Murder Of Journalist In Ukraine Comes Amid Wave Of Mysterious Opposition Deaths

It is April 20th which means today is the day the US government begins training neo-Nazi militias in Ukraine. The training comes at a frightening time in Ukraine as journalists and opposition politicians are being killed in the streets while the government in Kiev continues to claim it wants to be part of Western society.

The killing of journalist Oles Buzyna from a drive-by shooting is just the latest in a series of sudden deaths among those opposing the regime in Kiev. Oleg Kalashnikov, a former ally of President Yanukovich, was also gunned down this month. Sadly, those killings are becoming unexceptional in post-coup Ukraine where numerous officials and supporters of the overthrown government have ended up dead.

As Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com points out, the killings of Buzyna and Kalshinikov come after a wave of mysterious and gruesome deaths of those opposing the current government in Kiev. A trend that started out as questionable "suicides" appears to have degenerated to outright thuggish street killings:

* January 26 – Nikolai Sergienko, former deputy chief of Ukrainian Railways and a supporter of Viktor Yanukoych’s Party of Regions, reportedly shot himself with a hunting rifle. The windows were all locked from inside, and no note was found.
* January 29 – Aleksey Kolesnik, the former chairman of the Kharkov regional government and a prominent supporter of the now-banned Party of Regions, supposedly hung himself. There was no suicide note
* February 24 – Stanislav Melnik, another former Party of Regions member of parliament, was found dead in his bathroom: he is said to have shot himself with a hunting rifle. We are told he left a suicide note of “apologies,” but what he was apologizing for has never been revealed, since the note has not been released.
* February 25 – Sergey Valter, former Party of Regions activist and Mayor of Melitopol, was found hanged hours before his trial on charges of “abuse of office” was set to begin. Whoever was responsible neglected to leave a “suicide” note.
* February 26 – Aleksandr Bordyuga, Valter’s lawyer and former deputy chief of Melitopol police, was found in his garage, dead, another “suicide.
* February 26 – Oleksandr Peklushenko, a former Party of Regions member of parliament and chairman of Zaporozhye Regional State Administration, was found dead in the street with a gun wound to his neck. Officially declared a “suicide.”
* February 28 – Mikhail Chechetov, a professor of economics and engineering, former member of parliament from the Party of Regions, and former head of the privatization board, supposedly jumped from the seventeenth floor window of his Kiev apartment. Another “suicide”!
* March 14 – Sergey Melnichuk, a prosecutor and Party of Regions loyalist, “fell” from the ninth floor window of an apartment building in Odessa. Or was he pushed?

Add in Buzyna and Kalshinikov and one could be forgiven for seeing a pattern.

The US response to Ukraine's collapsing civil society is typical for the Obama Administration -  double down on propaganda. Rather than criticize the US' supposed allies in Ukraine for exterminating their political critics Team Obama and friends want to turn their attention to losing an "information war" with Russia. In these alternate universe the US - inventor of public relations - is unable to muster a communications strategy.

The source of this complaint? US government communications. Hope and change at the most transparent administration in history™.

Ukraine's Formal Security Strategy Now Includes NATO Membership

The government in Ukraine has presented its official security strategy which includes membership in the NATO alliance. Such a declaration will undoubtedly agitate Moscow which objects to US influence in the region and blames Washington for the violent overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych. If Ukraine were let in to NATO the world's two leading nuclear powers could be forced into war.

The US has already increased its involvement in the Ukraine crisis by agreeing to send in troops later this month to train, among others, neo-Nazi militias. One commentator noted that the day the US military is planning on training the Azov Battalion is April 20th, Adolf Hitler's birthday.

The Pentagon might want to work on that PR situation.

Ukraine, locked in conflict with Russian-backed separatists in its east, on Thursday drew up a new security doctrine denouncing Russia's "aggression" and setting its sights on joining the U.S.-led NATO military alliance. Oleksander Turchynov, head of the national security council, told a session of the body that Ukraine saw Russian aggression as a "long-standing factor" and viewed NATO membership as "the only reliable external guarantee" of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.  

