Putin: ‘Foreign Legion’ Operating In Ukraine

Putin: ‘Foreign legion’ operating in Ukraine (Russia Beyond The Headlines, Jan 27, 2015):

During at visit to the National Mineral Resources University in St. Petersburg on Monday, Jan. 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused NATO of interfering in Ukraine and not acting in that country’s interests. “We often say: Ukrainian Army, Ukrainian Army. But who is really fighting there? There are, indeed, partially official units of armed forces, but largely there are the so-called ‘volunteer nationalist battalions’,” said Putin.

According to Putin, the Ukrainian army “is essentially no longer an army, it is a foreign legion – in this case a foreign NATO legion – which, of course, is not pursuing Ukraine’s national interests.”

At a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels the same day, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called Putin’s comments “nonsense.” “There is no NATO legion, the foreign forces in Ukraine are Russian,” Stoltenberg said, urging Russia to stop backing the rebels in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Russian analysts say that Putin’s statements were made out of a desire to emphasize Kiev’s dependence on the U.S. and the EU. Viktor Militaryov, vice president of the Institute for National Strategy, told RBTH that while “of course, the Ukrainian armed forces are not officially a NATO structure,” in his statement, Putin was implying that they are not acting on their own initiative. In Militaryov’s view, Putin was essentially saying that NATO and especially the United States “are using Kiev and its armed forces for geopolitical provocations against Russia.”

According to Iosif Diskin, co-Chairman of the National Strategy Council, Putin’s statements can be interpreted to mean that the U.S. is trying to drive a wedge between Russia and Europe using the Ukrainian armed forces.

Alexander Golts, a military expert and editor-in-chief of the independent Internet portal The Daily Journal, has a different take on Putin’s statements. According to Golts, Putin unwittingly presented Russia as a party to the conflict in Ukraine. “Military actions are under way on Ukrainian territory, not Russian territory. If, in the Russian president’s opinion, the purpose of the military action is to contain Russia, then who is fighting against the voluntary battalions there?” Golts asked.

A signal to the West?

The Russian analysts say Putin’s most recent statements have a harsher tone that his previous statements on the conflict in Ukraine. Militaryov said that this time, the Russian leader expressed himself in “as rigid a manner as possible” in pursuit of a very definite goal.

In Militaryov’s opinion, by stressing Kiev’s dependence on the West, Putin was calling on Washington to enter into direct negotiations on the Ukrainian crisis.

Diskin agrees with Militaryov’s assessment that Putin was calling the Western political establishment to the negotiating table. However, in his opinion, Putin’s statements were directed at Brussels, not Washington. “This is a signal to the European Union to consider its interests and construct a policy based not on the already semi-mythical Atlantic solidarity, but on the EU’s interests,” Diskin told RBTH.

Golts, however, disagrees with this perspective. In his opinion, Putin’s words reflect his irritation at the fact that the conflict was not solved in the “Normandy Format” – between Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko – which in Putin’s view would have ensured that Ukraine would not join NATO.

2 thoughts on “Putin: ‘Foreign Legion’ Operating In Ukraine”

  1. Russia is looking towards recruiting the EU, the last entity that supports the dollar. When Greece leaves, Italy Spain, Ireland, Portugal……all could be next. Italy and Spain are the current targets…….Russia already has Cyprus and Greece……two of the 18 voting member of the EU. Who doubts other EU nations weary of greedy guts coming in to steal everything they ever had, national treasures at pennies on the dollar will not follow Grecian and Cyprus’ lead?

    Telling the bankers to go to hell is the beginning. Russia and BRICS offers them a chance to get away from austerity……..
    This should show all greedy guts that austerity not only does not work, but that it leads to revolution.
    Look what they are doing to bankrupt cities in the US…….the anti greedy gut movement is coming alive all over the west.
    If Putin persists, and enough EU nations join BRICS, the dollar will collapse. Nobody else uses it now……much of the world, 70% of all world economies have moved to the open basket of currencies, using their own currency, leaving the dollar out.
    The US skated on being world reserve currency for years. Thanks to abuse of that status, the world found an alternative and adopted it. Now, an electronic currency replaces it. An electronic currency, based on the Sucre, is used to translate the value of each currency at the time of transaction, making the need for any world reserve currency obsolete.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Marilyn Gjerdrum Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.