the WSJ rewrites history for russian dummies....

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published new details of the failed Ukraine peace talk held in Istanbul in the spring of 2022. The story resembles some kind of off-the-wall pro-Kiev propaganda along the lines of 'look how Moscow tried to subjugate them, it’s no wonder the Ukrainians refused.'

Today, we’ll try to reconstruct the events and understand why the peace agreements were sabotaged, what role each party played in the process, and whether it was really former British prime minister Boris Johnson who scuppered a deal.

We now know why the only credible peace deal between Russia and Ukraine collapsed Revelations published in the Wall Street Journal shed new light on Vladimir Zelensky’s role in sabotaging the Istanbul agreements

By Sergey Poletaev, co-founder and editor of the Vatfor project

GUSNOTE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL IS WELL-KNOWN BY ONE CARTOONIST FOR REWRITING HISTORY IN ORDER TO PUSH A NARRATIVE THAT IS PROFITABLE TO THE AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MILITARY COMPLEX. WE TAKE THIS INTERPRETATION OF WHAT HAPPENED AS A SUGAR-COATED BITTER PILL, KNOWING THAT AMERICA EVENTUALLY WANTS TO DESTROY RUSSIA, NO MATTER WHAT, BY WHATEVER MEANS — AND ANY AGREEMENT THAT WOUD PREVENT UKRAINE TO BE USED AS CANNON FODDER WOULD BE SCUTTLED BY "SOMEONE" — IN THIS CASE VOLODYMYMYR ZOLOSKAKKASKY, THE WASHINGTON PUPPET. I WILL BLAME THE RUSSIANS FOR BEING NAIVE IN TRUSTING THAT THIS AGREEMENT (with the west) WOULD HAVE CHANGED THE PRICE OF FISH.... SURE, LIKE THE MINSK AGREEMENTS....

The bifurcation point

For those who don’t remember the exact chronology of the events, here’s a short recap of what happened. Others may just scroll to the next section.

Negotiations on a diplomatic settlement to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev began back in February 2022, four days after the start of Russia’s military operation. The first three rounds of negotiations were held in Belarus, and on March 10, they continued in Istanbul with a meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine.

There were also delegation-level talks between Ukraine and Russia, headed by the Russian-born David Arakhamia (the leader of President Vladimir Zelensky’s faction in parliament) and Vladimir Medinsky (a top aide to President Vladimir Putin), respectively. By April, the delegations had initialed the version of the agreement (along with a list of points on which they disagreed) later referenced by various media outlets and published by the Journal.

Meanwhile, Russia had withdrawn its troops from near Kiev, and the delegations went their separate ways. As it turned out, they would never meet again. Boris Johnson visited Kiev on April 10, and right after his visit, the Ukrainian side withdrew from the negotiation process. Their narrative soon switched to fanciful talk of securing a complete victory.

What was in the agreements that Kiev so suddenly walked away from? First of all, Kiev would have gotten back practically all its territories, including Donbass, in exchange for neutral status. There were certain options on the table even in regard to Crimea – a situation that would now be impossible. But most importantly, these peace agreements were the last chance to prevent what began as a relatively restrained military operation turning into a protracted full-on war.

Historians will argue about events such as Istanbul for decades, and even having access to archives, different researchers will propose totally different versions.

Up until recently, we could only base our opinions on the statements of the participants and indirect information. Now, thanks to the Journal, we can finally put the pieces of the puzzle together and confidently say that the agreements fell through because the two sides had a completely different understanding of the security guarantees that were supposed to be provided to Ukraine. As for the final decision to terminate the negotiation process, this was made by Zelensky.

The devil is in the details

The classic version of events states that Ukraine was ready to sign the agreements, but then Boris Johnson came to Kiev, hugged some pretty Ukrainian railway conductors, and ordered Zelensky to terminate the negotiation process, allegedly saying, “You shouldn’t sign anything with them at all – and let’s just fight.”

Coincidentally, this version was pedaled by the Ukrainian authorities themselves. It was first relayed by Arakhamia. Moscow picked up the story, and it became widely speculated that Kiev had no say in the matter and the Englishman had ruined everything.

