Author Archives: RomanInUkraine

This quote about Putin’s machismo from Angela Merkel is just devastating

The incident of Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, and the dog is a famous one. It was 2007 and Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, was visiting Putin at his presidential residence in Sochi to discuss energy trade. Putin, surely aware of Merkel’s well-known fear of dogs, waited until the press gathered in the room, then called for his black Labrador to be sent in. The Russian president watched in unconcealed glee as the dog sniffed at Merkel, who sat frozen in fear.

Later, in discussing the incident with a group of reporters, Merkel attempted an explanation of Putin’s behavior. Her quote, reported in George Packer’s recent profile of Merkel in the New Yorker, is one of the most pithily succinct insights into Putin and the psychology of his 14-year reign that I have read:

“I understand why he has to do this — to prove he’s a man,” Merkel said. “He’s afraid of his own weakness. Russia has nothing, no successful politics or economy. All they have is this.”

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/1/7313443/vladimir-putin-merkel

FSB Threatens Pro-Ukrainian Russians with Unemployment

Staunton, December 21 – In what is likely part of a broader pattern, FSB officers in several cities in the Urals have called in for questioning Russians who have taken pro-Ukrainian sentiments online and have warned such people that they risk losing their jobs in today’s bleak economic conditions if they continue to do so, according to Kseniya Kirillova.

In a report on Novy Region 2 yesterday, Kirillova writes that “searches and interrogations have taken place among several [pro-Ukrainian] activists from Yekaterinburg and nearby cities.” In a report on Novy Region 2 yesterday, Kirillova writes that “searches and interrogations have taken place among several [pro-Ukrainian] activists from Yekaterinburg and nearby cities” (nr2.com.ua/News/world_and_russia/Uralcev-vyzyvayut-v-FSB-za-podderzhku-Ukrainy-87052.html).

One was called in after she posted a picture of Stepan Bandera on her Vkontakte page. Another was questioned after writing critical comments online about Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine. And a third faced what the journalist says might seem “a more prosaic” situation but one that may be even more disturbing.

http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/window-on-eurasia-fsb-threatens-pro.html?m=1

Around 11,500 have been killed in Putin’s war in Donbas

Around 11,500 have been killed in Putin’s war in Donbas

4,707 people from the UN report + 750 unreported deaths at Ilovaisk + 6,000 separatist troops (out of which 4,360 are Russian servicemen) = 11,457 deaths. Quite a price to pay for the geopolitical ambitions of one mad man.

1/4 of the losses of Ukrainian servicemen are from the period of the 3-month so-called “ceasefire” that started after the signing of the Minsk Protocol on September 5.

Curt: WAS THE REVOLUTION COOPTED BY NAZIS? (OMG – Americans are stupid.)

WAS THE REVOLUTION COOPTED BY NAZIS? (OMG – Americans are stupid.)

–“Taking you at your word that you are living in Kiev, let me take this opportunity to ask: What do say to the charges that the revolution was instigated by the U.S.? Could it have happened without U. S. support? Was it in fact co-opted by nazis, neo or otherwise?”—

From Curt Doolittle:

Well, you can search for me on Google or Facebook, I’m pretty prolific, and I’m readily visible here in Kiev.

The people here BEGGED for support from the states and got almost NOTHING. A few of us hammered the news media. But we got nothing. You can’t say that schoolgirls spending lunch money on bandages and trucking in in the cold to tend the young men on the front lines, or housewives and clerical workers showing up by the millions is somehow a CIA plot. (Which if you knew anything about the intelligence community would seem absurd.)

And it’s absolutely insulting to locals to insinuate that they’re ignorant pawns of some global intrigue rather than artificially and desperately poor for no reason other than leftover Russian (soviet) bureaucrats in one of the most politically corrupt nations on earth. There is no rule of law here. None. Courts and police are bought. Last may I think I paid something on the order of 3K in bribes just to get people to do their jobs – not for any special treatment.

Most people here look across the border into Poland and see what they COULD have. Most people look to Russia and see murderers who came in the middle of the night to kill relatives and families after Stalin killed millions of Ukrainians in the Holodomor: the Ukrainian Holocaust.

The only difference between Canadians and Ukrainians’ which neighbor they have. Similar sizes and populations and similar (gentle) temperaments.

I love these people and there is nothing on earth that justifies letting people who wish to be free come under Russian corruption ever again.

Americans are ignorant, stupid and benevolent sheriffs yes. They fail to grasp what it means to live in a low trust society. The do not grasp that the lower the trust in a society the more necessary authoritarian rule is. That only generations of commercialism will change a low trust polity in to a moderate trust polity – even so corrupt and politically volatile as the Italians and the Romanians. Just as Russians fail to grasp that Americans actually believe they are acting in the moral interest of less advanced peoples. Americans foolishly believe that they yearn for liberty and prosperity, and merely need to be given the opportunity for self government. And look at the damage we have done. Russians cannot believe we do this with american idealism rather than russian pragamatism. That is because our idealism is as foreign to them as it would be to space aliens.

