Obama wants to send troops into Ukraine to train and equip its National Guard. A

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2, Obama motivated his increasingly onerous sanc­ tions against Russia, although he used some exag­ geration in disparaging his opponents: “Russia doesn’t make anything. Immigrants aren’t rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity. The life expectancy of the Russian male is around 60 years old. The population is shrinking. And so we have to respond with resolve in what are effectively regional challenges that Russia presents.”

Western European countries, for their part, have been slightly more cautious than the U.S. in their im­ plementation of economic sanctions against Russia. Germany, for example, imports virtually all of its gas from Russia. There is great fear that the Russian gov­ ernment will retaliate with its own sanctions against the West; Putin has already banned agricultural prod­ ucts from countries participating in the sanctions, and more measures are threatened.

Nevertheless, the imperialists seem to agree that the risks of pushing Russia too hard are outweighed by the vast potential economic rewards. They intend to have a major role in the heightened exploitation of Ukraine’s oil, gas, and other resources—while cutting out Russia from gaining a significant piece of the pie.

The U.S. and its allies gained the opportunity to ramp up their accusations against Russia after a Malaysian airliner crashed in rebel-held territory southeast of Donetsk on July 17. The Obama administration claims that the plane was downed by a Russian-supplied SA11 (BUK) missile that had been launched by Ukrainian rebels.

However, as we go to press, three weeks after the disaster, the scenario is still unclear. The Russian gov­ ernment has released data showing that a Ukrainian fighter jet flew within striking distance of the airliner at the time. And preliminary photos made available to

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$19 million ‘anti-terrorism’ fund would cover the costs.