Peloni: The problem with being an American puppet is that sooner or later the puppet loses its appeal for the puppeteer, as it appears Zelensky is currently discovering. Like all American puppets, Zelensky failed the Americans in the most meaningful way in which an American proxy might, he projected weakness when his American masters demanded victories. Still, Zelensky fulfilled the role which he was ultimately designed to play by the West, and that was to kill Russians at the expense of the Ukrainian masses, with the resulting Slavic slaughter registering as a win-win in the West. Yet, when Zelensky goes, be it either the way of the Shah or the way of Diem, the truth of the Ukrainian butcher’s bill will finally and honestly embraced in Ukraine, and it will not be either Zelensky nor his Western masters who will reap the whirlwind for this tragedy, but most likely it will be the Ukrainian Jewish community who have always fulfilled the default focus of Ukraine’s historic bloodlust over and over again throughout its history.
Has Zelensky Become a Rogue Actor?
Stephen Bryen | Weapons and Strategy | August 17, 2024
Andromeda yacht
Both Germany and the US have put out numerous stories about the destruction of the Nordsteam pipeline. They say the pipeline was destroyed by the Ukrainians. The latest story, headlined in the Wall Street Journal, would have us believe that the plot to blow up the pipeline was approved initially by Vladimir Zelensky and carried out by the former Ukrainian Armed Forces chief, Valery Zaluzhny. Following the story, after the planning was done by a motley crew of army officers and civilians, mostly soaked in alcohol, Zelensky tried to call off the attack because he was warned by the US not to carry it out. Zaluzhny, however, carried on, saying he had no way to call back the operation.
The story also links to German prosecutors attempting to indict one member of the crew, a Ukrainian diving instructor (without revealing his last name). This crew member allegedly was living in Poland with his family, but has disappeared. The Germans are accusing the Poles of obstruction in the case.
Almost the entire story put out by the Wall Street Journal strains credulity. For example there is a claim that German investigators checked the German-registered yacht, called the Andromeda, and say they uncovered DNA, fingerprints, and traces of explosives. Who is associated with the DNA and fingerprints is not explained, nor is the type of explosive “traces” claimed to have been found. The Journal only says that this was discovered as part of a two year police investigation. Over such a long period the Andromeda was no doubt rented out to plenty of others. Are there differences between Ukrainian fingerprints and others?
One of the most curious claims is that the Andromeda pulled into the small port town of Sandhamn, about 50 km east of Stockholm, in Sweden, apparently after experiencing bad weather. The Journal reports that (unnamed) eyewitnesses say that the Andromeda displayed a “small Ukrainian flag.”
Sandhamn port
Ships calling on ports are expected to display the flag of their origin country. Called Ensigns, the Andromeda should have displayed the flag of Germany if the vessel was owned by German interests and not registered elsewhere (as sometimes is the case). It would not show the Ukrainian flag because Ukrainians rented the Andromeda, according to the Wall Street Journal story.
But this tantalizing fact about the flag says something more. No secret operation to destroy a multibillion dollar pipeline would display its national flag. Either there was no operation by Ukraine to blow up the pipeline, in which case the Andromeda could have displayed a Ukrainian flag along with a flag of the vessel’s national origin, or if it was a secret operation then displaying such a flag makes zero sense.
The story about bad weather also seems like fiction. Photos of the exploded pipeline show sunny weather.
The real question to ask is what is the origin of the Wall Street Journal story, and why would a respected newspaper such as the Journal feature a story that cannot be verified?
Zaluzhny with Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi (left) during the Battle of Kyiv, March 2022
The story has undermined both Zelensky’s and Zaluzhny’s credibility. Was the story fed to the Journal as a preparation to replace Zelensky and Zaluzhny? Zaluzhny is now Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, but at the time of the pipeline incident he was Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. More importantly he has been touted as a replacement for Zelensky. But Zaluzhny is as hard line as Zelensky on Russia, so it may be that he is not the preferred western candidate to replace Zelensky. The Wall Street Journal may have been used to help knock off Zelensky and Zaluzhny.
