By Alex Rubinstein & Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone, 3/4/22 (Documentary images available at The Grayzone)

While Western media deploys Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish heritage to refute accusations of Nazi influence in Ukraine, the president has ceded to neo-Nazi forces and now depends on them as front line fighters.

Back in October 2019, as the war in eastern Ukraine dragged on, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Zolote, a town situated firmly in the “gray zone” of Donbas, where over 14,000 had been killed, mostly on the pro-Russian side. There, the president encountered the hardened veterans of extreme right paramilitary units keeping up the fight against separatists just a few miles away.

Elected on a platform of de-escalation of hostilities with Russia, Zelensky was determined to enforce the so-called Steinmeier Formula conceived by then-German Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier which called for elections in the Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

In a face-to-face confrontation with militants from the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion who had launched a campaign to sabotage the peace initiative called “No to Capitulation,” Zelensky encountered a wall of obstinacy. 

With appeals for disengagement from the frontlines firmly rejected, Zelensky melted down on camera. “I’m the president of this country. I’m 41 years old. I’m not a loser. I came to you and told you: remove the weapons,” Zelensky implored the fighters.

Once video of the stormy confrontation spread across Ukrainian social media channels, Zelensky became the target of an angry backlash.

Andriy Biletsky, the proudly fascist Azov Battalion leader who once pledged to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen”, vowed to bring thousands of fighters to Zolote if Zelensky pressed any further. Meanwhile, a parliamentarian from the party of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko openly fantasized about Zelensky being blown to bits by a militant’s grenade.

Though Zelensky achieved a minor disengagement, the neo-Nazi paramilitaries escalated their “No Capitulation” campaign. And within months, fighting began to heat up again in Zolote, sparking a new cycle of violations of the Minsk Agreement.

By this point, Azov had been formally incorporated into the Ukrainian military and its street vigilante wing, known as the National Corps, was deployed across the country under the watch of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, and alongside the National Police. In December 2021, Zelensky would be seen delivering a “Hero of Ukraine” award to a leader of the fascistic Right Sector in a ceremony in Ukraine’s parliament.

A full-scale conflict with Russia was approaching, and the distance between Zelensky and the extremist paramilitaries was closing fast.

This February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukrainian territory on a stated mission to “demilitarize and denazify” the country, US media embarked on a mission of its own: to deny the power of neo-Nazi paramilitaries over the country’s military and political sphere. As the US government-funded National Public Radio insisted, “Putin’s language [about denazification] is offensive and factually wrong.”

In its bid to deflect from the influence of Nazism in contemporary Ukraine, US media has found its most effective PR tool in the figure of Zelensky, a former TV star and comedian from a Jewish background. It is a role the actor-turned-politician has eagerly assumed.

But as we will see, Zelensky has not only ceded ground to the neo-Nazis in his midst, he has entrusted them with a front line role in his country’s war against pro-Russian and Russian forces.

The president’s Jewishness as Western media PR device 

Hours before President Putin’s February 24 speech declaring denazification as the goal of Russian operations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “asked how a people who lost eight million of its citizens fighting Nazis could support Nazism,” according to the BBC.

Raised in a non-religious Jewish family in the Soviet Union during the 1980’s, Zelensky has downplayed his heritage in the past. “The fact that I am Jewish barely makes 20 in my long list of faults,” he joked during a 2019 interview in which he declined to go into further detail about his religious background.

Today, as Russian troops bear down on cities like Mariupol, which is effectively under the control of the Azov Battalion, Zelensky is no longer ashamed to broadcast his Jewishness. “How could I be a Nazi?” he wondered aloud during a public address. For a US media engaged in an all-out information war against Russia, the president’s Jewish background has become an essential public relations tool.

