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nutso...Would Ukraine Breach its own Constitution if it Dropped its NATO Bid?
Among the many issues discussed in the context of the current Russian threat of aggression against Ukraine, Ukraine’s NATO aspirations and Russian opposition to it joining this organization is prominent.1) Some may think that dropping these aspirations might help avoiding a disastrous war.2) This, however, is no longer just a matter of political will but of constitutional law: Since 2019, the prospect of joining NATO is enshrined in the Ukrainian Constitution, so one could argue that withdrawing the request for membership of NATO would be unconstitutional. Indeed this blogpost argues that the Euro-Atlantic provisions in the Ukrainian Constitution are not merely symbolic, but they actually legally bind the Ukrainian government with regard to its foreign policy.
The amendment to the Constitution in order to strengthen Ukraine’s commitment to European Union membership and Euro-Atlantic integration took place during the term of former President Petro Poroshenko, who put this at the centre of his presidential campaign. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine greenlighted the amendments in its Opinion of 22 November 2018 with 6 Separate Opinions of the Judges who claimed that the Opinion of the Constitutional Court should have been more precise on its motivation rather than just formally checking compliance with procedural requirements. Amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution require at least 2/3 votes (300 deputies) of the constitutional composition of the Parliament (450 deputies). While there were of course opposing views among the deputies during the adoption of these amendments, the Ukrainian Parliament, on 7th February 2019 finally adopted the changes to the Constitution with 335 (out of 450) votes in favour.3)
The Ukrainian Parliament amended the preamble4) and several articles of the Constitution concerning the competences of some of its main governmental bodies:
- In the preamble after the words ‘civil harmony on the land of Ukraine’ the following passage was added: ‘and reaffirming the European identity of the Ukrainian people and the irreversibility of the European and Euro-Atlantic course of Ukraine’;
- Paragraph 5 of the first part of Article 85 (the competences of the Parliament of Ukraine) is now worded as follows: ‘determination of the principles of domestic and foreign policy, implementation of the state’s strategic course towards full membership of Ukraine in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’;
- Article 102 (the President of Ukraine) now has a third section that states the following: ‘The President of Ukraine is the guarantor of the implementation of the state’s strategic course towards full membership of Ukraine in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’
- Article 116 (the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine) was amended so as to add item 11 which states the following: ‘ensures the implementation of the strategic course of the state for the acquisition of full membership of Ukraine in the European Union and in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’.
Some scholars consider these amendments to be redundant and lacking any legal value claiming that existing Ukrainian legislation already aims at pursuing Euro-Atlantic integration on the basis, inter alia, of the Law ‘On National Security’. At the time, they argued that, in actual fact, such amendments merely had a political aim and were a part of an electoral strategy given the fact that they were brought into force just before the end of the term of former President Poroshenko. While this might be true, from a legal standpoint one cannot ignore the fact that “constitutionalizing” Euro-Atlantic integration could have legal consequences as well.
First of all, it is obvious that the reference to Euro-Atlantic integration in connection to the exercise of the functions of governmental bodies provides less flexibility to future governments in terms of policy making. For example, Art. 9 of the Constitution of Ukraine says that entering into international agreements that are contrary to the Constitution is allowed only upon amending the Constitution of Ukraine accordingly. Indeed, if the Ukrainian President – who has the right to sign, suspend and terminate certain agreements on behalf of the peoples of Ukraine – decided, through a decree, to scupper the Agreement by which Ukraine established cooperation with NATO back in 19975) then forty-five Members (or more) of the Parliament of Ukraine, the Supreme Court, or the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights could lodge a claim in front of the Constitutional Court disputing the constitutionality of such a Presidential decree.6) The same would be applicable to the actions of the Parliament of Ukraine – if it were to adopt any law that would go contrary to the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Ukraine. In fact, such a law could be challenged as unconstitutional before the Constitutional Court of Ukraine by the President of Ukraine, the Supreme Court or the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights.
In its hypothetical Decision on unconstitutionality of the above-mentioned decrees or laws the Constitutional Court of Ukraine would almost certainly refer to Article 19 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which stated that ‘all state and local self-government and their officials are obliged to act only on the grounds, within the limits of authority, and in the manner envisaged by the Constitution and the laws of Ukraine.’
