Eamon McKinney August 25, 2022 © Photo: REUTERS/Handout
The Western financial vultures are already deciding who gets what from what remains of the Ukrainian carcass, an exercise they are well practiced in. It is now some five months since Russia embarked on its offensive to liberate the people of the Eastern Ukraine. At the outset, the outpouring of love and compassion for the Ukraine from the collective West was heartwarming. The mainstream media, fresh off their genocidal Covid complicity moved into high gear. Russophobia on steroids was the “new thing”. All things Russian had to banned and of course, Putin was the new Hitler. The blogosphere was alight with a new topic with which the great and good could virtue signal their way into heaven. Ukrainian flags were seemingly everywhere and blue and yellow became the fashion item de jour. Western leaders were barging each other out of the way to decry Russia and proclaim their undying love and support for the Ukrainian people. Of course, not all the Ukrainians, not the Russian speakers in the East who had been bombed and murdered relentlessly for the previous eight years, just the recently inconvenienced citizens who didn’t speak Russian. This selective compassion was on full display as all the Western puppet politicians went into full tough guy mode to try and look strong for an electorate that post Covid already widely despised them. This Western love affair was alas all too brief for the Globalists, they had spent eight years trying to provoke Russia into an offensive. While the Western Governments continued to proclaim their support for the Puppet Zelensky, the people of the West quickly cooled in their affections. Perhaps it was the realisation that they had once again been lied to and that the conflict didn’t begin in February, but had in fact been going on for eight years. Maybe it was because they realised that the war was being fought by Ukrainian Neo-Nazi’s who were committing unspeakable atrocities on the people. Or maybe the knowledge that the Ukraine wasn’t in fact a democracy, but a violent oppressive regime that suppressed democracy. Alas, more likely it is because they are beginning to understand who will pay the price for the war, them. Western Europe is soon to experience a long cold winter. Food and energy shortages together with uncontrollable inflation will bring home the reality of the true cost of war. It will hit hard a continent that has largely experienced uninterrupted peace and relative comfort since 1945. Even the most “virtuous” of Ukraine’s early lovers are reconsidering their stance. Including many of the Western leaders who have come to inescapable conclusion that Russia is winning the war and the Ukrainian military are in an impossible position. Cracks are appearing among EU member countries who generally didn’t like each other to begin with. Politicians will soon have to answer citizens who will want answers to why they are fighting Russia and why they have no heat. Whatever support for the war they had at the beginning, that it seems has largely drained away. Yet for them, or rather their masters, all is not lost. Representatives from the EU, the U.S., Britain, Japan, and South Korea meet in early July in Switzerland to discuss the cynically named “Ukrainian Recovery Conference”. A more honest title would have been “How the financial powers can profit from the devastation we caused” But they prefer more innocuous handles. The Western financial vultures are already deciding who gets what from what remains of the Ukrainian carcass. It is an exercise they are well practiced in. The same Neo-liberal shock therapy imposed on Russia following the break up of the Soviet Union is precisely what is planned for post-war Ukraine. Privatisation of State sector assets, reform the labor laws (strong in the Ukraine) land reform and the sale of Ukrainian land and assets to foreign investors. Or more plainly, the rape of Ukraine and the imposition of a Western backed Corporate State. There is little to no discussion about any rebuilding, it’s all just about the spoils. With few exceptions the Ukrainian people are understandably virulently opposed to all of it. The same majority of Ukrainians also don’t like the fact that their once proud country is run by Oligarchs and Nazis. Or that the democratically elected President was overthrown in a Western-backed coup in 2014. Or that all the opposition parties and media outlets have been closed down. Or dragging their sons into a war they wanted no part of. The informed people of the Ukraine know all to well what happened to Russia under Neo-Liberal shock therapy, they understand the enemy Putin is fighting and they know that enemy is not their friend. The West wants to welcome Ukraine into the warm embrace of the EU. That portends a dim future for a country long since stripped of the fundamentals of a once sound economy. What benefit they could get by joining a bankrupt group of nations in a failed Globalist experiment has yet to be properly explained. While the NATO clique is keen on “Western Integration” many Ukrainians see a better future looking east towards Russia. It is understood that Russia will retain stewardship over eastern Ukraine post conflict. Russia will doubtless invest in rebuilding and developing those war-torn regions. President Putin understood this from the start, Russian forces have been careful to avoid unnecessary damage to infrastructure and civilian casualties. The question, still unanswered is how far will Putin’s postwar stewardship extend? The Neo-liberal postwar plan works off certain assumptions. The main one being they know where the lines will be drawn, if they think they can predict Putin’s end game, they may wish to reflect on the fact that they haven’t so far. Initially Putin’s stated strategy was the protection on the citizens in Donetsk and Lugansk, and the de-nazification of Ukraine. But those objectives have changed, having a Ukraine split between east and west may not suit Russia. Having a friendly neighbour with shared interests is much more to its liking. Should Western Ukraine fall into Western hands, he is under no illusions, there will be continuous conflict of varying degrees for the foreseeable future. There is a scenario where the Kiev Government falls and flees. Open and free elections are held and the Ukrainian people decide in which direction their interests are best served. This would not be possible with Western interference, only Russia could ensure free elections. Should the people decide they don’t want the Western Neo-Liberal shock therapy and turn east to Russia to, doubtless President Putin would welcome a free and democratic Ukraine as old friends. This is what the Ukraine government did in 2014, it is what spurred the Maidan coup to replace the democratically elected Yanukovych with a Western Puppet. Yanukovych had decided he didn’t like the IMF offer or its conditionalities and instead arranged a better “no strings attached” deal with Moscow. This is when the war actually started. It is on this issue it could end. Putin rescued Russia from the Western Neo-liberal vultures, he stated that Neo-liberalism had killed more than three million Russians. In a land of plenty, people starved to death. It is not in Russia’s interests to see the same thing happen in the Ukraine. The West has never forgiven Putin for stopping the plunder of Russia, he knows they hate him, he doesn’t care. If he can do it again and rescue the Ukraine, President Putin will be a happy man. Just before the fall of Berlin in 1945, with the Western and Russian forces closing in, the trapped Berliners were resigned to their fate, yet there was a joke going around, “enjoy the war, because the peace will be terrible.” For those Ukrainians fortunate enough to be away from the war zone, take heed. For if the West has its way, the peace will indeed be terrible.
© 2010 - 2022 | Strategic Culture Foundation | Republishing is welcomed with reference to Strategic Culture online s www.strategic-culture.org. This article appears originally at https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/08/25/the-planned-plunder-of-ukraine/
Dr. Eamon McKinney is an eminent Sinologist with more than 40 years’ involvement in China foreign business. He is C.E.O. and founder (1985) of CBNGLOBAl, his company has managed more than 300 major China-Foreign projects. He lives in Qingdao, China.
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