However, it turns out that things weren’t quite that simple. According to the newspaper, Moscow proposed the following plan: Under the Istanbul treaty, Ukraine’s security was to be guaranteed by foreign powers, including the US, UK, China, France, and Russia. These countries would be obliged to protect Kiev if the treaty were violated. But as long as the treaty remained in force, the guarantors would be obliged to “terminate international treaties and agreements that are incompatible with the permanent neutrality of Ukraine,” including any promises of bilateral military assistance.

This approach is quite consistent for Moscow:

Firstly, the Minsk I and II agreements also had external guarantors; Minsk II was approved by the UN Security Council, and that gave it binding, international legal status.
Secondly, the Medvedev-Sarkozy peace plan used a similar strategy for settling the conflict in South Ossetia in 2008. The European Union then acted as the guarantor, and the agreement was also approved by the UN Security Council.
Thirdly, as far as we know, China could also have become a security guarantor.
Fourthly, generally speaking, peace treaties signed with the participation of neutral (or armed-neutral) guarantors were a standard practice of the pre-UN era.

Moscow’s understanding of the agreement could be summed up in the following way: Ukraine’s security is guaranteed as long as it complies with the terms of the agreement, the main point of which is its neutral status.

During the negotiations, Arakhamia outlined Ukraine’s version. Within three days of a potential outbreak of war, aggression, a military operation, or any disguised, hybrid war against Ukraine, the guarantor countries would have to hold consultations, following which they would be legally obliged to provide Ukraine with military assistance – particularly by supplying weapons and establishing a no-fly zone.

Ukraine officially said that “this mechanism is even clearer than in Article 5 of NATO, which envisages no limits as regards the timing of consultations.” In other words, in the spring of 2022, Ukraine shouted far and wide that it would sign a treaty that would be more binding than NATO’s promise to members .

This approach is quite consistent for Kiev, which, since the mid-2000s, has longed to get under the “umbrella” of Western military guarantees. In fact, Ukraine strived to join NATO so much that it even made an amendment to its constitution, officially declaring NATO accession to be the country’s main objective.

Kiev’s vision of the agreement implied that the country’s security must be guaranteed by NATO leaders in any circumstances, regardless of Ukraine’s actions.

According to Arakhamia, Boris Johnson then came to Ukraine, told Zelensky “let’s just fight,” and that’s how war started. The situation was further fueled by the Bucha provocation. (By the way, Johnson himself has called the Ukrainian version of events “total nonsense and Russian propaganda.”)

So, what really happened in April 2022? Apparently, upon arriving in Kiev, Johnson told Zelensky (speaking on behalf of the UK, US, and France) something along the lines of: 'You can sign anything you want, but we will not sign anything and we are not ready to provide any guarantees, especially considering your requirements and wording.

'The decision is yours, Mr. Zelensky. If you choose war, we will support you with money and weapons; if you choose peace, you will be left on your own with Putin.'

This matches the West’s subsequent actions and decisions, since so far, no one in the West has taken on any legal obligations in regard to Ukraine. Even the agreements on military assistance concluded this spring are nothing more than a set of declarations which are convenient for the West. Here’s the collective stance of Western leaders: NATO is not ready to provide any guarantees to Ukraine and will not sign any agreements.

If all this is indeed true (and the facts seem to leave no room for doubt), then it was Zelensky who made the fatal decision to stop negotiations. And while the West pushed him to this decision, its leaders also fell into the trap of believing that the conflict could be settled on the battlefield.

At some point, instead of following a rational course, Western elites allowed their emotions to get the better of them. Zelensky convinced them that the Armed Forces of Ukraine could defeat Russia, and they believed this to such an extent that they were willing to risk their political standing and even the future of the entire current liberal world order.

All this has led the West to a decisive fork in the road: What to do if Ukraine loses? Should Western leaders follow the example of Johnson and leave Ukraine alone with Moscow, or should they start a big war with Russia?

Either way, the path that they chose will influence the entire course of world history.

https://www.rt.com/russia/594081-ukraine-wsj-zelensky-west/

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

By Gus Leonisky at 13 Mar 2024 - 6:53am
Gus Leonisky's blog
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purpose?

