Preface / Introduction Dedicated to the people in the Ukraine. Dr.

Jeffrey Lants articles: "Watching the Spider of the Kremlin spin his webs. Fascinating, fearful, frightening, Vladimir Putin at his work." and "The Spider of the Kremlin and his cunning webs. The man who would be tsar and the Ukraine he covets to distraction. Vladimir Putin. The situation in Kiev. Some thoughts on a great people determined to be truly free."

Table of Contents
1. The Spider of the Kremlin and his cunning webs. The man who would be tsar and the Ukraine hecovets to distraction. Vladimir Putin. The situation in Kiev. Some thoughts on a great people determined to be truly free.

2. Watching the Spider of the Kremlin spin his webs. Fascinating, fearful, frightening, VladimirPutin at his work.

The Spider of the Kremlin Spins his Cunning Webs

The Spider of the Kremlin and his cunning webs. The man who would be tsar and the Ukraine he covets to distraction. Vladimir Putin. The situation in Kiev. Some thoughts on a great people determined to be truly free.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. In 1866 Tsar Alexander II of All the Russias came to visit the greatest city in his restive province of Ukraine... and there he almost died at the hands of an assassin determined to prove that progressive thinkers are the most tempting targets of all. Tsar Alexander had liberated the serfs and so gained the opprobrium of the Left for not going far enough and of the Right for going too far. Thus he supplied any number of stealthy killers with grounds for murderous action. And so what came to be called the "Event of April 4, 1866" took place. This time, however, his imperial majesty survived... and he wanted that fact commemorated in the most public and grandiose of ways. A design competition was decreed. Hundreds of ideas poured in from inspired loyalists sincerely grateful Father Romanov had survived... and from starving artists who would have taken a commission from the Devil himself, whatever strings were attached. However one design stood out from the rest, artist Victor Hartmann's majestic vision for The Great Gate of Kiev. It was a great structure for the capital city of a great people, and Hartmann poured himself and his artistic distinction into a work designed to amaze the world and thrill Ukrainians everywhere, the supreme manifestation of how they saw themselves despite every vicissitude and how they wanted everyone else to see them. The sketch for stone gates to replace the wooden gates of Kiev incorporated a cupola in the form of a Slavonic helmet. In the design, the archway rested on granite pillars and its peak was to be decorated with a huge headpiece of Russian carved designs including the Russian state eagle, the very symbol of Ukrainian subservience and despair. But it wouldn't be an authentic story of Ukraine unless there was heartbreak and woe, for here is lamentation indeed. Upon reconsideration the Tsar decided to cancel the competition. A memorial seemed to be tempting fate, motivating any of the numerous opponents to his reign to try again... and again... until at last in 1881 they succeeded in blowing him and his entourage to bloody fragments, the very steps of the palace smeared with gore and death. As for Hartmann, he died prematurely, just 39... his friend Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881) devastated but determined to commemorate the one gone before. And so he composed a classical piano suite of genius ("The Great Kiev Gate") as part of his magnum opus "Pictures at an Exhibition", memorializing Hartmann's final exhibition of over 400 works demonstrating mastery of line, form, light, and color. The work commenced in sorrow and profound grief was finished in triumph... then neglected by all, thrust aside, unheard until the great French musician Maurice Ravel in 1922 took the matter in hand, arranging the music so that ignoring it was no longer possible. It was grandiose, soaring, stately, bombastic, at once as intimate as prayer and as adamant as God's will... a work of insistent hope for each, hope for all, hope for the nation that still was in bondage, patient, biding its time, expectant, sure their day of deliverance would come... the resounding bells, audacious, bold, majestic, surely meant that if they meant anything at all for this land, this charnel

