https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiJVq6toD6Q

Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University (1967-1969) and at the City College of the City University of New York (1969-1973). In 1994, he was a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Paris (France), I (Sorbonne). Wolff was also a regular lecturer at the Brecht Forum in New York City. (https://www.rdwolff.com/about)

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngPfamC7f3M&t=99s

In this week’s episode of “Playing President,” Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA veteran and briefer of five presidents, continues to make sense of the world to “President” Scheer, who prepared for this role through his decades as a journalist, including in-depth interviews with five presidents from Nixon to Clinton. This week, McGovern briefs the President on the truth of some of the claims he made on the debate stage — and the President is not happy about it. 

White House Intern: Mr. President, Ray McGovern is here to brief you. 

POTUS (Robert Scheer): Well, it’s about time. I hope… Look Ray.. I know you’re a veteran. I know you got a lot of information, but this is the week I need to hear some good news. I’m being banged around everywhere after that debate. And, you know, tell me what’s the bright spot here.

Ray McGovern: Well Mr. President, we don’t deal with intelligence with bright spots or black spots just the facts, and that’s what we do. So let me just bring you up to date on some of the reaction to some of the things you said in the debate, because they have foreign implications. When you said that Putin was not going to stop with Ukraine. They’ll go on to Poland and the Baltic States and that was clear. 

There was a lot of second guessing about that on the part of our allies and others who are familiar with what has been [00:01:00] revealed since the Ukrainian negotiators and the Russian negotiators came to a deal in Istanbul in March and  April of 2022. And I just thought that for your background, I oughta bring up to speed if you’ve forgotten exactly how that played out.

But what happened was, the invasion, of course, was on the 24th of February. The Russians made it very clear that they’re- like to talk about this, like to talk about it. And the Ukrainians, they wanted to test the Russians and so they said yeah. So they named their chief negotiator, David Arakhamia, on the 28th of February.

So four days after the invasion, he went up to Belarus, did some negotiating and came to a final settlement there, initialed the final settlement in Istanbul. And the deal was simply the Russians- the Ukrainians would forswear any [00:02:00] attempt to become a member of NATO and the Russians would say, “All right, we will give you guarantees for your… we’ll arrange guarantees for your security from us. We won’t object to your joining the EU and we’ll have… we’ll stop the fighting.”

That was agreed to at the end of March 2022. And what happened in a word, was that Boris Johnson came in from the UK and no doubt in coordination with people like Tony Blinken, and said, “No, we won’t have any of that.” 

Now, the important thing here, Mr.President, is that this is not me saying this.Arakhamia, the negotiator, spilled the beans to the Kyiv Post last year. Just want to give you a taste for what he said. The report in the Kyiv Post was titled, “Russia offered to end the war in 2022 if [00:03:00] Ukraine scrapped its NATO ambitions.”

Now this is the Kyiv Post. And here’s Arakhamia saying that he confirmed this later. He said, “Look, for the Russians, neutrality was the thing, the biggest thing. They were ready to declare themselves neutral like Finland during World War II. And they made a commitment that they wouldn’t, that we made a commitment that we wouldn’t join NATO.”

That was the key point. Next paragraph. And this is again, the chief Ukrainian negotiator speaking to the Kyiv Post. “While negotiations continue in Istanbul, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson unexpectedly arrived in Kyiv on April 9th. And said that Ukraine shouldn’t sign anything at all with them and let’s just fight,” says Buck Johnson.

Now, I think I have a little- I think we have a little photo of Johnson [00:04:00] waltzing around there with Zelensky on April 9th, the day he arrived unexpectedly in Kyiv. Could you show that, Max? Yeah, there they are. Johnson in Kyiv and Zelensky. And they’re- they’re showing the flag and that Johnson had just given Zelensky orders not to follow through on that agreement that had already been signed.

