Sasha
28th March 2014, 16:34
Ukraine is a war between two predators, there are no lesser evils (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/2014/03/27/ukraine-is-a-war-between-two-predators-there-are-no-lesser-evils/)
Posted by Sietededos on Mar - 27 - 2014
ALBERTO BUITRE / OFICIO ROJO – Oleg Yasinsky is a Ukrainian journalist, living in Chile. His perspective of the Ukrainian conflict is unique from a natural point of view. He’s from Ukraine and like a few he knows in Spanish what is going on there, from an historic perspective.
I’ve chat with him about it and his analysis is really interesting.
Even though many sectors of the global left defend the steps taken by Vladimir Putin against the fascism in Kiev and the US/EU intervention, the reality show us that Russia is just another imperialism which aims to sack the Ukrainian labor class to favor the Russian capital.
To put it into words: “Let’s take a good look and we will see in his fangs and claws the same human blood. Is a war between predators and none of them is innocent neither less evil.”
Next is the interview, that some may not like, but without doubt offers a forgotten perspective, here what matters is the people and the Ukrainian labor class, Without imperialism, neither American nor Russian.
http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0336-580x326.jpg (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0336.jpg)
OFICIO ROJO: We know the crysis in Ukraine started due to the conflict between the ones who favors the EU or Russia, please give us an historical context for what’s actually happening in the country.
OLEG YASINSKY: The actual show of Ukraine started with the historical fraud known as Perestrioka. The power in the new independent republics was taken by criminal groups, the privatization of the Soviet heritage and the looting of the natural resources was managed by the ex-first secretaries of the communist party that in a matter of days turned to anti-communist and Pinochet admirers.
Later the new oligarch groups and a new politic class were formed to defend their interests, the most corrupt government in the short history of the Ukrainian republic was by far the one of the recently defeated Victor Yanukovich, who was the closest ally to Putin’s government, defending the interests of the Russian capital.
A popular rebellion ended his government, but it didn’t managed to become a revolution, because from the start was controlled by far right groups.
Behind these groups and the new government in Kiev lies the Interests of the European and American capital, the IMF and NATO, with this change they try to extend themselves to the western border of Russia.
Inside this all this the Ukrainian lest is nowhere to be seen, because the traditional Communist and Socialist parties have from the beginning been with Oligarch groups and have done a huge damage to the socialist ideas in the country, that today are being seen as Stalinism or with other opportunistic parties.
Something similar happens with the Russian Communist Party, which is one of the most conservatives and right-wing parties and loyal ally of Putin, since there’s no alternatives in the left, the post-Soviet right and far right keep growing.
OR: Is in Ukraine possible to say that the first fascist coup in modern European history have taken place?
OY: This term have been used by Putin’s propaganda to justify the pressure and possibly a military invasion to another sovereign country, well supposedly sovereign.
I can be wrong but instead of a Fascist coup, i would rather talk about a civil rebellion that put in power the most right-wing government in Europe, this government lacks institutional legitimacy, is Neoliberal with an 8% of Nazi movements and organizations representatives, some will say that in Kiev a fascist coup took place, I live in Chile and for me a fascist coup is another thing.
Victor Yanukovich’s government apart from being absolutely corrupt reached to control every power of the state and he despised any democratic procedure, there didn’t exist legal mechanism in the country or conditions to change that power.
Following the questions logic we could also call coup the Nicaraguan Revolution that ended the tyranny of Somoza’s clan. The problem of Ukraine resides that instead of the Sandinistas there were the far right nationalists that pushed the weak and unpopular government of Yanukovich to its fall, that way the rebellion of the Ukrainians against the corruption and mafia in power created another power, even more dangerous to the people than the former.
But talking about a “Fascist Government” or a “Fascist coup” in Ukraine sound more like propaganda than reality to me.
http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0337-580x326.jpg (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0337.jpg)
OR: What is the origin of the fascist groups that assaulted Kiev in the so called Euromaidan?
OY: I think it has to do with the huge void generated by the absence of the left. Why? An important part of the Ukrainian left was annihilated during Stalin’s era. Later after WW2 the Soviet model of socialism, dogmatic and bureaucratic turned into a double standards school where the new generations of professional opportunists was formed, they were an important part of the Soviet republic’s socialist parties, and when the “real socialism” fell, they were the first to change the jacket and support the neoliberal reforms.
