{"id":115511,"date":"2022-05-09T10:23:29","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T14:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=115511"},"modified":"2022-05-09T10:23:29","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T14:23:29","slug":"ukraine-seizes-another-zelensky-critic-labeling-him-a-traitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=115511","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Seizes Another Zelensky Critic, Labeling Him a \u2018Traitor\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Eric Zuesse<\/p>\n

On 5 May 2022, CIA-nazi-Ukrainians seized in Spain\u00a0Anatoly Shariy<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a libertarian political opponent of Ukraine\u2019s President Volodmyr Zelensky. In 2012, Shariy had likewise criticized the last democratically elected Ukrainian President and was persecuted by Ukraine\u2019s Government for having done so. Russia\u2019s RT News headlined about his seizure on May 5th,\u00a0\u201cPopular Ukrainian Zelensky critic arrested in Spain: Kiev accuses the exiled opposition figure of \u2018treason\u2019\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s one of a spiraling number of such cases in Ukraine, and they had started even prior to the current war between Ukraine and Russia there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not publicized, but instead carefully hidden, in today\u2019s Ukraine, is the systematic terrorizing, tracking down, and killing, of political opponents, which includes not only opposed politicians, but also investigative journalists who are digging too deeply \u2014 deeply enough to maybe jeopardize Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky\u2019s staying in office. Shariy is both a Presidential candidate and a journalist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>All of this was first solidly documented by Dan Cohen of Mint Press News, in their stunning April 14th article,\u00a0\u201cTestimony Reveals Zelensky\u2019s Secret Police Plot to \u2018Liquidate\u2019 Opposition Figure Anatoly Shariy: Accounts from the Ukrainian SBU\u2019s torture prison reveal Zelensky\u2019s plot to assassinate exiled opposition figure and leading journalist Anatoly Shariy.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>That article (which on April 17th was republished at Strategic Culture as\u00a0\u201cTestimony Reveals Zelensky\u2019s Secret Police Plot to \u2018Liquidate\u2019 Opposition Figure Anatoly Shariy\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/a>) will be summarized here, with key excerpts, and it will be placed into the broader context of the changes that have occurred in Ukraine following the change-of-power there that overthrew the democratically elected Ukrainian President, who wanted Ukraine to remain a neutral country \u2014 controlled neither by Russia nor by the United States \u2014 and replaced him by a string of rabidly anti-Russian Presidents since.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cohen\u2019s article describes the case of \u201cShariy<\/b><\/span><\/a>, a Ukrainian opposition figure and one of the country\u2019s most popular journalists.\u201d A friend of Shariy\u2019s had sent to him\u00a0an email on 7 March 2022<\/b><\/span><\/a>, and: \u201c<\/span>Four days later, Shariy\u00a0received an email<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0from [the same friend but from] a different [email] address, \u2026\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>confirming Shariy\u2019s suspicion that the first email had been written [actually] by an SBU [Security Bureau of Ukraine] agent.\u201d Shariy\u2019s friend, in this second email, \u201cexplained that he had been interrogated and tortured for his ties to Russia.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then, Shariy received a\u00a0phone call<\/i>\u00a0from that friend, telling him that the SBU \u201cwere preparing an assassination attempt\u201d to kill Shariy.<\/p>\n

Shariy himself has been living in exile,<\/p>\n

since 2012, having fled during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych and received political asylum in the EU.\u00a0<\/i>[Two years later,]\u00a0His opposition to the 2014 Maidan coup d\u2019etat \u2026 made him a target of Petro Poroshenko, who came to power in its\u00a0<\/i>[the coup<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u2019s]\u00a0wake. The neo-Nazi movements he<\/i>\u00a0[Shariy]\u00a0had exposed in prior years had gained serious political power and intensified their<\/i>\u00a0[the nazi parties\u2019 \u2014 mainly the Social-Nationalist Party of Ukraine, and the Right Sector Party]\u00a0aggression against him. In 2015, Lithuanian media branded Shariy as a \u201cfavorite friend of Putin,\u201d and the Lithuanian government soon revoked his asylum. Shariy, meanwhile, had sought protection elsewhere and relocated to Spain, where he has continued to grow into one of the most popular critics of President Volodymyr Zelensky.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

