CENSORSHIP

Many people have noted the one-sided news coverage of the situation in Ukraine and how it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find everyday news that provides objectivity and context.

In the past few days, Russian news outlets like RT have been shut down by the EU and Australia. YouTube is banning Russian news across Europe. Facebook is banning RT in the EU (while at the same time announcing they will allow praise for the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion which is part of the Ukrainian National Guard.) DirecTV (AT&T) and Roku have dropped RT, as well. The hacker group, Anonymous has declared cyberwar on Russia.

You can find these stories on our website where we will continue to attempt to present views from multiple angles. If you know of any reputable news sources that provide daily news updates from a non-imperialist vantage point, please let us know.

US Foreign Policy | Headline News | By Region (stpete4peace.org)

In the lead up to the Iraq war there were at least some daily news outlets like PBS, NPR, MSNBC, Truthout, Democracy Now and Commondreams that provided some differing viewpoints. But today, other than Antiwar.com, RT.com, teleSUR English, and a few others, it is difficult to find daily news that provides context, if not dissenting voices. Outlets such as MintPress News, The Grayzone, Consortium News and Responsible Statecraft provide excellent insight, just not always on a daily basis.

On this note, we decided to remove the “Why Americans Should Cheer for Putin in Ukraine” video we posted on YouTube in 2015. Although it was the most popular video we’ve ever posted, if we didn’t take it down it would probably just be a matter of time before all of our videos would be blocked. And given YouTube is owned by Google, it would probably lead to our website being blocked by Google again, as it was for parts of 2020 and 2021.

DENAZIFICATION

Another reason Russia has repeatedly given for their actions in Ukraine is the “denazification” of Ukraine. Even though this issue has been ignored for 8 years, and is now being called ‘propaganda’, it is a widely acknowledged fact that the Ukraine government does have neo-Nazis – in their National Guard, and in their parliament. They are also part of Ukraine’s ‘volunteer’ combat units who have been waging war against Ukrainians in the east. Western media such as CNN, USA Today, BBC, NBC and the Washington Post, among many others, have acknowledged this fact.

This flyer we produced in 2015 gives a brief overview of the US support of neo-Nazis in Ukraine, and our webpage on the US support of neo-Nazis in Ukraine provides much more information, including links to multiple mainstream articles discussing the neo-Nazi issue.

NATO EXPANSION

As mentioned in earlier emails, NATO’s eastward expansion towards Russia is at the heart of today’s problems according to Russia. Unlike the US which has only two bordering countries, Russia has 11, and two of them already belong to NATO (Latvia and Estonia). This map illustrates Russia’s legitimate security concerns:

Map of NATO's Expansion towards Russia (stpete4peace.org)

‘KILLING ITS OWN PEOPLE’

For the past 8 years, the government of Ukraine, with US support, has been waging war against its own citizens in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region – ‘killing its own people’ in Western jargon. That’s the same pretext the US has used multiple times in pushing for war in Iraq, Libya and Syria. If it was acceptable for the US to take action against governments who were supposedly killing their own people, why is the West so upset with Russia for doing the same? And why is the US supporting the Ukrainian government who, to this day, is killing its own people?

What The Media Isn't Telling You About Ukraine - YouTube from Breakthrough News

Russia is rapidly becoming a pariah state, isolated from much of the world, like other ‘enemies’ of the US like Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. The West is fanning the flames and are escalating the situation in Ukraine. They are making it difficult for a solution to be found because they refuse to consider Russia’s perspective. It’s easier just to condemn and see things in black and white. Censorship, anti-Russia hysteria and a disregard of Russia’s legitimate concerns won’t resolve the current problems, unless Russia just capitulates with the knowledge that they will be subjected to the will of the Empire for many years to come.

Finally, many of us question the sincerity of those who are hyper-outraged at what Russia is doing in Ukraine today, but have been silent as the US, Europe, Israel and Saudi Arabia wage war with impunity.

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Peace