Posted on

Russia-gate V 2.0: “Ukraine-gate”

On August 12 a supposed whistleblower (we don’t know this person’s identity yet) leaked information about a phone call between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president Zelensky, with the former asking Zelensky to investigate matters in relation to Joe Biden, Biden’s son and the DNC before and during the 2016 presidential campaign. The accusation is that Trump pressured Zelensky ‘mafioso style’ to do so in order to gain enough dirt on Biden to scuttle his 2020 campaign. There is a further accusation that the White House tried to cover it up. We are told by Trump detractors that this is the one, the ‘smoking gun’, the thing we have been waiting for, that will finally bring an end to the Trump presidency. So, here we go again in the US, with yet another attempt to remove Trump from office. Continue reading “Russia-gate V 2.0: “Ukraine-gate””

Posted on

The fractious state of Ukraine

Following on from the previous post it would probably be useful to look at Ukraine in  more detail, given what is taking place there, and what we might expect there in the near future. There are also the issues of Western meddling in that country, bad government within Ukraine, the neo-liberalization of Ukraine under Western direction, neo-Nazism, religious schisms and the fractious and fraught relations it has with its neighbors and internally. Ukraine is not a happy place, not where you might want to take your significant other for a vacation at the moment. Continue reading “The fractious state of Ukraine”

Posted on

The Sea of Azov incident and Poroshenko’s gamble

As you may have heard, there was an incident on the Black Sea near the entrance to the Sea of Azov on the morning of 25 November between three Ukrainian military vessels and the Russian coast guard. No one was killed, and only three Ukrainian sailors slightly injured. The incident took place beginning at 6:10 am Kerch time and went on for most of the day. It started when the three Ukrainian vessels – two naval artillery boats and a naval tugboat – left Odessa headed for Mariupol, entered Russian territorial waters without following agreed protocol and regulations and proceeded to attempt to enter the Kerch Strait, over which the new Russian Kerch Strait bridge now crosses. The Russians are quite protective of their new bridge. Continue reading “The Sea of Azov incident and Poroshenko’s gamble”