Putin Shamelessly Denies Russian Troops in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his four-hour encounter on April 16 with journalists – if you can call Russians who write about current events journalists – continued to demonstrate without batting an eye or missing a beat his uncanny showmanship and skill of lying, fabricating, manipulating and twisting an event into something it never resembled.

While the 240-minute transcript offers a great deal of fodder for examination, analysis and reconstruction, I’d like to address one particular one, which deals with the pressing question of whether or not Russian soldiers have invaded Ukraine.

During this annual charade, Irina Khakamada, a Russian politician who ran in the Russian presidential election of 2004 and is a member of The Other Russia coalition, directly asked Putin about the presence of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

Khakamada constructed her query in two parts with the first one dealing with the murder of Boris Nemtsov. Her interest in these two issues could lead some unfamiliar readers to presume that she is an opposition figure but in reality she’s probably in Putin’s camp with a license to pose visibly tough questions and even criticize the President of Russia.

The Ukrainian newspaper Day on May 13, 2014, pointed out that Khakamada irritated Ukrainians by calling Putin a winner “who carried out a special operation without a single fired shot, and said that Crimea has always needed Russian identification.”

Moderator Yekaterina Mironova called on Khakamada, noting that she is well known and she has a question about Ukraine.

She asked: “At Boris’ funeral, Western journalists approached me and said – this information is also available on the internet – that Boris Nemtsov had received certain information about the presence of Russian troops during the events in southeastern Ukraine. At the funeral, the Western journalists kept asking me the same question. Can you finally say, can you say it in so many words whether or not our troops have been there?”

Two curious points emerged in her questions. The first pertains to her use of the word “events” in southeastern Ukraine. This resembles some free world leaders’ timid refusal to call that event in Ukraine a war that was launched by Russia against Ukraine. The second point is her request to finally say “in so many words,” which means Putin can keep his reply brief.

And Putin obliged Khakamada, saying: “Finally, the question of whether Russian troops are present in Ukraine… I can tell you outright and unequivocally that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine.”

In 26 words he set the record straight and corrected numerous legitimate sources, including NATO and eye witnesses, who have testified that Russian soldiers are fighting side-by-side with Russian mercenaries from Russia, Chechnya, Asia and southeastern Ukraine in an undeclared war against Ukraine.

There were other questions about Ukraine in the meeting but no one dared to return to the question of Russian troops in Ukraine.

Khakamada’s first question about the murder of Nemtsov also elicited a cynical reply from Putin. She asked “what do you think about the way the investigation is moving along and is there a chance that we will learn who ordered this heinous murder, which is more reminiscent of a terrorist act?”

Putin’s reply was far longer than his remarks about Russia’s war with Ukraine but the point that related to her question asserted:

“I believe a killing of this kind is a shame and a tragedy.”

“The question of whether those behind the murder will be found remains open. Of course, we will find out in the course of the work that is currently being done.”

As for Putin’s denial about Russian troops in Ukraine, for the past 14 months news media have been filled with an abundance of documented reports of their incontrovertible presence in Ukraine. An interesting article filled with supporting photographs appeared on April 3 in Vice News (www.news.vice.com) with the headline “Russian Soldiers Have Given up Pretending They are Not Fighting in Ukraine.”

“For the past year, the Kremlin has strenuously denied that its troops are supporting pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine — but fighters on the ground are apparently no longer bothering to keep up the farce,” wrote Alex Luhn. “St. Petersburg native Dmitry Sapozhnikov, who went to Ukraine in October to fight alongside the rebels, told the BBC Russian service in a candid interview from Donetsk that Russian military units have played a decisive role in rebel advances, including the operations in February that led to the capture of the transport hub of Debaltseve. Russian officers directly command large military operations in eastern Ukraine, he noted.”

Luhn also wrote: “Throughout the conflict, which the United Nations says has killed more than 6,000 people, evidence of Russian military support for the rebels has mounted.

“Ten Russian paratroopers were captured in Ukraine last August, and NATO published satellite photographs showing what it described as Russian tanks crossing the border that summer. Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko even admitted around the same time that active-duty Russian troops were fighting with his men, though he claimed that they had chosen to fight while on vacation.”

He also said: “Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin have repeatedly denied that their soldiers are in Ukraine, arguing that the Russians who are fighting there are all volunteers.

“Sapozhnikov himself is one such volunteer, a leader of a fringe monarchist party in St. Petersburg who said he left his business renovating homes to help defend Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine and oppose Kyiv’s shift toward the West. As the leader of a special forces unit of the Donetsk People’s Republic, he also took part in the bloody battle for the Donetsk airport, which the rebels captured in January after months of fighting.

“He admitted the Russian military has been instrumental to their success.”

The free world cannot overlook Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the involvement of its regular armed forces, tanks, aircraft and other military equipment in a war that is not about annexing southeastern Ukraine but re-subjugating all of Ukraine into Russia’s prison of nations.