However, his predicament has hardly improved. In 2019, Alexander Zoloytkhin, a former soldier of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion<\/i>\u00a0[discussed here<\/b><\/span><\/a>], published the address and photos of the house where Shariy, his wife Olga Shariy and young child live, as well as photos of Olga\u2019s car. Ukrainian neo-Nazis demonstrated outside his house and he received numerous death threats.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Today, he is a top target of the Kiev government, neo-Nazi paramilitaries, and the SBU. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

He became a well-known critic of the 2014 U.S.-orchestrated Maidan coup d\u2019etat, using his YouTube channel video blog to amass an enormous online following. Today, he has nearly 3 million subscribers on\u00a0<\/i>YouTube<\/b><\/span><\/a>, 340,000 on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>, and 268,000 on\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>, becoming one of the country\u2019s most popular journalists despite living outside its borders for a decade.<\/i><\/p>\n

Shariy actively supported Zelensky during the campaign, attacking the incumbent Poroshenko. \u201cI thought he\u00a0<\/i>[Zelensky]\u00a0was determined to follow up on his election promises. I helped him to become the president. It\u2019s true me and my team did anything for him to get the post,\u201d Shariy told m<\/i>[e]. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

But Zelensky\u2019s carefully-crafted campaign image of a political outsider dedicated to stamping out rampant corruption \u2013 copy-pasted from his hit television series, \u201cServant of the People\u201d \u2013 turned out to be a farce.<\/i><\/p>\n

Zelensky cut deals with oligarchs and stacked his cabinet with the same figures he spent his campaign criticizing. He spurned the coalition-building efforts that typify Ukraine\u2019s multi-party parliamentary democracy, preferring to cut backroom deals for votes. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Zelensky betrayed his campaign promises of reform and meaningful progress in the Donbass stalemate, leading to a rapid decline in popular support. This left a niche open which was quickly filled by the Party of Shariy. While older voters traditionally supported Viktor Medvedchuk\u2019s \u201cOpposition Platform \u2013 For Life\u201d, Shariy\u2019s online presence and style appealed to younger generations.<\/i><\/p>\n

On the ground, Party of Shariy activists began to protest Zelensky with the same tactics they had wielded in his favor against Poroshenko,\u00a0<\/i>appearing<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0at his events and\u00a0<\/i>demanding<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0his resignation.<\/i><\/p>\n

As Shariy gained political capital and was even considered a possible contender for the presidency in a future election, the war of words between him and Zelensky turned into a bitter rivalry.<\/i><\/p>\n

Zelensky lashed out at Shariy,\u00a0<\/i>accusing<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0him of \u201ctrying to increase your rating at the expense of my rating, the rating of the president.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Ukrainian journalist Yuri Tkachev, who was recently arrested by the SBU,\u00a0<\/i>commented<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0that Shariy\u2019s party is much stronger than the polls indicate. \u201cIt is strange to think that the government would spend so much energy on an insignificant opposition party. All this makes us think that their ratings are higher than they are trying to show us,\u201d he remarked.<\/i><\/p>\n

Hunting dissidents on a political \u2018safari\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Throughout the election, the anti-Poroshenko antics of the Party of Shariy were met with severe violence from the president\u2019s base, which included ultra-nationalists and neo-fascists. Some who dared to ask Poroshenko difficult questions were beaten. In Zaporizhzhya, a man\u2019s car was set on\u00a0<\/i>fire<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and a woman was\u00a0<\/i>assaulted<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0by Poroshenko himself.<\/i><\/p>\n

This violence continued after the election. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

At a June 2020 demonstration in which Party of Shariy members demanded an investigation into the politically motivated attacks on their members, neo-Nazi groups attacked using smoke bombs and tear gas, followed by brawls inside the subway. Afterward,<\/i>\u00a0these groups announced a political \u201csafari,\u201d offering rewards for attacks on Party of Shariy members.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0This marked the escalation of violence meted out against the political opposition, especially targeting the Party of Shariy and its supporters.<\/i><\/p>\n

In one incident, masked men\u00a0<\/i>beat<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0a young man in Kharkiv, leaving him severely injured and hospitalized. In Vinnytsia, men from the neo-fascist group Edelweiss\u00a0<\/i>beat<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0a party member in broad daylight, breaking his ribs and puncturing a lung. In another incident, a member of the U.S.-trained neo-Nazi Azov Battalion\u00a0<\/i>attacked<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0a member inside their party office.<\/i><\/p>\n

