"Russian jet passes near US warship" | Associated Press April 15, 2014
WASHINGTON — A Russian fighter jet made multiple, close-range passes near an American warship in the Black Sea for more than 90 minutes Saturday amid escalating tensions in the region, US military officials said Monday in the first public account of the episode.
My first reaction was what the hell is a US destroyer doing in the Black Sea.
The USS Donald Cook, a Navy destroyer, issued several radio queries and warnings using international emergency circuits, but the Russian aircraft did not respond.
‘‘This provocative and unprofessional Russian action is inconsistent with international protocols and previous agreements on the professional interaction between our militaries,’’ said Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
The fighter appeared to be unarmed and never was in danger of coming in contact with the ship, said the officials. The passes, which occurred in the early evening there, ended without incident. A second Russian fighter jet flew at a higher altitude and was not a concern, said Warren.
A US military official also said that a Russian Navy frigate has been shadowing the Cook, remaining within visual distance but not close enough to be unsafe. The official was not authorized to discuss the episode publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.
Warren said that he is not aware of any official communication or protests by the United States to the Russians about the incident.
Making one wonder if it ever happened or why it is getting play in my paper, other than to gin up war.
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Wow, look, Russia is flying jets in the part of the world where they live. How about that. Not like they have drones ready to fire missiles surveilling the planet.
"Ukraine tries to quell pro-Moscow uprisings; Separatists ousted from buildings, but keep hold on others" by Peter Leonard | Associated Press April 09, 2014
DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities moved to quell pro-Moscow uprisings along the Russian border with mixed results Tuesday, retaking one occupied regional headquarters and watching protesters consolidate their hold on another.
In a third city, Luhansk, Ukraine’s Security Service said separatists armed with explosives were holding 60 people hostage inside the agency’s local headquarters.
Those occupying the building issued a video statement saying they want a referendum on the region’s status and warning any attempt to storm the site would be met with armed force. In the video, a masked man identified the occupiers as Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and said that if authorities try to retake the building, ‘‘Welcome to hell, then!’’
Ukrainian and US officials have accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest as a pretext for another Russian military incursion like the takeover of Crimea last month. Up to 40,000 Russian troops are massed along the Ukrainian border, according to NATO.
I'm tired of reading this one-sided, war-promoting, shit slop. Just damn tired of it.
All the cities affected by the uprisings are in Ukraine’s industrial heartland in the east, which has a large population of ethnic Russians and where hostility is strong toward the government that took power in February after the ouster of Kremlin-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych.
I love the yo-yo, don't you?!
And you wonder why I doubt and disbelieve all this crap?
European Union envoy Catherine Ashton said she will meet with US, Russian, and Ukrainian foreign ministers next week to discuss the situation — the first four-way meeting since the crisis erupted.
In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry threatened tougher economic sanctions against Moscow.
‘‘What we see from Russia is an illegal and illegitimate effort to destabilize a sovereign state and create a contrived crisis with paid operatives across an international boundary,’’ Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
HA! He's a fine one to talk seeing as the U.S. does it all over the place!
Related:
"Much of the hearing was devoted to those other issues, with Kerry coming under particularly sharp questioning over the administration’s Syria policy. Defending the agreement with Russia on eliminating President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons, Kerry said that 54 percent of the stockpile had been removed from Syria, with two large shipments scheduled to leave the country in coming days. Kerry acknowledged, however, that Assad felt more secure in his position now than he had for many months — with his government making gains in the northern part of Syria — and said the time was not ripe for a negotiated solution to the civil war. “I think there’s a capacity to change Assad’s calculation, and so does the president,” he said. “The key is, how do you get the parties to understand there isn’t a military solution.” Kerry also faced criticism of the administration’s response to Russian aggression in Ukraine, with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, saying that the United States had declined to provide even defensive weapons to Ukraine’s army to help protect it from the Russians."
So the attempted overthrow in Syria is to continue as we are treated to the $hit show hearings fooley.
Kerry called the demonstrations a ‘‘contrived pretext for military intervention just as we saw in Crimea.’’
You mean like WMDs, Kohn?
--more--"
Sorry, but he no longer kills with his comedy routine.
"Putin may seek early payment for Ukraine gas" by Vladimir Isachenkov and Peter Leonard | Associated Press April 10, 2014
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin turned up the heat on Ukraine on Wednesday by threatening to demand advance payment for gas supplies, a move designed to exert economic pressure as Ukraine confronts possible bankruptcy, a mutiny by pro-Russian separatists in the east, and a Russian military buildup across the border.
NATO’s top commander in Europe warned that the alliance could respond to the Russian military threat against Ukraine by deploying US troops to Eastern Europe, but Putin’s latest tactics suggest he may be aiming to secure Russia’s clout with its neighbor without invading.
Speaking at a Cabinet session, the Russian leader voiced hope that diplomatic efforts to ease the Ukrainian crisis would yield ‘‘positive results,’’ an apparent reference to talks set for next week that will bring together the United States, the European Union, Russia, and Ukraine for the first time.
Russia wants the talks to focus on a roadmap for Ukraine that would include constitutional reforms to turn it into a federation and guarantee its neutral status. Those demands reflect the Kremlin’s hope of retaining influence over its neighbor and ensuring it does not join NATO. Ukraine has responded by saying it will not be dictated to by Russia.
Taking a tough stance ahead of the negotiations set for next week, Putin instructed the government to be prepared to charge Ukraine in advance for gas supplies — a step that would inflict more pain on a nation already teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. He said the change needed to be taken if ‘‘additional consultations’’ with the EU fail to yield results.
Russia has already eliminated a gas discount it had given Ukraine, arguing that it was tied to a lease for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea, a Ukrainian region that Russia annexed last month. And Ukraine has promised the International Monetary Fund that it will cut energy subsidies to residents in exchange for a bailout loan of up to $14 billion. That means gas prices were set to rise 50 percent on May 1, even before Putin’s latest salvo.
Meaning Ukrainians are going to start rethinking the new, coup-installed government.
The Kremlin pressure comes as pro-Russia protesters have continued to occupy government buildings in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine and the West have accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest to create a pretext for another Russian military incursion similar to last month’s takeover of Crimea.
No mention of a referendum or anything, and this pot-hollering kettle media is wearing real thin.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the standoff in Luhansk and the two neighboring Russian-leaning regions of Donetsk and Kharkiv must be resolved within two days. ‘‘I want to repeat that there are two options: political settlement through negotiations and the use of force,’’ Avakov told reporters. ‘‘We are ready for both options.’’
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov quickly responded by warning against ‘‘making 48-hour ultimatums.’’
‘‘The situation can only be settled through an equal and respectful dialogue,’’ he said.
Then it is not going to be settled because you won't get that from the other side.
All the cities affected by the uprisings are in Ukraine’s industrial Russian-speaking heartland in the east, which has a large population of ethnic Russians and strong economic and cultural ties to Russia.
The West, which has slapped Putin’s entourage with travel bans and asset freezes in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, has made it clear that it will introduce more painful sanctions against Russia’s energy industries and other economic sectors if Moscow sends troops into eastern Ukraine.
Unlike Crimea, which was quickly swept by Russian forces who met no resistance from Ukrainian troops, an invasion into the east would likely trigger fighting that could quickly erode public support at home for Putin’s expansionist drive.
Ha-ha-ha-ha!
--more--"
This has me laughing even more:
"Putin threatens to shut gas supply to Eastern Europe; Says 18 nations should help solve Ukrainian debt" by Vladimir Isachenkov and Nataliya Vasilyeva | Associated Press April 11, 2014
MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin warned Europe it may face a shutdown of Russian natural gas supplies if it fails to help Ukraine settle its enormous Russian gas bill — a debt that far exceeds a bailout package offered by the International Monetary Fund.
The Russian president’s letter to 18 mostly Eastern European leaders, released Thursday by the Kremlin, aimed to divide the 28-nation European Union and siphon off to Russia the billions of dollars the international community plans to lend to Ukraine. It was all part of Russia’s efforts to retain control over its struggling neighbor, which is teetering on the verge of financial ruin and facing a pro-Russian separatist mutiny in the east.
Putin’s message is clear: The EU has tried to lure Ukraine from Russia’s orbit and into its fold, so it should now foot Ukraine’s gas bill — or face the country’s economic collapse and a disruption of its own gas supplies.
The tough warning raises the ante ahead of international talks on settling the Ukrainian crisis that for the first time will bring together the United States, the European Union, Russia, and Ukraine.
This is the problem. Russia is playing chess while the poker players of the propaganda pre$$ are calling their bluff on a busted flush.
Hundreds of pro-Russian protesters — some armed — were still occupying Ukrainian government buildings in Donetsk and Luhansk while authorities sought a peaceful solution Thursday to the five-day standoff. And in northwest Romania, US and Romanian forces kicked off a week of joint military exercises.
We were told those forces were for the African mission, and that is not a provocation or anything.
The amount that Putin claims Ukraine owes is growing by billions of dollars every week — and his letter raises the specter of a new gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine that could affect much of Europe. In 2009, Moscow turned off gas supplies to Kiev in the dead of winter, leading to freezing cities across Eastern Europe as Russian gas stopped moving through Ukrainian pipelines to other nations.
Going to be a sweaty summer in Europe.
In the letter, Putin said Ukraine owes Russia $17 billion due to the termination of gas discounts and potentially another $18.4 billion as a take-or-pay fine under their 2009 gas contract. He added that on top of that $35.4 billion, Russia also holds $3 billion in Ukrainian government bonds.
The total amount is far greater than the estimated $14 billion to $18 billion bailout that the IMF is considering for Ukraine.
Putin warned that Ukraine’s mounting debt is forcing Moscow to demand advance payments for further gas supplies. He said that if Ukraine failed to make such payments, Russia’s state-controlled gas giant, Gazprom, will ‘‘completely or partially cease gas deliveries.’’
Putin told the leaders that a shutdown of Russian gas supplies will increase the risk of Ukraine siphoning off gas intended for the rest of Europe and will make it difficult to accumulate sufficient reserves to guarantee uninterrupted delivery to European customers next winter. He urged quick talks between Russia and European consumers of Russian gas.
‘‘The fact that our European partners have unilaterally withdrawn from the concerted efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, and even from holding consultations with the Russian side, leaves Russia no alternative,’’ Putin said.
The letter was addressed to 18 heads of states in Europe, including Serbia and Bulgaria, which both rely on Russia for about 90 percent of their gas supplies.
Putin has been tightening the economic screws on the cash-strapped Kiev government since it came to power in February after Ukraine’s Russia-leaning president fled the country after months of protest.
You like the yo-yoing?
Starting this month, Gazprom scrapped all discounts on gas to Ukraine, meaning a 70 percent price hike. Ukraine has promised the IMF it will cut energy subsidies to residents in exchange for a bailout — which means gas prices were set to rise 50 percent on May 1 even before Putin’s latest salvo.
That IMF deal looks like a shit deal!
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk added to European fears of a disruption in gas supplies as he accused Ukraine’s national energy company of mismanagement.
‘‘Naftogaz has 7.2 billion cubic meters of gas in underground storages while it is supposed to be 20 billion. It wasn’t me who stole that gas,’’ he said.
It was Tymoshenko.
Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said this week that Ukraine has not been getting any new gas pumped from Russia amid the pricing dispute, which means it has been relying on storage supplies it previously bought.
Can you blame them?
The effect of a possible halt in gas supplies could be harsh for Europe but probably not as severe as in January 2009, since Gazprom has built a new pipeline bypassing Ukraine and increased the capacity of existing ones.
Well then, let the EU slap on the sanctions.
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"Ukraine leader pledges rights to protesters; Pro-Russia demonstrators wary of promise" by Andrew Higgins and Andrew E. Kramer | New York Times April 12, 2014
DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukraine’s acting prime minister on Friday abandoned threats to forcibly evict pro-Russian demonstrators from government buildings and assured political and business leaders in the country’s rebellious east that they would get more power to run their own affairs.
But the pledge by Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, the head of a new central government in Kiev installed after the Feb. 21 flight of President Viktor Yanukovych, drew a dismissive response from protesters as a deadline set by the government to relinquish the occupied regional administration building here passed with no sign of an end to a volatile standoff, which began Sunday when protesters seized the building and declared the establishment of a People’s Republic of Donetsk.
In a television statement broadcast to a small and mostly elderly crowd outside the occupied building, Ekaterina Gubareva, the newly appointed “foreign minister” of the universally unrecognized Donetsk republic, denounced Yatsenyuk’s government as a “junta” and repeated demands for a referendum to let local residents decide whether they want to secede and join Russia.
Kind of getting tired of the subtle insults, too.
