Obama vows to stand with Ukraine as he meets President-elect, Petro Poroshenko in Poland

Comment from a Swedish Conservative:

"What you call" Russophobia "could of course also be due to the fact that Russia occupied Crimea, is aggressive against the Baltic states and waged war in Georgia.


It would be a simpler explanation than your extravagant conspiracy theories.

You also say, quite wrongly, that Russia would be "the other superpower". It is China that is the other major power today, economically, militarily and geopolitically. That is a bit disgraceful for Russia, who of course is desperately trying to be a great power ... .. "

"Caucasus, where Georgia is, is like a patchwork of different nationalities with different languages and cultures. During the Soviet era borders were drawn between republics, irrespective of the local conditions and the desires of the populations. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, a series of local conflicts broke out and different ethnic groups in the Caucasus demanded independence. "(Landguiden.se)



"During a short war Georgian forces were driven out of Abkhazia, but the area's independence was not recognized by the outside world. Georgia lost partial control even over South Ossetia. When the Georgian government in the summer of 2008 tried to take back South Ossetia, blaming this on certain 'military provocations' (which may or may not have existed), there was a brief but intense war against Russian forces which had come to the support of South Ossetia. Russia was also on the side of Abkhazia and recognized the two ethnically Russian regions as independent states." (Wikipedia)





Georgia and the two autonomous regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia, bordering on Russia

Georgia bombed viciously the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, and it seems most likely that Georgia was the aggressor in this war. Russia defended the regions which had declared themselves independent after the dissolution of the USSR. Russia has obviously made every effort to keep the ethnically Russian regions who wanted to retain the links to the country that they considered themselves as belonging to. It is of course a question of cultural identity, an important fact that the United States seems to lack any kind of understanding for.



As for the Baltic states, there is no aggression from the Russian side there either. This is pure propaganda. Nor has there been any aggression against Sweden. (See my essay: Scary Swedish policy on Russia - a letter from France) – not since Sweden lost Finland, a third of its territory to Russia in the most megalomaniac war Sweden ever fought. Well, one of them at least, Charles XII's absurd war against Russia that ended with the embarrassing Swedish loss in the battle of Poltava was certainly equally megalomaniac.



However, Washington is working frantically on getting the Baltic states under its influence and it seems that they have succeeded very well. NATO has several military bases in the Baltic countries, and it is obviously from that direction the aggression is coming – against Russia. Washington propaganda creates an upsidedown world. They want us to believe, through its persistent propaganda, that their presence in the Baltic States is motivated by a need for those countries to be protected against Russian aggression. We know better, but it would be preferable by far if the West in general could also see through this pretense, which also goes for Poland where Russophobia is rampant – but less so than in Sweden and Finland. 

As for Ukraine, it is all very clear. Of course, Washington has never admitted that they were behind the coup in Kiev, despite the fact that the whole world knows it. Victoria Nuland, 'Assistant Secretary of State for Europe', was in close cooperation with the neo-Nazi mercenaries in the violent coup in which they attacked the ethnic Russian population. It was a long-lasting uprising by the US-friendly fascists that culminated in the much written about Maidan violent battles in February 2014, which caused mass killings and massive destruction in central Kiev. Several neo-Nazis wore swastikas on their sleeves and they behaved like bloodthirsty hooligans. They killed and completely destroyed everything around them. [i]



Victoria Nuland who handed out cookies on the Maidan to the Neo-Nazi hoodlums in February 2014 and Yatsenyuk who went on to become the Prime Minister of Ukraine

There has always been a significant number of fascist, neo-Nazi elements (Nazis during World War II) in Ukraine's population, and Washington was using those thugs to create a new pro-Western and Russian-hostile government as a major step towards their ultimate goal, which is to crush Russia. The protests that began in November culminated at the end of February. To the western press these hoodlums were 'protesters', but they were rather mercenaries hired by Washington and they counted many non-Ukrainians in their wildly stabbing, burning, murdering armies of thugs. The number of deaths in these riots is impossible to find a reliable figure for, but they amounted in many cases to over 50 in a single day.



The result of these vicious riots was, as we all know, that the Russian-friendly Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia, and was replaced as president by Petro Poroshenko, who later declared openly that he had come to power in a coup. Elections were held in October, however, but it was not clear that Poroshenko won this election. Separatists in the Donbass region could not vote, and the outcome is very much in dispute. Ukraine is definitely now a divided country.



The Crimean crisis came shortly after the coup in Kiev. After such a savage and illegal coup that completely changed their view of Ukraine, now quite openly supported by the United States, the Crimean residents did not want to be ruled by Ukraine's corrupt government. [ii] There is a minority of Ukrainians in Crimea (15%) and there is also Crimean Tatars a large amount (12%), but the great majority are Russians. An uprising followed by the Russian Crimean population of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in late February, which led to the referendum, whose results are consistently challenged by the US-obedient Western world and the media.