IF YOU HAVEN'T GUESSED YET, THE PURPOSE OF THE ARTICLE IN THE WSJ IS SIMPLE: EXONERATE BORIS JOHNSON FROM HIS SORDID ROLE IN PROLONGING THE WAR... THAT'S ALL....

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

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FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

By Gus Leonisky at 13 Mar 2024 - 4:29pm
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reviving bucha....

WE KNOW THAT THE STORY ABOUT BUCHA'S "GENOCIDE" BY THE RUSSIAN ARMY WAS A MURDEROUS FALSE FLAG CREATED BY THE NAZI KIEV REGIME... IT APPEARED AT LEAST FOUR DAYS AFTER THE RUSSIANS LEFT BUCHA... AND AFTER THE MAYOR OF BUCHA HAD CLAIMED THAT ALL WAS CLEAR IN BUCHA. UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT THE BUCHA MASSACRE WAS FAKED, WE STRONGLY SUSPECT THAT SOME NAZI UKRAINIAN BATALLIONS, HAVING SPOTTED RUSSIAN SYMPATHISERS IN BUCHA KILLED THEM AND INVITED THE FOREIGN MEDIA AND POLITICIANS TO "WITNESS WHAT THE RUSSIANS HAD DONE"....

THUS THIS ITEM IN THE FRENCH PRESS IS PUSHING SHIT AGAIN, AS THE OLYMPIPOLITCS ARE ABOUT TO BLAST OFF IN PARIS...

Russia arrests Forbes reporter over social media posts on Bucha massacre
Russia has arrested a journalist from the Russian edition of Forbes magazine for social media reposts over accusations of Russian atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, his lawyer and Forbes said on Friday.

Issued on: 26/04/2024

Rights groups say hundreds of Russians have been arrested, fined and jailed for criticising Russia's offensive on Ukraine under tough military censorship laws.

Russian authorities have particularly targeted people for comments on Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where Russian troops have been accused of massacring civilians.

Moscow has rejected those charges and accused Kyiv and the West of staging the scenes of dead civilians and testimonies of torture.

"Sergei Mingazov was detained and is being held in a temporary detention centre" in the Far East city of Khabarovsk, the journalist's lawyer Konstantin Bubon said in a Facebook post.

He faces up to 10 years in prison under charges of spreading "false information," Bubon said.

"In short, for reposting a publication about the events in Bucha" on a Telegram channel, he added.

His Telegram channel, which has around 430 followers, features a number of reposts from April 2022 that allege Russian troops killed civilians in Bucha.

Russian forces controlled the Kyiv suburb for a month at the start of the campaign.

Pictures of dead civilians found on the streets made front pages around the world, triggering outrage in the West.

Forbes Russia said Friday it had not been able to contact Mingazov.

A Russian reporter was last month sentenced to seven years in jail for articles on alleged Russian war crimes, including at Bucha.

And opposition politician Ilya Yashin is serving eight and a half years in jail on similar charges after discussing the claims in a YouTube video.

Moscow has outlawed criticism of its offensive and has made independent reporting on the campaign effectively illegal.

Numerous foreign and Russian reporters have left the country over the last two years under the fear of arrest.

The Reporters Without Borders advocacy group said Russia arrested 34 journalists during 2023.

They included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, a US citizen, and joint US-Russian citizen Alsu Kurmasheva -- both of whom are still in pre-trial detention.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240426-russia-arrests-forbes-reporter-over-social-media-posts-on-bucha-massacre

YEAH... WHY NOT BRING Evan Gershkovich IN THE FRAY... HE WAS CAUGHT RED HANDED DOING SOME SPYING FOR THE US, IN RUSSIA... HE SHOULD BE GRACIOUSLY EXCHANGED FOR SOME RUSSIAN IN A US PRISON... WE KNOW THAT THE RUSSIANS WOULD LIKE TO GET RID OF HIM, BUT THE US ARE DOING ALL THEY CAN TO "KEEP Evan Gershkovich IN A RUSSIAN PRISON" TO EMBARRASS THE RUSSIANS. THE RUSSIANS DON'T CARE MUCH ABOUT Evan Gershkovich, BUT THEY CARE ABOUT JUSTICE....

bucha update....