The actual Communist parties of the ex-USSR are just living fossils and allies of the capitalist governments. Let’s add to this sad reality a huge anti-communist campaign in the main Ukrainian and Russian media that after 25 years have not stopped… Result: the left pretty much doesn’t exists.
The strong social problems created by the restoration of a savage capitalism in the ex-USSR, the conscious destruction of the historic memory of its peoples and the massive propaganda of the capitalist antivalues in the media, lead the desperate people to find for irrational answers to their real and urgent problems. And fascism appears like one of the first offers, like always disguised as patriotic nationalism and other covers that sell.
In a time when the traditional parties are being rejected by the people, the fascism appears as a Young, creative, energetic, force, able to offer the people simple and concrete solutions.
After the “orange revolution” of 2004, the pro-western government of Victor Yuschenko officially recognized the Ukrainian anti-communist guerrilla UNA UNOS and even honored them, from the beginning his politic rival the pro-Russian president Victor Yanukovich gave green light to the neo-Nazi movement Svoboda, thinking in his reelection for the second term and wishing to confront a fascist rival, which should have ensured him success.
The president was wrong. Svoboda and his Nazis allies were active and creative, they grew without competition and during the last few months they surpassed the support of Yanukovich’s corrupt government.
OR: Do the people who took power in Kiev have any real future?
OY: If we are talking of Svoboda and his allies, that are more visible in the media, but they aren’t the only ones that took power in Kiev, an Russian invasion would be a great gift for them because then they would have a real cause to fight for, everything that has to do with war, national pride, patriotic marches and other idiocies is their terrain. It’s what they dream about. And the Russian government is about to deliver all of that to them.
Also, an eventual war would justify the cuts in social expenses, a bigger dependency on their western allies and banks allies, suspension of personal freedoms and rights to dissent and the persecution of political opponents… But that’s already another issue…
OR: The propaganda talks a lot of “Russia yes” and “Russia no” for Ukraine as a country, but what does the Ukrainian labor class wants?
OY: You would have to ask them. I guess they don’t want to serve the interests of their masters who are just about to start a war. I don’t think there exists a big importance between the nationalities of the oligarchs, because their money has no country. The future deaths neither.
I also guess that big countries can’t invade others because they just don’t like their governments or to defend their “vital interests”. You can invade if there’s a genocide and there’s no other way to stop it. For example in 1978 when Vietnam invaded Cambodia to liberate it from the horrors of Pol Pot, but that’s not the case in Ukraine.
I think it’s sad that many leftist media lose all capacity to critic and they turn to Putin’s government, I think many still confuse the Soviet Union with Russia, a country with the most savage of capitalisms, anti-communist in essence, very corrupted and under the control of oligarch groups, I think we must not fall under the blackmail of “lesser evil”.
Being Ukrainian my first language is Russian and i identify myself a lot more with the Russian culture than with the Ukrainian, I think with my words I’m not attacking Russia nor wrongly defending Ukraine.
In this historical moment Russia has way more resources to offer “more convenient” income to its population. Despite tremendous social injustice, Russia now is way better economically than a decade ago, Seeing it that way many will say that being part of Russia is more convenient than being part of Ukraine, But we also know that not everything is measured by money and opportunities and I know that many Ukrainian workers will choose to stay with this real Ukraine of today and fight for it, so one day this country can be theirs. Speaking about Ukrainians I mean all the people of all the Ukrainian born ethnicities.
http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0338-580x414.jpg (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0338.jpg)
OR: Will Ukraine be the jewel in dispute between two imperialisms, Russian-BRICS and the Euro-American?
OY: We don’t know, in the long run what will matter is the maturity of the Ukrainian people and also the international solidarity.
That’s why I think is very important not to fall in this logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, and if we consider ourselves against imperialism and left-wing, to not defend the ethically no indefensible.
We need a NO to this war, the one that neoliberalism is about to unleash on humanity. In this days I remember the Che and his idea of the movement of unaligned countries… We ne a left unaligned with any power.
This war “against the Nazis” in Kiev makes me remember the war “against terrorism” of Bush and promises to have similar effects, And with that of “defending the Russian population” i remember in 1980 when the United States invaded the Little island of Grenada under that pretext, any difference?
It’s not about the anti-fascist convictions of Putin. His most evident reasons are: the defense of the capital of Russian economic groups; looking for more popularity through chauvinism that always generate wars (in the last ten days his popularity grew by almost 10%), the need to intimidate the Russian opposition groups and the desire to show that Russia is a superpower just like the US that can act to protect its interests.
