From the Desert to the Steppe: The Zionist Background to the Russo-Ukrainian War

 


Vladimir Putin, when he assumed Russia’s presidency in 2000, was acknowledged as an unknown quantity in the American press, with Knight-Ridder newspapers running a story on him titled “The President Nobody Knows”. Deeming him a “puzzle”, the article also noted that the former KGB agent had been dubbed “Mr. Nobody” and the “Gray Cardinal”. Despite Putin’s “brutal campaign to seize and occupy Chechnya”, the piece quoted an analyst who suggested that the new president was “not necessarily dangerous for the world.” He had, for instance, expressed an interest in Russia joining NATO, and Bill Clinton had given him a “man-we-can-do-business-with endorsement” [1]. As Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg in 1992, Putin met with a World Economic Forum delegation [2], and he purports to have participated in the WEF’s “Global Leaders for Tomorrow” or “Young Global Leaders” program, though information on this is murky [3]. The Guardian’s Jennifer Rankin also relates:

George Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary who led NATO between 1999 and 2003, said Putin made it clear at their first meeting that he wanted Russia to be part of western Europe. “They wanted to be part of that secure, stable prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time,” he said. […]

The account chimes with what Putin told the late David Frost in a BBC interview shortly before he was first inaugurated as Russian president […] Putin told Frost he would not rule out joining NATO “if and when Russia’s views are taken into account as those of an equal partner”.

He told Frost it was hard for him to visualise NATO as an enemy. “Russia is part of the European culture. And I cannot imagine my own country in isolation from Europe and what we often call the civilised world.” [4]

Even then, however, Clinton’s Jewish secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, expressed misgivings that Russia under Putin might not adhere to its pro-“democracy” stance:

[…] Albright warned in a speech to the World Economic Forum that “economic anxieties” in countries with democratically elected governments were prompting the people to turn to authoritarianism and other failed remedies.

She said life in parts of the former Soviet Union often is tougher for ordinary people than when Communists ruled.

“A majority of citizens in these countries have come to equate democracy with inequality, insecurity and the unraveling of the social fabric,” she said. “We are concerned that in many countries, the arrival of electoral democracy has been accompanied by economic expectations that are, as yet, unfulfilled.” [5]


Albright approached diplomacy with Russia as the didactic and disciplinary work of a schoolteacher faced with recalcitrant students. “The question,” she told
Face the Nation, is whether Putin brings about “order with a small or capital ‘O’”. “None of us would like to see order with a capital ‘O’,” she explained, adding, “We’ve made quite clear to him that the Russian way of proceeding (in Chechnya) is of great concern to us” [6], as was any Russian attempt to usurp the new US role of minder in Eastern Europe. When, in the Autumn of 2000, Russia offered to mediate in the matter of Yugoslavia’s contested presidential election, she insisted that “the Russians should only accept Milosevic’s apparent defeat.” [7]

“He was looking for some kind of strategic relationship with the United States,” Condoleezza Rice recalls of Putin’s attitude toward America early during the George W. Bush administration [8], but subsequent events would convince her that Putin is “a megalomaniac” [9]. Notwithstanding his willingness to work with the United States, Putin’s resistance to problematic Jewish interests and Israeli geopolitical projects would lead to worsening relations during the years of the neocon-dominated Bush White House. Already, in November of 2000 – late in Clinton’s presidency but after Bush’s election – the US State Department threatened sanctions against Russia for its announcement of withdrawal from a 1995 agreement not to sell tanks and other battlefield weapons to Israel’s archenemy Iran [10]. In March of 2002, in the midst of the incipient “War on Terror”, the Pentagon escalated by publicizing its consideration of “options for nuclear strikes on countries that threaten the United States with weapons of mass destruction.” Iraq and North Korea figured prominently in the announcement, but this grouping of targets could be expanded to “also include China, Russia, Iran, Libya and Syria.” Sarah Karush of the Associated Press reported:

Dmitry Rogozin, a leading Russian lawmaker with close ties to the Kremlin, accused Washington of deliberately organizing the leak in order to intimidate Russia at a time of increasing strain in US-Russian ties. Relations, which had improved dramatically after Sept. 11, have recently been marred by trade disputes over a US decision to introduce new steel tariffs and a Russian ban on US poultry. “They’ve brought out a big stick – a nuclear stick that is supposed to scare us and put us in our place,” Rogozin said.

Political analyst Vyacheslav Nikonov suggested the report came at an inauspicious time for Washington, which has recently involved itself in Georgia, Russia’s neighbor to the south. US troops are to arrive there this month to train an anti-terrorist force. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his approval to the US plans, despite initial strong protests from top officials and lawmakers. [11]

“When the US decided to attack Iraq again in 2003 based upon even more flimsy pretexts, Russia under Vladimir Putin would not go along with this second war, and that appears to be one of Putin’s unforgiveable sins,” suggests Dan Kovalik [12]. Putin’s moves against key Jewish oligarchs in Russia during this period further intensified neoconservative hostility. Dutch observer Chris Kaspar de Ploeg points out that “it is notable how much outrage followed the imprisonment of the pro-Western [Jewish] oligarch Khodorkovsky in 2003 – although many argued that it was a selective prosecution, no-one actually doubted the criminal origins of his wealth – compared to the [comparatively mild criticism of the] havoc wreaked on the people of Chechnya.” He continues:

Condemnation of Khodorkovsky’s trial was universal in the West – from the White House, to the president of the European parliament and the German head of state. To prevent a similar fate for Russian [Jewish] oligarch Boris Berezovsky, the UK even granted him political asylum from 2003 onwards. However, before Russia started prosecuting oligarchs, opposed the invasion of Iraq and backed the Syrian regime of Assad – relations had been much warmer. [13]



In 2004-2005, Iran and Russia finalized a deal for the Russians to assist the Islamic Republic with its first nuclear reactor, incurring the expected Bush administration protestations about weapons of mass destruction [14]. This same period, interestingly, witnessed an acceleration of NATO expansion eastward as well as US-fostered subversion in countries neighboring Russia. “Ukraine, traditionally passive in its politics, has been mobilised by the young democracy activists and will never be the same again,” Ian Traynor wrote for The Guardian in November of 2004, acknowledging the heaviness of the American hand in the Orange Revolution:

But while the gains of the orange-bedecked “chestnut revolution” are Ukraine’s, the campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes.

Funded and organised by the US government, deploying US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-government organisations, the campaign was first used in Europe in Belgrade in 2000 to beat Slobodan Milosevic at the ballot box.

Richard Miles, the US ambassador in Belgrade, played a key role. And by last year, as US ambassador in Tbilisi, he repeated the trick in Georgia, coaching Mikhail Saakashvili in how to bring down Eduard Shevardnadze.

Ten months after the success in Belgrade, the US ambassador in Minsk, Michael Kozak, a veteran of similar operations in central America, notably in Nicaragua, organised a near identical campaign to try to defeat the Belarus hardman, Alexander Lukashenko.

That one failed. “There will be no Kostunica in Belarus,” the Belarus president declared, referring to the victory in Belgrade.

But experience gained in Serbia, Georgia and Belarus has been invaluable in plotting to beat the regime of Leonid Kuchma in Kiev.

The operation – engineering democracy through the ballot box and civil disobedience – is now so slick that the methods have matured into a template for winning other people’s elections. [15]

Jennifer Rankin writes in The Guardian:

After the Orange Revolution street protests in Ukraine in 2004, Putin became increasingly suspicious of the west, which he blamed for funding pro-democracy NGOs. He was further angered by NATO’s continuing expansion into central and eastern Europe: Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania chose to join the alliance in 2004; Croatia and Albania followed in 2009. Georgia and Ukraine were promised membership in 2008 but have remained outside. [16]

In July of 2006, in the context of Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Russian government published a list of entities officially recognized as terrorist organizations – notably excluding Hamas and Hezbollah, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov opining that “Hezbollah must have a say in any agreements in the Middle East crisis” [17]. Hezbollah was aided in that conflict, moreover, by its purchases of Russian anti-tank missiles [18]. The previous year, Israel had protested a proposed deal for Russian provision of Igla SA-18 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, fearing that these, too, might end up in the hands of Hezbollah [19]. “The only way you can come into contact with these missiles would be to attack Syria,” Putin reassured the Israelis: “Do you want to do that?” [20] In 2005, Russia had declined to veto threatened UN sanctions for Syria if Syrian troops were not withdrawn from Lebanon [21], but events of the following years would draw Putin and Assad closer together.



Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov acknowledged in 2007 that his nation was providing air defense missile systems to Iran [22], with geopolitical developments that year underscoring the interconnectedness of escalations in Europe and the Middle East, as Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel reported:

Opposition led by Russia forced the Bush administration […] to slow its drive for tighter United Nations sanctions against Iran […]

In another measure of Russia’s increased influence over US foreign policy […] Bush is sending his secretaries of state and defense on a rare joint mission to Moscow to try to persuade the Kremlin to drop its opposition to the deployment of US missile defenses in Europe […]

Russia is vowing to withdraw from the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty partly because of what experts say is the Kremlin’s anger over Bush’s missile defense plans. […]

The rare joint mission by Bush’s top national security aides underscores the growing clout that Russia now wields as it reaps windfall profits from rising oil prices and US power ebbs because of the war in Iraq, America’s frayed alliances and domestic financial turmoil.

The administration’s drive to deploy missile defenses in two countries that were long allied with Moscow, meanwhile, has helped plunge US-Russian relations to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War and called into question Bush’s assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a soul mate and strategic ally.

Bush wants to position a battery of up to 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a tracking radar in the Czech Republic to foil ballistic missile attacks from Iran. Russia charges that the system could be used against its missiles, upending the strategic nuclear balance with the United States, a contention that some US scientists endorse. [23]

Georgia, where 81% of the population of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia sought to unite with Russia [24], furnished an additional fault line between the US and Russia in 2008, with Russia conducting a brief war against Georgia. “It seems that Russia wanted to send a message – especially since Georgia had applied for NATO membership shortly before its aggression against South Ossetia,” writes Chris Kaspar de Ploeg. “In addition, [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili received extensive military aid from the United States, including about 150 military advisers whose role in the conflict remains unexamined.” [25]



“The Russian move into Georgia has begun a tectonic shift in the [Mideast] region,” Syria expert Joshua Landis observed at the time: “It has emboldened Syria, Hezbollah and Iran to push harder against Israel and the US.” [26] “Syria’s President Bashar Assad has publicly stepped up his outreach to old ally Russia,” Sam Ghattas reported for the Associated Press, “seeking aid to build up Syrian military forces and offering Moscow help in return – in an apparent effort to exploit a new Russian-American rift.” [27] In September of that year, Russia announced its renovation of the Syrian port of Tartus, indicating its intention to establish a long-term naval presence there and occasioning further kvetching “that Moscow might start reaching out to US [and Israeli] rivals around the world to beef up military alliances.” [28] In 2007, Russia and Syria had signed a $944 million contract for provision of Pantsyr anti-aircraft missile systems. “The idea is that by helping to strengthen the defences of countries like Syria and Iran, Russia creates conditions where the US has fewer chances to resort to force,” explained Ivan Safranchuk of the World Security Institute [29].

Another Israeli enemy targeted for regime change, and ahead of Syria on the neoconservatives’ itinerary, was Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, also an Arab government seeking collaboration with Putin’s Russia. As early as 2001, CIA Director George Tenet was accusing Putin of selling ballistic missile technology to Gaddafi [30]. “Libya emerged as a promising market for Russia when the United Nations suspended its 7-year-old sanctions on the North African nation,” explain Dave Montgomery and Jonathan Landay:

Russian Vice Premier Ilya Klebanov, who oversees arms sales, flew to Libya to promote Russian weaponry shortly after the sanctions were suspended in April 1999. His discussions focused on deliveries of new air-defense systems and modern warplanes, including long-range MiG-31 interceptors and MiG-29 fighters. [31]

In 2008, Russia “moved significantly to rebuild ties that withered after the 1991 Soviet collapse,” Mike Eckel reported:

During a visit in April, then-President Vladimir Putin agreed to write off $4.5 billion in Libyan debt in exchange for lucrative deals in energy and arms. In return, Russia landed a $2.8 billion contract for state-owned Russian Railways, and Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom signed a deal to develop six prospective oil and gas fields in Libya.

