EDITORIAL
Saakashvili, Supremely Triumphant
Cheers, Mr. President!
In elections across the nation of Georgia last month, President Mikheil Saakashvili swept to blinding, awe-inspiring victory.
Voters from one corner of the nation to the other spoke with one voice and repudiated Russian aggression and imperialist efforts to bring Georgia back with in Russian domination in a massive landslide.
“No,” the people of Georgia boldly declared: “We will be free!”
As we note in our lead editorial today, even as Russia’s demonic dictator Vladimir Putin comes increasingly under fire from his own people, including the likes of famous rocker Yuri Shevchuk, Putin’s hated nemesis in Georgia is being confirmed as his nation’s trusted, democratic, leader.
Where Putin is feverishly wiping out local government, seizing the power to appoint local governors and mayors, Saakashvili is doing exactly the opposite, continually expanding the democratic circle despite being besieged by Russian imperialist aggression. Saakashvili has calmly guided his nation through crisis after Russia-imposed crisis, never wavering in his commitment to democracy, even as Putin, like the craven coward he is, has destroyed the last vestiges of civil society in Russia. International observers complimented Saakashvili on showing “evident progress” towards elections that were more democratic than the most recent predecessor. That he could accomplish this while being menaced by a giant neighbor which has itself turned elections into absolute shams is truly breathtaking.
The obscene personal abuse hurled at President Saakashvili from the very highest levels of the Kremlin, including by Vladimir Putin himself, offer the very best possible proof of Saakashvili’s success at flouting the Kremlin’s authority and leading his people towards freedom and democracy. Putin’s mafia-like rhetoric against Saakashvili only proves one thing: the Georgian leader is under the Russian’s skin, beating him, infuriating him, besting him at every turn.
The rancid lies being told in Russia about Georgians rejecting the Saakashvili government have been permanently discredited and destroyed. Russia must now realize that it has fatally poisoned its relations with Georgia through years of imperialist abuse followed by military aggression that has been condemned and repudiated by the entire planet.
Mr. Saakashvili may not be perfect (as noted in the reports linked to above, the elections were not without indications of some corruption). Who is? But next to Vladimir Putin, Saakashvili looks like Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan and Mohandas Gandhi all rolled into one.
For our part, all we can do is applaud in awe.
La Russophobe 
Long live Georgia and Saakashvili!!!
We often disagree, LR, but for once we are warbling in perfect harmony. I question which of us is the more delighted with Saakashvili’s victory. You go, Misha! Huzzah!!!
The western observers who were supposed to lend his election the imprimatur of legitimacy and transparency are less pleased,
http://politicom.moldova.org/news/georgian-president-saakashvilis-ruling-party-to-win-a-landslide-victory-in-the-election-209452-eng.html
but who cares what a bunch of stuffy Europeans thinks?
However, I imagine the reasons for our joint elation are different. For your part, you probably see it as a repudiation of Saakashvili’s Russophile critics. For mine, I see it as a rock-solid guarantee that Georgia’s admission to NATO will not even be tabled as long as that barking mad, tie-chewing git is at the helm. It’s so rare that everybody wins.
You are an illiterate moron.
(a) Our post CLEARLY LINKS to the issues about flaws in the election and we discuss them. You act like you think you discovered something we didn’t.
(b) The Western observers CLEARLY said Georgia’s election was MORE DEMOCRATIC this time than last time. They said Russia’s most recent elections were SIGNIFICANTLY LESS DEMOCRATIC.
We clearly stated Georgia is not perfect. Nobody is. But compared to Russia, it’s utopia.
How does including another link that corroborates the information make me an illiterate moron? You insist information be linked, and that conclusions not be drawn without supporting information. If that requirement has been withdrawn, I’m delighted to hear it, as it makes posts very unwieldy.
Utopia, eh? Well, at least one source doesn’t seem to agree.
http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/display.cfm?ID=314
If Georgia were Utopian, you’d think more Russians would move there. Russians make up only 6.3% of the population (or did, in 2002, when that particular sample was taken). They were outnumbered significantly at the time by combined Azeris and Ossetians. Have those demographics changed to reflect a stream of Russians moving to Utopia? Show me.
Table 2 makes the point clearer – there was significant emigration from Georgia between 1989 and 2002, and that at least half moved to the Russian Federation!
Finally, Table 3. An estimated 600,000 Georgians left the country in the 90’s, splitting the difference in the figures provided (it may have been as many as 1.5 million). Leaving Utopia? Perhaps that’s because it was still under the cruel Russian yoke. But if so, why didn’t they move back when Misha the Wonder Boy took the reins. They didn’t – “The number of asylum applications made by Georgians has increased steadily since 2000…”
Well FSB, Georgia does still have many problems, most of them to do with the economy (which is steadily improving), and the fact that nearly 300,000 people have been the victims of Russian sponsored ethnic cleansing.
As for Georgians leaving to work overseas and send remittances home, nothing unusual in that either, for a state that suffered 200 years of oppressive Russian occupation and the deliberate destruction of it’s infrastructure by Russia in the early 90’s and again in 2008.
As for But if so, why didn’t they move back when Misha the Wonder Boy took the reins. They didn’t – “The number of asylum applications made by Georgians has increased steadily since 2000…”
Well FSB, considering that Saakashvili became president in 2004, and that prior to that Scheverdnadze was president, well, all I can say is get your facts right (thought this would be a first), how can you blame Saakashvili for the high number of asylum applications made under the rule of a previous president?
Good day, Andrew. To your knee-jerk admonishment that I should “get my facts straight” (I love that, it never gets old), I’d draw your attention once again to the previous post. It looks like it says, “The number of asylum applications made by Georgians has increased steadily since 2000…” “Since 2000” would be seen by most as an implication of a trend that continues to the present, even beyond 2004 when Saakashvili became president. But here’s your chance to straighten me out. Has that trend reversed under Saakashvili? Have expatriate Georgians begun to return in significant numbers?
The underlying basis of the response was LR’s contention that Georgia is “Utopia” compared with Russia. Just two countries mentioned there; Georgia and Russia, so direct comparisons are invited. “Under Saakashvili” was never argued that I could see. My argument was that if this were so, more Russians would move there – they’re not idiots, and would obviously move to an independent, immigration-friendly country close by where they could live in comparably Utopian conditions. Is that happening? I said no. But I’m always willing to be redirected by a competent argument.
Still, let’s take a closer look at the “Utopia” claim. Let’s start with wages…..Oooooo…not so good. The minimum wage in Russia, annualized and represented in International Dollars, is more than 10 times higher, and increased steadily under Putin’s leadership.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country#Minimum_wages_by_country
Still, you can put up with a devalued and hyperinflated currency in exchange for stability and the rule of law, right? Oh…wait: what? Riot police dispersing protesters? Photographers pushed to the ground, and cameras smashed? Opposition TV stations forced off the air? News websites shut down? A population “stuck in grinding poverty and plagued by systemic corruption”?
http://www.newsweek.com/2007/11/08/hollow-victory.html
Saakashvili apparently does not remember that it was boisterous public demonstrations which swept him to power. Back then, it was a tangible expression of the people’s will – now it’s grounds for violent dispersal.
http://congress-georgia.org/en/massmedia/210410_russia/
Political flip-flopping and backstage maneuvering?
http://www.rferl.org/content/Saakashvilis_Erratic_Response_To_Invasion_Hoax_Raises_Suspicions/1984530.html
Taking democratic values advice from non-democratic sworn enemies of your biggest benefactor and advocate?
http://georgiamediacentre.com/content/saakashvili_takes_advice_media_iranians
Positioning in advance for a way to extend power beyond constitutional limits by changing the system to one in which the former president could continue to serve as Prime Minister? Where have I heard that before?
http://thefastertimes.com/foreignpolicy/2010/06/01/beyond-the-elections-in-georgia/
Sorry, but it reads more like a stock criticism of Russia than a giddy endorsement of Utopia to me.
Long live democracy! May Saakashvili have as much continued political success as Yuschenko and Bakiyev!