BY Sonja van den Ende

NATO’s foreign mercenaries carried out the false-flag Bucha massacre

The testimony of a Czech mercenary, Filip Siman, who fought for the Ukrainian Carpathian Sich battalion, part of the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine, sheds light on the alleged massacre in Bucha in 2022.

Much has been written about Bucha, revealing much about the propagandist function of the so-called Western “free” media, with entire articles copied from each other, and the single source predominantly being the United States, the Washington Post, or the New York Times.

From the outset, the Western media reporting somehow knew for sure that the Bucha massacre was done by Russia. There was no doubt – and now everything turns out to be a big lie.

They are exposed, for their stupidity and especially for their loss on the Ukrainian front. Their evidence has been fabricated with lies aimed at misleading the Western public, which is standard practice since the U.S. started wars and killing people decades ago, under the guise of democracy.

According to Western sources including the popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, the nominated Bucha Massacre was perpetrated on Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war by Russian forces during the battle for Bucha in late March 2022.

The West and Ukraine claim this Russian atrocity via photographic and video evidence shown in their media on April 1, 2022, several days after the Russian troops had withdrawn from the city. The Ukrainians and West showed pictures and videos of corpses in the streets of Bucha and claimed the Russians killed them.

In addition, many of the photos from Bucha published in the Ukrainian and Western media show white armbands on the sleeves of the dead people, a Russian identification mark for friendly locals. However, in the rapidly changing situation in the city, some people forgot to remove the identification mark or did not have time to do so, and thus became victims of the NATO-backed Kiev regime soldiers who would have viewed the “Russian-friendly locals” as collaborators.

The fighting in Bucha lasted from February 27 to March 31 and ended with the withdrawal of Russian troops as part of the peace process that was then underway in Istanbul. On March 29, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin announced that the Russian military would reduce its activities near Bucha and all Russian troops had withdrawn completely from Bucha on March 30, the day after the face-to-face talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey.

New shocking details about alleged atrocities in Bucha

The testimony of a Czech mercenary Filip Siman, who fought for the Ukrainian Carpathian Sich battalion, part of the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine, sheds light on the events in Bucha in 2022 and casts doubt on the claims of Ukrainian and Western media about alleged atrocities committed by Russian soldiers.

Czech media recently published an article about the trial of Siman, who fought on the side of the Ukrainian Army or battalions (AFU) in Irpen and Bucha in the spring of 2022.

According to the Czech news portal Seznam Zpravy, he said the following: “We were the police, we were the judge, we were in charge of the firing squad”.

The Carpathian Sich 49th Infantry Battalion, is a battalion of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, founded in May 2022. It previously existed from 2014 to 2016, then merged into the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), but was revived as a separate battalion by NATO in 2022. It consisted up to 2016 of mostly Ukrainian Neo-Nazis from the right-wing Svoboda party, who seized power in Kiev in February 2014 with the help of the U.S. and NATO client states from the EU. The NATO-sponsored mercenary battalions are typically the most brutal in Ukraine, comprised of fanatical Russian-hating ideologues who adulate the Third Reich’s Waffen SS and its Final Solution extermination campaign.

In the last two years, 20 of the 95 confirmed dead Carpathian Sich fighters turned out to be foreign volunteers. They were fighters from Colombia, Spain, Portugal and other countries. The brutality of foreign mercenaries is confirmed by articles about the liquidation of the Portuguese mercenary Rico Chavez, who, together with Argentine and French mercenaries, took part in the execution of Russian prisoners.

On January 16, 2024, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that they delivered a precision strike at a temporary deployment area of foreign mercenaries, most of whom were citizens of France, near Kharkov. Some of them were recruited through a direct advertising campaign for the so-called Azov Battalion in France, which France denies and claims is fake news (but that’s normal in war). The mercenaries were, of course, recruited through the Ukrainian International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine.

International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine – a NATO army

This legion has taken part in most of the crucial campaigns and battles of the war. Legionnaire teams are also embedded in some of the most prominent brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, like the Carpathian Sich 49th Infantry Battalion and the Azov Battalion. It is just like in the Syrian war, where various groups were accommodated by Daesh (ISIS). Now it is called the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine.

As the advertisement says on their website: “Join the brave, from now on you can apply if you do not speak English or Ukrainian, the Spanish can join. This also applies for candidates who have no prior military experience since we have Spanish-speaking trainers (and French)”.

