The Atlantic Council, the de facto head building of a pro-Ukrainian lobby in the US has in a surprising move made constant efforts to fight off any kind of criticisms against the Ukrainian government. This group seems to be denying the growing authoritarian tendencies in the country. After all, Ukraine is not even one of the strategic assets of the United States.
The program assistant of the Atlantic Council’s center in Eurasia, Doug Klain was the first person to launch a rebuttal of criticisms against the country’s regime. A follow-up longer and nastier op-ed were published on 19th June by Andreas Umland who is also a research fellow at the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies which is in the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. The op-ed was released on the Atlantic Council’s very own website.
Klein’s argument consists of a rather insignificant gruel. He claims that Ukraine is a strategic asset for any country that wants to achieve the kind of rules-based international order that Russia does not want to be in full force. However to be sure, the “rules-based international order” is just a cliché. The US and its plethora of allies have always violated this so-called norm whenever they deem it convenient.
Washington’s role in the overthrow of various governments globally is not liked at all by other countries. It has achieved the overthrow of various governments through CIA-planned coups in Chile, Guatemala, Iran, the Congo, and several other places in the world. Also, the US has even led the fight in completely removing governments in power through military force in Libya and Iraq.
And as far as Ukraine should be considered a worthy strategic asset for any country which is interested in the so-called rules-based order, Klain does not talk about the deep role that various groups like the Right Sector, Svoboda, and various ultranationalist and complete neo-Nazi groups played during the course of the Maidan Revolution in 2014.
He even talks very little about the ever-present ugly manifestation of these bad values, although he concedes grudgingly that anti-Semitism is a big real issue. Klain even talks less about the censorship laws and other restrictive moves issued by the Ukrainian government which has become a standard act of the Ukrainian regime since the breakout of the Revolution at Maidan.
Actually, the behavior of Kiev including its huge corruption along with acts trying to silence critics in the country has done little to place the country in a favorable light.
