______________________________
It’s a regrouping before a pitched battle, accompanied by clearing the battlefield. That’s how one can describe what’s happening in the Ukraine. Protest fervour in the Southeast is on the decline, but that’s a natural and logical process, you can’t attack all the time, even more so using the same old methods. Now, rallies give way to quieter and less obvious activity such as internal organising and attempts, often successful, to make the junta listen to the people’s demands in the courts. They’re creating coordinating bodies covering the entire south-eastern region and developing ties between the regions. This is necessary, as the Russian movement was completely amorphous and unstructured; the rallies of the “Russian Spring” were largely spontaneous.
The patriotic resistance is using the respite to prepare for a change in the thrust of protests… politics dominated the March events, social concerns will replace them in April. The junta is preparing to impose a sharp rise in price of housing services; meagre Ukrainian wages and pensions are hardly enough to pay the present rates. In some industries, they’ve already issued promissory notes in lieu of salaries, and they’re not indexing wages in line with inflation. Given the sharp depreciation of the gryvnia, this will lead to people wanting real goods, not unsecured “wrappers”. This is just like the situation back in the “roaring nineties”. The more things change… the more they stay the same. A trade war with Russia and unfavourable internal developments led to a sharp decline in orders from businesses heavily dependent on the Southeast. Ergo, production stops, leading to reduction in work and “unpaid leave”. Now, when people still have jobs, they only go to rallies on the weekends; then, action would ratchet up to the permanent and perpetual.
In a word, social explosion is imminent. Today, those in power can choose to listen to or ignore the people; they can still cajole protestors with promises. However, sweet nothings can’t put food on the table… the intensity of the protests will grow much higher. High officials would have only one of two choices… accept the people’s ultimatum or have them sweep them away in anger, becoming its victims. Attempts at repression turned out to be counterproductive, as did attempts to enlist the Right Sector in the fight against the patriotic resistance in the Donbass. Increasingly throughout the Ukraine, the Right Sector’s deteriorated into a mob of robbers and looters. For instance, in Vinnitsa, the nationalists “cleaned out” passengers on the Moscow-Chișinău train; as it turned out, they didn’t just target Russians, they also shook down Moldovan guest workers, stealing their wages. Also in Vinnitsa, thugs fired at trolleybuses twice last week.
As expected, the junta no longer needs the Right Sector… the Moor’s done his dirty work, so, now, they toss him out. The Moor has nowhere to go but to the House of Eternal Sleep, they’ll trumpet his demise to the whole neighbourhood. Ahead of the election campaign, look for “moderate” forces to give the boot to the hungry radicals. The first is already gone… they rubbed out Aleksandr Muzichko, better known as Sashko Bily (“White Al” in peasant dialect). Today, we heard vivid reports from Zaporozhe Oblast and Podkarpatskaya Rus… in both places, the people moved in on the Right Sector. In the first case, they surrounded them in a steelworks; in the second, they chased them into private houses. If we consider that the junta’s forces can’t completely defeat the rebels, one has to conclude that the Right Sector will go to the woods. To use the Don dialect, they’re going to go to the “Zhelyonka” (“into the green”), “in the sticks”. The fight against the terrorists will get as messy as it did in Chechnya in the 1990s.
One can’t ignore the fact there’s really no campaign for president going on, the candidates don’t appear to be in a hurry. Rather, the minor players posture, but the favourites await the last hour. Many strongly believe that the election won’t happen, and if it does, the winner would share the fate of Yanukovich. That’s especially the case if Yuliya Timoshenko turns out to be the victor. Only then, the reaction to it wouldn’t be like that of February… it’d be much more powerful and larger. A month from now, the country awaits Easter and the May holiday, so sin will take a holiday. The main battle is still ahead.
27 March 2014
Vyacheslav Yurosov
Segodnya.ru
http://www.segodnia.ru/content/136897
Voices from Russia 
The Fear of the Russophobic Scumbags
Tags: Crimea, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Russophobia, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Viktor Yanukovich, Viktor Yanukovych, Vladimir Putin, Yanukovich
______________________________
Today, it’s quite common to hear that in acquiring the Crimea from the Ukraine, we lost. Die-hard liberals and some characters posturing as patriots, nationalists, and even monarchists repeat this spell like a mantra. However, let’s try to understand this formulation. Firstly, how can you lose what isn’t ours? Has the Ukraine belonged to us since 1991? Definitely not! Moreover, despite the consistently friendly policy pursued by the Kremlin over the years towards a fraternal republic, it increasingly moved away from us. The attitude of Kiev to us ranged from openly hostile to suspicious and distrustful. Thus, Yushchenko provided weapons and specialists to Saakashvili, who attacked Russian citizens, and Ukrainian technicians fired SAMs that shot down our planes over South Ossetia. Yanukovich was supposedly “pro-Russian”, but he dragged the country to the West, participating in NATO and EU projects, where they only tolerated them, despite their obvious anti-Russian orientation. Kuchma proclaimed the “multi-vector” Ukrainian foreign policy as follows, “Against Russia at the expense of Russia”.
