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james's avatar

thanks karl.. the nima interview with crooke is very good.. i think russia/ukraine is a part of europe, but the distinction of them being slavic is important.. and this brings up the distinction of orthodox christianity, verses roman christianity and how this has played out the past 1200 years or more..

and who will rewrite the ukrainian constitution? it will require a willingness to accept their defeat and i can't see this happening very easily.. it is one more of a number of roadblocks that will not be removed by any pressure from europe, and possibly none from the usa either - all of who would like to keep russia bogged down in this quagmire... i would like to see this resolved but a number of important players seem more intent on the opposite - in spite of appearances at meetings with western representatives, trump and etc..

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bevin's avatar

The obvious solution to the constitutional problem is an elected Constitutional Convention. Indeed an election of any kind would be desirable in a state-Ukraine- reconstructed on the bases of dozens of different ways of cheating the electorate. The Maidan was just the most successful means of cheating the Ukrainian voter. More recent was the Zelensky election in which he ran against the Poroshenko/Bandera party on a platform of implementing the Minsk compromises and guaranteeing the rights of his popular base in eastern Ukraine. Before that we had the various attempts to install, via Nazi black revolutions, pro imperialist rulers in Kiev.

Of course the pre-condition of a proper election is the eradication of the fascist militias which currently employ Zelensky as their mouthpiece and the institution of freedom of expression, assembly and movement. Eradication not because, after the havoc they have caused there is any danger of their winning an election but because while they are functioning they will use violence, as they did after the Maidan- against democracy.

The only force capable of ensuring this is the Russian military for the simple reason that NATO and the West in general has already thrown its weight behind the current, fascistic dispensation under which dissidents are murdered, imprisoned or disappeared (remember Gonzalo Lira?) there is a fascist monopoly of media (financed and implemented by NATO governments NNGOs Not Non-Governmental Organisations) and the economy is dominated by violent unconvicted thieves politely called Oligarchs.

Parts of Ukraine, which are ethnically as Slavic as any other parts, possibly more than much of the east, will probably vote to return to the Hapsburg Empire or Poland but the great majority will want re-unification with Russia.

A re-unification greatly to be desired because it will strengthen the federation which faces, as the reality of its interim position between the capitalist past and the socialist future evidences itself, the necessity of dealing with its own kleptocratic western liberal inclining oligarchy.

Russia has an advantage, shared with Cuba, Iran and China, but not enjoyed by Brazil or South Africa and several other BRICS members, of having a military which was neither trained in the United States or under its influence. A victory in Ukraine will strengthen the formerly Red Army to insist that the voices of Ukrainians will prevail and the SMO vindicated as liberation rather than a conquest.

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