Here is a phone call between theUkrainian former Prime Minister Tymoshenko and former Defense Minister Nestor Sufrych. Whether it was Russia or the West that intercepted this phone call is not clear. In either case, Tymoshenko has revealed herself as the Ukrainian Sarah Palin.
In another step, a leader of the fascist Right Sector, Alexandr Muzychko, has been reported to have been killed by police. According to the report, police were attempting to arrest Muzychko for intimidating a government body and other crimes. (He had been filmed threatening a local government council with knives and an AK 47.)
We do not use the term “fascist” lightly. That is what the Right Sector is, including all the armed violence that goes along with these types. Western governments would like to get a friendly but reliable regime in Ukraine. They were willing to lean on the far right, including the fascist Right Sector, to overthrow the pro-Russian previous government, but now things have gone too far. The Right Sector even has its man in as Minister of Defense.
Neither the Western European nor the Putin regimes want a direct military confrontation in Ukraine. Despite all its bluster, the West (including Obama) is forced to accept Putin’s annexation of Crimea, just as Putin is forced to accept the existence of a pro-West regime in the rest of Ukraine. The problem is that both sides have set forces into motion that they may not be able to control.
The main such force is the far right Svoboda and their ally, the fascist Right Sector. What kind of base do they have and how far will they go in asserting Ukrainian nationalism? Will they move to suppress by mass force the ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine? If so, then will Putin be able to stand by without directly intervening?
Dangerous forces have been set loose.
Meanwhile, in Bosnia Herzegovina a true workers’ uprising has been taking place. If such a workers’ movement spreads throughout eastern Europe, this can be the alternative to fratricidal nationalism that seems to be dominating the scene in Ukraine.
Categories: Europe, world relations