Story at-a-glance
- For years, Ukraine was recognized as one of the most, if not “the” most, corrupt nation in Europe. It held on to that reputation all the way up to the day Russia invaded it, at which point media worldwide suddenly started rewriting history
- A few days after firing several top officials, Zelensky also issued a blacklist of American “pro-Russian propagandists,” which includes Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and independent journalist Glenn Greenwald
- After receiving billions of dollars from American taxpayers, Zelensky now wants to silence American politicians and journalists who question government’s use of funds and America’s continued involvement in the Ukraine conflict — a move that raises questions about Ukraine being a bastion of democracy and freedom
- U.S. aid to Ukraine may be a corrupt scheme to steal taxpayer funds, launder the money through Ukraine, and then funnel the money back into the hands of the transnational security elite
- Another angle that can help explain U.S. support of Ukraine’s authoritarian regime is that we have a number of biolabs in Ukraine, the purposes of which the U.S. government is keen to obscure. Russia claims it will release a comprehensive report before U.S. midterms detailing how top Democrats facilitated illegal biowarfare research in Ukraine, in collaboration with Big Pharma, which in turn funneled massive campaign contributions back to Democrats
For years, Ukraine was recognized as one of the most, if not “the” most, corrupt nation in Europe. It held on to that reputation all the way up to the day Russia invaded, at which point media worldwide suddenly started rewriting history.
Whitewashing Ukraine’s Corruption and Authoritarianism
As noted by Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, in a sober and clear-eyed article, published in April 2022:1
“Statements from U.S. and other Western officials, as well as pervasive accounts in the news media, have created a stunningly misleading image of Ukraine. There has been a concerted effort to portray the country not only as a victim of brutal Russian aggression, but as a plucky and noble bulwark of freedom and democracy …
The promoters of that narrative contend that the ongoing war is not just a quarrel between Russia and Ukraine over Kiev’s ambitions to join NATO and Moscow’s territorial claims in Crimea and the Donbas. No, they insist — the war is part of a global struggle between democracy and authoritarianism …
The notion that Ukraine was such an appealing democratic model in Eastern Europe that the country’s mere existence terrified Putin may be a comforting myth to U.S. politicians and pundits, but it is a myth. Ukraine is far from being a democratic-capitalist model …
The reality is murkier and troubling: Ukraine has long been one of the more corrupt countries in the international system … Ukraine’s track record of protecting democracy and civil liberties is not much better than its performance on corruption. In Freedom House’s 2022 report,2 Ukraine is listed in the ‘partly free’ category, with a score of 61 out of a possible 100 …
Even before the war erupted, there were ugly examples of authoritarianism in Ukraine’s political governance … The neo-Nazi Azov Battalion was an integral part of President Petro Poroshenko’s military and security apparatus, and it has retained that role during Zelensky’s presidency …
[O]ne can condemn Putin’s actions and even cheer on Ukraine’s military resistance without fostering a false image of Ukraine’s political system. The country is not a symbol of freedom and liberal democracy, and the war is not an existential struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. At best, Ukraine is a corrupt, quasi-democratic entity with troubling repressive policies.
Given that sobering reality, calls for Americans to ‘stand with Ukraine’ are misplaced. Preserving Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity most certainly are not worth the United States risking war with a nuclear-armed Russia.”
Media ‘Rediscovers’ Ukraine’s Corrupt Past
Given how mainstream media have been fawning over Zelensky, picturing him as a fierce fighter for democracy, it was surprising to see The Associated Press and NPR suddenly revisiting Ukraine’s history of corruption. A July 20, 2022, article, originally published by AP and republished by NPR, states:3
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dismissal of senior officials is casting an inconvenient light on an issue that the Biden administration has largely ignored since the outbreak of war with Russia: Ukraine’s history of rampant corruption and shaky governance.
As it presses ahead with providing tens of billions of dollars in military, economic and direct financial support aid to Ukraine and encourages its allies to do the same, the Biden administration is now once again grappling with longstanding worries about Ukraine’s suitability as a recipient of massive infusions of American aid.”
