“Leftist Response to the War in Ukraine”

Farooque Chowdhury

Frontier | Vol 55, No. 28, Jan 8 – 14, 2023

The illuminating article in Frontier (Vol 55, No 24, December 11-17, 2022, also in Countercurents, November 1, 2022) by Mr Sumanta Banerjee, “Leftist response to the war in Ukraine” (https://www.frontierweekly. com) deserves discussion as it focuses on (1) the most burning issue of the moment–the Ukraine War, (2) the Indian Left’s position on the issue, and (3) a few observations on Stalin and Mao.

Mr Banerjee begins with a question:

“How is the Left facing the multi-dimensional complex challenges thrown up by the [Ukraine] war and the ravages that it is heaping upon its people?”

Then, he refers to Arundhati Roy: The “Left’s dilemma as ‘tortuous yoga asanas’–some pretty drastic seeing and unseeing–depending on where you have decided to place yourself.”

Can Russia and India replace American dollar in bilateral trade?

Yevgeny Ivanov & Ashish Singh

Countercurrents | January 20, 2023

After the World War II, the role of the dollar has grown significantly in global trade. Since then, the American currency has been used not only for transactions in foreign markets but also for transactions within countries. The collapse of the USSR has made the dollar an informal tender (vs legal tender) across the territories of the former Soviet republics for many years. The similar situation happened in Zimbabwe when its national currency underwent severe inflation. Zimbabweans preferred the US dollar and other foreign currencies for their private purposes.

How Organized Crime Plays a Key Role in the Ukrainian Conflict

John P Ruehl

Countercurrents Collective | December 20, 2022

On November 1, the deputy director of Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation downplayed remarks made on October 30 by an agency official, who warned of Western weapons bound for Ukraine being smuggled into Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Nonetheless, the affair generated significant attention and reflected previous concerns expressed by European authorities over Ukraine’s vulnerability to organized crime and the repercussions for the continent.

Organized crime emerged as a potent force in Ukraine after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Criminal groups exploited flawed economic privatization measures to amass significant economic power, while the collapse of the Soviet security state allowed armed criminal factions to replace government authority and entrench themselves permanently.

What to expect in Russia’s winter offensive in Ukraine

M. K. Bhadrakumar

Indian Punchline | November 29, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with mothers of military personnel participating in the special military operation in Ukraine, Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region, November 25, 2022

Wading through the 18,000-word transcript of an hours-long meeting that President Vladimir Putin took with the “soldiers’ mothers” last Friday in Moscow, one gets the impression that the fighting in Ukraine may continue well into 2023 — and even beyond.

In a most revealing remark, Putin acknowledged that Moscow blundered in 2014 by leaving Donbass an unfinished business — unlike Crimea — by allowing itself to be lured into the ceasefire brokered by Germany and France and the Minsk agreements.

Moscow took some time to realise that Germany and France connived with then leadership in Kiev to scuttle the implementation of Minsk accord. Then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko admitted in a series of interviews with western news outlets in recent months, including on Germany’s Deutsche Welle television and Radio Free Europe’s Ukrainian unit, that the 2015 ceasefire was a distraction intended to buy time for Kiev to rebuild its military.

America — NOT Russia — is Europe’s enemy.

Eric Zuesse

The Greanville Post | November 25, 2022

Though this fact is censored-out by all ‘news’-media in the U.S. and allied countries, it will be documented in this article, which is being submitted to all news-media and is free to publish and republish by any and all of them. We shall start here with the background:

Russia is the largest European country, and has long self-identified as being such, but the U.S. and UK have also long tried to fool Europeans to think that the UK and U.S. are ‘pro-Europe’, so as to take over Europe (add them to the U.S./UK empire) and so to prevent Europe from including its most powerful and largest country, Russia (which inclusion would protect the sovereignty of all European countries and prevent their take-over by UK/U.S.). Thus: the main force for “regime-change in Russia” (i.e., for U.S. take-over of Russia) has always been, and is, the UK/U.S. empire.

