Two speakers in the April 28 “Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum” conference in New York City highlight the direct tie between the “Post-Russia Forum” operation and the introduction of the Ukraine Victory Resolution in the U.S. Congress in the middle of the Forum’s four-day U.S. roadshow.
Those were Hanna Hopko and Casey Michel, both of whom had also spoken at the June 23, 2022 “briefing” on “Decolonizing Russia: A Moral and Strategic Imperative” organized by the CSCE, otherwise known the U.S. Helsinki Commission. The “Ukraine Victory Resolution” was organized and sponsored by that official U.S. government agency. The April 26 CSCE press release hailed the Victory Resolution, because it “affirms that it is the policy of the United States to see Ukraine victorious against the Russian invasion, holds that the peace brought by victory must be secured by integrating Ukraine into NATO, and declares that the United States must work with its allies and partners to secure reparations, reconstruction, justice for Russian war crimes, and accountability for Russian leaders.” [https://www.csce.gov/international-impact/press-and-media/press-releases/bipartisan-ukraine-victory-resolution-introduced]
Hopko, a former Euromaidan activist who served in the Ukrainian Parliament (2014-2019), is ecstatic about the introduction of that resolution. She assured the “Post-Russia Forum” conference that it shows that Ukraine and the U.S. Congress “are on the same page” that no diplomatic, negotiated settlement to the Ukraine-Russia war can be tolerated; the only acceptable outcome is that Ukraine enters NATO, its 1991 borders are restored, Russia’s leadership be prosecuted for war crimes, and Russia pays reparations.
The resolution does not explicitly call for the breakup of Russia, but Hopko sure does. She told the Forum that one of Ukraine’s missions is to free the “prisoner nations” inside Russia, and began and ended her remarks by citing the title of an April 27 Politico interview of a Chechen militia leader currently fighting in Ukraine against Russia: “When Russia Is Defeated in Ukraine, Look to Chechnya.” (https://www.politico.eu/article/when-russia-defeated-ukraine-look-chechnya-war/#:)
For his part, Michel, a former Hudson Institute operative now ensconced at the Human Rights Foundation, spoke as an American thrilled that, because of the Ukraine war, he sees the possibility that decades of a U.S. policy which refused to support Russian disintegration, can now be overturned. Americans are finally seeing the need to “decolonize” Russia, he claimed, manically saying that there is more interest in Russian colonialism than there has ever been in U.S. history. U.S. policy will not change overnight, but by “dialogue channels” opening up, with education such as the Forum is doing, this is how things will change.
Take note: “Euromaidan activist” Hopko, first elected to the Verkhovna Rada by the Self-Reliance Party of the founder of one of the battalions fighting in the Donbass, received the National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute Democracy Award in 2014. USAID advertises her as their agent, heading the USAID-funded National Interests Advocacy Network (ANTS), and chairing the 2019 “USAID/ENGAGE-supported Democracy in Action Conference (DIA). [e.g., https://www.usaid.gov/ukraine/news/mar-22-2023-hanna-hopko-it-our-duty-defeat-authoritarian-regimes]