It is noteworthy that the article says that the German authorities do not have evidence on Zaluzhny that they could bring into a courtroom, so Zaluzhny (who has denied any involvement in Nordstream) remains in his job and is not subject to any indictment in German courts.
Zelensky also has denied any involvement in the Nordstream pipeline destruction.
Other writers, most notably Seymour Hersh, have argued that Nordstream was destroyed in an operation carried out by the United States, possibly with help from others. Hersh provided a detailed description of how the operation unfolded. He correctly notes that top US officials, including President Joe Biden and former acting undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland, openly pushed for the pipeline’s destruction. Once the US declared for the destruction of the pipeline, putting aside who was tasked to carry it out, the US has found itself in an awkward position. The same is true for the German government which has supported US denials of involvement in the pipeline affair and sought to pass it off on the Ukrainians. The “Ukraine did it” story was leaked to try and shift the blame onto the Ukrainians. While the earlier stories did not claim either Zelensky’s or Zaluzhny’s involvement, the newest leaks are directly aimed at them. Germany is in lockstep with Washington.
All of this is playing out while the Ukraine war is likely in the last stages. Even the Kursk operation by Ukraine is openly aimed at setting the stage for peace talks with Russia. It is clear that Zelensky (who is aligned with nationalistic right wing elements in the army) is the wrong interlocutor, and he is probably not acceptable to the Russians. If he is soon gone, one can expect a more pliable stand-in to take his place at the negotiating table.
ZNPP Cooling Tower in Drone Attack
Zelensky meanwhile has a major problem with Washington that goes beyond his inflexibility. The Washington Post reported in its August 17 edition that the Kursk attack derailed sensitive, secret negotiations hosted in Qatar aimed at a partial ceasefire focused on Ukraine and Russia’s energy infrastructure. If a deal was reached it would open the door for peace negotiations.
The Ukrainians, led by Zelensky and Syrsky, undermined the deal in four ways: (1) the Kursk invasion, which incentivized the Russians to further punish Ukraine; (2) Ukraine’s attempt to drive its Kursk forces to go after the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (a goal they failed to achieve); (3) the use of long range weapons against strong US opposition and (4) the drone attack on the Zaphorize Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) plant that destroyed one of two cooling towers. In addition, there are reports that Ukraine intends a major military operation against the ZNPP and is preparing to carry it out soon, and other reports, so far unconfirmed but appearing on the Telegram channel, that Ukraine is preparing a “dirty bomb” to use on Russian territory.
If all the above reports are all true, and some of them certainly are, Zelensky has become a rogue actor not only for Russia but for the United States.
@Adam
You suggest that my comment was venomous, but I stipulate that it was fairly made, and perhaps just a bit too mild in fact. The Russian state has never been a model around which such claims are made that are routinely made about the US, such as the ‘leader of the free world’. And this title did not fall to earth from nowhere. Indeed, the American experiment has never been so perverted as it stands today, even as the American people stand resolute to reverse this tragedy. So I believe my disgust of what has become of America is fairly based. In the same vein, I would argue that Russia has never had such a liberal leadership than it has had in recent years, and thus informs my great respect for that nation, even as it stands as a rather complicated mix of authoritarianism with democratic practices as it stands today.
My comment fairly describes the connection between the Rumped Ukrainian oligarchy and its American masters in Washington, who have had an altogether undisguised obsession with milking the Ukrainian people for all they could gain from them – beginning with the gross manipulation and capture of the energy companies by American Oligarchic families and ending with the use of the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder for the Neocon designs on the Russian state.
Well if there was any doubt about what the US wanted in Russia, it was explained quite clearly by both Biden and Sen. Graham among others. They wanted regime change in Russia but failed to be able to actually cause the economic collapse which they had every hope of catalyzing such an outcome. This is why your following comment:
is quite irrelevant to US intentions – ie they never anticipated having to actually rely on their Ukrainian flunkies to defeat Russia. Given that the economic war on Russia was an abysmal failure, the Neocons defaulted to manipulating their Ukrainian proxy into simply diminishing Russia’s war machine as much as possible, which also failed. Notably Graham and others have noted this goal for us so that we again don’t need to guess.
Please, no ad hominems.