Also a considerable part of the Russian people still thinks that Ukraine doesn’t exists, because we Ukrainians are some kind of Russian and we speak a funny dialect of Russian. The per-capita amount of neo-nazis may be bigger in Russia than in Ukraine… Why don’t they care of their own fascist first?
http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0339-580x348.jpg (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0339.jpg)
OR: What is your opinion about the Russian annexation of Crimea?
OY: First a bit of context.
Crimea was a gift to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic by the Soviet Union in 1954. In those times it didn’t matter much, because the differences between the republics of the USSR were symbolic and it was a single country.
In the 60 years of being part of Ukraine, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was a peaceful place, famous for its spas and the Mediterranean climate, where dozens of peoples co-existed: Russians, Ukrainians, Tartars, Koreans and others. They all always spoke Russian.
More than 200.000 Crimean Tartars were expelled from Crimea in 1944, by Stalin’s orders, they were sent to Central Asia and Siberia, this was the punishment for “collaborating with the Nazis” during the German occupation of Crimea. The tartars were able to go back to Crimea only since 1998. This provoked some tension because their lands already had new owners, Russians mostly, that’s why Tartars are against the “devolution” of Crimea to Russia. The others are divided and since all speak Russian, there are almost no difference between the Russian and the Ukrainian population in the peninsula.
Kiev’s new government under the influence of ultranationalists hurried to approve an absurd “language” law requiring all the people to speak the language of the State which is Ukrainian at work. This generated some concern among the Russian speaking South-East of the country.
The rest of the work was done by the media.
The actual leaders of the Pro-Russian movement of Crimea are a copy of the Ukrainian “independentists” of a quarter of a century ago: declaring their disobedience to the center (this time in Kiev), protect and ensure their power and their privileges in the territory they supposedly represent. Since most of the capital invested in Crimea is Russian, a Russian or Pro-Russian administration is their only guarantee. No more than that.
As Putin assure us that in Crimea “there are Russian troops”, the peninsula got filled with thousands of armed men, well equipped and with green unidentified uniforms, they speak with a Russian accent, and they move in Russian military transports. They call themselves “self-defense forces” of Crimea. The people calls them “Little Green men”.
Now after a more than suspicious referendum, Russia recognizes the Independence of Crimea and the “government” of the peninsula (just as legitimate as the one in Kiev) will ask for Russian aid and military help, while the Duma prepares the annexation.
I think all peoples including the Crimeans, have the right for free determination, but in these circumstances of the permanent military and unilateral pressure and a very aggressive campaign by the Pro-Russian media (because the Ukrainian media was cut from the peninsula by the Crimean authorities) and even (and is very probable) if most Crimeans want their republic to be part of Russia again, a 97% of votes of an 80% of the people who voted doesn’t seem to me suspicious but incredible, To many lies.
OR: It seems like a sector of Crimeans as well as Ukrainians are reclaiming the Soviet history of Ukraine and we have seen them raising the Soviet flag, is this real or is it just propaganda?
OY: I think it is a mix between the nostalgia and the naive belief that Putin’s Russia will “fight against Ukrainian fascism”. Lots of us confuse our fantasies with what’s really going on.
OR: Do you think that Ukraine is a modern anti-communist laboratory, the Ukrainian Communist Party was outlawed for example.
OY: I knew several anti-communist laboratories. In Latin America Colombia and Paraguay are the main ones, In Europe are the ex-USSR. Not only Ukraine. The current government did not invented anything new and just repeats the same anti-communist speech of the previous ones, who were allied with the US and Russia.
The outlawing of the Ukrainian Communist Party apart from being a necessary number of the anti-communist show, doesn’t seem serious to me, because that party of communist only the name had. I know many on the left felt relief when this party abandoned the political scene. But thinking in a democratic, way they also have the right to exist.
OR: Do you think a world scale war could break from this crysis?
OY: The neoliberalism’s war against humanity broke out alredy some decades ago. The battle for what was called Ukraine is just a part of that war. To what level can the war go up from the Ukraine crysis will depend of how mad politicians are and the people’s sanity. I have my hopes, but I’m not sure of anything.
OR: What is your forecast for what could happen in your country?
OY: Thinking in immediate terms, i think that whatever the outcome may be, the Ukrainian people will lose.