Now, those who were following this earlier – as I was, as my colleagues were – knew that Ukraine is the problem in the story, a year and a half before. So in May 2022, they had the whole story about Boris Johnson coming there and putting the kibosh on this agreement. You could take that photo away now if you would.

So the question really becomes where does this information come from that the Russians are determined not only to take [00:05:00] over all of Ukraine, and we know they stopped in April of 2022… All of Ukraine and then all Poland and the Baltic States and Hungary. And people are saying, quite frankly, Mr.President, they’re reminded of the WMD escapade where Saddam Hussein was going to do mushroom clouds over the world.

They say, “Where’s the evidence that Putin really intended to do this?” Now, I have just one more thing to add here, and that is that we know some of the people who have been running Russian analysis at the CIA and then at other think tanks and so forth.

One is Fiona Hill. Now, we have an op ed that she wrote back on January 24, 2022. It appeared in the New York Times, so exactly a month before the war started in Ukraine. [00:06:00] And what was the title of this thing? 

It was a guest essay and the title was, “Putin has the U.S. right where he wants.” And this is the gist. This time, Mr. Putin’s aim is bigger than closing NATO’s open door to Ukraine, and taking more territory, he wants to evict the United States from Europe, and he might put it, “Goodbye America, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

What you’re seeing there is Putin doing precisely that, courtesy of the New York Times graphic artist. And it shows the last five U. S. presidents turning around and Putin saying, [00:07:00] “Take care, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Now, that’s really nice graphics, Mr. President, but there’s no evidence at all that Russia intends to go any farther in Ukraine, and it already is, really, without talking through things.

And, Putin himself, just to close up here, was asked about this and I want to make sure I don’t misquote him. He says, “Oh yeah, they say that Russia’s going to attack NATO countries. Have you gone completely crazy? Who came up with this? It is just complete nonsense. Total rubbish.” So that’s Putin.

Now, you don’t have to believe Putin. What I’m suggesting is that the Ukrainian negotiators came to this deal, where once again Ukraine agreed not to join NATO but remain neutral. I guess you have to give a little bit more credence to them. Why I mention this, why I mention this just to finish up, [00:08:00] is that most Americans are conditioned to think the very worst of Putin and his objectives.

And they’ll be all too easily misled by this kind of rhetoric if they really believe it and they think that Russia is going to take over the rest of Europe and push us out and don’t let the door hit us on the way out. And so it’s a mischievous thing because God knows what’s going to happen in Ukraine.

And if extreme measures are needed, the Americans are likely to support extreme measures. Rather than more moderate things to talk about these things and come to resolutions of really thorny problems as the Ukrainians and the Russians did under Putin and Zelensky personally who micromanaged this thing and who are going to meet to sign this thing as they did back in March, April 2022.

It’s got more than rhetorical or objective evidence [00:09:00] significance here. It has significance to what happens now if we impute the worst of motives to our rivals, the Russians. 

https://scheerpost.com/2024/07/02/president-gets-a-reality-check-on-ukraine/

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9RUtoDWoh0

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By Ray McGovern
Special to Consortium News

At Thursday’s debate with Donald Trump, President Joe Biden, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal,” claimed that he “wants all of Ukraine. … Do you think he’ll stop? … What do you think happens to Poland and other places?”

Spoiler Alert: Official Ukrainian sources confirm that Putin did stop in March 2022, after Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky agreed to forswear membership in NATO. This was the key provision in the Ukraine-Russia deal initialed by Davyd Arakhamia, who at the time was Zelensky’s chief negotiator (and his party’s faction leader in the Rada) at the talks in Istanbul at the end of March, hardly a month into the war.

The Russians lifted their objection to Ukraine joining the EU, as the Ukrainians agreed to neutrality. Security guarantees sought by Kyiv (short of NATO membership) would be worked out. The fighting would stop. Agreement on the status of Crimea would be put off to the future.

Putin and Zelensky reportedly were micromanaging the March 2022 negotiations, and at that early stage the Russians expressed readiness for the two to meet.  