While members of his party were beaten in the streets and inside their offices, Shariy was under threat. On July 8, 2020, he accused Zelensky of ordering his assassination, publishing a confession given to Catalan Police by Zoloytkhin, the man who had published his address the year before. Zoloytkhin was wanted in Ukraine for numerous serious crimes, including\u00a0<\/i>participation<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the 2016 kidnapping and beating of journalist Vladislav Bovtruk. Zoloytkhin confessed to police that top figures in the Zelensky government had instructed him to murder Shariy, and Shariy published a video confession from Zoloytkhin.<\/i><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tkMSYWqqS8g?t=1<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In February 2021, the SBU\u00a0<\/i>charged<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0Shariy with treason, accusing him of \u201cspreading Russian propaganda,\u201d and summoned him to an interrogation by the SBU. After he declined to appear, he was\u00a0<\/i>put<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on the national wanted list.<\/i><\/p>\n

Shariy is\u00a0<\/i>blacklisted<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), an online database of what its owner declared \u201cenemies of the state,\u201d containing personal information and addresses. The blacklist is affiliated with the Ukrainian government and SBU and was founded by Anton Herashchenko, now an advisor to Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Internal Affairs. The site accuses Shariy of violating the sovereignty of Ukraine and financing terrorists. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

https:\/\/archive.ph\/GZlyn\/c70ebf24727b31b0d3fbf816c6777704c7408c63.webp<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

A screenshot shows Shariy on a govt\u2019-linked website that publishes the personal details of enemies of the state<\/i><\/p>\n

Multiple figures were killed soon after their names were added to the list. On April 15, 2015, Oleh Kalashnikov, a politician from the pro-Russia Party of Regions, the party of ousted president Victor Yanukovych, was shot to death in Kiev. The next day, Oles Buzina, a prominent journalist and author who advocated for unity among Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia and campaigned to outlaw neo-Nazi organizing, was shot and killed near his apartment. The culprits were found to be Andrey Medvedko and Denis Polishchuk, neo-Nazis who had served in government and military positions \u2013 their confessions were\u00a0<\/i>published<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0by Shariy. Yet Buzina\u2019s murderers not only walk free but have\u00a0<\/i>received<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0government funding. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Zelensky has opened numerous criminal cases against Shariy. He personally enacted\u00a0<\/i>sanctions<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0against him, his wife Olga Shariy, and his wife\u2019s mother, Alla Bondarenko. Shariy\u2019s political party was banned in Zelensky\u2019s sweeping March 20\u00a0<\/i>decree<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0that criminalized all opposition parties, accusing them of ties to Russia.<\/i><\/p>\n

Prior to the Russian offensive, Shariy appeared often on Russian television, positioning himself as a neutral alternative to Zelensky and his regime of pro-EU neoliberals and neo-fascists.\u00a0<\/i>When Russian tanks rumbled across the Ukrainian border, he immediately denounced the invasion, calling the Kremlin foolish for invading a country that he believed would collapse on its own. Nonetheless, the threats against him intensified and Zelensky sought to eliminate Shariy from political life and kill him altogether<\/i>.<\/b>\u00a0\u2026<\/p>\n

Then, on April 7th, came that phone call from Shariy\u2019s friend, who told him that on March 2nd, Ukrainian intelligence agents visited him at his home in Kiev.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They took him into custody, handcuffing him and placing a sack over his head, then took him to a sports complex-turned temporary prison, connected to the main SBU headquarters,\u00a0<\/i>located<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0in central Kiev between Vladimirskaya, Irininsky, Patorzhinsky, and Malopodvalna streets. Originally constructed as a Trade Union Palace following the Russian revolution, this\u00a0<\/i>building<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0became the Bolshevik headquarters of Ukraine. Since 1938, it served as headquarters of the Gestapo during the Nazi occupation, the NKVD of the U.S.SR, and today, as a torture center for Russian prisoners of war and Ukrainians accused of having ties to Russia.<\/i><\/p>\n