A few examples of the US media’s deployment of Zelensky as a shield against allegations of rampant Nazism in Ukraine are below (see mash-up above for video): 

• PBS NewsHour noted Putin’s comments on denazification with a qualifier: “even though President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and his great uncles died in the Holocaust.”
• On Fox & Friends, former CIA officer Dan Hoffman declared that “it’s the height of hypocrisy to call the Ukrainian nation to denazify — their president is Jewish after all.”
• On MSNBC, Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner said Putin’s “terminology, outrageous and obnoxious as it is — ‘denazify’ where you’ve got frankly a Jewish president in Mr. Zelensky. This guy [Putin] is on his own kind of personal jihad to restore greater Russia.”
• Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn said on Fox Business she’s “been impressed with President Zelensky and how he has stood up. And for Putin to go out there and say ‘we’re going to denazify’ and Zelensky is Jewish.”
• In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Gen. John Allen denounced Putin’s use of the term, “de-Nazify” while the newsman and former Israel lobbyist shook his head in disgust. In a separate interview with Blitzer, the so-called “Ukraine whistleblower” and Ukraine-born Alexander Vindman grumbled that the claim is “patently absurd, there’s really no merit… you pointed out that Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish… the Jewish community [is] embraced. It’s central to the country and there is nothing to this Nazi narrative, this fascist narrative. It’s fabricated as a pretext.”

Behind the corporate media spin lies the complex and increasingly close relationship Zelensky’s administration has enjoyed with the neo-Nazi forces invested with key military and political posts by the Ukrainian state, and the power these open fascists have enjoyed since Washington installed a Western-aligned regime through a coup in 2014. 

In fact, Zelensky’s top financial backer, the Ukrainian Jewish oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, has been a key benefactor of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and other extremists militias.

Backed by Zelensky’s top financier, neo-Nazi militants unleash a wave of intimidation

Incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard, the Azov Battalion is considered the most ideologically zealous and militarily motivated unit fighting pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donbass region. 

With Nazi-inspired Wolfsangel insignia on the uniforms of its fighters, who have been photographed with Nazi SS symbols on their helmets, Azov “is known for its association with neo-Nazi ideology…[and] is believed to have participated in training and radicalizing US-based white supremacy organizations,” according to an FBI indictment of several US white nationalists that traveled to Kiev to train with Azov. 

Igor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian energy baron of Jewish heritage, has been a top funder of Azov since it was formed in 2014. He has also bankrolled private militias like the Dnipro and Aidar Battalions, and has deployed them as a personal thug squad to protect his financial interests.

In 2019, Kolomoisky emerged as the top backer of Zelensky’s presidential bid. Though Zelensky made anti-corruption the signature issue of his campaign, the Pandora Papers exposed him and members of his inner circle stashing large payments from Kolomoisky in a shadowy web of offshore accounts.

When Zelensky took office in May 2019, the Azov Battalion maintained de facto control of the strategic southeastern port city of Mariupol and its surrounding villages. As Open Democracy noted, “Azov has certainly established political control of the streets in Mariupol. To maintain this control, they have to react violently, even if not officially, to any public event which diverges sufficiently from their political agenda.”

Attacks by Azov in Mariupol have included assaults on “feminists and liberals” marching on International Women’s Day among other incidents.

In March 2019, members of the Azov Battalion’s National Corps attacked the home of Viktor Medvedchuk, the leading opposition figure in Ukraine, accusing him of treason for his friendly relations with Vladimir Putin, the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter.

Zelensky’s administration escalated the attack on Medvedchuk, shuttering several media outlets he controlled in February 2021 with the open approval of the US State Department, and jailing the opposition leader for treason three months later. Zelensky justified his actions on the grounds that he needed to “fight against the danger of Russian aggression in the information arena.”

Next, in August 2020, Azov’s National Corps opened fire on a bus containing members of Medvedchuk’s party, Patriots for Life, wounding several with rubber-coated steel bullets.

Zelensky failed to rein in neo-Nazis, wound up collaborating with them

Following his failed attempt to demobilize neo-Nazi militants in the town of Zolote in October 2019, Zelensky called the fighters to the table, telling reporters “I met with veterans yesterday. Everyone was there – the National Corps, Azov, and everyone else.”

A few seats away from the Jewish president was Yehven Karas, the leader of the neo-Nazi C14 gang.

During the Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” that ousted Ukraine’s elected president in 2014, C14 activists took over Kiev’s city hall and plastered its walls with neo-Nazi insignia before taking shelter in the Canadian embassy.

As the former youth wing of the ultra-nationalist Svoboda Party, C14 appears to draw its name from the infamous 14 words of US neo-Nazi leader David Lane: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

By offering to carry out acts of spectacular violence on behalf of anyone willing to pay, the hooligans have fostered a cozy relationship with various governing bodies and powerful elites across Ukraine.