The Interfax news agency said […] that prospective deals under discussion include the Libyan purchase of S-300, Tor-M1 and Buk-M1 air defense missile systems, two squadrons of Su-30 and MiG-29 fighter jets, several dozen combat helicopters, tanks, rocket launchers and a diesel submarine.

Interfax said Russia also plans to sign contracts to modernize aging Soviet-era weapons in Libyan arsenals which lack spare parts.

A Kremlin official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said […] that Russia and Libya could even cooperate in the peaceful use of nuclear energy but wouldn’t give details. [32]

Also of concern to US neocons was the 2008 establishment of Gazprom Libya and the accompanying Russian offer “to buy all oil and gas available for export from Libya, threatening to grab greater control of Europe’s energy supplies”, with discussions also underway on the possibility of Russo-Libyan collaboration on a gas pipeline to Europe [33]. Russian investments in Libya would be dealt a major blow with NATO’s overthrow of the Jamahiriya in 2011, with Libyan weapons stockpiles subsequently being smuggled into Syria to arm Washington-backed jihadists in the next major Zionist regime-change operation against a Russian partner [34].

Russia’s growing clout in the energy sector gave rise to a significant US domestic political debate with the emergence of the American fracking industry. The relevance of the utility of the controversial extraction practice has been borne out by the current Russo-Ukrainian war, with Bloomberg openly proclaiming that “Fracking Is a Powerful Weapon Against Russia” [35] as more expensive and environmentally damaging US-fracked “freedom gas” has now forcibly displaced Russian gas in the European market [36]. In addition, Ukraine itself furnishes potentially lucrative fields for fracking – banned in most of Europe – as Robert Parry explained in 2014:

The fracking could mean both a financial bonanza to investors and an end to Russia’s dominance of the natural gas supplies feeding central and eastern Europe. So the economic and geopolitical payoff could be substantial.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, Ukraine has Europe’s third-largest shale gas reserves at 42 trillion cubic feet, an inviting target especially since other European nations, such as Britain, Poland, France and Bulgaria, have resisted fracking technology because of environmental concerns. An economically supine Ukraine would presumably be less able to say no. […]

Further supporting the “natural gas motive” is the fact that […] Ukraine’s largest private gas firm, Burisma Holdings, appointed Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, to its board of directors. [37]

The controlling share in Burisma is held by “the ‘patriotic’ [Jewish] oligarch, Ihor Kolomoyskyi” [38], who also launched the political career of Jewish comedian Volodymyr Zelensky [39]. A banker and media mogul, Kolomoyskyi has strong ties to Israel and is a benefactor of Yad Vashem [40] – one instance of a striking pattern of connections linking the fracking industry to the Zionist cause. Indicative of “a rift among Democrats”, New York Senator Chuck Schumer – a committed Zionist who supported Trump’s transfer of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem [41] – broke with many of his allies in proclaiming, “Overall, the Democrats throughout the country have supported fracking” [42]. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, one of Israel’s most obsequious advocates in Congress, has been a major recipient of fracking industry campaign contributions [43] in addition to AIPAC bribes [44], and fracking billionaire brothers Dan and Farris Wilks, who were raised “believing that Yahweh is the only god”, are also partners in prominent Zio-conservative ventures like Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire and Dennis Prager’s PragerU [45]. Mitt Romney, who devoted much of his 2012 presidential campaign to demonstrating his slavish devotion to Israel and vowed to double the permits issued for fracking on federal lands [46], also deemed Russia to be America’s “number-one geopolitical foe” [47]. His specific complaints were that Russia “has supported the Assad regime” in Syria and “has been slow to move to the kinds of sanctions that have been called for in [i.e., against] Iran.” [48]

