Mr. Putin No. 2: Creating the most conducive (blagopriyatnyie) conditions for Ukraine's Nazification

The strange, much Byzantine convulsions, flips and convolutions of Moscow's policies or the lack of them in relation to Ukraine does have "underneath it all' one self-betraying theme, which came out when, on May 7,2014, Putin himself urged the Russians in Donbass to postpone their referendum . To "postpone" the referendum would have killed it, and killing the referendum (clearly in the interest of the West and the Nazis in Kiev) would have also be very detrimental to the buildup of legitimacy of the anti-Maidan uprising as an act willed and declared freely, clearly and loudly by the people of Donbass. Putin made this statement aimed at the very birth of Novorossiya when meeting with an OSCE politician from Switzerland (make a guess of how much wealth Russian oligarchs and officials have stashed in Swiss banks).

Shortly after, on May 21, 2014, Putin did, in fact, define the goal of his Ukrainian policy (from now on, but also valid before) in terms of his and Moscow's support for the junta's fraudulent and manipulated presidential elections, when, with all the media in the hands of the Maidan oligarchs, no real opposition figure was allowed to run; when Oleg Tzarev did try to pursue his candidacy he was first beaten by a Nazi, nationalist crowd in the presence of the junta police and then detained by the same police. In explaining or justifying the withdrawal of Russian troops and thus also the Russian deterrent for the junta at the moment of the critical escalation of the junta's onslaught on Donbass, Putin said this: "Let me stress once more that we are doing this ... as an additional step to help create favorable [blagopriyatnyie] conditions for the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine." RT.com tried to blunt the effect of Putin's expressed goal of creating favorable conditions for the Nazi junta by changing "favorable" (i.e. encouraging, positive, enabling) into "benign": "President Putin says it is a gesture of aimed at providing 'benign conditions" for the Ukrainian presidential election."

What Putin revealed and defined here as Moscow's actions aimed at legitimizing, assisting and securing Poroshenko, the imperial US-chosen puppet and oligarch in chief, also defines, helps explain and reveals the leitmotif and the key to the puzzle in Putin's "strategy," his cunning plans, and the stunning long-term lack of any real, genuine strategy for Ukraine before the Maidan--the common denominator was the creation of the favorable and conducive conditions for the Empire's plans and its anti-Russian Nazification of Ukraine and the much needed sheltering period for its entrenchment, mobilization, training and takeover of the Ukrainian state together with the added doze of its legitimization by Moscow itself. All this needed to carried out via the Hegelian display of the negations of the nations or posited opposites, which are meant to turn into their Hegelian opposites when demanded, and with a notable degree of subtlety, calibration, and the right amount of carefully measured escalation served in stages and by degrees, which does betray the American hand and intelligent management behind it--that is, just by the "right" amounts and doses of collaboration and resistance, ambiguity, evasion, concerns and partnership, which looks to so many as treachery--whether out of calculation or cowardice.

Who is Mr. Putin?

Victoria Mendez: "Putin the Enigma, Putin the Hero, Putin the Coward, Putin the Pragmatist, Putin the Windbag, Putin the Traitor, Putin the Patriot ---- which one is it Vladimir Suchan. I feel truly nauseated by what passes as policy and strategy emanating from the Kremlin. Is Putin in charge, is Putin being blackmailed, has he been beaten into submission and is he fearful of his life, for Russia, of WW3?"

I wonder what would have happened if similar questions were asked in 1988 about Gorbachev and then in 1991, 1999, and now or about Yeltsin in 1991, 1993, 1998 and now. What we do know, as Putin said it himself in Salinger last year, he sees Lenin and the Bolsheviks as "national traitors."

What we know is that Putin became president after being picked by a very small group of very rich, very powerful people also very afraid of justice and thus very afraid for their impunity. But only some of these people are officially known.

The dismantlement of the USSR and the abandonment of communism and its replacement with anti-communism from above was a lengthy, difficult, but masterfully (in its Machiavellian sense) executed political and logistical program, which, in its scope, complexity, and consequences, has no historical precedent. In this process, the USSR sold out for dump prices (literally dumped) a lot--actually the whole socialist world system. Furthermore, the communist-turned-anticommunist leadership (one of the key players of which, Primakov, has just died) had to negotiate with the US new rules of the game, which undoubtedly involved a series of sensitive, but still very secret agreements and protocols meant to lock in US victory. It is to be expected that numerous instruments, guarantees, measures, and locks were created and implanted. These locks were or are institutional and also personal (someone needs to oversee, report, monitor, and manage)--in the end, all boils down to people and their deployment, recruitment, and policing. As such, some of these locks were legalized, others are illegal by their character.

