And here is a big and powerful global citizen – let’s call it the Civilized World – standing around this mess and figuring out what to do. Fortunately there is a group of experts within this Civilized World – professors, scholars, journalists, human rights lawyers, movie directors, occasional foreign minster, a prime minister, a president – who found the compromise solution!
Everybody wins! It is not just win-win, it is win-win-win! And the solution is…. Give the bully what he wants, give everything and give it now! Hey, but what about the victims? No problem, we have solution for this dilemma too: blame them, blame the rape victim because her skirt was a tiny bit too short, or maybe it was not, who cares, too late to debate this now, just force her to marry the rapist!
Dear verstehers/sympathizers of Russian President Vladimir Putin, may be this is the time for you to hear from the victim, the one you love to blame, but refuse to listen to? Just this once?
Do you realize that from the comfort and safety of your homes in the Civilized World, you don’t just express your learned opinions, you also undermine the basic moral values on which the Civilized World is based? You help spread falsehoods and conceal the truth, you take the wrong side in the epic battle between your civilization, the benefits of which you so much enjoy, with the Genghis Khan/Golden Horde system. But you take this side not for yourselves, none of you wants to abandon the Civilized World and physically move to the other side, but you do it for us, investing your precious intellectual potential into holding us back in the medieval past. What an honorable mission!
There was enough debate about what motivates the Kremlin. But what motivates you? Can it even be theoretically possible that any intelligent educated person in his right mind truly honestly believes in this? There is much speculation on what motivates German Putin verstehers, who are the most vocal (hence the term “versteher”). Some say it is because of the guilt for German atrocities against Russians during the WWII. That does not make much sense – guilt for prior atrocities against Russia justifies new atrocities, this time by Russia against Ukraine? It is also very hard to believe that these distinguished German experts do not know that Ukraine had suffered as much, if not more, during the WWII than Russia? So why not feel guilt towards Ukraine too?
Then what exactly motivates you to reward the rogue behavior, validating all of its absurd self-justifying claims? What’s this obsession with making the global bandit look good, save face, keep his self-esteem? What has he done to deserve such compassion, has he repented, relented, has he taken any action to cure the massive damage he caused to the victims? Last time we checked he keeps terrorizing neighbors, lying to the world, and working very hard to undermine the very foundation of the Civilized World, as well as its institutions – EU and NATO. Following your “compromise” the Civilized World needs to meet every paranoid fear of every dictator. It did try that in late 30s of the last century, there were plenty of Stalin verstehers and Hitler verstehers, remember the Neville Chamberlain-style appeasement doctrine, and remember the results?
But let’s imagine for a second that Ukraine agrees to meet Putin’s demands, however absurd and illegitimate, this is essentially your compromise, right? So what will be Ukraine’s win in this case, what will Ukraine get in return for federalization, abandoning its European and NATO aspirations, abandoning its language and culture, abandoning its freedom? Did Russia ever say they will return Crimea, stop the war in the East of Ukraine (all they say is they cannot stop the war because they are not there), clean up the mess they created and compensate damages, become a civilized global citizen respecting international law and borders of near and far abroad? No? So where is win-win-win in this picture for Ukraine, for the Civilized World?
It does not matter how many “wins” you add to your “compromise” formula, it still signifies nothing but the defeat for the Civilized World, for its basic fundamental moral values, for the rule of law, and for the world peace too because it undermines the international order and nuclear non-proliferation.
Who will trust you when you urge the states seeking nuclear weapons to abandon this goal in exchange for guarantees? Ukraine trusted the Civilized World once, and gave up its large nuclear arsenal, the single most solid guarantee of its security, territorial integrity and importance in global affairs. Remember the Budapest Memorandum, yes that one, under which Ukraine gave it all up in exchange for the guarantees of its territorial integrity by Russia, UK and the US? It was not so long ago, all participants in this endeavor, except for then Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin, are still alive, but maintain an embarrassing silence, while Russia works very hard to discredit the Budapest Memorandum. The Russian commentators went as low as dismissing it because “not everything signed by Yeltsin was worth implementing” hinting that Yeltsin was drunk when the guarantees were given to Ukraine http://www.km.ru/v-rossii/2014/03/01/mezhdunarodnaya-politika/733609-pochemu-ne-byl-ratifitsirovan-budapeshtskii-memo.
