FROM TIME TO TIME WE NEED TO BE REMINDED OF THE CRAP THE AMERICAN AND OTHER WESTERN MEDIA HAVE BEEN PUMPING OUT FROM THE PROPAGANDIST SHIT-TANKS OF THE CIA AND THE PENTAGON... ZELENSKY ISN'T A CHURCHILL THOUGH THEY SHARE A LOVE OF DRUGS... CHURCHILL WAS ON AMPHETAMINES [AND BOOZE], ZELENSKY LOOKS LIKE HE IS SNIFFING COCAINE IN THE TOILETS...

SO HERE'S NEWSWEEK IN 2022 WHICH TO SOME EXTEND WAS QUITE HONEST ABOUT ZELENSKY BEING SUSPECT ABOUT RELIGION... OF COURSE NO MENTION OF NATO'S OWN TAKEOVER OF UKRAINE, NO MENTION OF THE AMERICAN ORGANISED MAIDAN COUP, NOR OF THE DONBASS BEING BOMBED BY YUCKRAINE DAILY AND KILLING 14,000 [UNITED NATIONS VERIFED] RUSSIAN/UKRAINIANS WHO DIDN'T LIKE THE NEW 2014 NAZI REGIME IN KIEV... AND NO MENTION OF ZELENSKY BEING A NAZI SUPPORTER HIMSELF....

Zelensky: Defender of Democracy or Opponent of Religious Freedom? | Opinion

By Jonathan Tobin

In the 10 months since the Russian invasion of his country, Volodymyr Zelensky has been transformed into the second coming of Winston Churchill. TIME recently named him its "Person of the Year" in what the magazine conceded was a pretty easy call. It heralded the Ukrainian president for "proving that courage can be as contagious as fear, for stirring people and nations to come together in defense of freedom, for reminding the world of the fragility of democracy—and of peace."

That sort of extravagant paean to the t-shirt-wearing former comedian is typical of the treatment Zelensky gets in the mainstream media. And he's used it to good effect as the Biden administration has poured massive sums of U.S. taxpayer money into Ukraine. As of last month, the tally of American aid sits at $68 billion with President Joe Biden asking for an additional $37 billion.

Given that few Americans cared when Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, it's arguable that much of the current sympathy for Ukraine is a result of the country getting mixed up in the effort to impeach former president Donald Trump. For some, support for Ukraine is linked to antipathy for the former president and belief in the myth that the 2016 election was stolen via his collusion with Russia.

Nevertheless, the willingness of much of the world to rally around Zelensky is a natural reaction to Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion and the Ukrainians' brave fight to preserve their independence. Combine that with Zelensky's skill at public relations, which has led many to regard any criticism of him or his government as Russian propaganda.

Yet a closer look at life in Zelensky's Ukraine reveals that it is not the paragon of democracy and Western values that everyone seems to think it is. Ukraine is a deeply corrupt country with wealthy oligarchs playing the same role there as they do in Putin's Russia. Using the war as an excuse, Zelensky has banned his political opposition and shut down all media not controlled by his regime.

The latest example of his authoritarian style is even more egregious.

Zelensky's attempt to bar Orthodox churches that answer to the Russian Orthodox Church ought to dispel any notion that Americans are supporting Western values of freedom in this war.

In defense of this outrageous policy, Zelensky's Western apologists have pointed to the fact that among those publicizing the charge are Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson, whom they regard as Putin sympathizers. They've also denounced the church as a tool of Putin. The discovery of pro-Russia literature in some churches is being proclaimed as proof of treason. Others are dismissing the initial cries of outrage as misinformation. Zelensky hasn't banned the Orthodox Church, his apologists say. Orthodox Christians are free to worship and attend services, but only in approved Ukrainian Orthodox churches that look to religious leaders in Kyiv rather than Moscow.

Ukraine is locked in a bitter war with Russia and emotions are running high, with special scrutiny of anyone who sympathizes with the invaders. With Ukraine's massive intelligence services focused on ferreting out those suspected of collaboration with the enemy, it was probably inevitable that those elements of the Orthodox Church still linked to Russia would come under suspicion.

This approach toward the Orthodox Church clearly contradicts those eager to portray this war as a clear-cut conflict between an authoritarian oppressor and a democratic underdog.

While Putin, in his quest to reassemble the old Tsarist and Soviet empires [THIS IS BULLSHIT], should not be allowed to extinguish Ukraine's right to self-determination, the reality on the ground is that many ethnic Russians and Russian speakers living in the country don't identify with Ukrainian nationalism. So even churches that take no part in the conflict are seen by Zelensky and his cohorts as enemies.