The USSR by virtue of many of its leadership's decisions was treated in certain ways something like Japan after World War II. Its Constitution and its privatization/transformation was written by the Americans, but officially its (fostered) father is Anatoly Sobchak, a professor of Soviet economic law, who, besides Russia's new colonial constitution, left behind two more children behind. One is Ksenia Sobchak, a sort of self-styled, notorious socialite and Kardashian of St. Petersburg, and the other is Putin himself. Sobchak was his mentor throughout the 1990s.

Putin became president at a time when Russia was in a miserable shape and was in the process of disintegration, which some in the US were busy encouraging. However, this early would-be demise also looked to others in the US as too early and too dangerous. Mainly on two accounts: 1) because of Russia's nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction and 2) because of a great danger that, instead of the West, China would be able to move into the sudden vacuum because of its geographic proximity and demographic potential. Differently put, by 2000, the US and NATO did not yet move and did not secure their military and security infrastructure well enough into the former Soviet space or sufficiently deep into the east. To do so a whole new maneuver was required, which became known and concealed as the War on Terror. In this regard, there is now a vast difference between where and how the US and NATO were deployed and ready in 1999-2000 and where and how they are deployed now.

What is now also clear and can't be disputed is the fact that, in the face of US/Brzezinski's and other plans, Russia had no strategy (deserving that name) for Ukraine for the last 25 years, 15 of which directly under Putin. From a security viewpoint, this direction would, however, be of utmost security, strategic and political importance for Russia. Certainly, criminal negligence and sheer incompetence played their role; however, the absence (besides heavily subsidizing Ukrainian Nazi-supporting and increasingly anti-Russian oligarchs) of strategy was systemic, which indicates a presence of a long term "policy," however, perverse and traitorous it was. Objectively, such a policy looks much like a US strategy and policy as if, under the Malta New World Order, Russia was not allowed to have a real national security policy for Ukraine (yes, you can have your BRICS meetings, but you must leave completely bare and open our access to Moscow all the way via Ukraine ...). If Putin is a great chess master and strategic genius, then he "masterfully" chose to forgo the game for Ukraine from 2000 till 2013 (except for gas), which resulted in the US installing a Nazi, anti-Russian regime in Ukraine whereby the US and NATO receive very cheaply a huge bridgehead almost right up to the gates of Moscow itself. In one of his speeches last year (I believe in June), Putin declared that all this was exactly as predicted and foreseen by the Kremlin ... "I came, I saw, and I knew that Maidan would win. So I watched."

Having learned from the British, the US mastered not only old empire-building methods, but was able to develop new ones as well, including ways of using, appropriating and deploying social capital.

Returning to the opening questions, the situation almost reminds me of the discussions about God in philosophy when some argued that God encompasses all thinkable and unthinkable attributes because of his unlimited power and will, while others thought that none of the attributes does him justice and that it might be possible to say what he is not rather than what he is. When it comes to Putin, the man, I do think that certain things are obvious:

1. his credentials of being anywhere on the left are zero;

2. his credentials of being "anti-imperialist" are ambiguous or rather more than secondary to his and Russian oligarchs' almost desperate quest for "partnership" (or recognition as both superior and equal in Fukuyama's Hegelian sense);

3. this leaves Putin either somewhere in the center or to the right; how far right is still an open question.

4. what is also very obvious and certain is that Putin is not a God whose mission and power is to save mankind; he is human. All too human.

5. Much of his policy toward Ukraine and Donbass has been pretense.

However, it seems to be safe to say that, in Putin's case, his enigma and meaning is given rather precisely by the place which he occupies in the factual (rather than nominal) organization of the world capitalist system. As a president, he does need to make plans; but, in the world system, he too is undoubtedly an actor and part of other master plan. For it is a Hobbesian world and system with actors for public figures.