A March 2018 report by Reuters stated that “C14 and Kiev’s city government recently signed an agreement allowing C14 to establish a ‘municipal guard’ to patrol the streets,” effectively giving them the sanction of the state to carry out pogroms.

As The Grayzone reported, C14 led raid to “purge” Romani from Kiev’s railway station in collaboration with the Kiev police.

Not only was this activity sanctioned by the Kiev city government, the US government itself saw little problem with it, hosting Bondar at an official US government institution in Kiev where he bragged about the pogroms. C14 continued to receive state funding throughout 2018 for “national-patriotic education.”

Karas has claimed that the Ukrainian Security Serves would “pass on” information regarding pro-separatist rallies “not only [to] us, but also Azov, the Right Sector and so on.”

“In general, deputies of all factions, the National Guard, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs work for us. You can joke like that,” Karas said.

Throughout 2019, Zelensky and his administration deepened their ties with ultra-nationalist elements across Ukraine.

After Prime Minister attends neo-Nazi concert, Zelensky honors Right Sector leader

Just days after Zelensky’s meeting with Karas and other neo-Nazi leaders in November 2019, Oleksiy Honcharuk – then the Prime Minister and deputy head of Zelensky’s presidential office – appeared on stage at a neo-Nazi concert organized by C14 figure and accused murderer Andriy Medvedko.

Zelensky’s Minister for Veterans Affairs not only attended the concert, which featured several antisemitic metal bands, she promoted the concert on Facebook.

Also in 2019, Zelensky defended Ukrainian footballer Roman Zolzulya against Spanish fans taunting him as a “Nazi.” Zolzulya had posed beside photos of the World War II-era Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera and openly supported the Azov Battalion. Zelensky responded to the controversy by proclaiming that all of Ukraine backed Zolzulya, describing him as “not only a cool football player but a true patriot.”

In November 2021, one of Ukraine’s most prominent ultra-nationalist militiamen, Dmytro Yarosh, announced that he had been appointed as an advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Yarosh is an avowed follower of the Nazi collaborator Bandera who led Right Sector from 2013 to 2015, vowing to lead the “de-Russification” of Ukraine.

A month later, as war with Russia drew closer, Zelensky awarded Right Sector commander Dmytro Kotsyubaylo the “Hero of Ukraine” commendation. Known as “Da Vinci,” Kosyubaylo keeps a pet wolf in his frontline base, and likes to joke to visiting reporters that his fighters “feed it the bones of Russian-speaking children.”

Ukrainian state-backed neo-Nazi leader flaunts influence on the eve of war with Russia 

On February 5, 2022, only days before full-scale war with Russia erupted, Yevhen Karas of the neo-Nazi C14 delivered a stem-winding public address in Kiev intended to highlight the influence his organization and others like it enjoyed over Ukrainian politics.

“LGBT and foreign embassies say ‘there were not many Nazis at Maidan, maybe about 10 percent of real ideological ones,’” Karas remarked. “If not for those eight percent [of neo-Nazis] the effectiveness [of the Maidan coup] would have dropped by 90 percent.”

The 2014 Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” would have been a “gay parade” if not for the instrumental role of neo-Nazis, he proclaimed.

Karas went on to opine that the West armed Ukrainian ultra-nationalists because “we have fun killing.” He also fantasized about the balkanization of Russia, declaring that it should be broken up into “five different” countries.

“If we get killed…we died fighting a holy war”

When Russian forces entered Ukraine this February 24, encircling the Ukrainian military in the east and driving towards Kiev, President Zelensky announced a national mobilization that included the release of criminals from prison, among them accused murderers wanted in Russia. He also blessed the distribution of arms to average citizens, and their training by battle-hardened paramilitaries like the Azov Battalion.

With fighting underway, Azov’s National Corps gathered hundreds of ordinary civilians, including grandmothers and children, to train in public squares and warehouses from Kharviv to Kiev to Lviv.

On February 27, the official Twitter account of the National Guard of Ukraine posted video of “Azov Fighters” greasing their bullets with pig fat to humiliate Russian Muslim fighters from Chechnya.

A day later, the Azov Battalion’s National Corps announced that the Azov Battalion’s Kharkiv Regional Police would begin using the city’s Regional State Administration building as a defense headquarters. Footage posted to Telegram the following day shows the Azov-occupied building being hit by a Russian airstrike.