Turchynov's comments and the move to draft a new security strategy were certain to raise hackles in Russia, which annexed the Crimean peninsula in March 2014 after a pro-Western leadership took power in Kiev in the wake of an uprising that ousted a Moscow-backed president.

The government in Kiev has been continually agitating for the US to enter the conflict on their side and, not surprisingly, found allies among neocons and nostalgic cold warriors along with their arms industry underwriters. But entering a dangerous conflict so clearly outside the US national interest has split the foreign policy establishment including the traditionally imperialistic Brookings Institution. 

In the final analysis, the US has nothing to gain and everything to lose by starting a war with Russia which is what allowing Ukraine to join NATO would in essence do. Then again, the neocons in DC are so out of touch with reality it is prudent to wonder if they even understand the stakes in allowing Ukraine to enter a mutual defense alliance.

US Military Will Train Neo-Nazis In Ukraine

Though sending US troops into Ukraine was already controversial, a report by the Associated Press shows a bad situation is getting worse. According to the AP the US forces being sent into Ukraine will be training Neo-Nazi militants who have already been accused of war crimes.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has publicly stated that among those forces receiving US training in April will be the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion. The Azov Battalion uses Nazi symbols and openly declares its belief in white supremacy and antisemitism. Many members trace their family's lineage to fighting with the Nazis against the Soviet Union during World War II.

The neo-Nazis will be trained by US forces to more effectively kill people in East Ukraine.

The United States plans to send soldiers to Ukraine in April for training exercises with units of the country's national guard. Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a Facebook post on Sunday that the units to be trained include the Azov Battalion, a volunteer force that has attracted criticism for its far-right sentiments including brandishing an emblem widely used in Nazi Germany. 

Avakov said the training will begin April 20 at a base in western Ukraine near the Polish border and would involve about 290 American paratroopers and some 900 Ukrainian guardsmen.

Not only does the Azov Battalion hold antidemocratic fascist views its activities in the field have been condemned by Amnesty International as "ISIS style war crimes." Part of the Azov Battalion's methods include decapitating captured prisoners and parading their severed heads around to inspire terror.

The US policy in Ukraine has been a nightmare from the beginning. First supporting a violent overthrow of a democratic government and now supporting and training neo-Nazi militants who have committed war crimes. What kind of Ukraine is the US trying to foster?

Pentagon Sending Troops Into Ukraine In April

According to a Department of Defense press release, the Pentagon is sending 290 US service members into Ukraine to train Ukrainian military units in April. The training will reportedly occur in the Ukrainian town of Yavoriv near the Ukraine-Poland border. The US soldiers will be from the 173rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy.

The basis for the training mission, per the press release, is to further "ongoing efforts to help sustain Ukraine's defense and internal security operations. In particular, the training will help the Ukraine government develop its National Guard to conduct internal defense operations.”

As Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland herself pointed out before Congress, the US does not have a defense treaty with Ukraine making the act of sending in troops to train Ukraine forces seemingly inappropriate if not openly provocative to Russia. Or maybe that's the point?

The government in Kiev is struggling to maintain order and has been jailing journalists and others for opposing the draft and the continued war with separatists in the east. The government also faces an increasing threat from neofascist militias known as "volunteers" that it once empowered. The militias have become antagonistic of the government and threatened to overthrow it for failing to crush the separatists.

President Poroshenko's attempts to consolidate power have been made easier by a wave of apparent suicides by former officials of overthrown President Viktor Yanukovich. Whether a weakened opposition is enough to help him fend off disaster remains to be seen as the Ukrainian economy poses just as much of a threat to his rule as the neofascist militias. Yesterday Ukraine's finance minister warned that Ukraine could be forced into defaulting on its debts if there was no restructuring soon.

Will US military involvement make the situation for Ukraine better or worse?

