{"id":171478,"date":"2015-08-08T23:45:31","date_gmt":"2015-08-08T23:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=171478"},"modified":"2015-08-09T01:27:38","modified_gmt":"2015-08-09T01:27:38","slug":"ukraine-bans-14-artists-mainly-russians-as-threat-to-national-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/ukraine-bans-14-artists-mainly-russians-as-threat-to-national-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Bans 14 ‘Artists,’ Mainly Russians, as ‘Threat to National Security’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday, August 8th,\u00a0Ukraine\u2019s Interfax News Service announced<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that the Security Bureau of Ukraine had just issued, on Friday, a list of 14 \u2018artists\u2019 (mainly Russian actors) who \u2018pose a threat to Ukraine\u2019s national security.\u2019 The Ukrainian State Film Agency is, under Ukrainian law, now prohibited from authorizing or allowing distribution of their films or other works. These artists are thus officially banned.<\/span><\/p>\n

The list also includes French actor Gerard Depardieu, and even Russian economist Mikhail Khazin. <\/span><\/p>\n

Khazin claims that the gold price has been manipulated downward, and that\u00a0gold is therefore way undervalued. In 2004, he published a book, The Decline of the Dollar Empire and the End of the Pax Americana<\/i>.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the first things that the United States did after its coup<\/span><\/a> that installed the present Ukrainian regime in February 2014<\/span><\/a> was to ship\u00a0all or almost all<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of the Ukrainian central bank\u2019s gold\u00a0to the U.S. Federal Reserve vault in the Wall Street area.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0The Ukrainian government has remained silent on the matter, other than to say\u00a0\u201cthere is almost no gold left in the Central Bank vault.\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0So, this economist, Khazin, isn\u2019t only Russian; he alleges that the 36 tons of gold that was transferred to the United States will some day soar in value. The Ukrainian government isn\u2019t saying that the gold is in NYC only temporarily; they refuse to answer any questions about it, not even whether it left Ukraine at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I had reported about the gold matter on 12 July 2014: \u201cImmediately [after the coup], the U.S. received a big payoff from [the coup]. A Right Sector<\/span><\/a> official Stepan Kubiv was appointed on February 24th as Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, Ukraine\u2019s Ben Bernanke. As I have reported on several occasions (here<\/span><\/a>\u00a0with links to multiple sources), \u2018more than 40 heavy boxes\u2019 of gold were reported to have been secretly flown from the National Bank of Ukraine to the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank’s sub-basement at 33 Liberty Street off Wall Street, in the early morning hours of March 7th. This happened within less than two weeks of the coup. This gold\u00a0would constitute about $2 billion being paid to the U.S.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The French actor Depardieu was included on the list because Russia\u2019s President, Vladimir Putin, had granted him Russian citizenship after Depardieu left France for Belgium when France raised its total tax-rate on him to 87% (according to Depardieu<\/span><\/a>), and because the actor had said, in expressing appreciation of this citizenship, that Putin \u201chas done a lot for Russian culture.\u201d<\/span><\/a> Depardieu said that he felt better about handling the matter this way than if he had taken the more normal path: stashing his money in a foreign tax-haven bank account. According to Britain\u2019s Telegraph<\/i>, \u201c\u2018I don’t need to hide,\u2019 he said.\u201d But, as a consequence, his films now won\u2019t be able to be seen in Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, a government that has been installed by the United States is banning \u2018artists.\u2019 It\u2019s not the sort of thing the U.S. government pumped to the public before its coup. Here<\/span><\/a> is Victoria Nuland of the U.S. State Department\u00a0on 13 December 2013<\/span><\/a>\u00a0talking about the U.S. government\u2019s efforts to establish \u2018democracy\u2019 in Ukraine. Here<\/span><\/a> she is, two months later,\u00a0on 4 February 2014,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in private, telling America\u2019s Ambassador in Kiev whom to install to lead the \u2018interim\u2019 government after the coup, which occurred 18 days later. (She called her appointee \u201cYats.\u201d He\u2019s still in the same post to which she had him become appointed.)\u00a0In Brussels on 26 March 2014,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0a month after Obama\u2019s\u00a0coup in Ukraine,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0which had overthrown Ukraine\u2019s actually democratically elected and legal government, Obama praised \u201cthe university student, wrapped in the Ukrainian flag, expressing her hope that \u2018every country\u00a0should live by the law’,\u201d and he said (with links added here by me, to his statement):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we believe in <\/i>democracy<\/i><\/span><\/a> — with elections that are <\/i>free and fair<\/i><\/span><\/a>; and\u00a0independent judiciaries and\u00a0opposition parties; civil society and\u00a0uncensored information so that individuals can make their own\u00a0choices. Yes, we believe in <\/i>open economies based on free markets and innovation<\/i><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0and individual\u00a0initiative and <\/i>entrepreneurship, and trade and investment<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0that creates <\/i>a broader prosperity<\/i><\/span><\/a>. And,\u00a0yes, we believe in <\/i>human\u00a0dignity — that every person is created equal, no matter who you are<\/i><\/span><\/a>, or\u00a0<\/i>what you look like, or who you love<\/i><\/span><\/a>, or<\/i><\/span> <\/i>where you come from<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>. That is\u00a0what we believe. That\u2019s\u00a0what makes us <\/i>strong<\/i><\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The 14 people who were banned by Obama\u2019s government in Ukraine, supposedly do not support the values that he holds (even though they do support the values that he expresses).<\/span><\/p>\n