Oleg Tsarov, a Russian-speaking candidate for the Ukrainian presidency, and one of a handful of mainstream politicians who support the unruly Donetsk protesters, said at a news conference that he had information of an imminent “frontal assault” by government forces on the occupied building. He declined to specify how he knew this, but said Yatsenyuk’s disavowal of a forceful solution during his visit to Donetsk “only strengthened” his view that an attack is likely.
The United States and its allies worry that Russia might use the unrest in Donetsk and other eastern cities — which the Ukrainian authorities believe has been instigated and financed by Moscow — as pretext for a military intervention to “protect” Russian-speaking residents.
New York Times would know all about fabricating pretexts for military intervention!
Russia has repeatedly denied any plans for an invasion, and many analysts believe its goal is to keep the shaky new Ukrainian government off balance and to make sure it shuns any security partnership with the West. The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, on Friday demanded guarantees of Ukraine’s neutrality, a position that would close the door to Ukraine’s cooperating with NATO or trying to join it.
In a sign of how closely the Donetsk protesters are acting in concert with Russian interests, anti-NATO chants have become a regular element of their round-the-clock rallies, superseding earlier chants against the “fascists” who they claim grabbed power in Kiev from Yanukovych.
Ukranian protests were directed by the CIA.
Yatsenyuk, speaking in a mix of Russian and Ukrainian, a language rarely used in Donetsk, promised that his government would give regions more power to manage their own finances, choose their own leaders, and govern their own affairs. Regional governors are currently appointed by the president in Kiev.
“Our task is to balance power between the center” and the regions, he said.
It looks like he is backing down, but it's all fake.
At a meeting Friday with the prime minister, Ukraine’s richest man, Donetsk businessman Rinat Akhmetov, and other regional power-brokers, Taruta stressed that economic growth, not force, offered the only way to solve the crisis.
“The biggest problem is poverty, and we must fight against it with all our means,” he said.
I love it when billionaires discover poor people!
Opinion polls show that most residents of the east have little interest in independence or secession but are deeply concerned by declining living standards.
Yeah, sure, NYT, whatever you say.
The mayor of Kharkiv, Hennadiy Kernes, a former ally of Yanukovych’s, presented a long list of complaints to the government leaders, pointing to rising fuel prices and other issues he said had stirred anger.
Addressing another source of friction with Moscow, Ukraine’s acting energy minister suggested Friday he would not pay the elevated prices for natural gas that Russia has been demanding in recent weeks, and would contest the basis for the price increase instead.
IMF deal raised prices 50% and not a peep from him!
The minister, Yuri Prodan, told Parliament that he intended to challenge in an arbitration court in Stockholm a 2009 contract with Gazprom and its subsequent amendments. It is under this contract that Gazprom is claiming an about 80 percent increase in the price of gas, starting this month.
The legal prospects for such a suit are unclear, energy analysts say, and Ukraine’s options for wiggling free of the deal are limited in spite of diplomatic backing from the United States and European Union countries.
Yes, not even the lawbreaking West can help.
Russian officials point out that Prodan helped negotiate the contract in 2009, when he served as energy minister under Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko, and is hardly in a position to dispute its validity.
The Ukrainian finance minister, Oleksandr Shlapak, told reporters in Washington his country did not intend to use the first installment of an International Monetary Fund loan to pay Russia. Ukraine has few resources on its own to make such payments.
Ukraine expects to receive $7 billion this year from the IMF and has a preliminary accord with the lending institution to receive as much as $18 billion in loans over two years, while aid from the European Union, the United States and other donors will raise the total package to $27 billion.
This while all those contributing nations impose austerity on their own people!
--more--"
"Two Ukraine police stations taken over" by Peter Leonard | Associated Press April 13, 2014
DONETSK, Ukraine — Men in the uniforms of Ukraine’s now-defunct riot police on Saturday occupied police headquarters in Donetsk, the eastern city that is one of the flashpoints of a wave of pro-Russia protests, hours after armed men seized local police headquarters and a local branch of the Security Service in a nearby city.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov described the unrest as ‘‘Russian aggression’’ and said Ukraine sent special forces to the area to deal with the situation.
The unrest in Donetsk and the city of Slovyansk, about 55 miles to the north, were the latest shows of spiraling anger in eastern Ukraine, which has a large Russian-speaking population and was also the support base for Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president who was ousted in February after months of protests in the capital, Kiev.
Ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s east widely fear that the authorities who took over after Yanukovych’s fall will suppress them.
In Slovyansk, the mayor said the men who seized the police station were demanding a referendum on autonomy and possible annexation by Russia. Protesters in other eastern cities have made similar demands after a referendum in Crimea last month in which voters opted to split off from Ukraine, leading to annexation by Russia.
At least they mentioned the referendum, even as annexation is cited more times in this article than decades worth of Israeli annexations.
Witnesses said the men who entered the police building in Donetsk were wearing the uniforms of the Berkut, the feared riot police squad that was disbanded in February after Yanukovych’s ouster.
Berkut officers’ violent dispersal of a demonstration in Kiev in November set off vast protests in the capital that culminated in bloodshed in February when more than 100 people died in sniper fire; the acting government says the snipers were police.
I've already posted links that the snipers were in fact from the side of the U.S.-supported opposition.
It was not immediately clear if the men who occupied the Donetsk police building had made any demands, but the Donetsk police chief said on national television that he was forced to offer his resignation. Interfax Ukraine reported that pro-Russian protesters had invited the former police chief to resume his duties.
In Slovyansk, about 20 men in balaclavas and armed with automatic rifles and pistols were guarding the entrance to the police station in the city of about 120,000 people, and another 20 were believed to be inside. They wore St. George’s ribbons, which have become a symbol of pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine. The ribbons were originally associated with the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II.
A masked guard in Slovyansk, who gave his name only as Sergei, said they have ‘‘only one demand: a referendum and joining Russia.’’
The man said they seized the building because they wanted to protect it from radical nationalists from western Ukraine and ‘‘the junta who seized power in Kiev.’’
That is what it is.
‘‘We don’t want to be slaves of America and the West,’’ he said, speaking at the seized police station. ‘‘We want to live with Russia.’’
A lot of the world is turning that way now.
Avakov said in a Facebook post Saturday evening that unknown men opened fire on a police station in Kramatorsk, a town near Slovyansk, and police were engaged in a gunfight with them. In Krasnyi Lyman, another town in the area, men armed with Russian-made automatic rifles attacked a police station, he said.