The “Five Eyes” alliance of the intelligence agencies of all five “Anglosphere” (or Rhodesist) countries — UK, U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand — is an outgrowth of the goal that Cecil Rhodes had set in 1877 for the future Rhodes Trust, for UK to retake the U.S. and then to proceed to take over the entire world but ESPECIALLY all of Europe, including both Germany and Russia. That was the goal, and it remains the goal, of the Rhodesists.

‘Oil war’: How US and Saudi crashed crude prices to hurt Russia, Iran, Venezuela in 2014

In a 2014 “oil war,” the US pressured Saudi Arabia to overproduce crude and intentionally crash prices on the global market, in order to hurt the export-reliant economies of Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.

Ben Norton

Multipolarista | November 18, 2022

The United States and Saudi Arabia waged a very important yet little-known “oil war” in 2014, which had huge geopolitical and economic consequences for the world.

Washington pressured Riyadh to significantly overproduce crude and intentionally crash prices on the global market, in order to hurt the export-reliant economies of Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.

Who is winning, who is losing, the Ukraine war?

Eric Zuesse

Speculation is rife that U.S/NATO are winning the military war in Ukraine (by arming and commanding Ukraine’s armed forces — it’s a proxy-war on the U.S. side), and also is rife that Russia is winning the military war in Ukraine (using its own forces), but “the fog of war” and propagandistic agendas dominate the military war on both sides (both the U.S.-and-allied side that gets its ‘information’ from Ukraine’s Government) and the Russian side that gets its ‘information’ from Russia’s Government).

It’s a two-front war: the military front, and the economic front. And that “fog of war” pertains ONLY to the military aspect of the war. It does NOT pertain to the economic front.

The ‘fog of war’ is almost 100% uncertainty on the military front, and nobody yet really knows which side is is actually winning this war militarily.

No end in view for Ukraine war

M. K. Bhadrakumar

Indian Punchline | November 10, 2022

The US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s meetings with Ukrainian leaders, including President Vladimir Zelensky, in Kiev has created a lot of confusion and misperceptions. One one side, the White House maintains that the trip aimed “to underscore the United States’ steadfast support to Ukraine and its people.” The readout stated that Sullivan also affirmed “the continued provision of economic and humanitarian assistance, as well as ongoing efforts with partners to hold Russia accountable for its aggression.” 

However, unnamed US officials gave the spin that Sullivan’s real mission was to “nudge” Zelensky to negotiate with Moscow and urge that “Kyiv must show its willingness to end the war reasonably and peacefully.” Politico later reported that Zelensky indeed heeded Sullivan’s “soft nudging”. The US media also reported that the US officials have been nudging the Ukrainians for sometime. 

Germany and EU have been handed over a declaration of war

Pepe Escobar

The Greanville Post | September 29, 2022

This episode of Hybrid Industrial/Commercial War, in the form of a terror attack against energy infrastructure in international waters signals the absolute collapse of international law, drowned by a “our way or the highway”, “rules-based”, order.

The attack on both pipelines consisted of multiple explosive charges detonated in separate branches close to the Danish island of Bornholm, but in international waters.

That was a sophisticated operation, carried out in stealth in the shallow depth of the Danish straits. That would in principle rule out submarines (ships entering the Baltic are limited to a draught of 15 meters). As for prospective “invisible” vessels, these could only loiter around with permission from Copenhagen – as the waters around Borholm are crammed with sensors, reflecting fear of incursion by Russian submarines. (!)

Drunk on their own hubris, the Americans got too smart by half. The sabotage of the pipelines will open the eyes of many around the world about the honor and goodness of the indispensable nation. The US actions make its allies look like the imbeciles or pathetic whores they are.

Jimmy Dore: No, Russia Didn’t Blow Up Their Own Pipeline