of the country. Warplanes, helicopter gunships, heavy armor and troops poured into eastern Ukraine in a blitzkrieg offensive aimed at overrunning the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Both provinces had carried out successful referendums declaring autonomy from what is perceived as many to be an illegitimate regime occupying Kiev.

The day after elections, over 100 people were reportedly killed, including a large number of civilians. Local media broadcast grisly images of dead self-defense forces as well as civilians clearly the victims of artillery and aerial ordnance. In Kiev, Petro Poroshenko, "president-elect," compared eastern Ukrainians to "Somali pirates," claiming they were terrorists and that "no civilized country negotiates with terrorists." Claiming that his Ukraine was most certainly "civilized," he swore not to negotiate with eastern Ukraine indicating that the brutality seen in Donetsk following elections may just be the beginning of a more widespread armed campaign against what seems to be regarded by Kiev as a separate, enemy state.

Indeed, the military operations being conducted by Kiev appear to be more comparable to an invasion or cross-border punitive operations regularly carried out by NATO members such as Turkey against Kurds in Iraq.

Deeply Flawed Election Quickly Rubber Stamped By NATO-EU 

Despite polling not even taking place across much of eastern Ukraine, and no polling at all taking place in what Kiev, the US, EU and others still claim is Ukrainian Crimea, the elections were quickly declared "free and fair." Citing an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) preliminary report admittedly drafted by the EU and NATO themselves, the US State Department and editorials across the West declared the elections a resounding success.

Russian-Chinese Gas Vs. Western Hegemony

New Eastern Outlook
Ulson Gunnar
May 21, 2014

Russian energy giant Gazprom's 30 year, 400 billion dollar gas deal with China is set to impact global geopolitics in many profound ways. To understand the future impact of the deal, it is important first to understand the geopolitical conditions that face both Russia and China today that helped seal it. 

The Russian Imperative 

For Russia, diversifying its markets away from the European Union is of vital importance. Persistent economic decline is effecting demand, while special interests within the EU have become increasing belligerent toward Russia as the supranational conglomerate seeks to expand into Russia's traditional spheres of influence. The EU and NATO's insistence on continued eastward expansion, "integrating" nations along Russia' peripheries, is now clearly aimed at the encirclement of Russia proper. The current crisis in Ukraine, and the brief conflict of 2008 on the Russian-Georgian border are both direct results of this expansion. US and EU sanctions aimed at Russia, and Russia's response by leveraging the EU's dependence on its natural gas have reminded both of this vulnerable interdependencies. 

For Russia, it will be difficult to find another market in which to sell the 160 billion cubic meters of natural gas it exported to Europe last year. The new deal with China is expected to begin at 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year, or about a quarter of what it exports to Europe. Additional pipelines are in the works, and the amount of gas routed to China can surely be expanded to meet future demand.

Ukraine's Doomed Elections

New Eastern Outlook
Ulson Gunnar
May 13, 2014

Presidential elections in Ukraine are supposedly to be held on May 25, but the unelected regime to preside over them in Kiev faces a nation not just deeply divided, but literally fleeing out from under its self-proclaimed authority. And as Kiev attempts to hold the country together, primarily through the use of heavy weapons deployed against civilian populations, it is difficult to understand how any election can be held under such conditions, let alone be recognized as legitimate.

Despite this glaring reality, both the United States and the European Union insist that the May 25th elections be held, and held quickly. No mention is made of what legitimacy such elections hold even as running gun battles are waged in the eastern part of the country, particularly the province of Donetsk where a recent referendum has paved way for greater autonomy from Kiev.

Kiev's inability to assert authority over a growing segment of Ukraine's population coupled with the fact that it came to power extralegally poses an acute problem for both the regime itself and its American and European backers. By holding elections, even under such chaotic conditions, Kiev and its backers hope to establish greater legitimacy for their version of Ukraine. Kiev, the US and EU have declared a recent referendum held by the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk "illegal." This implies that both Donetsk and Luhansk are part of Ukraine and fall under the authority of Kiev. It also implies that they will participate in the upcoming election. A similar stance has been taken regarding now Russian Crimea.