”The majority population in Crimea speaks Russian, identifies with Russia and was formally a part of Russia until the region was transferred to Ukraine as a largely administrative measure in 1954 when Ukraine and Russia were full republics united in one country: the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.The vote by Crimea to leave Ukraine has led to a chorus of condemnation and economic sanctions against Russia by the United States and all the NATO governments of Europe.” (Global Research)



Crimea and a tiny bit of Russia in the east.

In a referendum on March 16, 2014 the yes-votes got a substantial majority (the exact figure varies so enormously depending on the source you use that it is impossible to give an exact figure) and then the Crimean autonomous government declared their independence and their inclusion in the Russian Federation.



The number of Yes-votes in this referendum has been said to be above 90%, but this figure is obviously too high, if we look at the entire population. The percentage of voters in Wikipedia is stated as 81.37%, but even that must be considered as doubtful since the majority of Crimean Tatars boycotted the referendum as did many Ukrainians. The number of voters, according to another source was said to to 50-60%. This is quite understandable against the background of the ethnic pluralism. Quite naturally the Tatars, who are Turkmens, are Turkish-friendly, not Russian-friendly.[iii] Turkmens are spread across Europe and Asia, but the vast majority live in Turkmenistan. Moreover, a large number of Ukrainians must also have voted for the option to remain part of Ukraine, which was the second option in the referendum.



An essential factor concerning the result of this referendum is of course the question of how the voting was carried out . It has been claimed that the Russian army invaded Ukraine and that Ukrainians voted at gunpoint by Russian military forces.



Aftonbladet which is not a mass medium known as an excessive Russian sympathizer writes:



"Russian troops, which surrounded the Ukrainian military bases in the Crimea, were withdrawn, according to a Norwegian media report. Only three bases are still surrounded. At the same time, the Parliament of Crimea has unanimously voted to become a part of Russia."

McCain and the leader of the political party Svoboda

Finally, a word about the concept of 'great power'. Our commentator believes that the concept does not apply to Russia. It's of course completely subjective what we want to see as a great power. The United States obviously wants to be the only great power in a unilateral world. However, in view of Washington's insane and arrogant deeds in the now completely ruined countries where they ravaged and mass-murdered, there will no doubt be room for other nations to play a part in the game of world domination that Washington shamefully brought about. The U.S. has by its frequent blunders played out its role as world leader, something that the Swedish government does not seem to realize.
 
Whether Russia or China should be considered to be the future rival to a superpower status is unclear today. I can see no need for neither a unilateral nor a bilateral worldview. I would very subjectively prefer to have several countries that do not compete for power or the title of a great power, but which would instead cooperate for peaceful purposes. This presupposes that we will now finally see an end to this incredible arrogance and megalomania represented by the United States and which the world can no longer live with.

As regards the economic, military and geopolitical situation (to quote the commentator's words) - if we compare Russia and China, they are, despite all the differences between them, possibly about equally strong militarily, even though Russia's weapons are more advanced. [iv] From an economic point of view it is certainly impossible to compare two such completely different nations. China has made enormous progress in recent decades as regards living standards and human rights, and may have almost caught up with the Russians. But there are still today starving people in China. But then there are desperately poor families in the U.S. as well, even if nobody mentions that fact in the mass media. The financial situation of China today is said to be weaker than it was once considered to be.

Russia has huge sophisticated defense capabilities, most likely technologically surpassing even the U.S. in speed and precision. As far as Russia is concerned, only a defensive capacity is aimed at. They will, understandably, keep and defend their national and cultural territory against threats from the west.

This is a short comment on the accusation of my having presented 'conspiracy theories' in my previous essay “Can Swedish Russophobia have an explanation?” (in Swedish at jinge.se)

Whenever a theory does not fit into a person's or a government's self-serving pattern of behavior, it becomes branded as a conspiracy theory. It's an all too easy way of getting away from defending your actions. Another package in the mail from the United States. Let the propaganda loose instead of answering uncomfortable questions and accusations. They oil their machines well in the US, and the oil is spreading rapidly.

Notes:
[i] Victoria Nuland Admits: US Has Invested $5 Billion In The Development of Ukrainian, "Democratic Institutions" (Information Clearing House)

[ii] There had been grave corruption during the Russian-friendly Viktor Yanukovych's presidency too, but a new form of corruption was orchestrated by the U.S. and it was not accepted by the Russian Crimean population.

[iii] The forcible deportation of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea was ordered by Joseph Stalin as a form of collective punishment under accusations of collaborating with the Nazi occupation regime in Taurida Subdistrict during 1942–1943. The state-organized removal is known as the Sürgünlik in Crimean Tatar. A total of more than 230,000 people were deported, mostly to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. This included the entire ethnic Crimean Tatar population, at the time about a fifth of the total population of the Crimean Peninsula. (Wikipedia)

[iv] ”A Russian Warning” By Dmitry Orlov, The Saker, Victor Katsap and Evgenia Gurevich

Wonderful photos of Crimea