New Cold War?

[gurey25]

http://atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-02-140214.html


THE ROVING EYE
The new US-Russia Cold War
By Pepe Escobar

Meet the new (cold) war, same as the old (cold) war. Same same, but different. One day, it's the myriad implications of Washington's "pivoting" to Asia - as in the containment of China. The next day, it's the perennial attempt to box Russia in. Never a dull moment in the New Great Game in Eurasia.

On Russia, the denigration of all things Sochi - attributable to the inherent stupidity of Western corporate media "standards" - was


just a subplot of the main show, which always gets personal; the relentless demonization of Russian President Vladimir Putin. [1]

Yet Nulandgate - as in US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria "neo-con" Nuland uttering her famous "F**k the EU" - was way more serious. Not because of the "profanity" (praise the Lord!), but for providing what US Think Tankland hailed as "an indicator of American strategic thinking".

Here's the game in a nutshell. Germany remote controls one of the leaders of the Ukrainian protests, heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko. [2]

"F**k the EU" is essentially directed towards Berlin and Klitschko, its key protege. Washington sees this going nowhere, as Germany, after all, has been slowly building a complex energy-investment partnership with Russia.

The Obama administration wants results - fast. Nuland herself stressed (check it out, starting at 7:26) that Washington, over the past two decades, has "invested" over US$5 billion for the "democratization" of Ukraine. So yes: this is "our" game and the EU is at best a nuisance while Russia remains the major spoiler. Welcome to Washington's Ukrainian "strategy".

The Ukrainian chessboard
US Think Tankland now also peddles the notion that the Obama administration is expertly adept at a balance of power strategy. To include Libya as part of this "strategy" is a sick joke; Libya post-Gaddafi is a failed state, courtesy of humanitarian bombing by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Meanwhile, in Syria, the US "strategy" boils down to let Arabs kill Arabs in droves.

Iran is way more complex. Arguably, the Obama administration calculates that through talks between Iran and the P5+1 - the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany - it will be able to outmaneuver the Russians, who are close to Tehran. This assuming the Obama administration really wants a nuclear deal with Iran that would later release the floodgates of Western business.

On Syria, it's the Russian positions that have kept the upper hand; not to mention that Putin saved Obama from yet another Middle East war. As Syria was a Russian win, no wonder Washington dreams of a win in Ukraine.

We can interpret what's goin' on now as a remix of the 2004 Orange Revolution. But The Big Picture goes way back - from NATO's expansion in the 1990s to American NGOs trying to destabilize Russia, NATO's flirt with Georgia, and those missile defense schemes so close to Russian borders.

In already trademark Obama administration style, the State Department's support for anti-Russia, pro-EU protests in Ukraine qualifies as "leading from behind" (remember Libya?)

It comes complete with "humanitarian" appeal, calls for "reconciliation" and good against evil dichotomy masking a drive towards regime change. Abandon all hope to find voices of sanity on US corporate media such as NYU and Princeton's Stephen Cohen, who cut to the chase in this piece, stressing that the essential revelation of Nulandgate "was that high-level US officials were plotting to 'midwife' a new, anti-Russian Ukrainian government by ousting or neutralizing its democratically elected president - that is, a coup".

Here the "strategy" clearly reveals itself as a US puppet now - coup or no coup - instead of an EU puppet later. No one in the Beltway gives a damn that Viktor Yanukovich was legally elected president of Ukraine, and that he had full authority to reject a dodgy deal with the EU.

And no one in the Beltway cares that the protests are now being led by Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) - a nasty collection of fascists, football hooligans, ultra-nationalists and all sorts of unsavory neo-Nazi elements; the Ukrainian equivalents of Bandar Bush's jihadis in Syria.

Yet the US "strategy" rules that street protests should lead to regime change. It applies to the Ukraine, but it does not apply to Thailand.

Washington wants regime change in the Ukraine for one reason only; in the wider New Great Game in Eurasia context, that would be the rough equivalent of Texas defecting from the US and becoming a Russian ally.

Still, this gambit is bound to fail. Moscow has myriad ways to deploy economic leverage in Ukraine; it has access to much better intel than the Americans; and the protesters/gangs/neo-Nazis are just a noisy minority.

Washington, tough, won't give up, as it sees both the political crisis in Ukraine as the emerging financial crisis in Kazakhstan as "opportunities" (Obama lingo) to threaten Moscow's economic/strategic interests. It's as if the Beltway was praying for a widespread financial crisis in the Russia-led Customs Union (Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus).

Pray in fact is all they've got, while the EU, for all the grandiose, rhetorical wishful thinking, remains a divided mess. After Sochi, Vlad the Hammer will be back in business with a vengeance. Nuland and co, watch your back.

[Tanker]

tonight the jet planes are flying here in Norway as a result of the civil war situation in Ukraine just today 70 died in Ukraine and we are close to the country.

[Hodan94]

WOW I tuned in to al Jazeera and I didn't know whether the place was Syria or Ukraine..i was shocked till Ukraine was mentioned.

