IN SEPTEMBER OF 2014, I found myself standing on a narrow, potholed street in Kiev, east of the Dnieper River, in an area known as the Left Bank. I didn’t even know, at that point, whom I was meeting. I knew only that Khalid, my contact in Turkey with the Islamic State, had told me his “brothers” were in Ukraine, and I could trust them.
When one of them called me, I was given the address of a small street in the Ukrainian capital where I should go, and no other information. When I arrived, I found myself in a maze of Soviet apartment blocks. I immediately noticed two well-built men walking by; they were bearded, with black sunglasses and black leather jackets. When I looked closely, I could see sticking out of their jackets the barrels of small machine guns.
“Kandahar, Kandahar,” one of them said into his radio, after approaching me.
Could we go in? “No,” was the answer. The “commander” was still busy.
The armed men guided me past rows of Soviet-era apartment buildings, and then we waited in a wide, open square among the tall, concrete buildings. After half an hour of waiting, we wove through the housing complex until we approached a 10-story building, then took the elevator up to a mid-level floor and entered a small apartment. The single room was furnished with a bed, a kitchen table and two chairs.
Sitting inside the small apartment was Isa Munayev. I recognized him immediately, because he was one of the few Chechens serving in Ukraine who was photographed frequently without a mask. He was upset, and shouting into the phone: “We came to die for you, and you don’t even want to do what you promised.”
As Russian-backed separatist forces began battling Ukrainian forces, Munayev came to Ukraine and established one of what would become several dozen private battalions that sprang up to fight on the side of the Ukrainian government, operating separately from the military. Munayev’s group was called the Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion, named after the first president of independent Chechnya, who was killed by Russian forces in 1996. Munayev was the head of the battalion.
He was not at the front in the fall of 2014, because he was busy training forces and organizing money and weapons, from Kiev. An older man in a leather jacket introduced me to Munayev. “Our good brother Khalid recommended this man,” the man said. (Khalid is today one of the most important leaders of the Islamic State. Khalid and Munayev knew each other from years spent fighting together in Chechnya.)
Munayev had reason for all the security precautions. Vladimir Putin regarded him as a personal enemy, and so did Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-friendly leader of Chechnya. Yet once I was inside the apartment, Munayev greeted me like an old friend, and we chatted casually about friends and colleagues we both knew from Chechnya; some were dead, a few still alive.
For those looking for an easy narrative in today’s wars, whether in the Middle East or in eastern Ukraine, the Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion is not the place to find it. The battalion is not strictly Muslim, though it includes a number of Muslims from former Soviet republics, including Chechens who have fought on the side of the Islamic State in Syria. It also includes many Ukrainians. But all are fighting against what they perceive to be a common enemy: Russian aggression.
Munayev was full of nervous energy, gesturing and talking loudly. He rarely stood still; even in the small apartment, he got up frequently, walked around and sat down again. When I asked whether I could visit him once he moved to the front lines, he told me to call him next time I was in Kiev.
A few months later when I returned to Ukraine, in early 2015, Munayev was no longer in Kiev. He was fighting in the east, in the so-called Debaltseve “cauldron,” which had become the center of an intense battle between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists. But Munayev gave permission for Ruslan, a member of his battalion, to take me to his secret base.
I was the first journalist allowed to visit the base, and I would end up being the last journalist to see Munayev before his death.
THE TRIP FROM Kiev to the base of the Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion in the east winds along 500 miles of poorly maintained roads pocked with holes, and in the winter, often covered in snow. When we passed the city of Dnipropetrovsk, in southeastern Ukraine, we were told to turn off our phones and remove the batteries.
We approached Munayev’s base late at night after many hours inside a cramped, overheated car. On the last bit of road, Ruslan got lost in the fog. He wasn’t the only one. We stopped at one point to talk with the driver of a Ukrainian army truck; the soldier was completely confused. He didn’t know where to go, and we couldn’t help him. On the horizon, we saw the flash of rockets as troops fired at positions near Donetsk. Dull explosions punctuated the silence of the night.
We rendezvoused with Munayev’s men at the crossroads of a small village, near a Soviet-era monument to “working women” painted bright white. An armored van, similar to one designed to carry cash to the bank, pulled up next to us. Ihor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian oligarch from Dnipropetrovsk, had given the car to Munayev’s fighters. From there we drove together to the base.
The Dudayev battalion base was situated in an old, dilapidated complex of buildings, a former psychiatric hospital that once treated drug addicts, among others. The conditions were tough, but at least the main building was warm, heated by a wood-burning oven. Fighters cut down the trees from around the hospital to feed the oven.
“There is no one in Chechnya who hasn’t suffered at the hands of the Russian army.”
– Isa Munayev
About 50 to 60 fighters were in the building, at least half of them Ukrainians, many from the city of Cherkasy. Others came from Chechnya, and the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in the North Caucasus. There were also Crimean Tatars, Azeris and one Georgian from Batumi. All were there to defend Ukraine against Russia. “I know how much this great nation needs help, and we really want to help them,” Munayev said.
Munayev also admitted, however, that he hoped the weapons he got in Ukraine would end up in the hands of militants in the Caucasus. He had a clear goal. “I defend Ukraine and Chechnya,” he told me. “If we succeed in Ukraine, then we can succeed in Chechnya.”
In Ukraine, Munayev was seeking revenge for the wrongs that he and his people had suffered. Russians had killed his father, his wife and his children. “These are the enemies who murdered my people, who took my country from me,” he said. “They killed all those who were dear to us. There is no one in Chechnya who hasn’t suffered at the hands of the Russian army.”
Adam Osmayev, the deputy commander of the battalion, is famous in his own right. Two years before the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine, the British-educated Chechen was arrested in Odessa, a port city in the south of Ukraine, on suspicion of conspiring to assassinate Vladimir Putin. Osmayev initially pleaded guilty, but then withdrew the plea, writing in a statement he submitted before the court that the admission was “obtained through physical and psychological coercion.” Osmayev claimed that after his arrest in 2012, representatives of Ukraine’s security service beat him on the head with fists, gun handles and rifle butts. He said they kicked him, partially suffocated him with a plastic bag over his head, and injected him with drugs.
Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky helped create the first battalions — the Dnipro and Dnipro-1 — each with about 500 people.
In the spring of 2014, after a new Ukrainian government came to power, Isa Munayev and three of his men broke Osmayev out of prison, according to Ruslan, who was one of the fighters involved. On the way back to Kiev, special forces surrounded them at one of the militia checkpoints, Ruslan said, and after a dramatic standoff, the Ukrainians allowed the Chechens to go free. (There is no way to confirm Ruslan’s account, but in the fall of 2014, the Odessa court suddenly declared that Osmayev had fulfilled enough of his sentence and had been set free). Osmayev and Munayev came back to Kiev, and the Dudayev battalion was created.
At the time I visited, most of the fighters were at the front in the vicinity of Luhansk. But the exact number serving in the battalion is a mystery. According to one source, there are 500 volunteers. Assuming that number is correct, it’s a significant force, which is why it’s increasingly feared in Kiev. The battalion is not subject to any political leader in Kiev, or subordinate to any political structure there.
The Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky helped create the first volunteer battalions — the Dnipro and Dnipro-1 — each with about 500 people. For several months, he also financially supported several other battalions, including Azov, Aidar, Donbass, and Right Sector battalion. In the end, Kolomoisky also invited the Chechens, hoping they would protect his businesses and factories, if needed.
Since the 1990s, Kolomoisky has been one of the most powerful men in Ukraine. His influence extends across almost the entire Ukrainian economy. Among other companies, he controls PrivatBank, the country’s largest bank, and exercises significant authority over Ukrnafta, its largest oil and gas producer. His influence extends over the media through several television stations, including the popular channel 1+1. The oligarch also owns the football club Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
Most of Kolomoisky’s assets, however, focus on Privat Group, which The Wall Street Journal described as “an informal nebula of companies controlled by Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners.” In 2008, Forbes estimated that Kolomoisky’s fortune was $4.2 billion.
When Kolomoisky saw that the Russians might capture Dnipropetrovsk — where his business was centered — he decided to cooperate with the new president of Ukraine, who, like him, was a businessman. Kolomoisky also wanted to help bail out the government’s army, which had been hobbled by years of corruption. After Russia annexed Crimea and separatists began fighting in eastern Ukraine, Kolomoisky announced his candidacy for the post of governor of Dnipropetrovsk. He was immediately appointed to the position.
“If we die, at least we die as soldiers, and not as slaves.”
– Isa Munayev
There are three volunteer battalions with a significant number of Muslim fighters operating in Ukraine today (it would be wrong to describe any of the battalions as “Muslim,” since they also include Ukrainians and other nationalities). The Dudayev battalion operates between Donetsk and Luhansk, the Sheikh Mansour battalion, which broke off from the Dudayev battalion, is based close to Mariupol, in the southeast of Ukraine, and in the northeast is the Crimea battalion, based in Krematorsk, which consists mostly of Crimean Tatars. (There is also a separate company of Crimean Tatar fighters that operate as part of a sotnya, a Slavic term for “hundred.”)