At the same time that Biden and other Western leaders raise the alarm that Putin will attack other parts of Europe when he’s through with Ukraine, they claim Russia can’t even take the Ukrainian province of Kharkiv, has lost more than 500,000 men to just 30,000 Ukrainians and its economy is faltering (none of which is true.)  But Cold War Western power was based on an exaggerated Soviet threat and the same is true today. 

Ukrainian Negotiator Spills the Beans

In a November 2023 Kyiv Post report titled “Russia Offered to End War in 2022 If Ukraine Scrapped NATO Ambitions – Zelensky Party Chief,”  Arakhamia confirmed that in the March 2022 negotiations Russia proposed ending the war on the condition that Ukraine abandon its NATO aspirations and adopt a neutral stance.

Arakhamia continued:

“Neutrality was the biggest thing for them, they were ready to end the war if we took — as Finland once did — neutrality and made commitments that we would not join NATO. This was the key point. 

While negotiations continued in Istanbul, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson unexpectedly arrived in Kyiv on April 9 and said that Ukraine shouldn’t sign anything with them at all – and ‘let’s just fight.’ ”

Arakhamia’s candor was refreshing. But it came as no surprise to those of us following Ukraine in early 2022. On May 5, 2022 — a year and a half before Arakhamia spilled the beans to the Kyiv Post — Ukrainska Pravda ran a report under the title “Possibility of talks between Zelensky and Putin came to a halt after Johnson’s visit”:

“According to sources close to Zelenskyy, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, who appeared in the capital almost without warning, brought two simple messages.

The first is that Putin is a war criminal, he should be pressured, not negotiated with. And the second is that even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they [the West] are not. The collective West felt that Putin was not really as powerful as they had previously imagined, and that here was a chance to press him.”

Three days after Johnson left Kyiv, Putin publicly stated that talks with Ukraine had “turned into a dead end.” Putin expressed confidence that Russia would ultimately prevail and added that it would “rhythmically and calmly” continue conducting the operation in Ukraine.

Putin Provides Detail

In his major speech to the Russian Foreign Ministry on June 14, Putin said the Russian troops approaching Kyiv in February-March 2022 were there “to push the Ukrainian side to negotiations.” 

From Feb. 24 on, the Russians had expressed readiness for diplomacy. Interestingly, Zelensky appointed Arakhamia chief negotiator on Feb. 28.

Putin continued:

“Surprisingly, as a result, agreements that satisfied both Moscow and Kyiv were indeed reached and initialed in Istanbul. … The document was titled ‘Agreement on Permanent Neutrality and Security Guarantees for Ukraine’. It was a compromise but  resolved the problems that were stated as major ones even at the start of the special military operation.

But the path to peace was rejected again. … The former UK prime minister said directly during his visit to Kyiv – no agreements. Russia must be defeated on the battlefield. … Thus they began to intensively pump Ukraine up with weapons and started talking about the need to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.”

Biden & Pseudo-Experts on Russia

Who has been telling Biden that Putin “will not stop at Ukraine?” Exhibit A would be Fiona Hill, disciple of arch-Russophobe historian Richard Pipes, and national intelligence officer for Russia (2006-09). 

Her insights appeared in The New York Times exactly a month before Russia invaded Ukraine.

On Jan. 24, 2022, the Times featured a guest essay by Hill titled “Putin has the U.S. Right Where He Wants It”:

“This time, Mr. Putin’s aim is bigger than closing NATO’s ‘open door’ to Ukraine and taking more territory — he wants to evict the United States from Europe. As he might put it: ‘Goodbye, America. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.’”  [Emphasis added.]

Fiona Hill’s NYT essay about Putin driving the U.S. out of Europe had a short (two-month) shelf life, as Putin’s negotiators in Istanbul extracted a Ukrainian commitment not to seek NATO membership and a stop in hostilities. Hill admitted as much in a September/October 2022 Foreign Affairs article which included, briefly, the substance of the Istanbul agreement.

