Wow, thanks for sharing an opinion piece from realclearinvestigations wow. How enlightening to hear this take, I’ve never heard it before! Just spouting fact (sources are optional, you see).
Crimea is dominated by ethnic Russians. When Ukrainian-Russians saw their man was kicked out of office, what Russian would support Ukrainian nationalist kicking out their leader, and moving in their own leader? Eastern Ukraine is Russian speaking, they have Russian family in Russia. They don’t want their language to be abolished, either, like the Ukrainian government did by enacting a law that abolished the Russian language. The Donbass is mostly Russian people. Zelenskyy regime hates Russians but wants to claim land that ethnic Russians occupy, and made their home. Ukraine does not need Crimea and the objective to try to get it back is purely political based on nationalism.
Crimea belongs to Ukraine, no matter how big the Russian minority was, it doesn’t justify a Russian invasion.
Lots of countries have minorities in other countries, and can live peacefully as neighbors. Only Russia decided not only to act with hostility and interfere and undermine Ukraine but also illegally invade it twice. And they try to undermine Europe, UK and USA too. Because Russia is a country run by Putin who is a corrupt criminal, using mafia and KGB methods in every aspect of running Russia.
That you defend such a criminal regime only shows you are a brain washed fascist with no regard for decency or other people.
Of course, it does. When your enemy is arming your neighbor to be against you, that is more enough justification for any country, including the US. You act as if the US obeys international law and never staged a coup, or invaded a country. What is the US doing in Syria now? The US has up to 800 bases around the world, and you talk about Russian imperialism as if that is real. The US wants to dominate Europe via NATO. NATO is how the US exercises influence on Europe. This is power politics by Russia, it is not about conquering anything, but keeping US influence in check. You have no evidence to support your claims.
The US always leaves countries in a worse state than what they were before US interference. Ukraine was never about democracy and always about expanding US imperialism
What's up, I'm 42 years old. USSR collapsed over 30 years ago, it's irrelevant. Like the person said, modern Russia doesn't have 900+ bases around the world. The US was an unchallenged hyperpower for a long time and definitely took advantage of that fact.
We went through all this shit with Afghanistan and Iraq and now we're supposed to believe the US is helping out simply because they feel sorry for Ukraine? Countries don't just do things without a good motivation.
The US is not helping out because it feels sorry for Ukraine, it is because the US does not believe Russia would stop at Ukraine, and would press on to the other former territories of the USSR and it’s allied countries, several of which are in NATO.
The US is sending munitions to Ukraine now because they have a population willing to fight, and if Russia escalates, that will involve sending US troops to protect NATO countries. We are bound by treaty to do that, as long as an idiot President doesn’t find a way to leave NATO…
Everybody says that...but I'd like to see Russia try. And if they resort to nukes, they'll be erased in a day. They may be Russian, but they're not stupid or suicidal.
Excuse me? Crimea IS (or was) part of Ukraine. The fuck are you on about "second" country? This invasion has been already happening for a decade more or less.
You are trying to make out like the US is benevolent and are concerned about Ukrainians. The US does nothing that doesn’t benefit the war machine and capitalism. The US engages in war to line the pockets of the donor class.
You are trying to make out like the US is benevolent and are concerned about Ukrainians.
You’re moving the goal posts. The world isn’t black or white. Disliking the US doesn’t mean that Russia is right. Russia went to war with Ukraine. The whataboutism on the US is not relevant. Say the US did something bad, is that really why Russia invading Ukraine can be excused?
