Lawyer and ex-KGB officer, Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, has pulled together the countries of the Russian Federation after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1979 -1980. He has helped them regain their prosperity. After the fall of Communism, Russia was in the mud, weak and anyone could pick its pockets. Since then it has been a hard and difficult road to climb; but now, Russia and these mid-Asian republics are experiencing some economic prosperity and development.

This rising of the Phoenix or correctly the Duran, the two-headed eagle, has caused abject hostility and hatred in members of both the Democrats and Republican parties in the US. You can only call it irrational, but it is a mass psychosis. The State Department has Nazis who are driven by a hatred of Russia. A certain CIA top officer calls Russians subhuman! This is not rational. Why is this? What has caused this paranoia to take hold of large areas of the US Government, especially those who advise and carry out US international policy?

You must remember that the US Pentagon, the HQ of the US military, needs a constant stream of enemies, in order to ensure a constant stream of funding for itself, and give uninterrupted work for its powerful defence industry. (Once skilled craftsmen and engineers with specialist knowhow are laid off, they are lost, weakening the defence contractor company and the industry.) America, as the most powerful country in the world, is obliged to maintain its status. It thinks it is at the highest point of world civilization, the supremely powerful, most advanced civilization the world has ever known. Therefore, it is exceptional, and superior to all others. It is proud of itself and its power.

But Buddhism says that being proud is a serious form of delusion – madness. This madness leads to false views, wrong thinking and bad decisions. This is costly and/or dangerous for all those who get involved with them. Note that these same ideas about themselves were used by the Nazis of Germany, at that time to justify the Aryan white master race’s desire to conquer and rule the world. Therefore, a mass psychosis, irrationality arose then, and the same psychosis has arisen in America and Europe again, today.

Putin’s crime has been to strengthen the Russian Federation and by doing that, he has unavoidably created a power centre, not under the control of America which is the supreme world power. This is the new enemy the Pentagon needed, irrational as it seems. And together with China and India, these developing, large economies are able to question and challenge US activities around the world. These are most unwelcome developments for the supreme world power and the leader of the free world, who is exceptional, powerful and superior in all its authority.

It is known that recently America wanted to build a military base in Crimea, but Russia, in a very skillful military operation invaded Crimea, to keep it for themselves. They needed it as an outlet for Russia’s shipping to get access to warm-water sea routes. In addition, the people of Crimea are culturally more like Russians than Ukrainians. They are very happy to join Russia and get all the social payments and pensions. This unexpected move has thwarted US plans to have close relations with its Ukrainian ally, and with this association to influence the region. This blocking of US plans has caused US government officials to be very angry.

In addition to US officials’ dislike of growing Russian prosperity, development and power, there is the ‘carry over’ effect of the Russian Hoax. This was a false story or hoax perpetrated on President Donald Trump as soon as he got into office, where false allegations were made and powerful media outlets spouted ant- Trump and anti-Russian damaging stories for four years. They claimed Russia influenced the voting to get Trump into power – all without any evidence. The carry-over from this hoax would add to the bad feelings already held against Russia.

What has been revealed recently is that a considerable proportion of the population of Ukraine – up to 30 percent, support right wing extremism, especially those who live in western Ukraine. Support for this ideology tapers off as you move towards the Russian speaking East. Right wing Ukrainian extremists openly say Russians are inferior due to having been invaded by Mongols, etc., in the past. They also say they want to kill all Russians. These people worship a German Nazi officer, Stephan Bandera, friend of Hitler and who served in the War. At that time there were serious crimes against humanity being committed against Jews in Ukraine, and it was Ukrainians who actively shipped them off to German concentration camps, or massacred them themselves. The area of western Ukraine has some really crazy people. These Nazis of the Ukraine are being used by the US to irritate and undermine Russia.

The US has set up over 30 biological research laboratories doing research into banned, illegal, dangerous biological diseases in Ukraine. Why? Victoria Newland, of the State Department, has acknowledged this as being true. What is the purpose of these? In the Azov Steel Plant, there are extensive underground bunkers. A Canadian General has emerged and is now being questioned by the Russians. There are more US officers underground there, too. Why? What were they doing? Why Generals??