The Interior Ministry said the attackers in Slovyansk used tear gas and stun grenades when they stormed the building, injuring three police officers.
The attackers’ goal was to seize arms from the police station, authorities said, adding that there were about 40 automatic rifles and 400 pistols as well as ammunition inside.
The Interior Ministry reported later Saturday that men from the same group have seized the building of the local Security Service.
The Kiev authorities and the United States have accused Russia of fomenting the unrest in the east and seeking to use it as a pretext for sending in troops.
No, that is more of an AmeriKan move!
Russia has reportedly massed forces in areas near the Ukrainian border.
Those reports turned out to be lies!
But Slovyansk Mayor Nelya Shtepa said she held talks with the protesters and said they were local residents, not Russians.
‘‘They told me: ‘We don’t have anything against you,’ ” she said, adding that the men said they ‘‘want to be heard, want a dialogue with authorities in Kiev.’’
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday warned the Ukrainian government against using force against protesters, saying that such action would derail the talks on settling the crisis between the United States, the European Union, Russia, and Ukraine set for next week, as well as any other diplomatic efforts.
The way the U.S. behaves has made me no longer believe in talks.
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"Ukraine troops clash with pro-Russia dissidents; 1 soldier dead, several injured in battles, Kiev says" by Andrew E. Kramer and Andrew Higgins | New York Times April 14, 2014
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — The Ukrainian government on Sunday for the first time sent in its security services to confront armed pro-Russian militants in the country’s east, defying warnings from Russia, Ukrainian officials said.
Commandos engaged in gunfights with men who had set up roadblocks and stormed a Ukrainian police station in Slovyansk.
******************
Russian news media and residents in Ukraine disputed that account, saying the Ukrainian forces had only briefly engaged one checkpoint.
In either case, the central government in Kiev has turned to force to try to restore its authority in the east, a course of action that the Russian government has repeatedly warned against.
With tens of thousands of Russian troops massed along Ukraine’s eastern border near Donetsk, Western leaders have worried that Moscow might use unrest in Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking areas as a pretext for an invasion, even though the violence had been solely caused by the pro-Russian side.
Yeah, I'm getting the message, I'm sick of it, sick of the war-promoting AmeriKan media, sick of the distortions, sick of the lies. Sick of the repetitive hypocrisy of whoreporate pre$$.
Both governments intensified their statements Sunday. Ukraine’s interim president, Oleksandr Turchinov, issued another ultimatum, saying separatists should vacate occupied buildings by Monday or face a “large-scale antiterrorist operation” that will include the Ukrainian military.
Turchinov said the Ukrainian Security Council decided to use the army because ‘‘we’re not going to allow Russia to repeat the Crimean scenario in Ukraine’s east.’’ He pledged amnesty to anyone who lays down arms by Monday morning.
I'm seeing ESCALATION!
Russia claimed that the Ukrainian government was cracking down at the behest of US and European officials.
Everyone sees it. First thing I thought of when he pulled back on the back down.
Speaking on Russian state television, the exiled Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, claimed that CIA director John Brennan had met with Ukraine’s new leadership and ‘‘in fact sanctioned the use of weapons and provoked bloodshed,’’ the Associated Press reported.
The CIA flatly denied the accusation that Brennan was pulling the strings in Ukraine. CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said that although the agency does not comment on Brennan’s travel itinerary, the ‘‘claim that director Brennan encouraged Ukrainian authorities to conduct tactical operations inside Ukraine is completely false.’’
Meaning it's all true.
Related:
"Via Penny... Did CIA director John Brennan sneak into Kiev to tell the puppet government how to carry out their operations in eastern Ukraine against pro-Russian forces, or 'terrorists' as they are now called? Whether he personally did or it's just the Russians countering the Western propaganda, the CIA is embedded in the control of the country and they are sending in the mercenaries because perhaps many in the Ukrainian army support Russia. Is Putin hiring mercs to stir up the pot, using the same tactics as the US and NATO did to take over Ukraine? He may not need to. Popular support in the east seems to lean towards Russia over the NATO/EU/IMF plans?
--MORE--"
I'd give more than a Penny for those thoughts.
**************
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting Sunday evening at Russia’s request to discuss the crisis.
The police station contested by Ukrainian forces was one of several security centers in the eastern region of Donetsk seized Saturday by masked gunmen in coordinated raids that the Ukrainian authorities denounced as Russian “aggression.”
By Sunday afternoon, the government’s push to reassert its authority in a vitally important industrial and coal-mining region appeared to have made little headway. Pro-Russian protesters appeared to control not only the police station but the entire city of Slovyansk, having set up checkpoints at major streets leading into town.
The protesters blocked a major highway in the east, and flags of Russia and their newly declared and unrecognized People’s Republic of Donetsk flew over administrative buildings in several other midsize towns. These included Mariupol, where protesters seized another building Sunday.
Two rival rallies in another regional capital in eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv, turned violent. At the end of both rallies, a group of pro-Russian protesters followed several pro-Ukrainian activists, beating them with bats and sticks, Interfax Ukraine reported. An attack also was reported on a police station in the nearby city of Kramatorsk.
Roman Svitan, a security adviser to the Ukrainian authorities in Donetsk, said Sunday’s military operation was carried out by Alfa, a special services unit of Ukraine’s State Security Service. He said Ukrainian forces had evicted gunmen from the Slovyansk police headquarters, though protesters there said nothing of the sort had happened.
Svitan said that most of the expelled gunmen were local pro-Russian extremists but that they had also included Russian operatives.
I'm so glad "we" are winning!
Residents and men standing by barricades in Slovyansk denied that Ukrainian forces had even entered the town Sunday. They said one local man who had been out fishing was in a hospital with a wound from a shooting on a highway outside of town. Russian television said the Ukrainian nationalist group Right Sector had attacked protesters at a checkpoint, injuring the fisherman.
Requests to speak to a leader of the armed men produced a man wearing a ski mask who introduced himself as Alexander and described himself as a deputy commander of the city of Slovyansk after its merger with the People’s Republic of Donetsk. He said Ukrainian armored personnel carriers had opened fire on a barrier of tires on the edge of town.
Ukrainian helicopters buzzed the town, but no soldiers were seen. At one barrier, pro-Russian protesters felled trees across a road into town, guarded by men in ski masks carrying military rifles.
The unrest in Donetsk, capital of eastern Ukraine’s most populous region, began April 6 when pro-Russian activists seized government headquarters and declared the People’s Republic of Donetsk.
