Go Figure! A Guest Post

Artillery Bay, Sevastopol

The following is a letter recently published in Edward’s local paper.

Sir

There is more than a whiff of 1914 in the air as Germany, under the
cloak of the EU, presses boldly forwards into the Ukraine. The policy
long pre-existed today's  European Union..

On September 9th 1914, the Imperial Chancellor of Germany , Theobald von
Bethmann Hollweg, asserted Germany's war aims.

"Russia must be thrust back as far as possible from Germany's borders
and her domination over the non-Russian vassal peoples broken...We must
create a central European economic association through common customs
treaties to include France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Austria-Hungary,
Poland and perhaps Italy, Sweden and Norway.

"This association will not have any common constitutional supreme
authority and all its members  will be formally equal but in practice
will be under German leadership and must stabilise Germany's leadership
over central Europe"

Now, of course, we do have a "common constitutional supreme authority",
the EU Commission, as our own real government for most things. Yet
William Hague talks about bringing  "democracy" to the Ukraine when his
own so-called government had no power to prevent large parts of Somerset
being flooded on the orders of EU environmental Regulations and
Directives.

The "Weltanschauung" (way of looking at the world) by the German
political class existed from at least 1848, before Germany was a unified
country. The delegates of the Frankfurt parliament then resolved that
the Balkans were part of "Germany's natural economic hinterland" and
that no significant Slavic state should be allowed in the area. In 1999,
after a generation of destabilisation by the German secret service,
Yugoslavia was destroyed by NATO  air power - with our assistance.

Now Russia is more assertive and this sort of push-over cannot occur.
The Crimea was part of Russia but made part of the Ukraine in the
Fifties when the change was rather like being moved from Derbyshire to
Staffordshire. Now it is an international boundary.

Yet Russia's main warm water, Black Sea naval base is in Sebastopol in
the Crimea, where most people speak Russian.

As the Americans say - Go figure!

Yours faithfully

Edward Spalton

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Petty Tensions In Scotland But Serious Tensions In Crimea

Whilst a foolish member of the Labour-run Aberdeen Council proposes to ‘ban’ Alex Salmond and his government ministers from council estates and all council property, tensions are running high in Crimea.

It seems part of the problem is identity. Russia and Ukrainian forces have always worked together in Crimea as part of the deal worked out when Ukraine got independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.  All over Crimea people are being forced to choose their identity - Crimean, Russian or Ukrainian.

Who would have thought that more than 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union these issues of identity and power would reassert themselves so dangerously? 

I confess I understand little about Putin’s reasons for his behaviour, other than what I’ve read in the oft-inaccurate press, but some bloggers and commentators have attempted to give their opinions. Craig Murray offers a little history and James Delingpole wonders ‘Why are people so hot for war with Putin?’

Perhaps the image below is one reason and the Washington Post has its take on it too.

click to enlarge

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Ukraine's Got Talent

Appearing on Ukraine's Got Talent Kseniya Simonova, using sand animation, tells the story of Germany conquering Ukraine in the second world war. A couple on a bench become a woman's face; a peaceful walkway becomes conflagration; a weeping widow morphs into an obelisk for an unknown soldier.

Please stick with it, it's breathtaking. The words at the end are 'You are always near'. She won.

Compelling animation indeed.

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