Inside the narrow underground rooms converted to an expansive state security complex, Igor says, SBU agents oversee members of the \u201cTerritorial Defense\u201d \u2013 ultra-nationalist civilians and criminal elements who the government gave weapons in the streets in the first days of Russia\u2019s offensive \u2013 as they beat, torture and even kill their prisoners.<\/i><\/p>\n

Numerous prominent figures have been\u00a0<\/i>kidnapped and tortured<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0by the Territorial Defense and the SBU. Among them are mixed martial arts fighter Maxim Rindkovsky, who was beaten on video and allegedly killed, Denis Kireev, the Ukrainian negotiator who was murdered after being accused of treason, and Volodymyr Struk, the Mayor of Kreminna, who was murdered after being accused of supporting Russia. Even Dmitry Demyanenko, former SBU head of the Kiev region, was\u00a0<\/i>shot<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0dead in his car on March 10, accused of sympathy for Russia. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

In fact, the SBU is a project of the CIA. Following the 2014 coup, the security service was headed by Valentin Nalyvaichenko, who was\u00a0<\/i>recruited<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0by the CIA when he was the Consul General of Ukraine in the United States. The CIA reportedly has an entire floor in the SBU headquarters.<\/i><\/p>\n

In November 2021, Zelensky appointed Oleksandr Poklad to head the SBU\u2019s counterintelligence. A former lawyer and cop with ties to organized crime, Poklad is\u00a0<\/i>nicknamed<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u201cThe Strangler\u201d \u2013\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>a reference to his favorite method of obtaining testimony from his victims. One article describes another torture method known as \u2018The Elephant:\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cA gas mask is put on the victim of torture, and pepper tear gas from a spray can or a poisonous aerosol such as dichlorvos is launched into the gas mask hose. After such torture, an ordinary person confesses.\u00a0<\/i>\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On 21 July 2016, Amnesty International had issued\u00a0\u201cTorture and secret detention in Ukraine \u2013 new report\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/a>. It said, for example:\u00a0\u201cThe Ukrainian authorities and pro-Kiev paramilitary groups have detained civilians suspected of involvement with or supporting Russian-backed separatists, while the separatist forces have detained civilians suspected of supporting or spying for the Ukrainian government, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch found. In one case, \u2018Vadim,\u2019 39, was detained and tortured first by one side, then the other. In April last year, armed men seized him at a checkpoint controlled by Ukrainian forces, pulled a bag over his head, and questioned him about his alleged connections with Russia-backed separatists. Vadim spent more than six weeks in captivity, most of the time in a facility apparently run by Ukraine\u2019s Security Service (SBU) personnel. His interrogators tortured him with electric shocks, burned him with cigarettes, and beat him, demanding that he confess to working for Russia-backed separatists<\/i>.\u00a0After they finally released him, Vadim returned to Donetsk and was immediately detained by the local de facto authorities, who suspected him of having been recruited by Ukraine\u2019s Security Service during his time in captivity. He spent more than two months in incommunicado detention in an unofficial prison in central Donetsk, where his captors also beat and ill-treated him<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0The entire report<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0is 42 pages, and Vadim\u2019s case is summarized on its page 6, at the start of the Report\u2019s \u201cSummary.\u201d Nowhere in the Report is that term \u201cill-treated\u201d defined. However, that same page also employs the phrase \u201ctorture and other forms of ill-treatment.\u201d Consequently, one may reasonably infer that \u201ctorture\u201d relates to only the worst forms of \u201cill-treatment.\u201d Though \u201ctorture\u201d was alleged regarding Vadim\u2019s allegations against Ukraine\u2019s government, the term \u201cill-treatment\u201d was alleged regarding his allegations against the breakaway republics. There is\u00a0every indication that Ukraine\u2019s present Government is nazi-controlled<\/b><\/span><\/a>, but neither in the breakaway republics nor in Crimea is the Government racist-fascist (or \u201cnazi\u201d): they are the exact opposite \u2014 intensely anti-nazi \u2014 and so, too, is Russia\u2019s Federal Government. Whereas America and its CIA brought in and protected many thousands of Nazis after WW II, the Soviet Union did the opposite: searched for them and killed them. Today\u2019s Russia is continuing that aspect of its predecessor\u2019s policies. Allegations in The West to the contrary are not merely lies: they are obscene, vicious, anti-historical, lies, which come from the\u00a0true heirs of<\/i>\u00a0(in fact, the modernized versions of) Hitler, Gehlen, and Goebbels.<\/p>\n