The US will fight Russia up to, and using the last Ukrainian, so the saying goes, as they pull the strings from a distance – from a world apart located on the American continent. The Ukrainian people as a whole are suffering from these plans. With every war in Ukraine it gets geographically smaller, but America does not care for Ukrainians – it cares only for itself.

NATO, as a military alliance for protecting Western Europe, lost its purpose after the fall of Communism. The staff and directors of the organization had to reinvent its purpose, and found one of ever expanding into eastern European countries – and even as far as Central Asia. Everyone warned that this expansion eastwards into Europe would be seen by Russia as a threat to its security and a provocation. Allowing Ukraine to join NATO would mean having ballistic missiles bases installed close to the Russian border, and who could tolerate that?! That was an unacceptable danger for Russia, a red line. Military strategists all around the world knew this NATO expansion would cause a progressive loss of security (or increasing danger) for Russia, and at some point, there would be a counter reaction by Russia.

But still the US carried on with its plans to integrate Ukraine into NATO. NATO acts as a foreign legion for the US around the world. NATO had made promises to Ukraine and Georgia of joining NATO at the Bucharest conference. An insurrection and coup instigated by the US Obama regime occurred in Kiev, Ukraine in February 2016, and the democratically elected president was replaced by a pro American president, surrounded by a team of far-right elements. People of the Donbas region rebelled at this and formed an independent enclave in Ukraine, which the Ukrainian military forces then attacked. Russian speaking Ukrainians were being shot and killed by the Ukrainian army – 13,000 people killed in eight years of shelling. The Ukrainian army were/are using prohibited weapons such as anti-personnel cluster bombs and even white phosphorous bombs – a most horrendous weapon, against the civilian population. Russian police and war crime tribunals are already overwhelmed by many cases. This loss of life went un-reported by the world’s press until Russia finally invaded to save these poor Ukrainian people of the Donbas region. But this action of mercy has been widely condemned around the world. The world’s press, the journalists have double standards, they are not impartial.

Around 2017, France and Germany met in Minsk with Ukrainians to end the killing in the Donbas and settle the problem of the breakaway enclaves peacefully. They set up the Minsk accords. They had met in Minsk and the Ukrainian government signed an agreement to implement these accords. The Ukrainian government was required to stop the shelling and to talk to the leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk enclaves to get a settlement of the problem. But for eight years Ukraine did nothing to implement the agreement, but continued the shelling and recently, even planned to invade and overrun these Russian speaking Ukrainians in the Donbas.

In January 2022 Russia knew it had to act fast before the Ukrainian Army invaded the Donbas. Russia’s plan was first, simply recognize the Donetsk and Lugansk areas as independent territory, and then invade to protect them from the Ukrainian shelling and expected invasion. And they also needed to neutralize the Ukrainian army to prevent it from starting shelling again after the Russians went away. The Ukrainian army in the area was about 60,000 men.

Those were two large military campaigns, in themselves. Russians realized all the towns along the coast of the Azov Sea were a hotbed of Ukraine army intermingled with far-right fighters following Stepan Bandera. This fact obliged them to also invade Mariupol city, because these extreme right units of the Ukrainian army – the Azov brigade — had a stronghold in the Azovstal steel works there. What is shocking is that the CIA, France and Britain had been training these Nazi forces in an effort to counter any Russia invasion. By doing this they would prolong any war and more people would be killed. When Europe sends weapons to the Ukrainian side, this action also prolongs the war and more people on both sides are killed.

In 1945, Russia drove the Nazi forces back into Berlin at a great cost in human lives, and now, in 2022, it wants to de-Nazify Ukraine, because it does not want such an unpleasant enemy right on their doorstep, especially armed by NATO. After this new military incursion of 2022, the Russian forces have listed out their demands necessary to reach a peace deal with the Ukrainian government. This deNazification has become one of Russia’s main demands. Other demands are the official recognition of Crimea as being part of Russian territory; that the Donbas enclaves be independent, and that they allow the Russian language to be used legally and officially in Ukraine.

But as the fighting is prolonged, Russian demands will grow.

Priyantha Hettige