The American "Left" and Its Extremely Distorted Narrative on Ukraine

There are multiple narratives about what is going on now in Ukraine. There is the US and EU narrative, which is strongly colored by their own objectives to bring Ukraine into their own orbit. There is the Russian narrative of an east/west divide in Ukraine with massive support for Russia in the east which is being militarily attacked by a runaway government in Kiev. And then there is the Ukrainian narrative, which explains why millions of Ukrainians went into the streets to oppose the former Yanukovich government, which was so extremely corrupt that it had stolen so many tens of billions of dollars that it had bankrupted Ukraine, destroyed its economy, and was moving toward closer relations with Russia as a result. I understand why the establishment media in the US report only the US/EU narrative. I understand why extremely distorted and dishonest Russian propaganda is reported by Russian media and why alternative narratives are censored to prevent the Russian people from seeing them. What I do not understand is why so many prominent figures of the American left and left media such as the Nation, Democracy Now! and KPFA news are promoting the Russian narrative without dissenting views being allowed to be heard. We hear commentators such as Conn Hallinan, Stephen Cohen, Katrina Van Den Heuvel, Bob Scheer, and others broadcasting what I can only call pro-Russian nonsense about the situation in Ukraine.

Why, for example, do we not hear from Paul Robert Magocsi, author of "A History of Ukraine" and professor of history and political science at the University of Toronto, whom I heard on NPR presenting a Ukrainian narrative? Why do we not hear from Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov, who lives a few hundred yards from Independence Square in Kiev, and who has just published his diaries from November 2013 to April 2014, also from a Ukrainian perspective ("Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches from Kiev," Harville Secker, London, 2014. What these commentators present is far different from both the US/EU narrative and the Russian narrative. What they say, which is well-supported by easily ascertainable facts, is that events in Ukraine were and are not primarily motivated by east/west divisions or by Ukrainian/Russian language divisions. People went into the streets because they were fed up with their totally corrupt government, dysfunctional economy, and complete lack of democracy. The thwarted economic agreement with Europe was only a symbol for those much deeper demands, which were and are shared by Ukrainians east and west. There were, at first, uprisings in Kharkiv and Donetsk around these demands, though they were viciously and violently attacked by Russian forces. Opinion polls have consistently shown that all parts of Ukraine are strongly pro-Ukrainian with the exception of Crimea, in which 54 percent of the population wanted to be Russian (that fact should not obscure the total illegality of Russia's occupation of Crimea).

The signs that you are hearing Russian propaganda are easy to detect. For example, the word "coup" is used. There was no coup in Ukraine. President Yanukovich was advised by Vladimir Putin to use violence against demonstrators in Kiev. He did so and sent his snipers to shoot protesters. The negative reaction was so fierce that Yanukovich voluntarily fled the country; that is not a coup. Even his own Party of Regions denounced him. Second, we hear of "rebels" and "separatists." There are no Ukrainian rebels and separatists. What there is has been a Russian invasion for months with thousands of well-armed Russian troops (using the fiction that they are either "on leave" or civilian Russian citizens). Dead Russian soldiers are quietly buried in Russia with no press coverage allowed. The self-proclaimed leader of the Donetsk Republic is a Russian citizen. The weapons that these forces used to shoot down a Malaysian civilian airplane came from Russia. They have Russian tanks and advanced weapons that they are using to shoot down Ukrainian planes and helicopters inside Ukraine. There are likely small numbers of Ukrainians fighting with these Russians in the east; they are not rebels or separatists, they are collaborators with the Russian invasion.

I will not speculate on the motive of the massive support for the Russian propaganda campaign by voices of the left. It is their duty to explain their own actions. But I will state that they have grossly misled many people in the United States about what is really going on in Ukraine. They impose big power analysis on Ukraine and ignore the aspirations of the Ukrainian people. Vladimir Putin has zero interest in the well-being of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine or in Crimea, who faced no threat from Kiev at all until Putin began meddling there with his special forces. First and foremost, he is threatened by even the remote possibility that Ukraine could dismantle its corrupt regime and economic system and begin to build a genuinely democratic society which would certainly appeal to and inspire many Russian citizens as well as the beleaguered citizens of Belarus. That is a direct threat to Putin's power. Second and far behind that, Putin is concerned about Western influence in Ukraine. Ironically, his invasion has actually facilitated that and has caused Ukraine to apply for NATO membership.