The sudden critique comes on the heels of Zelensky’s firing of his top prosecutor, his intelligence chief and several other senior officials, claiming they are spies or collaborators with Russia.
Zelensky has also dragged his feet when it comes to assigning a new anti-corruption prosecutor, something that should have occurred last December, and which, according to the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, “undermines the work of anti-corruption agencies.”
Zelensky Blacklists Americans After Getting Millions From Taxpayers
A few days after firing his top officials, Zelensky’s Center for Countering Disinformation — established in 2021 — also issued a blacklist of American “pro-Russian propagandists,” which includes Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, independent journalist Glenn Greenwald, retired Col. Douglas Macgregor and University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer.4
As noted by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, “Now the Ukrainian government has decided that they can impose censorship in our country.” Carlson questioned how President Biden can possibly claim that we’re “defending democracy” by sending millions of American taxpayer dollars to Ukraine.
This is being done while Zelensky bans all opposition parties — 11 in all — and blacklists American politicians and journalists who question the use of U.S. taxpayer funds and our involvement in the Ukraine conflict.5 It rather appears we’re aiding authoritarianism, doesn’t it? Greenwald, who appeared on Carlson’s show to discuss the blacklisting stated:6
“The Ukrainians have a conflict with this neighboring country in Russia. They’re totally free to pursue whatever war policies they want. They can fight Russia in the next 10 years if they choose. But that’s not what they’re doing.
They’re begging and in a sense, demanding that other countries, including my own, the United States, provide them with a seemingly endless supply of weapons and money, which means we not only have the right, but the obligation to debate that and ask whether that’s in the interest of the American people to do.”
Ukraine Is No Defender of Democracy
In the video at the top of this article, I’ve included three episodes of “The Jimmy Dore Show” in which Dore discusses this and other news surrounding the Ukraine war. In the first segment, he reviews past news articles discussing Ukraine’s corruption. Repeatedly, in 2014, 2015 and beyond, Ukraine was declared the most corrupt country in Europe.
In the second segment, Dore reviews how Zelensky was supposed to clean out corruption and usher in a new era of good governance. That didn’t happen though.
The Panama Papers7,8 — described as “a giant leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records [which] exposes a system that enables crime, corruption and wrongdoing” — have revealed Zelensky, his wife and several associates own “hidden offshore assets,” raising suspicions that Zelensky may be just as corrupt as his forerunners.
The third Dore Show segment reviews Ukraines’ blacklist of pro-Russian journalists, which, as mentioned, includes Greenwald, Scott Ritter, Jeffrey David Sachs and many others. The beauty of being discredited by mainstream media is that they revealed to you who is actually telling the truth.
What Happens to US Weapons in Ukraine?
One wonders whether the U.S. “aid” to Ukraine might also be a corrupt scheme in and of itself. As admitted by CNN,9 the U.S. government doesn’t know what happens to the billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware and munitions shipped to Ukraine.
The supplies cannot be tracked, and the obvious risk is that the weapons can end up in the hands of militias and terrorists. However, this is “a conscious risk the Biden administration is willing to take,” CNN says. In the meantime, the U.S. and NATO are simply shipping over whatever Zelensky claims he needs. According to CNN:10
“Trucks loaded with pallets of arms provided by the Defense Department are picked up by Ukrainian armed forces — primarily in Poland — and then driven into Ukraine, Kirby said, ‘then it’s up to the Ukrainians to determine where they go and how they’re allocated inside their country.'”
Theft Through Endless Warfare
As noted by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in 2011, the purpose of the Afghan war — the longest war in U.S. history, which lasted from 1999 until 202111 — was not to subjugate Afghanistan. It was to launder money through war.
“The goal was to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax base of the United States, out of the tax bases of the European countries, through Afghanistan, back into the hands of transnational security elite. That is the goal. I.e., the goal is to have an endless war; not a successful war,” Assange said.
Is Ukraine just another repeat of this same scheme? It’s starting to look that way. Rather than sending diplomats and urging Ukraine to negotiate peace, the NATO alliance insists Ukraine fight to the last man, and send weapons and financial aid that quickly vanish into a proverbial black hole.
