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Putin Gives Long, Reasoned Ukraine Interview-Conversation
5 March 2014
(LPAC)—Russia’s President Vladimir Putin held a long, reasoned conversation with a group of perhaps twenty domestic and foreign press yesterday. So reasoned and rational was it, in fact, that insane Obama was forced to make an instant rebuttal. Putin began, "Good afternoon, colleagues, how shall we do this? This is what I’d like to suggest: let’s have a conversation, rather than an interview. Therefore, I would ask you to begin by stating all your questions, I will jot them down and try to answer them, and then we will have a more detailed discussion of the specifics that interest you most. Let’s begin." After an initial five questions, Putin picked up: "First of all, my assessment of what happened in Kiev and in Ukraine in general. There can only be one assessment: this was an anti-constitutional takeover, an armed seizure of power. Does anyone question this? Nobody does. There is a question here that neither I, nor my colleagues, with whom I have been discussing the situation in Ukraine a great deal over these past days, as you know—none of us can answer. The question is, why was this done? "I would like to draw your attention to the fact that President Yanukovych, through the mediation of the Foreign Ministers of three European countries — Poland, Germany and France — and in the presence of my representative [this was the Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin] signed an agreement with the opposition on February 21. I would like to stress that under that agreement (I am not saying this was good or bad, just stating the fact) Mr. Yanukovych actually handed over power. He agreed to all the opposition’s demands: he agreed to early parliamentary elections, to early presidential elections, and to return to the 2004 Constitution, as demanded by the opposition. He gave a positive response to our request, the request of western countries and, first of all, of the opposition not to use force. He did not issue a single illegal order to shoot at the poor demonstrators. Moreover, he issued orders to withdraw all police forces from the capital, and they complied. He went to Kharkov to attend an event, and as soon as he left, instead of releasing the occupied administrative buildings, they immediately occupied the President’s residence and the Government building—all that instead of acting on the agreement. "I ask myself, what was the purpose of all this? I want to understand why this was done. He had in fact given up his power already, and as I believe, as I told him, he had no chance of being re-elected. Everybody agrees on this, everyone I have been speaking to on the telephone these past few days. What was the purpose of all those illegal, unconstitutional actions, why did they have to create this chaos in the country? Armed and masked militants are still roaming the streets of Kiev. This is a question to which there is no answer. Did they wish to humiliate someone and show their power? I think these actions are absolutely foolish. The result is the absolute opposite of what they expected, because their actions have significantly destabilized the east and southeast of Ukraine. "Now over to how this situation came about. "In my opinion, this revolutionary situation has been brewing for a long time, since the first days of Ukraine’s independence. The ordinary Ukrainian citizen, the ordinary guy suffered during the rule of Nicholas II, during the reign of Kuchma, and Yushchenko, and Yanukovych. Nothing or almost nothing has changed for the better. Corruption has reached dimensions that are unheard of here in Russia. Accumulation of wealth and social stratification — problems that are also acute in this country — are much worse in Ukraine, radically worse. Out there, they are beyond anything we can imagine. Generally, people wanted change, but one should not support illegal change. "Only constitutional means should be used in the post-Soviet space, where political structures are still very fragile, and economies are still weak. Going beyond the constitutional field would always be a cardinal mistake in such a situation. Incidentally, I understand those people on Maidan, though I do not support this kind of turnover. I understand the people on Maidan who are calling for radical change rather than some cosmetic remodelling of power. Why are they demanding this? Because they have grown used to seeing one set of thieves being replaced by another. Moreover, the people in the regions do not even participate in forming their own regional governments. There was a period in this country when the President appointed regional leaders, but then the local Council had to approve them, while in Ukraine they are appointed directly. We have now moved on to elections, while they are nowhere near this. And they began appointing all sorts of oligarchs and billionaires to govern the eastern regions of the country. No wonder the people do not accept this, no wonder they think that as a result of dishonest privatization (just as many people think here as well) people have become rich and now they also have all the power." That suffices to give the flavor; the whole thing should be read on the Kremlin website, although the English translation has still not been completed. In the remainder of the part that has been posted, Putin explains just as clearly why the current so-called Ukrainian government is illegitimate, and why the decision on the possibility of using Russian troops was completely legal, unlike many U.S. wars of recent memory. He says that Russian troops have not been used in Ukraine, even though the Federation Council voted that they might be: because Crimea has become calm, thanks to volunteer self-defense forces, without bloodshed. He hopes that the situations in eastern and southern Ukraine will become peaceful and safe without the need for Russian troops. Leaving Putin’s interview aside for the moment, let me illustrate the grave humanitarian crisis the Russians have been talking about; it is no joke. Russia Today reported March 3 from the Russian Federation’s Border Guard Service, that 675,000 Ukrainians had left Ukraine for Russia during the two months of January and February alone — this out of a rapidly-declining population of about 45 million. During the last two weeks of February, Russia received 143,000 requests for asylum from Ukrainians. The Border Guards’ report characterized this as "revolutionary chaos" and a brewing "human catastrophe," as it clearly is. Lyndon LaRouche said that Putin’s interview reflected reality, and that the reality is that we have an SOB as U.S. President, who must be removed. The interview underlines that Russia won’t give in, and therefore, the course which Obama is following on British orders leads straight over the cliff of a global World War III. |