If Putin wins and i mention Putin because i know he doesn’t represent all of Russia, the Ukrainian far right will end stronger and the space for democracy that left in Ukraine will be restricted to the minimum possible.
If the government in Kiev wins and the western stock behind it, what’s left of the country will be de-industrialized and sacked following the instructions of the IMF… a nightmare will come that will end the European dream of the Ukrainians. Is what I see in short to medium term. After it a leftist revolution will come of course… This last sentence is to get from you grin kid of smile.
http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0340.jpg (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0340.jpg)
OR: What’s your opinion about the place the media is having in this conflict?
OY: The big western media that turned the Ukrainian in their subsidiary and the official Russian media lies as always, obeying their masters. For the best journalists, if lucky, are unemployed, if not we don’t know where they are. The big media creates their own parallel reality, they drug the people and break down consciences. This is their job al around the world and Ukraine is just one more case.
I’m more concerned about the smaller media, the alternative, the leftists.
I understand our dream of a multipolar world where the bloody beasts of the US and NATO are stopped, who lately felt as the only gendarmes of the planet, but make no mistakes and believe that of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. He’s just as gendarme as the other, but with less experience, with a moderate appetite and another speech. Let’s take a good look and we will see in his fangs and claws the same human blood. Is a war between predators and none of them is innocent neither less evil.
I don’t like when the leftist media lose the historic perspective and the capacity to criticize when they speak of the role of Putin’s government in this conflict. I would like to see them more respectful to the facts, more consistent. In other words, more sensitive. Remembering the Che again “Always capable of feeling in the deepest, any injustice done against anyone, in any part of the world”. Is what I miss lately.
Translated by @IlCharlie1 (https://twitter.com/IlCharlie1)
Author: Oleg Yasinsky @OlegYasinsky (https://twitter.com/OlegYasinsky)
Original Source: Ucrania es la guerra entre depredadores; ninguno es menos malo (http://oficiorojo.tumblr.com/post/80083270568/ucrania-es-la-guerra-entre-depredadores-ninguno-es)
(http://oficiorojo.tumblr.com/post/80083270568/ucrania-es-la-guerra-entre-depredadores-ninguno-es)
source:http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/2014/03/27/ukraine-is-a-war-between-two-predators-there-are-no-lesser-evils/
Posted by Sietededos on Mar - 27 - 2014
ALBERTO BUITRE / OFICIO ROJO – Oleg Yasinsky is a Ukrainian journalist, living in Chile. His perspective of the Ukrainian conflict is unique from a natural point of view. He’s from Ukraine and like a few he knows in Spanish what is going on there, from an historic perspective.
I’ve chat with him about it and his analysis is really interesting.
Even though many sectors of the global left defend the steps taken by Vladimir Putin against the fascism in Kiev and the US/EU intervention, the reality show us that Russia is just another imperialism which aims to sack the Ukrainian labor class to favor the Russian capital.
To put it into words: “Let’s take a good look and we will see in his fangs and claws the same human blood. Is a war between predators and none of them is innocent neither less evil.”
Next is the interview, that some may not like, but without doubt offers a forgotten perspective, here what matters is the people and the Ukrainian labor class, Without imperialism, neither American nor Russian.
http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0336-580x326.jpg (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0336.jpg)
OFICIO ROJO: We know the crysis in Ukraine started due to the conflict between the ones who favors the EU or Russia, please give us an historical context for what’s actually happening in the country.
OLEG YASINSKY: The actual show of Ukraine started with the historical fraud known as Perestrioka. The power in the new independent republics was taken by criminal groups, the privatization of the Soviet heritage and the looting of the natural resources was managed by the ex-first secretaries of the communist party that in a matter of days turned to anti-communist and Pinochet admirers.
Later the new oligarch groups and a new politic class were formed to defend their interests, the most corrupt government in the short history of the Ukrainian republic was by far the one of the recently defeated Victor Yanukovich, who was the closest ally to Putin’s government, defending the interests of the Russian capital.
A popular rebellion ended his government, but it didn’t managed to become a revolution, because from the start was controlled by far right groups.
Behind these groups and the new government in Kiev lies the Interests of the European and American capital, the IMF and NATO, with this change they try to extend themselves to the western border of Russia.
Inside this all this the Ukrainian lest is nowhere to be seen, because the traditional Communist and Socialist parties have from the beginning been with Oligarch groups and have done a huge damage to the socialist ideas in the country, that today are being seen as Stalinism or with other opportunistic parties.
