Courtesy of The Automatic Earth.
Esther Bubley Greyhound garage, Pittsburgh, PA Sep 1943
Our Canadian friend Marina, who has Russian roots, sent me this video today. Marina has also translated several Automatic Earth articles into Russian (I’ll put up a link in a sidebar), see here. This is a taped August 24 international press conference with Alexander Zakharchenko, Chairman of The Council of Ministers of The Donetsk National Republic (DNR), and Vladimir Kononov, Defense Minister of DNR.
Since we in the west don’t often get to see the point of view of East Ukrainians, I thought it would be good to post it here. What is likely to be new to most is that the Donetsk leaders have not only recently actively started the formation of a state, they have to that end already established an army; and are therefore no longer – part of – militias.
Before I get accused of being partial once again – I get my fair share of that lately when I for instance ask for evidence of what either Russia or the (by now former) militias are accused of in the west -, I’ll just let it stand as is, and add parts of the transcript. At the very least you may find this informative. I did. And if at the end you think these guys are terrorists who don’t have the right to live free and in peace, so be it. But at least you’ll have seen their side of the story.
And I’ll add Putin’s speech yesterday at the Customs Union, where he met Poroshenko, for even more information from ‘the other side of the fence’. If only because whether we like it or not, the Ukraine ‘situation’ is very far from being solved, or over. And if you ask me, far too many people have died in the conflict already.
Our western leaders insist that the resolution is in the hands of Russia, or even Putin alone, but I think we need to ask ourselves if that is really the truth and nothing but the truth.