Do you count Putin as “political success” because he wipes out his opposition and cruises to victory like a Soviet dictator?
If that’s Russia’s definition of success we’ll take failure any day of the week.
Yes, there is a lot of similarity between Putin and Saakashvili.
Well, the difference is Saakashvili actually tries to modernise, democtratise, and liberalise his country, through the introduction of democratic elections, rule of law, by combating corruption etc.
In all of the above he is diametrically opposed to Putin, and to Russians such as yourself, who tend to endorse corruption, dictatorial governments, and who disdain the rule of law.
Saakashvili certainly has faults, but he is a far better person than Putin, or Voice of Reason for that matter.
Thank you, Andrew, for equating my humble importance with that of Putin and Saakashvili. You obsession with me is the best and most sincere form of flattery.
That’s “your” not “you”
Well, one does have a moral obligation to contradict your lies and falsifications VOR.
Viva Misha.
Viva Srakatvelo! Viva Srakashvili!
pipiske wrote;
Viva Srakatvelo! Viva Srakashvili!
comment;
viva starya pizda rosiia!!
Chto, pizda zachesalas, koza ebanaja?
pizdiske wrote;
Chto, pizda zachesalas, koza ebanaja?
comment;
oosranye kasaglazye ruskie riaby – russia staraya gryaznaya vonayushchaya pizda – posmotritie v zerkayo.
… и пизда с пиздою говорит /М.Ю. Лермонтов/
– На каждый хуй пизда найдется!-
Сказал Сократ в начале лет.
И человечество ебется,
И бляди (aaa, usa) делают минет.
На каждый хуй пизда найдется!-
Сказал Сократ в начале лет.
И человечество ебется,
И бляди (aaa, usa) делают минетizdecke
Pezdetske wrote;
На каждый хуй пизда найдется!-
Сказал Сократ в начале лет.
И человечество ебется,
И бляди (aaa, usa) делают минет
comment;
Ruskiye bednashki – Ya ruskich ponimayu – eto otzen trudno smotretz, kogda ‘velykaya’ [65% permafrost] rossia zdykhayet medlenno, toniot v sobstvennom govnie i gryazi – kak zalko no dla menya eto prelest……..
Polska bljadushka, kurva-lyarva. ja tebja natjanu, prostitutka.
pizdeske wrote;
Polska bljadushka, kurva-lyarva. ja tebja natjanu, prostitutka
comment;
Dear, dear, dear, are we losing our temper???
kogda uze VSIE ruskiy zdakhnoit etot budiet prazdnik vo vsiem mirie. Vy navyerno ruskiy ‘krasavtshik’ – kurnosy, malenkye hytrye mongolskye glaski i skuly, kanetzhno zolotye zuby i nemytaya zhopa a mozhe i ordeny is velykoy piztdetskoy voyny…. please tell, please tell…….WHO CAN RESIST THIS!!!!
aaa, usa,
Кстати, вчера встретил грузинскую парочку. Красавцы! Рост под два метра, орлиный нос, волосатая грудь, шикарные усы a la Сталин – это она. Он – гном, ростом ниже даже Сталина и Берии, и такая же усохшая рука. Лучшие друзью Мишико.
Случайно не Вы были?
Канешна, ана, ааах какой дэвушка из usa
Я встэтил дэвушка — волосатая грудь
на губка усики, а у попе ртуть.
Гризунский дэвушка с баальшим сракатвело.
@Voters from one corner of the nation to the other spoke with one voice and repudiated Russian aggression and imperialist efforts to bring Georgia back with in Russian domination in a massive landslide.
check out the link to “massive landslide,” will you ?
Are you really so inept that you will cite an Associate press report that clearly states, per western observers, that the vote was hopelessly rigged to defend Saka’s lack of a democratic record of any kind ? I gotta say, that is a new low.
Where did it say “hopelessly rigged”?
What the observers said was:
TBILISI, 31 May 2010 – Yesterday’s municipal elections in Georgia marked evident progress towards meeting international standards, but significant shortcomings remain to be addressed, international observers from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) and the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities concluded in a statement released today.