This may be damning with faint praise but, in this respect, Fiona Hill showed far more integrity than theTimes, which continues to deny its readers the facts about the Istanbul accord and how it showed that in March-April 2022 Putin did stop once Ukrainian negotiators agreed to forswear membership in NATO.

With Putin having provided, in his June 14 speech, chapter and verse on the (aborted by Boris Johnson) “Agreement on Permanent Neutrality and Security Guarantees for Ukraine,” the Times wasted no time distorting the terms of the Istanbul accord, mostly by omission and turgid obfuscation, in publishing two highly deceptive articles on June 15. 

Neither article mentions  Johnson’s wrecking-ball role in scuttling the Istanbul accord. And even the subsequent admissions of Ukrainian negotiators are mangled.

Thus, New York Times readers, and the thousands of media outlets that take their lead from the Times, are once again misled on a crucial issue — one for which there is ample official Ukrainian testimony that the Times chooses to omit or fudge. And many Americans will be inclined to believe Biden’s evidence-free claims about Putin’s ultimate objectives, and to acquiesce in the dangerously growing tension with Russia — malnourished as they are on accurate information.

For many it will come down to: Between Biden and Putin, Americans “know” whom to believe!

Putin’s Take

Speaking to Western journalists on June 5, Putin cautioned: 

“You should not make Russia out to be the enemy. You’re only hurting yourself with this … They thought that Russia wanted to attack NATO. Have you gone completely crazy? … Who came up with this? It is just complete nonsense, you know? Total rubbish.”

Sadly, it is the kind of nonsense that could mislead Americans, conditioned to believe the worst of Russia, into supporting some kind of risky escalatory move by an administration determined to show how tough it is, as the November election inches closer and closer. Strap on your seatbelts.

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27 years as a C.I.A. analyst included leading the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and conducting the morning briefings of the President’s Daily Brief. In retirement he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

https://consortiumnews.com/2024/07/02/ray-mcgovern-will-putin-attack-poland-the-baltics/

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Russia will continue to advocate for a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict despite the fact that the crisis was caused by the actions of the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that its decision to launch an offensive against Ukraine was motivated by the country’s ambitions to become a part of NATO, as well as its ongoing war against the people of Donbass, who rejected the Kiev government that came to power after a Western-backed coup in 2014.

Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana, Putin said Moscow has repeatedly put forward specific proposals for the resolution of the Ukrainian issue. However, he added that these had been ignored or rejected by Kiev and its backers.

“Russia has always advocated and continues to advocate a peaceful political and diplomatic resolution to the situation in Ukraine – a crisis that arose as a result of the absolutely unceremonious policy of the United States and its satellites,” the Russian leader said.

He noted that Russia had presented its latest plan last month, which could “immediately” end hostilities, save countless lives, and initiate negotiations if accepted by Kiev and its Western backers.

The president was apparently referring to his earlier promise to order a ceasefire if Ukraine withdraws its troops from all territories claimed by Russia, vows not to seek membership of NATO, and completes a process of demilitarization and “denazification.”

The proposal was rejected by both Kiev and its international backers, who insist on returning Ukraine to its 1991 borders. Nevertheless, Putin has said his offer will remain “on the table” for the time being, while the Kremlin has encouraged the Ukrainian leadership to “think about it.”

Previously, Putin had pointed out that Ukraine’s reluctance to accept Russia’s proposals had already resulted in it losing sovereignty over the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye early in the conflict. The president noted last month that Moscow had initially been prepared to withdraw its troops from these territories if it was promised an uninterrupted land connection to the Crimean peninsula.

Now, however, this offer is off the table and is closed to any debate, according to Putin, given that the two regions have officially become part of Russia after overwhelmingly voting to do so in public referendums in the fall of 2022.

https://www.rt.com/russia/600454-putin-us-ukraine-responsible/

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