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The Surge of The Heavy Brigades

By Sazzad Hussain

22 April, 2014
Countercurrents.org

When Lord Tennyson penned his famous war tribute The Charge of The Light Brigade in 1854, the Anglophonic world was mesmerised by the act of bravery of the British soldiers who had earned martyrdom at the hands of the Russians during the Crimean war. Now 160 years later, there is the same battlefield for the same imperialistic (read military-corporate interests) that are engaged in hectic manoeuvrings for the control of one of the strategically most important region of the world—Black Sea and the Eurasian corridor inhabited by a most diverse ethnic population. The battle between Russia and US led west for the control of Ukraine in the last few months has reached such a level that it is really unbelievable to think that we are in a post-Cold War world. In fact the former Cold War adversaries are making war cries at the cost of a population who would face Nazi and Fascist forces if the so called, media hyped ‘democratic regime change’ in Ukraine succeeds. Yes, it is the surge of the heavy brigade (read Russia and NATO) in Ukraine, for Crimea which can escalate into an transnational conflict in the fragile Caucasus-Caspian region—known for diversity and most importantly for its energy reserves.

The Ukrainian crisis is the continuation of the western hegemonic designs perused since the fall of the USSR. When last Soviet leader Gorbachev ensured the end of communism in the eastern European countries, including dissolving the Warsaw Pact, the then US President George H. Bush assured him that NATO won’t be expanded towards the east. Actually NATO, a Cold War establishment, should have been ceased as soon as its rival Warsaw Pact was dissolved. But the Brussels based western military alliance was kept alive, even made relevant by engaging its air power for strikes in Saddam’s Iraq in 1991. Later President Clinton used the same in Bosnia and Serbia to end the Balkan civil war on their (west) terms. Since then there has been concerted efforts by Brussels to expand NATO deep inside the east up to the Russian border. After inducting the three Baltic republics of the USSR—Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, NATO expanded its fold over Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic and Slovakia. Earlier Russian President Boris Yeltsin had emboldened NATO by offering his country for its membership. So Brussels has been aiming to encircle the post-Soviet Russia from various corners, mostly from the strategically important Georgia, energy rich Azerbaijan and Ukraine—the most prosperous ex-Soviet republic.
In the chaotic first phase of the post-Soviet era, Russia, which inherited the superpower infrastructure and military hardware of the USSR, signed alliances with most of the ex-republics—Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kirgizstan to retain the military and other unions. Other ex-Soviet Republics had territorial disputes like Abkhazia and Ossetia secessionism in Georgia and demands for accession with Romania in Moldova. Ukraine, which was the barn house of USSR, hosted the Black Sea fleet of the Russian navy. Like all other ex-Soviet Republics, Ukraine also has a considerable Russian population besides ethnic Turks, Greeks, Jews and Tartars. As earlier done by Napoleon and Hitler, the west has been trying hard to enter Ukraine militarily to weaken Russia, and unfortunately, as it happened in the past, Russia does not have a natural barrier to prevent invaders to enter through its western border.

While in the past one and half decades the US has been engaged in military adventurism in Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Afghanistan (and Iraq again), Libya and fighting a costly war on terror, Russia, led by Putin, has progressed itself as an energy giant in the entire Eurasian region dictating terms to western governments without using force. However it also fought a deadly war against Islamist terror in Chechnya and Dagestan—whose western backed cadres blasted bombs during Boston Marathon last year. Similarly in the post-Cold War era, America also pumped money, satellite media and think tanks for installation of pro-western, market friendly regimes on the bordering nations of Russia as well as in the Slavic states, a measure popularly called velvet revolution. It was successful in Belgrade (2000), Tbilisi (2003) but failed in Kiev (2004). Since then there has been concerted efforts by the western military alliances to consolidate their presence in Ukraine, on the doorsteps of Russia. For that the west even did not refrain from collaborating with neo-Nazi groups whose origin dates back to the period of German occupation of USSR in 1941. Actually historically Ukraine has been the scapegoat of the ‘Great Schism’ of the Christianity in which the Jesuits formed the Uniate Church in Kiev in the sixteenth century as a compromise between Vatican and Orthodox Church. After that Vatican has been active to serve western interests in Ukraine and led an anti-Bolshevik campaign along with the British and French intelligence agencies in 1917. It also supported Hitler when he entered USSR via Poland to create a ‘greater Ukraine’ to ensure supply of wheat and industrial equipment to Germany. Initially both London and Paris backed Hitler over Ukraine. After the 1941 invasion, many Ukrainian militias collaborated with the Nazis in killing Jews, Communists and partisans. A Ukrainian armed brigade led by Stepan Bandera served under the German command during WW-II which subsequently surrendered to the British forces in Klagenfurt, Austria in May, 1945. Bandera, along with other Ukrainian personnel, were given civilian migration to Britain with Vatican’s endorsement because of his earlier association with the western powers. Since its independence from the USSR, Ukrainian leaders of Nazi past has been promoted by western capitals to create an atmosphere to make NATO’s involvement in its soil and to undermine Russia.

When moves were made in Georgia in 2008 to induct into NATO fold, Russia responded by sending its troops to help the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and Ossetia. This time in Ukraine, the February 24 coup by neo-Nazi mercenaries, praised as Maidan Revolution by the western media, it is the far-right Svoboda party, which has roots to Bandera’s Nazi wing, forming the interim government by forcing out the democratically elected president and parliamentarians. Its leader Arseney Yatsenyuk, is a banker, who is supposed to accede demands of IMF and international banks for austerity measures in exchange of “bailout” of Ukrainian debt. Meanwhile Victoria Nuland, US Asst. Secy. Of State has meetings with Yatsenyuk promising $5 billion as aid aimed at to take control of Ukraine’s Nuclear capabilities inherited from USSR. Backed by the powerful western military and corporate establishments, these neo-Nazi leaders of Ukraine is now aiming to eliminate the country’s historic affinities with Russia and other Slavic states. Like all other ex-Soviet republics, Ukraine too has a sizable Russian population The Black Sea port city of Crimea was indeed a Russian territory which was given to Ukraine in 1954 after an agreement during the Soviet system. As the Maidan forces were in control of power in Kiev, Russia send its troops and armed men to protect its interests inside the country. Crimea, which has a Russian majority, refused to be under Kiev led by xenophobic leaders and voted its secession to become a Russian territory. Thus there is a surge of heavy powers to charge a strategic nation to create the same history.

Sazzad Hussain is a freelancer based in Assam , e-mail:[email protected]

 


 



 

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