Free World must Condemn and Reject

Russian Elections in Occupied eastern Ukraine

The free world must categorically condemn and reject Russia’s contrived elections in occupied eastern Ukraine, which would turn the region into Vichy Ukraine.

The Kremlin elections in occupied Donbas are being seen as a Russian gambit to weaken and fragment Ukraine and make it ripe for re-subjugation by Russia.

In a telephone press conference a couple of days ago, Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker called on Russia to halt the sham elections.

“We believe that the entities themselves do not have legitimacy in the local area, nor are they consistent with the Minsk agreements themselves. They don’t exist in the Minsk agreements, and in fact the implementation of the Minsk agreements calls for the restoration of Ukraine’s constitutional order and there is no place for these Republics in the Ukrainian constitutional orders either,” Volker said.

The US official said Washington supports elections but they must be part of the so-called Minsk process and he insisted that they must be held in accordance with Ukrainian laws.

“So the elections being held, that Russia is organizing for November 11 (tomorrow) are wholly illegitimate. We urge that they be stopped and there is no way that anyone from Europe, the United States, et cetera, can give any recognition to the results of such elections,” Volker declared.

His message must be repeated by all governments and global institutions like the UN, NATO and the European Union.

Volker further pointed out that Russia and not its mercenary-terrorists is in control of virtually everything in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

“What is notable here is that we have said for a long time that Russia has 100% command and control of what is happening in the occupied areas there – military forces, political entities, and direct economic activity. This is the first step taken in the form of sanctions that explicitly recognizes or explicitly is based on the notion that Russia actually controls the Donbas and eastern Ukraine,” he said.

Last week, the US Treasury Department placed additional sanctions on Moscow for its continuing occupation of Crimea and its war in eastern Ukraine. Two Russian individuals and a business entity were sanctioned for “serious human rights abuses.” Eight Russian entities, some of them hotel complexes near the Black Sea resort of Yalta, and one individual were sanctioned for “advancing Russian interests in Crimea.”

Shortly after the Treasury Department announcement, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko posted a message on his Facebook page saying the new round of sanctions were a “clear message that all those involved in the illegal occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula and hybrid aggression in Donbas will not avoid responsibility.”

The European Commission joined growing denunciations of the Russian elections. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini said the European Union condemns the so-called “elections” and considers them as illegal.

“The EU considers the ‘elections’ planned for 11 November 2018 in the non-government controlled territories of the so-called ‘Luhansk People's Republic’ and ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ as illegal and illegitimate and will not recognize them. The EU condemns these ‘elections,’ as they are in breach of international law, undermine the commitments taken under the Minsk agreements and violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and law. The Minsk agreements exclusively provide for local elections to be held within the framework of the Ukrainian legislation and under the OSCE standards and observation,” Mogherini said.

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin pointed out that Russia is making plans to rebuild its prison of nations and needs fake elections in occupied Donbas to fragment and weaken Ukraine.

“Russians already have occupying administrations that are responsible for everything, relying on military force, military and hybrid aggression against Ukraine,” Klimkin told journalists, according to an UNIAN correspondent. He added that it is pointless for anybody but Russia to hold another sham “elections” in Donbas.

“Since Russia’s entire idea is not only to stop worrying about Donbas, but to forget about it at all. The whole idea is to abuse Donbas to destabilize Ukraine, legitimize the Russian occupation of Donbas, and return it to Ukraine as a kind of a ‘Trojan horse’ to fragment Ukraine, weaken Ukraine, and so that there is no independent, free, democratic and European Ukraine,” the Ukrainian official emphasized.

Echoing Poroshenko’s statement that local Russian secessionist-proxies will be held responsible for holding these elections, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov also said everyone who chooses to participate in fake and illicit events related to the so-called “elections” in Russian-occupied Donbas will bear inescapable responsibility.

“The law enforcement agencies of Ukraine will identify all the organizers and participants in those pseudo-elections, and they will inevitably be prosecuted,” the NSDC’s press service quoted Turchynov as saying.

According to him, these criminal acts condemned by all leading nations “are a gross violation and a total discredit of the Minsk peace agreements, as well as the Russian aggressor’s attempt to strengthen its control over the occupied territory.”

There is no realistic way to halt this latest Russian attempt to destroy Ukraine but nonetheless the international community must continue to press with its condemnation of Moscow’s effort to do so.

From a local, American perspective, US senators and representatives and the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus must join the denunciation campaign and threaten Russia with further steps that will isolate it – no, ban it – from the international community.

Anything less, will mean recognizing Vichy Ukraine.

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Walesa Calls for Global Coalition to Subdue Russian Aggression

Lech Walesa, the inspirational leader of the historic Polish Solidarity movement (Solidarność) and former president of Poland, believes that only a strong, global coalition can subdue belligerent, undemocratic Russia.

Walesa told RFE/RL that a united international movement, akin to Poland’s Solidarity, is urgently needed now to respond unequivocally to Moscow’s aggression.

Furthermore, he opined, nearly five years after Russia invaded and occupied the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, a worldwide “Solidarity for Ukraine” campaign should be launched to help liberate the region of Russian invaders and keep Moscow at bay.

Undeniably, Walesa’s words are timely today as Russia continues to spread its menacing tentacles not only in Ukraine but its hazardous impact is also being felt across Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Leaders of the former captive nations are on record as warning the international community about Russian subjugation.

Since the start of the Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-18, the former captive nations have steadfastly defended Ukraine against the Russian invasion and warned that Russia’s appetite for conquest will not abate unless it is forced to do so. They have also cautioned the free world against betraying Ukraine for the sake of an ersatz greater good. For example, they rightly fear that including Russia in the anti-ISIS coalition could compel the free world to halt sanctions against Russia, which would unleash a major backlash against it.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite had observed that the former captive nations’ shared goal of a secure and economically strong region can only achieve collectively. “We will only achieve this goal by standing together in the implementation of long-term collective defense measures and strategic projects aimed at ensuring the region’s energy self-sufficiency,” she said.

