9:24 AM, 7th March 2022, About 3 years ago
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I am praying for PEACE, hence the picture I have chosen to accompany this article, which I write with a heavy heart for reasons that will become apparent as you read more.
This is not a property related article, but I felt the need to write and publish it here on Property118 because many of our readers know my personal situation and have contacted me out of genuine concern and to seek my personal perspective on what’s going on.
BACKGROUND
My wife (Svetlana) is pure Russian, but her family is half Ukrainian.
Allow me to explain.
Svetlana’s grandparents had four daughters, two of which married Ukrainian Army officers.
I could share several stories of this wonderful family, but for now I will share just two.
Two weeks prior to President Putin ordering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Svetlana’s Cousin (Valentyna) who is half Ukrainian and lives in the Ukraine was visiting her Mum in Central Russia. We also have an apartment there and we were all together as one big happy family, just as things should be.
Valentyna lives in the Ukraine, she married a Ukrainian, has a Ukrainian passport and her son was born in Ukraine. Svetlana (my wife) also has other family in the Ukraine and many of our friends are Ukrainian.
Valentyna is 57 years old and one of the nicest people you could ever meet, we love her very much.
Years ago Valentyna volunteered to fight alongside her Russian relatives in Afghanistan.
Last week she re-enlisted with the Ukrainian Army.
She is now defending her City with an AK47 alongside her 25 year old son against Russia’s armed forces. She has motives to fight (protection of her home, liberty and Country) whereas the young Russian soldiers acting under orders from Putin do not share or even have any understanding of their President’s fears of NATO expansionism.
It is not a fair fight for Valentyna and her Son, or indeed any Ukrainians. An AK47 and a few petrol bombs is no match against a Russian Cruise Missile.
We message Valentyna daily and get extremely worried if we don’t hear from her for more than 12 hours.
When she re-enlisted last week Valentyna called us to say explain her decision and to say how much she loved us both. I felt she did so believing it was a final goodbye and that she would prefer to die a martyr than desert her Country. It was truly heartbreaking and nothing we could say to her would change her mind.
My wife and I are now at our holiday home in Florida. If only we could have bought them all with us!
WESTERN SANCTIONS ARE HURTING INNOCENT PEOPLE IN RUSSIA
Like many families with relatives in Eastern Europe, we send money back to them to assist them with their costs of living. One example of this is that we pay for medications for my wife’s Mum. For her, this is literally a matter of life or death but for us it’s only £150 a month. However, it is no longer possible for people to transfer even small amounts like this to Russia due to banking related sanctions. For many living overseas it was not within their financial capabilities for them to send a lump sum back home before the sanctions were imposed.
Why don’t our Government have the heart to understand and facilitate the real World problems I have described above?
Allowing banking transactions up to say £500 a month would still achieve the objective of the sanctions but would not hurt the innocent people who have nothing to do with this war.
Old Grannies as well as thousands of innocents on both sides will die as a result of this ignorance!
CAUSATION NOT JUSTIFICATION
Please do not mistake my investigations into causation of the war between Ukraine and Russia as justification of the war that is tearing the World apart. I absolutely DO NOT agree with this war for reasons I hope will now be obvious from what I have said above. However, I do truly believe that Western mainstream media has become weaponised and extremely dangerous.
My views are my personal views and are neutral insofar as I can make them. They may not be representative of the views of our shareholders or Directors.
I have disabled commenting because I do not want Property118 to become a Political debating ground and I do not want to subject our moderators to extremist comments on this highly emotive subject. However, please feel free to share and debate my article on Social Media and tag me in if you would like me to comment.
A QUESTION TO GET YOU THINKING DEEPER
We are all being conditioned that we are on the verge of nuclear war, but does Russia even need to threaten the use of its nuclear capabilities? I’m not denying that it has put it’s nuclear defense system on high alert by the way, that’s a separate issue.
However, if Russia were to turn off the supply of gas and oil to Europe that alone would make all Western sanctions on Russia combined pail into insignificance. Take a look at the dependency figures below.
Bosnia and Herzegovenia 100%
Finland 94%
Serbia 89%
Estonia 79%
Croatia 68%
Czech Republic 66%
Germany 49%
Italy 46%
Poland 40%
Hungary 40%
France 24%
HERE’S A FEW RELATED QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO CONSIDER …
How are the Countries now paying Russia for this oil and gas which both sides are so reliant upon supplying and receiving? Don’t the banking sanctions imposed by our NATO alliance partners affecting old grannies also mean this trade cannot occur? The answer is that they do not. Is that not hypocritical?
Did you know that a third of the World’s potassium comes from Russia and the Ukraine and that potassium is a vital chemical in fertilisers for growing food? Will it only be energy prices that sky-rocket even further?
MY PERSPECTIVE
I predict high inflation across Europe, and as night follows day you can expect interest rates to increase too.
The financial cost of the war in Ukraine will be felt across the whole of Europe.
Europe is caught in between two relics of the Cold War which, in my opinion, have no purpose to exist in the 21st Century, let alone to hold any power, i.e. NATO and Putin.
Both Ukraine and Russia are European Countries with whom Europe is co dependent in the 21st Century. Expansion of NATO or Russia makes no sense at all, the Warsaw Pact was was ended but NATO was not. To unite both Counties into the EU could be seen by many as far more logical, but that would undermine the economy of the USA and the US Dollar as the World’s first reserve currency, and we can’t have that can we? Furthermore, expansion of our Westernised views on capitalism and democracy are not shared by other superpowers including Russia or China, so this is another reason for this outcome being non-starter.
SO WHAT OTHER SOLUTIONS ARE THERE?
Western Politicians need to understand that NATO and EU expansionism is a much as a threat to Russia as the deal Russia did with Cuba was in the 60’s was to the USA. For Russia, the prospects of Ukraine joining NATO or the EU can be compared to what might happen if Mexico was to do a deal with China to expand their nuclear defense program. It is totally unacceptable to Russia, to the point they would consider ending the World as we know it with use of nuclear weapons before they accept further NATO expansion. This scenario is barely any different to the Cuban missile crisis or the USA’s response to the Japanese attack on their naval fleet at Pearl Harbour.
In my opinion, the most realistic scenario would be an UN agreement for Ukraine to go back to being an independent state and for its rebuild to be financed jointly by the USA, EU and Russia. I do not think it would be viable to split the Ukraine in the same way as the former Czechoslovakia. Issues including corruption and militia groups funded by the West to destabalise the Ukraine and Russia would need to be resolved as part of this process, which is essentially what the Minsk Accords drafted in 2014 were intended to do but were never implemented despite being signed off by 30 UN Countries.
Why should the EU and the USA contribute to the rebuild of Ukraine you might ask? My answer to this is that we are all equally responsible. Whilst Russia invaded Ukraine, it was NATO who provoked them to the point of doing so.
FURTHER THOUGHTS
Most of us born in the West have been conditioned from birth to believe in democracy. However, the further East we travel the less this seems to apply. Maybe we should learn to become more tolerant of other cultures and belief systems?
We have all seen the movies where Earth is attacked by Aliens and how we unite to defeat them haven’t we? The storyline isn’t that much different to how Manchester United and Manchester City fans can be deadly rivals but share their passion for the England football team when we are playing France or Germany is it? Do you see my point?
OTHER ISSUES THE WESTERN NEWS ARE FAILING TO REPORT
Did you know that in the last eight years 14,000 people have died as a result of paramilitary activity in the Donbas area of the Ukraine?
Why have the 30 UN Countries who signed the Minsk Accord II agreements in 2014, to uphold peace in the Ukraine, never been held accountable for the lack of its implementation?
Why is the above not even mentioned in mainstream Western media?
Have you heard of the Azov Battalion based in the Donbas region of the Ukraine and do you know who funds them? Let me warn you, if you decide to look into this you are likely to be shocked and appalled.
NEWS OR PROPAGANDA?
Are the Ukrainian Rangers who were stationed on Snake Island really dead or were they captured alive? We have no evidence either way, other than what the Propaganda machines feed us of course!
Will the Ukraine become Putin’s Vietnam?
How does Asia view our Western propaganda and this War?
Why have most Asian Countries abstained from voting on sanctions and resolutions?
To find balance I watch News channels like Gravitas, a British speaking News channel based in India with over 5 million subscribers.