Ukraine started to cooperate with NATO in 1997 by entering into a Charter of a Distinctive Partnership with NATO. Later, Ukraine requested to join NATO at the Bucharest summit in 2008. Paragraph 23 of the Bucharest Summit Declaration reads as follows: ‘NATO welcomes Ukraine’s and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.’ That said, 12 years later, in June 2020 Ukraine was recognized only as an Enhanced Opportunities Partner by NATO, which allows for greater cooperation ‘…between Allies and partners that have made significant contributions to NATO-led operations and missions’. The same status is given to Australia, Finland, Georgia, Jordan and Sweden. Yet, it is quite obvious that while Ukraine has Russian troops in the Donbass region, its NATO membership does not appear to be a viable option. This is why the current crisis between Ukraine and Russia goes beyond NATO and has to be understood in a broader historical and geopolitical context. However, leaving aside the prospects of Ukraine joining NATO in the near future, as illustrated above there is no doubt that the reference to NATO in the Constitution has legal value and any reversal of North-Atlantic integration would imply amending the Ukrainian Constitution. Moreover, any such step would probably lead to a strong backlash from Ukrainian society and politicians, given that according to a recent survey, 54% of Ukrainians would vote for joining NATO in a referendum.
As of now, Ukraine is bound by its Constitution and stepping back from its NATO aspirations does not seem to be a real prospect. That said Ukraine may be coming close to a fork in the road where it may be forced (by Russia or even its Western allies) to choose between fully upholding the Constitution (as amended in 2019) and protecting the territorial integrity of the State. One can only hope that the diplomatic efforts of the last few days will prove to be successful thus overcoming what would be a lose-lose situation for Ukraine and its people.
READ MORE:
https://verfassungsblog.de/would-ukraine-breach-its-own-constitution-if-it-dropped-its-nato-bid/
Now you know... Note that Ukraine "and its people" is a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), sulfur, and charcoal. This is known as gun powder... The little Jewish boy is also bullshitting about Ukraine "not joining NATO". AS WELL, Clown Zelensky does not want to respect the Minsk Agreements and is talking giant bullshit when he assures us that he was not going to invade the Donbass... This left Putin with a dilemma... See also:
straussian full-spectrum dominance...
the west's modern crusades, or what is yours is mine.....
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- By Gus Leonisky at 20 Mar 2022 - 8:29am
- Gus Leonisky's blog
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не….
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin traveled to Bulgaria on Saturday, where he met with Prime Minister Kiril Petkov to discuss the Ukrainian crisis and apparently providing military aid to Kiev. The Bulgarian PM said no.
Bulgarian citizens rallied on Saturday against giving its "few remaining weapons" to Ukraine and demanded NATO out of the country.
Demonstrators gathered in front of the Bulgarian Ministrt of Defense, where Austin and Petkov met for a joint press conference, waving Bulgarian and Russian flags. They were head chanting, "NATO Out".
Similar protests took place in Rome and Piza, Italy, where activists of a major Italian trade union, USB, opposed sending weapons to Ukraine and called on the government to ditch NATO.
Read more:
https://sputniknews.com/20220319/pentagon-chief-met-by-anti-nato-rally-in-bulgaria-with-activists-protesting-military-aid-for-1094018542.html
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the truth, by thierry meyssan...
Video recorded on 24 February 2022
Thierry Meyssan: Good day!
A few hours ago the Russian army conducted airstrikes against the sector of the Ukrainian armed forces that is linked to NATO. In 3 hours, the Russian army wiped out the entire Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses and will continue its operation by next attacking the Azov battalion and all the Nazi officials that the United States and the United Kingdom introduced into the Ukrainian government.
This should be good news for everyone, but here, in France, this operation is being portrayed as an invasion against Ukraine and as the forthcoming arrival of the Russian bear in Paris. So don’t be fooled. because there are very important elements that we are not being told.
Only those aspects referring directly to Ukraine are reported on, but the general context is overlooked. And that context proves Russia right, as I am going to explain to you.
In October, Victoria Nuland, Under Secretary of State, traveled to Russia and, in Moscow, she threatened to crush the Russian economy and demanded the resignation of President Vladimir Putin. But you never heard about it. Look it up online. It is very easy to verify.
Later, [Victoria Nuland] went to Ukraine and ushered in Dimitro Yarosh, a NATO agent renowned for having set up – in 2007– the great Mariupol meeting [in Ukraine] bringing together European Nazi organizations and jihadists from all parts to go to fight against Russia in Chechnya. It was the same Dimitro Yarosh who – in 2014 – backed by his troops from the Right Sector [Pravy Sektor], organized the Maidan Square events and the “regime change” in Ukraine. He was later injured and disappeared for a while. Now he’s back.