The strange, much Byzantine convulsions, flips and convolutions of Moscow's policies or the lack of them in relation to Ukraine does have "underneath it all' one self-betraying theme, which came out when, on May 7,2014, Putin himself urged the Russians in Donbass to postpone their referendum . To "postpone" the referendum would have killed it, and killing the referendum (clearly in the interest of the West and the Nazis in Kiev) would have also be very detrimental to the buildup of legitimacy of the anti-Maidan uprising as an act willed and declared freely, clearly and loudly by the people of Donbass. Putin made this statement aimed at the very birth of Novorossiya when meeting with an OSCE politician from Switzerland (make a guess of how much wealth Russian oligarchs and officials have stashed in Swiss banks).

Shortly after, on May 21, 2014, Putin did, in fact, define the goal of his Ukrainian policy (from now on, but also valid before) in terms of his and Moscow's support for the junta's fraudulent and manipulated presidential elections, when, with all the media in the hands of the Maidan oligarchs, no real opposition figure was allowed to run; when Oleg Tzarev did try to pursue his candidacy he was first beaten by a Nazi, nationalist crowd in the presence of the junta police and then detained by the same police. In explaining or justifying the withdrawal of Russian troops and thus also the Russian deterrent for the junta at the moment of the critical escalation of the junta's onslaught on Donbass, Putin said this: "Let me stress once more that we are doing this ... as an additional step to help create favorable [blagopriyatnyie] conditions for the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine." RT.com tried to blunt the effect of Putin's expressed goal of creating favorable conditions for the Nazi junta by changing "favorable" (i.e. encouraging, positive, enabling) into "benign": "President Putin says it is a gesture of aimed at providing 'benign conditions" for the Ukrainian presidential election."

What Putin revealed and defined here as Moscow's actions aimed at legitimizing, assisting and securing Poroshenko, the imperial US-chosen puppet and oligarch in chief, also defines, helps explain and reveals the leitmotif and the key to the puzzle in Putin's "strategy," his cunning plans, and the stunning long-term lack of any real, genuine strategy for Ukraine before the Maidan--the common denominator was the creation of the favorable and conducive conditions for the Empire's plans and its anti-Russian Nazification of Ukraine and the much needed sheltering period for its entrenchment, mobilization, training and takeover of the Ukrainian state together with the added doze of its legitimization by Moscow itself. All this needed to carried out via the Hegelian display of the negations of the nations or posited opposites, which are meant to turn into their Hegelian opposites when demanded, and with a notable degree of subtlety, calibration, and the right amount of carefully measured escalation served in stages and by degrees, which does betray the American hand and intelligent management behind it. This has been carried out just by the "right" amounts and doses of collaboration and resistance, ambiguity, evasion, concerns and partnership, which looks to so many as treachery--whether out of calculation or cowardice.

Samantha Power in Kiev on June 11, 2015: Yes, Maidan and the regime is all about "Ukraine uber alles!"

Samantha Power in her own words on the meaning and purpose of the Maidan and the (Nazi) regime in Kiev; words pronounced on June 11, 2015, in Kiev: "The irony of applying this way of thinking to the current crisis is that it goes against the very ethos of the Maidan, which was – and still is – about ... about restoring your voice – a voice too often ignored by corrupt politicians, oligarchs, and foreign powers. Or, as one of the great rallying cries of the Maidan put it: Ukraina po-nad u-se! Ukraine above all else!" [Applause!!!]

In a word, Samantha Power thus confirms: Maidan and the regime was and is about "Ukraine uber alles." That's the original (just the country changed).

Under Hitler, the first line of the anthem "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles"  became closely identified with the Nazi regime both as its program and slogan and, as such, they are known and remembered in Europe.

Go and see for yourself, but not forget to make and save your own screenshot copy ... http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/243583.htm

My translation of Mozgovoy's poem No. 17: To his mother "from beyond" ... but also to all of us

To My Mother

Mother, there’s never been enough of you

As there’s not enough of the summer rainy shine.

Without appeal, from me you are receding

And leaving me—forever behind.

That’s why now I am here alone

Buried in the steppe, its graying grass.

God knows, you took offense … perhaps,

That I didn’t … didn’t say goodbye.

Without the word I crave you left,

And the silence on me weighs so hard.

Yet what I need is to hear you, Mom,

—your tender whisper one more time.

Lying here I am afraid to stir,

But neither can I breathe.

Even to God I can’t say a pray,

From this self I can’t escape.

But why shall there any turmoil be

—still any sounds from leaves or birds

When no longer I hear our cranberry tree

And not even wildfire can be seen?

Mother, my dear and so much loved,

How much I want to shout, but can’t!

My world without you is being dimmed

In the fields under God and the open sky.