What’s the Goal in Helping Ukraine?
The problem facing NATO and the U.S. is that people are increasingly becoming aware of the fact that things don’t add up. Why are we involved in this conflict? We’re clearly not defending “democracy”; quite the opposite. We’re aiding and abetting an authoritarian regime — and actual real-world Nazi adherents.
As reported by Jeff Childers, president and founder of the Childers Law firm, in a July 19, 2022 blog post:12
“The Economist ran a story yesterday headlined, ‘Is America Growing Weary of the Long War In Ukraine?’ Well. I was immediately suspicious, because the Ukraine war hasn’t been that long …
Late in the article, the Economist put its tobacco-stained finger right on the squidge that marks the real problem: ‘Mr. Biden’s aim in the war is unclear. His administration has stopped talking about helping Ukraine to ‘win,’ and instead speaks of preventing it from being defeated.’
That’s the problem, all right. What IS the goal, Joe? If it’s ‘winning,’ what does that even look like and how do we get there? … It seems the pro-war Ukrainians want the U.S. to just skip the messy middle and jump right into direct war with the Russians, to teach them a lesson or something.
But the Russians have nuclear missiles and doomsday submarines and even nuclear torpoedos for goodness’ sake. A fully-kinetic global war won’t help the Ukrainians, at all. Probably just the opposite. It’s magical thinking.”
The Rise of Totalitarianism in America
The U.S. support of an authoritarian regime like Ukraine is perhaps best explained by the realization that the U.S. itself has shifted in that direction. According to American philosopher, social critic and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky,13 who appeared on Russell Brand’s podcast in July 2022, the U.S. is “living under a kind of totalitarian culture, which has never existed in my lifetime and is much worse in many ways than the Soviet Union before (Mikhail) Gorbachev.”
The cause for this cultural change, Chomsky believes, can be traced back to the censorship of global news. Basically, most Americans live in an echo chamber, where there’s no diversity of views, especially not from perceived adversaries:
“If today in the United States, you want to find out what Minister (Sergey) Lavrov of Russia is saying, you can’t do it. It’s barred. Americans are not permitted to hear what Russians are saying,” Chomsky told Brand. “Can’t get Russian television, can’t access Russian sources …
You wanna find out what the adversaries are saying, which is of utmost importance … But the United States has imposed constraints on freedom of access information, which are astonishing and which in fact go beyond what was the case in post (Joseph) Stalin and Soviet Russia.”
The Biolab Angle
Another angle that can help explain the U.S. support of a clearly authoritarian and anti-democratic regime is the fact that we have a number of biolabs in Ukraine, the purposes of which the U.S. government is keen to obscure. Childers addresses this as well:14
“The next story may possibly be the most significant news I’ve ever reported, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating. The news is that Deputy Chairwoman of the Russian State Duma (congress) Irina Yarovaya gave an update yesterday on Russia’s official investigation into US Biolabs in Ukraine.
What the Russians are saying isn’t pretty. And they claim to have a mountain of evidence. So far, the U.S. has not deigned to respond to any of the deadly serious allegations.
Remember that back in May, the Russians presented evidence to the U.N. Security Council arguing that the U.S. had been performing illegal bioweapons development — AND TESTING — in Ukraine, including accusing the last three Democrat administrations of working with George Soros, Bill Gates, and big pharma to break treaties, develop illegal weapons technology, release bioweapons into Ukraine, test the weapons on soldiers and mental patients, and — most significantly — infect the Russian people and crops …
A remarkable diagram shows all the alleged players that goes far beyond those named above, and includes Pfizer, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others.
The Russians accused the top Democrats of facilitating the illegal research for military purposes in league with big pharma, which was brought in whenever there were tests or leaks, to develop lucrative treatments for the new diseases.
In return, argued the Russians, big pharma funneled massive campaign contributions back to Democrats, making a sinister and demonic viral feedback loop.”