So [Victoria Nuland] installed Dimitro Yarosh as special adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army [1], who is a perfectly democratic and normal man, but now he has been flanked by this character [Dimitro Yarosh]. And now this character has incorporated the Azov battalion – which is a truly Nazi group, with Nazi insignia and everything and which is led by the “White Fuhrer” [Andrey Biletsky] [2] – into the Ukrainian army.
This is news that should have come as a shock to all of us ... but the media in France never reported on it.
So the Russians planned their response.
In December, they sent the United States a draft proposal for a treaty aiming to guarantee peace. Therein, the United States is urged to respect International Law, as it was elaborated over time, first by the government of France and the imperial government of the Russian Tsar – in 1899, at the Hague Conference – and later formulated in the United Nations Charter –in 1945– and by the Third World countries –in 1955, with the Bandung Principles.
This treaty is obviously unacceptable to the United States because for 70 years the United States has violated International Law on a daily basis and pretends to substitute it with a set of rules of its own, self-proclaiming, along with its allies, to stand for the “international community”. Well... [those countries] are not even half of the world’s population but they claim to run the world.
The Russians are calling first and foremost for NATO to withdraw from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which should never have joined that bloc if the Potsdam Conference agreements had been respected – in 1945, at the end of World War II – which stipulated that US forces could only establish a presence west of the Oder-Neisse border, which separates Poland and Germany. Later, at the time of Germany’s reunification, France was very insistent that NATO should not expand to the east and there was even a long debate as to whether NATO forces would be allowed in the eastern part of Germany. – the former GDR– or be concentrated in the western part – the then Federal Republic of Germany.
Finally there was an agreement – was endorsed by France – providing that the former East Germany would become part of NATO, within the framework of the reunification, but that there would be no expansion of NATO beyond.
And this was repeated several times, first within the OSCE – the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, born from the Helsinki agreements – in which 57 states signed 2 declarations. Fifty-seven States! All the States of the European continent and even others since, for example, the United States and Canada are also members!
Firstly, the OSCE recognized, in the 1999 Istanbul Declaration and in the 2010 Astana Declaration, that each State is free to sign on to the military alliance of its choice – France, for example, is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty, allying herself to the United States.
But, secondly, it was also recognized that no State, absolutely no State!, can guarantee its security to the detriment of the security of others. And, from this point of view, joining NATO is illegal, yes illegal! Because NATO is not a confederation, in which everyone has equal status; it is a federation under the command of the United States and the United Kingdom. making the other States vassals of the United States and the United Kingdom.
And France, unfortunately, returned to NATO, with [President] Nicolas Sarkozy, from which it had withdrawn under General de Gaulle, in 1966. General de Gaulle had expelled from French territory all occupation forces of the United States… that was the term he used, “occupation forces of the United States”. It’s not me who says it! But we [the French] have once again willingly embraced our vassalage to the United States.
So, Russia has called for the withdrawal of NATO forces from the entire territory of Central and Eastern Europe. They can still remain signatories of the North Atlantic Treaty. That is not the problem.
And International Law will also have to be enforced in Western Europe. International Law, inter alia, prohibits the installation of nuclear weapons in countries that do not possess such weapons themselves.
So, for example, what are there US [nuclear] weapons doing in Italy or in the Netherlands? It is an outright violation of international law. And that will have to end.
We must realize that the United States is no longer the world’s leading economic power. It is now China.
And it is no longer the first military power in the world. It is Russia. During the war in Syria – a war that NATO forces lost – Russia tested all kinds of new weapons that NATO cannot compete with. Only last weekend Russia showed that it has the capability to nuclearly destroy any target anywhere in the world without being intercepted because – as demonstrated – it deploys hypersonic launchers from submarines, from surface vessels, from bomber planes and mobile ground units. She can fire those launchers and destroy anything she wants anywhere in the world. It is impossible to deflect them because they move too fast. At the moment there is no way they can be intercepted. In minutes she can destroy whatever she wants and we should wonder that would happen if one day Russia may have to use such weapons against the Pentagon, the White House or the United States Congress.
I don’t say that as a provocation. What I am saying is that if Russia were to do so, the United States would not have time to intercept them, it would not even have time to use its own nuclear weapons.
Let’s take things seriously and respect International Law. It’s what we all want. And it is in everyone’s interest. So bravo for what Russia just did today!
READ MORE:
https://www.voltairenet.org/article215849.html
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our fascist boy...
Ukraine has moved to suspend the activities of almost a dozen opposition parties, including the parliament’s second-largest group, Opposition Platform – For Life, for as long as the conflict with Russia continues.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the decision of the country’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on Sunday.
It was made “given the full-scale war and the ties of some political structures with this state,” he said, apparently referring to Russia.