So if, my dear one, you do hear me,

I ask you: “Mom, forgive me, but don’t

Forget …” such is the pray of my grass

That you come back … at least as a dream.

МАМА

Мне тебя не хватает, мама...

Как пылающим летом дождя.

Но уходишь ты дальше упрямо,

Навсегда оставляя меня. 

И теперь я один среди поля,

Утопаю в ковыли седой.

На меня ты обиделась, что ли...

Попрощаться забыла со мной. 

Ты ушла не промолвив ни слова,

И сжимает виски тишина.

Хоть разочек, услышать бы снова,

Голос мамы, что так мне нужна. 

Я стою, и боюсь шевелиться,

Полной грудью дышать не могу.

Не умею я Богу молиться,

От себя ни куда не сбегу. 

А вокруг суета без причины,

Шёпот листьев и пение птиц.

Но не слышу я больше калины,

И не вижу я вспышки зарниц. 

Моя милая, милая мама,

Закричать бы, но голоса нет!

Среди поля небесного храма,

Без тебя угасает мой свет. 

Если ты меня слышишь, родная,

Я прошу тебя мама... прости...

И ковыль тебя просит седая,

Ты хотя бы во сне, приходи...

Sergey Glazyev speaks on Ukraine again: Sharp analysis (again) with a (new) Monstrous "Final Solution" lurking behind Moscow's "Clever Plan" (c)

Sergey Glazyev, Putin's adviser on Ukraine and Eurasia, speaks on Ukraine again (after a while): "In order to tear Ukraine away from Russia, the EU moved to cultivate a Nazi illegitimate regime there. This was also the main objective of the Kiev coup, the usurpation of power by the Nazi junta, so that Ukraine won't be permitted to join the process of Eurasian integration, chaining her instead through signing the EU Association Agreement. This agreement effectively turns Ukraine into an EU colony ..."

HOWEVER (yes, this is  a very big however), Glazyev then offers an ostensible solution to the Nazi, Russophobic and anti-Russian regime ruling in Ukraine in the interest of its foreign masters: "I think that we need to wait until this regime drowns in the SEA of BLOOD [of its victims], which it is creating by monstrous crimes in Ukraine and until it does choke to death on the blood of the people it has slaughtered ..."

I am alone who thinks that this purported solution is monstrous and utterly perverse? Since when do monsters and beasts "choke on the blood" of their victims? On how many millions of other people's lives, its victims, did Nazism in World War II choke itself to death? So has Moscow's "clever plan" been about letting the Nazis create a "sea of blood" sufficiently big not to swim in it more? It is not that Nazism is like a vegan. No, it is a monster that needs blood and feeds on blood and death. So here you have the essence of Minsk's demon (the genus/"genius") expressed by Glazyev himself: "We need to wait until Nazism consumes more and until it turns the blood of its victims into a whole sea, then we will pray and see whether such Nazism will then die off by itself." Sounds like a monstrous, criminal plan. Much like Nazism itself.

"Для того чтобы оторвать Украину от России, ЕС пошел на выращивание нацистского нелегитимного режима. В этом была главная цель киевского переворота, узурпации власти нацистской хунтой, чтобы не пустить Украину в процесс евразийской интеграции и застолбить это подписанием соглашения об ассоциации с ЕС. Это соглашение фактически делает Украину колонией ЕС ... Я думаю, что надо подождать, пока этот режим не утонет в том море крови, который он сотворил путем чудовищных преступлений на Украине, и не захлебнется в крови тех людей, которых они погубили ....

http://rusila.su/2015/06/26/sergej-glazev-diplomatiya-minnihanova-perspektivnee-chem-navyazannaya-ssha-globalizatsiya/

My translation of Mozgovoy's poem No. 16 (On the Art of Love/Life)

***

That fire is of many flowers,

With which August blooms and dies,

And with each night it burns out more

In its falling short of the sky

Whose limit fields’ patches touch

And sew with bristly weeds

And blackened clouds

Into a cloth made of ragged parts.

Sadness loiters in the trees

That will divest of beauty soon,

But soggy sorrow, drizzly gloom,

Brings the Fall a gift of hope.

In her sun-filled spark and amber,

August lets white clouds sail and rise

When picking clothing in the grass.

So she will leave the garden path.

In September’s Indian summer

Embrace the Fall will start, and you

Will find her scarlet robe

Around and wide and far.