Besides authorizing the release of hardcore criminals to join the battle against Russia, Zelensky has ordered all males of fighting age to remain in the country. Azov militants have proceeded to enforce the policy by brutalizing civilians attempting to flee from the fighting around Mariupol.  

According to one Greek resident in Mariupol recently interviewed by a Greek news station, “When you try to leave you run the risk of running into a patrol of the Ukrainian fascists, the Azov Battalion,” he said, adding “they would kill me and are responsible for everything.”

Footage posted online appears to show uniformed members of a fascist Ukrainian militia in Mariupol violently pulling fleeing residents out of their vehicles at gunpoint.

Other video filmed at checkpoints around Mariupol showed Azov fighters shooting and killing civilians attempting to flee.

On March 1, Zelensky replaced the regional administrator of Odessa with Maksym Marchenko, a former commander of the extreme right Aidar Battalion, which has been accused of an array of war crimes in the Donbass region.

Meanwhile, as a massive convoy of Russian armored vehicles bore down on Kiev, Yehven Karas of the neo-Nazi C14 posted a video on YouTube from inside a vehicle presumably transporting fighters.

“If we get killed, it’s fucking great because it means we died fighting a holy war,” Karas exclaimed. ”If we survive, it’s going to be even fucking better! That’s why I don’t see a downside to this, only upside!”

By Anastasia Trofimova, Euronews, 3/3/22

“Guys, where’s the main protest?” asks 28-year-old Ksenia, who’s taken to the street to protest for the first time in her life.

It’s 9 pm in Moscow and the police have already broken up the bulk of the protests. Since anyone with anti-war signs is arrested immediately, protesters casually stroll along until a large enough crowd gathers to shout their opposition to what’s going on in Ukraine.

Two middle-aged women hiss “no war!” to the police before running away, laughing nervously.

“Let’s work, go!” the policeman orders his underlings. A group of three young police officers take off down the street but don’t find any suitable targets. They finally spot a man, who, as he’s being dragged to the police van, is revealed to be very drunk. He is released.

The protesters trickle along smaller streets, following location updates from dedicated Telegram channels. Convoys of police vans follow. It’s a massive game of cat and mouse. The night ends with a 39-year-old man driving a car into the police barriers at Pushkin Square with signs “This is war!” and “Rise up, people!” The car starts to burn; the man is arrested.

On the sixth day of the war in Ukraine, there have been more than 6,000 arrests at anti-war protests across Russia.

“The night of (the invasion), I was in a really great mood,” recalls Ksenia. “My friend and I were celebrating February 23 (Day of the Defender of the Fatherland or, more commonly, Men’s Day).

“We were outside, drinking wine and singing on the swings. At 6:05 am Forbes announced Putin declared the start of the military operation. And that’s it. My world divided into a before and after.”

Ksenia works in PR and speaks bluntly.

“Putin is crazy. No sane person would do anything like this. Ukraine will persevere. Meanwhile, we’re going to be in [the] shit.”

‘It’s been a long time coming’

“You’re not one of those liberals, are you?” asks 49-year-old Yuri. He’s not a fan of anti-war protesters like Ksenia.

“I’m against the war. But to be honest, it’s been a long time coming. The problem is not with Ukraine, but with those Anglo-Saxons who are creeping upon us. Just look at what happened to countries they’ve got into, like Syria. And now they’re trying to get at us (create internal strife) via Ukraine. Therefore, I think all of this is justified and right.”

The liberals that Yuri hates would respond in kind by calling him “a victim of the zombie-box”, or state television. This ideological division runs through many Russian families. However, Yuri’s sentiment is too common to dismiss as crazy talk on the fringes.

The fear of NATO was and is very real here. Examples of Yugoslavia and Libya, two states bombed by NATO forces, are used to drive fears that Russia may be next. The day before the start of the war, Putin told the nation of WWII-era promises not to expand NATO eastward and said those promises had been broken five times. Ukraine’s flirtation with NATO membership pushed those fears into overdrive.

Yuri is one of many seeing the events through a prism of fear.

“If I’m called up, I’ll go,” he said. “Russians are not afraid of the army. All of us have children. At least my children will be protected.”

What does he think of the sanctions on Russia?

“Our people have always been under some type of sanctions. We’re used to it. If we survived during the hunger and sieges, we’ll make it.”

