For decades a strong Ukrainian-American diaspora has been exploited by NGOs and U.S. government agencies (USAID) to intervene in the Ukraine. The Orange Revolution of 2004 has been well covered. Due to established corruption, all US supported candidates proved to be just as corrupt as their predecessors. Under the Obama administration the U.S. in collusion with the EU and NATO succeeded to overtrhow a democratically elected president.

The Ukraine Affair has been used by anti-Russian forces in right-wing conservative groups and political parties in the UK and the U.S. to force an economic separation with Russia. Ukraine to be used as a crowbar to push the EU and NATO to the border with the Kremlin and in the end to accomplish regime change in Russia. A “united” Europe has been split with Rumsfeld’s New Europe of the Visegrád group of nations.

In 2016 both Ukraine and Russia were active to intervene in the U.S. presidential election. Conveniently the efforts by the Ukraine got no attention in the West. Nevertheless, the acts by the corrupt state of Ukraine effects the stability of Europe and its security. The intervention in the Ukraine is and will become a matter of war or peace in Europe. Fortunately with Brexit, the British shot themselves in the foot and will become more isolationist quite similar for the U.S. with Trump in the White House. Both events are tied together by  underlying right-wing conservative forces. It amazes me that the Democratic party is moving towards the right on foreign policy and further from progressive values of non-military intervention and abiding by International Law.

Quite likely now that the U.S. House of Representatives has moved the goal posts on sanctions on Russia by an overwhelming majority – read with no opposition whatsover by a dictatorial vote of 419 for and 3 against.

    Voting against the measure were three House Republicans known to break with the majority: Reps. Thomas Massie, Justin Amash and John J. Duncan Jr.

    The sanctions come in response to reports of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential elections and Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Crimea and Syria, Hoyer said. The bill also imposes new sanctions over Iran’s ballistic missile program.

It has become clear the sanctions have become part of U.S. monopolizing the energy market and demanding their share of exports to Europe. Thus, whether it was the Persian coup d’état of 1953, the Iraq War of 2003 or the regime overthrow in Libya and Syria in 2011, the value of fossil fuel is an important argument of U.S. and Western foreign policy.

○ Refreshing European Energy Security Policy: How the U.S. Can Help | Brookings Inst. – March 2014 |
○ Nord Stream 2’s opponents look for legal ammunition | Politico EU – Dec. 30, 2015 |

Continued below the fold …
[Some links added to articles below are mine – Oui]

Ukraine Goes On Anti-Russia Pipeline Offensive As Europe Goes Nuts | Forbes – June 20, 2017 |

On June 14, the Senate passed a bill by a margin of 97 to 2 in favor of extra-territorial sanctions on Russian oil and gas. That means the Senate wants to give the President powers to punish companies doing certain types of business with sanctioned Russian firms outside of Russia instead of only those inside of Russia. Nord Stream II is on the hit list.

Five days later, Naftogaz [pdf] gave a hint to its lobbying efforts in the E.U. against Nord Stream. They said in a note that the European Commission “should use its mandate as a guardian of the interests of the European consumers and insist on the application of the Third Energy Package to the Nord Stream II project.”

Europe’s so-called Third Energy Package was adopted in 2009 to promote investments in energy infrastructure like liquefied natural gas terminals and alternatives to fossil fuels. The goal was not to punish Russia — which accounts for 30% of Europe’s natural gas –but to avoid local energy monopolies in the European Union. The idea was to break up the power generators from the transmission and delivery firms, of which Gazprom sits squarely on the Nord Stream line. Although it partners with Engie of France, Shell Oil and Whiteshall of Germany to name a few, the gas is all Russian.

In Ukraine, the gas is also primarily Russian, but the transit lines belong to Naftogaz and Ukraine. Ukraine is the traditional route into Europe for Russian natural gas. There are four major pipeline arteries going through Ukraine. They connect mainly to old Warsaw Pact nations like Poland and Bulgaria.

“This legal framework shall ensure proper regulatory and anti-trust safeguards against market manipulations and abuse of dominance,” Naftogaz said in a statement in a nod to Russia’s dominance as sole supplier via those pipelines.

US ‘will become one of the world’s top gas exporters by 2020’ | The Guardian – July 13, 2017 |

A New York Times article written by James Risen on Dec. 8, 2015:

○ Hunter Biden’s Fracking Job in Ukraine for Oligarch Zlochevsky Accused of Money Laundering

Before bill passed the House vote, the deliberations …

House punishes Russia, blocks Trump from waiving sanctions |Politico EU |

The U.S. Senate is on the verge of a bipartisan deal to strengthen sanctions against Russia — throwing an elbow at President Donald Trump, who has dismissed Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 election.

Their biggest stumbling block is how hard a punch to throw at Russia.

Democrats are pushing a harsh plan to let Congress block Trump from easing up current sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s government. But tying Trump’s hands on Russia may be too much of a rebuke for Republicans who have been loath to criticize the president even as he slams investigations into Russian electoral interference that threaten to derail their shared agenda.

A successful vote to punish Moscow would give a key win to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a longtime Russia hawk who telegraphed his interest in a deal when he agreed to combine the issue with an Iran sanctions bill teed up for passage this week. If negotiators can’t agree on a strong Russia sanctions package, however, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has warned that Democrats would defect from an Iran bill that most of them otherwise support.

“Any member of the Congress who doesn’t want to punish Russia for what they have done is betraying democracy,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday. “And if the president doesn’t sign the bill to punish Russia, he would be betraying democracy.”

Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker last week predicted the Senate is “going to end up with something really, really strong on Russia that can be supported in a very bipartisan way,” adding that “we understand all of the itches that are trying to be scratched” by senators furious about Russian cyberattacks during last year’s presidential election.

Corker also acknowledged to reporters that Trump’s administration, and any other, “obviously would not” want to see Congress force a legislative review of changes to Russia sanctions. Yet lawmakers set a precedent of sorts in 2015 when they forced then-President Barack Obama to submit his Iran nuclear deal for their eventual disapproval, the Tennessee Republican added.

The White House’s role in the Russia sanctions talks appears to lie in the eye of the beholder. Corker said Trump’s team has not gotten involved. One Democratic source described the administration as a “silent participant” in negotiations that include both parties’ leadership as well as senior Foreign Relations and Banking Committee members.

The struggle between U.S. Congress and presidential powers under Obama about the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 …

○ Stop Raising Unrealistic Expectations by BooMan on  

    Conservatives continually press the Republican leadership to fight battles that they cannot win. This is a natural instinct, and many progressives continually urged President Obama to fight harder for things that would never happen or encouraged him to pursue things that would amount to Pyrrhic victories, at best. However, perhaps even to a fault, the president almost never wages a fight he knows he cannot win.

    What Buchanan is doing is petitioning Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to use the nuclear option to allow debate and a vote on disapproving the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran. But, even if McConnell agreed to make this change in the Senate rules, the president would just veto the bill, the nuclear deal would go on as planned, and the conservative base would taste another defeat.

On Russia, the Democrats are laying their heads to rest on the laps of Republicans and conservative America. What a disgrace!

Next diary will cover …

Ukrainian influence: DNC, CrowdStrike, Clinton, Chalupa sisters and its aftermath  

Now published:

○ Biden’s Ukrainian Oligarchs and Corruption

 

Truth or Consequences! Or just more disinformation, lies and fake news?