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"Pro-Russian militants in Ukraine defy government threats" by Anthony Faiola and Will Engluin | Washington Post April 15, 2014
DONETSK, Ukraine — Defiant pro-Russia militants in eastern Ukraine pushed this country to the brink of war or dissolution Monday, expanding their hold while the acting president failed to make headway in trying to end the crisis.
Someone is trying to push us over the brink, dear readers.
After an ultimatum to the militants was ignored, the acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, first vowed to rout them by force, then held out the offer of a referendum to decide Ukraine’s fate, then proposed a peacekeeping intervention by the United Nations.
Who is pulling his strings, and do they even know wtf they are doing?
Nothing Turchynov said moved the pro-Russia forces, who seized another police station in another small town, Horlivka. Over the past 10 days, they have taken over more than a dozen government offices in eastern Ukraine.
In a nation of 44 million, it became clear that a few hundred men, operating on the eastern fringes of the country with guns and unmarked uniforms, have brought Ukraine to a deeply dangerous juncture.
That could also easily describe any CIA destabilization team, assets, agents, or contractors. It's a pot-hollering-kettle, caked in shit media, folks.
The mood was tense in this industrial city of nearly 1 million, where many residents were staying inside after dark. Pro-Russia activists took over the regional administrative offices last week, and bands of masked men, including several carrying steel pipes, were patrolling the barricaded entrances to the monolithic structure in the center of town.
Turchynov and other Ukrainian officials said they are convinced that Russia is guiding the militants as they have steadily taken over one government building after another. They have vocal support on that score from Washington and London.
What is so amazing is the agenda-pushers were calling their paid Ukrainian thugs that seized power "self-defense" forces only weeks ago.
Is it any wonder I've stopped believing anything they say? It's lies about everything, war, peace, economy, environment, you name it. Every article is filled with lies at worst, distortions at best, even the most seemingly innocuous stories.
Russia adamantly denies it, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Monday it is the West’s responsibility to rein in the government in Kiev so that there are no violent attacks on the militants. Russia has tens of thousands of troops massed on the Ukrainian border.
The tens of thousands of troops massed is repeated as if fact. Been there, done that.
The sad thing is we have reached a point where the "enemy" is telling the truth in the war-promoting war daily and the "good guys" of my government and its criminal allies are the assholes.
As for reigning them in, no, the U.S. is going to encourage them to move forward even if it means their annihilation.
In Washington, a senior administration official said President Obama told President Vladimir Putin of Russia in a phone call Monday that while a diplomatic solution to the crisis remains open, Russia’s actions have not been conducive to that approach, the Associated Press reported.
Honestly, I don't know how world leaders put up with that asshole. I wouldn't take a call from him.
******************
Secretary of State John Kerry and European leaders are promising more sanctions, on top of those imposed on Russia over its role in Crimea. The State Department circulated a document assailing what it called ‘‘Russian Fiction: The Sequel. Ten More False Claims about Ukraine.’’
Pot-kettle-black.... except in this case, the kettle is clean.
In seeking to contradict assertions from Moscow, the American document says, among other things, that Russian agents are active in eastern Ukraine; that separatists there do not enjoy broad popular support; that Russian speakers are not under threat; and that the new government in Kiev is not led by right-wing fascists.
What you need to do with Kohn Kerry and his lying ass state department is decode the communique.
Thus one must conclude that the truth is it is a true people's movement, not Russian agents; the separatists do indeed enjoy massive support; Russian speakers are under threat since the thug government in Kiev made speaking Russian illegal; and the new government is in fact led by fa$ci$t (not to be confused with those extreme nationalist movements that threatened the entire international banking system and Jew World Order) thugs supported by the U.S.
Countering U.S. lies is a full-time job, and I'm not even getting paid for my part time work here.
The crisis has brought relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point at least since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
The 1983 downing of a Korean jetliner not lower?
Btw, the war contractors are drooling over such a thing.
‘‘There can’t really be any real doubt that this is something that has been planned and brought about by Russia,’’ the British foreign secretary, William Hague, said as he arrived in Luxembourg to meet with his European counterparts.
Oh, really, Bill? Seems to me it was Yanukovych's rejection of that IMF austerity plan that triggered the "protests."
Turchynov talked with UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon on Monday and later suggested that a UN peacekeeping force could enter eastern Ukraine. But that would almost certainly draw a veto by Russia.
In Moscow, a Putin spokesman said the president has been watching the crisis with ‘‘great concern’’ and had received many appeals asking that he intervene.
The anonymous appeal for help has long been a favorite tactic of Soviet and Russian interventionists. It was rolled out before the invasion of Hungary in 1956 and of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
More WaPo hypocrisy. The starkness and brazenness are stunning considering all the wars they have fronted lies for since 1968 and before.
F*** the Washington Post.
It was also a feature of Russia’s involvement in Crimea in late February and March before that region’s annexation by Moscow.
Nothing about the vote.
In eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian news agencies reported Monday that opponents of the separatists had set up checkpoints on highways leading from the Donetsk region to the Kharkiv region, and — with the help of traffic police — were inspecting cars with the aim of preventing separatists from traveling to Kharkiv.
But as the evening wore on there was still no sign of Turchynov’s promised attack on separatist positions by forces loyal to Kiev. Turchynov and other officials had said that if no resolution was reached by 8 a.m. Monday, an ‘‘antiterrorist’’ operation would begin.
I wrote bluff in the margin of my paper.
--more--"
I had to wait until the next day to see that it was not:
"Ukraine sends force to curb unrest in East" by Andrew E. Kramer | New York Times April 16, 2014
I cringe when I see New York Times.
OVYANSK, Ukraine — The Ukrainian military landed airborne troops at an airport about 25 miles south of here Tuesday, raising tensions with Russia in the opening phase of what the government in Kiev called a wider military operation to confront pro-Russian militants in the eastern part of the country.
All at AmeriKan behest, no doubt.
Later in the day, a column of armored personnel carriers flying Ukrainian flags approached Slovyansk from the north, parking for a time beside a highway and setting up a checkpoint. Of all the cities in the east, Slovyansk seemed to have fallen most completely under the control of pro-Russian separatists, who have erected massive defensive barricades outside the buildings they occupy.
The Ukrainian authorities said the movements were the first in a campaign to drive separatists from government buildings in as many as 10 cities in eastern Ukraine. The initial steps suggested that the government in Kiev, which had been hesitant to do anything to play into Moscow’s narrative that Russian-language speakers are in need of protection, was now willing to use the military to try to restore order in some places.
Related:
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Operation Mockingbird
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
That's the narrative I'm getting, and am I ever sick of it. It's only here to show you, the reader from other regions and parts of the world, what slop the flag$hit paper is serving up to caring and conscientious people who want to know what is going on 'roun' h're.
In a conflict that has revealed deep East-West fault lines, the White House praised the move as a measured step toward restoring law and order, while President Vladimir Putin of Russia told the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, in a phone call that he expected “clear condemnation” of the “anticonstitutional” operation by the international community. The Russian stock market fell by 3 percent on war jitters.
Yeah, well, from what I hear they are cutting deals for resources with other nations and skirting around the U.S. buck like a lot of other people. That's why the U.S. economy is slowing to a crawl; that, and the fact that the 5% have concentrated wealth to themselves.
At the small military air base in the town of Kramatorsk, Ukrainian soldiers quickly took control, holding at bay separatists who had surrounded the field’s perimeter, which is guarded by a barbed wire fence. At some point the commander of the operation, General Vasily Krutov, left the base to speak to a crowd of protesters numbering about 500 to urge them to disperse. But the crowd remained hostile, and when he turned to head back to the base he was roughed up, people in the crowd said, shoved hard enough that his hat fell off.
They didn't kill him?
The situation, described by local reporters as a “mob scene,” persisted into the early evening, with the crowd occasionally surging forward through a gap in the fence and soldiers firing into the ground in front of those who approached too close. Witnesses said that at least two people were injured by the shots.
Russian television — which has consistently sought to play up grievances by pro-Russian activists who the West says are a tool of Russian intelligence — introduced its evening broadcast by announcing that “The illegal, criminal government in Kiev launches a war against its own people.”
Well, you have seen who my ma$$ media serve as a tool.
The checkpoint the Ukrainian military established on a highway north of Slovyansk provided a further sign that the operation this time represented more than just words. Speaking to reporters following the armored column, Krutov delivered a sharp warning to any gunmen on the road ahead, saying, “they must be warned that if they do not lay down their arms, they will be destroyed.”
While there were no credible reports of casualties, Krutov later told the Associated Press that his forces had repelled a force of 30 men in green uniforms without insignia, shorthand for the unmarked Russian regulars who infiltrated and overran Crimea.
Nothing about the vote, NYT?
Ukraine seemed to teeter toward a run on bank deposits on Monday. The central bank was compelled to raise one of its key interest rates to 9.5 percent from 6.5 percent to slow the rapid slide of the national currency, the hryvnia, as people withdrew deposits and converted savings into hard currency.
That's not a good sign for the coup-in$talled government!
--more--"
"Ukraine push against rebels grinds to halt" by Andrew E. Kramer | New York Times April 17, 2014
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — A military operation that the Ukrainian government said would confront pro-Russian militants in the east of the country unraveled in disarray Wednesday with the entire contingent of 21 armored vehicles that had separated into two columns surrendering or pulling back before nightfall. It was a glaring humiliation for the new government in Kiev.
You should't have listened to AmeriKan advisers.
Though gunshots were fired throughout the day, and continued sporadically through the evening in this town that is occupied by pro-Russian militants, it was unclear whether anybody had been wounded.
One of the armored columns stopped when a crowd of men drinking beer and women yelling taunts and insults gathered on the road before them, and later in the day its commander agreed to hand over the soldiers’ assault rifles to the very separatists they were sent to fight.
Another column from the same ostensibly elite unit, the 25th Dnipropetrovsk paratrooper brigade, surrendered not only its weapons but also the tracked and armored vehicles it had arrived in, letting militants park them as trophies, under a Russian flag, in a central square here.
When I compare this to some of the print I read above I am rolling in laughter on the floor!
A pro-Russian militant then climbed into the driver’s seat of one and spun the vehicle around on its tracks, screeching and roaring, to please the watching crowd.
The events of the day underscored the weakness of the new government in Kiev entering critical talks with the United States and Russia in Geneva on Thursday over Ukraine’s future. Unable to exercise authority over their own military, officials increasingly seem powerless to contain a growing rebellion by pro-Russian militants that has spread to at least nine cities in eastern Ukraine.
What they are admitting in an oh-so vague way is many Ukrainian military units are refusing to take orders from the illegal regime in Kiev.
In a tactical error, the Ukrainian soldiers on Wednesday had no accompanying force to control the crowds that formed around their advancing units.
They were turned back -- so I am told -- by DRUNKARDS and LOUD WOMEN! I don't think "tactics" were the problem!
C'mon, New York Times? You really think we are that stupid?
Their task, to confront armed militants intermingled with civilians, would be extremely difficult for any conventional army, but for this group, which apparently lacked the tools and the heart to carry it out, it proved to be impossible.
Unfair! Russians fight unfair!
Just one more reason to invade Ukraine, 'eh!?
Just placing the conventional army forces near this darker, more insidious mix of unconventional tactics risked such a setback. “You are fulfilling criminal orders!” one resident yelled at a Ukrainian soldier sitting on an armored vehicle.
The NYT is shoveling at light speed these days! Good f***ing Christ! Look at this RANK ROT WAR PROPAGANDA that IS NOT EVEN WRITTEN WELL!
The soldier said he was not, and showed that he had removed the magazine from his assault rifle. “You are saying, ‘Come over to the side of the people,’” he said. “I am a soldier. I protect the people. I won’t shoot you.”
Ukrainian military helicopters buzzed over the scene but were of no help to the soldiers’ quandary below.
The soldiers defected, and not even the helicopters could pull them back!
Why can't you just say it, NYT? Why must the truth be layered in obfuscation and deception?
They faced not only the civilians, but behind them a force of well-armed men in unmarked green uniforms, who Western governments have said are either Russian soldiers or Russian-equipped militants. These soldiers were well-armed. They carried radios and ammunition pouches. Some had rocket-propelled grenade launchers slung over their shoulders.
They are simply jealous the Russians are better equipped than their pathetic pos assets and agents. That's what happens when you let bankers loot your countries.
The Ukrainian contingent that surrendered handed over their vehicles to men in unmarked green uniforms, who made their presence more public Wednesday than it had been earlier. They drove them to the central plaza of Slovyansk, a town about 120 miles from the Russian border, and parked them there for all to see, the flags of Russia and the newly declared and wholly unrecognized People’s Republic of Donetsk flapping above them in the breeze.