Democracies at war shouldn't be judged in the same light as countries at peace. The exigencies of war might excuse some forms of press censorship to preserve military secrecy or even abridgment of certain rights to prevent the success of those bent on destroying one's nation. Yet many democracies have successfully fought desperate wars without suspending basic freedoms and suppressing all dissent, let alone shutting down churches.

The apt comparison for Zelensky's move against the Russian Orthodox Church here is not to democracies under siege but to communist China, which for decades limited Christian worship to only those Catholic or Protestant churches that pledged fealty to Beijing and the Communist Party and not to any independent religious authority.

Zelensky regime would take some of the shine off his reputation as the 21st century's hero of democracy. But so strong is belief in his virtue that little attention is being paid to the truth about what he is doing.

None of this lessens Putin's criminality [NATO HAS BEEN THE CRIMINAL IN THIS CONFLICT]. But if President Biden and his mainstream media cheering section are determined to keep asking Americans to pay for an endless and unwinnable war that is causing enormous suffering rather than pushing to end it, they should at least be honest about the man who is getting all this money.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of Jewish News Syndicate (JNS).org and a senior contributor to The Federalist. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

https://www.newsweek.com/zelensky-defender-democracy-opponent-religious-freedom-opinion-1766012

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IT LOOKS THAT JONATHAN TOBIN SAW THAT UKRAINE COULD NOT WIN THIS WAR, BUT...

MEANWHILE, THE CONFLICT COULD HAVE BEEN STOPPED IN APRIL 2022, HAD NOT SOME IDIOTS INTERFERED WITH THE PEACE PROCESS... BY IDIOTS, I MEAN BORIS JOHNSON, THE JEWISH LOBBY [?] AND THE POPE [?], APPARENTLY....

MEANWHILE, THE KIEV REGIME LOSES AROUND 10,000 TROOPS PER WEEK... 

====================

Russian President Vladimir Putin was deceived into withdrawing troops from near Kiev in 2022 by forces claiming to represent Vladimir Zelensky’s willingness to seek peace, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said.

Speaking in an interview with Al Arabiya, Lukashenko said the conflict could have ended quickly in its early stages, when Moscow’s forces were near the Ukrainian capital.

“At the time, not only I, but everyone in the world understood that the war would end quickly with a Russian victory. This was primarily because the Russians were in Kiev,” the Belarusian leader said, according to BelTA.

However, Lukashenko claimed that “certain politicians and forces” then asked Putin to stop, pull troops back from Kiev, and conclude a peace agreement. “Before that withdrawal, everyone understood that Ukraine’s days were numbered.”

The Belarusian president argued that Moscow had been acting on what appeared to be a genuine opportunity to reach a settlement, adding: “Judge for yourselves who was right and who was wrong in this matter.”

“Once again, probably, these forces deceived him. It was the Vatican. And, surprisingly, the Jewish lobby, the Israelis,” Lukashenko said. “They said on behalf of Zelensky: that’s it, we are moving toward peace, we agree. And others as well.”

It was not immediately clear what exactly Lukashenko meant by the “Jewish lobby.” In the early days of the conflict, then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett acted as a mediator between Moscow and Kiev, meeting Putin in Moscow and holding multiple phone calls with Zelensky. Media reports at the time claimed that Bennett had urged Zelensky to accept Moscow’s terms.

Lukashenko also did not elaborate on the Vatican’s alleged role. In March 2022, however, Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill held a video call in which they stressed the “exceptional importance” of the negotiation process.

Moscow and Kiev held several rounds of peace talks in Istanbul in March 2022. Putin said in June 2023 that Ukrainian negotiators had initialed a draft treaty on permanent neutrality and security guarantees, but that Kiev later abandoned the deal after Russian troops pulled back from areas near the Ukrainian capital.

Moscow has argued that Ukraine walked away from the agreement under Western pressure, including from then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who reportedly urged Kiev not to sign any deal with Moscow and to “continue fighting.”

Kiev has disputed Moscow’s account of the failed talks, even though its former chief negotiator, David Arakhamia, has acknowledged Johnson’s role. Ukraine has since formally applied to join NATO and abandoned discussions of neutrality.

https://www.rt.com/russia/641650-jewish-lobby-deceived-putin-lukashenko/

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AMERICA PROVOKED THIS CONFLICT IN ITS QUEST TO DESTROY RUSSIA, WHICH IT HAS VOWED TO DO SINCE 1917 [THE RUSSIAN COMMUNIST REVOLUTION]... THE FRENCH HAVE HATED RUSSIA SINCE NAPOLEON GOT KICKED IN THE BUTT AND THE BRITS HAVE HATED RUSSIA SINCE THE ROMAN INVASION... OR WHENEVER...