And you would be wrong, the USSR was still around when I was in college. And none of negates the fact that the US is an imperialist nation trying to keep a stranglehold on all other nations via it’s military size
It is comical propaganda that Ukraine had or has sovereignty. When Joe Biden tells you, if you want a lot of money, you run your government according to what he and what he represents deem fit such as firing Ukrainians in public office, is this really a sovereign nation? How about supporting a coup that subverted the democratic vote in that country? Ukraine is a political war. The EU and NATO wanted to bring the former Soviet states under a liberal umbrella by bringing them into the EU and NATO. All the while, the US was ignoring Russian security interests. The US has no interest in Ukraine. Whatever happens in Ukraine affects nothing in the US. American standard of living will not decrease because there is nothing vital in Ukraine for the US. The brings us further comical propaganda; the Ukrainian border is an American one, and if we don’t stop the Russians in Ukraine, they will take over Europe, and invade Los Angeles, and New City. This is nonsensical, but this is what the mainstream news media by way of government agencies want the public to believe. Again, who has credibility here?
Ukraine would have been just fine as a neutral state. But, because they want the freedom to choose as a sovereign country to subvert democracy, they choose to destroy their country. The Western Ukrainians, that is. The Russians are not in Ukraine because of Ukrainians per se, they are there because of the US who has no business being next door to Russia, arming, and training the Ukrainians under the pretense of NATO membership. Even today, the US continues to say Ukraine will still be part of NATO, which is egging on the Russians. The US wants no diplomacy with Russia. There is absolutely zero interest in any kind of compromise with Russia. The US wants its own way, their way, or the highway. No consideration for the security concerns of other countries, the US will get in trouble, and bring victims along with it. The war was preventable by the US, and the US is the principal reason why Russia acted preemptively.
I assume you’re talking about Euromaidan. I’ll point out the protests wouldn’t have happened if that president hadn’t reversed constitutional amendments that weakened his power and were supported by 90% of their legislators, jailed opposition leaders and backed away from a popular treaty.
Also, yes, it is still a sovereign nation. You do not lose sovereignty just because you listen to someone as part of a deal.
You are right on one thing though, the US was ignoring Russia’s security interests. Their need to have an even larger amount of land for their own security is not considered important. Everyone else manages just fine with far less.
Euromaidan had nothing to do with the president’s domestic policy and had everything to do with foreign policy. The US wanted to isolate Ukraine from Russia, including steering Ukrainian big business away from Russia. The Russians provided an economic deal than the EU could give. The declared independent republics wasn’t about whether Yanukovych was strengthening or weakening his own power. Even the news media doesn’t claim your explanation.
Yes, the foreign policy was the spark that ignited everything. Had he not already pissed his people off with domestic mistakes though, like repealing their amendments, I doubt they would have all turned on him for just foreign policy.
But go ahead, keeping blaming it on shadowy US control instead of pissed off Ukrainians.
You should actually read through that article too, btw, the demands, timeline and linked section on the Revolution of Dignity are interesting. I didn’t know the US actually pushed for leaving Yanukovych in power. Disappointing.
You did not read the article. The reason why the Ukrainian government did not sign the Association Agreement with the EU is because the loan terms were harsh, and the Russians simply offered a much better deal with very few strings attached. The EU offered $850 million in loans while the Russians offered $15 billion dollars in loans, and cheap gas. This is why Ukrainian leadership did not side with the EU. The IMF wanted 40% tariffs on natural gas, to cut government sending, and the whole 9 yards, including changing their own laws. Let me point out this awfully bad lie that Ukraine, as a sovereign country, would make a sovereign choice to join NATO and the EU; by joining NATO, you forfeit your own foreign policy for the US providing security. European foreign states in NATO and the EU do not have sovereignty. EU states are controlled by the EU, which has its office in Brussels. None of them have “sovereignty”. Sovereignty and democracy are not the motivating factors in staging a proxy war in Ukraine, it is through NATO, which the US exercises influence over the European states, and that is why principally, the conflict with Russia was spearheaded by the US, not France, or Germany. The UK being a prime exception.
It is comical propaganda that Ukraine had or has sovereignty.
No it’s not, according to the agreement among the Soviet states, Ukraine had the right to go independent, which was granted to Ukraine and other states that became independent. This was accepted by everybody until crazy Putin chose to ignore it.
You are either a Russian agent or a Russian agent and a traitor.
