Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 15 – Igor Strelkov,
the one-time defense minister of the “Donetsk Peoples Republic and a passionate
supporter of the Russian world idea, told his supporters in Ekaterinburg that
Vladimir Putin will suffer the fate of Nicholas II who was shot in the Urals in
1918 or of Slobodan Milosevic who died in a Hague prison in 2006.
Strelkov, in the Urals region of
Russia to collect money and other forms of support for his colleagues fighting
in Ukraine, said that what is going on now resembles what happened in 1914 when
Russians decided to “support Serbia and fulfill their patriotic duty” by going
to war (znak.com/svrdl/news/2015-03-14/1036787.html).
But then as that war dragged on, as
victories were replaced with defeats, and as the economic crisis intensified,
many Russians, influenced by the work of a fifth column which he said at that
time “included grand dukes, the top industrialists, and the State Duma,” lost
their patriotic feelings.
The fifth column then as now,
Strelkov said, “all cried about patriotism, but they created a conspiracy, as a
result of which Russia suffered a crushing defeat and landed in a time of
troubles for many years.” Now, once again, the opponents of Russia in the West
and at home have “exactly the same plan which they are carrying out” to the
letter.
By annexing Crimea and moving to
support Novorossiya, he continued, President Vladimir Putin had won “a simply
colossal” level of support. But then those around him got to work, and what
looked to be a sure and easy victory was taken away.
“First,” they talked about “Novorssiya,
then, not, and not Novorossiay but the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics.
And then not the peoples republics but the self-proclaimed ones. And now
already these are particular districts of Ukraine. And people do not understand
how this can be,” Strelkov said.
Unless Putin can escape from their
baleful influence, he continued, “not only the liberals but also [Russian]
patriots will turn against Putin,” and in that event, “he will share the fate
of Milosevic who was overthrown” by a similar alliance because in the end he
was pursuing a policy that neither the liberals nor the patriots liked.
In his two-hour talk, Strelkov said
that Putin has made many mistakes in Ukraine because he has not followed up on
his victories but allowed others to steal them away. That is the result of the work of the fifth
column around him, including Vladislav Surkov, who are “patriots by day” but
supporters of the opponents of the Kremlin by night.
“The most characteristic sign” of
such people, he continued, is that “they live and work here [in Russia], but
all their money, property and families are abroad.”
Strelkov added that despite the
ceasefire and all the talk in the media, true Russian patriots in “Novorossiya”
plan to renew the fight because “Ukraine is part of Russia,” and many people “in
Odessa, in Kharkov, in Kherson, and in Nikolayevsk are waiting for Russia. In
fact, many are waiting for Russia in Kyiv including those who consider
themselves Ukrainians.”
At the same time, however, he was
very critical of some of his former colleagues in Donetsk and Luhansk, saying
that the situations there were dire with “a fratricidal struggle” and even a
Makhno-type movement, a reference to the irregular rule of the atamans during
the Russian civil war nearly a century ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment