Russia is stating to the world that that it will continue to resist the daily attacks on the people of Russia being carried out on every level by the NATO countries and that it is prepared for the worst. On the economic front, Prime Minister Medvedev announced the banning of imports of industrial equipment for state purposes on the same day as the drills were announced. The astonishment is on two levels, first because Gerasimov’s statement is a welcome fist in the face of the Americans and, and second because the leaders of the most powerful nations on earth are talking openly of general war and are openly preparing for it.
It is perhaps less astonishing that after a century of generalised warfare across the globe the imperialist forces coalesced in the NATO alliance are still engaged in the robbery and pillaging of entire countries to enrich themselves, never having succeeded in rising higher than the level of the Hitlerite thugs they admire.
In the Ukraine, the NATO controlled Kiev regime uses indiscriminate shelling of the towns and cities of the Donbass republics to terrorise the people. There are daily reports of mortar teams roaming the streets in civilian vehicles firing bombs randomly and of white phosphorus being used against civilian targets, proof that the Kiev regime is engaging in collective punishment of the civilian population. In all this, the regime is assisted by the NATO countries that are increasing their supply of mercenaries, weapons, ammunition, money and “advisers” to use against the people of the Donbass. Angela Merkel and Barak Obama are to meet in Washington next week to discuss provision of direct and open military assistance to the Kiev junta and we can be sure that peace will not be on their agenda but a NATO war against Russia will be. Of course these war crimes and crimes against humanity and the conspiracy to commit them taking place in the NATO capitals have not provoked any reaction in the western media or governments except to call for war against Russia and the International Criminal Court sits blind, mute and spineless, once again proving its total irrelevance except as a NATO propaganda tool.
The Minsk talks on January 31st never got off the ground as Kiev showed its contempt for the process by sending low-level officials and continuing the shelling of Donetsk and other cities. The junta refused a ceasefire, preferring to talk and fight at the same time, aping the attitude of the American international bully that runs the show. But a ceasefire is essential for real talks to begin. No one likes to negotiate looking down the barrel of a gun but the Americans and their satraps like to make people squirm while they issue their diktats.
The actions of the Kiev regime, its new offensive, its order for the mobilisation of the population and civilian vehicles, the presence in Kiev of American and other NATO military officers and their financiers like George Soros, all point to increased and continued fighting on the Ukrainian front. Russian Foreign Minister Serge Lavrov expressed his frustration with his reference to Obama’s confession on CNN on February 1st that the Americans had succeeded in changing the government in Kiev, in fact overthrowing the legitimate government of Ukraine to replace it with their hand picked people. It was also a confession by Obama that they are responsible for the crimes being committed and that they are going to continue to commit them, that the Americans have no intention of allowing peace in Ukraine. Indeed, it was was a confession of a crime against peace. One day he will find himself in the dock.
Obama’s remarks were made a day before the anniversary of the surrender of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, in 1943, an army that came to conquer Russia but was itself destroyed by the courage and determination of the Red Army, an army that existed because Russia, with the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, had thrown off the economic and political yoke of the old regime, and released a flowering of Russian industrial, scientific, economic and social development unprecedented in world history: a development that provided Russia with the capacity and will to resist the fascist forces then and now.
Russia has allies but Russia and the people of Ukraine should not stand alone against enemies common to us all. The anti-war movement in the western countries is nowhere to be seen yet the European governments managed to mobilise millions in a few days to demonstrate about the killings in Paris but no popular movement exists to go on the streets and once again shout John Lennon’s call “Give Peace A Chance,” and aim that call at the governments who are behind most of the wars on the planet. Instead despair reins. The social media are full of this despair and anger but no one moves to act where it counts, on the streets. “But” say wiser heads, “it’s all been tried before and it stopped nothing, what’s the point?” I don’t know the answer but I do know that if we do not try to do something then the world is at grave risk. A short while ago the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reset the Doomsday Clock, the clock that tells us how close were are to exterminating ourselves. It was set forward 2 minutes. It is now 3 minutes to midnight.
I think it’s worth quoting the reasons for resetting the clock,
“Unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity, and world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. These failures of political leadership endanger every person on Earth. Despite some modestly positive developments in the climate change arena, current efforts are entirely insufficient to prevent a catastrophic warming of Earth. Meanwhile, the United States and Russia have embarked on massive programs to modernize their nuclear triads—thereby undermining existing nuclear weapons treaties. The clock ticks now at just three minutes to midnight because international leaders are failing to perform their most important duty—ensuring and preserving the health and vitality of human civilization.”
There you have it, friends, 3 minutes to midnight, and counting with every shell, with every bullet that’s fired. The risk of nuclear war is great, perhaps never greater. So what are we going to do about it?
Christopher Black is an international criminal lawyer based in Toronto, he is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and he is known for a number of high-profile cases involving human rights and war crimes, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