To this Fall with worn-out August

The summer gives way and yields,

and soon the queen of fun and games

will be the radiant, redheaded bride.

***

Разноцветными огнями,

Догорает август месяц.

Стал прохладнее ночами,

Опустилось небо с лестниц. 

Как лоскутным одеялом,

Горизонт укрыт полями.

Под щетинистым бурьяном, 

И под чёрными парами. 

Грусть в деревьях притаилась,

Скоро им снимать одежды.

Моросящая унылость,

Дарит осени надежды... 

Соберёт пожитки август,

Янтарём плеснёт медовым.

Облаков поднимет парус,

И уйдёт тропой садовой. 

Сентябрём приходит осень,

С бабьим летом обнимаясь.

Бархат свой багряный бросит,

По округам, расстилаясь. 

Лето с августом усталым,

Ей уступит своё место.

Скоро будет править балом,

Осень, рыжая невеста.

PS: Paypal button seems to be working at last. Most likely I would end up covering up costs of the books with translations of Mozgovoy's poems (in Czech and English) by myself. For donations of $40 and up I could offer a free copy (once the book is done) with or without my dedication (depending on the request).

Translation of Mozgovoy's poem No. 15--Or "why they killed Mozgovoy" (of if you believe Russian oligarchs are revolutionaries in truth, secret, disguise or denial ...)

Time for a shooting practice

Wherever you spit, there’s a lord,
Some count or blood nobly refined.
With vodka glasses, titles are assigned:
“For the people and the working class!”

Medals are made and go in pounds,
And the metals plaster men with ties.
Gilded temples sit in sadness,
But new mansions want us blind.

Generals are sharp and bright
Judging by their proud outside,
And to win they strut and march
Like girls on Brazilian carnivals!

Then, in his cassock and cross, the priest
Is his Shepherd’s blameless sheep,
And without any shudder, quiver,
Turns fasting into holy filth and feast.

A democrat, a warrior for truth,
Occupies a special VIP list.
In the want of money, poverty and tears,
As our MP he sinks and suffers and begs that deep.

In the blazing Hell on Eden’s tree
Grows the fruit of fear which they eat.
High society fiefs now milk and fleece
The people as a herd on old Soviet fields.

It’s time to practice, load and shoot,
Just a bit and without spurning,
The ladies’ and gentlemen’s elite,
The army of cons, clowns and thieves.

Or we can keep on going on and on
To meetings for nickels, change, and dimes
Only to buy yet more of blabbing lies,
Having thrown rifles into the rye.


Alternative translation for the last verse:

With “heads” stuck into holes and “snouts.”


***


Пора немножко по стрелять...

Куда не плюнь, везде дворяне.
Кто граф, кто княжеских кровей.
Раздача титулов по пьяни,
Всё для народа, для людей.

Размен наград на килограммы,
Блестят в медалях пиджаки.
Тускнеет позолота храмов,
Но слепят взор особняки.

В мундирах толпы генералов,
Погоны бисером горят.
Уж на бразильских карнавалах,
Такие, точно победят!

Святой отец, с крестом и в рясе,
Безгрешный господа слуга...
Найдёт и в пост блаженной грязи,
Без страха, страшного суда.

В отдельном списке слуг народа,
Борец за правду, демократ.
Несчастный нищий, год от года
Страдает бедный депутат...

В разгар чумы, парад банкетов,
Произрастает страха плод.
Бомонд дворян в стране советов,
Где загнан в стадо весь народ!

Орда элитных скоморохов,
Господ и дам, блатная рать.
От рассуждений мало проку,
Пора немножко в них стрелять.

Но можно продолжать и дальше,
Ходить на митинги за грош.
Внимать речам вранья и фальши,
И "морды" выбирать из "рож"...

Just a passing comment on "Fascism as a force for peace" and today's Nazism 2.0 as a tragedy mixed with farce

Fascism or, in fact, its more virulent form, (Ukrainian) Nazism as a "force for peace"? Why not, if that's what Washington wants us to believe, and if there is no conscience to cry out. Similarly with the "moderation" for the armies of al Qaeda and its spin-offs in Syria. 

As to the "tragedy-comedy" thing ... In tragedy, the criminal is often hurt, but he claims his innocence. For, originally, tragedy was about the suffering of tyrants. In comedy or farce, the tyrant is supposed to transform himself into a satyr and thus escape justice and suffering in the end--under a new mask and identity. Nazism 2.0.