From time to time, Munayev met with representatives of the Ukrainian Security Service, known as the SBU. The Ukrainian government and President Petro Poroshenko fear that Chechens — along with other branches of voluntary battalions dissatisfied with the developments in Ukraine — could one day threaten the government in Kiev.
That concern isn’t totally without merit. “It doesn’t matter whether the Ukrainian authorities help us or not,” a commander from the Tatar battalion told me. “Now we have weapons and we will never given them up.”
That commander recently arrived in Ukraine from Syria. He wants to fight to free Crimea, which he does not believe Ukraine will ever recover through negotiations. “It can be done only by force, with weapons in hand,” he said.
IN THE END, I spent three days at the base with Munayev. As a volunteer battalion, the relationship between commander and fighters relies on mutual trust, rather than traditional military structures. The volunteers weren’t there because they were paid soldiers or conscripts; they were there because they believed in Munayev’s instincts and abilities as a commander. And Munayev believed in them. “These are my fighters,” he said at one point. “These wonderful, beautiful young men.”
Over the past month, Munayev had been organizing raids behind enemy lines, attacking the command posts, artillery, rocket launchers and entrenched tanks. He would personally go to the front lines for a week or two, then return to the base just to pick up a new group of fighters, allowing the others to rest.
Munayev went to battle for the last time on Jan. 26. He went to Debaltseve, which the separatists took in February following an intense battle that left much of the city in ruins. Before getting into the white armored van that last day, he told me the same thing he told his fighters — that he didn’t know when he would return. “We are going deep behind enemy lines,” he said. “I hope everything will be fine. If we die, at least we die as soldiers, and not as slaves.”
Munayev didn’t return. What happened next depends on whom you believe. There are suspicions that his location was betrayed to the Russians. But one of the fighters I spoke with, a Chechen who came to Ukraine with a Turkish passport, does not believe that. According to his account, on Feb. 1 Munayev’s group went to help the volunteer Donbass battalion fighting near Debaltseve. Most of the fighters stayed at the Ukrainian positions, but Munayev took four fighters and went on a scouting mission. He wanted to get to the rear of the enemy. They walked a little over 2 miles into “no man’s land,” between the two sides.
They came to a small village called Chernukhino, where they stumbled upon Russian soldiers. There was shooting, and the Chechens killed a few Russians — the rest of the Russians withdrew. The Russians, however, managed to give the village’s coordinates to their artillery, and soon all hell broke loose. At the same time, the assault began on Debaltseve, which was defended by the Ukrainian army, as well as volunteer battalions including Donbass and Dudayev.
Munayev’s body was left on the battlefield, something strictly prohibited by the Chechen honor code.
The five lightly armed Dudayev fighters were attacked by infantry and tanks, and so they fled. They came upon a courtyard, where they saw a building with a shop. Munayev emptied some rounds into the front door and ordered his men to take refuge inside. When the last one entered, there was an explosion. The room filled with clouds of black smoke. When the dust settled, the commander of the militants was lying at the entrance to the building. Munayev had been hit by shrapnel from a tank shell, and had a large gaping wound. Munayev, who had survived two brutal wars in Chechnya, died instantly. He was 49 years old.
What happened next is even more controversial. The commander’s body was left on the battlefield, something strictly prohibited by the Chechen honor code. I spoke with a fighter from the Chechen battalion of Sheikh Mansour, which broke away from Munayev’s branch a few months ago. Relations between the two battalions are not good.
He didn’t want to talk about the death of Munayev, or why the commander was left on the battlefield. Ask the people “who were with Isa in his last moments,” the fighter said when I asked him about it. “Of course we know what happened, but it is not our business.”
Munayev’s fighters said they didn’t take him from the battlefield because they were too far from the Ukrainian positions, and wouldn’t have been able to carry the body. They were convinced that no one would escape alive. Fleeing, they had to jump over fences, walls and sometimes on top of the roofs of houses. In the evening, they came to the trenches of the Donbass Battalion.
Before Munayev left the base for the last time, I had asked him what he thought of the Chechens fighting in Syria alongside ISIS and other Islamic organizations. What were they fighting for there?
“I don’t know what they’re fighting for, but I know what I’m fighting for,” he answered. “I fight for freedom.”
Adam Osmayev, Munayev’s deputy, was a few miles away fighting alongside the Ukrainian troops when Munayev was killed. When Munayev’s death was reported in the Russian media, one of the claims was that Osmayev had murdered him. Osmayev wouldn’t even comment on that allegation. He said that type of information must have come from Russian security services trying to discredit him.
Osmayev said that a few days after Munayev’s death, when the fighting “subsided a little,” he went to retrieve his commander’s body. Osmayev carried the body from the battlefield, and he and his comrades buried him in the wild fields of Ukraine. Osmayev’s debt to Munayev was repaid.
