Putin Tells Valdai Conference He Fears Srebrenica-Type Massacre If Russia Abandons Donbass

By James The Russian Analyst

Although the following article comes from Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), we are posting it here with commentary from the Russian Analyst as it pertains to the Ukraine war.

In yet another sign that Moscow has no intention of abandoning the two breakaway mini-republics it supports in Donetsk and Lugansk, Vladimir Putin recently declared that if Russia were to close its borders to the Donbass -- as the U.S.-backed government in Kiev demands -- there could be a refugee exodus into the Russian Federation.

FLAGS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THE INTERNATIONALLY UNRECOGNIZED DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC (DPR) AT A RALLY IN DONETSK PHOTO BY: SPUTNIK

Playing his favorite card against Washington, the charge of hypocrisy (what U.S./EU Russophobes deride as 'whataboutism') Putin declared that Russia would not tolerate a massacre in the former eastern Ukraine of the type NATO used at Srebrenica to justify American intervention and imposition of the Dayton accords peace settlement during the Yugoslavia wars of the 1990s. Putin's remarks at the annual Valdai forum in the company of legendary Chinese investor Jack Ma and former Afghan President Hamid Karzai represented a double slap at both Washington and Kiev. Putin blames Washington for its hypocritical arrogation to itself of the sole right to legitimately intervene wherever it sees fit (neither the Kosovo war in 1999 nor Washington's intervention in Syria had UN mandates), and is warning against Kiev's fantasies about 'solving' the Donbass 'separatist problem' by expelling tens to hundreds of thousands opposed to the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator glorifying, post-Maidan coup regime to Russia.

Along with the recent dedication of a public monument in Russia's Rostov on Don region honoring Russian volunteers (not as of yet, any Russian Army 'vacationers') who fought alongside the Donbass militia, Putin's remarks are the clearest indication that Moscow won't surrender its humanitarian and unofficial materiel/intelligence aid to the Donbass for some empty promises from Washington. The comparison implied in Putin's remarks between the Bosnian Muslim enclave that United Nations peacekeepers failed to protect and Donetsk and Lugansk also hints that Moscow is ready to accept some OSCE inspectors protecting United Nations peacekeeping contingent along the line of contact, an idea Kiev had long promoted. But it's not going to accept Kiev's idea of peacekeepers being placed only along the border with Russia. However, Moscow remains the ultimate guarantor against Kiev reneging on the Minsk Agreements in a Washington-aided, illusory pursuit of a 'military solution' -- one that would meet Russian steel in response.

On a conciliatory note, Putin also declared that neither Russian nor Ukrainian nationalists would like his statement, that Russians and Ukrainians have historically been one people, sharing a language and culture (including the Orthodox Christian faith) separated in recent decades only by Soviet drawn borders. Putin expressed his hope that 'common sense would prevail', clearly disavowing any long term military solution to the externally provoked Ukraine conflict. From this long term perspective, Russia's refusal to overtly intervene to crush the Ukrainian Army in the Donbass and destroy the Kiev government's armaments industries from the air and ground -- something the Russian armed forces are more than capable of doing -- makes much more sense. Irrespective of the so-called 'Sixth Column' (dubbed by Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin's) cries for Putin to have sent the tanks to Kiev many times over nearly four years, thus handing Washington's neocons and fake liberal Russophobes their dream scenario of a Slavic Afghanistan in which to bleed the Russian Bear.

From the common viewpoint of millions in Russia, who share Great Patriotic War heritage or living relatives with the people in Ukraine, that would mark the unnecessary escalation of an already tragic, fratricidal civil war. A war which began not when Russian 'polite people' soldiers moved to secure key points on the Crimean peninsula, but weeks earlier in late 2013 when blood was shed via paid provocateurs and a carefully engineered Berkut riot police reaction on the Maidan. A war which has benefited only a handful of oligarchs, neo-Nazis and outside powers -- certainly not ordinary Russians or Ukrainians.

Putin Fears Srebrenica-Type Massacre in Ukraine

Oct. 22, 2017 (EIRNS)—During the extensive question-and-answer session that followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s presentation to the Valdai Discussion Club conference on Oct. 19 in Sochi, he took a question on the current situation in Ukraine in which he expressed Russia’s fears of what could happen in the Donbas region should Russia close its border with the two breakaway republics as the Kiev regime has been demanding. In his response, he stressed that the crisis began with the U.S. and European Union-backed violent overthrow of the elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych, who, according to Putin, only wanted to reconsider some of the language of the EU Association Agreement. "The current situation is the result of the unconstitutional armed seizure of power in Ukraine, and Europe is to blame, because it backed it," Putin said.

Putin went on to reiterate that it is the Kiev regime that is failing to implement the Minsk agreements, even though Russia is constantly blamed for this, but then he got to the meat of the matter.

"If they fail to adopt the amnesty law prior to resolving political issues and providing these territories with a special status in accordance with the law adopted by the Rada and extended for another year recently, then closing the border between Russia and the breakaway republics will lead to a situation similar to Srebrenica. There will be a bloodbath. We cannot let this happen."

Although Putin refrained from saying it, the whole point is that Nazis control the current Ukraine government, as Lyndon LaRouche has repeatedly pointed out.

The Srebenica massacre occurred in 1995 during the Bosnian war in the former Yugoslavia, when 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred by Bosnia Serb troops despite being under the nominal protection of UN peacekeepers.

China, Russia Warn Europe and U.S.:
Your Anti-Nation State Policies Are Coming Back to Haunt You

Oct. 23, 2017 (EIRNS)—As expected, the long-festering separatist drive of the Basque region of Spain has now been piled onto the Catalonia crisis. Inigo Urkullu, president of the Basque Autonomous Community, writing in the London Guardian today, called upon the European Union to move in to oversee negotiations on a new Spanish "plurinational" nation, in the name of "self-determination" and "democracy." Like the Catalan separatists, Urkullu swore allegiance to the supranational project of the dying EU paradigm.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned in his speech to the Valdai Forum last week, that "the situation in Spain clearly shows how fragile stability can be even in a prosperous and established state," pointing to the deliberate decision after the collapse of the Soviet Union to let "the genie of European internal division" out of the bottle as a driving force in today’s crisis.

"In the case of Catalonia, we saw the European Union and a number of other states unanimously condemn the supporters of independence.... [M]ore thought should have gone into this earlier. What, no one was aware of these centuries-old disagreements in Europe? They knew, did they not? However, at one time they basically welcomed the disintegration of a number of states in Europe, without hiding their joy on this matter,"

citing Kosovo, in particular. Putin warned that such double standards "pose serious danger to the stable development of Europe and other continents, and to the advancement of integration processes across the world."

Similarly, in an editorial statement today, China’s Global Times, which reflects official policy, pointed to the role of the West’s "democracy" double-standards in creating the Catalan separatist crisis, and calls on Europe to "wake up:"

"The West’s extravagant explanation over democracy, freedom and human rights over a long period of time is the fundamental reason this time, which provides the Catalan separatist movement a moral high ground it’s not supposed to have. Leaders requiring ‘democracy’ in Catalonia are more confident on the strength of their righteousness than those in the Spanish government who are preparing to file a lawsuit against them.

"There have been signs of the emergence of separatism in the West, but in prosperous old days, sufficient bread and butter helped dissolve the problem. However, the situation has changed. The Catalan independence movement is revealing a real danger....

"A state is still an effective and basic unit for human society and in maintaining world order. But during the decades after the Cold War, the West had destroyed some countries it does not like, supported almost every single anti-government activity in those nations and backed most of the separatist movements there, making people believe that democracy is above everything. Yet what happened in Catalonia may be a turning point.

"The Catalan independence movement sets off alarm bells for Europe to adjust. Europeans are addicted to their previous glory. But the continent is now facing various challenges. It’s time for them to wake up."