According to Zelensky, the activities of the opposition parties will be put on hold “for the period of martial law.”
A total of 11 parties were blacklisted, including Opposition Platform – For Life, which is the second-biggest in the Verkhovna Rada with 39 seats; Party of Shariy, founded by harsh critic of the Kiev authorities, blogger Anatoly Shariy; and Nashi party, headed by Evgeniy Murayev.
Read more: https://www.rt.com/russia/552321-ukraine-zelensky-opposition-parties/
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our nazi boy….
by Kyle Anzalone Posted on March 20, 2022Categories News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky banned 11 opposition political parties and nationalized media. Any activities supporting the parties labeled "pro-Russian" are now illegal.
Axios reports the list of parties now banned include: Platform For Life, Shariy Party, Nashi, Opposition Bloc, Left Opposition, Union of Left Forces, State, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialists Party, and Volodymyr Saldo Bloc.
Platform for Life is Ukraine’s largest opposition party and currently holds 44 seats in parliament. Last year, The party’s leader, Viktor Medvedchuk, was accused of treason and placed under house arrest.
Another targeted party, Nashi, is led by Yevhen Murayev. The UK previously accused Murayev of working with Moscow to overthrow the Ukrainian government. However, Murayev was sanctioned by Russia in 2018.
Ukraine’s Russian minority has faced increased discrimination since the 2014 coup. The opposition parties largely represent the 17% of the Ukrainian people who are ethnic Russians. Language and cultural laws have targeted Russian movies, including one starring Zelensky.
The new presidential order is a part of Zelensky’s effort to create a unifiedpolitical narrative in Ukraine. He has announced an information policy that combines "all national TV channels…[into] a single information platform of strategic communication.”
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Read more:
https://news.antiwar.com/2022/03/20/zelensky-bans-political-opposition-nationalizes-media-to-create-unified-information/
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Chechnya governor Ramzan Kadyrov (photo), announced that thousands of Chechen volunteers had gone to join their brothers in the fight against the Banderites (“neo-Nazis”, according to Russian terminology) in Ukraine.
Adam Delimkhanov (Chechen MP in the Russian Duma) was there to welcome them when they reached the Donbass.
In 2007, the Ukrainian banderites had arrived in Chechnya (then called the "Islamic Emirate of Ichkeria") to band together with the Arab jihadists against Russia. Governor Kadyrov has already announced that he will pay a hefty reward for any pro-Bandera leader made prisoner or killed.
READ MORE:
https://www.voltairenet.org/article216135.html
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the nazi comedian...
by David Stockman Posted on March 19, 2022
We were already getting sick and tired of this Zelensky clown, but the sheer chutzpah of comparing Ukraine’s predicament with Pearl Harbor or 9/11 is just fricking outrageous. To paraphrase Senator Lloyd Bensten’s famous retort to Dan Quayle in the 1992 VP debate: We knew the United States of America and Ukraine isn’t any United States.
To the contrary, it is a cesspool of corruption, mal-governance and rank stupidity on the foreign policy front. For crying out loud, its situation is comparable to the drug cartels taking over Mexico, demanding the return of the Gadsden Purchase and then seeking to join a Russian-led anti-American treaty organization.
That is to say, Ukraine brought the Russian attack on itself by poking the bear in its eyes repeatedly since the 2014 coup. Yet now its leader has the gall to petition the US Congress to start WWIII via standing-up a No Fly Zone in lieu of the obvious solution: Namely, Zelensky should resign and make way for a collaborationist government that will sue for peace on the following basis:
Those terms may seem harsh, but it’s the only alternative to the complete destruction of Ukraine and an eventual Russian win anyway. The fact is, the NATO cavalry simply ain’t coming no matter how many standing ovations are stumped up by the armchair warriors of the US Congress.
That’s because even the bully boys of Washington and Brussels aren’t ready to trigger WWIII over the broken remnants of a country that never had been a country historically until Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev made it an administrative district of the Soviet Empire – the latter being a stain on mankind that thankfully disappeared into the dustbin of history 31 years ago.
Yet without direct US/NATO engagement with the Russian military forces now occupying growing segments of Ukrainian territory the expedient of sending arms – even highly advanced lethal anti-air and anti-tank weapons – is futile. Russia now has total air superiority over Ukraine’s skies, meaning that incoming NATO weapons (and the so-called “foreign legion” fighters, too) will be destroyed long before they can make a difference.
