While Railing Against Trump Coup, Biden Appoints Chief Ukraine Coup-Plotter
Victoria Nuland
Nuland was the driving force behind the 2014 insurrection that overthrew the
Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine and is now set to serve
as Biden's Under Secretary for Political Affairs.
by Alan Macleod
January 08th, 2021
By Alan Macleod
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Describing it as "one of the darkest days in American history,"
President-elect Joe Biden denounced Wednesday's spectacular assault on the
Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. as a coup attempt fomented by Donald
Trump.
"I wish we could say we couldn't see it coming, but that isn't true. We
could see it coming," the 78-year-old Delawarean said.
The last four years we've had a president who's made his contempt for our
democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law, clear in everything he has
done. He unleashed an all-out assault on the institutions of our democracy
from the outset, and yesterday was but a culmination . of that attack."
"This is not dissent, it's disorder. It's chaos," he added, calling the
events an "unprecedented assault" on the very fabric of U.S. democracy.
Yet, almost at the same time as the future president was denouncing Trump's
coup attempt, he was appointing Victoria Nuland - the driving force behind
the 2014 insurrection that overthrew the Ukrainian government of Viktor
Yanukovych - as his new Under Secretary for Political Affairs.
The United States and NATO had been making overtures to Ukraine for some
time before the coup, hoping that the country would become the latest
post-Soviet state to fall into their fold as they continued to expand
eastwards. Yanukovych, however, was in favor of steering Ukraine in a more
Russia-friendly direction. The decision spurred demonstrations across the
country from pro-E.U. forces. The Obama administration immediately sensed an
opportunity, sending Nuland across the world to lead and support the
movement, the senior diplomat rallying protestors, and was even photographed
handing out cookies in the streets.
Victoria Nuland Ukraine
Victoria Nuland, right, offers cookies to pro-EU protesters in Independence
Square in Kiev, Dec. 11, 2013. Andrew Kravchenko | AP
While in the West, the revolt was presented as being led by tech-savvy,
forward-thinking students. In reality, most of the muscle was supplied by
neo-Nazi militias who helped force through Yanukovych's downfall and
continue to hold an oversized role in Ukrainian politics and society. In
December, the United States and Ukraine were the only two nations to vote
against a United Nations measure (passed 130-2), "combating glorification of
Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling
contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related
intolerance." This was done as they felt the resolution could be used to
target the Ukrainian government and the U.S.' continued funding of it.
Leaked phone calls show that Nuland and American Ambassador to Ukraine
Geoffrey Pyatt had long conversations about who should make up the post-coup
government.
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The events of early 2014 spooked Russia so badly that it flew troops into
Crimea to annex the territory. The affair led to increasing tensions between
the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia, and almost led to a hot war between the two
nuclear-armed countries. In the end, President Obama refused to escalate
tensions to that point, angering many in Washington.
Among them, seemingly, was Nuland, who promises to again be a Russia Hawk.
As Politico wrote this week, she has been an "outspoken critic of President
Donald Trump's foreign policy - particularly his appeasement of Russian
President Vladimir Putin." In reality, however, Trump was extremely
bellicose with Moscow, sanctioning the country, bombing a Russian base in
Syria, and letting a number of anti-nuclear treaties expire, much to the
Kremlin's consternation.
Biden's regime change agenda
While vice-president, Biden's administration also oversaw the 2009 overthrow
of the democratically-elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, aiding
in his ouster and replacement with a brutal military dictatorship that
continues to rule the country to this day. In her memoir, former Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton boasted that she helped "render the question of
Zelaya moot." She did so by blocking action from regional bodies like the
Organization of American States.
Wednesday's events also resemble a number of other U.S.-planned coup
d'etats, including that of Venezuela in 2002. With help from the American
embassy in Caracas, right-wing and far-right forces marched on the
Miraflores presidential palace, joining up with sympathetic military units
to storm the building and capture President Hugo Chavez. In the melee,
dozens of people were killed and Chavez was overthrown, replaced by a
well-known businessman with no political experience. The White House
immediately welcomed what it euphemistically called a "change in the
government." (Two days later, the coup was reversed by a huge popular
uprising).
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country into an ideological base for U.S. white supremacists.
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In 2018 MintPress reported that many American far-right and white
nationalist groups were receiving training from precisely the same Ukrainian
neo-Nazis that the U.S. government had tutored. Those far-right groups were
out in force at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA in 2017,
where they killed a counter-protester. Thus, it is eminently possible that
many of those storming the Capitol Building on Wednesday were taught
insurrectionary tactics from individuals trained to do so on behalf of the
U.S. empire abroad, a classic case of blowback, and an event that allows
Americans to experience a tiny taste of what it has wrought on the world for
several decades.