Venezuela: Press Laughs As State Department Spokesperson Claims US Does Not Support Coups

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro has publicly accused the United Stats of trying to foment a coup in Venezuela. The accusations come as the Obama Administration has bizarrely labeled Venezuela a national security threat to the United States despite that obviously not being true.

Maduro's accusation stems not just from being labeled a national security threat but from a plot Venezuelan security services uncovered which was publicly detailed by Madura on Venezuelan TV. According to Maduro the plot involved Carlos Manuel Osuna Saraco who operates out of New York and Miami, allegedly with the help of the US government. There is audio of Osuna dictating a statement rebel leaders should read after the coup.

If the plot is true it will be the second attempt by the US to foment a coup in Venezuela this century. The first being an amazingly blatant attempt in 2002 against President Hugo Chavez which the White House itself publicly supported before the coup was reversed and Chavez was returned to power.

Which brings us to the laughing stock State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki became yesterday when she claimed in response to Maduro's accusations:

As a matter of long standing policy the United States does not support transitions by non-constitutional means. Political transitions must be democratic, constitutional, peaceful, and legal. 

We've seen many times that the Venezuelan government tries to distract from its own actions by blaming the United States or other members of the international community for events inside Venezuela. These efforts reflect a lack of seriousness on the part of the Venezuelan government to deal with the grave situation it faces.

The Associated Press reporter, Matt Lee, immediately jumped in with quite reasonable incredulity saying "I'm sorry. Whoah, whoah, whoah. The US has a long-standing practice of not promoting [coups] - how long-standing would you say?" Lee continued audibly scoffing and laughing "In particular in South and Latin America that is not a long-standing policy."

Spokesperson Psaki attempted to deflect answering further questions from Lee on how exactly long the term "long-standing" meant. She then took a question from a reporter who - accurately - noted that the US government had supported an unconstitutional transition in Ukraine. Psaki responded that the assertion that the transition in Ukraine was unconstitutional was "ludicrous."

The Obama Administration's Venezuelan policy is getting so ridiculous even the establishment press is calling bullshit.

Budapest Agreement Divides Senate Committee Hearing On Ukraine

Today the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on the situation in Ukraine. The panels were made up with a mix of current and former government officials, anti-Putin activists, and belligerent academics. The message of the day was not hard to predict nor decipher when spoken - military confrontation with Russia by making Ukraine a formal proxy war between the US and Russia.

To justify the aggression many senators - including Corker, Menendez, and Johnson - claimed the US had made a defense treaty with Ukraine and was obligated to intervene military and "stop playing footsie with Russia." The agreement they referenced - the Budapest Memorandum - says no such thing and the aforementioned senators appeared rather upset when Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said authoritatively that the Budapest Agreement was not a defense treaty but a political agreement.

Nuland claimed she was involved in the Budapest negotiations and therefore had considerable knowledge of what it included and did not include. Senator Corker responded by saying that her statement claiming it was not a defense treaty sent a bad "signal" to US allies that may be relying on similar political agreements. Senator Menendez pushed back further claiming that if the Budapest Memorandum was simply a political agreement it could be "reinterpreted."

Multiple members of the panels referenced a report they had worked on commissioned by the Atlantic Council and Brookings Institution that proved controversial due to it concluding that $3 billion of US weapons should to be sent into Ukraine. Sending in US arms not only risks escalation but could lead to instability in Kiev if - as often occurs - the weapons fall into unintended hands such as neo-fascist militias which are a power in their own right in Ukraine.

Another focus for those testifying before the senate committee was an information war with Russia. Two former US ambassadors - Kornblum and Herbst - noted that there needed to be US propaganda to "offset Russian propaganda" and that the US has been losing the "narrative." They and other panelists promoted the view that Russia was undermining US power throughout the world, even positing a Vietnam-style domino theory with Ukraine being a key piece to prevent from falling.

It is a good time to be a cold war relic in DC.

Hawks In House Call On White House To Send Arms To Ukraine

A bipartisan group of hawkish committee chairs and rankings members in the US House of Representatives has sent a letter through Speaker John Boehner's office to President Obama calling for arms shipments to Ukraine.