Maybe the Budapest Memorandum is not good enough for you? How about numerous international-law obligations Russia undertook on multinational, trilateral and bilateral levels to respect the borders in general and to respect the borders and territorial integrity of Ukraine in particular? While signing those were they all drunk too?
You do conveniently ignore this old-fashioned documentary evidence, but you happily spread the legend about the West’s commitment to Russia 25 years ago to grant it veto power over any post Soviet countries to join any alliances, including EU and NATO. Evidence please – any documents, protocols, treaties, any confirmation from the Western side then or now or at any time? Nothing???
In lieu of lack of evidence in favor of the attacker, let’s blame the victim. Ukraine decided to clean up its own house and set itself free from the deadly grip of Genghis Khan style colonialism. The process is not easy, it was not easy for anybody seeking freedom – look through the last 300 years of human history, including in your own countries. Ukraine has been a mess, because it was methodically suppressed and destroyed by the colonial empire, often through the hands of local traitors, as it always has been everywhere throughout the history.
Ukrainians finally gathered enough strength, courage and resolve to stand up for themselves and to clean up their own house. They asked for help from those whom they still trusted and whose values they aspired to place as the foundation of their newly rebuilt home – the Civilized World. They did not threaten anyone around, did not interfere with the neighbors and did not eye anybody’s property in the process.
You do not want to see any of these basics, but you clearly see the evil hand of the NATO and CIA! You noticed the US Assistant Secretary of State visiting Maidan during the Revolution of Dignity once or twice – quelle horreur! But did you notice Russian special forces being there at all times, some wearing Ukrainian police uniforms and killing unarmed protesters, did you notice Russia’s top security officials flying into Ukraine every week during the same time? Did you notice that Putin and his cronies made a decision to invade and annex Crimea during the Olympics in Sochi, before then President Yanukovich fled the countryhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-17/putin-s-secret-gamble-bet-on-ukraine-backfires-in-ruble-crisis.html and http://echo.msk.ru/blog/aillar/1466544-echo/?
You noticed that recently Ukraine invited three foreigners to join its Cabinet, one of them American – quelle horreur again – CIA at work! Right, one highly competent and respected American of Ukrainian decent in charge of the Finance Ministry, compared to several clandestine Russian citizens occupying key security and defense posts in the Ukrainian Cabinet under Yanukovich regime, including in succession two Ministers of Defense, the head of Security Service and the Head of Presidential security (and many more at various levels of the Ukrainian Government), how about that for fair balance?
You noticed that Ukrainian citizens in Ukraine must use Ukrainian as the official language, while using any other language as much as they want in their personal life – where exactly is the defect in this picture? Do you not want German to be used in German courts, or do you not want English to be used in British official documents, how about real estate titles in Esperanto? Or do you want to argue that those countries do not have any sizeable minorities?
You do not recognize the massive lack of evidence of what Ukraine is accused of, instead spreading the Russia Today style fakes. And you do ignore the massive evidence of crimes, including the cynical admission of the perpetrator himself: yes “of course” there were Russian army forces in Crimea before the Mickey Mouse referendum. And moreover, Putin himself just recently thanked them for courage and professionalism during Crimea annexation. And admitted that the sanctions do work. Do you at least believe him?
Imagine that the following happens, no, not to somebody else, it is always easy to muse about bad things happening to somebody else, imagine as vividly as you can that it happens to you.
