Huge Turnout in Donetsk and Luhansk as Eastern Ukrainians Vote in Referendum on Self-Rule

Today's ballot, in Ukrainian and Russian, which when translated into English, asks one question : "Do you support the Act of State Self-rule of the Donetsk People's Republic/Luhansk People's Republic?" Apparently though the Russian/Ukrainian word used in the ballot doesn't have an English counterpart so it remains unclear as people cast their votes for or against local sovereignty what exactly that means. This may be clarified next week as a second round of voting is planned on joining Russia.

As the BBC and others with reporters on the ground are saying the turnout is huge and though the voting stations are chaotic the scene is carnival like. Most of the western MSM don't have reporters on the ground and simply parrot the propaganda lines of the U.S. and its vassal states who have termed the referendum today as “illegal", whereas they totally support the hand-picked, coup installed, Yats regime in Keiv.

A Donetsk separatist leader told one Russian news agency that once the results are announced, if the referendum passes, all Ukrainian military troops in the region would be considered "occupying forces". This is in response to the fear being generated by the neo-nazi Right Sector thugs who for the second time in a week set fire to occupied buildings in the country’s rebellious southeast. This appears to be emerging as a favored tactic as the coup-installed regime in Kiev seeks to put down resistance from ethnic Russians and other opponents..

As Robert Parry's article yesterday says, " As resistance to Kiev’s right-wing regime expanded in the ethnic Russian east and south, the coup regime found itself unable to count on regular Ukrainian troops to fire on civilians. Thus, its national security chief Andriy Parubiy, himself a neo-Nazi, turned to the intensely motivated neo-Nazi shock troops who had been battle-tested during the coup."

Though the western MSM either describes Parubiy simply as the interim government’s chief of national security (with no further context) or possibly as a “nationalist,” his fuller background includes his founding of the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991, blending radical Ukrainian nationalism with neo-Nazi symbols. Then, on April 15,  after becoming the Kiev regime’s chief of national security and finding Ukrainian troops unwilling to fire on fellow Ukrainians in the east, Parubiy announced the formation of a new 'National Guard' made up almost entirely of Right Sector  volunteers who were sent to Eastern Ukraine immediately. Mayhem has ensued

Everyone is afraid for their safety now that the neo-nazis thugs have been unleashed in Ukraine. Despite their well founded fears a Pew Research Centre survey a few days ago suggests the majority, even in eastern Ukraine - 70% - wanted to remain in a united country, despite concerns about governance. Ukrainians, despite being in the Cross-Hairs of a Financial WWIII, understand that only by remaining independent from both Russia and the US-EU-IMF cabal can they prosper in the future.

As Pepe Escobar explained yesterday in his article 'The IMF goes to war in Ukraine', "The IMF has approved a $17 billion loan to Ukraine. The first $3.2 billion tranche has arrived on Wednesday. Predictably, the massive loan is not for the benefit of "the Ukrainian people." Kiev is essentially bankrupt. Creditors range from Western banks to Gazprom -- which is owed no less than $2.7 billion. The "loan" will pay back these creditors; not to mention that $5 billion of the total is earmarked for payments of -- what else -- previous IMF loans. It goes without saying that a lot of the funds will be duly pocketed -- Afghanistan-style -- by the current bunch of oligarchs aligned with the "Yats" government in Kiev."

Pepe correctly, IMO, concludes, "What's left for the Empire of Chaos is to pray for chaos to keep spreading across Ukraine, thus sapping Moscow's energy. And all this because the Washington establishment is absolutely terrified of an emerging power in Eurasia. Not one, but two -- Russia and China. Worse: strategically aligned. Worse still: bent on integrating Asia and Europe."

This is how the US and its vassal states' Empire operates whether its Chile, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya or Ukraine [to name a few] . It finds an internal historic or ethnic division then gives money and weapons to whichever side it sees as the one who'll agree to the Empire's conditions for capitulation. The neo-nazi Right Sector makes up a tiny minority of Ukrainians but, like Hitler's Brown Shirts, they can create an atmosphere of fear so pervasive that the majority will knuckle under to the banker bastards in the false hope of security.

One thing i guarantee won't happen in Ukraine anytime soon is a nationwide referendum on the validity of the Yats regime's acceptance of the IMF loan who's conditions are in reality a noose that will strangle Ukraine and, if allowed to proceed, force the sale of it's commonly owned, long cherished, abundant natural resources and its National Bank system. Nothing, not religion, not culture, not language, not historic animosity has been able to divide the Ukrainian people until now. Hopefully they will remain united as they, east, west, north and south, chant FUCK THE IMF.