It’s sunny, people are taking selfies on Red Square, while a long convoy of National Guard buses rolls by the Kremlin walls. More protests are expected.

Nikita, 20, tells Euronews: “I’m mostly against war. But I don’t know what I would’ve done in the place of the government. If war didn’t start now, then maybe five or six years down the road Ukraine could’ve joined NATO and the consequences would’ve been much different for our country. Of course, I really feel bad for the ordinary people who cannot influence their government’s decisions.” Do you mean Russians or Ukrainians, Nikita is asked. “All of us. Our guys are dying over there and so are Ukrainians.”

“I’m against war,” said Olesya, 45, who has most of her relatives in the separatist region of Donbas. “But I think this should’ve been done in 2014 and then we wouldn’t have war today. Where was the West, with all its humanitarian concerns, when the Ukrainians shelled the people of Donbas?”

The war in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea. Next, two separatist regions in Donbas, Donetsk and Luhansk, declared their independence from Kyiv. It sparked a conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists, which has seen casualties on both sides.

But even though justification of the Ukraine invasion can be found among Russians, there have been no demonstrations of support.

On the contrary, the people taking to the streets are those against it, despite threats of arrests. Most Russians have family and friends in Ukraine.

“War is always awful. War never leads to anything good and won’t this time either,” – says 18-year-old Tonya, wearing a bag with a hand-stitched “No war” sign.

“I’m scared and hurt for my friends in Ukraine, who write to me ‘we’re going down into the bomb shelter’. We joke, ‘It’s been an explosive morning, hasn’t it?’ and she says, ‘It’s been simply bombastic’. In the past three days, I’ve slept for 10 hours in total. The rest of the time I’m crying”.

A war with a country with the strongest historical and cultural ties to Russia was laughable, ridiculous, absurd. Until February 24, 2022. Putin’s attack on Ukraine took most Russians by surprise.

By Thomas Sherlock, The National Interest, 2/28/22

….Russian Elites: The Siloviki as a Source of Putin’s Resolve and Power

An important resource for understanding how the perspectives of Russia’s diverse elites relate to the current crisis is the multi-year Survey of Russian Elites, 1993-2020 supervised by Sharon W. Rivera and William Zimmerman. Release of the 2020 data is in preparation and an analytical report was recently published under the direction of Rivera, who is also an expert on the siloviki. SRE 2020 provides insights into the values and interests of Russian elites in business, media, culture, science, politics, and the military/security services. Among these groups, the siloviki stood apart on several important issues, including their understanding of Russia’s national identity. SRE 2020 asked respondents what they would prefer Russia to be: a modern, prosperous country even if it were not among the most powerful of states, or a leading power that was respected and feared by the world. By a ratio of 86:11, the siloviki wanted Russia to be feared and respected. Similarly, 63 percent of the siloviki in SRE 2020 favored increased military spending (outpacing other groups). In their responses to another question, the members of this group also affirmed that military power rather than economic strength is the most important determinant of the international standing of a state.

Putin’s foreign and domestic policies are entwined with the preferences of the siloviki. Together they have linked and securitized patriotism and the Orthodox faith as key supports for an anti-Western and particularly anti-American ideology. With an inner circle already dominated by leading members of the siloviki, Putin may become even more reliant on this group as he pursues a risky foreign policy of military aggression while further tightening domestic political controls. According to SRE 2020, the siloviki are significantly more committed than other groups of elites to maintaining public order “at any price,” which presumably would include keeping Putin in power at all costs. While the diversity of the sub-groups of the siloviki may weaken its overall political cohesion, the data of SRE 2020 point to their agreement on several core issues, including increased military spending, domestic political regimentation, hard power as the foundation of international influence, the United States as a serious threat to the Russian state and regime, and strong support for close relations with China.

Undermining Putin’s Resolve and Power? Non-Siloviki Elite Attitudes

Against the views of most siloviki, a majority of the other elites in SLE 2020 favor the development of a modern state and a prosperous society that would require better relations with the West. As for still closer relations, 31 percent of SRE 2020 respondents favored the European Union as a desired partner compared to 28 percent for China and 7 percent for the United States. By contrast, only 8.6 percent of the military/security agencies favored the EU as a partner while 46 percent favored China (43 percent selected “None”). No respondents in this group selected the United States.