This is silly. The US was the world’s only Super Power for the past thirty years. Thru a policy of corruption and globalization, the US has let its position as the worlds hegemon erode into being just one pole in a multipolar world, with Russia now being a much greater pole than it had been prior to the American intervention into Ukraine.
No argument here, but they are also the reason why the Nazi’s did not win WWII. They were also the first nation to conduct War Crimes trials, and only stopped doing so due to US and British insistance. They were also the only ones who held firm [really just more firm than the others powers] to policies of denzification and refused to lessen the sentences for Nazi war criminals, unlike the US. They are also responsible, one way or the other, for the Czech arms being sold to Israel in 1948, and let us not forget the armed soldiers trained and delivered to support Israel’s war of independence. I think these are important and relevant issues which should be noted since you are wanting to go back a hundred years.
America has much to answer for in regards to her own actions, not the least of which was the implantation of the Mullahs into Iran, strengthening and stabilizing that regime, removing its most credible enemies, and giving it a treaty umbrella under which it could achieve its nuclear ambitions. So, let us just blame America for what she is herself responsible, and this of course would also include the conquest of Ukraine.
The Russians are not a communist nation. What is more, at present, the US is poised to appoint its own Communist govt, arguably the third and most radical of its Communist govts, using Stalinist tactics of controlling who counts the votes, vote manipulation, political show trials and political street violence. So perhaps these were the communists you were referencing? Your comment isn’t exactly clear on this point.
How many times have I heard the likes of that, these past years?
@Adam
Zelensky doesn’t pay for his own army. He doesn’t pay for the arms he uses in defense of his own nation. He doesn’t even pay for the salaries of his own govt. He has no access or means of acquiring arms to defend his own nation. He has no leverage over which to control the US which entirely dominates him in every way possible. What is more, one word from Boris Johnson, and Zel conducted a complete u-turn on the Istanbul peace talks.
Furthermore, if Zel is not a puppet of America, if he has the means, fortitude and ability to ignore the demands of Washington, why is it he is concerned about what Trump will require of him after Trump returns to Washington, something which is very much helped Zel to finally agree to peace talks with the Russians.
In fact, Zel is an American puppet, a pawn in the proxy war being waged by the US against Russia even as he has no authority to rule over Ukraine as the despot which he has come to be comfortable playing.
More later
I do remember Biden telling journalists that the Nordstream pipeline would soon be out of operation. Saying :mark my words” or some similar expression. I don’t remember reading that Biden and “former acting undersecretary of state” Ms, Victoria Nuland “openly pushed”” for the destruction of the pipeline. I don’t see how a “former acting undersecretary of state,” in other words a temp, could be a major wielder of power inany administration.
Seymour Hersh’s theory that the U,S, was behind the destruction of the pipeline, even if other actors such as Ukraine helped to carry out the sabotage, seems quite plausible to me.
Other than Russia’s accusation, I see no evidence that Ukraine is planning to attack the Kursk Nuclear Power plant. That would accomplish absoluterly nothing for Ukraine except to inflame all Russian public opinion in Russia against Ukraine, and have the way for some sort of drastic Russian move such as a nuclear bomb attack on Ukraine. The Ukrainians have even less motivation to attack the Zaporisha nuclear power plant, since would send over all of Ukraine a nuclear dust cloud that would over time kill off the entire Ukrainian population. The Ukrainians of course deny that they ever attacked the Zaporisha plant with drones or anything else. They do admit to shelling what they describe as the Russian military base inside the Zaporisha plant. But with “‘ordinary” artillery fire, not drones, Of course they claim to taken every possible precaution to avoid damaging the plant itself. They accuse Russia of using their “base” inside the plant to shell Ukraine.
Western and Ukrainian sources claim that the Russian civilian population inside the 400 sq. mile zone inside Kursk province that the Ukrainians have occupied have been friendly to the Ukrainian soldiers. At any rate, their have been no attacks on the Ukrainians by Russian civilians or local militia inside this zone. It is very much in Ukraine’s interest to avoid provoking the “locals” in any way. That is another reason why the Ukrainians will not target the Kursk nuclear plant or any other nuclear plant in Russia.