Grybauskaite, a staunch defender of Ukraine and outspoken opponent of Russian hostility, elaborated: “Russia is at war against Ukraine and that is against a country which wants to be part of Europe. Russia is practically in war against Europe,” she said, adding that she is prepared to “take up arms” in the instance of Russian attacks.

Grybauskaite is convinced that if Russia is not repulsed from Ukraine, Putin will sweep across the Baltics, central Europe and northern Europe. So how to dislodge Russia from Ukraine?

“The situation is still deteriorating. Russian troops are still on the territory of Ukraine. That means that Europe and the world are allowing Russia to be a country which is not only threatening its neighbors but is also organizing a war against its neighbors. It is the same international terrorism as we have in Iraq and Syria,” she said.

Linas Linkevičius, Lithuanian minister of foreign affairs, another candid critic of the free world’s political myopia, in an article in EurActiv, chastised the free world for paying too much attention to placating Russia. Linkevičius warned about the dangers of acting in a “pragmatic and responsible manner” with Russia.

The Lithuanian official recalled that at the 2008 NATO-Russia Summit in Bucharest, Russian President Putin urged the West not to cooperate with Ukraine, claiming that the country is an artificial creation, rather than a state. “That seemed to have set off an alarm clock. However, it was not heard, or the West comfortably chose not to hear it. Ukraine experienced the impact six years later, while Georgia witnessed warfare on its territory soon after, in August,” he wrote.

As Walesa cautioned against Russia, he also told RFE/RL that Western powers need to understand that Russia is a country that “used to be a super power,” but has lost that position. Consequently, it is struggling to cope with its inferior standing.

“It is important to remember that there has been never been democracy in Russia. It has always been ruled by using the threat of an enemy to sustain unity,” Walesa said. “Russia even used to invent enemies to preserve its unity.”

Walesa told RFE/RL that he thinks President Vladimir Putin made a “huge mistake” when the Russian military invaded and occupied Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in early 2014.

“In the 21st century, this is not a proper way of resolving disputes,” Walesa said. “There might be attempts to use those old methods, but it will be very costly” in the end. Ultimately, he said, what matters is the price a country has to pay for such aggression.

Wrongly or not, Walesa advised that open and democratic means could have been used to resolve the Crimean and other international issues that would have yielded better results. He added that sooner or later Putin would abandon his Crimean dream as other foreign policy pundits have suggested. “The sooner he realizes that, the less the costs he has to bear will be,” he said.

However, Walesa, framing his coalition concept, insisted that confronting and working with Russia now requires “solidarity” among countries. He said the international community should respond to Russia’s seizure and annexation of Crimea by mobilizing countries in a “solidarity for Ukraine” group.

“You chose 10 representatives from all over the world, people who are well informed about Ukraine and Russia,” he expanded about his coalition. “You can allocate them either through NATO or the United Nations.”

Suggesting a variation to typical anti-Russian sanctions, Walesa continued “Let that group of 10 people prepare 10 different propositions for different countries to choose that can hurt Russia. Something not to buy, something not to sell.... Every country has different interests, so each country could pick something from the list.”

Walesa next proposed an option similar to a good cop-bad cop routine: “It would be great to have five people within this group who have good relations with Putin. Every day, one of those five people could call Putin and tell him, ‘Listen, Putin, we have lost so much. How much have you lost?’”

“The last person who calls him should tell him, ‘Let’s sum up the losses and let’s think again, because your own oligarchs will never forgive you,’” Walesa said.

Concluding that nowadays each country is mistakenly acting in its own manner for its own interests rather than in unison, Walesa pronounced “You can’t win against Russia in such a way.”

It is questionable whether Putin could be swayed by a soft spoken discussion on any subject, but Walesa’s point about a coalition against Russia is well taken.

In view of the raging Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-18, the joint defense concept charted by Stepan Bandera and Jaroslaw Stetzko seven decades ago is worthy of a revival. The former captive nations have already made individual and collective political declarations and expressed a willingness that could lead to the successful resuscitation of such a structure. The reestablishment of the historic anti-Russian defense alliance, the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, is well within reason especially because of the free world’s stumbling approach to defending former captive nations’ independence and sovereignty.

Not surprisingly, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin had also alluded to the necessity of such a far-reaching coalition. Outraged by the Russian invasion of his homeland, Klimkin suggested the creation of what he had called a Coalition of Freedom to defend democracy and Western values in a troubled world.

“It is about security for everyone,” said Klimkin during an exclusive Fox News interview on the eve of the 65th UN General Assembly. “If someone in this interchangeable and intertwined world cannot feel secure, how can US citizens here feel secure?”

Klimkin explained that Ukraine is confronting a threat any nation can face, adding “we need a network of security.” His Coalition of Freedom would consist of “countries which are committed to freedom, to democratic values, where we are not talking about spheres of influence, but the values and real interests of democratic countries.”

What Ukraine and the former captive nations have experienced in the Russian prison of nations has convinced them that Russia can’t be trusted today. The former captive nations must convince Washington, the other capitals and Russia that they will unite in a bloc or coalition, arm themselves and build ramparts against Russia if their common predicament is not remedied.

Countries from Georgia, to Ukraine, the Baltics, Poland and beyond would do well to form a global, UN, regional, academic, military, and NGO coalition to defend their statehood, democracy, liberty and human rights as a bulwark against Russian aggression.

With everyone in agreement, what remains is for a standard bearer to galvanize the coalition.

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