In Brussels, the head of NATO said that the alliance would strengthen its military presence in Eastern Europe. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the alliance’s secretary general, said that NATO would immediately send forces to the region as a deterrent. He did not specify how many troops or aircraft would be involved or what kind of assets would be deployed.
In other words, it ALL ESCALATION despite the de-escalation talk.
--more--"
"Accord reached to ease tensions in Ukraine; Calls for militants to leave buildings; Obama skeptical crisis is resolved" by Michael R. Gordon and Peter Baker | New York Times April 18, 2014
GENEVA — The United States, Russia, Ukraine, and the European Union reached an agreement on Thursday evening that called for armed pro-Russian bands in eastern Ukraine to surrender the government buildings they have seized and that outlined other steps to defuse a crisis that has rattled the international community.
The diplomatic accord, while limited in scope, represented the first time Russia and Ukraine had found common ground since protests toppled a pro-Moscow government in Kiev, leading the Kremlin to annex the Crimean Peninsula and threaten other parts of Ukraine with 40,000 troops on its border. The deal came hours after Ukrainian security forces killed three pro-Russian activists in a firefight.
Wow.
But neither President Obama in Washington nor President Vladimir Putin in Moscow signaled that the crisis in Ukraine was over. During a long televised question-and-answer session before the agreement was announced, Putin asserted historic claims over Ukrainian territory and the right to send in Russian troops.
Speaking after the agreement was announced, Obama sounded a skeptical note, saying it offered “a glimmer of hope,” but “we’re not going to count on it,” and adding that the United States would take more punitive action if Russia did not abide by its terms.
F*** him!
“My hope is that we actually do see follow-through over the next several days,” Obama told reporters at the White House, “but I don’t think, given past performance, that we can count on that, and we have to be prepared to potentially respond to what continue to be efforts of interference by the Russians in eastern and southern Ukraine.”
Shut up, you hypocritical and deceiving shit!!!!!!!!!!!
Obama did not outline what those measures might be, but aides said that the White House had assembled a list of more Russian figures and institutions to sanction if Russia did not pull back and the situation in Ukraine continued to worsen. The president does not plan to impose more stringent measures against whole sectors of the Russian economy unless Moscow sends in troops or otherwise takes more drastic steps, aides said, a recognition of resistance in Europe, which is more tied economically to Russia.
Yeah, Europe doesn't really want to do this and is being bullied by the U.S. and the Zionists interests behind them.
Hoping to coordinate a future response with European leaders, Obama spoke by telephone with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain. Vice President Joe Biden called Slovakia’s prime minister for the second time in recent days to press him to help reverse the flow of a natural gas pipeline to provide Ukraine with energy if it is cut off by Russia.
In other words, bring hardship on yourself to support the world conquest by the AmeriKan empire in service of private central bankers.
Whadda deal!
Tension on the ground continued to mount in the hours before the Geneva agreement was announced. Pro-Russian protesters tried to storm a Ukrainian base in the eastern city of Mariupol, prompting a firefight that left three of the activists dead, 13 wounded, and 63 captured, according to Ukraine’s interim interior minister. In Donetsk, where pro-Russian militants have taken over a government building, fliers appeared ordering Jews to register with authorities.
And that has been proven to be a LYING FRAUD, folks!
Is there NO LEVEL to which they WILL NOT STOOP?
And in the hours after the accord, brokered in part by Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia, militants occupying the government building in the name of the newly declared and wholly unrecognized People’s Republic of Donetsk said that they would not be bound by anything Russia had agreed to.
Roman Velikodny, who called himself commandant of the occupied building, said he had no intention of asking militants to leave until after a referendum that would allow residents of the region to choose autonomy from Kiev.
“Before they let people openly express their opinions on the future of this land, we won’t leave the building,” he said. “There will be no handing over of weapons and buildings before people express their views.”
Vasili Domashev, who described himself as an aide to the commandant, said the armed men would not leave because they did not trust the Kiev government. “Lavrov and Kerry decided, but who are they to us?” he said as a guard sat beside him, tapping the flat side of a samurai sword against his boot. “We are the Donetsk Republic. We have people who make their own decisions.”
The Geneva agreement — hammered out during six hours of talks between Kerry; Lavrov; Andrii Deshchytsia, the interim Ukrainian foreign minister; and Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy chief for the European Union — called on all sides in Ukraine to refrain from violence or provocative behavior and rejected all forms of intolerance, including anti-Semitism.
“All illegal armed groups must be disarmed,” the joint statement said. “All illegally seized buildings must be returned to legitimate owners; all illegally occupied streets, squares and other public places in Ukrainian cities and towns must be vacated.”
The Kiev government is illegal, so when are they vacating?
--more--"
Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Russia:
"United Nations cites abuses in annex of Crimea" by Nick Cumming-Bruce | New York Times April 16, 2014
GENEVA — Amid fears of escalating violence in eastern Ukraine, the United Nations called Tuesday for action to counter misinformation and hate speech used as propaganda and urged the authorities in Crimea to account for killings, torture, and arbitrary arrests in the buildup to the March referendum, which led to its annexation by Russia.
That would mean AmeriKa's newspapers need to be shut down and the U.S. government arrested.
“Facts on the ground need to be established to help reduce the risk of radically different narratives being exploited for political ends,” the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said in a statement released with a report on human rights in Ukraine and Crimea, which until last month was an autonomous region of Ukraine.
Oh, this is all about PUTTING the WESTERN PROPAGANDA NARRATIVE out over the TOP!
“People need a reliable point of view to counter what has been widespread misinformation and also speech that aims to incite hatred on national, religious, or racial grounds,” she added.
What this tells you is they and the propaganda organs that push their agenda are LOSING the BATTLE for the MINDS of the MASSES!
The UN report came as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, on a visit to Crimea, said in a post on Facebook that eastern Ukraine was “on the brink of civil war.”
It also coincides with preparations for talks on Ukraine in Geneva on Thursday, when Secretary of State John Kerry is due to meet the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, and Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, Andrii Deshchytsia.
The talks will focus on deescalation of the crisis and will not address Russia’s calls for federalism in Ukraine, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Yuri Klymenko, said Tuesday.
Then it is really a NOTHING AGREEMENT!
Russia is exploiting unrest in eastern Ukraine as a “concocted pretext” to disrupt the meeting, he said, and Ukraine will present “concrete evidence” of the involvement of Russian special forces in the separatist unrest.
We are still waiting.
