CRAIG MURRAY: ‘Putin was justified'

Donbass (red) in Ukraine

CRAIG MURRAY: ‘Putin was justified in the invasion of Ukraine — the only alternative was massacre and ethnic cleansing.’

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/02/putin-history-and-the-mystery-of-national-identity/

‘The same powers funding and arming Ukraine are funding and arming the genocide in Gaza.’

Holodomor.

“The genocide in Gaza – or more precisely the major NATO powers’ active and practical support for the genocide in Gaza – has forced me to re-evaluate my views on Ukraine in a manner more sympathetic to the Russian narrative.

“In particular, I was complacent in my dismissive attitude to the argument that the Western powers would back ethnic cleansing and massacre in the Donbass, by forces including some motivated by Nazi ideology.

“[But] the same powers who are funding and arming Ukraine are funding and arming a genocide by racial supremacist Israeli forces in Gaza.

“… [My] belief in some kind of inherent decency in the Western political Establishment was naive …

“The causes of the Russian invasion of Ukraine are plain.

“Alarm at NATO expansionism and forward positioning of aggressive military assets encircling Russia.

“The Ukrainian coup of 2014.

“Exasperation at Ukrainian bad faith and the ignoring of the Minsk accords.

“The continuing death toll from shelling of Russian speakers in the Donbass.

“The suppression of the Russian language, of Russian Orthodox religion and of the main pro-Russian opposition political party in Ukraine are simple facts.



“These I have always acknowledged: until I saw the positive enthusiasm of leaders of the Western states for massacre in Gaza, I was not convinced they could not have been addressed by diplomacy and negotiation.

“I now have to reassess that view in the light of new information, and I now think Putin was justified in the invasion.

“… [Before,] I did not believe that the West would sponsor mass ethnic cleansing and genocidal attack on the Donbass by extreme Ukrainian nationalist-led, Western-armed forces.

“I thought the ‘West’ was more civilised than that.

“I now have to face the fact that I was wrong about the character of the NATO powers.

“The alternative to Putin’s action probably was indeed massacre and ethnic cleansing …

“All people of goodwill should … wish to see an end to fighting and a peace settlement, of which the territorial elements are somewhere close to the current lines between the forces, with Russia giving back some territory in return for recognition of its gains.

“The alternative is more death, human misery and economic malaise.”

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/02/putin-history-and-the-mystery-of-national-identity/