Ukraine: Beyond the Tipping Point

Ukraine is now spinning into civil war and chaos. The opposition – backed by the US and EU – executing a Parliamentary coup with the support of armed protesters on the streets of Kiev against the sitting President, Yanukovych.

The opposition had reached an agreement with Yanukovych but then decided to renege on it. Yanukovych, had agreed to hand over most of his executive powers to the Parliament, elections within 6 months and pulling back the riot police. This was to be accompanied by the armed gangs that have been battling the police in Kiev for the last few weeks to disarm and go home. Post the accord, armed groups – spearheaded by neo-Nazi militias – took control of Kiev once the police was withdrawn, and the Parliament “deposed” Yanukovych by-passing all constitutional measures and announcing the current speaker of the Parliament, Oleksandr Turchinov, as the new “interim” president. Yanukovytch, who at every instance dithered, finally capitulating to the opposition, has fled Kiev, though he still continues to regard himself as the President and holds his deposition as illegal.

Image Courtesy:wikipedia.org

Though Ukraine appears as one country, it has – like many others – ethnic and other divisions. The eastern part has a large number of Russian speakers, and is also more industrialised with deep economic ties to Russia. The western part feels itself closer to the EU, is poorer and largely agrarian. The Ukraine “nationalists” or those who are regarded by the western media as “nationalists” trace their origin to the fascist formations that allied with Nazi Germany and collaborated with massacres committed then. The third largest party in the opposition is Svoboda, with deep ties to the Nazi period Ukrainian fascists. The Privy Sektor (First Sector) is an openly fascist formation, and has been in the forefront of the clashes with the police in recent weeks, using Molotov cocktails, and even guns in its attack on the Ukrainian state. While the western media has played up the “atrocities” of the Ukrainian state authorities under Yanukovych, the number of policeman who have died with gunshot injuries is comparable to the casualties among the rioters.

Post the coup by the Parliament and the opposition, the governments in the eastern region have withdrawn their riot police components from Kiev and other western Ukraine towns. They have also declared that they will not pay their share of taxes to the central government and are raising forces and local militias to protect themselves. Meanwhile, the Parliament has passed laws reversing the concurrent use of Russian in courts and administration where there is a more than 10% of Russian speakers. There is now a real threat of both sides – eastern and western Ukraine – moving towards a break-up.

The current coup is very much a part of regime change agenda of the US and EU. For the neo-con establishment in the US, the target is not just dismantling Ukraine but Russia itself. Robert Gates described in his memoir, Duty what Dick Cheney wanted. “When the Soviet Union was collapsing in late 1991, Dick wanted to see the dismantlement not only of the Soviet Union and the Russian empire but of Russia itself...” This is the agenda that the US has pursued, with EU as its partner. The differences between the EU and the US has been who are the actors who should lead Ukraine once regime change takes place. Should it be Vitali Klischko, the former heavy-weight world boxing champion that Germany is backing or should it be Yatsenyuk, the close associate of Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Prime Minister. Tymoshenko was convicted for corruption and was serving a seven year jail sentence and is looked upon with a great deal of suspicion by the Ukraine people. One of the first act of the Parliament after seizing power from the President was to release Tymoshenko.

The US and its spokesperson have made no bones about their regime change agenda. Ambassador Pyatt hailed the coup as “a day for the history books.” The leaked phone conversation between Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State and the US Ambassador, Geoffrey Pyatt talked about the new regime they wanted to put in place, who should lead it and who should not, making clear from who is the strings of the “opposition”. The “f*ck EU” comment of Nuland's that became major news was only a complaint about the speed with which the EU was moving and wanting to have a major role for Klitschko, Angela Merkel's favourite. Klitschko, though a Ukrainian, resides in Germany and pays his taxes there. The deeper significance of two US officials discussing the replacement of a duly elected government in Ukraine was “missed” by the western media.

Not that Nuland's views and the US activities were secret in any case. Addressing the International Business Conference on Ukraine in Washington last December, Nuland had said, “Since the declaration of Ukrainian independence in 1991, the United States supported the Ukrainians in the development of democratic institutions and skills in promoting civil society and a good form of government ...We have invested more than 5 billion dollars to help Ukraine to achieve these and other goals.” The consequence of all this money being invested to promote “democracy” are now there for all to see.

The deeply disturbing aspect of the regime change exercise is the rise of the neo-Nazi militias who have taken control of the protests and are now acting as the armed thugs of the opposition. The fascist Privy Sektor has called for banning of Party of Regions (Yanukovych's party) and the Communist Party of Ukraine. Its program is to remove all Russian influence from Ukraine, despite deep ties between Ukraine and Russia. Meanwhile, one of the leading Rabbi in Ukraine, Rabbi Azman has asked Jews to leave Kiev and if possible the country.

The regime change in progress in Ukraine has been bought and paid for by the western powers. It is dividing Ukraine as never before and tipping the country over into civil war. The eastern states refusing to taxes to the central government makes Ukraine even more ungovernable. Ukraine is not a small country; it is also economically bankrupt. Bankrolling street gangs and a few opposition figures is cheap; bankrolling a bankrupt economy is beyond EU and the US capacity. EU cannot even bail out Greece, a country and an economy much smaller than Ukraine's.

We have only to look at Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and now Syria to see the effect of the west's bringing “democracy” to different countries. In this case, Ukraine is a pawn in a deeper game to isolate and finally de-stabilise Russia. Just as Syria and its “rebels” were pawns in the geopolitical struggle against Iran in West Asia.

Letting the dogs of war loose in a country is easy. It is winning the peace that is the problem with the US and west's policy of regime change and wars that they are fomenting in different parts og the world.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick