Counterpunch Radio's Eric Draitser is back to beating other leftists over the head on them having insufficient fealty to Ukraine. Volodia (assuming this is the Volodimir I've read earlier) Artiukh may be earnest, but that doesn't mean I find him acceptable. I wasn't that impressed by him in electronic print then, and given Draitster's preview, know I wouldn't be impressed with an hour-plus interview.
To get to the heart of the matter? Artiukh may be a real leftist. But, Volodymyr Zelensky is not, and he runs a government two-thirds as repressive as Putin's Russia, and one that is even more kleptomaniacal. Draitser and Artiukh both know that, or should. If they proclaim otherwise, they're liars.
The reality is, that as Messrs. Mossadegh, Arbenz, Allende and others know, the US not only does not support leftist governments, it often launches coups against them. Or, as in the case of the Maidan in 2014 (and no, I know Yanukovich was not leftist), semi-coups. Too bad Draitser won't (I expect) ever have Ivan Katchanovski on. Or, say, John Helmer, which would probably start hilarious and turn acrimonious.
So saying we should support Ukraine because "our thief is not so bad as theirs"? Gee, per your boss Jeff St. Clair, Eric, I think you can find out we did that nearly 30 years ago, with Croatia's Franjo Tudjman vs Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic. Pass.
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