According to Yarovaya, the key masterminds of this conspiracy include the U.S. Democratic party, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and George Soros. The U.S. government, meanwhile, has done nothing to counter these Russian allegations, other than dismiss them as “Russian misinformation” unworthy of so much as a reply.
Childers suspects Biden’s attempt to set up a Disinformation Governance Board might even have been an “effort to screw an even tighter lid” on the biolabs story, seeing how Nina Jankowicz, selected to lead the board, previously worked for Zelensky himself. She also worked for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.15
Russian Report to Drop Before the US Midterms
According to Yarovaya, the Russian government intends to release a comprehensive report about the U.S. biolabs in Ukraine sometime before the U.S. midterm elections. In her July 18, 2022, status update to the Russian legislature, she stated:16
“As evidence today, the parliamentary commission may already present the facts that bio laboratories supervised by the Pentagon on the territory of Ukraine did not meet safety criteria. In the current mode of their activity, they posed and pose a colossal threat for citizens of Ukraine and for the whole world.
The facility was not only insecure. Despite the fact that they were working with dangerous viruses and pathogens, there was also a leak. It is quite likely that this explains the growth of epidemics in Ukraine.
But most likely, those who created these laboratories were interested in ensuring [they] were not adequately protected, not only for corruption, but also in order to carry out a live experiment; in this way, to monitor what the reaction from the population would be, what the mortality rate would be, what the consequences would be.”
Russians Accuse US of Intentional Negligence
To be clear, the Russians are accusing the U.S. of intentional negligence, which is no small matter. As noted by Childers, the same thing appears to have happened in Wuhan.
From 2018 onward, the U.S. State Department issued reports in which investigators warned the lab was poorly run and primed for an accident. Fast-forward to late 2019, and SARS-CoV-2 mysteriously emerged right in the vicinity of that same lab.
Now, any official that admits COVID was or might be the result of a lab leak is also careful to say that it must have been an accident. But if a lab is intentionally negligent, is a subsequent leak really accidental?
The point the Russians seem to make is that it’s not accidental at all. However, intentional neglect allows the responsible party to pretend that an intentional release was accidental. That way, they’re not guilty of a crime. But that’s not all. Childers continues:17
“The Russians also alleged that the U.S. culprits are hiding behind ‘animal research;’ further concealing their guilt by genetically grafting human infection capabilities onto existing animal viruses, so they can claim natural origins for the newly-developed bugs. Like with COVID. Or monkeypox …
Yarovaya said the result of all this intentional negligence has been ‘unforeseen situations all over the world.’ She fingered the U.S. for the novel monkeypox outbreak. ‘Everything related to coronavirus, monkey pox, should be searched in the test tubes of American laboratories,’ she said.
By a totally random coincidence, the very same Wuhan Institute of Virology where COVID was developed was also experimenting with monkeypox … Because the Russians are naming specific individuals, it is starting to look like the Russians plan to launch a Nuremberg-style international criminal complaint along the lines that so many Americans have been wishing for.”
‘Game of Nuclear Chicken’
If Childers suspicion that the Russians are planning a Nuremberg-style complaint, it’s no wonder the U.S. government is trying to keep a lid on the accusations, even at the risk of having their silence appear incriminating in and of itself.
Childers also believes China may join with Russia in this effort, as Russia’s justification for invading Ukraine to take down dangerous biolabs would also “create a neat justification for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.” As it turns out, Taiwan is home to a staggering 1,251 biolabs that serve “medical, agricultural, food and environmental needs.”
At least 31 of those labs work with “virology, bacteriology, parasitology, mycology and vector biology,” and one, a biosecurity level 4 (BSL4) lab in northern Taiwan belongs to the military. So, China could easily justify an invasion of Taiwan by saying there are unsecured biowarfare facilities there.
“All these allegations — completely ignored by corporate media — are incredibly serious,” Childers notes.18 “The Russians are accusing the U.S. of a biological weapons of mass destruction attack. It has long been the official policy of the U.S. that a bioweapons attack is equivalent to a nuclear attack, and would justify a nuclear response.
