Mariupol, in southern Ukraine awoke last Saturday morning to what must have seemed like World War III. Residents in the eastern Ordzhonikidzevskyi district of the port city came under fire from unseen attackers reigning death and destruction, but from where? Once again western mainstream media, officials, and Kiev’s military shake their collective fists at Novorossiya, and Russia herself.
I woke up last Saturday morning early, maybe 5 AM CET, monitored the incoming social media and news RSS as per usual, the first reports from BBC and Reuters seemed curiously assertive as to the perpetrators of the now notorious Grad rocket attacks onto this civilian enclave on the outskirts of the city. I say curious because Pro-Russian separatists were implicated almost immediately, and I do mean almost instantly. The attacks occurred at about 9:15 Kiev time (8:15 CET), and the mainstream of media was not far behind. All those reports have been updated and changed now, time stamp wise and etc., but if memory serves me they came just after the rocket barrage.
This report focuses on the series of events that took place for good reason. Seldom to perfect circumstances play out in any news cycle and journalist knows this. Except that is, for what seems an orchestrated event like Mariupol. Here is a brief rundown of the Kiev line on this tragedy.
7 :15 a.m. GMT: A grad attack onto the extreme easterly neighborhoods of Mariupol takes place.
8:00 a.m. GMT: BBC carries the story with implication of Novorossiya forces responsibility. (Approximate time)
9:00 a.m. GMT (est) AP’s Peter Leonard shows images of OSCE inspecting dead in central Mariupol (Sergey Vaganov, AP / AP)
9:35 a.m. GMT (thereabouts): US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt starts tweeting “rebels, rebels”
11:30 a.m. GMT (est) Sometime around 2:00 p.m. Kiev time the OSCE releases their damning report.
My Brandwatch social media analysis dashboard shows the AP and BBC first reporting on this event, but the exact time is not visible now. The tool does show the report citing contributor David Stern was updated at 10:57 GMT (underlined in red above). It’s interesting to note in this earlier version, US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt is cited as having already tweeted:
“Today’s indiscriminate shelling of Mariupol part of an apparently Russian-backed general offensive in complete violation of Minsk agreements.”
Also, Brandwatch does (somehow) capture the original posts of these various media agencies with the early time stamps. The AP report mentioned above is particularly interesting for very quick images of the OSCE people in Mariupol doing their “investigating” etc. It will help the reader to know, I’ve tried to contact the OSCE for some clarification on their rapid release, but I’ve as yet had zero response from them. It seems to me, somehow at the organization may have circumvented a rule that demands ALL countries involved in this Ukraine mission approve news releases of the sort. Further evidence of this comes from statements made by the Russian Permanent Representative at the OSCE Andrei Kelin (above). While OSCE spokespersons have yet to respond to my requests, Kelin paints the picture accurately. He told reporters earlier this week:
“The shelling of the outskirts of Mariupol is being used to make a “case” against Russia with an eye to toughening anti-Russian sanctions.”
Clearly the Russian delegates to OSCE were not in entirely in the loop on this one. Russia’s representation admonishes the organization as I do, for the rush to determine blame in this case. In fact, Kelin goes on to blow the whistle on observers in Mariupol, saying the operatives failed to use instruments or techniques consistgent with such investigations. Apparently, the result was hurried, my words, not his. What’s even more disturbing for me is the “coincidence” that put more reporters and OSCE observers in Mariupol than anywhere near Donetsk, and the Donbass. With MH17 as a “hazardous” backdrop preventing solving that crime, the imminent overthrow of Mariupol would seem to be as dangerous a place to do the business of looking. In the meantime the EU has rushed too, to extend sanctions on Russia based on these latest “stories” from Kiev.
All tongue in cheek cynicism aside, today the rhetoric has been ratcheted up to a sort of fever pitch. This tweet by the Canadian Joint Delegation @CanadaNATO is bombastic in the extreme if you follow the link. What the reader will find interesting here is the author underneath the anti-Russia context of the Canadian tweet. Maksym Bugriy is a fellow with the Jamestown Foundation in Washington D.C., an institution founded in the early 1980w to support Soviet dissidents. The long and short of this man’s involvement in the Mariupol story is, he’s essentially a sort of “mini me” or wannabe of Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Brezezinski was one of a string of Jamestown Foundations directors across the spectrum of US Presidents these last decades.