Cohen\u2019s article continued, referring to Shariy\u2019s friend who had warned him, by the pseudonym \u201cIgor,\u201d as follows:<\/p>\n

The SBU also closely collaborates with neo-Nazi groups including Right Sector, Azov, and C14, which was contracted by the Ukrainian government to conduct street patrols.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2018A small Guantanamo\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Inside the sports complex-turned temporary torture prison, Igor says the sack over his head was replaced with a blindfold, leaving him only he could only see his legs.<\/i><\/p>\n

A Ukrainian businessman who had long worked in transportation logistics \u2013 including stints in Moscow \u2013 a story typical of many Ukrainians, since returning to Kiev, Igor had maintained business ties to Moscow and Crimea, which had joined the Russian Federation after a successful referendum in 2014.<\/i><\/p>\n

Several family members, including his mother, live in Russia and he regularly visited them until relations between the two countries reached a boiling point in 2021. \u201cWith the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the events of February 24, my mother started to call me very often because she was very afraid of my status,\u201d he told me.<\/i><\/p>\n

Territorial Defense began to round up anyone suspected of sympathizing with Russia, as well as Ukrainians with cross-border ties, whether family or business.<\/i><\/p>\n

Inside the makeshift prison, Igor says he identified 25 to 30 distinct voices of imprisoned men, and saw 10 to 12 men in Russian military uniforms, what he believes were prisoners of war. Two of the Russians were severely beaten in order to motivate the others to give on-camera testimony about their hate for Putin and opposition to the war.<\/i><\/p>\n

Other detainees were religious people known for assembling at military installations to pray for peace and homeless people who had no way to abide by the evening curfew and were swept up by nighttime patrols.<\/i><\/p>\n

While many of those inside the complex were kept for a couple of hours and released, others were severely beaten. \u201cIt was like a small Guantanamo,\u201d Igor recalled.<\/i><\/p>\n

Igor says that he was interrogated three times, with each session lasting between 15 and 30 minutes. The beatings were carried out by Territorial Defense volunteers while SBU officers instructed them on how to torture and asked him questions.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThey used a lighter to heat up a needle, then put it under my fingernails,\u201d he told me. \u201cThe worst was when they put a plastic bag over my head and suffocated me and when they held the muzzle of a Kalashnikov rifle to my head and forced me to answer their questions.<\/i><\/p>\n

But he says the suffering he endured was minor in comparison to the torture of the Russian prisoners of war, who were beaten with metal pipes while the Ukrainian national anthem played on repeat in the background. \u201cI could hear it because all the torture was done in a nearby room. It was psychologically severe. This was done at night, the sounds of beatings were constant. It was difficult to sleep.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Listening to conversations of other prisoners, Igor understood that two prisoners from Belarus were beaten to death, identifying one as a man named Sergey. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

When SBU agents found videos of Shariy on Igor\u2019s phone, officers from a separate department were called in. From then on, they began to treat him better, removing his handcuffs and giving him larger quantities of food. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as I understood, based on the information that I had to convey, the liquidation of Anatoly Shariy was being prepared, since he poses a danger to the government of Ukraine and criticizes the actions of the SBU, the government, and President Zelensky,\u201d he told me. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Now in an EU country, Igor is facing an uncertain future and is unable to return to Ukraine. \u201cI am afraid, not only for my own life but for my relatives and my friends,\u201d he says. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

With opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk, bruised and apparently beaten, in the custody of SBU, the threat against Shariy is clear. He continues to receive death threats against him and his family, sometimes 100 per day, he says.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Also, besides what Cohen\u2019s article discusses, there are instances of government-officials in Ukraine, such as\u00a0Volodmyr Struk<\/b><\/span><\/a>, who was\u00a0a town\u2019s mayor in eastern Ukraine who happened to be an \u201cadviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/a>;<\/span>\u00a0and Struk publicly called for the government to recognize Russia\u2019s own national-security concerns about having such an anti-Russian nation as Ukraine next-door. He was then assassinated and labeled as having been a \u201ctraitor,\u201d in order to prevent any such policy from being considered by the public, or in the government. Likewise, Denis Kireev, a member of Zelensky\u2019s negotiating team with the Russians, was\u00a0assassinated and labeled as a \u201ctraitor.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0Furthermore, regular citizens of Ukraine who speak out publicly for peace with Russia\u00a0become tortured and publicly condemned as \u201ctraitor.\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0Hitler\u2019s SS did the same sorts of things. Back in those times, America was anti-Nazi, but today\u2019s America funds and backs nazis, because these nazis hate Russians like America\u2019s own rulers do.<\/p>\n