Kiev's Conundrum 

If elections are held "nationwide" as Kiev and its American and European backers define Ukraine (which includes Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk) the failure to actually conduct polls in these three regions will by consequence void the entire election or at the very least call into question their legitimacy. Should elections exclude these regions, it will be a concession by Kiev, Washington and Brussels that these three regions no longer exist within Ukraine or under Kiev's authority. With that precedent, other regions who refuse to recognize Kiev's authority will be given a clear-cut exit, particularly if upcoming elections result in the current regime staying in power. Either way Kiev attempts to hold upcoming elections, it will come out the other side weaker still.

NASA & Russian Space Legacy Threatened in Ukraine

New Eastern Outlook
Ulson Gunnar
May 19, 2014

Across the surface of Earth, Russia and America have been engaged in direct and indirect conflict for decades. Above the Earth, however, both have inspired the world and each other through the peaceful scientific exploration of space. Beginning in 1975 with the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, both nations began cooperating directly with one another toward this singular, noble endeavor and have continued to do so until present day with the International Space Station (ISS).

The Russian Soyuz program is currently the only means by which astronauts and cosmonauts can reach space and return. 

Joint US-Russian space exploration has so far weathered the demagoguery of politicians from both sides over the years, but the recent conflict in Ukraine is once again putting this relationship to the test. Little will be gained if this cooperation ends, despite attempts across the Western media to claim otherwise.

The International Space Station 

The ISS is an artificial habitat circling the Earth at an altitude of over 260 miles (over 420 km)  that has been permanently manned for over 13 years. It represents a stepping stone in what will be the most profound leap in human civilization's history, the permanent colonization of space and mankind's accession to a multiplanetary species. The ISS is constructed primarily of Russian and American modules, but also includes European and Japanese components. It was built drawing from experience gained from the Russian space station Mir. Mir also served as a platform for joint US-Russian space exploration, with eleven space shuttle missions being flown to it, establishing many of the protocols used today aboard the ISS.

A combination of NASA space shuttle missions and Russian Soyuz rocket launches had previously worked in tandem to send and retrieve astronauts and cosmonauts from the ISS. With the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet, Russia's Soyuz program is the only means to move people to and from the ISS. While a combination of automated US, Russian, European, and Japanese cargo ships keep the ISS supplied with food, water, and equipment, without Russia's Soyuz program, the ISS will by necessity become abandoned.

Ukraine Crisis Reaching to the Stars? 

A US-backed uprising spearheaded by armed Neo-Nazis overthrew the elected government of Ukraine over the course of 2013-2014's Euromaidan demonstrations. The attempt to overthrow the government of Ukraine came as the nation was backing away from integration with the European Union and away from a possible membership within NATO that was likely to follow. The US-engineered Euromaidain uprising, eerily familiar to the similarly US-backed Orange Revolution in 2004, sought to overturn yet another of Moscow's allies and place NATO right on Russia's border.

CrossTalk: Cold War 2.0?

StopImperialism.org
Eric Draitser
March 31, 2014

How do the West and Russia interpret the results of the Cold War? Is NATO at the heart of the so-called "New Cold War"? Does NATO refuse the partnership with Russia? And are Russia and the West doomed to be adversaries? CrossTalking with Geoffrey Hosking, Eric Draitser and Wolfgang Richter.