I hear even Kosovo and bosnia are turning bad...

[Tanker]

The western dogs are behind the rebels by giving them support this is what the west will do if you reject to be their puppet

[Basra-]

"a subplot of the main show, which always gets personal; the relentless demonization of Russian President Vladimir Putin. ["



I find it hard to take serious, a writer who begins his article with 'oh woe is Putin'. Sympathizing with a weird closeted homosexual slash child pedophile is not a way to make me continue to read more.

[Hodan94]

lol talking about putin...did u lot see those flower riot get whipped?

[gurey25]

There is a serious divide in Ukraine with half of the population nationalists that want nothing to do with Russia,
and the other identifying with Russia.
The problem is that Ukraine has no choice but to be a sattelite of Russia,
Russia controls the economy and energy supplies and with one turn of the tap the economy goes under, and nothing the broke EU or the US can do will save ukraine.

The Eu and the US want to weaken Russia in this great game and ukraine is their last chance,
but they dont give the poor ukrainian people much of a chance.
Do you hear of any massive marshal plan like economic aid package? Ukraine will need a massive package at least $200 to $300 in 10 years if you want to wean them off Russia.
The aid will also have to go to a massive nuclear power plant construction program, and they will need over a dozen new reactors .

The west offers Ukraine this, become a member of the EU, we will throw you some crumbs and you will become a very junior member sometime in the future, while you suffer terribly economically for several years.
Russia offers minimal interference, cheap energy and cheap loans, cheaper than the EU,World bank or IMF with less strings attached, and a share of its arms market and RnD in advanced technologies to the remaining hi technology ukrainian corporations like progress.

The president chose russia as will any future ukrainian government, its the only logical choice.
The west lost the game with Putin, and this is their last roll of the dice, cause a massive upheaval and see what they can salvage out of Ukraine.The west has been sloppy though and impatiant because a game like this takes allot of patience.
Some of the groups getting western backing to riot and cause upheavel are extreme nationalist neo-nazi groups, that are also very anti-semitic.

We can see what hand Putin will play next, maybe another expose? maybe catch an agent of the west handing money to one of these groups?

[Tanker]

The funny thing is that the Ukraine president was elected in a democratic election yet the West who always speaks about democracy doesn't give a fuck their hypocrisy also a lot of the armed protesters are provoking by using violence

[Oxidant]

Many proudly proclaim the demise of the West is imminent. But seeing what the West has been doing in Libya, Syria, Iran (Sanctions), Venezuela and Argentina (Covert economic warfare) and now the Ukraine. If anything, the West has been increasing its hegemony over the world and solidifying its position at the top of the hierarchy.

Russia will lose in Ukraine but win in Syria.

[Bermooda]

The funny thing is that the Ukraine president was elected in a democratic election yet the West who always speaks about democracy doesn't give a fuck their hypocrisy also a lot of the armed protesters are provoking by using violence

I don't blame him for killing many of these so called protesters. He tried to be patient but this is the second time they're trying to get rid of him through a coup. Last time was through the so called "orange revolution"

If i was him tho i would only surround the footsoldiers camps cut of their supplies and go after their organizers cos protesting specially in this scale needs funding that goes into the $10's of millions.

MAY THE COLD WAR BE REVIVED cos without a balance of power in this world to constrain the madmen the madmen will do whatever they like. I say it is time for to reconnect with Russia.

[James Dahl]

Russia offers minimal interference

[James Dahl]

You guys are hilarious, first China is doing infrastructure projects in Africa out of the goodness of their hearts, now Russia is the good guy standing up for Ukraine.

I imagine next you'll tell me Hitler was just trying to protect ethnic Germans in Poland.

[Gabre]

You guys are hilarious, first China is doing infrastructure projects in Africa out of the goodness of their hearts, now Russia is the good guy standing up for Ukraine.

I imagine next you'll tell me Hitler was just trying to protect ethnic Germans in Poland.

[James Dahl]

Creating a "good guy, bad guy" narrative, you assume whoever is opposing the Bad Guy (always the nebulous "west"), must be the Good Guy.

There is no such thing as a Good Guy in geopolitics, everyone is out for themselves, you just have varying degrees of selfish interest and varying levels of brutality in how far they are willing to go to achieve their national interests. Russia has been aggressively projecting their power all over the world to counter a veritable legion of rebellions against their puppet regimes, which is not very different from what George W Bush did throughout his presidency, but he's against the west so it's a heroic struggle against evil, not an iron fist smushing dissent.

In this respect, people cheerleading Vladimir Putin are no better than the people who went on Fox News in 2004 saying all the torture and bombing and brutality was all in self defense and for the best possible purposes.

[grandpakhalif]

I have no sympathy for Russia, it must be demolished and it's regime dismantled, they have kept Assad on a lifeline and continue to aid him with weapons and logistics. Let's not forget their slaughter of Checnyans pre-Sochi games, too "secure the games".