The BM-21 Grad Multiple Rocket Launcher: #Russia‘s Weapon of Terror: http://t.co/ejA83JazeU pic.twitter.com/XKdiTmh7Ru
— Canada at NATO (@CanadaNATO) January 28, 2015
What’s significant about the obvious collusion and collective story line here, is the greater implication real economic, media, and even open warfare is being waged on Russia by the west. It’s safe and fair to contend, the degree of media manipulation, the tone, and the vested interests from abroad immersed in this seeming campaign, constitute an alliance to subvert the current state of world foreign policy. Organizations such as the Jamestown Foundation being seen out in the open now, this indicates the rabid dogs of subversive warfare have been unleashed again. Such directives, they also appraise us all of America’s leadership having set an unwavering course toward conflict with Russia and the world of her partners. We’ve seen an unprecedented number of “curious” events these last few years, events that by their sheer number outshine any period in recent history. Arab Spring, Syria, Snowden and the NSA revelations, the Ukraine situation, Gaza, ISIL, the Ebola outbreak, and Vladimir Putin’s enthronement as the new Genghis Khan, these and a multitude of events indicate a paradigm shift. Mariupol under rockets, it’s just the latest in a series of human cataclysms that are surely orchestrated. Chance does not render life on Earth so fatal for the innocent bystander, not using anybody’s math. Suffice it to say, if Vladimir Putin had intended to sack Ukraine, to put asunder innocent civilians from Syria to Donbass and Kiev, if he wanted to systematically enact utter chaos, even the most evil mad scientist could not have succeeded so well. Snowden, the wild dogs of Sochi, rescuing the evil Assad in Syria, his personal blasting from the skies innocent passengers on MH17, divisions and divisions of invisible Russian tanks in Ukraine, backing terrorists who commit terror on themselves, and purposefully shelling the people who really back him in Mariupol! Good God, the man is a maniac with an impervious sense of chaotic madness. Set against this bare chest world conquistador, the dutiful denizens of western civilization, the think tank curmudgeons, Russian mafia lords turned billionaire philanthropists, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner who’s killed more people than Saddam Hussein with drones alone. The noted Russia and international policy expert Andrei Tsygankov characterizes the level of Russophobia these aforementioned elements exhibit in his book Russophobia: Anti-Russian Lobby and American Foreign Policy (2009). Discussing the initial Bush-Putin new policy doctrine at the height of the 9/11 war on terror agenda, professor Tsygankov literally predicts the current state of a combative shift:
“Washington backed away from its initial commitment to take relationships with Moscow to the next level of cooperation. As the immediate sense of the post 9/11 threat had subsided, the United States returned to expecting Russia to follow a U.S. foreign policy agenda.”
As we see now, the situation has regressed to the point where Putin and Russia exerting any singular policy whatever, no matter the consequences for Russian speakers, it equals a reset of Cold War ideals. If the facts be known, it also seems clear US hegemony was always the goal of NATO, all these wars, as illustrated by the US-NATO military bases that virtually surround Russia and most of Asia. As is the case with any report on recent world conflict zones, attempting to encapsulate what’s a seeming gigantic can of worms, it’s difficult for this writer. There’s simply too much information and data to be gleaned. One thing I can say though, almost every breadcrumb of real fact one grasps, it’s connected to a trail that leads directly to the US State Department and to a focus point like Kiev. Anyone who has monitored these Ukraine events cannot help but note operators in the channels like Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, who tweeted right on top of the rocket attack and all day long with Anti-Russia tweets.
Today’s indiscriminate shelling of Mariupol part of an apparently Russian-backed general offensive in complete violation of Minsk agreements — Geoffrey Pyatt (@GeoffPyatt) January 24, 2015
Finally, the relentless escalation of rhetorical and unsubstantiated blame we see parroted from all the western channels, it is a foreboding. A case in point this morning is revealed in this RT report that hacktivist group CyberBerkut in Ukraine has just ferreted out classified documents from Kiev’s Judge Advocate General’s computer. According to these documents, the Ukraine military is in a state of utter disarray. Mass desertions, cover ups to hide the true number of casualties, and what the group terms “prowling deserters and blood-thirsty psychopaths dressed up in Ukrainian uniforms” roam the countryside of that embattled country. In short, what people in the west hear is utter lies and deceit from the Washington backed junta.
We all know the divide in between the corporate world and the political arena have intertwined and integrated today. A perfect symbol of this is Swedish politician slash investment paratrooper Nils Daniel Carl Bildt. The former Swedish Prime Minister has been up to his neck in controversy and in the world of high stakes energy/conflict games for years. Widely criticized in his own country for his role in the Balkans, he’s now the biggest proponent of anti-Russia sentiment and eastern EU policy toward Russia bashing you’ll find. Brandwatch “tweet” metrics put Bildt at the top of a long list of “interested” parties in the blame came toward Russia in this Mariupol affair. To quote from his Wikipedia controversy paragraphs:
“Stefan Hedlund, professor at Uppsala University, stated that “Carl Bildt’s threatening rhetoric should in this context be regarded as extremely destructive”, in an article about the Ukrainian crisis. Hedlund also suggested that Bildt should take a “time-out”, and that progress can only be made through dialogue with Russia.”
When leaders, corporate media, and the vested interests pitted against Russia and others shows such reckless abandon, normal citizens should be very afraid indeed. Russia, it is very clear now, seems to finally have given up on ever mediating this Ukraine situation. From every US embassy, to each and every point in the NATO line, Russia, Russia, Russia is the liar and to be blamed. This is simply not how the truth works, and every reasonable human being knows it. As for the EU, the second most prominent tweet behind the Swedish entreprenuer might surprise you. The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Vice President of the EU Commission Federica Mogherini convened a special session this week over Mariupol. She also seemed proud of the fact she met with Poroshenko and the US’s John Kerry too:
Working in view of the Foreign Affairs Council on #Ukraine. Just talked to President @poroshenko and @JohnKerry
— Federica Mogherini (@FedericaMog) January 27, 2015
And then:
We’ve decided at Foreign Affairs Council to extend existing sanctions and support diplomatic efforts to implement Minsk agreement #Ukraine
— Federica Mogherini (@FedericaMog) January 29, 2015
Given the steadfast cohesion of EU and American interests in all this, Mariupol and the other Ukraine cities to the south and east of that embattled country, their only salvation my yet be a real Russian invasion. This is my long view. Clearly, the entire reigning leadership outside of Greece in the EU, it’s been highjacked by someone or some thing. One would hope Washington does not alone possess such leverage. Forgoing this, let right thinking individuals root for the soldiers of Novorossiya to make all points mute ones, with a victory to succeed from this bitter union.
Additional image credit: Feature image of children playing beneath Lenin statue in Mariupol – courtesy Andreas Kontokanis