As Russia continues its special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and rid it of the Banderite Nazi forces stirred up by imperialism, the world is starting to wake up to the folly of having ever given free rein to America’s proxy war against Russia.
Militarily the outcome of the immediate conflict is in no doubt. Kiev’s nazified military will go down to defeat at the hands of the Russian army in alliance with the forces of the Donbass republics. Lobbing a few drones into Crimea (and one which got hopelessly lost and wound up in Croatia) is not going to turn the tide running against the Kiev regime.
But it has become clear that Washington has another agenda: to keep pouring weapons and dollars into the bottomless pit of an unwinnable Ukraine war in order to prolong the pointless suffering whilst actively seeking ways of spreading the conflict to new theatres of war, against Iran or the DPRK or China – or anyone else who dares raise a finger against US hegemony. In its last ditch defence of that collapsing hegemony, the US is showing that it is prepared to expose the world to all the horrors of a world war with no limits.
On the economic front too European countries have been slow to wake up to the consequences of subordinating their own national interests to those of US imperialism (just remember Berlin’s suicidal decision not to proceed with the NordStream II gas pipeline) and as the sanctions war initiated by the US against Russia gathered pace and were countered by Moscow, the EU has watched slackjawed as the complex supply lines criss-crossing the planet have tangled and choked, further undermining economies already plunged into crisis. Whilst the hapless Ukrainians have been press ganged into fighting a proxy war against Russia, the pliant European servants of the US have also been dragged into a self-destructive sanctions war against Russia, bearing the brunt of Moscow’s retaliation.
In short, the only reward for the cowardly acquiescence shown by the ‘international community’ towards US/NATO warmongering is the destruction of their own economies and the arrival of open-ended warmongering on their own doorsteps. Contrarily, the rewards for breaking with US hegemony and abandoning unipolar tunnel vision, have never looked more inviting.
Grain agreement: US marginalised
The recent agreement on 22 July between US-backed Ukraine and Russia on safeguarding grain exports in the Black Sea is a case in point. A combination of Russian blockade and Ukrainian mines had stymied the export of grains from Black Sea ports, resulting in an unsustainable backlog of Ukraine’s grains awaiting export. Meanwhile sanctions interfered with Russia’s own export of grains and fertilisers.
This situation, brought about by the economic war being waged against Russia and exacerbated by Kiev’s confessed mining of its own coastline, also has grave implications for the lives of millions of people across north Africa and the Middle East for whom such grains are a staple diet. Imperialist meddling is already promoting new jihadi “Arab springs” across that region and would be the likely beneficiary of the resulting destablisation. Securing such a deal in the middle of a war was a considerable achievement, and could only be won by a pragmatic deal between neighbours with the US largely by-passed.
The deal is between Russia and Ukraine with official UN oversight but has only been made possible in practice thanks to (a) mediation by Turkey, which maintains diplomatic relations with both sides, and (b) an unacknowledged side deal with the EU. The US has been notable by its absence from the process, whilst Russia and Turkey have been proactive throughout.
Russia warmly commended Turkey’s role in acting as mediator in the run-up to the agreement, with President Putin telling Erdoğan, “We have moved forward through your mediation. Not all the issues have been solved, but it’s good that there’s movement already” (Laura Pitel et al,, ‘Ukraine and Russia near deal to end blockade of grain exports’, Financial Times, 19 July 2022).
Meanwhile the EU, in an unacknowledged quid pro quo for the grain agreement, has quietly agreed to exempt food and fertiliser trading from sanctions against Russia. In effect, Moscow is saying to Kiev: stop blocking our grain and fertiliser exports and we will unblock your grain exports. And to the EU: slacken the sanction regime and we will stop blockading the Black Sea. And to all parties: don’t let’s complicate the deal by involving Uncle Sam.
In short, instead of uniting the world against Russia and shoring up US hegemony, the crisis conditions triggered by America’s proxy war against Russia are in fact accelerating moves from unipolar to multipolar.
As with every positive development, forces hostile to the success of the grain deal did their best to sabotage it, falsely representing legitimate Russian missile attacks on military infrastructure as attacks upon grain delivery infrastructure, forbidden under the new deal. But this lie never stuck and the deal has gone through, with some early modest successes.