I could understand left apologists for the Soviet Union (even when they were wrong, too) since the Soviet Union was still the result of a socialist experiment gone extremely awry. But Putin's Russia has no progressive aspect. This is oligarchical capitalism in the extreme, and Putin's allies, some of whom were sent to fight in Ukraine, are ironically far more fascist and rightwing than any party in Ukraine. This is not a case where the evil United States is trying to steal something from innocent and progressive Russia. Instead, an equally evil Russian government is trying to prevent Ukraine from freeing itself. For American leftists to support this Russian venture is shameful, dishonest, and totally unjustifiable. Inside Russia, the propaganda for this position is so pervasive and unchallenged that Russian citizens have no clue about what is really going on. I understand that, too, but I do not understand why American leftists are promoting and amplifying this completely deceptive Russian propaganda.

Understanding Ukraine is complicated by the fact that there are no genuine political parties which express the will of the Ukrainian people. It remains to be seen whether President Poroshenko will try to form such a party and whether he will succeed if he does try. Most Ukrainians are extremely distrustful of politicians, including Poroshenko. Still, that is the main story here, and the orchestrated Russian invasion is Putin's response to it.

I'd like to end this blog with some citations from the afterword to Andrey Kurkov's diaries, written on June 27. "Over the past two months the Ukrainian people have been introduced to the concept of 'hybrid war': an expression coined to mean war initiated in any country by a neighboring state without mobilizing their own troops but by supplying arms and volunteers to rebel insurgents in the country loyal to the neighboring state, who believe that life is better there. The neighboring state--in this case Russia--persistently denies involvement in the military situation in eastern Ukraine, but when challenged directly to explain how the separatists come to be in possession of tanks and military technology registered to the armed forces of the Russian Federation, they do not reply. Russian volunteers return home--to Rostov-on-Don, Lipetsk, or the suburbs of Moscow--in zinc-lined coffins, a familiar image from the war in Afghanistan.... But Russia does not welcome her wounded soldiers home. If truth be told, she would rather not accept her dead citizens either. With the exception of the opposition newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, the Russian press does not even mention the Russian death toll in Ukraine. The funerals of these soldiers are conducted in virtual secrecy, too, under the supervision of Russia's FSB."

"Meanwhile, the Maidan, our European revolution, has become history. But6 this history is unfinished, not yet ready to be a page in a textbook. Of course, ex-President Yanukovych is currently living in Russia, and he was followed there by several dozen former members of the Cabinet and former heads of the police force and secret services. In other words, an entire class of corrupt Ukrainian politicians (as if there were any other kind) and civil servants have become political refugees. The country is governed by new people now, and Ukraine believes in them--for the time being. The new government has not yet launched its promised war against corruption on all levels."

"It will come to an end at some point. Whatever the outcome, it's already quite clear that the good old Ukraine we have lived in for twenty-three years since she gained independence will no longer exist. What kind of Ukraine will replace this quiet, peaceful version, no one knows. It's easy enough to conjure up a variety of possible scenarios for the immediate future, although none of them are particularly optimistic. The main reason for this is that Europe, so vociferous in her support during the Maidan protests, has subsequently fallen silent and walked away, preferring to profit from trade with Russia. Money matters more than democracy. This cynical lesson that Europe has taught Ukraine will inevitably influence the future of my country. Which means that it will influence my own future. Ultimately, it will influence the future of Europe herself--the future of the entire European Union."

Let real voices be heard, like Kurkov's, and let ignorant American leftists stop speaking as experts on events in Ukraine about which they demonstrably know very little.
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