A similar pattern of Zionist connections prevails among the most strident promoters of Russophobic narratives in the US media establishment. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, for example, is a former AIPAC lobbyist [49], and Fox News host Sean Hannity, a reliable Zio-toady, has bombastically denounced Putin as “an evil, murdering, maniacal, megalomaniac dictator” [50]. Bill Kristol, former Weekly Standard editor and co-founder along with Robert Kagan of the infamous neoconservative thinktank the Project for the New American Century, exhibited a similarly cartoonish bias in lending credibility to the risible “Russiagate” hoax of the Trump years [51]. Another telling case of Russophobic-Zionist confluence is historian Anne Applebaum, who has devoted her career as a commentator to vilifying the Soviet Union and Putin’s Russia, but also made no secret of her Israeli sympathies when she designated Palestinian journalists a “legitimate target” of the IDF in 2002 [52]. It was presumably with such figures in mind that Russia Today’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, suggested that the West would do better “to find normal advisers on Russia. Sack all those parasites.” [53]



It was during Barack Obama’s second term, when Russia increased its assistance to the government of Bashar Al-Assad, supplying its Pantsyr S1 radar-guided missile and artillery system, BUK-M2 anti-aircraft missiles, and Bastion anti-ship missiles [54], and established the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria to counter the US-backed fighters of the “Islamic State”, with an S-400 missile defense system subsequently installed, “allowing Russia to defend the air space from Southern Turkey to Northern Israel” [55] – bringing a halt to the neoconservatives’ regime-change project – that the new Cold War with Russia came to the fore as a US “national security” concern and “the neocons’ most dramatic and potentially most dangerous counter-move” played out in Ukraine, “where they have lent their political and financial support to opposition forces who sought to break Ukraine away from its Russian neighbor,” Robert Parry wrote in 2014:

[…] neocon operatives, with financing from the US-funded National Endowment for Democracy and other US sources, played key roles in destabilizing and overthrowing the democratically elected president.

NED, a $100 million-a-year agency created by the Reagan administration in 1983 to promote political action and psychological warfare against targeted states, lists 65 projects that it supports financially inside Ukraine, including training activists, supporting “journalists” and promoting business groups, effectively creating a full-service structure primed and ready to destabilize a government in the name of promoting “democracy”. […]

State Department neocons also put their shoulders into shoving Ukraine away from Russia. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, the wife of prominent neocon Robert Kagan and the sister-in-law of the Gates-Petraeus adviser Frederick Kagan, advocated strenuously for Ukraine’s reorientation toward Europe. [56]

Another figure whose involvement underscores the continuity between the destabilization of Ukraine and the activities of the Iraq war cheerleaders of the Bush years is Elissa Slotkin, currently a Michigan Congresswoman, who “was the leader of a CIA assessment team in Iraq from 2006 to 2007, and the National Security Council staff’s director for Iraq policy from 2007 to 2009.” The Jewish Virtual Library continues:

From 2009 to 2011, Slotkin was a senior advisor on Iraq policy at the US State Department and, in 2011, she joined the staff of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy as an advisor on Middle East policy. In 2012, Slotkin became chief of staff for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy and, later that year, was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy. Slotkin was appointed Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in 2013 and, in 2014, she was appointed as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. From 2015 to 2017, Slotkin was acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs where she oversaw policy related to Russia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. [57]

Inauspiciously, Slotkin in 2015 “stated that the Ukrainian army will be interoperable with NATO forces by 2020.” [58] “Notably, Europe’s Eastern Partnership initiative – which led to the association agreement with Ukraine […] – was designed and proposed by the Polish and Swedish ministers of foreign affairs in 2008, [Sweden’s] Carl Bildt and [Poland’s] Radoslaw Sikorski,” points out Chris Kaspar de Ploeg:

Both are fiercely anti-Russian, going so far as to make comparisons between Russia and Nazi Germany, which were then echoed by several senior US and British politicians, such as Hillary Clinton and David Cameron. In fact, Carl Bildt was one of the founding members of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, advocating for the 2003 invasion alongside senior US neocons. Sikorski, on the other hand, has lived for years in the United States and the United Kingdom. [59]



