The Architect of the Ukrainian Disaster
Victoria Nuland agrees to disappear (and not a moment too soon)
Victoria Nuland (called “Toria” by her elitist pals) is what they call a “career ambassador,” hopping around from one State Department gig to the next, mostly in Eastern Europe. Nuland is first-generation American with a Russian Jew father (whose original surname was the more endearing one of Nudelman) and a British Christian mother. Little Toria was born in New York in 1961 and joins the many members of the Biden administration with recent and exotic foreign ancestry.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken just announced the Nuland will be retiring soon—in the next few days, perhaps—and that is good news for world peace. Nobody likes war and regime change like our Toria.
Talk about being a threat to democracy. Democracy was beat unconscious, tied up, and thrown in the trunk of the car by Nuland and her goons.
To understand the phenomenal damage this woman has caused, we have to go back to the beginning of the recent Ukraine disaster. In early 2013, Ukraine had a revolution that is called confusingly by any of three names: the Maidan Revolution (or Maidan Uprising or sometimes just “the Maidan”), the Ukrainian Revolution, or the Revolution of Dignity. At the time, the duly elected president of Ukraine was a man named Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych was pro-Russian and thought Ukraine was better off shoring up ties to Russian than to Europe. Along came the Maidan Revolution, which culminated in February 2014 when the Ukrainian protestors in Kiev threw Yanukovych out of office, brought back the Ukrainian Constitution of 2004, and then went to battle with Russia. Victoria Nuland made some appearances during the Maidan Revolution, cheering the protestors on and pushing for regime change and giving Yanukovych the boot. This seems an unlikely position for an American diplomat—overturning a duly elected official—but there was some bad things going on in Ukraine at the time, like corruption, an allegedly rigged presidential election, police brutality, and repression of freedom of speech. (Good thing we don’t have that here!) Plus Nuland wanted Ukraine to ally itself with Europe and by extension the United States, no matter what Ukrainian voters wanted.
If you don’t understand Ukrainian history, that’s understandable and probably a job requirement if you want to join the Biden administration. Ukraine is complicated but a little oversimplification may help. Ukraine is an ancient country, centuries old, and it has its own unique culture, language, religion, foods, and way of life. It’s a very large country with some of the finest farm land on earth. Situated in Eastern Europe and with a border with Russia on one side and Europe on the other, Ukraine has always been in a push-pull relationship between East versus West. While Ukraine is its own nation, its language and culture are very close to Russian and many ethnic Russians live in Eastern Ukraine. I would guess that your average Russian citizen would feel more at home in Kiev than in London or New York. Most of Ukrainian politics has been a tug of war between those that want Ukraine to be part of the West and those who want it to merge with Russia. Ukraine had been part of the Soviet Union, and that had left a lot of scars and bad memories. On the other hand, there are people in Ukraine who think Ukraine would be better off as part of modern Russia.
The unfortunate President Yanukovych favored cozying up to Russia and he even refused to sign trade deals with Europe. Long story short, the Maidan Revolution broke out, Victoria Nuland was cheering it on, and there is a crazy phone call on YouTube where Nuland is talking with the beleaguered President Yanukovych just before his ouster. (Remember, Nuland is encouraging the protestors who want Yanukovych out.) Yanukovych proposed forming a coalition government with pro-Russian and pro-Western forces, but Nuland said that a guy named Arsenly Yatsenyuk should be made Prime Minister. In fact, Nuland has been recorded on various official meetings setting up the people who would be running the new Ukrainian government.
Bear in mind, Nuland isn’t the President of Ukraine. She isn’t even a Ukrainian citizen. She’s an American and we pay her salary. But as an American diplomat, she boldly and openly meddled with the politics of another country in a very overt way. They call this “regime change” and it runs contrary to the principles of democracy that Democrats are always saying Trump opposes.
Nuland also rather graphically disparaged the European Union in meddling in Ukraine’s future, insisting the United Nations should handle it. Her quotable quote was “F*** the European Union” when there were challenges to her single-handedly setting up the new Ukrainian government. Not a good thing to say to American allies. You would think a career diplomat would be, um, more diplomatic. There is a crazy phone call still on YouTube where you can listen to Nuland explaining to other Americans how to run Ukraine. Nuland said that this guy named Arsenly Yatsenyuk should be Prime Minister. This is a case of an American diplomat basically interfering with the politics of another country in a very overt way. Democrats always say that Trump is a threat to democracy, but Nuland was actually setting up foreign governments with the aid of the Democrats.
Over 100 people were killed in the Maidan Revolution, Yanukovych made a last-ditch attempt to save the country by offering to create an interim government with the revolutionary forces.
Nuland wanted a pro-West Ukraine, and she saw Yanukovych as an obstacle to be tossed out of the way. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Yanukovych left the country. He probably has a dart-board with Nuland’s face on it. You may not remember Yanukovych’s ouster (it was scarcely covered by American media), but you probably remember what happened next.
Russia invaded Ukraine and seized Crimea.
This was back when Obama was President, and the Obama administration did nothing. I think he might have sent over some blankets, but he provided no military support. Nuland then negotiated billions for Ukraine and laid low.
By 2017, Nuland was one of many diplomats who refused to serve under Trump. Biden brought her back in 2021, which is after Zelenksyy was elected.
This is not to say that Toria Nuland was all bad. The greatest thing Nuland ever did was admit before Congress that Ukraine is home to American-funded biological research facilities, also known as biolabs. Her testimony is on CSPAN and you can find it on YouTube. It had been rumored that Ukraine was hosting dozens of these gain-of-function hothouses for the United States, but it had been categorically denied until Nuland refused to perjure herself and admitted to Congress, that they existed.
A biolab is where you invent the germs that go into germ warfare. We were doing this in Ukraine because it was illegal and possibly could get found out if we did it in our own country. Nuland admitted it on the record.
The Russian invasion into Ukraine takes on a new dimension in light of Toria Nuland. Russia would clearly like Ukraine back in the fold. Ukraine had long been part of the Soviet Union, plus many Ukrainians are actually Russians or part-Russians or do not see a problem with Russians. Culturally, Russia is closer to Ukraine than Western Europe. Plus as far as I know, Vladimir Putin never told Ukraine who their next Prime Minister should be—that was us dictating regime change.
We also need to consider that Russia was concerned that having a bunch of gruesome bioterrorist-type workshops all along its border was not in its best interest. Imagine if China had a string of a dozen biomedical research facilities working on potentially deadly viruses and other lethal pathogens and planted them in Mexico near the borders with Texas, Arizona, and California? We probably would object, too. Yet the very presence of these germ labs—the thing Russia did not want near their border—was hotly denied until 2023.
Nuland was also outspoken about her love of war. She claimed to be “very gratified” to learn about the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, which has rightly been called an act of international terrorism. She was practically giddy and clapping her hands imaging the bombing. The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline was an ecological disaster and an act of terrorism. No American diplomat should be praising such activity.
As ghoulish as she can be, she is curiously honest. When pushing a $95B aid package to Ukraine, Nuland said on CNN that people should not worry because most of this money would go directly to the United States weapons industry. In other words, it was going to fund the military industrial complex, so it was a great deal! It didn’t matter to Nuland that people were dying, it mattered that money was moving in the direction she wanted. I don’t think that was as encouraging to many of us as it is to her and her ilk. (I bet she is retiring with a fat stock portfolio.)
President Zelenskyy came to office in 2019 while Trump was President (and Nuland was sulking on the sidelines not wanting to serve if her party was not in power). Zelenskyy has since cancelled elections, stating that the war has made elections impractical. That may or may not be true. Overall, Zelenskyy is a highly popular but very unlikely figure for a world leader—a former actor (who ironically played the role of the President of Ukraine in a sitcom) and a political novice. Love him or hate him, Zelenskyy is young (just 45), charismatic, and outspoken. He won his election by a landslide, Nuland liked him (which turned out to be good for his health), and he was—and remains—extremely popular with his people. Things looked relatively stable in Ukraine, for a short time around 2020 and beyond.
In February 2022, Putin invaded Ukraine.
It is easy to see why.
Russia wants Ukraine. No doubt about that.
The Ukrainian president is a newly elected newbie with an unserious past who was once on Dancing with the Stars.
Nuland rattled sabers all around Ukraine, but the last Democrat President, Barack Obama, stood by with his hands in his pockets and let Putin take Crimea. Putin guessed Biden was cut from the same Democrat cloth.
Biden had just overseen a fiasco of a military operation in withdrawing from Afghanistan and no doubt Russian spies were telling Putin that Biden was in over his head when it came to military matters.
There are also credible if not entirely substantiated allegations around Europe that Biden was neck-deep in Ukrainian corruption, so he would not want too much to be exposed if Putin wanted to play rough.
Putin likely figured the getting was good, so he jumped in. Say what you want about Putin, he is a pretty good strategist. However, I do not think Putin expected the pushback he got from the fiery little Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy was new at the game of war, but he sure understood how to demand money from Victoria Nuland, who was more than eager to give it to him.
Biden with help from his gal-pal Toria Nuland wanted to make Ukraine a source of income for the military-defense industrial complex, while allowing Ukraine to serve as a proxy war with Russia. Alas, Biden is not a smart man. He thought that by going to war in Ukraine, we could slowly bleed Putin’s resources while making some of Biden’s favorite American companies (and our elites) rich. So Biden pushed Zelenskyy into a war he couldn’t win so he could make bank, while depleting Russian reserves and demoralizing Putin.
Fat chance.
Let me tell you a bit about Russia. No matter what the history books tell you, Russia defeated Hitler in World War II. The United States helped, and so did the other allied nations, but most of the fighting, the grit, the hardship was all borne by Russia. If Russia had not been in World War II, we’d all be speaking German right now. The United States got involved late in the game (Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, we did not even show up in Europe till around 1941 and we didn’t do much of consequence till the end of the war). Russia deserves a lot of credit for destroying Hitler and the Nazi regime, and we are wise to remember that the Russians have a ferocious army. Russians are tough people, resolute, hardy, and Russian leaders know how to fight to the last man. Russians have their national flaws, but this is not a country that backs down in any armed conflict. Ever. (Just ask Napoleon.) Stalin’s infamous words to his troops in World War II was, “Not one step backward.”
I am not a Putin apologist, just a realistic observer. It’s wise to know your enemies.
During the war against Hitler, there were a lot of Nazis who found their way into Ukraine. They were marching toward Russia and they brought their antisemitic campaigns of destruction with them. There are still huge unmarked graves of Jewish victims of these Nazis as they rampaged through the Ukraine countryside. If you know Ukrainian Jews, ask about those stories. It’s one of the reasons people say Ukraine has Nazi ties—they do. Some of those old Nazi invaders were never entirely uprooted or conquered. The Azov Battalion is a real Nazi paramilitary group that operates inside Ukraine, and it’s well known to Russia. Millions of Russians died fighting the Nazis in the last century and Russians have a long memory. So the Nazi residue in Ukraine is upsetting to the Russians as well.
But there is another point to consider in the Ukraine conflict. Russia has the most nuclear weapons in the world. Do not think of Russia as some backward Third-World power. Nobody knows the exact number of nuclear bombs, but experts estimate that Russia credibly has about 6,000 nuclear warheads and about 4,500 of them are ballistic missiles. A ballistic missile is basically a rocket with an atom bomb attached that can travel very long distances. Russia has easily over 1,000 intercontinental (long-distance) ballistic missiles. It also has about 800 atomic bombs that can be deployed by submarine. They also have short-distance nuclear weapons as well. About 1500 of these missiles and bombs are ready to go, that is, in military speak “deployed.” Others could be deployed toute-de-suite if Putin orders. The first rule of war is to know your enemy, and this enemy is armed to the teeth. Nobody on earth has more nuclear power than Russia.
Russia has substantially more nuclear warheads than we do (Russia 5,977, USA 5,428). Even if you add to this all of the nuclear warheads in NATO, we still come up short compared to Russia (Russia 5,977 and USA plus NATO 5,943). By comparison, China has just 350 nuclear weapons. (Even if you combine China’s nuclear arsenal with the arsenal of the United States—Russia still has more!)
So what you can see is that the West is really not in a good position to start messing with Russia and prompting a nuclear war. The problem is that by interfering and amplifying the Ukraine crisis (is Ukraine part of Europe or part of Russia?) as a way to taunt Putin, it could easily trigger a nuclear war if the person at the helm (Joe Biden) does not know what he’s doing. Only a clever military strategist would be bold enough to try a proxy war with a superior nuclear power and Biden is not a clever military strategist.
It’s very clear that Toria Nuland and Joe Biden both view the Ukrainian crisis as an interesting way to harass Putin but inconsequential to world peace. I think Biden hoped that he could make money while draining Putin’s military resources, economic storehouse, and willpower. I think Biden and Nuland both thought Putin would run away scared. What the Biden regime doesn’t realize is that the symbol of Russia is the bear and poking the bear is not a good strategy, especially if you’re wearing a meat suit. And by “meat suit” I mean being inferior in nuclear fire power.
About a year ago, Toria Nuland said that the United States would negotiate with Russia over Ukraine only if Russia bought into Zelenskyy’s “peace formula” of 10 specific points. Among the items in the Zelenskyy plan is that Russia withdraw all troops from Ukraine.
My question is this: who is Nuland to tell Putin or Zelenskyy or the Russians or the Ukrainians what to do in Ukraine? Isn’t that a matter between Putin and Zelenskyy? Sure, the United States can and should help particular allies around the world, but it is not up to us to usurp their authority. Nuland practically elbowed Zelenskyy away from the negotiating table and sat in his chair so she could wag her fat schoolmarm finger in Putin’s face. Running Ukraine isn’t up to Zelensky or the Ukrainians, it’s up to Toria Nuland!
We’ve been promised that this month, Nuland will step down (and not a moment too soon), but she’ll be replaced by an acting undersecretary of state named John Bass, and I am not sure he’s much better, because Anthony Blinken appointed him. No word as to who the new permanent guy will be.
Toria Nuland represents the epitome of the bad, old-guard American diplomat who pushed for regime change of democratically elected foreign nations, meddled in affairs of state that did not concern her, promoted warfare and outrageous government spending on bombs that she no doubt made money from, and drove this nation to the brink of a totally self-inflicted nuclear showdown with the world’s leading nuclear superpower (not us). The world will be a safer place if Toria Nuland takes up crocheting and leaves politics to people who know what they’re doing.
And God help us if John Bass is the same old-style war-monger diplomat.
Good riddance...