Right, like the right to stage a coup because the Russians offered a better economic deal that was far more lenient than the harsh IMF and EU deal that gave the Ukrainians much better economic support than what the EU could have provided. The Ukrainian leadership chose a better economic deal while fully aware of the tensions between NATO and Russia. They operated in good faith. The Ukrainian nationalist does not operate in good faith, because like a lot of toxic nationality, they are irrational, and don’t make wise decisions. Ukraine was not going to be a sovereign country while being in the EU and NATO. Sovereignty and democracy or even prosperity is what Western Ukrainians wanted, they wanted to go with the EU, because they hated Russians, and NATO is arming nationalist who hate Russians and Russia. The Russians view that as an existential threat. Had the Ukrainians wisely became non-aligned, they would not be in this predicament today. The Russian tried economic sanctions, even an economic deal that was much better than the EU deal. For decades, since the after the dissolution of the USSR, Russia expressed security concerns with NATO expansion. The Ukrainians were lead to a destructive path by the US. The Russians simply wanted a neutral Ukraine, like the way Finland was neutral for decades after WWII, but no reasonable minds prevailed.
Is the writer of the article right of center? Aaron Maté works for the Grayzone, which according to Wikipedia is a far left-wing news website and blog. His employment history does not suggest any strong right leaning.
A lot of websites will do a bunch of small factual articles to keep rating up, but all the big headlines are fucking terrible.
Generally, story selection moderately favors the Right and RealClearInvestigations takes a Pro-Trump stance. RealClearInvestigations typically sources their information to credible sources such as The Hill, Wall Street Journal, NBC News, and the Washington Examiner; however, they also source factually mixed sources such as Fox News. For example, this snippet from the article: “Investigation worked with employees of Fusion GPS, a Washington-based research firm reportedly paid $1 million (Fox News link) by Clinton operatives to dig up dirt on the Trump campaign.” RealClearInvestigations sourced Fox News, who in turn sourced the same information from another factually mixed source, the Daily Caller, owned by conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson.
Look at OP’s history; their account is 2 weeks old, and they’re clearly agenda-posting with an anti-US, anti-EU, and anti-Ukraine stance.
This article is just something packaged by a writer who works for a low-credibility source (The Grayzone) published by a site that’s more credible (why they’d risk their credibility publishing this is beyond me)
In Russian-aligned countries, there is a tactic where they cultivate news sources with balanced, good reporting, then they use them to disseminate disinformation at critical moments. I’m not saying this is it, but I’ve seen this happen before with different outlets.
I’m not just saying accounts, I’m saying entire news outlets. A while ago in Hungary, the government bought a popular independent news outlet. They still post articles criticising the government, basically nothing changed in alignment, the quality went down though.
But when there is a hot topic issue that could actually hurt the govt, or if there is an election, then key hit pieces are taken and posted without edits and changes from the government propaganda media, even if they are blatantly false.
Ah, gotcha. I guess I understood that as people who cherry pick things from otherwise credible sources to push a specific agenda.
Going to have to start keeping a closer eye out for mergers / purchases of media outlets. MBFC is a good check, but they grade over time. If an outlet gets purchased and changes direction, it can be a good while before their MBFC rating is updated.
Just click on the author’s byline and look at their past "investigations, " it tells you all you need to know. But this article is filled with such endless BS it would take ages to unpack it all. I’ll just post one thing from the beginning of the article.
During this period, Ukraine has not become an independent self-sustaining democracy, but a client state heavily dependent on European and U.S. support, which has not protected it from the ravages of war.
From the ravages of war, wow, what country invaded and annexed them multiple times and is ravaging them? Not worth mentioning I guess. The fighting is all the US and EU’s fault for helping Ukraine to defend itself! If Ukraine had just rolled over everytime Russia wanted to lop off sections of their country or even take the whole thing plus some neighboring countries to boot, then everything would be peaceful! It goes on from there like that. Impressive mental gymnastics throughout, and clearly trying to push an established viewpoint of the author rather than inform, really more of a bad opinion piece than an “investigation.”
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