The husband of the aforementioned Anne Applebaum, Sikorski notoriously tweeted “Thank you, USA” in the wake of the terror bombing of Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline in 2022 [60]. “They needed Russia out of the way ‘cause Russia has foiled Israel’s ambitions in the Middle East,” explains geopolitical analyst Ryan Dawson:

They can’t get Syria until Russia gets removed, so what do they do? […] They wanted NATO to be a proxy army against Russia, because if Russia gets crippled economically or defeated militarily, Israel can roll into Syria. But as long as Russia’s their [i.e., Syria’s] ally and continues to feed them anti-air defense, Israel can’t do it, because they can’t stomach the casualties going in on the ground, so if you knock out their air [power], they’re done.” [61]

Publicly, Israel prefers to appear to have little to do with the conflict in Ukraine, though Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky has made frequent shows of solidarity with the Ukrainian side. “Israel has supported pro-Ukraine measures in the UN, including a nonbinding resolution on the first anniversary of the war that calls for Russia to end hostilities in Ukraine and withdraw its forces,” writes Lazar Berman for The Times of Israel:

However, unlike its Western allies, it has stopped short of providing military aid to Ukraine despite the latter’s repeated requests. While providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, Israel has maintained a strict policy of not providing military aid, including systems that could help it intercept Russian missile and drone attacks.

The reasoning behind the decision appears to be Israel’s strategic need to maintain freedom of operation in Syria, where the airspace is largely controlled by Russia. Israeli officials have also expressed fear that advanced military technology could fall into enemy hands and cited production and supply limitations.



Israel’s government no doubt is also wary of the likelihood that direct military support for Ukraine might lead Russia to upgrade its support to Israel’s enemies in Iran, Syria, or among the Palestinian resistance. Relations between Ukraine and the Jewish state appear to be fraying, and Ambassador Brodsky has recently complained that Ukraine, perhaps out of resentment, “supports anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations ‘in 90% of cases’” [62]. In May of this year, Brodsky made propaganda hay out of the “first Ukrainian-Israeli Rehabilitation Summit” in Lviv, “bringing Israel’s experience in physical and psychological recovery to Ukraine as it continues to fight Russian forces.” [63] What Brodsky and his Israeli humanitarians carefully omit, of course, is that, if not for Israel and its partisans in the Zionist diaspora, Ukrainians would not have been obliterated or mutilated in their thousands and in need of physical and psychological recovery in the first place.

Rainer Chlodwig von K.

Rainer is the author of Drugs, Jungles, and Jingoism.

Endnotes

[1] “The President Nobody Knows”. Tampa Bay Times (March 16, 2000), p. 2A.

[2] The World Economic Forum: A Partner in Shaping Strategy: The First 40 Years 1971-2010. Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2009, p. 114.

[3] “The Young Global Leaders of the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF)”. Swiss Policy Research (February 2023): https://swprs.org/the-young-global-leaders-of-the-davos-world-economic-forum-wef/

[4] Rankin, Jennifer. “Ex-NATO Head Says Putin Wanted to Join Alliance Early On in His Rule”. The Guardian (November 4, 2021): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/04/ex-nato-head-says-putin-wanted-to-join-alliance-early-on-in-his-rule

[5] “Putin under Microscope”. Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun (January 31, 2000), p. 14.

[6] “US Keeping an Eye on What Order Putin Brings”. The Times (March 27, 2000), p. A8.

[7] “Milosevic Turns Down Electoral Mediation Offer”. Pensacola News Journal (October 1, 2000), p. 11A.

[8] Zakharia, Fareed. “When Condoleezza Rice First Met Vladimir Putin”. GPS (February 20, 2022): https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2022/02/20/exp-gps-0220-condi-rice-on-putin.cnn

[9] Murray, Douglas. “Not Peter the Great, He’s Vlad the Mad”. New York Post (February 24, 2022): https://nypost.com/2022/02/24/not-peter-the-great-hes-vlad-the-mad/

[10] “US, Russia to Discuss Iran Arms Sales”. San Francisco Examiner (November 29, 2000), p. A6.

[11] Karush, Sarah. “News of US Nuclear Plan Received Cautiously by Some”. The News and Observer (March 11, 2002), p. 6A.

