The state of the "Minsk Truce"

The civilian toll of the "Minsk truce" is massive--yesterday, around 30 people died in Donetsk. The rate of civilians casualties is steady and continuous. At the same time, the terms of the "truce" imposed on Novorossiya by Moscow mean that the Army of Novorossiya is not only more split than before, but also that it cannot carry out any notable countermeasures.

Moscow is in control of political decisions and critical supplies (Voentorg) which is reportedly closed in order to encourage and support the "ceasefire," which allows the junta to continue destroying the cities. In the face of this terror, political statements either fall flat or even try to call the results of the "truce" positive and to turn away from the continuous carnage and its impunity.

The West also continues making it clear that, for the West, the Minsk truce is seen as Russia's consent to withdraw gradually, but rather sooner than later, support to the republics. The West also sees the Minsk deal as Russia's final disavowal and surrender of Novorossiya as such--only some transitional "regions" under Kiev's military command are to be allowed. The West thus insists on carrying out the Minsk  deal with all demands and obligations put on the things-to-do list and conscience of the Russian government.

For more than six months, Moscow chose to treat the threat of Nazism in Ukraine mainly as a question of the Right Sector and "the marginals" and the fact of the turning of Ukraine into a US anti-Russian protectorate as a matter to be resolved by legitimizing Poroshenko's team of anti-Russian oligarchs who are busy Nazifying Ukraine and who see the people in East Ukraine as their new slave resource.

Furthermore, the Russian government tends to call the war in Ukraine a strictly intra-Ukrainian affair, which is both false and undignified--while the US, the EU, and NATO are proud and confident enough to declare on whose side they are and what they are fighting for.

NATO expansion(ism) into Ukraine is, of course, either incompatible with Novorossiya or with any true revolutionary rebirth. Ukraine's new Nazism is, however, not only compatible with such NATO expansion, but it is even much of a must in the view of the need to pacify and re-educate the former winners over Nazism in World War II--the otherwise unruly and rebellious Slavs. In this respect, neither the US nor NATO has any illusions or doubts on this score.

If much of Central and Southern Europe (except for the Serbs) were given a chance to be willing collaborators in this renewed Drank nach Osten, when it comes to the Russian element itself, NATO in its expansion, which is already coming 400-450 miles short of Moscow, is switching to a different mode of occupation and conquest--to a militarized Nazi dictatorship. And Moscow itself seems to have convinced itself that the main thing is to get the right price of gas for Kiev and to meekly suggest to the Nazi regime that some unspecified constitutional reform (with the same forces in power) would be a nice thing to do for apparently the main thing, which the oligarchic, pro-Nazi regime in Kiev, is lacking is Moscow's management skills and know-how.

Russian oligarchs, who continue to be masters of many things in Russia, are as patriotic as their deposits abroad where there are also the actual headquarters of their class interests.