It doesn’t matter whether they’re right. The Russians appear to believe they are legally justified in retaliating against the U.S. using weapons of mass destruction. And they’re building the case using a lot of shady stuff that the U.S. and its deep-state corporate allies have been up to.
It sure would be a good time for the U.S. government to speak up and get totally transparent about the legitimate purpose behind all these labs. Assuming there IS a legitimate purpose.
But perpetrators, whoever they are, would almost certainly risk nuclear war to protect their secrets if only half of what the Russians are saying is true. So, wittingly or not, we are all involved in a deadly game of nuclear chicken. And our driver is Joe Biden.”
Is There a Way Out?
In an interview with Lex Friedman, filmmaker Oliver Stone discussed the history of corruption in Ukraine — detailed in his film “Ukraine on Fire” — the propaganda surrounding the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, and his understanding of why Russia is acting the way it is.
At the end of that interview, Friedman asked Stone whether he thinks we can walk back from the brink of nuclear war. Stone replied:
“Yes, [through] reason … and then diplomacy. Talk to the guy. Mr. Biden, why don’t you calm down and go talk to Mr. Putin in Moscow. And try to have a discussion without falling into ideologies.”
Assuming the U.S. government in general and Biden in particular are not embroiled in criminal biowarfare activity in Ukraine, then Stone’s suggestion is reasonable. However, if their actions are based on a need to protect a dirty secret (or two), then diplomacy wouldn’t even be on the menu of options.
Russia would probably want its pound of flesh. They would want justice to be settled, which in the case of illegal biowarfare manufacturing could include the lifelong incarceration of certain individuals. Seeing how Biden is on Russia’s list of “key mastermind conspirators,” it seems reasonable to assume he wouldn’t easily be let off the hook.
And that brings us right back to Childers’ prediction, which is that the perpetrators “would almost certainly risk nuclear war to protect their secrets if only half of what the Russians are saying is true.”
So, while World War III has so far been an information war waged against the public, nuclear war between nations is still a possibility — thanks to corruption at the highest levels, which prevents diplomatic solutions.
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“Because, Master Bruce, some people just want to watch the world burn.”
“Did they ever catch that thief, Alfred?”
“Yes sir. Eventually.”
“How did they do it?”
“They burned the forest down.”
The entire Ukraine narrative we hear from the leftist media and political elites in the US is all BULL SHIT and LIES to cover up a money laundering scheme and DARPA defense and state department funded biowarfare labs and the Ukrainian NAZI military faction murdering over 14,000 ethnic Russians in regions of Ukraine pre USSR break up !
The US & Ukraine Government are not the good guys in this propagandized shit show .
The bad actors would have been put in check and neutered if Trump were In Charge and a peaceful end agreement reached with Putin and Russian government .
But NO We have CIA coverups and big paydays for the BIDENS and so here we are billions in the hole while leftist parasitic cats in elected , appointed and hired scurry about in Washington DC covering up each other’s shit while cashing in personally !
Soon the military hardware left behind in Afghanistan will be biting us in the ass along with China’s dragon teeth .
Look how fucked up these BIDEN OBAMANISTAS have managed to do to everything they touch in 18 months WTF
“Russia claims it will release a comprehensive report before U.S. midterms detailing how top Democrats facilitated illegal biowarfare research in Ukraine, in collaboration with Big Pharma, which in turn funneled massive campaign contributions back to Democrats”
I have heard these fantastical claims in the past but when I hear they are delaying the announcement, and getting me to think they are waiting for the perfect time, that perfect time never seems to arrive. If they had something and it was all too provable and verifiable, they would announce it now. Otherwise this was an amazing article. It’s like the old days when news was actually reported.
This is simply the nice buildup to Russian real-politik successfully removing western sanctions and getting their stolen foreign currency reserves returned. Sorry. On the information warfare front, all nation-states beat concessions out of their opponents via intelligence gathering. Were we plebes to receive the information, that would lower its maximal value, as it can be easily assumed we lack the principled populist leadership and spirit of personal sacrifice to successfully revolt against a corrupt status quo and replace it with something better.
