Now that the situation in Ukraine has officially been upgraded to "war [7]", what really happens on the ground will remain largely wrapped by the fog of war on either side, with just one thing assured: a war it may be but more than anything it is a proxy war - one in which both western and Russian interests are manifest in the fighting, and killing, of mostly innocent civilians in Ukraine - a carbon copy replica of what happened last year in Syria.
The latest reminder of just this comes from AFP which reports, citing Germany's Bild, that "dozens of specialists from the US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation are advising the Ukrainian government."
From AFP [8]:
Citing unnamed German security sources, Bild am Sonntag said the CIA and FBI agents were helping Kiev end the rebellion in the east of Ukraine and set up a functioning security structure.
It said the agents were not directly involved in fighting with pro-Russian militants. "Their activity is limited to the capital Kiev," the paper said.
The FBI agents are also helping the Kiev government fight organised crime, it added.
A group specialised in financial matters is to help trace the wealth of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, according to the report.
On the surface, this report is hardly surprising: we reported a month ago [9], subsequently confirmed by the White House [10], that CIA director Brennan had "secretly" visited Kiev in early April. It stands to logic that he was hardly alone and continuing the proud tradition of Libya, Egypt and Syria, the CIA was merely getting started unfolding the agency's core competency: regional destabilization.
What is very surprising is that Germany's press is finally stepping away from the western media propaganda umbrella and starting to report the side of the narrative that is in direct opposition to US interests in either Ukraine, or Germany.
So just who, and why, is pulling the strings on Germany's media outlets in a way that goes against the official Merkel fiction, if in agreement with Germany's commercial and industrial interests [11] (as well as those of Europe's commission himself [12])?
And how soon before Germany's position, one clearly against the imposition of further sanctions on Russia and the additional alienation of the Kremlin, puts Germany on direct collision course with Obama and the US state department? And what then: will Germany, shunned by the US, have no choice but to reallign with the ascendent Eurasian axis of China and Russia. Stay tuned.