13/14 July 2014

World Cup final, air strikes and military siege in Gaza, the world's attention is elsewhere while the acts of war have intensified in occupied territories held by separatists in eastern Ukraine. Heavy weapons are on the rise, planes are shut down and numbers of victims are continuing to rise. Poroshenko continues a military offensive against the pro-Russian groups, however the evidence of more tanks, arms and air strikes coming from Russian territory is mounting. It seems such old news to comment on the Russian media continuing to portray the Ukrainian government as a 'fascist junta'. But they continue to blame every death, every explosion, every crisis in the east on Ukraine. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov invited the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to send observers to monitor two of its Russian-Ukrainian border crossings - Gukovo and Donetsk: "In connection to the worsening situation in the region where Kyiv is carrying out its military operation in the southeast of Ukraine, the Russian side, in the order of goodwill and without waiting for a ceasefire is inviting OSCE observers to check points...on the Russian-Ukrainian border." Goodwill. 

It's horrifying, chilling and sinister, how the Russian government can continue claiming or portraying such innocence. 

Emerging from a less-than-triumphant World Cup, Brazil announced Monday that it was planning to purchase air defense systems from Russia and also cooperate in the field of nuclear energy. Putin has called on BRICS countries to develop countermeasures against US sanctions policy. Dilma Rousseff, the President of Brazil, announced that her country was interested in purchasing Russian air defense systems and cooperating with Russia in the field of nuclear energy, after meeting in Brasilia with Putin: 'We stress the importance of cooperation in the sphere of defense and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. We cannot allow our country to be dependent on others in the field of economy and technology in the middle of the 21st century.' 

People's opposition to France's Mistral deal with Russia is growing. The deal, worth 1.2 billion Euros, was set in 2011 and is for France to supply Russia with two Mistral-class warships with amphibious assault capacities.  Monday July 14, Bastille Day, the Ukrainian community of London, and groups in other cities around Europe, held a demonstration at the French embassy in London to denounce the decision by France to sell two Mistral class warships to Russia.

And yet France's warship deal is but one of MANY ways Russia is building its strength and economic alliances. Brazil's latest announcement may not receive the same attention as the Mistral deal, but purchasing air space and nuclear energy deals may be even more gross and needs to be resisted. Yet what power lies with the small acts of resistance, pieces of journalism and editorial comments, and street demonstrations?

Let us not forgot Maidan. 

A good article by Thomas C. Theiner to remind us of why people rose up in Maidan in Novermber of 2013, against corruption, lawlessness, mafia rule and the threat of dictatorship. Yanukovych's corruption extended to all facets of Ukrainian economic, social and political life. For the people to rise and ride the country of this regime is what Putin fears most will happen on his turf in Russia.