The election administration organized these elections in a transparent, inclusive and professional manner, but systemic irregularities were observed on election day in some regions, including several cases of ballot box stuffing and procedural violations during the vote count. The observers also noted deficiencies in the legal framework and its implementation, and characterized the campaign environment as an uneven playing field favouring contestants from the incumbent party. The Georgian public broadcaster provided overall balanced coverage.
The authorities made efforts to pro-actively address problems, including improving the quality of the voter lists. Nevertheless, the low level of public confidence in the election process persisted. The observers said further efforts in resolutely tackling recurring misconduct are required in order to consolidate the progress achieved and enhance public trust before the next national elections.
“These elections were marked by clear improvements and efforts by the authorities to address problems occurring during the process. It is now time to fix the remaining shortcomings and take effective steps to prevent electoral malpractices before the next elections at the national level,” said Ambassador Audrey Glover, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR long-term Election Observation Mission.
“The municipal councils, the mayors and – more specifically – the directly elected Mayor of Tbilisi have now to solve the social and economic problems of the country which are serious. From the perspective of locally elected representatives, responsible regional stability policies are key in this respect. The Congress is ready to accompany and assist Georgia in this direction, in particular with regard to the development of local democracy and citizens’ participation,” said Günther Krug, Head of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities delegation.
“Strong democracy is built from local level upwards so we were particularly pleased to see the high level of engagement and interest of young people, women and minorities in these elections. We hope that, as shortcomings are addressed and confidence develops, many of them will move from involvement in the process to be the candidates of the future,” said Sharon Taylor, speaker of the members of the European Union’s Committee of the Regions in the Congress delegation.
http://www.osce.org/item/44178.html
So, some problems yes.
But “hopelessly rigged”, well more Russophile BS.
Hell, its not like they were Russian elections…..
Whether or not one sees a “landslide,” the Georgians, unlike the Russians, let in observers, and they have free and open media discussions about the problems with their election process.
Not so in Russia.
The difference between Georgia and rasha is recognized by the Russians themselves, via their own observation, as has been reported on this LR blog previously:
“In Russian, we have voting, but no elections.”
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sascha29/message/570
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sascha29/message/572
Russian occupants and their criminal marionettes in Dagestan suffer new losses every day,Alcohol is also being fought,which is the cancer for many problems in Dagestan
Whenever something big is expected to happen in the world, it is difficult for those who know about it to say and do nothing in advance. Russian policies and pronouncements often provide signals to the wise. Prior to the Russian invasion of Georgia, the intended war and its diplomatic exploitation was alluded to in a speech delivered by President Dmitri Medvedev on 15 July 2008 at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow. In another prescient sequence, Russia urged China to dump Fannie and Freddie bonds in August 2008, a month before the historic U.S. financial meltdown. It is worth noting that the Russians sold $65.6 billion in Fannie and Freddie debt at the beginning of that same year. (As it happens, Fannie and Freddie were seized by regulators on 6 September 2008.) The Russians have spies everywhere, who keep close tabs on global finance, military affairs and politics. The Russians piggy-back on international organized crime, which is a key source of information on corruption and the global underground economy.
The Russians also do more. They make the future, directly, instead of merely reacting to events. Back in the 1980s, for example, you might ask whether Europe was going to use Russian natural gas or continue to build nuclear power plants. The answer appeared by way of a nuclear reactor accident at a place called Chernobyl. Europe’s future dependence on Russian natural gas was thereby sealed. To take another, more recent, example: a KGB analyst in Moscow has predicted civil war in the United States. According to Russia’s Igor Panarin, America’s breakup will occur sometime around
2010 or 2011. In this instance, the Chernobyl
component has yet to be detonated.
http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2010/0528.html
The good side lost the election in the Ukraine because they could not control spending.
The world has gone financially conservative and will toss out the big spenders. Japan, for instance, has gotten sick of them. The conservatives in US are winning. I believe this will be the pattern for the future.
The problem is not so much the spending but what you spend the taxpayers’ money on. Unfortunately, Yuschenko and Tymoshenko spent the public money on getting themselves and their allies wealthy; on immortalizing Nazi criminals like Shukhevych and fascist bigots like Bendera; and on provoking hostilities between Eastern and Western Ukraines.
Voice of Reason wrote;
The problem is not so much the spending but what you spend the taxpayers’ money on. Unfortunately, Yuschenko and Tymoshenko spent the public money on getting themselves and their allies wealthy; on immortalizing Nazi criminals like Shukhevych and fascist bigots like Bendera; and on provoking hostilities between Eastern and Western Ukraines.
comment;
You forgot about your own fascist nazi criminals – Vlasov’s army – fighting under the Germans although, at first, Hitler resisted the request of Russians to join the Nazi army, for Hitler it was too risky – the russians would infect the purity of the german nation – he truly considered the russian the half-human … Dear you have to learn your own history. The present russian flag was the symbol of the Vlasov’s army as well.
That’s why Vlasov is not a “hero of Russia” and never will be. But Shukhevych and Bendera bear the official title of “Heroes of Ukraine”, thanks to Yuschenko.
VOR wrote;
That’s why Vlasov is not a “hero of Russia” and never will be. But Shukhevych and Bendera bear the official title of “Heroes of Ukraine”, thanks to Yuschenko
comment;
Shukhevych and Bandera did fight for the liberation of Ukraine from the RUSSIAN YOKE – much worse that the german occupation – that why they are heroes in the Ukraine. I bet that NOBODY in Russia knows about the Vlasov army [Vlasov was a general in the red army who deserted and went to the nazi side] and its fight against the soviet union. Just out of curiosity, do the russians know about Polish-bolshevik war of 1920 when your great hero, Budyonny, was running, with its tail between the legs, after being defeated by the Polish army???? – Poland truly saved Europe – if it wasn’t for this war the bolsheviks would march through Europe and reach Spain…
aaa, usa,
When first Soviet emigrants came to Israel in the 1070s, some ignorant Israelis asked them: “Do you have bread in in Russia?”
Your ignorant questions remind me of that.
aaa, usa wrote: “Poland truly saved Europe – if it wasn’t for this war the bolsheviks would march through Europe and reach Spain…”
Bolsheviks would have had no trouble defeating the powerful French and British armies and would have conquered all of Europe in 1920? Bwahaha! You are as ignorant as Bohdan.
Vor,
Repeatedly posting DISINFORMATION is just plain evil!
11 November 2008
On 11 November a meeting took place in the Moscow synagogue located in Mariina Roshcha between the chief rabbi of Russia, Berl Lazar, and the head of the main administration of the International “Eurasian Movement,” Pavel Zarifullin.
During the talks Rabbi Lazar expressed his profound concern in connection with the revival of Nazism in Ukraine and the Baltic republics. He discussed the awarding of the title of “Hero of Ukraine” to the SS executioner Shukhevych.
Russia’s chief rabbi emphasized that Ukraine’s accession to the EU and other international organizations should be prevented, and he appealed to the guests to use their connections and reputations in the struggle against the restoration of Nazism.
On 17 September 2008 the well-known Russian journalist Aleksandr Prokhanov and editor of the newspaper Zavtra (Tomorrow)—of whom it is said, “What Putin has on his mind, Prokhanov has on his tongue”—the same Prokhanov who openly calls himself an imperialist—was interviewed by the Ekho Moskvy radio station: “Stalin is becoming the face of Russia…Russia is a potential superpower. Otherwise, it will fall apart.” He went on to declare: “We have achieved this very crisis in Ukraine.” In reply to the female journalist’s question, “What must be done right now?” he said: “Yushchenko must be neutralized.”
High-ranking Russian politicians, particularly the mayor of Moscow, are publicly issuing claims to Ukrainian territory. Cultivated and welcomed by the Russian leadership, provocateurs are plundering national Ukrainian hallowed sites on Mt. Hoverla, and shredding and trampling the Ukrainian flag near the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel. During a press conference held on 28 October 2008 Vitaly Churkin, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation at the UN, made the following comment about the Holodomor, the Great Famine of 1932-33 in Ukraine: “…the Ukrainian government is using this question in order to create mischief between our two fraternal nations and sow discord between our peoples…No matter what repressions or actions were carried out by the Stalinist regime, it cannot be called the primary cause of the Famine…And it is wrong to say that the Stalinist regime was against the Ukrainian people.”