Eric​ Draitser: "Washington continues to hold up President Poroshenko and his government of oligarchs and fascists as a force for peace...  To paraphrase the great political economist and philosopher Karl Marx, 'History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.' While undoubtedly true, the war on Donbass is, in fact, both tragedy and farce simultaneously."

Mozgovoy's poems as a book?

I began thinking of producing a book with Mozgovoy's poems (there some 57-58 of them) in a book--in Russian original first followed by my English and Czech translations. To have this published in the Czech Republic would cost about $1,000. If you think that this is a project worth supporting, donate (see the new paypal button to the right which just appeared) or/and place a comment.

Thank you.

Vlad

One cannot serve Minsk (and heads of the best Novorossiya leaders on Salome's platter to the Empire) and truly respect the Donbass and Russian people on May 11 referendum at the same time

What happened in the last few days over the so-called euphemistically called "constitutional amendments" to the "Ukrainian Constitution," really, the Constitution made to suit the Nazi, Bandera, anti-Russian regime, is remarkable, but it is also very significant.

So what happened? Over the weekend, the Kremlin dispatched Surkov to Donetsk to oversee the next step in the "full and unconditional realization" of Minsk (1 and 2). In practice, this meant that, yet again, people like Pushilin (who knew why he ran away from Strelkov last July when the latter suddenly reached Donetsk from Slavyansk where, according to Kremlin's friends such as Kurginyan, he was just to die with all his "300 Spartans") were told exactly what to and what to say. In other words, the "amendments" to the Ukrainian Constitution were handed down to them. Pushilin's and Deynego's role was just to serve as couriers feebly pretending to act on behalf of someone else--as representatives of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, which, as Putin emphasized on Saturday, he sees both as "self-declared" (hence not legitimate) and "unrecognized" (hence again not legitimate). Moreover, the Kremlin and nearly all its controlled media have expelled the word "people's" from the name of these two republics a long time ago as well. Just as Putin did.

The "amendments" were not much else than a very slightly and mildly diluted version of the same "unconditional" Minsk "agreements," which Putin "unconditionally" agreed on on behalf of the two republics and which, also much unconditionally, were dictated to them as their fate decided by "the partners united" for upholding and imposing Ukraine's (junta's) sovereignty over Donbass.

In this, the true masterminds of this new "Molotov-Ribbentrop" pact (but now at the expense of Russian anti-fascist resistance and the Russians in Ukraine) never lost from sight the almost trivial thing that sovereignty, in its Western standard understanding, means "a monopoly on the violence." In other words, when Moscow (both Putin and Lavrov started very early on with this) was saying that the one overriding principle is "Ukraine's sovereignty, integrity, and unity" (for the Nazis and the Banderas in power are "partners" eligible for gas discounts and billions of dollars from Russian state banks), they were saying only with different words that they agreed with the Nazi junta's monopoly on violence--the "sovereignty" of Kiev--as a matter of (the one and only) principle and in the absence of any other stated or otherwise traceable principle on their part, including Russian national interest, security, national liberation, anti-fascism, self-determination, or the Nuremberg Trial and the founding of the post-World War II order on the principle and idea of de-Nazification.

The rest are details, implementation, and manipulative massaging and fogging of the issue and the meaning of Moscow's Minsk self-effacement and self-abnegation, which was a continuation of the criminal absence of any detectable strategy for Ukraine for the last 25 years, 15 of which were under Putin's watch. Very likely though, a defeated superpower and colony is not or was not allowed to have any effective strategy on this so crucial direction. In addition, Russian oligarchy had other priorities than to care about the return of Nazism and the gradual transformation of Ukraine from a brotherly nation into military real estate and launching pads for the US and NATO just 400 miles from the Red Square in Moscow.

The Minsk appeasement with not so optional surrender was very cleverly conceived. One thing was overlooked though. The whole process was (like the overthrow of the communist system in the Soviet Union from its own top) to be well timed and served piece by piece without revealing the whole too early--even though there is never such a thing as one-off treason, which would not demand and necessitate another and another. When, so soon right after the horrible Odessa massacre, Putin and the Russian government started calling the Odessa murderers endearingly "our esteemed partners," "Ukraine's best opportunity," and "Pyotr Alekseyevich," the Minsk (the new Molotov-Ribbentrop pact for Russia itself, at the expense of Russia) was made out of legal wedlock and, from there, the Frankenstein's living corpse endowed with so much dishonesty and cunning, started to develop.