Russophobia of varying intensity was the tacit ideology of the independent Ukraine, no matter who ruled it. Even Yanukovich used a strange excuse to “de-hero” Shukhevich and Bandera… they weren’t Ukrainian citizens (as if anyone could be a Ukrainian citizen in those days). In fact, nothing changed. Since independence, they brought up a whole generation on hatred of our country. It couldn’t have turned out otherwise. Contrasting the “Galician ideal” to “moderate Ukrainians” is akin to asking, “Moskal, do want us to trample you or just push you?” It just isn’t tenable. The idea of ”Ukrainianism” in all its forms has its basis in the denial of the idea of Rus… “The Ukraine isn’t Russia” says it all. Therefore, when did we lose the Ukraine? Now, when we regained the Crimea, or 23 years ago?
I must point out one important fact… all Ukrainian Russophobic propaganda has at its base the belief that Russia is weak, that it’s afraid of the West, and that it betrays its friends. Therefore, you can kick it with impunity; you’ll earn a reward from the benevolent West, which will not only feed its servants, but also protect them from everything. Then, it became clear that the rumours about Russia’s weakness were exaggerations, that it wasn’t weak, that the West was afraid of it, and that it had no effective influence over our country. It turned out that the “good Pan” [“Pan”: Polish for “Mister”, a dig at Galician grovelling to Poles] wasn’t ready to feed his slave… indeed, he wasn’t ready to protect him, either. In fact, they left their serf at the mercy of the “evil” neighbour over the fence, whom the serf mocked for 23 years, making derisive faces, along with perverse and contemptuous comments. Under the cover of darkness, the neighbour came and took back his land, and the serf is now utterly dependent on his generosity. It’s one thing to kick a dying or already-dead lion, it’s quite another to try to do the same with an extremely lively and brisk one.
However, that’s not all. The worst thing for the pro-EU lot was that the example of the Crimeans gave Ukrainians a standard to weigh the “pros” and “cons” of the western and eastern vectors. Thus, the first steps towards European integration, which didn’t mean that the Ukraine would ever gain EU membership, already cost them the loss of social programmes, increasing the retirement age, and cutting pensions and salaries. At the same time, the Crimeans who became Russian citizens received new social guarantees and benefits, and the size of their pensions and salaries increased by several times! Gangs on the streets dominate the Ukraine, anarchy and chaos rule… in the Crimea, all is calm and in order. The Ukraine stopped broadcasting Russian TV because they’re hiding things from their people. Nevertheless, the question before Ukrainians is, “Do you want to be starving Russophobes, or, do you want to be satisfied Russophiles?” The answer to this by most normal people in the Ukraine is quite predictable. However, censorship in this information age is impossible, and, of course, Ukrainians learnt about what happened in the Crimea, in spite of the “muzzled” TV and false Banderovtsy agitprop. Probably, it’ll take some time to convince many that this is true, not “Putin propaganda”, then, very few people will find the “Western project” attractive.
We can say with confidence that we not only didn’t “lose” the Ukraine, rather, we took precise and proper steps to ensure its return. Actually, the return has already begun… Crimea is ours… that’s only the first step. However, there’s another important point… Ukrainians should know that Russia doesn’t let its people down; furthermore, anyone who asks for our protection and assistance will get it. In fact, that happened in the Crimea. It’s scary to imagine what awaited Crimeans protesting against the junta if Russia hadn’t come to their aid. Besides that, there’s the Southeastern Ukraine, Novorossiya, whose people overwhelmingly oppose federation with Kiev, who want membership in the TS EvrAsES, and where many want to become part of Russia. These people believe in Russia and the fact that it’ll help them and protect them. To betray their hopes would be pure heartlessness, as it’d lead to ethnic cleansing and genocide. We shouldn’t forget the axiom of Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich {who founded the University of Kiev in 1834, a man of true honour, faithfulness, and probity: editor}… “Wherever we raise the Russian flag once, we’ll never lower it”.
4 April 2014
Boris Dzherelievsky
Segodnya.ru
http://www.segodnia.ru/content/137224