Monday, January 19, 2015

U.S.-Russia Conflict Would Inevitably Turn 'Nuclear'

Even Gorbachov is warning the West that their wild provocations against Russia are leading the world to thermonuclear war.  This article is in the current issue of EIR.
           Mike Billington
 
 Gorbachov's Warning
U.S.-Russia Conflict Would Inevitably Turn 'Nuclear'
Jan. 11—Mikhail Gorbachov, the last leader of the
Soviet Union, warned, in an interview published by
Germany’s Der Spiegel, on Jan. 9, that the U.S.-Russia
confrontation over Ukraine could lead to a major war.
“Such a war today would inevitably turn into a nuclear
war. If someone loses their nerve because of the acri-
monious atmosphere, we will not survive the coming
year,” he said. “I do not say this lightly. This is of truly
the utmost concern to me.”
    This is just the latest of Gorbachov’s high-profile
warnings of the potential consequences of British/
NATO policy toward Russia—which have been echoed
recently by top members of the political class in Ger-
many, France, and Italy. Gorbachov decried the “loss of trust”
between Russia and the West as “catastrophic,” and said ties
must be “defrosted.” Gorbachov accused the West and
NATO of destroying the structure of European secu-
rity by expanding its alliance. “No head of the Krem-
lin can ignore such a thing,” he said, adding that the
U.S. was unfortunately starting to establish a “mega-
empire.”
    Gorbachov also blasted the role of Germany in the
current crisis and, in doing so, reminded it of its own
history. “The new Germany wants its hands in every
pie. There seem to be a lot of people who want to be
involved in a new division of Europe,” he said. “Ger-
many has already tried to expand its influence of power
towards the East—in World War II. Does it really need
another lesson?”
    Gorbachov also denounced the U.S. sanctions
against Russia as “damn stupid and highly dangerous.”
Gorbachov, who has been viewed inside post-Soviet
Russia as an asset of European financial factions more
than a Russian patriot, was not alone in his warnings
about a potential global catastrophe if the West does not
back off from its blatant regime-change drive against
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
 
A ‘Warning Shot at Hollande’s Head’
 
    French President François Hollande delivered sev-
eral pointed warnings last week to the effect that the
continuation of Western sanctions against Russia was a
grave error and should be abandoned immediately. On
Jan. 4, Hollande gave an interview to a French TV net-
work, in which he warned that the Russian crisis is not
good for Europe. “Sanctions must be stopped now,” he
told the nationwide network. Two days later, he re-
peated the same call for an end to the anti-Russia antics
and specifically, an end to the economic sanctions that
have are at least as devastating for Europe as they are
for Russia.
    The fact that terrorists attacked the Paris offices of
Charlie Hebdo just three days later, was a “warning
shot at Hollande’s head,” according to one former cab-
inet-level official.
    A week ago Sunday, German SPD national chair-
man—who is also deputy chancellor and minister of
economics in the Merkel government—gave an inter-
view to Bild am Sonntag, demanding an end to the Rus-
sian sanctions, declaring that “we should solve the
Ukraine crisis and not force Russia to its knees.”
Even the foreign minister of Latvia, who is now the
rotating president of the European Union, was adamant
against further provocations against Moscow. Foreign
Minister Edgars Rinkevics reported that Russia was
perfectly willing to hold talks on Ukraine to bring the
sanctions to an end. He urged European leaders to come
together later in the month in Astana with President
Putin and Ukrainian President Poroshenko, to finalize a
working agreement.
    Political directors of the foreign ministries of
Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France met in Berlin on
Jan. 5, followed by a phone call reviewing the progress
of the talks, between Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and his
German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier. A meet-
ing of the four ministers is scheduled for Jan. 12 in
Berlin, and there are still plans for a summit of the four
heads of state of Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine
in Astana, Kazakhstan sometime in January. On Jan. 9,
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was in Berlin,
meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, to work out
final plans for the summit, among other pressing mat-
ters.
    Even NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg
noted, following the Jan. 7 terrorist attack in Paris, that
NATO and Russia have a common interest in defeating
the scourge of global terrorism. Speaking in Bavaria
just before meeting with the leadership of the German
coalition partner Christian Socialist Union (CSU), Stol-
tenberg too called for cooperation with Moscow. This
was in stark contrast to the bellicose anti-Putin rhetoric
of his predecessor as NATO chief, Anders Fogh Ras-
mussen.
    Former Czech President Vaclav Klaus added his
voice to those pushing back against the war danger by
declaring that it would be a “major unforgiveable risk”
to blame Russia for the Ukraine crisis.
 
        War Party Not Backing Down
    Despite this resistance against the growing danger
of general war, the war party was by no means silent.
On Jan. 9, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatse-
nyuk (U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland’s “our man Yats”)
visited Chancellor Merkel in Berlin. In a
joint press conference with Merkel, Yatse-
nyuk delivered a series of personal accusa-
tions against Russian President Putin with-
out a shred of evidence—including that
Putin had ordered the hacking of German
government computers, and that he was
behind sending “bandits” into eastern
Ukraine to fight against the Kiev govern-
ment forces.
    During that press conference, Yatse-
nyuk appeared to be directly apologizing
for Hitler, by referring to the liberation of
Ukraine and Germany at the close of World
War II as a Soviet “invasion.” Efforts to
“clarify” the remarks (which appeared in
the world media via translation from
Ukrainian to German) largely fell on deaf
ears, as genuine statesmen came out
strongly against the Yats comments. Czech
President Milos Zeman blasted Yatsenyuk as the “prime
minister of war,” and delivered a sophisticated distinc-
tion between Yatsenyuk and Ukrainian President Poro-
shenko, who has called for the convening of the Astana
heads of state meeting to settle the Ukraine crisis.
German sources believe that Yats’ deployment was spe-
cifically directed at breaking up any progress in the on-
going talks between Lavrov and Steinmeier.
    In a related development, the Pentagon announced
last week the planned closing of 15 U.S. military bases
in Europe—at a time when the actual size of the Ameri-
can military force in Europe is on the rise. The target list
of closed bases is centered in the United Kingdom and
Western Europe, while the growth factor is all in the
East, including the planned deployment of a tank bri-
gade to some as-yet-undisclosed locations further East.
The gravest danger is that the widening gap between
Moscow and Washington’s narrative of the Ukraine
crisis is a driver for war, and that President Obama’s
continuing venom against Putin is a crucial factor push-
ing confrontation.
    Russia has made clear that its own buildup of its
strategic force is aimed at deterring a Western attack.
Pentagon planners now see the Russian buildup in the
past year as creating a dangerous gap at the level of Eu-
ropean security and strategic deterrence. Not since the
Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 has the world been so
close to global thermonuclear confrontation

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