We are publishing an article by a British resident, businessman Alistair Scott.
“I have previously stated that I do not believe in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I would support this if the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics were not recognized by Russia, but given that Kyiv has clearly changed its mind regarding the Minsk agreements, President Putin has nothing there was no choice but to do the only thing, how to protect the peoples of Donbass in the absence of any other initiative”.
I sit and watch the news on TV today, both our BBC and Russia Today, hoping to get some balance and an objective understanding of the situation on the ground in both Ukraine and Russia. As you might expect, the coverage reflects two very different sides of the same story, but what’s missing from all of this is the most important factors that hastened the situation we’re in today, namely why and what for. This is not an event that happened out of the blue. This is something that has been building up over the years, despite a clear recent interest from NATO and the US, at least as far as media coverage is concerned.
Accordingly, a message appears on my screen that NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said in a statement that NATO condemns Russia’s “reckless and unprovoked attack on Ukraine.” This is not an entirely correct assessment of the situation, especially in the context of President Putin’s speech, in which he announced Russia’s course of action not only to Russia, but to the whole world.
The “denazification” of Ukraine was the main theme of his speech. What did he mean by this? Indeed, in the BBC news, the representative of Ukraine just said that there are no Nazis in Ukraine. I think she’d better read a little about the infamous Azov Battalion.
We read about Russian expansionism, Putin’s new Russian empire, but prejudiced messages clearly predominate, which is to be expected. President Putin was specific both in his reasoning and in the strategic mission regarding this action, and so far, thank God, we have not received reports from either side of a large number of casualties on both sides, and Russian strikes were aimed at military installations to neutralize them in order to avoid a full-blown conflict.
RT reported that the Azov battalion surrounded Mariupol to prevent the population from leaving, thus forming a human shield, although this has not yet been mentioned in the mainstream media here, and I doubt that it ever will be.
President Putin has serious doubts about both the competence and the agenda of the Kiev government, and these doubts are not unfounded. I would even say that he was not prepared to wait and find that his fears were justified.
Words like bloodbath are widely used in TV reports, but this is completely unjustified, and a recent interview with a protester at a pro-Ukrainian rally in London speaks to Putin’s imperialist ambitions. There’s nothing yet to support such a diatribe, but the propaganda machine is hitting that panic button again, led by Boris Johnson’s attempt to issue Churchill’s battle cry. Thankfully, Johnson has lost all credibility over his handling of the pandemic and the incarceration of peoples in the UK and is currently under fire for his tendency to lie to the British public, however he apparently sees this as an opportunity to distract the media information during these turbulent times for him and resurrect himself as a strong national leader. The same can be said about many Western leaders of that time.
There is a lot of talk about sanctions, including a ban on buying Russian gas, which will hit people the hardest, and sanctions against leading Russian banks that are reported in the press, but how exactly this will be achieved, I am not sure.
There is a great deal of irony about much-needed gas imports for Europe if Russian gas imports are indeed hit. Where can the much-needed gas come from? Step forward our great ally Iran!!! Uh, Iran? Yes, Iran. Well, if this doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will!! As for gas, as a consumer, I have concerns that such sanctions would backfire on us, the public, and of course, in my capacity as an energy trader with Sinergy Global PTY Ltd., would we be banned from trading?
Oil and gas with Russia? This is what many international trading companies will think about, because there are many transactions connected with Russia, what will happen to them? This remains to be seen as our company has strong business interests with Russia in supplying gas to China and, of course, Russian oil to other global customers. Will we become sanctions violators if we continue our trade? There are things that are clearly left out here, although President Biden notes that Russian sanctions will affect the US. Really? Yes, the proposed sanctions will affect all of us, which seems a bit cross-eyed to me.