by Stephen Lendman

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland calls him Yats. He's coming to Washington.

He'll arrive on Wednesday. He'll meet his new boss. He'll do so at the White House. He'll get marching orders. He'll learn more about Obama's plans for Ukraine. More on his visit below.

He's Ukraine's illegitimate prime minister. He serves its xenophobic, ultranationalist, neo-Nazi, hate-mongering, anti-Semitic, coup d'etat regime. A rogue's gallery of societal misfits runs it.

He's a natural. He's super-rich. He's a former central banker/economy/foreign minister and parliament (Verkhovna Rada) speaker.

He betrayed his people. He sold out for greater wealth and power. He's a Batkivshchya/All-Ukrainian Union (Fatherland) leader.

Billionaire mega-thief Yulia Tymoshenko heads it. She was imprisoned for embezzlement and serious "abuse of public office."

Charges included illegally diverting $425 million meant for environmental projects into pension funds. A second case involved stealing around $130 million for personal use.

Putschists freed her. They did so lawlessly. She was an illegimate Orange Revolution prime minister.

She has presidential aspirations. She may head Ukraine's illegitimate government after sham May elections.

Yatsenyuk's job is serving Western bankers. Paying them comes first. Ukrainians bear the burden.

Force-fed austerity is planned. IMF larceny features it. Harder than ever hard times loom.

Ukraine heads toward becoming another Greece. One zombie country will replicate another. Economic crisis conditions already exist. Plans call for tougher times on the backs of ordinary people.

Inflation alone harms them. Since January, Ukraine's currency (the hryvnia) declined 20%. Everything imported costs more.

Capital flight hammered Ukraine's foreign exchange. It's down to about $12 billion or less. It's dwindling at the rate of about $4 billion a week. It won't last the month without aid.

It's needed. It comes with onerous strings. It includes longterm debt entrapment.

Getting it demands mass layoffs, huge social benefit cuts, privatizing state enterprises at fire sale prices, and letting Western corporations plunder Ukrainian resources freely.

Economist Jack Rasmus believes Ukraine's currency collapse is virtually certain. At least $20 billion in aid may be needed "well before May 1," he said.

Ukraine's current debt is about $80 billion. By summer, it'll top $100 billion, says Rasmus.

Deepening black hole indebtedness entraps Ukraine. No end to its financial crisis looms.

It bears repeating. Ordinary people will bear the burden. Disaster awaits them. Greater than ever basket case conditions are certain.

According to Rasmus, Ukrainian aid won't come in amounts needed. Nothing beyond "superficial promises and token" short-run injections ahead of May elections.

Longer-term watch out. Ukraine's economy will be much worse off than now. It's currency will be near-worthless. Rampant inflation will destroy it.

Lost social benefits will create enormous pain and suffering. Western bankers and other corporate predators "will have a field day," says Rasmus.

They'll buy up everything in sight on the cheap. They'll rape and pillage Ukraine freely. They'll steal its resources. They'll exploit its people.

They'll operate freely for bottom line interests. They'll turn Ukraine into a dystopian wasteland.

Ukrainians have a rude awakening coming. They don't know what's planned. Wait until they lose pensions, other social benefits, and vital subsidies needed to offset high oil, gas and food prices.

Wait until they'll left high and dry on their own. Ukraine is one of Europe's poorest countries. Western diktats assure harder than ever hard times.

On Sunday, Yatsenyuk announced plans to visit Washington. "I am going to the United states to hold top-level meetings on resolving the situation unfolding in our bilateral and multilateral relations," he said.

He announced it a day after vowing never to give up "a centimeter" of Ukraine to Russia.

"This is our land," he said. "Our fathers and grandfathers have spilled their blood for this land."

"And we won't budge a single centimeter from (it). Let Russia and its president know this."

On March 9, a "Statement by the (White House) Press Secretary on the Visit of Prime Minister Yaysenyuk of Ukraine" said:

"President Obama will welcome Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk of Ukraine to the White House on March 12."

"The visit will highlight the strong support of the United States for the people of Ukraine, who have demonstrated inspiring courage and resilience through recent times of crisis."

"The President and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk will discuss how to find a peaceful resolution to Russia's ongoing military intervention in Crimea that would respect Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity."

"They will also discuss support the international community can provide to help Ukraine confront its economic challenges, and the importance of uniting Ukraine and working to fulfill the aspirations of the Ukrainian people as they prepare for May presidential elections."

Deputy national security advisor Tony Blinken added:

"What we've seen is (Obama) mobilizing the international community in support of Ukraine to isolate Russia for its actions in Ukraine, and to reassure our allies and partners."

Fact check

Washington plans call for:

• destroying Ukrainian sovereignty;


• controlling its regime;


• plundering its resources;


• exploiting its people;


• incorporating it into NATO;


• establishing new US bases; and


• installing long-range nuclear-armed missiles along its 1,400 km border with Russia targeting its heartland.

Obama bears full responsibility for installing Ukrainian putschists in power. EU partners share it. Regime change plans were hatched in Washington and Brussels.

Russia didn't invade Crimea. Claims otherwise don't wash. No military intervention occurred.

Washington spurns Ukrainian sovereignty and integrity. Russia respects what Western countries disdain.

US officials and Yatsenyuk will discuss plans to rape and pillage Ukraine. Aspirations of its people don't matter. Exploiting them to pay bankers looms.

They'll have no say in upcoming elections. Power brokers will decide things. America works the same way.

Monied interests alone matter. They have big plans for Ukraine. Carving it up for profit looms.

