Editor’s Note: This new opinion feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given by Ukrainian presidents since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse is still rotting on the Kremlin’s Red Square, 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Leonid Gozman – Order of Yaroslav
The Wise
Ukraine was blessed to have many friends this week, especially in the West, as politicians revolt against the prospect that U.S. President Donald J. Trump will lead America to friendlier ties with the Kremlin.
While it’s easy to criticize Russian dictator Vladimir Putin from abroad, it’s harder to do so from Moscow. So, while the comments came on Feb. 5, Russian opposition politician Leonid Gozman deserves the spotlight for telling the truth about Russia’s war against Ukraine on national TV – not easy to do.
On the “60 Minutes” program on state-owned Rossiya 1, Gozman – who heads the Social Movement Union of Right Forces of Russia – openly blamed Russia for the three-year-old war that has killed 10,00 people.
“This terrible war, with victims on both sides, with atrocities and violence – it couldn’t last for more than a day if we didn’t support, with arms, money, and people, these so-called leaders of these (separatist) republics, who from my point of view are simply criminals,” Gozman said.
Gozman blamed not only the Russian government, but also Russian citizens for allowing the war to continue. “We have nothing to do there, our guys have nothing to do there. And the fact that we are supporting people like (separatist leader Alexander) Zakharchenko is our – and yours as a Russian citizen – responsibility,” Gozman said.
He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government wanted to keep the war in Ukraine going to win domestic support.
“Our government gets a lot from this war,” Gozman said. “They get the consolidation of the society, they get an enemy… Having an enemy is important because they need to explain why we have such a bad life.”
He is not alone. Former Russian State Duma Deputy Denis Voronenkov, who defected to Ukraine last year, has called Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region “ a mistake.”
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, in an interview with Censor.net, Voronenkov compared Russia with
Nazi Germany – saying that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) controls everything in the country.
Voronenkov called former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was toppled by the EuroMaidan Revolution on Feb. 22, 2014, a Kremlin “puppet” who fled to Russia and asked Putin to send Russian troops to Ukraine.
He said that Russia had gone “crazy on its pseudo-patriotic madness” and that “Crimea has united Russia around the idea to steal something from a neighbor.”
Michael T. Flynn -Order of Lenin
The friend of my enemy is my enemy. That describes Michael T. Flynn, one of the West’s useful idiots who admires war criminal Vladimir Putin and who appeared as a regular commentator on the Kremlin dictator’s RT global television station. Flynn also accepted a paid speaking engagement in Russia and sat next to Putin at a Dec. 10, 2015, party to celebrate RT’s birthday.
Flynn was rightfully ousted on Feb. 13, after only 24 days serving as U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s national security adviser.
It is gratifying that intelligence services, working with independent journalists, sank Flynn by revealing that he discussed easing U.S. sanctions against Russia on Dec. 30 with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.
The talks undermined U.S. President Barack Obama’s tougher sanctions against Russia, including the expulsion of Russian spies, announced days earlier. The tougher sanctions came after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia had interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, including by hacking and releasing Democratic Party emails.
The story is far from over. Flynn’s overtures to Russia appear to have been sanctioned by Trump, who tweeted his praise of Putin on Dec. 30 for not retaliating to Obama’s sanctions. “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!” Trump tweeted.
Flynn was reportedly known as a habitual liar, with subordinates coining the term “Flynn facts,” one of the reasons Obama fired him as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014. Yet Trump knew for weeks that Flynn had misled U.S. Vice President Mike Pence about his talks with Russia and the president did nothing about it until the scandal went public.
There are likely many other Kremlin moles inside the White House today. U.S. journalists have reported that intelligence services are withholding sensitive information from Trump because of fears that the Kremlin is eavesdropping on all of the president’s conversations.
Trump’s strange admiration of Putin deserves greater scrutiny. His choice of associates include Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser and another Kremlin apologist who was interviewed regularly on Russian TV and who has extensive business interests in Russia and close ties to Putin confidant Igor Sechin, the Rosneft CEO.
Ukrainians have also not forgotten that Trump’s former campaign manager was Paul Manafort, who worked to get the Kremlin stooge, ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, elected in 2010.
Good riddance, Flynn, we hope you are merely the start of a White House cleaning project that ends in Trump’s resignation or impeachment – or at the very least constrains his public support for Putin to such an extent that appeasement is politically impossible.