So for god’s sake Washington needs to stop standing on ceremony and leading the hapless Ukrainian government down the primrose path to national destruction. There is no way out of the current catastrophe except for Washington to:
The truth, in fact, is more nearly the opposite. That is, there really are not two distinct nations there, one invading the other. Russia and Ukraine have never been neighboring independent states like Germany and France or Spain and Portugal or Columbia and Peru. To the contrary, they have been an intermingled territory and peoples for the last 1300 years with borders, governing arrangements episodic external invasions all over the lot.
The Ukrainian language itself is testimony to that history and geography. The dialects spoken in the Donbas (brown and yellow areas) are a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian; the old Galician territories of Western Ukraine centered in Lviv (red areas) are heavily influenced by Polish, Slovakian and Rumanian vocabularies.; and the blue areas of the North present dialects heavily influenced by Belarusian.
What is also true is that these segmented populations have never been united under a common polity except by communist arms between 1922 and 1991; then between 1991 and 2014 by tenuous and continuously shifting electoral balances after the Ukrainian administrative entity was arbitrarily disgorged from the old Soviet Union; and finally after the February 2014 coup by dint of a Kiev government based on central and western Ukraine that essentially declared a civil war on Crimea (which seceded) and the eastern, Russian-speaking Donbas regions that have tried to do the same.
So again, what’s wrong with partition? At the end of the day, Zelensky stood before Congress and had the gall to demand WWIII in behalf of an abortion of a nation that has virtually no chance of long-term survival in its present form. Yet the knuckleheads from both parties are in such war heat that they vociferously applauded the unctuous rantings of a clown who should have stuck to the comedy business.
READ MORE:
https://original.antiwar.com/david_stockman/2022/03/18/pearl-harbor-my-eye/
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western media hypocrisy...
For eight years Ukraine’s military and ultra-nationalists militias have felt free to try to ravage the two Donbas hold-outs, beginning with the total destruction of a large modern airport of Donetsk.
It is a well-known saying: In war the first casualty is the truth. Maybe that can now be changed: In war the first casualty is the claimed reasons for the war.
We are told that the war against the Russians in Ukraine is a response to the damage they, the Russians, have done to Ukrainian cities and villages that oppose their advance.
That the Russian military can wreak destruction is well-known. But the same is true for the ‘fake news’ skills of the British and the CIA, so it is quite likely we are in a fifty-fifty situation.
And when it comes to reasons for the Russian attack against Ukraine maybe we should look more closely at the timing of events.
In 2014 the pro-Russian, elected government in Kiev was overthrown. For Russian observers the ease with which that government could be eliminated by nationalist crowds in the streets and ultra-nationalist snipers on the roofs was an insult.
Would the CIA would have tolerated such an orchestrated overthrow of a friendly government was one Russian media comment I saw on a 2015 visit?
For Moscow the one consolation was that the pro-Russians in Ukraine did at least maintain hold-outs in the Donbas districts of Donetsk and Lugansk. Moscow’s diplomacy since has focussed on keeping NATO at bay and upholding the Minsk agreements protecting the two holdouts.
But NATO pressure has continued and the Minsk agreements have proved to be weak reeds.
For eight years Ukraine’s military and ultra-nationalists militias have felt free to try to ravage the two hold-outs, beginning with the total destruction of a large modern airport of Donetsk.
Yet most of this destruction has been ignored by the Western media even though entry for reporters into the two holdouts from adjoining Rostov in Russia should be easy.
Instead CNN, BBC and other mainstream media worthies have lined up to wear bullet-proof vests for guided tours of the trenches built to help Kiev’s forces and ultra-nationalists undermine the UN approved Minsk agreements.
We expect our media to be lazy when it comes to rights and wrongs of events already dubbed right and wrong by the authorities. But the lack of interest in what is happening on the other side of the trenches is extraordinary.
At a recent press conference Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov tried in vain to point to the hypocrisy in complaining about the war damage caused by one side while ignoring the damage caused by the other side.
Fortunately a small British crowd-funded camera team has got itself into Donetsk and finally we get to see some of the vandalistic destruction wrought on that other side.
It can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbiplu3Cyjg&t=92s
READ MORE:
https://johnmenadue.com/western-media-hypocrisy-in-reporting-from-ukraine/
By Gregory Clark. He began his career in Australia’s Department of External Affairs, with postings to Hong Kong and Moscow. Resigning in 1964 to protest at Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War he moved to Japan, becoming emeritus president of Tama University in Tokyo and vice-president of the pioneering Akita International University. He continues to live in Japan and has established himself as a commentator/academic. Between 1969-74 he was correspondent for The Australian in Tokyo.
More on www.gregoryclark.net
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