Calendar of Events

On the eve of the NATO Summit to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11-12, many self-serving views are being put forward by current and former NATO officials, neo-liberal think-tanks, defence ministers and personnel and national security advisors and consultants of NATO members. They are said to address what the reactionary forces within NATO think must take place at the Vilnius Summit. They demonstrate that NATO bases nothing on principles which guide international rule of law and relations between nations. Their concern is the brutal expansion of NATO interests and the further retrenchment of its coup regime in Kyiv.

There is also the lack of any consensus of any kind on the part of NATO members over how to conduct the U.S./NATO proxy war or how to end it. There is the volatile and explosive situation in France, along with broad scale opposition in Germany, Britain and civil war scenario in the United States as well as rapidly spreading manifestations of opposition and discontent in other countries. The refusal of governments to reverse the anti-social neo-liberal trend they are enforcing which harms the people of those countries and endangers peace worldwide by exacerbating the all-sided crisis, is seen to be blocking solutions to economic problems and the climate crisis. The consequences of wars and the climate crisis are evident in the masses of refugees seeking a home at a time unemployment, homelessness and impoverishment as well as hunger, famine and drought are plaguing humankind.

The defeat of the attempt to get the people of Russia to rise in support of the coup which appears to have been instigated by the British intelligence agency with the backing of the CIA to get rid of Russian President Vladimir Putin and cause instability in Russia is not even acknowledged.

Despite all of this, governments, media and personalities in the U.S./NATO countries continue to say that Ukraine is making headway. They continue to talk about providing arms, equipment, munitions and training to prolong the fight and claim that Ukraine is winning the war. It indicates that the prospects for that summit are poor indeed.

It should nonetheless be kept in mind that the U.S./NATO conspirators act on the basis of foul means which include massive disinformation to blame Russia for all the crimes they themselves have committed and continue to commit so anything can be expected to happen. The situation is fraught with danger and underscores that only the peoples of the world can turn things around by speaking out in their own name and saying No! The talk of the U.S./NATO warmongers is only remarkable for its total absence of any connection with reality.

Lying and Desperation Cannot Give Rise to Solutions

Hopeless views about the agenda the NATO Vilnius Summit should deal with are presented by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Secretary General of NATO and former Prime Minister of NATO member Denmark. What Rasmussen says seems to pretty much represent one of the disinforming narratives being put forward for the Vilnius Summit. Far from providing any hope for Ukraine or NATO it is a real lament signalling their defeat.

When he speaks about “winning peace in Ukraine,” Rasmussen does not even bother to address the realities on the ground in Ukraine, especially the bloody war started nine years ago by the coup government against the people of Donetsk and Luhansk to crush their legitimate aspirations to live in peace and harmony. This fact alone refute’s the NATO nonsense that this is “Russia’s war.” Rasmussen also self-servingly ignores the level of losses already suffered by the Ukrainian people, the unsustainability of the current government and armed forces, the many problems of corruption, repression, lack of prospects, level of indebtedness, besides others.

Rasmussen writes:

“The outcome of this war will depend on whether Ukraine’s allies extend the military, political, and economic support necessary for it to win and secure a sustainable peace. As the fighting rages on, the details of what this support should entail become increasingly apparent.”

Rasmussen’s proposal was first made in 2022, in a document entitled the “Kyiv Security Compact,” which he co-authored with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak. His current nine-page proposal outlines a set of security guarantees which he claims are aimed at enabling Ukraine to defend itself. This includes commitments from several countries to provide weapons, training, intelligence, and sustained investment in Ukraine’s military-industrial base.

The document shows that from the get-go, it is known that the U.S./NATO proxy war has failed to achieve the intended results since the 2014 Maidan coup, of isolating and annihilating Russia by using Ukraine as a base of operations without committing any NATO forces directly.

Rasmussen’s seven-point program includes:

1. “First, to avoid an open-ended war, the international community must make an unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s security.”

Far from ending the war, this can only give rise to a permanent ongoing war. Rasmussen calls for proactively ensuring Ukraine is armed to the teeth so it can succeed in overturning the decision of the people of the Donbass to establish independent republics and subsequently to join the Russian Federation.

Rasmussen includes Ukraine reclaiming Crimea in that agenda. He writes:

2. “Second, restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, including Crimea, must be a primary objective for the Ukrainian government and its allies.”

That is a pipe-dream and simply a non-starter. Crimea is now, once again, Russian territory, as are the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. The ongoing use of those territories to threaten Russia’s security indicates without a doubt that Russia will not agree to putting them under Ukrainian jurisdiction.

3. “Third, any sanctions relief must be directly tied to the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. NATO allies, particularly those guaranteeing Ukraine’s future security, should unequivocally state that they have no territorial claims against Russia.”

