A View from The Rada (2022 Feb. 16th)

“Democracy is difficult. Especially for us in the West”

These was Benedict’s opening words after taking a short break where he went for his usual walk in the small wood not far away.

“How come?”

“We know how Lenin also advocated the right for any nationality to self determination. He was more fervent about this than the liberals and anybody else. He was actively fighting the notion of a Greater Russia.”

“I know. But it changed, right?”

“Depends on your view of changed. He once wrote in a debate with Rosa Luxemburg, where she was denouncing the growing nationalist tendencies in her homeland and elsewhere:”

LENIN:

From their daily experience the masses know perfectly well the value of geographical and economic ties and the advantages of a big market and a big state. They will, therefore, resort to secession only when national oppression and national friction make joint life absolutely intolerable

Right to self det.

“Lenin argued that people had the democratic right to secede. Bourgeoisie nationalists’ motives were selfish. They wanted their nation to prosper (so they could benefit themselves).”

“That’s very generous of him - giving away parts of his country while not in control of it.”

“You have to understand the philosophy: The bolsheviks never caved in to nationalism. The feudal and bourgeois politicians stoked nationalist hatred to control the masses. Lenin argued against this childish mentality. He did what the West never accomplished: Treating his fellow men as adults.”

“The West doesn’t argue for right to freedom and self determination?”

“The West sound exactly like the nationalists at Lenin’s time. Appeal to emotion and the staunch belief in the obviousness of their own feelings…

• We are the only ones in favour of national rights. All people have a right to self determination. Only autocracts do not understand that.
• Of course our people will stand united. We are one. [And we will persecute anyone trying to split our unity.]
• We are friends with all countries with a similar attitude.
• If any minority within our nation wants to live life on their own, they can of course get a small political body within our border to represent them in government.

But that’s not what Lenin said. He thundered that the only true democratic right would be the right to secede as a new country. Even though he knew it would entail an economic loss.”

“And you honestly feel that is how we remember Lenin?”

“That’s how we should remember him. He was trying to give people the right to leave without giving them the possibility of leaving because they felt hatred, invented by social forces.

Holodomor is real. But whether or not it is a tragedy in the past caused by naïve fools or a crime that will forever unite us in opposition to the cruel bastards who inflicted it, is entirely a matter of who controls the past today.

The West never understood Marxism’s gravest warning: Whenever you feel anything strongly, you are likely being sucked into the superstructural swamps of idealism and metaphysics.”

“That’s a cute way of saying that all our emotions - justice, pride, humility, love - has no physical reality. Only economical factors do. The bolshevik hatred of Kulaks drove the Holodomor too, remember. So it would seem that even Marxists are not impervious to metaphysics and emotions.”

“The real question is if Lenin kept his emotions in check and always let strategy prevail.”

“Is there a reason you come to think of this now?”

“Well, yes …”

16.02.2022

The Rada has guests from Lithuania.

https://www.rada.gov.ua/meeting/stenogr/show/7954.html

PAULIUS SAUDARGAS (MP IN LITHUANIAN SEIMAS)

More than 100 years ago, we proclaimed a free democratic state, and after that the occupation happened, which happened to us, but we did not surrender. Lithuanians, like Ukrainians, fought in bunkers, in gulags. We fought together against the same enemy and we defeated the evil empire.

In 1990, we declared independence again. And January 1991 - the events that happened in Vilnius, and Soviet tanks… Ukrainians stood with us.

EMMANUELIS ZINGARIAS (MP IN SEIMAS AND ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE)

And we will be with you until the end of this war for democracy and a democratic world. If you do not win, then the democratic world will not win either. That’s why we came here today to be with you, so that you understand: if the independence of Ukraine is defeated, democracy will be defeated in the Baltic countries as well, and it will turn into a dictatorship.

— Benedict’s soliloquy on hysteria and respect —

“Okay, shoot. Let me guess: Even an address in the government of a country watching troops on their borders for months should be well balanced?”

“Yes. The obligation to combat hysterical conclusions. Is it your implicit opinion that in a conflict, everybody is entitled to consolidate myths? Nobody has the obligation to blur the picture with realities?”

“Given what you and I have seen… myths or half truths? The Duma really did vote to recognize sovereign territory of another country as belonging to themselves.”

“No, they voted to recognize LPR, DPR as republics on which they were on friendly terms. Marxism is a funny thing. We’ve read Lenin. That constant discussion… is X spouting metaphysics or is it material. I’ve just realised that ‘metaphysics’ equals ’emotional truth’ in modern social media and ‘material’ equals ’thinking before reacting’. They were better equipped for the modern age than we are.”

“… And I can assume that the hysteria in this case means …”

“We understand motives, don’t we? What is so odious about Russians in the Duma really feeling pain over their compatriots dying? And what is so inexplicable about Ukrainians both feeling the same pain as well as really dreaming about belonging to Europe? Then SAY it dammit, people! As painful as it may seem, it’s the road to peace.

What I despise in particular about the Western world is that it is inching closer to a new religion every moment. And non-believers are dealt with using soft power methods. We exclude people and we humanely slaughter our livestock. Unlike those animals outside the garden of Europe, who imprisons dissidents and halal slaughter their livestock.”

“Stupid again, Benedict. By condemning that behaviour, we force autocrats to respect human rights and Muslims to not treat animals cruelly.”

“And you are now doing exactly what the Ukrainians in the Rada is doing: By assuming you are righteous, you conclude that you are righteous. The whole point is exactly the opposite, that we are the ones who do not respect animals. No holy text forces us to abandon efficient methods and see the animal as Gods creature before killing it. To us it is already source of food, nothing else. And we don’t respect human beings either. Exiling them from society is just as bad as forgetting about them in prison. We don’t want to see them.”

“I respectfully disagree. First, our Western moral code is pretty good. Worth protecting. Second, we may not be able to persuade dissidents, but at least we can avoid them having influence, while not breaking our own moral code. Admit that you can see the humanity in that.”

“Admitted”. Benedict even made a friendly smile. Maurice knew that he was not married to his viewpoints. You could explain your own viewpoint, and he would endeavour to feel familiar with its tenets.

This time it was Maurice who went outside. The weather was splendid, warm, dry.

Obviously Benedict’s views were ridiculous. But some of his thinking must have rubbed of, since Maurice now felt an uneasiness, he traced back to his own outbursts about the very obviousness of Maurice’s own arguments. Like it was an article of faith, not science.

— On with the day —

“The preparations for war is happening. Air bridge from USA, UK, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czechoslovakia bringing weapons. "

Benedict sighed. “I know we can do the same analysis with Russian MPs in the Duma. Why can’t anybody walk and talk straight anymore?”

• »The Kremlin expected panic and chaos..«

  • No, they expected recognition to be a deterrent. Abkhazia and South Ossetia are examples (in their mind) of a similar situation, where it worked.

• ».. our glorious ancestors lives in us, the spirit of the glorious Cossacks«

  • Ukrainian peasants had Cossack leaders. Nowadays, the average Ukrainian is of course a direct descendant from a Tatar Cossack. And Scandinavians are purebred Vikings. And Russians all hail directly from Kievan Rus. Myth making, nothing else. »We« are nothing. My value as a person is foreign to you.

“Zelensky is leading in securing the country.”

“There are traitors amongst the cabinet. Three ministers are collaborators.”

“They really used that term?”

“Media incites mass hysteria by even naming the day of the invasion.”

“Zelensky will make today, Day of Unity, a day for Ukrainian solidarity.”

SOBOLYEV S.V. (FATHERLAND)

The world faces a choice: will we receive a new Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, or will we be able to stop not only aggression against Ukraine, but also a world war.

“Interesting… Ukraine has their view on Molotov-Ribbentrop coordinated with the EU talk on the same matter.”

“Iryna Herashchenko says if Ukraine goes with Minsk/Steinmeier-formula/‘Molotov-Ribbentrop’ then they should burn an effigy of Zelensky on the Maidan.”

“At least she feels prepared and ready for the war.”

“Her psychologist probably would recommend a short war for its therapeutic value. To exorcize some of her frustrations.”

“Timeout. I need to say something too”, Maurice stood up. “The founding fathers were well aware that government is sociology. Hatred and blind fixations can consume any closed group. And political parties function quite well as an incubator for latent unpleasantnesses. So they had bicameral legislature, long term executive staff and short term policy making president, and of course initially they were only a loose confederation. So very few possibilities of hatred consuming the entire lot.”

“Not so anymore. Legislative powers can reign in popular news media which also depends on information sharing willingness from government.”

“I’m just talking about the parliament as a socially closed group. War is approaching, and the pressure reveals our friends’ true nature. The end result? Appraisals of how we stand united (in opinion and values), salutes to the army that will defend them (implying they will not defend themselves). So in the end, instead of heroism, you get vulgar condemnations.”

“I don’t think we admire courage anymore. Aggressiveness has replaced it. So we become courageous by working ourselves up to a frenzy. Of course, politicians cannot afford to die in combat. Then there wouldn’t be a working government.”

“But you and I both would want it to be like that, wouldn’t we.”

Benedict could only agree.

“Are you switching sides?”

“No, I think the Duma made the wrong decision. Instead of recognising the LPR, DPR as republics, they should have simply recognised them as marginalised groups. The international consensus on self determination does not entail the right to a country of your own. But you are entitled to exist as a distinct group with own local regulations etc. Just like the Crimean Tatars, which Ukraine also recognised a few years earlier.”

SOFYA ROMANIVNA FEDINA (EUROPEAN SOLIDARITY)

The Moscow Federation is not a negotiator country or a peacemaker country, it is a terrorist country that in the 14th year destroyed the global international security system established after the Second World War.

[…]

This is a country that has violated most international treaties and basic agreements, in particular, regarding human rights. This is a country that should be pissed off at all democratic manifestations, and a country that should be pissed off at who thinks what about it.

“True, Russia did send soldiers into Crimea in violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty. But Ukraine can also not really count themselves part of the club of democratic states. After all, the Maidan revolution was a breach with the sanctity of democratic elections.

She calls for Russia out of UN Security Council, UN peacekeepers in Donbas, end to Nord Stream 2”

“The Opposition Platform is not making friends today!”

Mr. President, in order to unite Ukraine, it is not enough only “resignations” and signed decrees, because all the time your team worked to disunite Ukraine, dividing Ukrainians into right and wrong, introducing violent Ukrainization, distorting history, Ukrainian history, heroizing fascist minions, destroying the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War.

It was your reintegrator minister Reznikov who called Donbas a cancerous tumor. It was your people’s deputies who called Ukrainian children children of very low quality.

work on issues that unite society: real people’s rule, raising the standard of living, social guarantees and a real economy. Because a peaceful, stable, democratic, independent legal Ukraine is the dream country of every Ukrainian.

“Ukraine was a democracy until the moment they banned the Opposition Platform. Then it became essentially just a bunch of angry generation X’s clinging to hollow symbols and slogans in lack of a culture.”

— Railways … and corruption —

“Longer segment on fighting corruption in the Ukrainian Railways, UZ. This guy, Serhiy Leshchenko was on the anti-corruption board. When he purchased an apartment at half a million USD, they suspected him of being bribed too. Hard to say. Money flows differently in the land of the oligarchs. It may simply be a friendly service.”

“Honestly, I only had a hazy picture of what was meant with the term corruption. At least now I know that they mean exactly what it sounds like. Someone getting an apartment. I had trouble picturing that in 2024.

Oh man, that web of people… Leshchenko – journalist and MP – was the reason Rudy Giuliani cancelled a trip to Kyiv to meet Zelensky. »I’m walking into a group of people that are enemies of the president«, he said. Those wily Ukrainians.”

“Nestor steals the mic, saying they must work hard…”

SHUFRYCH N.I.

[…] in order to demonstrate to the world the impossibility of recognizing the so-called “DPR” and “LPR”. […] Moldova already has Transnistria, Georgia already has two unrecognized republics. And I don’t want the so-called “DPR” and “LPR” to be unrecognized in Ukraine, because this is Ukraine and Ukrainians live there.

“The committee report on UZ’s corruption mentions salary discrepancies, hollowing out of state owned enterprises to ready them for cheap privatisation and similar. Raw meat for hungry MPs.”

“Law 4210 amends laws on military. Funding etc. Several parties put their finger on the introduction of a military police.”

“This is a people who is thoroughly sick of being policed.”

“Law 5847 clarifies division on executive powers between Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Emergency Service. Former sets policy, latter implements it. The law increases the service’s freedom to implement.”

“Law 6051 proposes to increase powers of customs violations, such as importing psychotropic drugs or items from the Third Reich.”

“Law 4428 is about international judicial improvements. Summoning people from or to other countries. Ukraine wants Ukrainian law to outweigh other countries’ laws. Pretty standard, I think.”

— CIS cooperation … or not —

“Law 0065 is again the withdrawal from anti-terrorist participation of the CIS states. Serhii Anatoliyovych Andruschenko presents it in a sober fashion. So does Maryna Olehivna Bardina. As always Fedina Sofiya Romanivna manages to sound like a drunk. So does Solomiya Anatolivna Bobrovska.”

BOBROVSKA S.A.

I will remind you that we have an Enhanced Opportunities Program with the North Atlantic Alliance, and it is strange to me, in principle, how two opposite, completely antipodean positions are usually used here in Ukraine

“She clearly wants Opposition Party out of the parliament. What a hypocrite. Democracy is a flattering word you bestow on states you like and take away from states you dislike.”

“Anytime a generation X resorts to manias about Soviet methods or to prove a point, they throw away their own validity. Sad, because both of them raise questions that have validity.”

“Nestor as always tries to soothe and calm the angry sentiments. »Today’s crisis will pass, but the issue of combating terrorism will remain, and then what will we do - conclude new agreements?«”

“Hryhoriy Nemyria of Fatherland actually brings something new to the table.”

NEMYRYA H.M. (FATHERLAND)

Do fellow MPs know that, as of today, Ukraine is a party to more than 230 agreements within the framework of the CIS? It is a participant in more than 230 agreements within the CIS. Do fellow MPs know that withdrawal from about 30 agreements within the framework of the CIS has been deemed inadvisable by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? This mainly concerns agreements that concern social issues.

“Bohdan Yaremenko is glad they are out of CIS but also that the government carefully review which CIS agreements are beneficial to the Ukrainian people.”

“This guy who is… what… 28 at this time, wants to take away the Hero of Ukraine honorary titles to soldiers who later showed allegiance to Russia.”

R.M. LOZINSKY

One of them is Oleksandr Batalin, who after the annexation received a medal for the defense of Crimea and joined the United Russia party, he is still a Hero of Ukraine

[…]

If, on economic issues, we vote for denunciation, if we break our ties with the past, our ties with the eastern direction, if we do not consider and, fortunately, have already moved away from the Customs Union and other eastern directions, we must move on and to building our identity in matters of national memory, in matters of symbols, in matters of awards, in particular in matters of who is a hero of Ukraine and who is not. It is shameful that there are still separatists and traitors.

“This time it is a Millennial with an identity crisis, not a Generation X.”

“That is unfair. He does show bad taste when in his adolescent zeal to please his fellows tries to launch a witch-hunt. But the talk about national symbols has always been a rallying point for oppressed people.”

SKORYK M.L. (OPPOSITION PLATFORM - FOR LIFE)

[…] if you refuse the market of the CIS countries, then you should understand what you will replace these markets with, what markets. What does the European Union currently offer us in exchange?