A question: How do you think would Commander Mozgovoy react to Pushilin's and Deynego's (read: the Kremlin's) "amendments"? The Minsk party thus made sure that Commander Mozgovoy would not in a condition to react at all.

When the "amendments" (that is, the same Minsk 1+2 merely self-served and repackaged as "amendments" or rather "amends") were at last presented and published (for safety reasons late at night), the unforeseen ability of the people concerned about Novorossiya to read and think immediately established that, by virtue of one treason, another comes along automatically--accepting Kiev's (Banderas') sovereignty and hence all its political, military, and police rule as supreme, the DPR and the LPR would also have to submit to the junta's stance and policies on Crimea. Defense and foreign policy is and was to be a sovereign prerogative of the junta in Kiev, not a matter of some local regions to decide or interfere with. Being betrayed and accepting betrayal would thus also require and entail betraying Russia and Crimea in return. This, by the way, also exactly what happened with Eastern Europe after 1989 and 1991. Stefan Fule, a MGIMO graduate, played a notable role in NATO expansion into the Baltics and also in the Maidan, Bandarite putsch. Miroslav Laichak, a Slovak Foreign Minister and another MGIMO graduate, served as a EU Protector in Bosnia. But this dialectic of self-reproducing self-abnegation and mutual betrayals defines the animus of all the East European post-communist, ex-communist elites.

In responding to the explosion of the public outrage, when the meaning and consequences of the Minsk deal (till then more or less obscured still to many) came into the open, both hapless Pushilin and Deynego and the Russian Foreign Ministry tried to extinguish the fire with some damage control moves: it was just a typo; nothing happened; just misunderstanding; not important at all; small oversight; as important as if Honduras was claiming Crimea, and the republics decided to join Honduras and not a Nazi state terrorizing Russians ... The next day, the Russian media and their headlines even victoriously claimed that the "amendments" were taken back.

In fact, if you bother to read the actual proclamation, Pushilin and his partner (with Moscow behind) denounced and recalled only that one part concerning Crimea, which, if they do accept the Nazi's state sovereignty and unity and its Constitution, they would have no power over anyhow, together with many other things, including their own existence.

This is exactly what Pushilin and Deynego were forced to admit in one of their first panicking responses--namely that, under the Minsk unconditional dictate, what they can decide or not decide is rather very narrow; so narrow that they cannot really decide on their own much at all. Many "fundamental" political questions are by virtue (or by disgrace) of Minsk out of discussion and not for their discussion at all. No dignity, no political freedom, no safety, no rights ... rights under a Nazi rule?

So what to do? Surkov's command fell back on pretense. Thus, Pushilin and Deynego began to pretend that they are suddenly denouncing "their own" amendments in full (not true) and that, if they submit themselves and Donbass to Minsk, that they have and will have the freedom to choose which part of the Nazi state's Constitution (i.e., on the question of Crimea or any other question) they would like, not like, subject themselves to and opt to violate.

After all this debacle, which exposed the poverty, amorality, and the lack of character and principles of Russian oligarchy and its pretense to be Che Guevaras in disguise, it is just more clear what Minsk always meant, what is means, and what some of its despicable consequences would be--for example, demanding to become traitors to one's own traitors, being enlisted in the Bandera army and so on. One of these unconditional obligations would be to obey the junta in the question of Crimea ... not to mention in the question of Donbass itself AND Russia too!

It has been the old imperial practice (and both the Romans, the British, and the Americans mastered it very well) to enlist the defeated, the subjected, and the enslaved as their crack, often most zealous units against their own (former) brothers and sisters. Self-alienation and self-betrayal energizes and produces lots of anger, zeal and hate.

My translation of Aleksey Mozgovoy's poem No. 14

The Other

Heavy in hangover my head is cast,

With sludge bland and bitter inside,

For last night was a wobbly moon.

But why is it so cold now in my bed?

I see—my face is rift and crack,

And the look! my shaky hands!

And there on the table in the room

I see photos—there someone’s eyes.

I stagger, totter like a little child,

And by the table I gasp at last.

Old snapshots there are my find,

And there is one that looks like mine.

Warily I lift that darkened print

So that I could better see …

A lost youth which had been,

My forsaken memories.

In a sudden tear my eyes then swim,

And my mind gets dizzy—white.

The one whom gazing back I see

Is someone other—different me!