[12] Kovalik, Dan. The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Conspired to Vilify Putin. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, 2017, p. 66.

[13] De Ploeg, Chris Kaspar. Ukraine in the Crossfire. Atlanta, GA: Clarity Press, 2017, p. 251.

[14] Holley, David. “Russia, Iran Agree on Nuclear Plant”. South Florida Sun Sentinel (February 28, 2005), p. 22A.

[15] Traynor, Ian. “US Campaign Behind the Turmoil in Kiev”. The Guardian (November 26, 2004): https://archive.li/RfI3p#selection-1077.0-1089.185

[16] Rankin, Jennifer. “Ex-NATO Head Says Putin Wanted to Join Alliance Early On in His Rule”. The Guardian (November 4, 2021): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/04/ex-nato-head-says-putin-wanted-to-join-alliance-early-on-in-his-rule

[17] Meyer, Henry. “Russia’s List of Terrorist Organizations Does Not Include Hamas or Hezbollah”. Lancaster Eagle-Gazette (July 29, 2006), p. 7A.

[18] Ghattas, Sam F. “US Enemies Warm to Russia in Midst of Rift”. The Kingston Whig-Standard (August 27, 2008), p. 11.

[19] “Israel Seeks to Stop Russia-Syria Missile Deal”. Tyler Morning Telegraph (January 13, 2005), p. 3A.

[20] “Putin Defends Russia-Syria Missile Deal”. The Roanoke Times (April 29, 2005), p. A7.

[21] “Report: Syria OKs Full Troop Pullout”. The [Northeastern Pennsylvania] Sunday Times (March 13, 2005), p. 1.

[22] “Russia Admits Iran Purchased Missiles”. The [Scranton] Times-Tribune (January 17, 2007), p. A11.

[23] Landay, Jonathan S.; and Warren P. Strobel. “Relations with Russia Chill over Missiles, Iran”. The Olympian (September 29, 2007), p. A6.

[24] De Ploeg, Chris Kaspar. Ukraine in the Crossfire. Atlanta, GA: Clarity Press, 2017, p. 259.

[25] Ibid., p. 261.

[26] Ghattas, Sam F. “US Enemies Warm to Russia in Midst of Rift”. The Kingston Whig-Standard (August 27, 2008), p. 11.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Ghattas, Sam F. “Russia Overhauls Naval Base in Syria”. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (September 13, 2008), p. 3.

[29] Weir, Fred. “Russia Sends Missiles to Syria”. Calgary Herald ( August 21, 2007), p. A11.

[30] Montomery, Dave; and Jonathan S. Landay. “Russia Selling Armaments to Rogue Nations”. Fort Worth Star-Telegram (March 11, 2001), p. 29A.

[31] Ibid.

[32] Eckel, Mike. “Gadhafi Seeks Russian Weapons”. The Sacramento Bee (November 1, 2008), p. A8.

[33] “Gazprom to Seek Libya’s ‘Extra’ Oil, Gas”. Calgary Herald (July 10, 2008), p. E5.

[34] Donati, Jessica, et al. “The Adventures of a Libyan Weapons Dealer in Syria”. Reuters (June 18, 2013): https://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-syria-idUSBRE95H0WC20130618

[35] Smith, Karl W. “Fracking Is a Powerful Weapon Against Russia”. Bloomberg (February 24, 2022): https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-02-24/war-in-ukraine-u-s-fracking-is-a-powerful-weapon-against-russia#xj4y7vzkg

[36] Braun, Stuart. “The True Cost of US ‘Freedom Gas’”. Deutsche Welle (March 28, 2022): https://www.dw.com/en/the-true-cost-of-fracked-us-freedom-gas/a-61283540

[37] Parry, Robert. “The Whys Behind the Ukraine Crisis”. Consortium News (September 3, 2014): https://consortiumnews.com/2014/09/03/the-whys-behind-the-ukraine-crisis/

[38] De Ploeg, Chris Kaspar. Ukraine in the Crossfire. Atlanta, GA: Clarity Press, 2017, p. 92.