Elites in the executive and legislative branches favored policies that promote a high standard of living at home over those which advance respect and fear abroad by 51-49 percent. The preferences of other elites were lopsided in favor of prosperity: the “private business” group (77-23 percent); the “media” group (74-26 percent); and science and education elites (74-25.7 percent).

The non-siloviki elites of SRE 2020 also considered Russia’s domestic problems (such as corruption, economic stagnation, etc.) to be of greater concern than the growth of U.S. military power, American information warfare, or a “color revolution” purportedly fueled by the West, each of which the Kremlin has cast as serious dangers. Employing a scale that measures threats from “least” to “utmost,” SRE 2020 found that elite concern over the failure of the Russian state to solve domestic problems had grown significantly as an “utmost threat”—from 32.1 percent in 2016 to 46 percent in 2020.

Worry over the “further expansion of NATO” persisted among all elites in SRE 2020 but was still twelve points lower in the aggregate than anxiety over domestic problems (32 percent of respondents overall viewed NATO as an “utmost threat” in SRE 2020). By contrast, only 25.7 percent of the siloviki group saw domestic problems as an “utmost threat.” And while just over 50 percent of SRE 2020 respondents overall supported the use of military power to defend Russians against discrimination in post-Soviet states, just under 40 percent were unwilling to do so. Although a majority of SRE 2020 respondents favored the independence or annexation of the pro-Russian breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, it is unclear whether these elites would now view the invasion of Ukraine as an authentic defense of ethnic Russians and other Russian speakers. 

Undermining Putin’s Resolve and Power? Russia’s Mass Publics

In comparison to Russia’s elites, the divisions among the country’s mass publics are less prominent. Polling data indicate that most of the Russian population does not support an aggressive, expansionist foreign policy reminiscent of the Soviet era. Surveys in 2021 confirm that most Russians and Ukrainians have positive attitudes toward one other as individuals and that a majority of Russians, unlike Putin, accept Ukraine as an independent state. Other surveys underscore the opposition of most Russians to military aggression against Ukraine. Such attitudes reflect the widespread concern that both ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians, who share centuries of inter-marriage as well as political, cultural, and socio-economic ties, could suffer and perish in significant numbers in war. Participants in pre-war surveys understood that Ukraine would be better prepared for an assault today than in 2014 (when Crimea was annexed) and could inflict heavy casualties on Russian forces even in defeat. Such images now on the internet and in foreign mass media have not restrained Putin. Nevertheless, they have already stimulated anti-war protests in Russia and are likely to have a continued effect on Russian opinion and political behavior.

Russians may also reproach or perhaps turn against the regime because the invasion of Ukraine places their hopes for Russia’s future still further out of reach. When asked in an unpublished 2019 Levada survey whether they prefer that Russia strengthen its military power or improve the well-being of its citizens, the overwhelming majority (82 percent) chose the “well-being of its citizens.” Only 12.2 percent favored a build-up of military power. Similarly, the opinions in an unpublished 2020 Levada survey broadly align with those of SRE 2020 in that 63 percent of participants wanted Russia to have a high standard of living even if it were not one the most “powerful countries in the world.” Only 35 percent of respondents preferred the alternative, that Russia be a “great power which other countries respect and fear.” Another recent survey confirmed these inward-looking attitudes and values: only 19 percent of respondents considered “having a powerful military” an essential attribute for Russia to be considered a great power. These responses emphasize the ongoing struggle among Russians over how to define their national identity and chart Russia’s future…

De-Confliction Line Established Between US and Russia for Ukraine; No-Fly Zone Ruled Out

It has been reported that a de-confliction line has been established between the US and Russia with respect to Ukraine in order to avoid unnecessary escalation or misunderstanding.  According to The Hill:

The U.S. military has set up a channel to communicate directly with the Russian military to prevent “miscalculations” or “escalation” over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, a defense spokesperson confirmed to The Hill Thursday.

“The Department of the Defense recently established a de-confliction line with the Russian Ministry of Defense on March 1 for the purposes of preventing miscalculation, military incidents, and escalation,” the spokesperson said.

They noted that the U.S. “retains a number of channels to discuss critical security issues with the Russians during a contingency or emergency.”