Officials of the European Union didn\u2019t know that the overthrow was a coup, until right after it had happened; they first learned that it had been a coup, on\u00a026 February 2014<\/span><\/a>. They have, however, consistently stated, and continued to state, that,\u00a0“The EU is committed to supporting Ukraine in its path towards a modern\u00a0European democracy.”<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The new Ukrainian government is doing\u00a0all they can<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to achieve U.S. President Obama\u2019s objectives. That\u2019s why they have banned those 14 \u2018artists,\u2019 as being \u2018a threat to Ukraine\u2019s national security.\u2019 This is what the U.S. government is now referring to when it espouses \u2018democracy.\u2019 And, apparently, it\u2019s now also what the European Union holds as its ideal. Or, if not as its ideal, then, as its goal. It\u2019s where the world is heading, anyway. Or, if not the world, then its aristocracy. This is their ideal, and it\u2019s also their actual goal. Their goal-and-ideal is being realized today, in Ukraine, by banning 14 \u2018artists.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, those \u2018artists\u2019 are lucky they\u2019re not regular individuals inside Ukraine, who can be simply seized, and eliminated<\/span><\/a> at night. Or bombed<\/span><\/a>, or shelled<\/span><\/a>. No banning of them is necessary. Sometimes, it\u2019s even done to terrorize potential \u2018terrorists<\/span><\/a>,\u2019 or anyone <\/span>else who rejects<\/span><\/a> Obama\u2019s coup. Some survivors of the massacre of Crimeans who were escaping from Ukraine right before the coup were able to tell their accounts<\/span><\/a> on video.<\/span><\/p>\n

These 14 \u2018artists\u2019 have it easy.<\/span><\/p>\n

————<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse On Saturday, August 8th,\u00a0Ukraine\u2019s Interfax News Service announced\u00a0that the Security Bureau of Ukraine had just issued, on Friday, a list of 14 \u2018artists\u2019 (mainly Russian actors) who \u2018pose a threat to Ukraine\u2019s national security.\u2019 The Ukrainian State Film Agency is, under Ukrainian law, now prohibited from authorizing or allowing distribution of their films […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":171481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,1622],"tags":[115,30,731,32,96,535,59,753,804,524,523,49,76,40,1024],"class_list":{"0":"post-171478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-featured","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-big-brother","11":"tag-censorship","12":"tag-cia","13":"tag-cover-up","14":"tag-global-news","15":"tag-military","16":"tag-police-state","17":"tag-politics-2","18":"tag-russia","19":"tag-ukraine","20":"tag-usa-news","21":"tag-warfare","22":"tag-white-house","23":"tag-ww3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}