 by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. I have been ill lately, probably the flu that's going round. If you've had it too you know how intrusive, debilitating and oppressive it is, not least throughout the long stages of the night. Sleep is fitful, the bed clothes lathered by acrid sweat, the whole overawed by nightmarish dreams, each more lurid than the last, but all with a single theme... that I am imprisoned, at immediate risk, menaced by a presence clearly felt but entirely unseen. I am in a locked room, the furnishings are palatial, eighteenth century, Russian... from without I hear the something that means me no good. It is coming... I know it is coming for me... that it is my turn to confront the unmitigated evil... the great bronze doors open... I see a giant web and feel the soft leg as it brushes my face. And then I scream and wake up screaming ... It wasn't supposed to be like this, for me, for the European Union, or for Ukraine. No indeed. On November 29, 2013, just weeks ago, Ukraine President Viktor Yanukoyvch renigged on his economic deal with the EU, thereby providing the pretext for the events which followed. As a result reformist elements took to the streets of Kiev, principally in the great Maidan, Independence Square. Here the majesty of the people was on daily display. Yanukovych, a thug dictator of the usual unappealing variety, hoped, expected his opponents to give way before the murderous threat of the state police and the bone numbing cold in which these events played out. But the people held, defying the weather and the menacing artillery pointed directly into their determined, growing ranks. "I don't care what you do or how you do it, but eject the reformers now. I mean NOW. Understand?" We shall probably never know what Puppeteer Putin told his henchman when he summoned him to Russia for "talks" (December 7, 2013). But the message was no doubt strong, unmistakable, unanswerable. If Yanukovych had any doubts about his subservient status what Putin said to him and how he said it would have erased them within seconds. He was Putin's man, pure and simple, his fate in the hands of Russia's implacable president, no longer his own man, if he had ever been. And so he was sent back to Kiev in disgrace to use his wiles to foil the reformers... or else. Strip Poker. Yanukovych's objective was clear to all... and so he did what was necessary, unavoidable, painful, humiliating and even laughable. He needed time for the weather to do its work and for his favored police to mete out as much private pain to his opponents as they needed to withdraw into the obscurity from which they came. Thus, "strip poker" began as he ceded cabinet portfolios, then the promise of early elections... then complete power sharing. It was demeaning... it was pathetic... it was necessary. Did His Excellency think it would work? Doubtful. For he is the ultimate realist. Besides, it didn't need to work... it just needed to work long enough, for he and his sticky fingered allies were in the final stages of transferring over $70 billion to places unknown. Extra time might not allow them to keep the nation... but it would certainly enable them to grab and keep the nation's fast dwindling resources... and that was a happy alternative. Then everything changed. Bloody Thursday, February 20, 2014. What happened in Kiev this date is known to all: Yanukovych's hand-picked security forces fired on the assembled masses killing at least 88, many with a single bullet to the head, execution style. His legitimacy died along with the people he was pledged to defend. It is an event that distinguishes nearly every revolution, expediting the end of the "old" regime, for the dead martyrs legitimize the reformers and their peaceful objectives while setting the government reeling, murderers now, salvageable no longer. What caused this massive miscalculation, not merely a crime, but a blunder? If the provisional government retains power, we may someday actually know. This is because Yanukovych left behind the executive papers that may reveal all, a mistake only a rookie power broker with reputation to preserve would make. For now, however, we must guess. Did Yanukovych order the troops to fire, and if so what did he expect to achieve? Or did his pet forces lose control of the situation and fire because they felt vulnerable? Or did Yanukovych have a "I'm the president, listen to me, damn it" moment, exasperation rising to fever pitch and total self-justification for whatever he did? Whatever the reason the innocents, people with aspirations and dreams just like you and me, died for us, the greatest gift anyone can give... thereby delivering Ukraine from thraldom to the rights and responsibilities of citizens. Or so we thought... but the Spider of the Kremlin remained. And that single fact threatens the freedom of millions. He has provided refuge to Yanukovych whose tawdry regime he still recognizes and supports. He has made it clear the freedom-loving people of Ukraine must accept again the indignities and humiliations they have just thrown off. He has aided and abetted those who want to wrench the Crimea from Ukraine and thereby augment the Spider's power and resources. He has placed troops and ships in close proximity to Ukraine, raising the very real possibility of civil war and even invasion, which would provoke the greatest European crisis since World War II, all at a time when financial markets are already weak, vulnerable, and at risk. Can the newly installed Ukraine provisional government combat these pernicious trends? The new cabinet contains the least knowledgeable, effective or experienced ministers of any nation its size. Artists, poets, musicians, journalists and writers are its honorable, prominent, incompetent members. They face the reality of an empty treasury, pilfered by the exiting rats, a currency in free fall, pensions unpaid, and an acute need for natural gas and heating oil, food, and medical relief. The Spider may disdain such a government, but upon calm reflection will smile upon what he can so easily control. He is making up his mind right now... and the world must dance attendance while he decides. God help us. Envoi. I have selected as the music for this unsettling analysis, the Coronation scene from "Boris Godunov". Composed by Modest Musorgsky in 1869, it tells the tale of Tsar Boris, the man who brought serfdom to Russia in 1597. It is brilliant music about one of the greatest injustices of human history. You can find it in any search engine. I prefer the Bolshoi version, available in any search engine. Play it now, and feel the great tenacity and dissonance of the Slav soul, the soul that resides in the Spider of the Kremlin, the man who wants universal serfdom and will work early and late to get it. |
