The United States Congress recently offered a standing ovation to President Zelensky of Ukraine.  Without a doubt, his country is virtually treated as the 51st state of the United States.  Yet the United States government deals with Ukrainian borders exponentially better than America's southern border.  In fairness to Zelensky, he proposed something American conservatives have been advocating for a long time: replacing the corrupt U.N. with a better international organization.

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President Putin had been waiting for stars to align properly for the invasion: Trump is gone, the United States under Obama's third term cordially cooperates with a profitable (to Russia) Iran deal, the West is obsessed with forced wokenization of its armed forces and eviction of women from women's sports, Ukraine still dreams of joining the balls-less NATO coalition, and Putin's court nobility feeds him rosy self-propaganda images.

Let us recall Charles Spurgeon's wise words: "Consider how precious a soul must be when both God and the devil are after it."  A modern rephrasing of this might be, "Why has Ukraine become so valuable that the leadership of Russia and ruling circles of United States are after it?"

Sadly, this post-Soviet state's well intended de-Sovietization, de-Leninization, and de-Stalinization took a wrong turn.  Unfortunately, Democrats decided to exploit the situation rather than assist Ukraine in rectifying it.

As a result, during Obama's presidency, Ukrainians got an offer they could not refuse, and a well oiled conveyer belt to transfer money from the West to Ukraine and back had begun.  Everybody benefited from the scheme; it was so well known and accepted that even children of many swamp-dwellers in Washington were introduced to it.  Nevertheless, nobody on the receiving and sending ends of the monetary conveyor dared to ask the simple question of who was the brain behind the scenes who had orchestrated it.

One possible answer — which could also explain why Ukraine suddenly became so valuable — is that the Russian KGB planned, implemented, and maintained the "Ukrainian" financial conveyor.  (The term "KGB" is used here because of its broad acceptance, regardless of the abbreviation currently adopted in Russia for secret intelligence services.)

The KGB was always described as "a state within a state."  Naturally, therefore, in most post-Soviet republics, including Ukraine, the vast majority of high-ranking KGB officers were members of the same exclusive club.  (A similar exclusive club had existed for the high-ranking Russian and Ukrainian military.  It explains why Russia could annex Crimea without firing a shot in 2014.)  The Kremlin intended that Russia would position itself as the supervisor of financial flows to Washington politicians and, thus, influence American politics while hiding behind the Ukrainian façade.

It may seem as if the plot was brilliant — Russia was able to keep everyone happy by bribing American politicians using American taxpayer funds.  Of course, there was involvement from corrupt Washington slime and Ukrainian gangs, but the complete story was obscured.  Putin was holding all the cards — and then Trump happened.

President Trump has made several attempts to stop the "Ukrainian" conveyor.  Unfortunately, he had no allies in that endeavor; by that point, many anti-Trump politicians regarded the "Ukrainian" conveyor as an indispensable and valuable source of accessible capital.  In his fight, Trump attempted to involve Zelensky but was unsuccessful; the effort ended in quid pro quo blame and bogus impeachment.  In office for just two months, Zelensky, who was considered an outsider by the Ukrainian powers that be, was never briefed about the conveyer by the previous Ukrainian administration.  Most likely, Zelensky had not fully comprehended the exact nature of Trump's request during the infamous phone call on July 25, 2019.

Indeed, part of the American taxpayers' wealth was applied by Putin long before the 2016 elections.  A significant amount of the funds from the "Ukrainian" financial conveyor system were utilized to spread the vicious "Trump is a Russian asset" hoax.  Moreover, the laundered funds had been directed to expel Trump from the White House in 2020.  It is acknowledged that the KGB is proficient at executing such "active measures" against a dedicated foe.  In short, the Kremlin had, in fact, influenced several presidential elections in the United States, but, as the Mueller Report confirmed, Trump had nothing to do with that.

Currently, there is a steady flow of financial, economic, military, and humanitarian aid into Ukraine; let us hope no one would dare to take the usual cut during wartime.  People, mostly unaware of the "Ukrainian" conveyor and its Kremlin management, are attracted to the bravery of Ukrainians and the undeniable Churchillian strength of Zelensky.  Nevertheless, the actual reason for the current war could be that both Putin and the Washington establishment wish to bury the conveyer as deeply as possible.  The Democrats do not want any complications because of inevitable exposure, especially in a midterm election year; they desperately need Zelensky in their camp.  On the other hand, Putin wishes to regain control of the conveyer.  In order to do so, he must appoint a marionette as president of Ukraine.

The media lionize President Zelensky; he is portrayed as the ideal hero (at least in ancient Greek terms).  Similarly, President Putin is demonized and made a superb villain, an unquestionable anti-hero (in absolute terms).  In combination with the horrifying images of bombings of civilians in Ukraine, the international darling and the international pariah are excellent instruments for Democrats to keep the American electorate distanced from the dirty under-the-carpet struggle.

When reviewing the first Russo-Ukrainian War, which is clearly not the first, it is vital to keep that hidden tussling in mind.  Voltaire wrote in 1731 in his book History of Charles XII, King of Sweden that "Ukrania has always aspired to freedom."  Unfortunately, the road to freedom is not a straight line; the story of Ukraine confirms that dirty realpolitik deals plague it.

Gary Gindler, Ph.D. is a conservative columnist at Gary Gindler Chronicles and the founder of a new science: politiphysics.  Follow him on Twitter.