Yet here in Ukraine we have a white, christian people (many of whom go to church, and yes, that’s important at this stage of development), who have very similar ethics, work habits, history, education, literature and mythology.

And they want to be free.

Yet in the coal mines of the east, in the decaying factories of the soviet era, in the desperate partly Russified slums, the idea of getting checks however small from the government from oil revenues is worth living under the rule of gangsters.

Most of Ukraine would have been happy to divorce and set them free. But Ukrainian’s are unified now, and their view is ‘if we do not stop the enemy in Donbas, then he will be first in kiev and then in L’viv and we will be under the boots of gangsters and tyrants and murderers yet again.

Another Strange Article from Ron Paul

Why is Ukraine’s New Finance Minister a US Citizen?

December 16, 2014—Hello, everybody. Thank you for tuning in to the Ron Paul Channel. I want to talk a little bit today about Ukraine. Not that I haven’t talked about Ukraine in the past, but there’s an interesting incident that has occurred. There is a new finance minister for Ukraine. . . .

A agree with this commentary by a friend of mine:

Not a single mention of her heritage (Ukrainian)… not a single mention of the fact that she has lived and worked in Ukraine for the past 22 years… I cannot believe how blatant it is anymore.

I supported him in many ways, and he is right on many things in my opinion… however I cannot bring myself to describe the disappointment on how he turned into a platform to infiltrate the liberty movement to cast doubt on anything the Kremlin has an interest in.

####### disgusted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Jaresko

Collection of information about Holodomor

Leon Trotsky, a man with his own taste for revolutionary violence, commented in 1939:

“Nowhere did restrictions, purges, repressions and in general all forms of bureaucratic hooliganism assume such a murderous sweep as they did in Ukraine in the struggle against the powerful, deeply-rooted longings of the Ukrainian masses for greater freedom and independence.”

http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/12/17/on-holodomor-denial-and-fisking-a-denialist-russian-professor-of-history/

Curt responds to Pat Buchanan

Pat Buchanan wrote another article sympathetic to Russia: http://takimag.com/article/a_russophobic_rant_from_congress_patrick_buchanan

ON FALSE EQUIVALENCE OF COMPARING EXPORTS OF RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN POLITICAL INFLUENCE
(reposted from original site)

Pat.

You posit a moral equivalency where none exists. Here is why:

US *Demonstrated* Postwar Policy Assumes the Following
1) BORDERS – states who don’t respect borders can lead to world wars.
2) HUMAN RIGHTS – states who don’t respect human rights export problems to the rest of us.
3) CONSUMER CAPITALISM – consumer capitalism is in the interests of ordinary people, because it will raise them out of ignorance and poverty, and more importantly, it creates states that can be competed with, and cooperated with, economically rather than militarily – this is profound because just as under consumer capitalism the market competition and conflict produce beneficial ends for consumers, so does does market competition between states produce beneficial ends for consumers since it forces a choice between consumption and expenditure on the ambitions of the central government – not the least of which is military expansion.

BUT ALSO OUR FAILURES

4) DEMOCRACY – it is our evangelism of democracy under the myth that all people desire and are capable of it, rather than, that northern europeans were uniquely capable of self rule for historical reasons:
a) we have a high trust society build through extensive outbreeding [earlier typo corrected]. (See Emmanuel Todd)
b) we have had centuries of suppression of the breeding of the underclasses under manorialism and its predecessors (See Clark and Todd)
c) We have had a unique history of the jury of our peers, rather than authority, for what appears to be more than 4000 years, and the common law for nearly as long – and as such a fairly uinique ability and cognizance of truth and truth telling that separates us from the rest of the world.

The rest of the world, even southern Europe, cannot accomplish self rule because of pervasive corruption (See Fukuyama).

RUSSIA
Russia is a very, very, low trust society that DEPENDS upon systemic corruption to function, but that imposes corruption on its client states. Russia actively imposes brutality, murder, genocide on low trust countries to create military and commercial order necessary for low trust peoples to cooperate.

Conversely eastern europeans, especially Ukrainians, are NOT low trust peoples, any more so than Poles who are indistinguishable from Ukrainians, or even northern Italians (whom despite being largely germanic, the western Slavs resemble in many ways). So, Russian export of low trust means of government onto middle trust countries that can easily develop into high trust countries is by any definition evil and immoral, (they are Christian here in the east after all, and christianity breeds wealth because it breeds trust.) Just as American export of high trust means of government into low trust polities is harmful to them – they are incapable of self rule. They are incapable of self rule in many cases because they still practice inbreeding to control property in the family. (This is what prevents India from advancing more rapidly as well.)

THE HIGH VS LOW TRUST PEOPLES
So this is the difference between American and Russian political exports: If you export good government onto a medium or high trust people they they will flourish. If you export a low trust means of government on a low trust polity, they will also benefit somewhat – Russia’s southern neighbors did even if eastern europeans were murdered by the millions because of it.

