Illustrative Image
Written by Eric Zuesse
On January 29th, the Washington Post published an op-ed by the well-known Yale neoconservative Timothy Snyder, titled “Putin’s case for invading Ukraine rests on phony grievances and ancient myths”. Key passages in Snyder’s article are:
Last July, Vladimir Putin supplied the mythical basis [BAD LINK FROM SNYDER: here is a functional link to see Putin’s article] for Russian war propaganda in an essay titled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” The essential idea is that Russia has the right to Ukraine because of things that happened a thousand years ago in Kyiv. … It takes some fanciful thinking to see here a reason for Russia to invade Ukraine in the 21st century, as it seems prepared to do. … Putin’s idea is that Ukraine is a fraternal nation because of how he personally feels about the past. This is known as imperialism. It flies in the face of the basic legal principle of state sovereignty and the basic moral principle of democracy.
Putin’s article did NOT assert that “Russia has the right to Ukraine because of things that happened a thousand years ago in Kyiv.” It didn’t even assert that “Russia has the right to invade Ukraine.” Furthermore, the allegation that Putin’s view that’s expressed there advocates “imperialism. It flies in the face of the basic legal principle of state sovereignty and the basic moral principle of democracy” is likewise a boldfaced lie. Moreover, Russia’s Government has consistently denied that it has any intention to invade Ukraine, but instead asserts that if Ukraine invades Donbass, then Russia will not allow that invasion to conquer the residents there. Russia’s position has consistently been that only the people who live in Donbass have the right to determine whether or not — and the terms under which — they will be ruled by the government in Kiev that was installed (against the will of over 90% of them) in February 2014 when the democratically elected President of Ukraine was forcibly overthrown by what America’s Government calls a “democratic revolution,” and by what Russia’s Government and the head of the “private-CIA” U.S. firm Stratfor, and many historians, call a coup, which was imposed by the Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning U.S. President Barack Obama’s Administration, in order to replace Russia’s naval base on Crimea by a new U.S. naval base there (which Obama wasn’t able to do, though his coup conquering Ukraine otherwise succeeded). Several of the mercenaries that the U.S. hired (some from Georgia, for example, as shown in these videos) subsequently confessed to having participated in it. (And, subsequently, the U.S. regime charged Putin with ‘aggression against Ukraine’, and with ‘seizing Crimea’, and issued sanctions against Russia for that.)
Here are some key passages from Putin’s article (the article that Snyder lies against):
The determination of nationality, particularly in mixed families, is the right of every individual, free to make his or her own choice. But the fact is that the situation in Ukraine today is completely different because it involves a forced change of identity. And the most despicable thing is that the Russians in Ukraine are being forced not only to deny their roots, generations of their ancestors but also to believe that Russia is their enemy. … And I will say one thing – Russia has never been and will never be ‘anti-Ukraine’. And what Ukraine will be – it is up to its citizens to decide.
Putin, as well as Francois Hollande of France, and Angela Merkel of Germany, brought the Donbass government and the Ukraine government together in 2015 and got the Donbass and Ukraine to sign onto an agreement in Minsk, promising that those two then-warring parties would call a truce until both of them would agree to negotiate together and arrange some degree of autonomy for Donbass within the Ukrainian federation, but after it was all signed, Ukraine (with backing from the U.S.) steadily refused to negotiate at all with Donbass. Merkel, Hollande, and Putin, had worked together to get the Minsk accords agreed-to and signed by the two sides, but the Ukrainian side then stonewalled, refusing to comply with the agreement. Putin’s consistent position has been the same as Hollande’s and Merkel’s, on this, and remains so to this day: BOTH sides must comply. (Donbass has always been willing, but Ukraine never.)
The rest of Putin’s article is a history of the relationship that has existed between Russia and Ukraine. Snyder’s article that alleges to be about Putin’s article ignores that history, just as he lies about the rest of the article. And that’s from a Professor at Yale.
(The present article is being submitted to over 200 U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media including the Washington Post, for possible publication.)
No one from the general public reads the WaPo (or anything from MSM) unless they’re bored, needing something to do for the day.
“Saddam has WMDs” – was it a lie? YES, did it work? YES. The yanquis are so fuking rtded to the outside world and they believe any BS or just lie to themselves if that makes them feel better about themselves. They are so full of themselves.
Remember Julian Assange? He just published some of the US war crimes to the world. They are going to kill him by all means, now do you think any of their fuking MSM dare to do so? To say we are just using Ukr to see how strong Russia is.
Saddam didn;t have WMD for sure. But those that helped for the overthrow of Saddam were Arabs, Iranians, Turks and Kurds.
brainWashington Post = Bezos’ toilet paper.
Interesting that the Russian position is similar to the position of Israel. Freedom is relational. Syria cant entrench Iranian soldiers, militias, nor weapons. lol Russian security should be in the hands of Russia, not in the decisions of others. In line with that principle, Russia can do a lot to create depth within its own territory. Russia should build alliances and develop defensive tech. When the US needed a wall, it built one. When Nokor was about to be overrun, China stepped in. lol Canada despite US plans to invade keeps a good relationship with the US. But to invade to create space or to save Russian people in historic lands evokes WW2 cassus belli. lol
Thank you, I was thinking more or less the same thing and I have to say I totally agree with Snyder but with some minor correction:
“The essential idea is that Russia Khazars has have the right to Ukraine Palestine because of things that happened a thousand [s] years ago in Kyiv Quds. … It takes some fanciful thinking to see here a reason for Russia Khazars to invade Ukraine Palestine in the 21st 20th century, as it seems prepared to do they did.
I guess I’ll be a vile Anti-Semith for even thinking about that… Woohoo!
Yeah because Iranian, Egyptian, Yemeni or Moroccan Jews are Khazars. lol
Wow. Well, when the washington post learns how to spell the word history and understand what that word means, at the same time, it can consider itself worthy of talking to someoneone other than its mommy… Out loud… In front of other people…
One can be certain the Pig Bezos will not be publishing a similar work about why it is that perfectly acceptable that certain ethnic people who claim a right on land that was never owned in any modern, documented sense in the past 2,000 years but the WP finds it PERFECTLY acceptable and applaudable when THEY make claims to territories. That one way of knowing Who is running things in this Clown World 🤡 . It’s no accident George Orwell made the Swine to be the rulers in Animal Farm.
Oink oink… that’s anti septic…oh vei
The Washington Compost…