The sanctions are illegal. The Russians have coped with them while it is the countries and peoples of the rest of Europe who require sanctions relief. The theft of Russian assets has been conducted under the umbrella of sanctions based on the spurious claim that the cause of the U.S./NATO operation is moral and humanitarian. This is most harmful to the U.S., Britain and NATO countries themselves who by seizing these assets have thrown out the window the contract law that underpins their constitutional order and juridical systems. Once the private cartels in power seize and destroy private property for private gain to stay ahead of their rivals and make a fast buck, even they are not safe. The civil war scenarios can only get worse and the only stand the peoples of the world can take is to do whatever is necessary to oppose what is taking place.

No proposal by the likes of Rasmussen will get the U.S. to agree with anything remotely related to not making territorial claims against Russia or any other country. Nobody tells the U.S. what it can or cannot do which is why Russia is putting facts on the ground to resolve the crisis in its favour and in favour of peace in the Asia Pacific.

Rasmussen goes on:

4. “It is crucial to establish mechanisms for reparations and accountability for the staggering physical destruction and human suffering caused by Russia’s war.”

This is said to justify stealing Russian assets and also to cover up that the stolen assets will wend their way into private coffers, not the restoration of anything.

Rasmussen speaks as if Ukraine has won or will win the U.S./NATO proxy war, which is highly unlikely given the current state of affairs. He advocates criminal prosecutions against Russia and says that a compensation program (paid by Russia) must be an integral part of Ukraine’s recovery plan. This is straightforward propaganda to justify what cannot be justified: stealing Russia’s assets that have been seized by banks, governments and institutions that operate within the U.S./NATO sphere of influence and force.

To achieve all of this, the U.S./NATO powers must dismantle their own organizations and rules which limit what they can and cannot do. In this vein:

5. Rasmussen also advocates abandoning U.S. rules codified in the Paris Charter by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 1991. Current events have surpassed the OSCE, yet Rasmussen clearly thinks it can be resuscitated. This is based on the claim that it is comprised of 57 states from Europe, Central Asia and North America, on which basis the OSCE claims makes it “the world’s largest regional security organization.”

The conception that private property is sacrosanct is to be removed from the Paris Charter in order to carry out the outright theft of illegally seized Russian assets to allegedly finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. Rasmussen claims this is “an urgent need for a clear and coordinated reconstruction strategy, which should start immediately and could be partly funded by Russia’s frozen central bank assets, estimated at 300 billion euros (U.S.$329 billion).”

According to Rasmussen’s “plan,”

6. “Lasting peace can be achieved only by integrating Ukraine into NATO and the EU. Ukraine has already developed substantial military capabilities that could bolster NATO, while EU accession would accelerate the country’s reform efforts.”

At this point, Ukrainian debt is such that it is owned by the U.S. financial oligarchy. To say it “has already developed substantial military capabilities that could bolster NATO” is crazy talk which shows the extent to which NATO warmongers are grasping at straws. Far from unfolding developments showing that Ukraine can join NATO or be saved by joining NATO, the question on the agenda of the Summit is whether NATO itself will survive the wretched experience of the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine. Already the U.S. and Britain are rallying Germany to exceed what limits the NATO Charter imposes on their ability to act with impunity and this is what people can expect to see unfolding at the Vilnius Summit.

Meanwhile Rasmussen’s plan carries on talking nonsense.

7. “Ukraine must solidify its democratic foundations,” Rasmussen says. It is not clear who he thinks he is fooling except perhaps himself with talk about Ukraine’s “democratic foundations.” What democratic foundations? These “foundations” are the ones established by the U.S./Canada/Britain-staged Maidan coup in 2014 which brought remnants of the Nazi collaborator Bandera forces into the government and armed forces.

According to Rasmussen, it is all easy peasey. Referring to the need to “solidify” the “democratic institutions, Rasmussen writes:

“This requires eliminating corruption, ensuring an independent judiciary, and strengthening the rule of law. While the EU accession process could advance these goals, Ukraine’s allies must also provide significant funding to achieve them. A prosperous and democratic Ukraine would serve as a sharp rebuke to dictators everywhere and offer hope to all those resisting them.”

According to him, and many others, “the fate of Ukraine” is “hanging in the balance.” He/they are desperate to salvage it by using the exact same methods which have brought it to the brink of being made extinct altogether. He writes that leaders in Europe and North America must demonstrate vision and courage by following through on their promises to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes.” They must “make the necessary commitments to ensure a Ukrainian victory and lasting peace,” he says.

This is an example of the dearth of prospects the NATO warmongers have to offer at the Vilnius Summit.