By Arkady Babchenko, Chechen war veteran, journalist, author
05.18.2014
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

Today I am witnessing yet another surge of some kind of suicidal victimization among Russian intellectuals. I spent half the day behind the wheel. For half a day I listened to opposition radio. Several talk shows came and went. Every one of them touched on Ukraine. And the thought running like a red thread through every one of them was that it is no longer important who started all this, the important thing is to stop it.

Came home. Went onto Facebook. In every third post–it does not matter anymore, who started it first. Let’s end all of this.

Oh yeah? Well, to me it is important who started it all. To me it is very important who started it. Exactly because I would like it to stop. And to prevent it from happening in the future. Just like it is goddamn important who started it all in Georgia. And further down the list.

To stop it, it is probably important to decide–who started it? To determine–who is the culprit? It’s like, Nuremberg, Hague, all the international tribunals–they kind of were all about that, no? Or am I missing something?

Dr. Lisa writes–let’s cease fire.
Yes, let’s. How? Who should cease it? Probably the one who started it?

Boris Nemtsov writes: “We have to make Putin and Poroshenko sit down at the negotiating table.”

Pardon my question–about what should Poroshenko negotiate? To return a third of the annexed territory of a foreign country? To not send subversive groups into a foreign country? To not send “Kamaz” trucks and tanks and “Grad” artillery into a foreign country? To remove an FSB operative from Sloviansk? To stop cutting open the bellies of Horlivka MPs? Just wondering–what should Ukraine “negotiate” about right now?

What are you talking about, guys? Is this some kind of temporary mass insanity?
Or what?

Your country–our country!–is now an aggressor. An aggressor who has occupied a part of a foreign territory, who invaded another part of it with subversive groups, weapons and equipment, who unleashed hysteria and propaganda, who initiated conflict and war and is now doing everything to ensure that the war does not calm down even for one minute. To stop all this, this needs to be clearly understood.

What should Ukraine “negotiate” about? How is Ukraine supposed to “stop” this? When seven guys with crowbars come to your apartment–does it also not matter to you who started first? “Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of an aggressive war”–does this not tell you anything?

From the question “who started” you can arrive at the answer to the question of “how to stop.” Russia needs to simply stop sending weapons, military units and information hysteria–and a week later all this will end by itself. You really do not understand this?
I’m sorry.

Source: Arkady Babchenko FB