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Putin Blames West for Ukraine Conflict
by Stephen Lendman
Washington bears full responsibility. Rogue EU partners share it. So do Kiev fascist putschists.
They're convenient US stooges. They mock legitimacy. State terrorism is official policy.
Washington fully supports it. Putin forthrightly condemns it. He represents responsible geopolitical leadership. He's polar opposite Obama.
His spokesman Dmitry Peskov released an official statement. It addressed Odessa's massacre, saying:
"The authorities in Kiev not only bear direct responsibility, but are complicit in these criminal activities. Their arms are up to the elbows in blood."
Odessa reflects "the connivance of those who consider themselves the authority in Kiev."
State Department Big Lies
by Stephen Lendman
John Kerry repeats them ad nauseam. They come in country reports. They're in press releases. They're in daily briefings.
May 3 is World Press Freedom Day. It reminds governments of their obligation to support it. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
On May 2, a State Department Fact Sheet addressed world press freedom. It did so disingenuously. Washington goes all-out to suppress it.
Right Sector Thugs Attack Odessa Activists
by Stephen Lendman
Kiev putschists helicoptered them in. They came with orders to cause mayhem. They attacked federalization supporters.
They did so violently. Gunfire was heard. Three deaths were reported. So were over a dozen injuries.
The House of Trade Unions was set ablaze. Neo-Nazis did so with anti-Maidan activists inside.
Reports said 38 people died. Thirty succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. Eight perished jumping out of windows.
Another 50 needed medical treatment. Ten policemen were affected.
An emergency meeting followed. Mayor Vladimir Nemirovsky said:
"We are making all possible intensive measures to restore law and order." Violent perpetrators will be prosecuted, he added.
Reports said about 1,500 Kiev supporters gathered in central Odessa's Sobornaya Square. Radicalized Chernomorets football club supporters joined them.
Right Sector insignia were prominently displayed. Thugs came armed with chains, bats, shields and other weapons. They came looking for trouble.
They shouted "Glory to Ukraine." "Death to enemies." "Knife the Moskals." It's a derogatory Ukrainian term for Russians.
Hundreds of anti-Kiev activists confronted them. Clashes followed. Mayhem explains what happened. Both sides used Molotov cocktails, smoke grenades and rocks.
Earlier Odessan rallies demanded local autonomy. They want referendum authority to assure it.
Police chief Petr Lutsuk demanded expelling recently-arrived radicalized elements, saying:
"A large number of people had gathered in Kiev, and it was decided to send these groups to Odessa."
"We do not need them. They came and created a volatile situation."
Local authorities couldn't restrain fighting. It spread to Deribasovskaya Street and Grecheskaya Square.
Police used shields to evacuate injured victims. Activists built barricades in self-defense.
The battle for Slavyansk continues. Kiev military forces launched it pre-dawn Friday.
Activists said helicopters fired missiles on Ukrainian civilians. Attacking them constitutes a grievous war crime.
Ground forces seized checkpoints. Activists defended the city. Human chains blocked advancing APCs. They risked their lives doing it.
Kiev Losing Control?
by Stephen Lendman
Growing thousands of Eastern Ukrainians reject Kiev putschists. Perhaps it's just a matter of time before Western ones join them.
Slavyansk is in the center of the storm. Ukrainian military forces blockaded the city. On Friday, an assault followed. Minimum casualties so far.
A self-defense force press statement said:
"The attack is targeting a few checkpoints at the same time."
"A few armored vehicles and airborne combat vehicles arrived and airborne troops descended from the helicopters and attacked the checkpoints. Some forces were dropped off around the train station, where we didn't have anyone."
Ukraine's Interior Ministry said 10 self-defense forces checkpoints were seized. Slavyansk's broadcast facility was captured. So was a police station.
Bloomberg at Harvard
by Stephen Lendman
He's a multi-billionaire. He made money the old-fashioned way. On March 24, 2014, Forbes ranked him 16th on its World Billionaire List. It estimates his net worth at $33 billion.
He's founder and 88% owner of Bloomberg LP. It's a global financial data/media company. He's a Johns Hopkins/Harvard Business School graduate.
From January 1, 2002 - December 31, 2013, he was New York City mayor. On March 5, Harvard University named him 2014 commencement speaker. It's scheduled for May 29.
Choosing him follows Harvard tradition. Rare exceptions occur. Last year Oprah Winfrey spoke. She's an African-American multi-billionaire.
She's connected to America's rich and powerful. She promoted Bush's Iraq war on air. She disgracefully called it a "humanitarian mission."
US State-Sponsored Terrorism
by Stephen Lendman
Washington notoriously points fingers the wrong way. It whitewashes its own crimes.
Its latest Country Reports on Terrorism 2013 omits the world's leading sponsor. More on it below.
Terrorism is what they do, not us, it's claimed. Reasons why imperial wars are waged are suppressed.
Might justifies right. Nations are destroyed to free them. Lives and freedoms lost don't matter. They're small prices to pay.
Mind manipulation turns truth on its head. People are convinced wrongs are right. Wars are glorified in the name of peace.
Peaceful countries become cauldrons of violence. Instability rocks them. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and others are US imperial victims.
The West Marches East, Part 1: The U.S.-NATO Strategy to Isolate Russia
Andrew Gavin Marshall
In early March of 2014, following Russia's invasion of Crimea in Ukraine, the New York Times editorial board declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "stepped far outside the bounds of civilized behavior," suggesting that Russia should be isolated politically and economically in the face of "continued aggression."
John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, lashed out at Russia's " incredible act of aggression," stating that: "You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on [a] completely trumped up pre-text." Indeed, invading foreign nations on "trumped up pre-texts" is something only the United States and its allies are allowed to do, not Russia! What audacity!
Stoking Confrontation with Russia
by Stephen Lendman
Confrontation is dangerous. At risk is escalating things to conflict. Doing so is madness. Major wars start this way.
Extremists infesting Washington go where angels fear to tread. Peace is considered sissy.
The militant Atlantic Council's just concluded Defending the Vision of a Europe Whole and Free conference addressed crisis conditions in Ukraine.
Hawkish present and past Western officials participated. Barry Pavel heads the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.
Madmen In Power
Editorial by Gaither Stewart
(Rome) On the heels of the disasters left behind by the USA-led wars in the small countries of Iraq, Libya and Syria, among others, the reasons for America’s blatant and barely disguised aggression against Ukraine might seem at first puzzling. If America’s armed forces and its proxies left such socio-economic messes in such smaller and weaker countries, why the sudden all-out attack on Ukraine that translates into an attack on the powerful nuclear power Russia? If US forces could not defeat the Shia in Iraq, nor suppress the tribal society in Libya, nor break the Assad government in Syria, how could Washington’s power-mad neocons even dream of planting missile bases in Ukraine and of subduing an unbeatable Russia as both Napoleon and Hitler experienced?
Water Liberty: How Innovation Trumps Privatization
By Rady Ananda
The World Bank joins Nestlé in wanting to privatize water, deeming it “extremist” to suggest that those born on this planet have a natural right to clean, potable water. Meanwhile, RT’s Abby Martin reports that the watchdog group Corporate Accountability International recently released a new analysis showing that:
“Investing in private water does not extend access and is also counterproductive for economic development. By contrast, infrastructure investment, abandoned by the corporate sector, is where real benefit can be achieved: the World Health Organization estimates more than $10 of economic benefit from every $1 invested in water infrastructure systems.“
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