Yatsenyuk lied claiming Russia invaded Ukraine. He called it "a declaration of war." Ukraine is on the verge of "disaster," he added. Policies he has in mind assure it.

On Monday, Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov said preparations to join Russia are well under way.

On March 16, Crimeans will decide by referendum. Public sentiment strongly favors it.

Aksyonov said Russian law will be instituted within about two months. Its ruble will replace Ukraine's hryvnia.

Russian will be the official language. Tartar community members were promised senior positions in a new Crimean government.

Crimea's Supreme Council chairman Vladimir Konstantinov said polls show "over 80%" of Crimeans favor "accession to Russia."

Weeks earlier it was 75%, he added. He attributed sentiment increase to actions by Kiev putschists.

Itar Tass said Sevastapol made Russian its official language. Over 70% of its residents speak it. Administration chief Dmitry Belik signed a resolution stating:

"In line with norms of international law, taking into account that the Russian language is native for the overwhelming majority of the city’s population, the Sevastopol city state administration rules to use it as the official language in all state document circulation."

Pro-Russian sentiment is strong throughout much of eastern and southern Ukraine. Public demonstrations express it.

Kiev putschists target them. Russia's Foreign Ministry expressed outrage. It issued a statement denouncing "actions of militants of the so-called Right Sector amid utter connivance of the new authorities as they call themselves."

"Things have come to such a point that on March 8, well-equipped people in masks and with firearms opened fire at peaceful protestors in Kharkiv," he added.

"People have been injured. The Dnipropetrovsk police have detained seven Russian reporters and attributed it to the fact that they were interested solely in 'certain provocative subjects.' "

Press freedom is targeted. It's comprised. It's denied. Kiev fascists won't tolerate it. They want their message alone getting out.

They "do not allow Russian citizens into Ukraine in violation of all existing bilateral agreements, virtually having blocked border cooperation."

"The shy silence of our Western partners, human rights organizations and foreign mass media outlets is surprising."

"A question emerges - where is the notorious objectivity and commitment to democracy?"

High-minded Western hypocrites are nowhere in sight. Russia rejects illegitimate Kiev putschists. Putin respects the right of Crimeans to decide their own future.

On Sunday, he discussed ongoing Ukrainian events with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

A Kremlin press service statement said:

Putin "underlined in particular that the steps taken by Crimea's legitimate authorities are based on international law and aimed at guaranteeing the legitimate interests of the peninsula's population."

He expressed concern about illegitimate Kiev putschists. They escalated pressure on Crimea.

They blocked its treasury's electronic system. They froze its accounts. They increased security forces on its borders.

Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliyev reacted saying actions taken won't affect planned policies.

Russian accounts are being opened. Frozen ones won't be used.

On Saturday, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in charge of defense expressed alarm over US/NATO "overt threats."

On Facebook, he said:

"A hope that after the overt threats by the US and NATO, nobody will doubt the necessity of rearming our army and fleet and of reviving our defense industry and military science."

His comment followed Washington threatening sanctions, suspending military exchanges, deploying additional warplanes to the region, and showing the flag in the Black Sea.

Neocons infesting Washington threaten world peace. Russia knows forewarned is forearmed to act defensively.

A Final Comment

Media scoundrel Russia bashing continues relentlessly. Jim Thomas is Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments vice president and director of studies.

It's a hard-right think tank. It specializes in US defense policy. Neocon former CIA head James Woolsey is a board member. So are likeminded ideologues.

Wall Street Journal editors gave Thomas featured op-ed space. He took full advantage headlining "How to Put Military Pressure on Russia."

He lied claiming Russia seized Crimea. He called it "a wake-up call for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization."

He said the "absence of serious thinking about (its) territorial defense mission…prov(ed) catnip for Vladimir Putin."

It bears repeating what previous articles stressed. NATO is a killing machine. Its mission is offense, not defense. Don't expect right-wing ideologues like Thomas to explain.

He urges hardball tactics. "Sanctions, skipping the G-8 summit in Sochi, hitting Russian oligarchs in their pocketbooks, isolating Russia in international forums - all these options are legitimate responses to Mr. Putin's land grab in the sovereign state of Ukraine.

Washington and complicit EU partners alone bear full responsibility for land-grabbing. Doing so created the greatest geopolitical crisis since WW II. Their recklessness threatens global war.

Toughness Thomas urges perhaps makes it more possible. He recommended more lunatic fringe ideas.

Abandon NATO's 1997 NATO-Russia so-called Three Nos, he said. They were "shorthand" for NATO declaring "no intentions, no plans, and no reason" to station nuclear forces in new member states.

Thomas urges doing it. He wants nuclear missiles on Russia's borders. He wants them targeting it heartland.

He wants what no responsible official would contemplate. He may get what he wants.

He wants Polish warplanes "capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear weapons so they could participate in NATO's nuclear mission."

He wants nuclear weapons positioned in locations close to Russia's borders. He wants greater NATO "conventional force" regional deployments.

"The time has come for the US and other NATO allies to consider permanently stationing forces in Poland and Romania as well as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to back up their words of strategic solidarity," he said.

He wants NATO providing Ukraine with military aid - "especially if Russia escalates the crisis in Crimea or deploys its forces into other eastern Ukrainian provinces."

He wants stepped up action to oust Syria's Assad. He wants heavy-handed US/EU reprisals against Russia overall.

He wants Moscow treated as a strategic enemy. It's time to act aggressively, he urges.

Imagine giving feature op-ed space to this type lunacy. Don't ask Journal editors to explain.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com

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