Something similar happens with the Russian Communist Party, which is one of the most conservatives and right-wing parties and loyal ally of Putin, since there’s no alternatives in the left, the post-Soviet right and far right keep growing.
OR: Is in Ukraine possible to say that the first fascist coup in modern European history have taken place?
OY: This term have been used by Putin’s propaganda to justify the pressure and possibly a military invasion to another sovereign country, well supposedly sovereign.
I can be wrong but instead of a Fascist coup, i would rather talk about a civil rebellion that put in power the most right-wing government in Europe, this government lacks institutional legitimacy, is Neoliberal with an 8% of Nazi movements and organizations representatives, some will say that in Kiev a fascist coup took place, I live in Chile and for me a fascist coup is another thing.
Victor Yanukovich’s government apart from being absolutely corrupt reached to control every power of the state and he despised any democratic procedure, there didn’t exist legal mechanism in the country or conditions to change that power.
Following the questions logic we could also call coup the Nicaraguan Revolution that ended the tyranny of Somoza’s clan. The problem of Ukraine resides that instead of the Sandinistas there were the far right nationalists that pushed the weak and unpopular government of Yanukovich to its fall, that way the rebellion of the Ukrainians against the corruption and mafia in power created another power, even more dangerous to the people than the former.
But talking about a “Fascist Government” or a “Fascist coup” in Ukraine sound more like propaganda than reality to me.
http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0337-580x326.jpg (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0337.jpg)
OR: What is the origin of the fascist groups that assaulted Kiev in the so called Euromaidan?
OY: I think it has to do with the huge void generated by the absence of the left. Why? An important part of the Ukrainian left was annihilated during Stalin’s era. Later after WW2 the Soviet model of socialism, dogmatic and bureaucratic turned into a double standards school where the new generations of professional opportunists was formed, they were an important part of the Soviet republic’s socialist parties, and when the “real socialism” fell, they were the first to change the jacket and support the neoliberal reforms.
The actual Communist parties of the ex-USSR are just living fossils and allies of the capitalist governments. Let’s add to this sad reality a huge anti-communist campaign in the main Ukrainian and Russian media that after 25 years have not stopped… Result: the left pretty much doesn’t exists.
The strong social problems created by the restoration of a savage capitalism in the ex-USSR, the conscious destruction of the historic memory of its peoples and the massive propaganda of the capitalist antivalues in the media, lead the desperate people to find for irrational answers to their real and urgent problems. And fascism appears like one of the first offers, like always disguised as patriotic nationalism and other covers that sell.
In a time when the traditional parties are being rejected by the people, the fascism appears as a Young, creative, energetic, force, able to offer the people simple and concrete solutions.
After the “orange revolution” of 2004, the pro-western government of Victor Yuschenko officially recognized the Ukrainian anti-communist guerrilla UNA UNOS and even honored them, from the beginning his politic rival the pro-Russian president Victor Yanukovich gave green light to the neo-Nazi movement Svoboda, thinking in his reelection for the second term and wishing to confront a fascist rival, which should have ensured him success.
The president was wrong. Svoboda and his Nazis allies were active and creative, they grew without competition and during the last few months they surpassed the support of Yanukovich’s corrupt government.
OR: Do the people who took power in Kiev have any real future?
OY: If we are talking of Svoboda and his allies, that are more visible in the media, but they aren’t the only ones that took power in Kiev, an Russian invasion would be a great gift for them because then they would have a real cause to fight for, everything that has to do with war, national pride, patriotic marches and other idiocies is their terrain. It’s what they dream about. And the Russian government is about to deliver all of that to them.
Also, an eventual war would justify the cuts in social expenses, a bigger dependency on their western allies and banks allies, suspension of personal freedoms and rights to dissent and the persecution of political opponents… But that’s already another issue…
OR: The propaganda talks a lot of “Russia yes” and “Russia no” for Ukraine as a country, but what does the Ukrainian labor class wants?
OY: You would have to ask them. I guess they don’t want to serve the interests of their masters who are just about to start a war. I don’t think there exists a big importance between the nationalities of the oligarchs, because their money has no country. The future deaths neither.
I also guess that big countries can’t invade others because they just don’t like their governments or to defend their “vital interests”. You can invade if there’s a genocide and there’s no other way to stop it. For example in 1978 when Vietnam invaded Cambodia to liberate it from the horrors of Pol Pot, but that’s not the case in Ukraine.