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The Spider of the Kremlin Spins his Cunning Webs house of centuries, a chimera, so rarely a country and never for long. Gloria in excelsis Deo... house of centuries, a chimera, so rarely a country and never for long. Gloria in excelsis Deo... Go now to any search engine and play it at once. Listen as the great bells call you to action, for if you believe in freedom then you must heed this tocsin. There cannot be freedom until there is freedom for all. And that is why the actions of the Ukrainian people in recent days are so important to us. No matter where we are, we are all Ukrainians today, hearts beating for a single goal: Freedom here! Freedom now! Freedom forever! Geography is destiny. This is the first rule of international politics, and there is no better example on Earth than Ukraine, rich, accessible, disorganized, ineffectual, internally divided. To look at the history of Ukraine is to see God at his most ironic. Pick any time in its checkered history, and you will find the same tragic tale, repeated over and over again; the theme established long ago. You will see a numerous people (46 million today) of intelligence, ingenuity, hard work and solid habits. A massive territory of some 233,000 square miles, making it the largest in Europe. And you will find above all the good earth, incomparable, fertile, productive, a treasure trove which enables Ukraine to be the third largest grain exporter on Earth. >From this blessed asset has come every good thing... and every bad, for the good earth promised everything but ensured it would be stolen by others, near at hand, voracious, rapacious, masters of avarice and thievery and every attendant toxin. Ukraine has had, has now every element necessary for greatness... except the secret to building and sustaining a nation, the coherence of a united people fiercely dedicated to one overriding objective, united to produce one nation under God. This is, of course, just the way their greatest enemy likes it. That enemy is Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, the Spider of the Kremlin, working day and night to subjugate Ukraine to his will, not to the silly notion of the people's will. Thus every step towards Europe Ukraine takes is automatically perceived by Putin as a thrust against him and the good old days of robust Moscow- driven Communism, the good old days he cannot forget and which he yearns to have again. He has the drive, the resources, and the resolute determination to make it happen. We must never forget this... for Putin is our most dangerous, most energetic opponent, without moral limits, without scruples, with nothing to lose and an empire to (re)gain. He remembers Moscow is just 450 miles from Kiev; it is a statistic constantly on his mind. The saddest day of Putin's life: December 26, 1991. On this day the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the gravest menace to human rights, personal freedom, capitalism and private property collapsed forever; it was the biggest Christmas present the West and its peoples have ever received. There was literally dancing in the streets and near universal joy. "Near" because people like Putin sat in morose darkness nursing cheap liquor, wondering how it all went so very wrong... vowing revenge and restoration, a vow that they made over and over again as they watched all the former Soviet Republics leave like so many rats from the sinking ship; once comrades, now renegades, contemptible, budding antagonists. Nowhere was this more true than with Ukraine, once the jewel in the Red crown, now Putin's chief obsession in whatever office he currently condescends to adorn. Of course this was known to every notable Ukrainian politician and every such politician played the game of centuries. They were more pro-Russian in eastern Ukraine; more pro-European in western Ukraine. This was the formula for survival, and as every Ukrainian knows survival is the most important thing of all... until now... http://www.20WaystoProfit.com Copyright Patrice Porter - 2014 6 of 11

The Spider of the Kremlin Spins his Cunning Webs Time for history. For months now the Ukrainian government, headed by President Viktor Yanukovych has been engaged in serious negotiations to integrate the nation into the European Union. It had been expected that these far-reaching policies would be released to the world at an EU summit meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, just the other day But the Spider of the Kremlin had other ideas...and so Ukraine President Yanukovych had to make very different arrangements, including being summoned to Putin for his instructions thereby showing the world just how little power he had, how much a puppet he was. Really, it might have been 1956 all over again. I expect Yanukovych demurred on this point or that; tried to argue for a less public humiliation. But that is not the Spider's way and after all the Spider is just 450 miles away... Thus did Yanukovych choose to do the Spider's bidding, the interests of Ukraine and its valiant people be damned. Riots, a people incensed, determined, provoked. The Events of November 21, 2013. As news spread of how Yanukovych had betrayed his nation and kow-towed to the Spider in the Kremlin, nefarious webs suddenly starkly apparent, the people of Ukraine exploded with wrath, mighty and long suppressed ire, and a purpose pure and exalted. It was the majesty of the people... and it was glorious to behold. The Spider no doubt offered his pathetic servant every soothing bromide but both must have soon known that this was no ordinary event... this was the fury of a great people... and it was directed at them. "I want the authorities to know that this is not a protest; this is a revolution!" said former interior minister Yuri V. Lutsenko on December 1, 2013 as he addressed a crowd of over 300,000 people in Kiev's Independent Square; a crowd demanding the fall of Yanukovych and new elections. And so it was... "Worse than a crime. A blunder." What did Putin do? He told his minion in no uncertain terms to disperse the people by any and all means. And so the police weighed in with force majeure, truncheons augmented by lethal chemical gas.This is the Spider's way, for he fears just one thing... a determined, united people... no spider, however poisonous can endure against that. And so he made it clear to his toady of Kiev that the severest methods be applied to disperse the protestors, all of them, wherever they meet, for all that these are a calm and reasonable people seeking nothing more than their right to assemble and to petition their government for redress of so many grievances, including their clear and unmistakable desire for the closest relations with Europe. However, as Napoleon's foreign minister Prince de Talleyrand once quipped on another matter, "This is worse than a crime. It's a blunder", for now the naked truth has been exposed for all the world to see, and it will continue to be seen so long as the people of Ukraine are determined to prevail, for they too have earned life, liberty, and the pursuit of their too long delayed pursuit of happiness. Now is the moment to seize your future. It is waiting for you in the streets of Kiev...

Watching the Spider of the Kremlin spin his webs. Fascinating, fearful, frightening, Vladimir Putin at his work.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. I have been ill lately, probably the flu that's going round. If you've had it too you know how intrusive, debilitating and oppressive it is, not least throughout the long stages of the night.

