By Michael AVERKO
20 February 20 Al Jazeera Inside Story show, highlights the differences over the situation in Donbass.
On this show, Mychailo Wynnyckyj represents a loud nationalist anti-Russian voice having the support of Matthew Bryza. The two state a series of questionable claims about supposed Russian violations, while finding no fault on the Kiev regime side. (I’ve discussed Bryza’s prior anti-Russian comments he stated on Al Jazeera.)
Wynnyckyj misrepresents the order of what the Minsk Protocol calls for. Outnumbered, Andrei Kortunov diplomatically refutes Wynnyckyj on that point. Later on in the show, Wynnyckyj repeats his misinformation on that particular.
Wynnyckyj misrepresents Putin’s stance towards Ukraine. In point of fact, post-Soviet Russia exhibited content with Ukraine not being in NATO or CSTO.
Al Jazeera Inside Story host Mohammed Jamjoom, says the Minsk Protocol isn’t legally binding. He doesn’t give a specific to support that contention. The Minsk Protocol has UN approval, with all of the leading Western powers paying lip service to it.
Wynnyckyj brought up the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, recognizing Ukraine’s Soviet drawn boundary in exchange for it giving up its nuclear arsenal. According to a German source (as well as some others), the Budapest Memorandum isn’t legally binding.
I respectfully believe that the likes of Kortunov and Fyodor Lukyanov are better suited in a more academically formal setting. It has been awhile since Mark Sleboda (or someone with his combined knowledge, moxie and shared general perspective) has appeared on Al Jazeera. Dmitry Babich is another of the good options out there. On a February 21 France 24 telecast of The Debate, Babich intellectually pastes the anti-Russian blowhard Craig Copetas.
Last week, there was a UN Security Council meeting on the Minsk Protocol. Thereafter, it became clearer that the Kiev regime and its Western backers want to continue going thru the motions in the form of not getting it implemented. Note the non-sanctioning of the Kiev regime, for not having started implementation of the Minsk Protocol, seven years after its signing.
Hence, another option has now come into play with the Russian government’s independence recognition of the rebel Donbass area. The prior non-Russian independence precedents set with northern Cyprus and Kosovo make it quite hypocritical for necons, neolibs and flat-out Russia haters to single out Moscow.
Back in 1999, Joe Biden and Antony Blinken had no problem with the Clinton Administration led NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia (then consisting of Serbia and Montenegro), because Belgrade refused to sign the Rambouillet Accords. That diktat favors paving the way for Kosovo to separate from Serbia. BTW, Serbia and the contested territory of Kosovo aren’t NATO members.
In stark contrast to the Rambouillet Accords (favoring Kosovo independence, over it remaining an autonomous part of Serbia), the Minsk Protocol calls for Donbass remaining in Ukraine on an autonomous basis. This settlement plan constitutes the best hope for Ukraine maintaining much of its Soviet drawn boundary. The Kiev regime is influenced on the notion of a centralized Ukraine, where the Russian language is restricted and an anti-Russian historical narrative dominates.
As I’ve previously noted in my January 11 and February 9 WABC Talk Radio appearances, terms like “Russian aggression” and the 1990s era utilized “Serb aggression” are propagandistically and culturally biased in application. Western mass media doesn’t say “US aggression” and “Israeli aggression” when these two countries pursue the military option. This observation isn’t intended to poke at the US and Israel. Rather, to highlight the gross hypocrisy out there.
Contrary to Texas Congressman Colin Allred and numerous others, Kiev regime controlled Ukraine isn’t a democracy. Moreover, Russia has more in common with the US than North Korea.
At last week’s UN Security Council discussion on Donbass, Blinken noted his family’s WW II suffering at the hands of the Nazis. He omitted that the US and Ukraine were the only two UN delegations voting against a General Assembly resolution denouncing the glorification of Nazism.