Zelensky is not and never has been an American puppet. He was elected President of Ukraine by the Ukrainian people. I have not seen andy credible evidence that some sort of of boiler room conspirators in the State Department or Pentagon or CIA headquarters in Langley somehow raised up over a million Ukrainian zombies, or maybe pod people, and marched them by remote control to the Ukrainian polling places , and moved their fingers by remote control to cast ballots for Zelensky. The very idea is absurd.
@Adam
I don’t have time to fully respond to your comment at the moment, but I will do so in time. But I must reflect upon your claim that I specifically address the role played by the US in Vietnam. I have never done so. I recently responded to a comment made by Michael on the topic, but I have far better examples in the very recent years to cite which are far more germane than what was done in the 1970’s, which was an altogether different era, ie prior to the fall of the Soviet empire, which I maintain was the quintessential moment in which the US seems to have lost its ability and interest in avoiding problems and instead conjured them from nothing, to the detriment of millions – a process which is still ongoing today.
As to my comment being venomous, well, this short statement does not come close to carrying the venom which I could share on the topic. But more later.
Peloni’s venemous attack on both Zelensky and the United States is completely insane. Let’s try to be rational for a moment. Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukraine did not invade Russia, The Russians have killed, murdered really, alarge part of Ukraine;s population, and driven many more Ukrainiansto flee their country. In published articles as well as public speeches, Putin made it very plain that his goal in invading Ukraine was to restore the Russian empire ansphere of influence to what it had been in both Soviet and tsarist times. He did not say he was motivated by fear of Ukraine. Putin did claim that NATO was conspiring against Russia. But he was vague about specific details about what nATO was planning to do to Russia. In any case,the U.s. was not in a position to attack Russia in 2022, or even in 2014. And I have been unable to find any evidence that the U.S. was planning such an attack.
Peloni makes much of past U,S. violence on the world stage,specifically in Vietnam. I opposed the Vietnam warat the time it was fought, when I was a college student. I still think America’s involvement in it was morally wrong, and probably also illegal from the point of view of international law. America’s carpet bombing of North and even parts of South Korea in the Korean war, resulting in heavy civilian casualties, and even it carpet bombing of German and Japanese cities in the second world war, which resulted in heavy civilian loss of life, were also immoral in my opinion. But as I written on many occasions on this website, two wrongs, not even two thousand wrongs, don’t add up to a right. I have got a response to this obvious fact from my fellow Israpundit readers. To put it bluntly, their failure to acknoledge and address thisfact doesn’t reflect well on my fellow readers.
The Putinists believe that the U.S. is the only imperialist power in the world and responsible for all its evils. They refuse to acknowledge that Russia is also an imperialist power. Russia is resposnsible for many heinous crimes and agressions on the world state over the past hundered years. America cannot be blamed by rational observers for Russia;s numerous agressions against neighboring countries. By casting blame on all the ills and agressions in the world on the United States, the Putinists are simply towing the Communist line. Perhaps most of them are Communists.
No, Ukraine is doing as its masters intend!
All of the positions on these events (the NeoCon war against Russia) leave out certain realities concerning the history of Ukraine…
1. It was in Ukraine that the massive Pogroms of Jews took place between 1919 to 1921. The number of Jews who lost their lives in all of these pogroms was at least 100,000. Even more than that were seriously wounded. A long standing community destroyed totally.
2. At no time has the traitor leadership of bosses who rule Israel made this history clear. At no time has the false leaders of Israpundit made this clear.
3. The false leaders of Israpundit are thus following and support the traitor leadership of bosses who rule Israel in this matter
4. For the record the only political tendency who emerged out of that crucial period of Jewish and human history is that led by Leon Trotsky, his colleague Lenin, the tradition of Soviet Bolshevism and socialist revolution, and this has deep relevance for today’s world
For the Jews of today who are besieged on every front these facts about Lenin and especially Trotsky need to be brought to the forefront in the present…as the only time in history that humans took on and smashed the evil phenomenon of Jew Hatred.
This has both symbolic and practical significance.
This is a significance which is enormous and almost incalculable.