His look is stern—he even grins,

Full of ember, strength and will,

For it takes some time to turn

So empty when still so young!

My hands are tense and fingers tight

And all they come and make a fist.

No, my life hasn’t been a flashy trip

With banalities to humor or excite!

Now the sun has drawn its sign,

And the night of daze will leave.

Still there’s the other in my mind

—that gaze—that deep dislike.

***

Другой

Голова на похмелье чугунная,

А внутри мутно серый кисель.

Ночь была вчера пьяная, лунная,

Но осталась холодной постель. 

Паутина морщин словно борозды,

Взгляд рассеян и руки дрожат.

На столе, что стоит среди комнаты,

Фотографии чьи-то лежат. 

Шаг за шагом, шатаясь и падая,

Задыхаясь, к столу подхожу.

Фотографии вижу все старые,

Среди них и свою нахожу... 

Осторожно беру, пожелтевшую,

И пытаюсь увидеть на ней.

Мою юность когда-то ушедшую,

Позабытых со временем дней. 

Взгляд слезой по щеке расплывается,

В голове закружил белый снег.

На меня с фотографии пялится!

Не знакомый, другой человек... 

Смотрит пристально он, ухмыляется,

Полон сил и во взгляде мечта.

Ведь не скоро, не скоро появится,

В его юной душе пустота. 

Дрожь в руках, пальцы сами сжимаются,

И зажат в кулаке тот, другой!

Жизнь моя, не путёвая странница,

С непривычно-обычной судьбой. 

Солнце в комнату медленно тянется,

Ночь хмельная простилась со мной.

Но по прежнему в памяти пялится,

На меня, презирая... другой...

My translation of Aleksey Mozgovoy's poem No. 13 (Symbolic)

Please come in, my friend-collector,

You were expected for some time.

I know, I know, my dear comrade,

That full of troubles is your load.

My valued pal, please do tell me

How much already is there in the bag.

I have boots I dusted off a coffin,

But this used-up pair isn’t even first.

I’ve worn my coats to holes and pieces,

And my hood is airy, sunny too.

But my eyes are hopeless, empty,

Only sadness in them rings.

So let us drink, my friend-collector,

This lonely glass is getting old,

And welcome! says a grateful host,

As there is much for us to talk!

However, my magpie uninvited,

Sadly did not say a single word.

But autumn glory lit the day

Of our uncanny surprise.

Why are you so sullen, silent,

With my life right here on your palm?

Yes, there is much that weighs it in,

And there is much of what I miss.

And there were tears, but also joy.

And right you are—a lengthy row of sins.

Many days of bloom then became cold,

And the colors disappeared under snow.

Pray you didn’t just come to visit—

For long you have had me on your list!

To the church let me just for a minute,

and of love, my love, the song will be!

Of the August evening when the sky

Stays soundless, vast and high,

But so I sing of the moonlight chill –

Getting close, it too is dear to me.

My magpie-friend, no need to rush,

We have time—to save and spare

Before the dark which you wear

While you lift your sinful souls.

***

Здравствуй, друг мой собиратель,

Ждал давно я твой приход.

Знаю, знаю мой приятель,

У тебя полно хлопот...

Расскажи мне друг мой милый,

Много-ль ты уже собрал...

Сапоги в пыли могильной,

Не одни уж истоптал.

Износил до дыр одежды,

Солнцем выжег балахон.

С глаз ушли лучи надежды,

Слышно только грусти звон.

Выпей, друг мой собиратель,

Я один устал уж пить.

Твой приход, как видишь, к стати...

Будет с кем поговорить.

Собеседник мой не званный,

Молчаливый, грустный гость.

В этот день осенний, славный,

Нам увидится, пришлось.

Что же ты молчишь угрюмо?

Ты ведь знаешь весь мой путь.

Было в жизни много шума,

Было то, что не вернуть...

Всё бывало, смех и слёзы,

Да, ты прав - я не святой.

Отцветали дни в морозы,

Покрывал их снег седой.

Ты пришёл не просто в гости,

В список я давно внесён.

Спеть позволь мне на погосте,

Обо всём, во что влюблён!

О небесной ровной глади,

Тихим летним вечерком.

О холодном лунном взгляде,

Пусть холодном, но родном.

Друг, не стоит торопится,

Мы успеем в твою глушь.

Чёрный, словно ворон-птица,

Собиратель грешных душ...