Osmayev, who has now taken over leadership of the Dudayev battalion, said he didn’t know for sure what happened, but he was sure Munayev died like a soldier.
“He was looking for his end,” Osmayev said. “It found him.”
Photos: Tomasz Glowacki
* At the request of the writer, “Ruslan” is identified by a pseudonym.
– The material for this story is part of BROTHERS, a documentary film being developed for Germany’s broadcaster WDR – Die Story and Autentic, produced by Propellerfilm, broadcast date May 18th, 10pm (MET).
Did I understand correct that US media presented by TI is hailing to terrorist and brutal murderer?
If you present terrorist as a God’s palladin, should you not be considered as a terrorism supporters?
Really enjoyed reading the story.. The complexity of any war is amazing– so many different interests- my enemy’s, enemy is my friend– is all true—
These jackals will be destroyed, the time will come !.
Two sides to every story….
This is interesting:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/03/03/suspects-named-in-nemtsovs-murder/
“Dudayev Battalion militants suspected in Nemtsov murder”
“The Nemtsov murder investigation has focused on the theory that the crime was organized by a Chechen militant commander Adam Osmayev, of the Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion, who also was named in the case concerning the attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin.”
“The information that Ukraine’s special services ordered the murder is being verified. The bandits may have performed a mission assigned by Ukrainian secret services, but also avenged the death of their former leader Isa Munaev. He was killed on February 1 during the battle for Debaltsevo, after which the battalion’s command was taken over by Adam Osmayev.
The so-called Dzhokhar Dudayev international peacekeeping battalion is fighting on Ukraine’s side, and was formed by Munaev in March 2014. Munaev fought in the first Chechen campaign against Russian forces, and after 1999 he declared himself the commander of the South-Western sector and participated in organizing acts of terrorism.
Munaev fled Chechnya in 2006 for Denmark, where he received asylum. He founded the movement “Free Caucaus” which, according to secret services, financed terrorists. When in 2014 the Ukrainian government launched the ATO against LPR and DPR, Munaev went to Ukraine and declared the formation of his battalion. Russian sources indicate that he was personally invited Igor Kolomoisky, who financed the battalion. The battalion’s core were Chechen immigrants in Denmark, and citizens of other countries who belonged to terrorist organizations.
Isa Munaev was one of the individuals, along with the commanders of Azov and Dnepr, who supported terrorism on Russia’s soil and who were ordered delivered to Chechnya by Ramzan Kadyrov.
Russian services are trying to establish how many people participated in the preparation and implementation of Nemtsov’s murder. It cannot be ruled out that, in addition to killers and spotters, there were also “controllers” in Moscow who observed the murder’s aftermath and political effect. One of them may have been the Ukrainian deputy Aleksey Goncharenko. Experts who were questioned by Izvestiya believe the theory of foreign secret service involvement to have merit.”
I think interesting read, my main complain with most online articles is that they are too short. Chechens in Ukraine, I didn’t know, but it makes sense that all kinds of anti-russians gathered in Ukraine.
I noticed the regular Ukrainian army on television, after hurry escaping from Debaltseve around 1 Feb. They showed clear signs of being happy the fight was over. No way they could be motivated back to the frontline, the better news
Thanks for this article. It’s frightening how far ISIS’s tentacles have reached. I’ve always been leery about the the american-backed regime in Kiev, but I’ve supported them after the annexation of Crimea. But now that it seems ISIS is fighting with the Ukrainians, it’s time to reconsider that support. I guess that was the point of this article right? ISIS is fighting with the regime right? I had a bit of a hard time following the narrative.
ISIS is fighting with the regime? It seems you have been brainwashed into fearing ISIS so much that you read this article and understood absolutely nothing from it.
This is a terribly written article (a sentiment which seems to be shared widely here) – but, upon first reading it, I still found the content terrifying despite the horrible writing style.
Then I looked at the comments and chased some related news, and found the content of the article terrifying in a completely different way: it is very sloppy research, or worse, willful misrepresentation.
As nicely documented in the photo essay at http://qz.com/347948/the-ukrainian-city-thats-become-a-haven-for-jews-fleeing-another-european-war/, Ihor Kolomoisky is himself Jewish (see also http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.620845) – and there is a nice photo there of the family of the man who claims to be the only Orthodox Jewish man fighting in one of these battalions.
I would think these are interesting details for the purposes of this article – no? Why no mention of things like that? Clearly the situation is very complex, so why write it in a way that seems to draw out the ISIS or Islamic connections almost to the exclusion of other complexities?
I really hate to think this reflects a larger malaise at The Intercept, which I had such great hopes pinned on. But a few more diarrhetic pieces like these, and I will stop coming here.
Wow. All I can say is ‘how sad’. How sad that the Intercept, which started out with so much promise, could fall so low so fast. I guess one could be excused for the “Russian-backed separatists” jibe, it’s use has spread to many other “alternative” media as well. Sure, they want to separate now after being bombed, blockaded, and starved for nine months, but when the conflict began all they had voted for was for a federation whereby they could elect their own regional administrators and judicial authorities (what a radical agenda, no?). Does Russia back them? Absolutely. But those who are backed by the US are never given that moniker– and that’s the crucial difference. The forces fighting for Kiev are referred to as the Ukrainian Army, not “US-backed troops”, even though they are. The irregular militias fighting for Kiev are “volunteer battalions” not “US-backed fighters,” even though they get US support. But, like I said, one could get over that nomenclature.
What is utter nonsense is the no-bones-about-it “Russian soldiers” spoken of. While certainly there are citizens of Russia fighting with the militias (just as there are citizens of Russia fighting for Kiev) an objective term would be “volunteer” (just as the Russians fighting for Kiev are referred to). The term “Russian soldier” should denote a regular soldier of the armed forces of Russia. However, despite how absolutely golden such evidence would be for the West in condemning “Russian aggression”, zero actual evidence has ever been presented. You’d think thousands of Russian soldiers and tanks which Kiev and its supporters are constantly yelling about would show up in a satellite picture or two. Yet all we get are pictures a la Inhofe of Russians from Georgia in 2008.
Yet whats even better is the author’s “easy narrative” he’s trying to avoid. Yes, he’s absolutely correct, in the real world “easy” narratives don’t exist. True good and evil rarely lock horns, all belligerents in every conflict have shades of both. So call me slow, but how does studiously avoiding the “bad” aspects of the Chechens, i.e. their political and ideological connections with the Islamic State and the corresponding atrocities committed in Syria and Iraq as well as their far from perfect adherence to the “rules of civilized warfare” (terrorism) in Chechnia, while trotting out every possible “good” aspects does anything but attempt to paint an “easy” narrative (Chechens=freedom fighters, Russians=oppressors)?
If one wants to indulge in both-sides-have-done-wrong false objectivity, fine. I consider it a cop-out for proper journalism which actually works to VERIFY the opposing claims, it is better than your average MSM coverage. But the author here doesn’t even go that far. Never mind that the vast majority of militia members are Ukrainians fighting against what they consider an illegitimate government hostile to their Russian language, culture, and heritage. “The noble Chechens are fighting Russian soldiers in Ukraine!” Never mind that the democratic referendum in Crimea to re-join Russia had over 90% support (and subsequent polls undertaken in the West by western agencies found 80 to 90 percent support for reunification with Russia) “Russia annexed Crimea!” Never mind that in all likelihood it was a Ukrainian of the Donbass that killed Munayev. “The evil Russian soldiers killed our freedom fighter!”
It is not the first time when TI rents its platform to some third grade Polish-Ukrainian propagandists to do their pseudo-journalism aligned with Orwellian ministry of western truths supporting Kiev fascist regime, banderavite spawn that slaughtered 200,000 women and children, author’s own compatriots, during WWII. And neither fact, nor evidence can stand chance to be heard in this lust for power and Ukrainian glory sung over mountain of corpses. This is nothing more than insult to thousands of Ukrainian people on both sides who died in this senseless civil war in Eastern Ukraine. It is depressing to witness dehumanization of western propaganda outlets, I thought TI did not belong to.
I think you are forgetting the chap writing this was a friend of Munayev, he had got his introductory letter from an Islamic State friend, Khalid who they both knew. The journalist knew Munayev from Chechnya. Its a fascinating account from the perspective of the enemy.
Another muslim fought & died so the McDonalds/angloUS world empire could spread into Ukraine ? Fool.
Didn’t you even read the article – this guy hated the Russians as they had killed his father, wife and children. It has absolutely nothing to do with McDonalds.
It appears that in the Ukraine, and also in other eastern European countries, Russian born citizens or citizens of Russian decent are something of a liability whether or not they harbour support for Russian “liberation” of their newfound countries. While its bitter medicine, these people have to be moved away from the border regions of these countries. However, unlike what has occurred in untold numbers of these ‘relocations’ in the past in many countries including Canada, those relocated have to be reimbursed for their losses, and then some.
This is a terribly written article (a sentiment which seems to be shared widely here) – but, upon first reading it, I still found the content terrifying despite the horrible writing style.
Then I looked at the comments and chased some related news, and found the content of the article terrifying in a completely different way: it is very sloppy research, or worse, wilful misrepresentation.
As nicely documented in the photo essy at http://qz.com/347948/the-ukrainian-city-thats-become-a-haven-for-jews-fleeing-another-european-war/, Ihor Kolomoisky is himself Jewish (see also http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.620845) – and there is a nice photo there of the family of the man who claims to be the only orthodox Jewish man fighting in one of these battalions.
I would think these are interesting details for the purposes of this article – no? Why no mention of things like that? Clearly the situation is very complex, so why write it in a way that seems to draw out the ISIS or Islamic connections almost to the exclusion of other complexities?
I really hate to think this reflects a larger malaise at The Intercept, which I had such great hopes pinned on. But a few more diarrhetic pieces like these, and I will stop coming here.
The Intercept – “Where Journalism Goes To Die”.
With Greenwald behind it I had high expectations of “The Intercept” which I heard of today. This is only the second article I’ve read and I am massively disappointed by the lack of objectivity, careless phraseology and its manipulations. It reads like the Washington narrative which fills the MSM concerning Ukraine. When the author says “Russians” who does he mean, exactly? When he says “All were there to defend Ukraine against Russia.” does he not really mean “All SAID they were there to defend Ukraine against Russia” or is he referring to an axiom in HIS mind at least?
GLENN, get some editorial grip on this tripe or “The Intercept” will flop. I came looking for a journalism which has been lost.
So you have read only two articles and you’re sitting there crying how disappointed you are with it?
As for your post that it sounds like the MSM version on Russia, that’s just laughable – in case you do not know, most of Glenn’s tweets on Ukraine and Russia are NOT pro-Ukrainian leadership.
There is no right and there is no wrong. There is no black and no white. There is just our side and the other side. It’s feels good to finally see who’s side Greenwald and the TI are on. Looking forward to dozens of articles about the neo-nazis who overthrew the benevolent VY government. It feels good to find out who to fall in line behind.
“Call this one ‘the Iranian who owns a Jew that pimps a Polack.’ So, now we have a bit of focus coming to the fact of Pierre Omidyar, The Intercept’s bankroller, has funded elements in Ukraine leading to the overthrow of the Yanukovich regime, a de facto support contributing to the present civil war. Clearly Omidyar has been supporting the side of those now constituting the regime in Kiev. How does The Intercept spin it’s bending over to take Omidyar’s shaft from behind?” ronald thomas west. i couldn’t have said it any better myself.
No wonder …
Some folks here are still waiting for what more Snowden could have leaked …
The author flips flops around a lot. One minute the opposition is Russian-backed, then it is Russian troops. From what I hear, the eastern part of Ukraine is Has a large ethnic Russian population and has most of the country’s heavy industry going back to Soviet times. Ukraine is extremely corrupt, essentially ruled by Mafia and has been for some time. The Russians tried to clean it up but never succeeded since they have problems elsewhere.
Russians have had various villains/barbarians on their doorstep for centuries. In Czarist times, they would send in the Cossacks for a good loot and pillage. After a good raping, the uppity Provence would be quiet for while.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cossacks
what’s the point here? how great hero this guy is?
well he is simply a murderer …
and I’m not very happy that the west is happy with having different groups of people with questionable motives armed in Ukraine just because they happen to hate Russians
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Could the Editor-General of The Intercept please wake up and change the lead article? This article is sickening. That face of the criminal mercenary has been showing up every time for the last two days.
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I just found this wonderful news and had to share it!
If this story is true, then Obama has (briefly) vindicated himself for the moment.
According to this article, Netanyahu was determined to launch a military strike against Iran and Obama told him that if he did that the U.S. military would shoot down the Israeli jets headed for their targets in Iran:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/191966#.VPNlLfnF-So
Sorry this is “off topic”, but it seems folks are pretty much over this thread as it is now anyhow.
Last year the Saudis had already paid us to attack Syria, with the obvious escalation of the war into Iran. This did not happen as David Cameron like a buffoon failed to get his poodles to join the pack. After that Obama reversed gear, mainly on advise from Brezezinski. Well, Obama and Brezezinski – two unlikely names to run this great country.
I disagree with some of the comments those that said it was boring. Just the opposite it was most exiting read for me in a while. outstanding piece of journalism. about people consumed by violence. he could settle in Europe start a new life whatever. people do that. although I could not say I never went through what these people went. I grow up in 90s in Russia and remember all this anxieties with Chechen wars ( for me fortunately just that). some policymakers do something they even do not know clearly what and some people pay brutal price for that. and it seems so disconnected one from the other. what ideas hold sway over us. and lives senselessly lost. in one place hypocrisy in clean and bright rooms of high places of power and brutality of military conflicts. we the people should protest against politics that is currently mainstream that creates so much terror.
So according to this article the Chechen freedom fighters were actually fighting “the Russians”. So it was confirmed that they engaged regular Russian army troops? What unit was it? Why does the media never confirm what units of the Russian army are in Ukraine sense they always report Russians fighting there as a fact. I also find it ironic that we are supposed to take oligarch funded battalions of foreigners as legitimate freedom fighters but the fact that some Russians are fighting with the separatist is repeated by the media as some kind of mantra like it’s supposed to discredit their cause.
Was Munayev responsible for Beslan? It seems he met someone worse than Russians. Ukrainians.
Over and over I see comments from people who assume that the intended consequences of foreign policy, both overt and covert, should be based on some sort of idealistic reality. The cold truth of the world is that every nation acts in its own interest. Although the unintended consequences that happen are sad and disgusting, we should all remember the basic fact that most conflicts are a mash up of local grievances backed by agendas of more powerful actors. Ukraine is a prime example. European\US leaning western Ukraine came out in mass and have largely supported the current Kiev govt., and the eastern Russia leaning blocks have supported the Russian intervention. If you are looking for a right vs wrong fight. War isn’t the place to find it.
War is almost always a choice between the lesser of evils.
Keep in mind that this article was written by two Poles and everyone knows what we Poles think about Russians. In this case, I, a Pole, am behind the Russians, as was Polish patriot Adam Gurowski during the first Crimean war.
All conceptual monoliths break down into granularity on close examination.
A sergeant I knew sincerely thanked Jesus for our war against peasants, because he was sure he would otherwise have been killed by the husband of the woman he had had an affair with.
The many died for the sergeants sins. Thank you, Jesus.
Despite the reasons people find to justify any war, despite the evils of all states, in state versus state conflicts (the same as when King Kong fights Godzilla), little bystanders are always found in the wrong place at the wrong time and will surely be crushed out of existence by one state or another, if not both.
War is a force that gives us meaning.– Hedges
Mass man is mass murder. –Gass
This was one of the dullest articles I’ve read in a long time. I, actually, just started reading the topic sentence of each paragraph just to get through it with the least waste of time.
Here’s a condensed version; soldiers of fortune often die in battle.
LF
You know, Dave, maybe you should just stick with your HuffPo.
Well, I did try hard and reached a quarter of the way down, after which I abandoned any further injury to my senses.
Boo hoo. Why don’t you go to some war zone and have a meeting in some remote place with your Islamic State contact and Chechen rebels and do a better job? I bet you could end up starring in one of those exciting videos the Muslims are getting so good at making. :) Meanwhile… the reader takes what information he can, and believes next to none of it.
Eastern Ukrainians are called Russian fighters. lol. Interesting story nonetheless. I don’t sympathize with the Western Ukrainians at all. Especially their corrupt leaders but The Chechens suffered horribly in their war with Russia. I can understand why he wanted revenge.
Well if you attack Russian schools and take school children as hostages and kill them , and you attack Russians going to the theatre and you kill them, then you deserve to suffer horribly . Any country would have done the same to the Chechens
Those who blame the West for this war, would it help if Putin or someone like him invaded your country one day so you can be super clear on how you will feel about it? I know empathy or thinking or learning are hard, so personal experience would really help in this case.
This reads like straight out of the mainstream media. Now it’s not even “the russian-backed separatists” anymore, we just graduate right to finding and fighting “the Russians”.
These are all crooked people up to no good. Born to create a war here and a war there till they finally get consumed by violence. He stayed in Europe for a while- no doubt someone was financing him all the time. I wonder how TI gets reporters with such shady connections.
At this rate it won’t be long before TI interviews Jihady Johnny.
“The Russians, however, managed to give the village’s coordinates to their artillery, and soon all hell broke loose.”
and how about people who were/ are living there ? This is all sad, just sad. Playing war games like boys with the toys…Both sides
.
I’ve been reading mainstream media from my country , which is Ukraine’s neighbour, since begininning of Maidan in 2014…And I may tell you one thing – there is no journalist worse than the journalist who calls for war escalation and paints the other side as black- enemies. And there is nobody worse than a politician who is war-mongering and behave like dog of his new masters, not the representant of the nation that he should serve….So I stopped reading all mainstream media from my country, because it was really sad and frustrating to see how they all lie and took just one side of the conflict…They should be in hell or prison to manipulate people’s minds like that…. independent journalists in mainstream media…independent my ass…..all like barking dogs …and their masters are where ? in their own stupidity, or…. ?
That “neighbouring” country of Ukraine and its media that I mentioned is NOT RUSSIA….
Isaiah is being generous. Frequently, the author just says “the Russians.” He would have us believe no local citizens joined the Donbas armies, let alone that they are the great majority of its soldiers.
It remains me of Hollywood where each year you see the same actors, playing in a different movie. Here you have the same soldiers, fighting in a different war.
This story is like a Boys Own adventure and about as unreal.. I loved the bit about Boris emptying a few rounds into the front door and ordering his men inside. Is thiis journalism or a novel? Give me a break!!
Right. And if you have neighbor who is irritating you and you have a few bucks to spare, then all you need is the guy’s cell number.
Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.
brothers in arms … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGpwKQo5_Z0
It seems likely that direct military assistance to Ukraine will also arm Chechen rebels and ISIS.
Well, yea. But it’s quicker if we continue to ship it to ISIS through Turkey and Jordan like we do now.
Interesting way of framing “the Russian Backed Rebels” versus the Ukrainian Government….
Here is a video of Victoria Nuland addressing the owners of US foreign policy right before the illegal and violent coup staged by US backed right wing fascists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y0y-JUsPTU
This is the first article in The Intercept that made me feel like I was reading the NYT.
Bravo Isaiah Earhart!
Asking as someone who do think that the West bears the responsibility for the crisis in Ukraine, how would you characterize the two sides?
Here is my take on the Ukrainian situation:
http://rinf.com/alt-news/featured/entire-case-sanctions-russia-pure-lies/
Again- I do think that NATO’s plan to expand to Russia’s border via Ukraine has initiated this civil war, so I am familiar with, and for the most part, agree with your take. However, the main objection to these articles has been the phrase “Russian-backed separatists”- and unless MSM has totally misled me, Russia does back these separatists. Many people commenting here have also refused to respond to the actual articles and instead given their opinions on who’s the aggressor. There’s a long history between Ukraine and Russia that Westerners on both sides of the debate grossly simplify because they cannot resist framing the crisis from the US pov. You either think “America should stop” or “America should keep going or get even more aggressive until Putin stops”. But even those who believe that American arrogance has started this catastrophe, and I’m one of those, must remember that Ukrainians/Eastern Europeans who have endured lifetimes of Russian hegemony and imperialist agendas may feel quite differently about what’s going on in Eastern Ukraine.
Hauser, remember, the eastern Ukrainians are ETHNIC RUSSIANS – and you expect Russia to sit on its hands and do nothing??
Also, google banderowcy and click on images and see what western Ukrainians did to us Poles during and after the war.
The Ukrainian nationalists even came up with a list of 135 torture and butchering methods, for men, women and CHILDREN.
http://wolyn1943.eu.interiowo.pl/artykuly.html
Translate the page with Google Translate for the gory details. Well known in Poland, this butchery by the zapadentsy, but not in Ukraine apparently. That site has a mass of information and documentation that can be translated with Google. Of course, there are other sources.
Ukrainian nationalists in the UPA, OUN and Ukrainian police viciously killed 100K-200K Poles during and shortly after WWII in the south east part of the country and in what is western Ukraine today. Some write ~500K but I doubt that number.
One of the leaders, Stepan Bandera, was made a Hero of the Ukraine by the West’s favorite democrat, Yushchenko. Apparently Bandera used to strangle cats in front of his classmates to show how tough he is.
Some heroes Ukrainians have.
Careful with your false dichotomies Isaiah, just because the U.S.’s foreign policy is despicable doesn’t imply Russia’s isn’t and vice versa. Also, when you bring up fascists backed by the U.S. you should also talk about the fascists backed by Putin. Take a look at who’s funding the far right in Europe these days.
Probably a good rule of thumb for judging countries in these times is first to ask if the they have nuclear weapons. If they do, there’s a good chance that their foreign policy is pretty ruthless. This doesn’t mean that non-nuclear states are necessarily benevolent, but it does pretty well guarantee you a good place to start when looking for bad actors.
And not one word on all the data of the Chechen rebels being trained, armed and financed by the CIA in our Georgian black-sites since their inception in the late ’80s and the long history of their use in Bosnia, Libya and now Syria as our trained shock-poodles. Including the time they killed hundreds of Russian children in that theater incident. I expect at least a passing reference to these facts by you guys.
Will Firstlook publish also some fact checked reportages, not based on Ukrainan or Polish journalists who are notoriously biased against Russia?
Joseph Goebbels would be proud of such anti-russian propagandistic story.
See also:
Bosnia, Kosovo, and Now Libya: The Human Costs of Washington’s On-Going Collusion with Terrorists
http://japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott/3578
Al Qaeda, U.S. Oil Companies, and Central Asia
http://www.globalresearch.ca/al-qaeda-u-s-oil-companies-and-central-asia/762
This write-up pegged my BS meter to the red
A dead moose lem is a good moose lem. Killed by another moose lem