I don’t know if Churkin the diplomat has ever read Forever Flowing, a book about the Holodomor that was written by the famous Russian writer Vasily Grossman. I don’t know if Mr. Churkin reads anything besides “instructions from the Center.” But his statement is nothing but shameless profanity.
The other comments that he made during that press conference at the UN headquarters are also nothing but shameless profanity and arrogant lies. I quote: “…The second question…which, in my opinion, has a definite, logical connection with the first, is the question of the heroization of Nazism…In his edict bestowing an award on one of the odious members of the Ukrainian Nazi movement, the President of Ukraine called Mr. Shukhevych, who was a Nazi, a hero…Do you remember that thousands of Jews were killed on the territory of Kyiv? The majority of the people who were killing Jews in Babyn Yar were Ukrainian Nazis.”
“Ukrainian Nazis”? In other words, some Ukrainians who were supposedly members of Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers Party, the NSDAP, were shooting Jews in Babyn Yar, and not Germans from the Einsatzkommando? “Shukhevych, who was a Nazi”? In other words, Shukhevych, who was supposedly a member of the Nazi Party yet was based in Galicia, was in some fashion involved in the shootings in Babyn Yar? Anyone who says this is either an ignoramus or a disinformation specialist. I hope that Mr. Churkin is at least not an ignoramus.
I would like to remind Mr. Churkin that from 1939 to 1941 the USSR, whose successor today is the Russian Federation, was an ally of Nazi Germany. How can one forget all those movie reels showing the joint Soviet-German military parades? I would also like to remind him of the way the special disinformation operation targeting Roman Shukhevych, the Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), is being conducted today. Initially, a story was planted in the mass media, claiming that Shukhevych was an “SS captain.” The rebuttal to the disinformation specialists was that there was never any such rank. Then the disinformation specialists transformed Shukhevych into some sort of Obersturmfuehrer. It was explained to them that in order for an individual to become a member of the SS, he had to expend a lot of effort on proving his Aryan origins, which Shukhevych naturally did not have.
Then the disinformation specialists planted another story in the mass media, this one claiming that Shukhevych had received a military decoration from Hitler himself. They were reminded that the only person had ever received a military decoration from Hitler was Himmler. According to documents stored in Germany’s Military Archive in Freiburg, the Commander in Chief of the UPA was never awarded any German decoration.
But the disinformation specialists desperately need to discredit not only General Shukhevych and the UPA but the entire Ukrainian national liberation movement, as well as the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko.
So they have resorted to an old Soviet secret police provocation by playing the “Jewish card”: they accuse some Ukrainians of destroying Jews, and others of turning into heroes those whom they were allegedly destroying. This is a well-known device: turn the Jews away from the Ukrainian renaissance, turn the Jews and the entire civilized world away from those who seek to restore a genuine Ukrainian Ukraine—Ukrainian in spirit, language, and remembrance of its geniuses and heroes—a Ukrainian Ukraine for all those who live in that country today, regardless of ethnic origins.
In 1942-43 Natalia Shukhevych, the wife of UPA Commander in Chief Roman Shukhevych, hid a young Jewish girl named Ira Reichenberg in her home. General Shukhevych prepared a fake passport for the girl in the name of Iryna Ryzhko. When the Gestapo arrested Mrs. Shukhevych, the little girl was brought to an orphanage based at a convent located in the village of Kulykiv in the Lviv region. There the little girl survived the German occupation and the war. In 2007 Iryna Ryzhko died in Kyiv, where her son Volodymyr lives.
I recounted all this during my briefing at Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 3 November 2008.