[39] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Kolomoyskyi

[40] “‘Russian’ Oligarchs Mostly Zionist Supremacists, Says Israeli Media”. DavidDuke.com (July 15, 2013): https://davidduke.com/russian-oligarchs-mostly-zionist-supremacists-says-israeli-media-2/

[41] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtZKxFvf488

[42] Schow, Ashe. “Sen. Chuck Schumer: ‘Democrats Throughout the Country Have Supported Fracking”. Washington Examiner (May 5, 2014): https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/sen-chuck-schumer-democrats-throughout-the-country-have-supported-fracking

[43] Medley, Alison. “Report: Senator Ted Cruz Got $35 Million for Billionaire Fracking Donors in Last COVID-19 Relief Aid”. Houston Chronicle (December 30, 2020): https://www.chron.com/coronavirus/article/Ted-Cruz-billionaire-donors-COVID-19-relief-money-15836142.php

[44] Hager, L. Michael. “The Best Congress AIPAC Can Buy”. Foreign Policy Journal (March 22, 2016): https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/03/22/the-best-congress-aipac-can-buy/

[45] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_and_Farris_Wilks

[46] “Mitt Romney’s Fracking Hit List”. Rolling Stone (November 2, 2012): https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-lists/mitt-romneys-fracking-hit-list-22665/montanas-blackfeet-reservation-and-glacier-national-park-231905/

[47] Hooper, Kelly. “Romney: 10 Years Later, Russia Remains ‘Geopolitical Foe’”. Politico (February 27, 2022): https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/27/mitt-romney-russia-remains-geopolitical-foe-00012124

[48] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHkdCSRYh2g

[49] Weiss, Philip. “Abourezk Calls Out Wolf Blitzer (And Other Journalists Friendly to Lobby)”. Mondoweiss (September 16, 2007): https://mondoweiss.net/2007/09/abourezk-calls/

[50] Halon, Yael. “Hannity Urges Russian Officials to Stop Enabling an ‘Evil, Murdering, Maniacal’ Dictator”. Fox News (March 7, 2022): https://www.foxnews.com/media/hannity-russian-officials-putin-ukraine-stop-enabling

[51] Cleveland, Margot. “61 Hacks Who Peddled Russian Collusion and Should Never Be Trusted Again”. The Federalist (March 27, 2019): https://thefederalist.com/2019/03/27/61-hacks-peddled-russian-collusion-never-trusted/

[52] Mitchell, John. “Royal Society of Literature Ignores Anne Applebaum’s Support for Violence Against Palestinian Journalists”. Mondoweiss (August 18, 2021): https://mondoweiss.net/2021/08/royal-society-of-literature-ignores-anne-applebaums-support-for-violence-against-palestinian-journalists/

[53] Martyanov, Andrei. “Margarita Simonyan’[s] Manifesto”. Reminiscence of the Future … (March 21, 2018): https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2018/03/margarita-simonyan-manifesto.html

[54] MacFarquhar, Neil. “UN Observer Says Syria Pushes War over Peace”. Austin American-Statesman (June 16, 2012), p. A4.

[55] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmeimim_Air_Base

[56] Parry, Robert. “What Neocons Want from Ukraine Crisis”. Consortium News (March 2, 2014): https://consortiumnews.com/2014/03/02/what-neocons-want-from-ukraine-crisis/

[57] https://archive.li/cr9s2

[58] De Ploeg, Chris Kaspar. Ukraine in the Crossfire. Atlanta, GA: Clarity Press, 2017, p. 283.

[59] Ibid., p. 281.

[60] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rados%C5%82aw_Sikorski

[61] https://odysee.com/@RyanDawson:6/GCLattacksSyriaAgain:a

[62] Berman, Lazar. “Ukraine’s Backing of 90% of UN Anti-Israel Votes Could Hurt Support – Israeli Envoy”. The Times of Israel (July 8, 2023): https://archive.li/Su6se#selection-1185.0-1185.81

[63] Berman, Lazar. “Set to Expand Rehabilitation Aid, Israel Puts Expertise on Display in Ukraine”. The Times of Israel (May 31, 2023): https://archive.li/sXO1w


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