You are in your house, which has a wing with a separate apartment, and decide to clean up the house and do the renovations. The title for the house is in order, you are not interfering with anyone around, just minding you own business. Next thing you know, a neighbor breaks into your house with armed thugs and occupies the apartment wing with all your possessions. You call the police. The police does not come, but calls you back: “We are very sorry, Sir, but there is nothing we can do. We called your neighbor, and he says it is a small domestic dispute, and there are no armed thugs there. What you say, he already announced that it is his property? We are very concerned, Sir. You know, he is like that, this guy, going around the neighborhood and grabbing other people’s property here and there, so you are not the first one, if it makes you feel better. We cannot do much, you see, he is an important member of our neighborhood watch program, patrolling the area, with the veto power too, so, you know, we try very hard not to upset him. But we feel your pain, and we will never recognize what he has done de jure, but de facto you are on your own, Sir. And by the way, umm, please make sure to keep heating and supplying electricity to the occupied wing of your house, the new owner (sorry we meant de facto owner, our fault, Sir!) is not capable of supplying utilities to his (yours, of course de jure yours!) property. Bye now, and good luck, Sir!”
Do you want this to happen to you? No one on this Earth owns property, including your property, since Adam and Eve, there are no borders in the modern world that have been there forever. If there is a dispute, civilized neighbors take it to court, as Ukraine and Romania did not so long ago, accepting the results, whatever they are. But letting the stronger one grab the other neighbors’ property, unilaterally changing the borders, attacking and occupying, terrorizing the neighbors while cynically lying to the rest?
Is this what the Putin versteher human rights law professor from Chicago teaches his students – law of the jungle? Is this what you all teach your kids – when you are big and strong and see someone weaker being attacked, look the other way, or even better – push the victim to give the attacker what he wants? Sometimes it is counterproductive to try so hard – your efforts turn into a farce, check out the two examples below this post.
For 2015 I have only two words for you: enough already! No money in the world can buy dignity, this is for what Ukrainians went under bullets on Maidan and are dying for every day now, this is for what numerous Ukrainians gave up the comfort of their daily lives and became volunteers: to protect their land and their dignity! And you? Just remember how those who started as Hitlerverstehers ended up as collaborators, and make it your New Year Resolution to be honest with yourself.
I. Neo-Nazis coming! Unfortunately in small numbers…
Take a look at this article Ukraine underplays role of far right in conflict by David Stern of BBC News published by BBC in English and Russian on 13 December http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30414955The main idea of this article is the favorite one of Putinverstehers: neo-Nazis! Yes, Mr. Stern confirms, “neo-Nazis are indeed a fixture in Ukraine’s new political landscape, albeit in small numbers”.
What a revelation! Certainly Ukraine should be one of the very few countries in the world to have any neo-Nazis in its political landscape to deserve this breaking news? Or maybe not. Maybe Mr. Stern can name one country where there are no neo-Nazis in its political landscape, including his own? Maybe he can also name the countries in which the neo-Nazis and extreme right occupy a much more significant position in the political landscape than in Ukraine? I bet he will have to put together a very long list. Then why single out Ukraine and make big news out of a marginal and negligible group ignored by the society? Can it be because Russian propaganda says so, while letting its own neo-Nazis, in significant numbers, terrorize the ethnic non-Russians, and globally support extreme right?
One of the examples given in Mr. Stern’s article is a Belarusian fighting with Ukrainians against terrorists in one of the most dangerous battlegrounds – Donetsk Airport. He was awarded Ukrainian citizenship for his outstanding courage, but Mr. Stern alleges that he is a neo-Nazi. A serious allegation, so what’s the evidence other than views of mostly unnamed “experts”? Allegedly “the Belarusian had been charged for involvement in a bombing in central Moscow in 2007, and was detained in 2013 in the Belarusian capital Minsk for allegedly stabbing an anti-fascist activist. He was later released for lack of evidence.” Wait! Even the authoritarian regime in Belarus, where activists routinely disappear or are prosecuted under fabricated evidence, could not find any evidence, and Ukrainian Security Service could not find any either, should Mr. Stern be more diligent in his accusations before harming the reputation of the entire country?
