799 days ago
I can never understand when folks cheer on the untimely death of their fellow man. But day after day we are treated by the Western media to videos of Russian tanks being blown up and articles delighting in how many Russian dead now lie on the fields of Ukraine. I am in no doubt that some of those soldiers dying horrible deaths were bad men who did very bad things. But many, probably the vast majority, were just young men fighting what they were told (wrongly) was a just war and fighting by Geneva rules. Why should we celebrate their deaths?
2470 days ago
This will not make me popular but I have to say that my fellow Russianophile and guest on RT, comrade Jeremy Corbyn, is taking the correct, if massively unpopular line on the alleged Russian Chemical attack in Salisbury. I don't care if old Jezza is still on the payroll of the Czech secret police he is right.
3929 days ago
The EU and USA are not recognising the referendum in Crimea. In both zones the political classes simply fail to understand that democracy is the will of the people and that for almost 100 years an abiding principle of international law has been the principle of self-determination.
Today I feel more strongly as ever on this matter.
The referendum in the Crimea was not perfect. I am not sure that 95% of Crimeans really wanted to rejoin Russia. But the vast majority clearly did. And as such let the people have their say.
In contrast when the people of, say, Ireland have voted no to the concentration of powers within the EU, the leaders of the Evil Empire have simply bullied them and told them to think again.
In Kosovo the 1991 referendum was clearly somewhat flawed. Would you as a minority Serbian have rushed back to your burned out village to vote? But most Kosovans wanted to be free of Serbia – that was clear and so the EU recognised the result. Natch the EU did not recognise referendums held in Northern Kosovan districts in 2012 which – with a Serbian majority population - voted to leave Kosovo.
For the EU referendums are only valid if the little people vote the right way. Otherwise they are either not recognised or the little people are told to vote again. This is not democracy. What has happened in Crimea is democracy. And as such we should be supporting it and the principle of self-determination without reservation.
The UK should today be imposing sanctions on Belgium and confiscating the assets of anyone employed by the Evil Empire at a senior level in order to show our support for democracy and self-determination and our opposition to those who seek to deny the wishes of the people if those wishes are “inconvenient.”
3944 days ago
I doubt that this will be popular but the mess that is the Ukraine today is not the fault of Russia but of liberal leaders in the West who just cannot stop meddling in other folk’s affairs. As for the response of Vladimir Putin and Russia, I have every sympathy with the old tyrant. On this occasion his actions are utterly defensible.
Let’s start with the overthrow of the crooked former President Yanukovych. There is no doubt that he was looting state coffers and was not a very nice man. He was, however, democratically elected. The EU has been trying to get the Ukraine into its orbit with a treaty of co-operation for a couple of years. The President was not helpful. So the West meddles.
The West does not really understand that the Ukraine is not exactly a homogenous block. It should perhaps have looked back to the last War when most Ukrainians fought alongside the Russians but a good number fought either for an Independent Ukraine or actually fought with Germany. But heck that is history so who cares, the EU marches on.
And so we supported tacitly and indeed verbally those who wished to overthrow the President. Senior EU politicians flocked to Ukraine to offer support. Why? It was none of our god damn business? Look at the speeches of US Politicians such as John Kerry but also the truly abysmal EU Foreign Secretary Baroness Ashton. As in Syria we back the rebels against an unpleasant regime just assuming that your enemy’s enemy is your best pal. As in Syria we are wrong.
I accept that many of those who protested in Kiev are good folks who would feel at home in a liberal Western democracy. But the hard-core, the ones that held firm against the riot police? Think again. Those hard core are the militant wings of political parties that are now represented in Parliament. Watch some recent interviews. I quote the leader of one of the largest militias (interviewed on the BBC) “We are nationalists, we want a country for Ukrainians…that means without any Russians…or Jews.” These are the folks