President Victor Yushchenko has instituted state recognition of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The mass media in Russia and beyond its borders, which are manipulated by Russia’s special services, have unfolded a frantic smear campaign against the UPA, which is accused of complicity in the destruction of the Jews. On 14 October 2008, the Feast of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary—the day set aside to pay homage to UPA soldiers—I gave an interview to the BBC. Here is a fragment:
The claim that “the UPA engaged in anti-Jewish actions” is a provocation engineered by Moscow. It is a provocation. It is a lie that the UPA destroyed Jews. Tell me: how could the UPA have destroyed Jews when Jews were serving members of the UPA? I knew a Jew who served in the UPA. I also knew Dr. Abraham Shtertser, who settled in Israel after the war. There was Samuel Noiman whose [UPA] codename was Maksymovych. There was Shai Varma (codename Skrypal/Violinist). There was Roman Vynnytsky whose codename was Sam.
There was another distinguished figure in the UPA, a woman by the name of Stella Krenzbach, who later wrote her memoirs. She was born in Bolekhiv, in the Lviv region. She was the daughter of a rabbi, she was a Zionist, and in Bolekhiv she was friends with Olia, the daughter of a [Ukrainian] Greek-Catholic priest. In 1939 Stella Krenzbach graduated from Lviv University’s Faculty of Philosophy. From 1943 she served in the UPA as a nurse and intelligence agent. In the spring of 1945 she was captured by the NKVD while meeting a courier in Rozhniativ. She was imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death. Later, this Jewish woman was sprung from prison by UPA soldiers. In the summer of 1945 she crossed into the Carpathian Mountains together with a group of Ukrainian insurgents, and on 1 October 1946 she reached the British Zone of Occupation in Austria. Eventually, she reached Israel. In her memoirs Stella Krenzbach writes:
“I attribute the fact that I am alive today and devoting all the strength of my thirty-eight years to a free Israel only to God and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. I became a member of the heroic UPA on 7 November 1943. In our group I counted twelve Jews, eight of whom were doctors.”
I trust that the Ukrainian state will name all of these individuals. The Ukrainian state will proclaim as heroes these people who, although they were not ethnic Ukrainians, fought for Ukraine’s independence. To me personally, the UPA is sacred. In my opinion, the UPA is sacred to all individuals who, regardless of their ethnic backgrounds, have a bit of Ukraine in their souls.
Russia’s special services are seeking to destabilize the situation in Ukraine, undermine its sovereignty and independence, create a negative image of this country, block its integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures, and turn Ukraine into a dependent and manipulated satellite. In their special operations against Ukraine they attribute exceptional importance to the “Jewish card.”
They want to set the Ukrainians and Jews against each other by means of the well known method of “Divide and conquer.” They will not succeed in either dividing us or ruling over us.
Moses Fishbein is a distinguished Ukrainian poet and translator, winner of the Vasyl Stus Prize, and a member of the Ukrainian Center of the International PEN Club and the National Union of Writers of Ukraine. This is a paper delivered at the 26th Conference on Ukrainian Subjects at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, on June24-27, 2009.
Saakashvili, as popular as Lukashenka!!! ;)
Not yet, but getting there
Как Путино-Медведевская тварь лижет очко у США:
“Российское правительство надеется, что приглашение американских ветеранов в Москву на празднование Дня Победы поможет американской молодежи понять ту решающую роль, которую сыграл СССР во Второй мировой войне” Российская Газета. 7 мая 2010 г.
”9 мая войска НАТО пройдут по Красной площади. В параде, посвященном Дню Победы, примут участие военные из США, Великобритании и Франции. Также ожидается присутствие лидеров этих стран Барака Обамы, Гордона Брауна и Николя Саркози. Об этом сообщил управляющий делами президента России Владимир Кожин..” nenovosty.ru. 28.01.2010
” Россия поможет США с транзитом военных грузов. Об этом заявил президент России Дмитрий Медведев на пресс-конференции по итогам встречи с Бараком Обамой. По соглашению о транзите каждый день через Россию в Афганистан будут летать до 12 ам…ериканских военно-транспортных самолетов.Грузы невоенного назначения США уже поставляют через Россию в Афганистан с марта 2009 г. Достигнута также договоренность о проведении 20 совместных военных учений до конца 2009 г. и о стажировке учащихся российских военных академий в США. .” РИА Новости. 7 июля 2009.