Solving the crisis in Ukraine

Stop Imperialism

Eric Draitser 

March 22, 2014 

Ukraine has become a geopolitical and strategic battleground upon which the West (US-EU-NATO) and Russia are struggling for influence. But, underlying this conflict is the need to develop a viable solution, one that would address both the short term and long-term needs of the Ukrainian people and both Russia and the West. The deep political divisions within Ukraine, exacerbated in recent months with the ouster of the Yanukovich government, will require careful diplomacy and mediation in order to be resolved. Additionally, the economic crisis afflicting the country – a crisis which dates back to well before the February coup – will equally require a multi-faceted and inclusive solution that benefits all interested parties. Naturally, achieving these high-minded goals will not be easy; however, they are necessary in order to chart a course toward a prosperous and stable future for Ukraine. 

(Read entire article)

Specter of Western Mercenaries Hang Over Ukraine Crisis

New Eastern Outlook
Ulson Gunnar
March 22, 2014


Recent rumors of notorious Blackwater US mercenaries operating inside of Ukraine invoked a plausible narrative so convincing even news outlets across the West began echoing it. 
 

UK’s Daily Mail article “Has Blackwater been deployed to Ukraine? Notorious U.S. mercenaries ‘seen on the streets of flashpoint city’ as Russia claims 300 hired guns have arrived in country” stated “a Russian diplomat in Kiev told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that 300 employees of private security companies had arrived there.”

 

The article continued by stating, “‘These are soldiers of fortune proficient in combat operations. Most of them had operated under private contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan and other states,” the source said. Interfax reported that the diplomat did not disclose the nationalities of the mercenaries but said, ‘Most of them come from the United States’.” 

 

An accompanying video showed unidentified armed men running through the streets of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, however it appeared unrelated to the claims made by the Russian diplomat.

Continue reading at New Eastern Outlook...

Crimea: Democracy Is Not Democracy…Unless Obama Says It Is…

New Eastern Oulook

Eric Draitser 

March 18, 2014

As Crimea prepares to vote on Saturday March 16^th in a crucial referendum on its future, the rhetoric coming from the West and its propaganda machine has hit a new and ridiculous low. Not only has US President Barack Obama and his administration done everything to undermine democracy in Ukraine, they have now resorted to the most naked forms of hypocrisy in an attempt to delegitimize the democratic process.

 

On Thursday March 6^th President Obama spoke at the White House on the referendum and the issue of Crimea. In his prepared remarks, Obama stated categorically that the United States would not recognize the results of the Crimean referendum. He argued that the it would violate both the “Ukrainian Constitution and international law.” Obama kept the comedy coming when he noted that, “In 2014 we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders.” As with all statements made by the US government, and the President specifically, this must be contextualized and deconstructed in order to be effectively critiqued.

 

First and foremost is the question of democracy and, more specifically, how exactly Washington is choosing to define this gravely abused word. In referring to the so-called “interim government” in Kiev, headed by Yatsenyuk and his associates, as “democratic leaders”, Obama demonstrates either a complete lack of understanding of the word democracy, or as I think is more likely, an utter contempt for democratic principles. By referring to an unelected entity that has seized political power in Kiev by force, and through collaboration with Nazi elements, as “democratic leaders,” Obama exposes himself and his administration to be cynical opportunists whose interests rest not in democracy but in a geopolitical agenda guided solely by strategic interests.

 

Naturally, the references to the Ukrainian Constitution and international law are also deeply disingenuous. Obama, and the US imperial system more generally, speak of international law purely when it suits their interests, eschewing it completely when it does not. This fact has been illustrated quite clearly with Washington’s wars of aggression throughout that last two decades, including the illegal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, not to mention the habitual violations of international law in Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and around the world.

 

The most significant point here is that the US recognizes democracy and international law only when it suits their interests. Moreover, US hypocrisy regarding democracy becomes self evident if one examines the recent historical precedents of Kosovo and South Sudan. In both these cases, precisely the same individuals who today cry about international law and argue against the democratic right of Crimea to determine its own future, were then eloquently and unabashedly in favor of precisely the same sort “democratic aspirations.”

Continue reading at New Eastern Outlook...

Global Research's Professor Michel Chossudovsky on Ukraine Coup

Global Research
Michel Chossudovsky
March 18, 2014