Zaporozhye
The latest Big Lie concerns the dangerous situation evolving around the nuclear power plant in Zaporozhye, the largest such plant in Europe. In March this year this region was liberated and control of the plant was assumed by Russian forces. Sensibly, the existing personnel, technically equipped to run the plant safely, remained at their posts under protection of the Russians.
With no shred of moral responsibility, Ukonazi forces took to shelling the area around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, damaging two of the lines supplying electricity to the plant. Ludicrously, the Kiev regime blamed Russia for the attacks, though it was never explained what conceivable motive Russia might have to attack a position which it already occupied. Needless to say, Kiev had no trouble in convincing the imperialist media and the UN that Russia was busily shelling the very nuclear plant on which it was sitting.
Watch out now for those who cannot wait to take advantage of the involvement of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the UN, capitalising on the situation to set up a clamour for blue-helmeted ‘peacekeepers’ to move in, using the very real dangers posed by the nihilist Ukonazi attacks on Zaporozhye to stampede public opinion into accepting yet another imperialist adventure mustered behind the ‘Right to Protect’ banner.
But there are multiplying signs that the battlefield successes of the liberation forces are serving to put a dent in the earlier uncritical public mood. The photo shoot that Zelensky did for Vogue, coming on top of an unrelenting PR campaign portraying him as movie star hero, backfired badly. More seriously, questions have started to be asked about just what kind of democracy Zelensky is supposed to be standing up for, with eleven political parties banned and avowed fascists occupying senior positions in the state. Further evidence of the chaos obtaining in the highest circles came in July when he sacked both his domestic intelligence chief and his chief prosecutor.
It became obvious that the official propaganda line was starting to fray badly when even Amnesty forgot itself for a moment and went right off-message.
“Amnesty sparked outrage in Ukraine with the publication of a report on Thursday that accused the military of endangering civilians by establishing bases in schools and hospitals, and launching counterattacks from heavily populated areas… Amnesty’s report listed instances in which Ukrainian forces appeared to have exposed civilians to danger in 19 towns and villages in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions” (‘Amnesty regrets “distress” caused by claims in Ukraine report’, Guardian, 7 August 2022).
Grovelling apologies were issued at once and the head of Amnesty in Ukraine quit in protest, but the cat was already out of the bag, giving the whole world a glimpse into the real character of the Ukonazi cowards.
Britain declares war against Russia?
But if enthusiasm for America’s proxy war is eroding in the rest of the world, at least it still flickers on in imperialist Britain. Boris Johnson recently paid a visit to a training camp in Yorkshire, where the British army is training Ukrainian troops. On his visit Johnson was filmed throwing grenades and hobnobbing with the trainees, fatuously telling them, “I just want you to know that the people of the United Kingdom support the people of Ukraine and support you in your fight. And I am absolutely convinced that you can win and that you will win” (Aanchal Nigam, ‘”You can win and you will win”: UK’s Johnson handles grenade, boosts Ukrainian troops’ morale during training in Yorkshire’, www.republic, 24 July 2022).
If Johnson is succeeded by Liz Truss, we can expect more of the same and probably worse. But whilst our rulers are dead set on picking a fight with Russia, it is British workers who will bear the brunt of the consequences. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova spelt it out in terms which even Truss should comprehend.
“We have commented many times on Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss’s anti-Russia remarks which are invariably steeped in painful aggression and nationalism, that is, Russophobia. Now that she has joined the race to become the leader of the ruling Conservative Party in an effort to fulfill her compulsive ambitions, she has begun spewing threats towards our country and its leadership and wants to achieve a ‘Ukrainian victory’ over Russia. Her ambition alone to ‘lead the free world’, in an effort to resist Russia, speaks volumes. She looks like a second-rate politician afflicted by megalomania. And she is doing all of this instead of addressing the issues at home, which are plenty.
“This collection of empty slogans vocalised by a raging Truss clearly shows that, in fact, she is either unable to spot the serious crisis in the economy and in domestic politics in a country whose government she is striving to lead, or she simply does not know how to overcome it and is trying to distract voters. Clearly, the well-being and living standards of ordinary Brits are not among her priorities.
“Our response to belligerent outbursts by the British Foreign Secretary, who prefers riding tanks over engaging in serious diplomacy, and her determination to ‘defeat’ Russia, is straightforward – go ahead and try” (Russian press release, 14 July 2022).
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