Meanwhile, despite repeated requests by the Kiev government, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ruled out a no-fly zone in Ukraine.  Austin told NBC News yesterday:

“President Biden’s been clear that US troops won’t fight Russia in Ukraine, and if you establish a no-fly zone, certainly in order to enforce that no-fly zone, you’ll have to engage Russian aircraft. And again, that would put us at war with Russia,” Austin said.

Results of Round 2 of Talks

French president Emmanuel Macron had a 90-minute “not-so-friendly” phone conversation with Putin this morning in which Putin reportedly told Macron the Russian military operation in Ukraine was “going according to plan.”

The negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Belarus resulted in an agreement for humanitarian corridors and the delivery of aid with a temporary ceasefire to facilitate them.  However, there were cryptic statements from a member of the Russian delegation, head of State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky, about terms from today’s talks needing to be approved by parliaments:

“Clearly, it will require a third, no less important round of talks, which is due in coming days, to implement these agreements, which I won’t voice today,” he said.

“It will require parliamentary efforts, as some agreements will have to be endorsed and then undergo national ratification procedures,” Slutsky said.

He also said all agreements reached would be fast-tracked on the Russian side.  Ivan Katchanovksi, the Ukrainian academic who undertook an in-depth forensic investigation into the violence of the protests on the Maidan in 2014, has speculated that there could be other terms reached that have not been publicized, such as Ukrainian neutrality.  We’ll see.  More talks are scheduled for early next week.

Meanwhile, one million refugees are now reported to have fled Ukraine to countries on its western border, according to the UN.  2000 civilians have died according to Ukraine’s emergency services department.

Beginning of Counter-Sanctions

Russia has announced it will halt shipment of rocket engines to the US.  According to a Reuters report, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin said:

“In a situation like this we can’t supply the US with our world’s best rocket engines. Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks, I don’t know what.”

A preview of additional actions to counter the west’s sanctions can be found in proposed parliamentary legislation.  Interfax News has reported the following on a bill proposed in the Duma:

The bill cancels inspections at small, medium and IT companies until the end of this year, liberalizes public procurement terms and procedure, and restricts drug exports. The bill allows the government to additionally raise non-contributory pensions, pension points, and the fixed payment pension during 2022.

The bill clarifies the application of business legislation, including the rules for calculation of net assets’ value in 2022 and legislation on loans and borrowings, gives the government the right to derogate from a number of rules on licensing and accreditation and certain provisions of laws in the field of shared construction and intellectual property. There will be a special procedure for the establishment of the subsistence minimum and the minimal wage.

The sentence clause I have bolded could relate to what Pepe Escobar recently suggested about Russia no longer recognizing intellectual property and patents from the west.

Censorship

RT America has shut down operations, which had offices in New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Miami.  All of the staff have been permanently laid off.  It’s my understanding that some staff had received threats of violence.  The EU has begun banning RT and Sputnik as I already mentioned earlier this week.  Attempts to access RT on both Google and DuckDuckGo browsers have been difficult. YouTube and various apps have been kicking the Russian state broadcasters off.  RT will now be available through Rumble and Odysee.  One can also download the apps for RT and Sputnik at the Huawei AppGallery store. These will purportedly work on an Android phone.

I’ve noted that the OSCE Media Freedom representative has been silent on these actions from the west but has voiced condemnation of Russia’s suppression of non-establishment media outlets. 

A 65 year-old substitute teacher in Arlington, Virginia has been suspended from his job for reportedly providing a balanced perspective on the war – which included the Russian perspective – and admonishing his students to seek out different perspectives before making up their minds about important issues.  Here is a Fox5 report on the story:

A 65-year-old substitute teacher and journalist has been suspended from teaching in Arlington, Virginia for giving his students a balanced perspective on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Mainstream media says he "spread Russian propaganda." So much for freedom of speech. pic.twitter.com/qSix0FBdvl

— Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) March 3, 2022

I will reiterate here what I posted on Twitter about this:

If you disagree with what someone is saying, you provide a counter-argument, you don’t censor. Only people who are very insecure in their positions demand censorship.  Those who cheer for censoring their perceived political opponents will see the boomerang come back to them.

I wonder if Russia, in retaliation, will ban RFE/RL and VOA from their country.  My understanding is that American sponsored media in Russia is significantly more influential than RT/Sputnik is in the west.  Something about a nose and a face comes to mind.