US, European Union impose sanctions against Russia
By Alex Lantier, WSWS.COM, 7 March 2014
Western powers ratcheted up sanctions against Russia Thursday, while the
US mounts a major military buildup in Eastern Europe.
The immediate pretext for sanctions from both the US and Europe was the
vote in the regional parliament of the Crimean Peninsula to prepare secession
from Ukraine and association to Russia, subject to a popular referendum later
this month. Russian-backed forces have taken over the strategic peninsula, which
hosts a major Russian naval base at Sevastopol and where most of the population
is Russian speaking.
Installed by a Western-backed, fascist-led putsch on February 22, the
Kiev regime faces broad hostility in more pro-Russian parts of the country. Its
first act was to eliminate Russian as an official language in
Ukraine.
Thursday morning, as European Union (EU) officials prepared to meet to
discuss actions against Russia, US President Barack Obama unilaterally issued an
executive order authorizing sanctions and visa bans against Russian officials.
Later yesterday, EU officials announced a similar, three-step plan for sanctions
on Russia, echoing Obama’s arguments.
Obama’s order described Russian actions in Crimea as “an unusual and
extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United
States.” Obama’s message to Congress announcing the executive order said it
would target “persons—including persons who have asserted governmental authority
in the Crimean region without the authorization of the government of Ukraine—who
undermine democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine.”
In a press statement later in the day, Obama added, “The proposed
referendum on the future of Crimea would violate the Ukrainian constitution and
violate international law. Any discussion about the future of Ukraine must
include the legitimate government of Ukraine.” He added, “In 2014, we’re well
past the days when borders can be drawn over the heads of democratic
leaders.”
Like every statement coming from top US officials, and parroted in the
media, these statements reek of hypocrisy and are full of contradictions. In
fact, it is Washington and its allies who are trampling on the Ukrainian
constitution, backing a right-wing regime they helped install via an extra-legal
putsch. If anyone should be detained and their fortunes seized because they were
“destabilizing Ukraine” and violating its constitution, it is top officials in
Washington and the European capitals.
And in criticizing “borders…drawn over the heads of democratic leaders,”
Obama spoke as the chief executive of a state that has been engaged in endless
war and has elevated the violation of national sovereignty to a principal of
foreign policy. Western powers themselves unilaterally redrew the borders of a
European country, Yugoslavia—separating Kosovo from Serbia and declaring it
independent in a move aimed at undermining Serbian and Russian influence in the
Balkans.
More broadly, Washington and the EU reserve the right to occupy other
countries and carry out drone murder in violation of the sovereignty of
countries across the Middle East and Africa.
Obama’s reference to “legitimate” and “democratic” government is used in
reference to a government that is based on right-wing and anti-Semitic forces
like the Right Sector militia and the Svoboda party, which have praised
Ukrainian SS units who carried out the Holocaust during World War II.
The reliance of the US and European operation on fascistic forces was
revealed in the EU negotiations over sanctions. During the discussions, Eastern
European regimes such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Baltic
states pressed for harsher terms against Russia. A proposal emerged to call for
“quick steps towards the dissolution of any paramilitary structures”— a demand
aimed at pro-Russian self-defense groups in Crimea.
However, this demand was dropped, Britain’s Daily
Telegraph noted, “because it
would also apply to Kiev groups, particularly the far-right nationalist groups
that are the backbone of the new government here.”
Washington is also deepening its military buildup against Russia in
Eastern Europe. US officials announced Thursday that they would send 12 F-16
fighters to Poland and the guided missile destroyer USS Truxtun to the Black
Sea, which borders Ukraine and Russia. According to US Navy web sites, the
Truxtun is part of the battle group of the aircraft carrier USS George H. W.
Bush, which recently arrived in the region.
Moscow responded with massive air defense drills in Western Russia.
Military spokesman Colonel Oleg Kochtkov called it the “largest-ever exercise”
by air defense units in the region.
Western powers are also dispatching military observers of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to Ukraine, trying to send
them into the Crimea.
Washington and the EU are embarking on an unprecedented confrontation
with Russia, aimed at forcing a humiliating Russian climb-down in Ukraine,
discrediting President Vladimir Putin’s regime, and undermining Russian
influence in the region.
Media portrayals of this policy as motivated by the Western powers’
alleged love of democracy are lies. It is bound up with the concerns of
imperialism. These include Russia’s role as an obstacle to US war plans, such as
its plans to attack Syria last September, and its decision to grant asylum to
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden after he exposed unconstitutional mass spying
on the people by US and European spy agencies.
A media silence prevails on the significance of the Sevastopol base,
which Kiev is now trying to seize from the local Crimean authorities and place
under Western control. It played a key role in Russian naval deployments to the
Mediterranean during last year’s Syrian war scare.
As they stir up military tensions at the heart of Europe and threaten to
cut off Russia’s $2 trillion economy from world markets, the imperialist powers
are apparently calculating that the Russian ruling elite will ultimately back
down. Later on Thursday, Obama had a telephone call with Putin in which he
outlined a deal that would involve the pullback of Russian troops and the
installation of international monitors in Crimea.
Having seen one unpopular post-Soviet regime collapse in Ukraine, they
anticipate that personal concerns of Russian oligarchs desperate to save their
bank accounts in London and Zurich will again trump everything and everyone
else.
The reaction of Russia in Crimea was anticipated by US officials and has
been used to immensely intensify tensions against the nuclear power. There is at
least a section of the ruling class that is clearly prepared for war.
By moving towards an all-out clash with Russia, moreover, the US and
European powers are risking vast unintended consequences and economic, military,
and political shocks.
Economic commentators underlined that a policy of sanctions with Russia
threatens to shut down large portions of the European economy, which relies on
Russia as a key source of oil and gas. An anonymous US official remarked,
“Russia is now a two-trillion-dollar economy, if you’re going to sanction them
across the board, you have to be very careful not to kill yourself while doing
it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment