by Felicity Arbuthnot
March 20, 2014
from
GlobalResearch Website
As the US, EU and Britain huff
and puff in barrel loads of clichés:
...they stand "shoulder to
shoulder" with their Neo-Nazi counterparts in the interim
puppet government.
They are "resolute" against "Russian aggression", and will
not "stand idly by", sanity seems in short supply.
US Secretary of State, John Kerry
representing a country which makes Genghis Khan look like a wimp when it
comes to illegal invasions, still retains the prize for jaw dropper of the
decade:
"You just don't, in the 21st
century, behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country
on completely trumped up pretext", he pontificated on CBS' "Face the
Nation."
On the thirteenth anniversary of the
illegal invasion of Iraq and the total
destruction of it's "sovereignty and territorial integrity", by America and
Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron has scuttled off to Brussels
for a meeting of European Union Ministers to agree on a "robust response" to
Russia - which has fired not a shot, invaded no one and threatened nothing
except to respond that if sanctions were imposed on Russia they might
consider a trading response.
Fair enough, surely?
The government of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea called a referendum,
distinctly disturbed by the threat by Kiev's US proxy government that the
Russian language was to have no status, and Jews and blacks would not be
tolerated.
Stop Fascism: Participate in the Referendum
A fraction under 97% voted to cede to Russia, with a turnout of over 80% -
an electoral enthusiasm of which Western governments could only dream.
As much of the main stream media and the usual politicians thundered of
voting under pressure or even at gunpoint, one hundred and thirty five
international observers from twenty three countries said, consistently, they
saw no pressure of any sort, and they had,
"not registered any violations of voting
rules." (1)
President Putin also points out the
double standards:
"Our Western partners created the Kosovo
precedent with their own hands. In a situation absolutely the same as
the one in Crimea they recognized Kosovo's secession from Serbia
legitimate while arguing that no permission from a country's central
authority for a unilateral declaration of independence is necessary",
further reminding that the UN International Court of Justice agreed to
those arguments.
"It's beyond double standards. It's a kind of baffling, primitive and
blatant cynicism. One can't just twist things to fit interests, to call
something white on one day and black on the next one."
Clearly referring the threats and onslaughts on
sovereign nations of recent years, he added, on being accused of violating
international law:
"Well' it's good that they at least recalled
that there is international law… Better late than never", commenting
with some validity, that his nation's stance on Crimea was in no way
similar.
And there is that ill used (by the usual
suspects) "Responsibility to Protect", defined as including:
"crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing
and their incitement", precisely what the bunch that has taken over the
government in Kiev has threatened, with the Jewish community in Kiev
feeling so besieged that:
"Ukrainian Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman,
called on Kiev's Jews to leave the city and even the country if
possible…"
The UN definition of Responsibility to
Protect also stipulates that States have a responsibility to "encourage
and assist" in fulfilling responsibility in protection of those threatened
and at risk.
Russia has arguably done as requested by its
former State and neighbor and as laid out by the UN.
Yes, of course there is self interest, with NATO
encroaching ever closer and the country's Black Sea Fleet based in Crimea
and NATO countries, the US and UK planning military exercises with Ukraine -
but Russia's actions have been a model of peaceable, threat free strategy.
President Putin expressed the all admirably:
"Russia is an independent and active
participant of international relations. Just like any nation it has
national interests that must be taken into consideration and respected."
He laid out the double standards:
"In the practical application of policies,
our Western partners - the United States first and foremost - prefer to
be guided not by international law, but by the right of strength.
They believe in their exceptionalism, that
they (can) decide on the fate of the world, that they are always right."
Law was disregarded in Yugoslavia in 1999,
bombed by NATO with no UN mandate, Afghanistan, Iraq.
Perversion of
the
United Nations Resolution on Libya, which was for a no fly zone,
not bombing the country in to submission - a tragic, shameful travesty with
the horror of the murder of the country's Leader, most of his family, over
which
Hillary Clinton
laughed as she said:
"We came, we saw, he died."
Clinton of course, has now called Putin
"Hitler."
The "colored revolutions" in Europe and the Arab world were simply more of
the same by other means, Putin stated, but in:
"Ukraine the West crossed a red line", with
Russia's wish for dialogue and compromise ignored.
The red line was in that:
"The coup-imposed authorities in Kiev voiced
their desire to join NATO, and such a move would pose an imminent threat
to Russia." (2)
Meanwhile, escaped from the American asylum,
Vice President Joe Biden said that the U.S. stands resolutely with
Baltic States in support of the Ukrainian people against Russian aggression.
"Russia cannot escape the fact that the
world is changing and rejecting outright their behavior", Biden said,
after meeting Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and Latvian
President Andris Berzins.
What aggression exactly?
However, as ever, the all is more complex:
"Current international law combines two
contradictory principles: a government's territorial integrity on the
one hand, and a nation's right to self-determination on the other,
according Maxim Bratersky of the Center for Comprehensive European and
International Studies at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow."
The West recognized Kosovo's independence from
Serbia in 2008, based the principle of right to self-determination.
"Kosovo is a mirror image of the current
situation in Crimea", says Bratersky:
"In sending troops into Kosovo, NATO did not allow the Serbs to
intervene in the referendum. The UN did not give NATO's forces a mandate
to send troops into Kosovo."
He also points out that South Sudan ceded from
Sudan in 2011 (with world leaders or their Ambassadors attending the
celebrations.)
East Timor became independent of Indonesia, both
endorsed by the UN. Mutual agreement ruled, as with Crimea and the Russian
Federation.
In 1997, the British returned Hong Kong to Chinese jurisdiction.
"But on the whole, the system of
international law does not function. The side that has the most bayonets
wins," Bratersky states. "Kosovo is a vivid example of this."
(3)
In trade and energy supplies, Russia has a lot
of bayonets and the coffers of the EU and US are woefully low.
David Cameron has grand plans to "celebrate" the centenary of the start of
'World War I' this year, he still seems hell bent on celebrating it by
starting World War III.
As this is finished, in response to the US placing travel bans on Russian
politicians and public figures, rather than engaging in a diplomatic
exchange of views, Russia has:
"announced sanctions against several
advisers to President Obama as well as a number of lawmakers, including
House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -
retaliation after President Obama announced economic sanctions against
Russia.
The sanctions ban Boehner, Reid, and Senators Mary Landrieu, Daniel
Coats, Robert Menendez, John McCain, as well as Obama advisers Caroline
Atkinson, Daniel Pfeiffer, and Benjamin Rhodes from entering Russia."
(4)
Someone please chuck that Obama Nobel 'Peace'
Prize into the Potomac.
Notes
-
http://www.globalresearch.ca/crimean-referendum-at-gunpoint-is-a-myth-international-observers/5373767
-
http://rt.com/news/putin-address-parliament-crimea-562/
-
http://rbth.com/international/2014/03/09/kosovo_and_ukraine_3495.html
-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/03/20/reacting-to-sanctions-russians-ban-reid-boehner-and-7-other-lawmakers/