The West closed their eyes to unauthorized anti-government meetings and demonstrations, including with the use of violence towards the staff of law enforcement agencies, committing acts of vandalism by crowds, and at the same time, they condemned the authorities for the use of force in restoring the constitutional order. Moreover, the NATO military machine practically destroyed all military facilities and government forces in Libya, and thus helped the militants of the opposition to brutally kill the head of state – Muammar Gaddafi. As a result, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon were immersed into an atmosphere of chaos and terror for a long time. In addition, in Syria, a country bleeding from a civil war, the forces of international terrorism intervened. The main sponsors and accomplices of the “Syrian Revolution” were satellites of Washington in the region – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Jordan. The U.S. authorities officially recognized the fact that they delivered weapons and military equipment to the so-called “Free Syrian Army” and trained militants of the Syrian opposition in training centers and military camps in Jordan. In their desire to overthrow the hated regime of Bashar al-Assad at all costs, carriers of the Western democracy closed their eyes to the recruitment and transfer of thousands of jihadist militants to Syria, including from Western countries. Washington is not embarrassed even by the fact that the heterogeneous factions, fighting in Syria, are associated with Al-Qaeda and are on the lists of terrorist organizations in the U.S.A., EU, and the UN.
Though the “Arab Spring” is still in full swing, Western political analysts are actively discussing the possibility of its spreading to other countries and regions, in particular, to the post-Soviet space. In their opinion, the prerequisites for “revolutionary” transformations have allegedly formed in some countries of the former USSR: a high level of corruption, and a poorly developed civil society. Thus, they try to accelerate democratization by Western patterns. And although they placed countries of Central Asia in the foreground at first, it was Georgia and Ukraine that became the first victims of the aggressive policy of the United States and its Western allies. However, while Tbilisi is trying to normalize its relations with Russia, and the new Georgian leadership has even defused hostility towards Abkhazia and South Ossetia after President M. Saakashvili stepped down, Ukraine, with the help of Western countries, was on the brink of a civil war and disintegration, based on the national or regional characteristics in early 2014.
As it is known, the attempts to accelerate the integration of Ukraine into the EU and involving it into cooperation with NATO were undertaken during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko’s premiership. However, Ukraine’s financial and economic dependence on Russia and the presence of a large Russian-speaking electorate restrained these processes. All these plans seemed to be postponed for an indefinite period after the election of Viktor Yanukovych to the presidency. Such a situation clearly did not satisfy Washington, Brussels and local homegrown oligarchs, who earned money on cooperation with Russia and placed it in the West, in the form of investments and deposits. They did not want to wait for the next presidential and parliamentary elections, as they were not confident in achieving the changes in power they wanted. Thus, the experience of the “Arab Street” or the “Arab Spring” proved to be very useful here.
The immediate pretext for the mass anti-government demonstrations in Kiev was the postponement of signing an agreement for the beginning of the process of Ukraine’s joining the EU. The president and his entourage were accused of corruption, pro-Russian orientation, inability to solve social and economic problems, and other sins. The main motive forces of the opposition (the military wing) were well-trained militias of the nationalist wing from western regions of Ukraine. Following the example of the Arab Islamists, they arrived at Maidan in Kiev (incidentally, maidan is the Arabic word for a square) and started systematic siege and capture of government buildings. Barriers of the militia with shields and truncheons were subjected to raids of militants who used firebombs and stones. At the last stage of the confrontation, the groups of nationalist were first to use firearms, more than 80 people were killed on both sides, and hundreds were injured.
During all the weeks of fierce opposition between the legitimate authorities and nationalist militants, Western emissaries exerted unprecedented pressure on V. Yanukovych and persistently refused to notice the aggressive criminal actions of the armed opposition. They were obviously impressed by the operation involving the violent seizure of power in Kiev, using incendiary bombs and firearms. Once again, the policy of “double standards” of the West to human rights and law enforcement has demonstrated itself in practice. As the first legislation bills of the reshuffled Ukrainian parliament show, such languages as Russian and other languages of multinational Ukraine (Hungarian, Crimean Tatar and the others) will lose the status of regional languages and the citizens will not able to educate their children in their native languages or to use them when applying to government agencies. They will close Russian theaters, mass media and so on and so forth. In fact, almost half of the citizens of Ukraine will be practically non-citizens and second-class people (approximately in the position in which they found themselves in the Baltics).
When speaking about the situation in Canada, where there is only one French-speaking province, Quebec, it is necessary to note that French along with English have the status of state languages. Any Canadian can apply to the local or central authorities in his own language, and can use it even in Canadian foreign missions. In Switzerland, there are several state languages (German, French, Italian, and Romansh). Even in the Arab world, there are examples of bilingualism, for example, in Iraq, where the Kurds represent 17% of the population, the Kurdish language is the language of regional communication. The West, where standards of democracy are cultivated, wants to notice neither the attacks on the rights of Russian-speaking population of Ukraine, nor the discrimination against Russian when seeking work in the civil service, etc. The situation would change if Washington and Brussels directed a part of their efforts not only to protect the rights of sexual minorities, but at the same time to equalize the rights of Russians and Ukrainians in Ukraine.
Thus, realizing its global project to democratize the world by Western standards, Washington and its Western partners act shamelessly and selectively: one gets the “crumbs from the master’s table” in the form of the promised financial assistance, the second is discriminated against on various grounds (national, ethnic, religious, etc.) and the third plunges into permanent chaos and violence (Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, and Libya). Thus, it is now the time for an artificial democratization of Ukraine using heirs of fascist mercenaries – nationalists from western regions, some of which have gained experience in operations against the Russian Army in Chechnya and South Ossetia. It is not by chance that along with the demolition of Lenin monuments, young Banderas desecrate monuments to the liberators, who defended Europe and saved the world from Fascism. We have all heard how heads of the western regions were abused, where they were handcuffed, doused with water and subjected to public humiliations. So why are these provocative and criminal actions not considered human rights violations in the West, and are taken as normal?
Stanislav Ivanov, PhD of Historical Science, Senior Researcher, Institute of Oriental Studies, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
