The Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC) welcomed Kevin Kirk as their guest speaker at their Wednesday, November 8, meeting. His announced topic was “The Truth Behind the Headlines – Russian-Ukraine War.” Kevin has worked all over the world including in Soviet Russia (up to the collapse in 1991), the Ukraine and Israel. In his last job before retiring, he trained diplomats from all over the world while working for the diplomatic training institute (DVIFA) at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kevin began by providing some information on his background noting that he was living and working for private business in Russia when the old Soviet Union collapsed. Further, that he had similarly worked in the Ukraine. He said based on his experience he had a great liking for the people in both countries. Before retiring, his work with the Thailand Ministry of Foreign affairs was in teaching diplomats and government workers from various countries including Asia, Africa, and Middle East.
Kevin then began his presentation with a series of PowerPoint slides entitled, “The Agony of Ukraine.” The slides consisted mostly of pictures and headlines to support his views.
He displayed a map showing the original Ukrainian Territory (1654) and the territories subsequently annexed by the Russian Tsars (1654-1917), Lenin (1922), and Stalin (1939-1945), and Khrushchev (1954). The latter territory annexed by Khrushchev included the Crimea. He noted that Russia had leased the Crimean area on the Black Sea for its largest naval seaport.
He then described Ukrainian involvement on the side of Germany during WWII noting they had created the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. He then proceeded to show pictures that he considered proved that the current Ukrainian government are neo nazis based on their being descendants. He also displayed several news headlines and articles describing various atrocities committed by Ukrainian forces, especially the Azov battalion. He then showed headlines and pictures that he said established that Canada, although denying it, had trained the Azov Battalion. He attributed the reason for giving this training was because at the end of WWII many of the Ukrainian nazi sympathizers emigrated to Canada. Now, he notes, some of their descendants hold high office in the Canadian government.
He continued to show pictures and headlines to support his opinion that several Western powers want to break up Russia into several smaller independent states and how they used negotiations to delay the anticipated war between Russia and the Ukraine as a delaying tactic so they could arm the Ukrainian forces before allowing a war to start and, thus ensuring that the Ukraine would win the war.
Based on the comments during the Question & Answer session after Kevin’s presentation, it appeared that several in the audience were not swayed to his viewpoint based on his theories and selected items of supporting evidence. Especially since he made no mention of Russian atrocities, motives, or actions that precipitated the war. For those that may be interested in viewing the video of his presentation, visit the PCEC’s YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEWWgDTzetM. For others that may be interested in a different view of Russia’s, you can visit this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine.
MC Ren Lexander brought everyone up to date on upcoming events and called on George Wilson to conduct the Open Forum portion of the meeting where the audience can ask questions or make comments about Expat living in Thailand, especially Pattaya. To learn more about the PCEC, visit their website at https:/pcec.club.