“Dangerous times for a pragmatist. I won’t dignify the loud silent accusation against all non-anti-Russians of really being useful idiots with a retort.”

“No, and you shouldn’t. Feverish delusions that your fellow man really mean something else, not what they just said, is the number one reason for catastrophic breakdown of peaceful relations between peoples.”

“Nevertheless, when he moves on to say that the war will not come…”

The problems we have now with you are not due to a fake war, which normal people understand that it will not happen, but due to the fact that thanks to the announcements about this war, our economy is actually being destroyed. We have already lost mechanical engineering and are losing the last branches of our economy.

“… He jeopardises his own position and that of all who supports peace: It vindicates the weakness of believing the best. The invasion did happen.”

“Indeed. But we also lost the ability to think like this:”

Come to your senses and understand that the main thing is the state interests of Ukraine, and not to always sing the national anthem.

“Oleksiy Honcharenko freaks out…”

OLEKSIY HONCHARENKO (EUROPEAN SOLIDARITY)

But here some gentlemen do not know that we have been at war for eight years already! Gentlemen, where are you from? Don’t you know that we are at war? What ledge did you climb over here? What are you saying, telling us that there is no war? Why is our sea a sea of war? Are the British insurers to blame, or is Putin, who has gathered ships from the Pacific Fleet, the Northern Fleet, and the Baltic Fleet to our borders, conducting so-called exercises, blocking our way for ships to enter Ukrainian ports? Do you still have the audacity to come out and say something here?

Get out of this CIS! We understand that the Commonwealth of Independent States is a commonwealth where nothing depends on the states, but only on one person - Putin. And we know it very well and there is nothing to do, and we have to make this decision. It is good to do this on the Day of Unity, because our unity is with the Western world, and not with Putin’s world, his commonwealth, which he wants to turn into the Soviet Union, the centenary of which he so celebrates.

And you should be simply ashamed for the fact that on such a day you even forgot that there is a war in Ukraine. It’s just a shame.

“Only outside Ukraine and Russia did the invasion come out of a clear blue sky.”

“Irreconcilable positions and feelings. Russia calls them nazis, they call them soviets. This is what a collision course to war looks like.”

“Indeed. This is what irks me the most. The tragedy that war doesn’t arise from specific circumstances, but circumstances function like particles in a bubble chamber or dirt in a saline solution from where crystals starts to form. Sentiments crystallise into myths.”

“And when that happens between neighbouring countries, the hate grows out of control. That legitimises and obligates the legislature which legitimises and obligates the executive to declare war. But it starts with hatred.”

— MH17 —

“An update on the Netherland investigation into the downing of MH17. Gasoline on the bonfires.”

I am convinced, we as Ukraine will be able to bring the criminal Putin to justice in The Hague. And, obviously, our most important weapon today is the truth. And this means calling criminals criminals. And this means calling the aggressor country an aggressor country.

“The western media also reports just like this. Let’s be civil and list the events.

1. Ukraine brings in jets against the rebels.
2. The rebels in a voice recorded phone call tells a Russian military officer that they will not survive these attacks.
3. A BUK launcher is spotted on satellite pictures rolling into the country from Russia.
4. MH17 gets hit. Some rebels express joy for hitting what they believed was a military jet.
5. The launcher is rolled back again.”

“Pretty much. Denying does not help on Russia’s already tarnished image.”

“But one thing that strikes me as wilful silence on the part of Western media: Nobody ever asked Ukraine why they did not close the airspace over an active war zone involving their own military airplanes!

Who is culpable here? They did close the airspace right after, so clearly it was a necessary decision. But our sympathies and alliances matter more than critical thinking.”

“The day comes to a close. Last minute decision on 0134 - Eastern Ukraine: Reunification, Restoration and Revival (Project 3B). I wonder if that contains an actual peace plan from the side of the Ukrainians on how to deal with Donbas.”

“0134 was never discussed. Accepted. So hard to say.”

“Perhaps we should investigate …”

/PARADOX