Ukraine, Russophobia & The Death of Neutrality

I recently came across an interesting article by security and organised crime expert (and Moscow Times Columnist), Mark Galeotti, on his blog https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/.  In this article, he talks about, among other things, the death of neutrality.  The heightening of tensions in relations between East and West,  US, NATO vs Russia, an apparent return to Cold War footing and rhetoric,  has made it more difficult for objective analysts such to present themselves, or be accepted as truly disinterested parties. In particular, when considering the events in Ukraine - the article struck a chord with me.

"The death of neutrality. It is increasingly difficult not to be on one side or the other. We’ve already seen this over Ukraine (I’ve been castigated as a Kremlin stooge for not using the word “terrorist” to describe the rebels, and a Western shill for claiming that Russian troops are present, all for the same article!), but I think it’s also happening with Russia. Not to regard Putin as a murderous mafioso-fascist-tyrant-kleptocrat who kills for the hell of it is to be an apologist. To refuse to believe the State Department is actively trying to install Navalny in the Kremlin makes you a tool of Western “colour revolution.” Analysis increasingly, I’m sorry to say, takes second place to assertion of the world as the observer “knows” it to be." Mark Galeotti

I'm no apologist for the Putin regime, and have been supportive of UK and US policy, perhaps in the naive belief that Western democracies, led by the US, have generally been a benign, positive  force in the world, but I have been astounded at the outcomes we have managed to achieve over the last decade or so foreign policy adventures. I think this echoes the sentiments of British Journalist and Author, Peter Hitchens, who said this recently in his Sunday Mail blog:

"Perhaps, after years in which I genuinely believed that our Government and the Americans were a pretty straightforward force for good, I now find it harder to accept, having seen the wrong and foolish things we do in the Middle East and now also in Ukraine."

I have no axe to grind on this matter, but what we are being told about Ukraine and Russia is a crock of shit.  The US and EU stirred things up in Ukraine, encouraged the opposition movement towards a 'color revolution',  and played some kind of shadowy role in the overthrow of Yanukovich's regime in Ukraine - an apparent masterclass in "hybrid" warfare.  The result - a failed state, a collapsing economy, political turmoil and civil war - right on the borders of a nuclear state, Russia.

But those that assert this or question what what the mainstream media is presenting,  are branded a "useful idiots", deluded pro-Putin members of the awkward squad, Russian internet trolls,  or RT propagandists.

The rampant Russophobia, the anti-Putin and anti-Russian sentiment in the mainstream media of the West  has crowded out any kind of objective and measured analyses of the situation or, for that matter, alternative viewpoints.  As a consequence of this, the tragedy unfolding on Europe's doorstep, in the Donbass, and the Ukraine regime's substantial role in this, has largely been ignored by the mainstream media.