I think it’s sad that many leftist media lose all capacity to critic and they turn to Putin’s government, I think many still confuse the Soviet Union with Russia, a country with the most savage of capitalisms, anti-communist in essence, very corrupted and under the control of oligarch groups, I think we must not fall under the blackmail of “lesser evil”.
Being Ukrainian my first language is Russian and i identify myself a lot more with the Russian culture than with the Ukrainian, I think with my words I’m not attacking Russia nor wrongly defending Ukraine.
In this historical moment Russia has way more resources to offer “more convenient” income to its population. Despite tremendous social injustice, Russia now is way better economically than a decade ago, Seeing it that way many will say that being part of Russia is more convenient than being part of Ukraine, But we also know that not everything is measured by money and opportunities and I know that many Ukrainian workers will choose to stay with this real Ukraine of today and fight for it, so one day this country can be theirs. Speaking about Ukrainians I mean all the people of all the Ukrainian born ethnicities.
http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0338-580x414.jpg (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0338.jpg)
OR: Will Ukraine be the jewel in dispute between two imperialisms, Russian-BRICS and the Euro-American?
OY: We don’t know, in the long run what will matter is the maturity of the Ukrainian people and also the international solidarity.
That’s why I think is very important not to fall in this logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, and if we consider ourselves against imperialism and left-wing, to not defend the ethically no indefensible.
We need a NO to this war, the one that neoliberalism is about to unleash on humanity. In this days I remember the Che and his idea of the movement of unaligned countries… We ne a left unaligned with any power.
This war “against the Nazis” in Kiev makes me remember the war “against terrorism” of Bush and promises to have similar effects, And with that of “defending the Russian population” i remember in 1980 when the United States invaded the Little island of Grenada under that pretext, any difference?
It’s not about the anti-fascist convictions of Putin. His most evident reasons are: the defense of the capital of Russian economic groups; looking for more popularity through chauvinism that always generate wars (in the last ten days his popularity grew by almost 10%), the need to intimidate the Russian opposition groups and the desire to show that Russia is a superpower just like the US that can act to protect its interests.
Also a considerable part of the Russian people still thinks that Ukraine doesn’t exists, because we Ukrainians are some kind of Russian and we speak a funny dialect of Russian. The per-capita amount of neo-nazis may be bigger in Russia than in Ukraine… Why don’t they care of their own fascist first?
http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0339-580x348.jpg (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0339.jpg)
OR: What is your opinion about the Russian annexation of Crimea?
OY: First a bit of context.
Crimea was a gift to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic by the Soviet Union in 1954. In those times it didn’t matter much, because the differences between the republics of the USSR were symbolic and it was a single country.
In the 60 years of being part of Ukraine, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was a peaceful place, famous for its spas and the Mediterranean climate, where dozens of peoples co-existed: Russians, Ukrainians, Tartars, Koreans and others. They all always spoke Russian.
More than 200.000 Crimean Tartars were expelled from Crimea in 1944, by Stalin’s orders, they were sent to Central Asia and Siberia, this was the punishment for “collaborating with the Nazis” during the German occupation of Crimea. The tartars were able to go back to Crimea only since 1998. This provoked some tension because their lands already had new owners, Russians mostly, that’s why Tartars are against the “devolution” of Crimea to Russia. The others are divided and since all speak Russian, there are almost no difference between the Russian and the Ukrainian population in the peninsula.
Kiev’s new government under the influence of ultranationalists hurried to approve an absurd “language” law requiring all the people to speak the language of the State which is Ukrainian at work. This generated some concern among the Russian speaking South-East of the country.
The rest of the work was done by the media.
The actual leaders of the Pro-Russian movement of Crimea are a copy of the Ukrainian “independentists” of a quarter of a century ago: declaring their disobedience to the center (this time in Kiev), protect and ensure their power and their privileges in the territory they supposedly represent. Since most of the capital invested in Crimea is Russian, a Russian or Pro-Russian administration is their only guarantee. No more than that.
As Putin assure us that in Crimea “there are Russian troops”, the peninsula got filled with thousands of armed men, well equipped and with green unidentified uniforms, they speak with a Russian accent, and they move in Russian military transports. They call themselves “self-defense forces” of Crimea. The people calls them “Little Green men”.
