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Russia
fears ethnic cleansing in Ukraine amid rise of neo-Nazism – Putin
RT,
17
November, 2014
Pointing
at some difficulties in implementing the Minsk agreements aimed at
ensuring the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine holds, Putin said the local
militias have one clear reason not to leave the cities they occupy,
which is the fear of reprisals. Moscow has been urging both sides of
the conflict to adhere to the agreements.
“Indeed,
self-defense fighters, for example, were supposed to leave some of
the towns they had surrounded, are yet they haven’t left. Do you
know why not? I will tell you plainly, this is no secret: because the
people fighting against the Ukrainian army say, 'These are our
villages, we come from there. Our families and our loved ones live
there. If we leave, nationalist battalions will come and kill
everyone. We will not leave, you can kill us yourselves.'”
“That
is why we have fears that it may all end up this way. If it happens
it would be a catastrophe for Ukraine and Ukrainian people,” Putin
stressed.
The
Russian leader dismissed the idea that only Russia has the key to
solve the Ukraine crisis, saying that it sounds as if someone is
trying to pass responsibility for the conflict to Moscow.
“You
know, when someone tells us that we have some special opportunities
to solve this or that crisis it always troubles and alarms me...I
always begin to suspect that there is an intention to pass on the
responsibility to us and to make us pay for something. We do not want
that. Ukraine is an independent, free and sovereign state,” Putin
said.
However,
the president hinted at the possibility that Western countries could
actually make a difference in the Ukrainian situation, and persuade
the West-leaning government in Kiev to follow a path of national
dialogue instead of sending tanks to rebel territories.
“There
is just one thing that I always pay attention to. We are told again
and again: pro-Russian separatists must do this and this, you must
influence them in this way, you must act in that way. I have always
asked them: 'What have you done to influence your clients in Kiev?
What have you done? Or do you only support Russophobic
sentiments?'” Putin
said.
He
stressed that supporting Russophobia in Ukraine could result in “real
catastrophe” and
urged to seek a joint solution to the crisis in order to “bring
the positions of the parties closer together.”
Russia
will not let Kiev simply send armed forces to eastern Ukraine
and “annihilate” its
opponents there, Putin stressed, answering a question of a German
journalist.
“The
issue is that we can’t have a one-sided view of the problem. Today
there is fighting in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian central
authorities have sent the armed forces there and they even use
ballistic missiles. Does anybody speak about it? Not a single word.
And what does it mean? What does it tell us? This points to the fact,
that you want the Ukrainian central authorities to annihilate
everyone there, all of their political foes and opponents. Is that
what you want? We certainly don’t. And we won't let it happen.”
Putin
said that those people who consider their cause righteous – like
the anti-government fighters in eastern Ukraine – “will
always get weapons” in
the modern world, including armored vehicles and artillery systems.
Western
politicians and media have been accusing Russia of sending weapons to
the rebels – which Moscow denies – but have provided no hard
evidence of the claim. Initially, the self-defense forces of Donbass
armed themselves with weapons and vehicles seized at military depots
in the region, but they also managed to capture some hardware from
the Ukrainian troops. The Ukrainian army, often severely
underequipped, recently started receiving military aid from several
Western countries.
Putin
stressed that the Minsk treaties securing the ceasefire in eastern
Ukraine only became possible because Russia managed to convince
anti-government fighters to sit down at the negotiation table with
Kiev representatives.
“The
Minsk agreements arose only because Russia became actively involved
in this effort; we worked with the Donbass militias, that is the
fighters from southeast Ukraine, and we convinced them that they
should settle for certain agreements. If we had not done that, it
would simply not have happened,” the
president said.
There
are still problems with the implementation of these agreements, Putin
added, saying that both sides are unwilling to follow some of the
points. Both Kiev and the self-defense forces have failed to leave
some of the towns they were supposed to leave. When confronted about
this fact, however, the militia told Moscow that they are not leaving
due to fear of genocide or the killing of their families, as many
fighters come from the same areas being occupied.
Allegations
of widespread abuses – including abductions, unlawful detention,
ill-treatment, theft, extortion, and possible mass executions at the
hands of pro-Kiev forces – have been reported by several rights
groups, including Amnesty
International.
“When
they say things like that, you know, there is not much that can be
said in response,” Putin
said.
“But
if the central Ukrainian authorities choose not just to determine the
demarcation line, which is very important today in order to stop the
shelling and killing, but if they want to preserve the territorial
integrity of their country, each particular village or town are not
significant; what is important is to immediately stop the bloodshed
and shelling and to create conditions for starting a political
dialogue. That is what is important. If it this is not done, there
will be no political dialogue,” Putin
stressed.
Instead,
however, Kiev seems to have recently amassed new forces around the
rebel-held territories. Russian deputy UN ambassador Aleksandr Pankin
told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that“throughout
the ceasefire period a concentration of Ukrainian troops was observed
almost along the entire front line,” and
there was no withdrawal of heavy weapons in violation of the Minsk
agreements.
“Apparently,
Kiev’s fear of the self-defense forces is so great that it tries to
justify their own failures and massive transfer of personnel and
equipment to the front lines by loudly claiming alleged Russian
weapons and army,” Pankin
said, referring to the most recent allegations of “Russian
tanks in Ukraine.”NATO
last week said it saw several columns of Russian hardware entering
Ukraine, but added that it does not have a “good
picture” supporting
the claims.
The key sentence in Putin's interview with the German TV channel ARD
the Vineyard of the Saker,
17 November, 2014
You can read the full interview here: http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/23253
But the following quote is, I believe, crucial:
Today there is fighting in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian central authorities have sent the armed forces there and they even use ballistic missiles. Does anybody speak about it? Not a single word. And what does it mean? What does it tell us? This points to the fact, that you want the Ukrainian central authorities to annihilate everyone there, all of their political foes and opponents. Is that what you want? We certainly don't. And we won't let it happen.
The Russian original sentence is: Вы этого хотите? Мы не хотим. И не позволим. I personally would translate this sentence "You want that? We don't. And we will not allow this." You could also translate the last part as "we will not permit this". This is not an expression of a preference or a much more vague "we won't condone" or "we oppose". This is a very categorical statement which warns that Russia will proactively prevent such an outcome.
As I said it many times here already: Russia will not let the Nazis overrun Novorussia.
The Saker
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