US-EU Sanctions Against Russia: A Barely Veiled Threat of War!

• US-EU Sanctions Against Russia: A Barely Veiled Threat of War! 
  by Alex Lantier, World Socialist Web Site, via http://www.globalresearch.ca/ 
  In his speech yesterday announcing sanctions against Kremlin officials in retaliation for the Russian-backed referendum in Crimea supporting secession from Ukraine and affiliation with Russia, US President Barack Obama said the United States and its European Union (EU) allies would use all means necessary, including military action, to humiliate and crush Russia.
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  By initiating trade war with Russia and offering open-ended military support and security guarantees to right-wing regimes on Russia’s borders, such as Ukraine, American and European imperialism are setting into motion a confrontation that could easily end in disaster. Such a confrontation poses immense dangers and has no support in the working class in Europe or the United States.
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  In his remarks, Obama stood reality on its head, trying to present the US-EU intervention in Ukraine as a principled, non-violent defense of international law against Russian aggression. He said, “In recent months, as the citizens of Ukraine have made their voices heard, we have been guided by a fundamental principle: the future of Ukraine must be decided by the people of Ukraine… And so, Russia’s decision to send troops into Crimea has rightly drawn global condemnation.”
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  Obama denounced Sunday’s referendum in Crimea as “a clear violation of the Ukrainian constitution and international law.” He went on to announce: “We are imposing sanctions on specific individuals responsible for undermining the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and government of Ukraine.” He pledged to enact further sanctions to “exact a greater toll on the Russian economy” if it did not submit to Washington’s demands.
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  Obama’s statement is rubbish. It is Washington and Berlin that engineered a massive political provocation, arming fascist groups to seize power in a putsch and illegally depose Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The main goal of this operation—carried out in blatant violation of Ukraine’s constitution and sovereignty, and in defiance of Ukrainian public opinion—was to transform Ukraine into a far-right outpost of the imperialist powers for military operations and threats against Russia.
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  Its credit cut off by the major banks, the unelected Kiev regime depends totally on EU, US and IMF bailouts to avoid bankruptcy. Its top security officials are fascists who organized security during Western-backed riots on Kiev’s Independence Square—Secretary of National Security Andriy Parubiy, co-founder of the far-right Svoboda party, and Deputy Secretary of National Security Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of the Right Sector militia.
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  These forces do not speak for the “Ukrainian people,” as Obama claims, but for US imperialism, which has spent over $5 billion to set up pro-US opposition groups in Ukraine since the dissolution of the USSR, according to US State Department official Victoria Nuland.
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  These elements make no secret of their violent hostility to Russia or their veneration of the Ukrainian fascists who helped Nazi SS units massacre Ukraine’s Jews during World War II. In a March 12 Newsweek interview, Yarosh mentioned his ties to Chechen Islamist terrorists fighting Moscow, and boasted of flying Ukrainian fascism’s red-and-black flag. “We stood under red and black flags throughout the revolution,” he declared. “Red Ukrainian blood spilled on black Ukrainian earth: that flag is the symbol of the national revolution.”
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  These forces are now being integrated into the new National Guard being set up by the Kiev regime, supported and soon to be armed by NATO. As Obama issued his statement, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia was meeting with top NATO officials in Brussels. He pledged to reinforce “technical military cooperation” with NATO. According to the Belgian daily Le Soir, “The authorities in Kiev will soon present NATO, perhaps as early as Monday, with a ‘list’ of equipment that they would like to have at their disposal.”
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