According to the website: “Wednesday, 12th of July 2024, the Kyiv Regional Police Department received 5 new patrol boats and presented them to the public. The boats were donated by Mitzi Perdue and as per her request, they were named after fallen legionnaires from the 1st and 3rd battalions of the International Legion. The 5 boats were named after: Shuto Fukuyama (Japan), Benjamin Giorgio Galli (The Netherlands), Andreas Gallozzi (France), Sage Avalon O’Donnell (Australia), Andrew Peters (U.S.).”

Mitzi Perdue is the widow of Frank Perdue, who was for many years the president and CEO of Perdue Farms, now one of the largest (and richest) chicken-producing companies in the United States. She claims to be a war correspondent (a very rich one) and published stories about the lives of NATO mercenaries who died for Ukraine, on her site, among them also the Dutch-Jewish guy, called Benjamin Giorgio Galli van der Plas. This shows that private companies in the U.S. and Europe are connected to the war against Russia and are major financial backers. The U.S. company Perdue Farms (owned by Mitzi Perdue), with annual sales of $8 billion, buys oilseeds and grains from Ukraine to feed livestock. U.S. imports of oilseeds from Ukraine reached $1.85 billion in 2022. Other agri-industry companies from the West have made nice profits in Ukraine as well.

Anyone who thinks that the Republicans in the U.S. do not support Ukraine in its war against Russia is mistaken. There is one project, among many others, running through a so-called charity organization called dzyga’paw that boosts the purchase of Elon Musk’s Starlinks. Multibillionaire Musk is a booster for Trump and the GOP.

They write on their website the following: “During our most recent trip to deliver 111 Starlinks, we spoke with our friends in the military and discovered a much greater need for these terminals than our previous projects have met. Therefore, we are launching a new project with an updated goal: to deliver 202 Starlink terminals!”

We can conclude that the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine is a NATO foreign legion. Since the start of Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, this NATO foreign legion has been doing much of the heavy fighting against Russian forces. Mercenaries have been recruited from all over the Western world, but the command is under the auspices of NATO. NATO is up to its neck in this war on the ground, and, what’s more, the supposed chivalrous Western “security alliance” is committing atrocities as in Bucha for the dirty purpose of smearing Russia in a propaganda battle to keep the mega-lucrative war racket churning.

As a Dutch military general candidly said in the mainstream media: “Pretending that NATO is not involved in the war makes no sense – we are.”

NATO’s soon-to-retire Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “Trump proofing” of the proxy war in Ukraine is a top priority.

NATO will continue its proxy war against Russia. After all, it is the shadow government of the U.S. that rules, including the weapons lobby, and for them it doesn’t matter whether a Democrat or Republican sits in the White House.

https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/07/21/nato-foreign-mercenaries-carried-out-the-false-flag-bucha-massacre/

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ON YD, WE HAVE EXPOSED MANY TIMES THAT BUCHA WAS A FALSE FLAG TO PREVENT PEACE...

By Gus Leonisky at 24 Jul 2024 - 9:47am
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bucha....

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The United Nations has received a request from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to share a list of Bucha victims featured in footage that was released by Ukrainian authorities after they entered the town following the departure of Russian forces, in what Moscow says was a provocation to frame its soldiers.

"Yes, the request has been received," spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a briefing on Thursday.

The remarks were in response to a reporter's question if Lavrov had sent such requests.

Speaking at a UN Security Council this week, Lavrov recalled that he had personally asked the UN secretary-general on several occasions to facilitate Kiev handing over the list of names of those allegedly killed by Russian soldiers in Bucha. His appeals remain unanswered, Lavrov stressed.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240126/un-says-received-lavrovs-request-for-list-of-bucha-victims-1116396627.html

THIS WAS IN JANUARY THIS YEAR. RUSSIA IS STILL WAITING FOR THE LIST. ONE CAN BE 100 PER CENT SURE THAT THE YUCKRAINIAN SECRET SERVICE DID THE DEED (KILLING RUSSIAN SYMPATHISERS) TO BLAME RUSSIAN SOLDIERS...

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

Gus Leonisky

POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

By Gus Leonisky at 30 Nov 2024 - 9:00am
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