Cohen\u2019s article isn\u2019t really about Shariy (who may be good, or may be bad), but about a government \u2014 the Government of Ukraine \u2014 which functions in the way that nazi governments do, and NOT in any way as a democratic government does. This is a fact that ought to be widely known in the United States, and in the EU, because the governments there are supporting and arming that Government; and this, in turn, says something about THOSE Governments : and about their self-alleged references\u00a0to<\/i>\u00a0themselves as \u2018supporting democracy and the rule of law\u2019. If those self-descriptions are not propaganda, then propaganda does not exist anywhere. Consequently, lying like that besmirches the very\u00a0meaning<\/i>\u00a0of \u201cdemocracy\u201d and should therefore be called what it is: very dangerous propaganda. If pro-Ukrainian-Government propaganda is\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0pro-racist-fascist or pro-nazi propaganda, then what\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0it? Is it not just lies but very dangerous lies? This is the reason why I hope that Cohen\u2019s article will be receiving more public attention than\u00a0it has<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0(which is very little).<\/p>\n

On May 1, the leader of the U.S. House of Representatives visited Ukraine with a delegation of Representatives. The\u00a0New York Times<\/i>\u00a0headlined\u00a0\u201cPelosi Visit to Ukraine Signals Growing U.S. Resolve Against Russia\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and reported that it was after \u201ca secret trip to Kyiv\u201d:<\/p>\n

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Ukraine\u2019s capital over the weekend, leading the second senior American delegation to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky in a week and declare support for his country\u2019s fight to beat back the Russian invasion. With each visit \u2014 the secretaries of state and defense traveled to Kyiv last weekend \u2014 the promise of American commitment to a Ukrainian victory appears to grow, even as how the United States defines victory has remained uncertain.<\/i><\/p>\n

On Sunday, a day after her visit to Ukraine, Ms. Pelosi told a news conference in Poland: \u201cAmerica stands with Ukraine. We stand with Ukraine until victory is won. And we stand with NATO.\u201d \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Her visit, with a congressional delegation, followed a joint visit to Kyiv by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III only last Sunday. Mr. Austin caused some controversy and debate afterward when he appeared to shift the goal of the war from defending Ukraine\u2019s independence and territorial sovereignty to weakening Russia.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can\u2019t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,\u201d Mr. Austin said, implying that the United States wanted to erode Russian military power for years to come. \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

There is a sense in Europe that \u201cthe U.S. is dragging everyone into a different war,\u201d said Fran\u00e7ois Heisbourg, a French defense analyst, citing similar comments by Illegitimate President Biden about \u201cthe butcher of Moscow\u201d and how \u201cPutin must go.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Some wonder what Washington is trying to say \u2014 or do.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cTo help Ukraine prevail is not about waging war against Russia for reasons related to its governance,\u201d Mr. Heisbourg said. \u201cRegime change may be a vision, but not a war aim.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

He and others said that such talk from Washington plays perfectly into Mr. Putin\u2019s narrative that NATO is waging war against Russia, and that Russia is fighting a defensive war for its survival in Ukraine.<\/i><\/p>\n

Alex Christaforou at The Duran headlined\u00a0\u201cPelosi says \u2018WE\u2019 are fighting Russia\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/a>, and presented video of her speech saying as much.<\/p>\n

Apparently, World War III has begun. The U.S. Congress is almost unanimous in supporting shipment of tens of billions of dollars worth of additional U.S.-made heavy weaponry to Ukraine so as to defeat Russia there, using American weaponry and Ukrainian soldiers (and inevitably many Ukrainian civilian casualties also), so as to get \u2018Russia to sue for peace\u2019 and Putin overthrown and replaced by a new government that America\u2019s Government will then approve, in order that America can then turn its attentions to ultimately conquering Communist China also, and effectively rule over the entire world. That\u2019s obviously the plan now. And the European Union is also solidly backing it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}