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The Spider of the Kremlin Spins his Cunning Webs Sleep is fitful, the bed clothes lathered by acrid sweat, the whole overawed by nightmarish dreams, each more lurid than the last, but all with a single theme... that I am imprisoned, at immediate risk, menaced by a presence clearly felt but entirely unseen. I am in a locked room, the furnishings are palatial, eighteenth century, Russian... from without I hear the something that means me no good. It is coming... I know it is coming for me... that it is my turn to confront the unmitigated evil... the great bronze doors open... I see a giant web and feel the soft leg as it brushes my face. And then I scream and wake up screaming ... It wasn't supposed to be like this, for me, for the European Union, or for Ukraine. No indeed. On November 29, 2013, just weeks ago, Ukraine President Viktor Yanukoyvch renigged on his economic deal with the EU, thereby providing the pretext for the events which followed. As a result reformist elements took to the streets of Kiev, principally in the great Maidan, Independence Square. Here the majesty of the people was on daily display. Yanukovych, a thug dictator of the usual unappealing variety, hoped, expected his opponents to give way before the murderous threat of the state police and the bone numbing cold in which these events played out. But the people held, defying the weather and the menacing artillery pointed directly into their determined, growing ranks. "I don't care what you do or how you do it, but eject the reformers now. I mean NOW. Understand?" We shall probably never know what Puppeteer Putin told his henchman when he summoned him to Russia for "talks" (December 7, 2013). But the message was no doubt strong, unmistakable, unanswerable. If Yanukovych had any doubts about his subservient status what Putin said to him and how he said it would have erased them within seconds. He was Putin's man, pure and simple, his fate in the hands of Russia's implacable president, no longer his own man, if he had ever been. And so he was sent back to Kiev in disgrace to use his wiles to foil the reformers... or else. Strip Poker. Yanukovych's objective was clear to all... and so he did what was necessary, unavoidable, painful, humiliating and even laughable. He needed time for the weather to do its work and for his favored police to mete out as much private pain to his opponents as they needed to withdraw into the obscurity from which they came. Thus, "strip poker" began as he ceded cabinet portfolios, then the promise of early elections... then complete power sharing. It was demeaning... it was pathetic... it was necessary. Did His Excellency think it would work? Doubtful. For he is the ultimate realist. Besides, it didn't need to work... it just needed to work long enough, for he and his sticky fingered allies were in the final stages of transferring over $70 billion to places unknown. Extra time might not allow them to keep the nation... but it would certainly enable them to grab and keep the nation's fast dwindling resources... and that was a happy alternative. Then everything changed. Bloody Thursday, February 20, 2014. What happened in Kiev this date is known to all: Yanukovych's hand-picked security forces fired on the assembled masses killing at least 88, many with a single bullet to the head, execution style. http://www.20WaystoProfit.com Copyright Patrice Porter - 2014 8 of 11

The Spider of the Kremlin Spins his Cunning Webs His legitimacy died along with the people he was pledged to defend. It is an event that distinguishes nearly every revolution, expediting the end of the "old" regime, for the dead martyrs legitimize the reformers and their peaceful objectives while setting the government reeling, murderers now, salvageable no longer. What caused this massive miscalculation, not merely a crime, but a blunder? If the provisional government retains power, we may someday actually know. This is because Yanukovych left behind the executive papers that may reveal all, a mistake only a rookie power broker with reputation to preserve would make. For now, however, we must guess. Did Yanukovych order the troops to fire, and if so what did he expect to achieve? Or did his pet forces lose control of the situation and fire because they felt vulnerable? Or did Yanukovych have a "I'm the president, listen to me, damn it" moment, exasperation rising to fever pitch and total self-justification for whatever he did? Whatever the reason the innocents, people with aspirations and dreams just like you and me, died for us, the greatest gift anyone can give... thereby delivering Ukraine from thraldom to the rights and responsibilities of citizens. Or so we thought... but the Spider of the Kremlin remained. And that single fact threatens the freedom of millions. He has provided refuge to Yanukovych whose tawdry regime he still recognizes and supports. He has made it clear the freedom-loving people of Ukraine must accept again the indignities and humiliations they have just thrown off. He has aided and abetted those who want to wrench the Crimea from Ukraine and thereby augment the Spider's power and resources. He has placed troops and ships in close proximity to Ukraine, raising the very real possibility of civil war and even invasion, which would provoke the greatest European crisis since World War II, all at a time when financial markets are already weak, vulnerable, and at risk. Can the newly installed Ukraine provisional government combat these pernicious trends? The new cabinet contains the least knowledgeable, effective or experienced ministers of any nation its size. Artists, poets, musicians, journalists and writers are its honorable, prominent, incompetent members. They face the reality of an empty treasury, pilfered by the exiting rats, a currency in free fall, pensions unpaid, and an acute need for natural gas and heating oil, food, and medical relief. The Spider may disdain such a government, but upon calm reflection will smile upon what he can so easily control. He is making up his mind right now... and the world must dance attendance while he decides. God help us. Envoi. I have selected as the music for this unsettling analysis, the Coronation scene from "Boris Godunov". Composed by Modest Musorgsky in 1869, it tells the tale of Tsar Boris, the man who brought serfdom to Russia in 1597. It is brilliant music about one of the greatest injustices of human history. You can find it in any search engine. I prefer the Bolshoi version, available in any search engine. Play it now, and feel the great tenacity and dissonance of the Slav soul, the soul that resides in the Spider of the Kremlin, the man who wants universal serfdom and will work early and late to get it.

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The Spider of the Kremlin Spins his Cunning Webs

Resource
About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the author of over a dozen print books, several ebooks and over one thousand online articles on a variety of interesting topics. Republished with author's permission by Patrice Porter http://20WaystoProfit.com.

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