Brief examples; Iran who reliably hates the US, always kept quiet concerning Bush-Reagan’s Iran-Contra schemes brokered by Israel. And China knew greedy globalist were selling out US manufacturing engineering and middle-class jobs. One would think Communist would care about the workers of the world, nah, keep a lid on it. The narratives shaping history, simply polished lies that 99% of puppet-masters profitably agree. In Putin’s case, pragmatism may help Russia to survive being the last holdout against hegemonic power.
Side note: I’ve heard a mind-boggling 3 million people in the US hold security clearances. This indentured nullification of natural rights removes the holder’s ability to put forward politically valuable information (ex. status of POWs, results of medical trials, or 2 decade blackout of GWOT nation building) as well as any fraud, waste, abuse, and illegal activity of “govt agencies”. The taxpayers (and their debt-saddled grandchildren) who subsidize it all, are to be kept in a state of confusion and as far from grasping “true facts” as possible. Lack of transparency in agendas and outcomes is possible in a Republic, but not a direct democracy.
As noted by Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, in a sober and clear-eyed article, published in April 2022 [1]
[1] https://www.cato.org/commentary/whitewashing-ukraines-corruption#
That’s Walt’s good deed for the day.
“Biden” (all government, MIC, media whores) absolutely positively know that Country 404 has already lost the war …. no matter what they say in public.
What you are seeing is The “Biden” preparing the American people — who they lie to and fuck over daily — for abandoning the Ukies;
——- “Hey folks, we did our best to help Ukraine (thanks for all your tax dollars) BUT … Ukraine fucked up, not us!! We are as surprised as you to find out that they are really quite …. corrupt.”
When will this be publicly acknowledged? When Donbass is fully liberated … which should be sometime this month. I also suspect Piano Dick Player will be dead before winter.
You should do a QOTD entitled “Who will be dead first?”
A. Piano Dick Player
B. Xio Buydung
C. Wiley E. Coyote
The situation in 404 is getting worse by the hour.
=====================
“There is an report on Ukraine making the rounds that was allegedly written by the higher command of the Ukrainian army and leaked from somewhere. There are some pictures of documents written in cyrillic script attached to the above tweet. The documents look legit.”
—
Dr.Snekotron @snekotron – 12:50 UTC · Aug 5, 2022
Ukrainian channels are discussing what might be a leaked data from AFU General Staff:
– The AFU are only at 43-48% strength
– medical workers at their limit
– small arms and armor are not enough
– 191 thousand soldiers were killed and wounded (only AFU, not including others)
– there is not enough hydraulics and liquid nitrogen for M777 howitzers
– no one cares about the missing – there are no statistics
– the equipment transferred by the West is running out
– western weapons are operated by amateurs, since there are no qualified specialists
– no way to repair weapons on the spot due to the lack of spares and specialists – everything is sent to Poland
BTW, even with this dire report, I would caution against predicting a decisive break in morale. As with Peski, the walking wounded are sent straight back into the trenches
.
.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/08/ukraine-sitrep-casualties-leak-ukraine-admits-russian-breakthrough-southern-front-paralysis.html#more
“The Dore Show reviews Ukraines’ blacklist of ‘pro-Russian journalists’, which includes Greenwald, Scott Ritter, Jeffrey D. Sachs and many others. The beauty of being discredited by mainstream media is that they reveal to you who is actually telling the truth…”
Wrong! Jeffrey Sachs is an economist, a lifetime member of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and director of the “Center for Sustainable Development” at the Columbia Earth Institute, a joint program with nearby Rockefeller University and the U.N.
Speaking of the “theft of billions” under false pretenses, Sachs and fellow CFR member Larry Summers were instrumental in the looting of Russia during the 1990s. See “The Harvard Boys Do Russia” https://www.thenation.com/article/world/harvard-boys-do-russia/
CFR members on the “Biden team” include the secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, Commerce and Homeland Security. Also the CIA director, Fed chairman, UN ambassador, and dozens more.
Great article. Thank you for all of your hard work on this.