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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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02Mar14
Turning a Cold War Tactic back on the West: Headquartering «Captive Nations» in Moscow
During the Cold War, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency concocted a scheme by which so-called «Captive Nations», so-called «satellite» nations of eastern and central Europe and countries lacking United Nations membership, such as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, were treated as subjugated nation-states by the West. These and other non-existent nations, such as White Ruthenia, West Galicia, Cossackia, Ural-Idel, and Turkestan, were regularly lauded by supportive statements from the White House, U.S. Congress, and U.S. statehouses.
With the ouster of the democratically-elected government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych by forces representing neo-Nazi, World Bank, and reactionary Ukrainian nationalist forces, the Russian government is in a position to grant «Captive Nation» status to not only a Ukrainian government-in-exile (GIE) but also to any other progressive government overthrown by street mobs and neo-fascists.
The recognition of GIEs as the true representatives of a nation is a time-honored method for projecting «soft power». The presence of representatives of GIEs at international conferences, international organizations, international sporting events, and the establishment of embassies of such GIEs in various capital cities around the world can sow confusion and internecine diplomatic schisms within the ranks of opponent blocs of nations. For example, if Russia were to grant full diplomatic recognition to the GIE of Ukraine, whether headed by Yanukovych or another exiled Ukrainian government official, there could be a demand that such a GIE participate in all international forums dealing with the resolution of the Ukraine crisis.
Russia has used a similar tactic with regard to the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which declared themselves independent of Georgia after the government Tbilisi became riddled with Georgian nationalists who threatened the lives and property of minority Abkhaz, Ossetian, and Russians within Georgia's autonomous republics. The same situation now exists in the autonomous Republic of Crimea within Ukraine. The Russian majority of the small Crimean republic, which is also home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, feels threatened by the radical nationalists and neo-Nazis who now dominate many of Ukraine's ministries, including the powerful Security Ministry. A declaration of independence by Crimea and its recognition by Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and other friendly countries would not only help secure the safety of Crimea's majority population but further burden the U.S. State Department with diplomatic protocol headaches. U.S. diplomats would be hard pressed to keep track of the activities of government officials from Crimea, let alone those from Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and possibly also the Transnistrian Republic with its large Russian minority that may find itself also squeezed by nationalist Ukrainians intent on causing harm.
During the Cold War, polemicists like Ukrainian-American right-winger and Georgetown professor Dr. Lev Dobriansky, the creator of the «Captive Nations» mantra, derided the «Soviet yoke» imposed over satellite nations. However, Dobriansky let his true feelings become known when, in 1960, he told a Congressional panel that he believed that the «Cold War» against the West was not started by the Soviet Communists but by the Russian Czarist government in «St. Petersburg and Moscow». In a speech on January 30, 1960 in Washington, DC, Dobriansky accused successive Russian leaders of aggression: Czar Nicholas I was accused of putting down the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Czar Alexander I was accused of threatening Europe with «armed might», Czar Nicholas II was accused of using his armed «steamroller» to threaten all of Europe, and «Czar Nikita [Khrushchev] was accused of suppressing Dobriansky's «captive nations». It was Dobriansky's hatred for all things Russian that was behind his «captive nations» lunacy. Today, Dobriansky's actual heir, his neo-conservative daughter Paula Dobriansky of Harvard University, and his ideological heirs in the neo-conservative ranks, have added Russian President Vladimir Putin to the list of the Russian «demons» that only exist in their own minds.
Chief among the Russophobes is Arizona's aging and decrepit Senator John McCain, who now sees Russians lurking behind every tree. After once proclaiming «we're all Georgians now», he recently muttered «we're all Ukrainians now» before calling for tough sanctions on Russia for its policy toward Ukraine. Arizona is the home of a number of native Indian nations that signed bilateral international treaties with Washington only to see them violated time after time. If Mr. McCain is so worried about Ukrainian national aspiration, one can only think of his response to Moscow inviting the Navajo, Hopi, Tohono O'odham, Zuni, and Western Apache nations to establish diplomatic missions in the Russian capital. If the West continues to interfere in the domestic affairs of Russia and Ukraine, perhaps it is past time to entertain a Russian response to U.S. and Canadian government subjugation of the native peoples of North America.
Now, nations like Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Moldova, and even Greece find themselves under the yoke of unelected «Eurocrats» in Brussels; central bankers in Frankfurt, London, and New York; and NATO and Pentagon policy makers. Progressive and popularly-elected governments in Venezuela, Thailand, Ecuador, and Nicaragua find themselves subject to street rioting, secessionist movements, and economy destabilization planned and carried out by the CIA and lackeys like global hedge fund tycoon George Soros.
Moscow could become not only the home to GIEs like that of Ukraine but also future GIEs in the event the CIA and its cronies and lackeys are successful in overturning democracy in countries like Venezuela and Thailand. Moscow hosting a number of democratically-elected GIEs would send a message to the world that would expose the fakery and ambiguity of statements by the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, and other Western countries of their commitment to «democracy». In addition to GIEs, the presence of the current embassies of the nations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and possible future embassies of Crimea, Transnistria, and Nagorno-Karabakh would demonstrate Russia's, and only Russia's, commitment to self-determination for peoples suffering under the yoke of neo-colonialism and imperialism, as well as the threat of ethnic cleansing.
GIEs and the embassies of aspirant nations in Moscow, combined with the supporting presence of U.S. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, would be free to state their cases without the incessant propaganda and censorship filters. These censors and filters have been increasingly used as American, British, and other corporate media entities, including the anti-Russian Al Jazeera news network, which is influenced by Britain's MI6 intelligence service and funded by Qatar's pro-Muslim Brotherhood royal family, pump out anti-Russian state propaganda masked as «news» reports.
There is little doubt that the U.S. foreign policy apparatus is beset by structural and political problems. With a U.S. Secretary of State more interested in the appearance of his carefully-coifed hair than in affairs of state and a State Department protocol office apt to misspell the names of foreign leaders like former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and refer to Taiwan as a «province of China», the appearance of Moscow as a center for GIEs and embassies and legations of aspirant nations might send the State Department into a diplomatic tail spin.
Such an initiative would not even have to occur in a physical context. In June 2012, President Putin called for new strives in the area of «digital diplomacy» and the use of «new technologies across multiple platforms, including in the social media, to explain the positions of the state». Many U.S. diplomatic missions abroad have become VPPs, or Virtual Presence Posts. The U.S. diplomatic and consular presence in many locations only exists in cyberspace. Either a virtual presence, physical presence, or, ideally, a combination of the two, in Moscow would be a smart use of Russian soft power to combat continuing American and western forays into the domestic affairs of Russia, Ukraine, and other Eurasian nations, including China's Tibet province. The recent two-day honoring of the Tibetan Dalai Lama by the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC is evidence that the American and western neo-imperialists will not stop with Ukraine and Russia, but complete their goals with the overthrow of China's government and the dismemberment of the People's Republic of China.
The world is at a crossroads. It can follow the West into austerity, bankruptcy, and subjugation as a «captive planet». Or it can stand with the Ukrainian government-in-exile, Russia, China, Venezuela, Thailand, and other progressive countries against the rise of neo-fascism and tyranny…
[Source: By Wayne Madsen, Strategic Culture Foundation, Moscow, 02Mar14]
 | This document has been published on 05Mar14 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |