Liberte, Egalite, et Fraternite - French idealists join the pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine. There is something real about self-determination for the pro-Russian folks who have been harshly pushed aside by Kiev's military elite.

[lo yeeOn]

Some French nationals have joined the pro-RUssian rebels
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77247000/jpg/_77247709_023664772-1.jpg

Remember the Spanish Civil War that inspired George Orwell's Animal
Farm as well as his 1984? And remember America's own idealist Ernest
Hemingway who authored "For Whom the Bell Tolls"?

The French guys are not alone. The Spaniards also remember their
past. The MSM can whitewash the fascist/neo-Nazi support for Kiev's
junta by dismissing it as a kind of false narrative manufactured by
Putin's propaganda machine; but it cannot erase the reality. For
example, the BBC News' own Gabriel Gatehouse had an in-depth report of
what the Kiev junta's most crucial supporters are thinking and have
done in terms of shaping "a Ukraine for _only_ the Ukrainians". (See
below.)

lo yeeOn

1) Neo-Nazi threat in new Ukraine: BBC News' Gabriel Gatehouse (GG)
narrates:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SBo0akeDMY

The clip begins with Beethoven's "somber strings" from his 7th
symphony (second movement).

Then a Right Sector militia man:

"Ukraine will be just for the Ukrainians."

Then GG travels to a building faraway from Maidan Square to keet with
a Svoboda Party leader, Yevhen Karas (YK). The building was a former
communist party headquarters, which has been taken over by the thugs.

YK mentioned his group's mission: E.g., to confront ethnic groups who
control large fractions of Ukrainian wealth.

GG: Which ethnic groups?

YK (Yevhen Karas, Leader, C14)

"Russians, Jews, ... and maybe some non-Ukrainian groups control a
huge percent of economic and politional [sic] power ..."

So, YK implies that there are foreign groups who are in control of
Ukrainian assets (in huge amounts).

2) Why one Spaniard sold his car to go fight in Ukraine

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/08/28/why-one-spaniard-sold-his-car-to-go-fight-in-ukraine/

It's clear that the conflict in Ukraine is escalating dangerously.
Authorities in Kiev now claim that their country is being invaded on
multiple fronts by Russian forces. The evidence, despite Moscow's
denials, seems to point to the presence of Russian military equipment
and personnel - perhaps thousands of soldiers - on th ewrong side of
the border.

Joining the incursion, according to a few reports, is a small
contingent of European leftists who are on something of a quixotic
mission. They have rallied under the banner of the "International
Brigades" - the foreign battalions that fought alongside Spain's
Republicans in their losing struggle against the forces of fascist
Gen. Francisco Franco eight decades ago. Their homage to Novorossiya
(New Russia) is cloaked in the language of anti-imperialism and
anti-fascism. Here's what Rafael Munyoz, a 27-year-old Spaniard, told
France 24 earlier this month:

I decided to sell my car and head for Donbass to help this
population that has fallen victim to the arrests, killing and
bombardments carried out by the regime in Kiev. That's what other
freedom fighters did to save my country in 1936. At this time, the
powers looked elsewhere and my country finished by having to put up
with 40 years of the Franco dictatorship. I'm fighting for social
justice and freedom for the people.

YouTube videos show Munyoz and a comrade explaining in English their
reason for journeying to Ukraine. Another video involves a similar
conversation with a handful of French fighters who claim to be former
soldiers in the national army and decry the "cronies" and "oligarchs"
calling the shots in Kiev.

In his testimony to France 24, Munyoz said he was opposed to the
European Union, which, in his view, has deepened "inequalities" and
enabled "fraud and institutional corruption."

In the past year, the Kremlin's propagandists have repeatedly pointed
to the reactionary, even fascist forces behind the authorities in
Kiev, which came to power after months of protests against a
government helmed by pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych.

To a certain extent, they are not wrong: A hard core of far-right
Ukrainian nationalists has mobilized against Moscow, espousing, in
some instances, neo-Nazi iconography and rhetoric. As my colleague
Adam Taylor wrote last week, they have been joined by a number of
foreigners who hold beliefs that could be considered fascist and
racist.

But as Russia peddles this narrative of anti-fascism, it has attracted
pronounced support from Europe's far right as well, including
prominent politicians who lead xenophobic, Euro-skeptic parties. It's
hard to imagine someone like Russian President Vladimir Putin - an
unabashed conservative nationalist who has the strong backing of the
Orthodox Church - could ever inspire latter-day George Orwells or
Ernest Hemingways.

And that's probably fitting. As Orwell chronicled in his stirring
reportage of the Spanish civil war, Moscow's ruthless meddling then
was as much a thorn in the Republican side as the advances of the
fascist enemy.

Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington
Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong
Kong and later in New York.