Referring to the violent coup that brought down democratically elected Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych as the "Revolution of Dignity" and asserting that the events in Ukraine are a "challenge to the West" the letter claims President Obama has the authority to enter America directly into the Ukraine conflict by arming forces aligned (however temporarily) with Kiev.

The possibility that the arms will fall into the hands of neofascists is not mentioned in the letter nor the human rights abuses perpetrated by those likely to receive the weapons. Instead, the signatories appear concerned with the optics of America "leading" Europe into further escalation of the conflict.

The letter claimed that Congress had authorized US belligerence with the Ukraine Freedom Support Act and that it was time to use the authority. Outside of vague platitudes there was no mention of how the US had any interest at all in the Ukraine crisis. Nor, of course, was there a discussion of what happens once the US directly inserts itself into the conflict.

Consequences for the country appear to be less important to the members of Congress that signed the letter than the possibility of preening before the media as "tough." A cynical and reckless game that could have a tragic outcome.

The letter is signed by Speaker Boehner, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY), Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX), Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee.

US Media Dropping The Ball On Ukraine 'Volunteers'

It is no secret that the US corporate or "mainstream" media is not particularly good at journalism. A majority of the American people do not trust what they report and recent stories about fabrications from star anchors have likely only dimmed an already low lit view. In truth, the mainstream media mostly just uncritically reports what the US government claims and the distrust of the government by the public is rightly mirrored in a distrust in its stenographers.

So it should be no surprise that as the US government has ramped up its rhetoric on a crisis it helped create in Ukraine the US mainstream media has followed suit, uncritically. Part of the US government's official communications strategy is to pretend that the well known neofascist militias fighting on behalf of Kiev do not exist. The US corporate media has downplayed if not omitted the presence of the neofascist militias in the debate even as respected international news organizations such as the BBC and Guardian have given detailed reports of their activities - activities that Amnesty International has labeled as human rights abuses.

Now Director of National Intelligence and Congressional Perjurer James Clapper has called for sending weapons to Ukraine where they are almost certainly going to end up in the hands of neofascist militias often called "volunteers." Where is the US mainstream media to note the dangers of this idea?

From Glenn Greenwald:

Whatever else is true, this is yet another case of the U.S. government – followed as always by its media – fabricating a Manichean morality narrative to justify U.S. involvement and militarism. Just as the U.S. spent years funding and arming the precise extremist elements it claims it wants to combat – in Libya, in Syria, and long before that in Afghanistan – arming Ukrainian forces would empower a monstrous crew of fascists and outright Nazi sympathizers. The coup itself, which the U.S. government supported, almost certainly did exactly that.

One can debate whether empowering such thugs is a feature or a bug: it’s hardly rare for the U.S. knowingly to arm and prop up fascists and other assorted tyrants which it believes will promote its interests (see this morning’s David Ignatius column arguing that Egyptian dictator Gen. Abdel Fata Sisi is as bad as Mubarak when it comes human rights abuses, but the U.S. must continue steadfastly to support him so that he preserves “stability”). But at least when the U.S. is in bed with regimes such as the Saudis or Egyptians, most people understand the kind of allies it has embraced. In the case of Ukraine, those facts have been almost entirely excluded from mainstream discourse. Now that Obama’s leading national security official is expressly calling for the arming of those forces, it is vital that the true nature of America’s allies in this conflict be understood.

There are (at least) two sides to the Ukraine story. It is time to stop this cartoonish narrative where everyone fighting the separatists has noble intentions. Neo-Nazism is not even a new phenomenon in Ukraine, a large faction of Ukrainians fought with the Nazis against the Soviet Union during World War II and they and their descendants still celebrate those allied with the Nazis today - notably Stepan Bandera. Bandera's legacy became a political football in Ukraine being both officially honored then having that honor withdrawn by President Yanukovich.

How long can the US corporate media ignore neofascisim in Ukraine?