Overall Mr. Stern is worried that “Many Ukrainians are unaware that they exist, or even what a neo-Nazi or fascist actually is, or what they stand for.” Is it so bad that the society does not care about neo-Nazis, that it is open and gives equal rights and opportunities to all, irrespective of their ethnic background and the language they speak? I can testify to that, I am a naturalized Ukrainian with no Ukrainian blood, and never once have I felt any discrimination in any aspects of my decades of life there!
Has Mr. Stern heard about the “Ukrainian political nation”, the all-inclusive concept supported by modern Ukrainian politicians, government officials, cultural figures and political parties of any significance, as well as by the vast majority of the population? What a great model for any country, which would be a much more newsworthy story than the hardly existing “role in conflict” of the hardly existing “neo-Nazis”.
II. Let’s not give the floor to Ukrainians!
I attended a discussion on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict at a major international conference. The organizers tried to be balanced and put together a panel that included:
· A young Ukrainian parliamentarian, dynamic and forward-looking, with excellent English;
· a Russian Professor of international law from the Soviet Foreign Minster Gromyko (“Mister Net”) era;
· a supposedly neutral observer, an American human rights law professor from Chicago; and
· a supposedly neutral Moderator, a well-known international journalist (formerly with CNN).
The Ukrainian Parliamentarian brilliantly presented to the audience new Ukraine – honestly described all the hardships, the tragedies and triumphs of the people, and the hard work that awaits Ukraine on its new path.
The Russian orofessor listed in monotone the Kremlin manual:
· Russia’s occupation and further annexation of Crimea is absolutely legal.
· There was a “coup d’état” in Ukraine.
· The principle of self-determination of nations is above the principle of territorial integrity and justifies aggression against the neighboring State and occupation and annexation of its territory.
· The referendum in Crimea was hailed by numerous international observers as fair and transparent and resulted in 96% voting in favor of joining Russia.
· Russia’s security interests were threatened.
At this point the audience was eagerly awaiting the unbiased professional assessment from the American professor, but instead got a series of statements from the same Kremlin manual, albeit with a more lively expression. This human rights expert did not find even a word of sympathy for the victim of aggression, blaming it all on Ukraine and on… his own country!
· There was an anti-Russian element in Maidan.
· It is all Obama’s ego.
· US behavior during Maidan was unacceptable and the US Assistant Secretary of State had no right to visit Ukraine and Maidan.
· Pro-Maidan Ukrainians are neo-Nazis.
· Maidan was against Russian-speaking Ukrainians.
· NATO should not have expanded.
· Russia has the right to protect itself from NATO.
· Blame US and NATO.
· Sanctions do not work, and never did.
After laying down these “facts”, and not finding a single “fact” in favor of Ukraine (can we be that devastatingly bad?), the American professor conveniently suggested to forget about facts and seek the solution because “this is what we are here for”. Wow, no kidding!
So, the intended neutral observer clearly sided with the Russian Professor making the panel two against one. Time to clue in the audience consisting of distinguished and well-informed participants, several of them from Ukraine.
The ex-CNN moderator opened the floor for questions and saw a shocking phenomenon: “many Ukrainian hands” going up! What would a neutral moderator do to perhaps correct the imbalance that occurred on the panel’s discussion? May be give the floor to the couple of Ukrainians from the audience and listen to what the colleagues from the country in question may say/ask? Nope, not this neutral Moderator. He basically announced that Ukrainians will not be given the floor and he will seek others from the audience to speak. This turned out to be not an easy task because not all Ukrainians look like Ukrainians, and this is how I was given the floor – being an ethnic Georgian and looking decidedly not Ukrainian – sorry to deceive you, Mr. moderator!