Now after a more than suspicious referendum, Russia recognizes the Independence of Crimea and the “government” of the peninsula (just as legitimate as the one in Kiev) will ask for Russian aid and military help, while the Duma prepares the annexation.
I think all peoples including the Crimeans, have the right for free determination, but in these circumstances of the permanent military and unilateral pressure and a very aggressive campaign by the Pro-Russian media (because the Ukrainian media was cut from the peninsula by the Crimean authorities) and even (and is very probable) if most Crimeans want their republic to be part of Russia again, a 97% of votes of an 80% of the people who voted doesn’t seem to me suspicious but incredible, To many lies.
OR: It seems like a sector of Crimeans as well as Ukrainians are reclaiming the Soviet history of Ukraine and we have seen them raising the Soviet flag, is this real or is it just propaganda?
OY: I think it is a mix between the nostalgia and the naive belief that Putin’s Russia will “fight against Ukrainian fascism”. Lots of us confuse our fantasies with what’s really going on.
OR: Do you think that Ukraine is a modern anti-communist laboratory, the Ukrainian Communist Party was outlawed for example.
OY: I knew several anti-communist laboratories. In Latin America Colombia and Paraguay are the main ones, In Europe are the ex-USSR. Not only Ukraine. The current government did not invented anything new and just repeats the same anti-communist speech of the previous ones, who were allied with the US and Russia.
The outlawing of the Ukrainian Communist Party apart from being a necessary number of the anti-communist show, doesn’t seem serious to me, because that party of communist only the name had. I know many on the left felt relief when this party abandoned the political scene. But thinking in a democratic, way they also have the right to exist.
OR: Do you think a world scale war could break from this crysis?
OY: The neoliberalism’s war against humanity broke out alredy some decades ago. The battle for what was called Ukraine is just a part of that war. To what level can the war go up from the Ukraine crysis will depend of how mad politicians are and the people’s sanity. I have my hopes, but I’m not sure of anything.
OR: What is your forecast for what could happen in your country?
OY: Thinking in immediate terms, i think that whatever the outcome may be, the Ukrainian people will lose.
If Putin wins and i mention Putin because i know he doesn’t represent all of Russia, the Ukrainian far right will end stronger and the space for democracy that left in Ukraine will be restricted to the minimum possible.
If the government in Kiev wins and the western stock behind it, what’s left of the country will be de-industrialized and sacked following the instructions of the IMF… a nightmare will come that will end the European dream of the Ukrainians. Is what I see in short to medium term. After it a leftist revolution will come of course… This last sentence is to get from you grin kid of smile.
http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0340.jpg (http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/0340.jpg)
OR: What’s your opinion about the place the media is having in this conflict?
OY: The big western media that turned the Ukrainian in their subsidiary and the official Russian media lies as always, obeying their masters. For the best journalists, if lucky, are unemployed, if not we don’t know where they are. The big media creates their own parallel reality, they drug the people and break down consciences. This is their job al around the world and Ukraine is just one more case.
I’m more concerned about the smaller media, the alternative, the leftists.
I understand our dream of a multipolar world where the bloody beasts of the US and NATO are stopped, who lately felt as the only gendarmes of the planet, but make no mistakes and believe that of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. He’s just as gendarme as the other, but with less experience, with a moderate appetite and another speech. Let’s take a good look and we will see in his fangs and claws the same human blood. Is a war between predators and none of them is innocent neither less evil.
I don’t like when the leftist media lose the historic perspective and the capacity to criticize when they speak of the role of Putin’s government in this conflict. I would like to see them more respectful to the facts, more consistent. In other words, more sensitive. Remembering the Che again “Always capable of feeling in the deepest, any injustice done against anyone, in any part of the world”. Is what I miss lately.
Translated by @IlCharlie1 (https://twitter.com/IlCharlie1)
Author: Oleg Yasinsky @OlegYasinsky (https://twitter.com/OlegYasinsky)
Original Source: Ucrania es la guerra entre depredadores; ninguno es menos malo (http://oficiorojo.tumblr.com/post/80083270568/ucrania-es-la-guerra-entre-depredadores-ninguno-es)
(http://oficiorojo.tumblr.com/post/80083270568/ucrania-es-la-guerra-entre-depredadores-ninguno-es)
source:http://int.acampadadebarcelona.org/2014/03/27/ukraine-is-a-war-between-two-predators-there-are-no-lesser-evils/