Neither the Russians nor the americans are aware of Emmanuel Todd’s insights: That the only way to create a high trust society is the combination of consumer capitalism and outlawing near-breeding and inbreeding. Because as soon as you see everyone as a potential customer, business associate, mate or family member, trust must increase. Just as if you inbreed and rely upon relationships and corruption and parasitism, you will live in poverty (see Banfield’s Moral Basis of a Backward Society).

Most of the world lives in poverty because they have not adopted the christian ethic of treating all men as members of your family. This is the the first secret of christianity The second is the outlawing of cousin marriage by the church. The third was the granting of property rights to women by the church. The fourth was the construction of chivalry so that status only achievable by martial means was achievable by acts of public service.

These activities by the church were not prescient, but practical, and when combined with out indo-european heroism, birth control, truth telling, juries, and local sovereignty made us capable of self rule.

But none of these would have been possible had it not been for the aristocratic egalitarian ethos (see Ricardo Duchesne), which states that any man who wishes to fight for sovereignty must be aided: we must insure anyone who asks for defense as a means of increasing our numbers. We have been insuring one another’s property for thousands of years by the point of our spears, swords, bayonets and bullets. It is how we keep our numbers – we have always been a minority on the western edge of the world, and for most of history of poor one. Yet able to defeat greater numbers and and wealthier opponents.

Other countries cannot self rule because they have not experienced any of these advances. In fact, they find it heinous and prefer their familialism. And given our differences in reproductive rates, they may hold the correct evolutionary strategy – and not us. Western high trust society, high consumption and low birth rates, are not mathematically compatible with immigration of low trust peoples, dependence upon growth of consumption, and extensive redistribution. It is mathematically inescapable suicide (which you know, I know.)

So while in general I share your ideological position on all but marginal matters, it is this one that I think you err in: you are presuming we are strong enough on our own, and abandoning our aristocratic egalitarian strategy of keeping up our numbers by supporting the liberty of any who will fight along side us to preserve it. Instead we must always seek to increase our numbers – of high trust Christians.

Eastern European Christians are ‘us’. Ukrainians are ‘us’. Russians are steppe barbarians that understand only power, and truth is concept for fools. For Russians, “Words are just sounds you make to distract people so that you can defeat them’.

This difference in trust and truth is what separates Russians from westerners: they are a mix between us and the Chinese. Thy are a despotic low trust people with european aspirations and european mythos character, but who have been influenced by mongol, muslim and turkic despotism such that they remain low trust people – what we mean by ‘barbarians’. They never had our commerce and outbreeding so they never developed trust and universalism.

Unfortunately Gorbachev’s vision to unite the circumpolar people would have been successful and beneficial for the world could we have achieved it. The only thing keeping Russians from despotism is 100 thousand western europeans running their laws for three generations.

Which is exactly what it takes to transform a country to western levels unless it can construct a powerful christian minority capable of taking rule long enough to transform the culture’s expectations into one that depends upon property rights, human rights, and dependable rule of law.

Curt Doolittle
The Propertarian Institute
Kiev, Ukraine,

Russians lie, and find no shame in it as Westerners do

Among Russians, shame goes not to the liar, but to the weak, naive sucker who believed. This is why Russians are so bad at cooperating.

After a promise of amnesty from Putin and the Russian parliament in 2000, 78 Chechen men (and 2 women) voluntarily surrendered to the Russian Army. They were all tortured and killed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/684458.stm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHjw7iShkyo

Winning design for victims of communism memorial features 100 million ‘memory squares’

Kupusta.jpg

[Ottowa, Canada]

The memorial will be built on a prime 5,000-square-metre site along Confederation Boulevard between the Supreme Court of Canada and Library and Archives Canada. It will feature one hundred million fingertip-sized “memory squares,” each representing a life lost to Communist regimes worldwide.

The memory squares will be embedded in a series of ascending folded concrete rows, rising 14.5 metres at their highest point. Visitors will be able to walk among the rows and touch the memory squares to “viscerally experience the overwhelming scale of the Communist atrocities,” says the winning team’s statement of design intent.

At Thursday’s announcement, Kapusta referenced Josef Stalin’s infamous statement that “one death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.”

“We set out in our design to visualize this statistic,” said Kapusta, whose brother was killed by authorities in Poland during martial law in 1983.

The memorial also features a central plaza, where an image of a victim of Communism — the details are yet to be worked out — will greet visitors.

“Suddenly, the abstract singular lost lives will be transformed into a documentary still image of communist atrocities,” Kapusta said. “Their lives will not be lost in vain; they will convey the historical truth of their suffering.”

The cost of the memorial is about $5.5 million, said Heritage Minister Shelly Glover, though that’s likely to change. “That’s the approximate now,” she said. “As we move forward, we’ll have a more final number.”

The government initially pledged $1.5 million to support the project. It has since doubled its financial contribution to $3 million and donated the land, valued at about $1 million.

The rest of the cost will be covered by Tribute to Liberty, the non-profit organization formed in 2008 to advocate for the memorial.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/winning-design-for-victims-of-communism-memorial-features-100-million-memory-squares