After this traumatizing experience, the moderator came up with the clever strategy of how to exclude Ukrainians: by giving the floor to Nigerian colleagues. Twice. Both Nigerian colleagues took a rather comfortable time to speak – while the rest of us were under strict instructions to keep our comments/questions short, which instructions were enforced by severe looks from the moderator. Our Nigerian colleagues were spared the looks, and went on and on. After the second of them spoke for about 10 minutes on irrelevant topics, the moderator had to turn his attention back to the potentially “Ukrainian looking” audience probably searching for the least Ukrainian looking members. Oh, here is a darkish Middle Eastern-looking man, for sure he cannot be Ukrainian, let’s give the floor to him. Wrong! Same unfortunate mistake as with me, the non-Ukrainian turns out to be indeed a Ukrainian: a Jewish-German-Ukrainian lawyer who demands that the Russian professor stop using the term “coup d’état” for the legitimate change of government in Ukraine.
At this point the moderator gave up guessing how Ukrainians can be rooted out from the discussion, and confronted the enemy by giving the floor to the only clearly Ukrainian lady in the audience who wore a Ukrainian head decoration. She identified herself as an ethnic Russian originally from Crimea. Cannot be better than this, we just debated the fate of Russians in Crimea, none of us being such, so let’s hear from a colleague who is one. Maybe she can be invited to comment, so we all can hear from the first-hand source? Nope. She barely had time to make a comment about informational war against Ukraine and was cut off by our most neutral Moderator.
Time to go back to the Russian Professor who was answering the question on what was the legal basis for Russia invading a neighboring State and annexing its territory. Umm… But yes, of course, there was a legal basis: the principle of territorial integrity is indeed important in international law (thanks, Professor!), but self-determination of people is more important, and this justifies Russia’s occupation and annexation of Crimea. Really? Let’s analyze this new international law concept in greater detail.
Let’s start with accepting this concept for a moment. So: some percentage of any ethnic group in a host country wants (or is perceived by a neighboring country to want) self determination. If they are not given independence by the host country, a third country has the right not only to invade and set them free, but also to annex the territory where this ethnic group lives, meanwhile stealing from the host country all the assets located on this territory. Do we understand you correctly, Mr. Russian professor? Let’s apply the concept then: you are from Russia, a state in every reincarnation of which some ethnic group or another fought for self-determination, and not during all of 10 days in a Mickey Mouse referendum as it happened in Crimea, but for hundreds of years. Remember Chechen wars? Hundreds of thousands for hundreds of years killed on both sides, the whole Chechen nation thrown out into exile for decades, unspeakable atrocities and human rights violations committed by the host country against Chechens, again going on for hundreds of years. Why Russia did not accept the principle of self-determination of Chechens? Following your argument, it would be perfectly legal for any state that wants to protect the Chechen minority in Russia and to ensure their right of self determination to invade Chechnya and annex its territory? Same would be true for all other minorities in Russia?
Why, Mr. moderator, we ran out of time? No more questions and no more answers. Thank you so much for the balanced and fair debate we all Ukrainian Ukrainians and non-Ukrainian Ukrainians will remember for a long time. And thank you too, Mr. American Ppofessor, for making the entire nation into marionettes of Obama’s ego, we thought Ukrainians were fighting for freedom and independence for ages, many generations before Obama’s ego was born. Next time we hope you’ll get the memo that blaming the victim is no longer acceptable, not from the moral and not from the legal point of view. Yes, even if the attacker is rich and powerful. And maybe you ask yourself a question, how did it happen that in xenophobic Ukraine you tried so hard to present, the Ukrainians in the audience were so diverse – a Crimean Russian, a Georgian, a Jew – and all proudly standing up for their beloved country?
But most of all we thanked the Ukrainian parliamentarian, who was left alone against three aggressive opponents, and was able to represent with dignity and optimism all the new Ukraine is striving for – to become a modern, forward looking, law-abiding, intelligent and happy member of the Civilized World!
Irina Paliashvili is president and senior counsel for the Washington-based RULG-Ukrainian Legal Group.
