Putin’s Propaganda Re 1st Pres. Bush’s 1991 “Chicken Kiev Speech” & the Post-2014-Russian-Invasion Minsk “Agreements”

[johnkarls]

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Putin’s PROPAGANDA has created a lot of confusion – even confusion on the part of one of our members.

In an attempt to clear up such confusion, the following observations are offered --


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1st Pres. Bush’s 8/1/1991 “Chicken Kiev Speech”

As previously explained in the 1/21/2022 Original Proposal for our March 16 meeting –

(1) On 12/26/1991, the leaders of the three largest “Soviet Socialist Republics” – Russia, Ukraine and Belarus – declared that the USSR no longer existed and the remaining 11 “Soviet Socialist Republics” joined them shortly thereafter in recognizing that all of the SSR’s were now independent.

(2) The dissolution left Ukraine with 1,900 multiple-warhead nuclear missiles. Ukraine had had its share of USSR nuclear scientists and the USSR military had contained enough Ukrainian nuclear-missile techies that Ukraine would have had no trouble in remaining the world’s THIRD-largest nuclear power – behind the U.S. and Russia BUT AHEAD OF Britain, France, China, etc.

(3) However, as a new “world citizen,” Ukraine signaled its willingness to surrender its 1,900 multiple-warhead nuclear missiles and its nuclear-weapons program IF ITS INDEPENDENCE AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY WERE GUARANTEED.

(4) On 12/5/1994, President Bill Clinton for the U.S., Prime Minister John Major for the U.K., and President Boris Yeltsin for Russia signed an agreement GUARANTEEING UKRAINE’S INDEPENDENCE AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY if Ukraine would surrender its 1,900 multiple-warhead nuclear missiles and its nuclear-weapons program.

(5) Ukraine immediately did so.

AND AS POSITED SEVERAL TIMES IN THE MEETING MATERIALS ON OUR WEBSITE --

THE U.S. GUARANTEE OF UKRAINE’S INDEPENDENCE AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY is a MUCH HIGHER moral and legal obligation than our NATO obligation – after all, we did NOT dupe any of the NATO countries into surrendering the means to defend themselves AND many (if not most) of the NATO countries do NOT spend 2% of their GDP on defense which is the minimum requirement for receiving our protection.


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The “Chicken Kiev Speech” was delivered 4.5 months before the dissolution of the Soviet Union and 3.5 YEARS before the U.S./U.K./Russian guarantee of Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity if Ukraine would surrender its 1,900 nuclear missiles.

The “Chicken Kiev Speech” was delivered in front of the Ukrainian Parliament.

By way of background, the USSR was bankrupt and, for example, its military serving in occupied Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, etc.) were selling their weapons (including the notorious 132 suitcase-size nukes, 84 of which have never been recovered) in order to avoid starvation because the USSR couldn’t afford to pay them.

In his “Chicken Kiev Speech,” the 1st Pres. Bush offered some observations about the choices facing the 14 Soviet Republics.

It is true that he praised Soviet President Gorbachev (NB: The Soviet Union had not yet disintegrated) and was severely criticized afterwards by pro-independence Ukrainian leaders.

NEVERTHELESS, it is PURE PROPAGANDA and LEGAL NONSENSE to claim that 12/5/1994 TREATY signed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin, British Prime Minister John Major and U.S. President William J. Clinton doesn’t mean what it says because of something the 1st Pres. Bush said 3.5 years earlier in Kiev!!!

THE ABSURDITY OF THIS PROPAGANDA is exposed with a simple Law School 101 question --

“Suppose that the 12/5/1994 TREATY had been signed SOLELY by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and British Prime Minister John Major. Do you really think that the Russian President and British Prime Minister are barred from making a TREATY that guarantees the independence & territorial integrity of Ukraine because of something said by a FORMER PRESIDENT of a country THAT IS NOT EVEN A PARTY to the Russian/British TREATY???”

Enough already with such legal nonsense.


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The Post-2014-Russian-Invasion Minsk “Agreements”

As previously explained in the 1/21/2022 Original Proposal for our March 16 meeting –

(1) President Obama Dis-Honored President Bill Clinton’s Solemn 12/5/1994 Agreement.

(2) In Feb/March 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine – annexing the Crimean Peninsula and asserting permanent control over the Donbas Region of Eastern Ukraine.

(3) President Obama refused, in effect, to “lift a finger” – providing Ukraine with ONLY NON-LETHAL AID in the form of blankets and pillows!!!


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There were two so-called Minsk “Agreements.” [BTW, Minsk is the capital of Belarus.]

Both were aimed at stopping the Russian/Ukrainian fighting resulting from THE RUSSIAN INVASION IN VIOLATION OF THE 12/5/1994 TREATY.

Both were unsuccessful in the sense of NOT being fully implemented and NOT fully halting the fighting.

Both were negotiated by the so-called “Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine” which comprised Ukraine, Russia and the “Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe” (aka OSCE).

OSCE is similar to the U.N. though smaller. It comprises 57 member countries, several of which are North and South American (e.g., Canada and the U.S.) and several of which are Asian. It also has several so-called “partners” including Australia, and several African and Asian countries (including Japan and South Korea).

OSCE’s focus is smaller than the U.N.’s – Europe rather than the entire world.

The OSCE negotiations following the Russian invasion were spear-headed by Germany and France.

Both Minsk Agreements ignored Russia’s ILLEGAL ANNEXATION of the Crimean Peninsula.

Both Minsk Agreements focused on achieving a cease-fire in the Donbas Region of Eastern Ukraine.

Both were signed by representatives of the so-called “Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine” (i.e., Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE) and, without recognition of their status, by the leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk (the self-proclaimed Republics comprising Ukraine’s Donbas Region).

The first was signed 9/5/2014 and promptly failed to halt the fighting.

The second was signed 2/12/2015. However, its provisions were never fully implemented and low-grade hostilities continued until the 2022 Russian invasion of the rest of Ukraine --

(1) On 2/21/2022 (the day after the Olympics in China) Putin recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as countries independent of Ukraine;

(2) On 2/22/2022, Putin announced that Russia was renouncing the Minsk Agreements; and

(3) On 2/24/2022, Putin invaded Ukraine.


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Legal and Moral Observations

As previously noted --

(1) President Obama Dis-Honored President Bill Clinton’s Solemn 12/5/1994 GUARANTEE OF UKRAINE’S INDEPENDENCE & TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY IF THEY WOULD SURRENDER THEIR 1,900 NUCLEAR MISSILES.

(2) In Feb/March 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine – annexing the Crimean Peninsula and asserting permanent control over the Donbas Region of Eastern Ukraine.

(3) President Obama refused, in effect, to “lift a finger” – providing Ukraine with ONLY NON-LETHAL AID in the form of blankets and pillows!!!

(4) THE U.S. GUARANTEE OF UKRAINE’S INDEPENDENCE AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY is a MUCH HIGHER moral and legal obligation than our NATO obligation – after all, we did NOT dupe any of the NATO countries into surrendering the means to defend themselves AND many (if not most) of the NATO countries do NOT spend 2% of their GDP on defense which is the minimum requirement for receiving our protection.

ACCORDINGLY, it is (using FDR’s famous description of the 12/7/1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY when Britain and Obama said, in effect – “You idiot Ukrainians!!! You should have kept your nukes!!!”

AND ACCORDINGLY, it is A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY when those UNDESERVING NATO MEMBERS GERMANY & FRANCE led Ukraine “Down the Primrose Path” on 9/5/2014 with Minsk-1 as the best Ukraine could hope for AFTER BEING SO STUPID AS TO GIVE UP THEIR NUKES.

AND ACCORDINGLY, it is A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY when those UNDESERVING NATO MEMBERS GERMANY & FRANCE led Ukraine “Down the Primrose Path” YET AGAIN on 2/12/2015 with Minsk-2 as the best Ukraine could hope for AFTER BEING SO STUPID AS TO GIVE UP THEIR NUKES.

MOREOVER, even a Law School 101 student knows that a party to an agreement does NOT UNILATERALLY acquire new rights by violating that agreement. And that is effectively what happened with UNDESERVING NATO MEMBERS GERMANY AND FRANCE effectively dictating the “terms of surrender” to Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

AND MOREOVER, Putin has just “pulled the same trick again” – UNILATERALLY RIPPING UP THE MINSK AGREEMENTS AND INVADING UKRAINE YET AGAIN.

UNDESERVING NATO MEMBERS GERMANY & FRANCE had better hope that Putin will be satisfied with stealing the rest of Ukraine – or that, if Putin continues his invasion into NATO countries, weak-kneed Biden will honor our NATO commitments which are MUCH LOWER BOTH MORALLY AND LEGALLY than our DIS-HONORED guarantee of Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity!!!

Enough already with those INGRATES – Germany & France.