The UN report, based on investigations by Assistant Secretary General Ivan Simonovic and UN human rights monitors, pointed to evidence that some participants in deadly clashes in eastern Ukraine had come from Russia.
And western CIA Israeli mercenaries, too, right?
Tracing the roots of Ukraine’s crisis, the report said excessive use of force by Ukraine’s special police forces, the Berkut, against initially peaceful demonstrators against the government had radicalized protesters and led to the violence that erupted in January....
I'm sick of this crap narrative, sorry. Yanukovych was criticized for being too restrained.
--more--"
"Russia GDP may stall as Crimea fuels outflows, Siluanov says" by Olga Tanas and Milda Seputyte | Bloomberg News April 16, 2014
MOSCOW — Russia’s economic growth may grind to a halt this year as capital flight accelerates in the wake of its annexation of Crimea last month, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Tuesday.
Not judging by all the other deals they are cutting around the planet as nations begin to delink from the dollar. That's why U.S. empire builders are working so hard to get a war going anywhere they can!
Gross domestic product may expand less than 0.5 percent or may not grow at all, Siluanov told the ministry’s annual meeting in Moscow. The slowdown is occurring as ‘‘geopolitical uncertainty’’ drives capital outflows, compounding the risk of a drop in the price of oil, Russia’s main export earner, he said.
Yes, some western corporations are pulling out money, but it's minimal.
And if oil prices are going down why are gas prices up 11 cents the last 10 days?
US and European sanctions triggered by President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last month threaten to tip the $2 trillion economy into recession after sagging investment last year slowed growth to a four-year low. With the risk of falling oil prices, the government’s scope for stimulus spending is limited, according to Siluanov.
‘‘The conditions we have to work in in 2014 are probably the toughest since 2008-2009 crisis,’’ Siluanov said. ‘‘Capital outflows reduce the possibility for investment growth in the economy and create risks of an unbalanced budget.’’
Capital outflows rose to $50.6 billion in the first three months of the year from $27.5 billion a year earlier, according to the central bank. The ruble is down 9.1 percent against the dollar this year, the second-worst performer among 24 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg.
Russia will dip into its sovereign wealth funds next year to finance Crimea, suspending its budget rule, according to four people with knowledge of government discussions. Funding for the region, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, will be at least 130 billion rubles ($3.6 billion) next year, another of the people said. All four asked not to be identified as planning is confidential.
--more--"
"Xenophobic chill descends on Moscow" by David M. Herszenhorn | New York Times April 13, 2014
MOSCOW — The huge banner was unfurled Friday outside one of Moscow’s biggest bookstores, Dom Knigi, on Arbat Street across from a Citibank, a Baskin-Robbins, and a Dunkin’ Donuts, and down the block from a big movie theater where the main feature at the moment is “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”
“Fifth Column,” the banner declared. “Strangers Among Us.” It showed black-and-white portraits of three of Russia’s better-known political opposition figures and two Soviet-era dissident rock musicians, along with two evil-looking space aliens, one carrying a briefcase marked with the white ribbon that has been the symbol of political protests against President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.
From the moment that Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea cast a new, bitter chill over relations with the West, a sinister jingoistic vibe has pervaded this unsettled capital — stirred up by state-controlled television and Putin himself.
I've had enough folks. I've been upside down reading this for so long the blood has rushed to my head.
Oh, right, another NYT piece of shit.
“Some Western politicians are already threatening us not just with sanctions but also the prospect of increasingly serious problems on the domestic front,” the president said in his speech announcing plans to absorb Crimea into the Russian Federation. “I would like to know what they have in mind exactly: action by a fifth column, this disparate bunch of ‘national traitors,’ or are they hoping to put us in a worsening social and economic situation so as to provoke public discontent?”
Moscow today is a proudly international city, where skateboarders in Gorky Park wear New York Yankees hats they bought on vacation in America. IPhones and iPads are nearly as common on the subway here as they are in Washington.
In the weeks since the military incursion into Crimea, however, Russian flags have been hung from the windows of apartment buildings all over the city, just as American flags appeared in profusion after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Have they no shame?
There is also now a website with a name that translates as “traitor.net” that includes photos and quotations of public figures who have spoken out in some way against Russia’s policy toward Ukraine.
The bottom of the site has a button inviting viewers to “suggest a traitor.”
At Putin’s direction, a committee led by his chief of staff is developing a new “state policy in culture.”
Widely expected to be enacted into law, the proposed cultural policy emphasizes that “Russia is not Europe” and urges “a rejection of the principles of multiculturalism and tolerance” in favor of emphasizing Russia’s “unique state-government civilization,” according to Russian news accounts that quoted a presidential adviser.
A Russian news website, znak.com, also reported last week that a popular series of math textbooks would be dropped from an official list of recommended educational texts because it used too many non-Russian fairy tale figures and other characters in its illustrations.
“What do we see from the first pages? Gnomes, Snow White — these are representatives of a foreign-language culture,” an expert of the Russian Academy of Education, Lyubov Ulyakhina, told the site. “Here’s some monkey, Little Red Riding Hood,” Ulyakhina continued, “of 119 characters drawn here only nine are related to Russian culture. Sorry — no patriotism — this is not funny; this is our mentality.”
And last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned its citizens not to travel to countries that have extradition treaties with the United States, saying that the Obama administration “is trying to make a routine practice out of ‘hunting’ for Russian citizens in third countries with the goal of their subsequent extradition and conviction in the US on the basis of, as a rule, questionable charges.”
In some cases, the xenophobic language has been accompanied by an intensified crackdown on political opponents and also on some media outlets that do not strictly toe the Kremlin line.
It's a good thing the corporate AmeriKan media self censors.
On the same day that Russian forces initially deployed across Crimea, Alexei A. Navalny, the political opposition leader and anticorruption blogger, was placed under house arrest in connection with one of the several prosecutions that were brought against him long before he spoke out against Putin’s policies toward Ukraine.
Navalny is generally confined to his home but has also been barred from speaking in public or using the Internet or other electronic communication.
See: Under Arrest at Russia House
Navalny’s photo is at the top of the website listing traitors, and he was among the opposition figures pictured on the banner outside the bookstore.
A previously unknown group called Glavplakat took responsibility for the banner outside the bookstore on its website, and it promised additional street art in support of its antitraitor mission.
Boris Y. Nemtsov, a longtime political opposition leader and a former deputy prime minister under Boris N. Yeltsin, who also appeared on the banner, wrote on Facebook that the situation seemed worse than during the Cold War. “In my opinion, even the Soviet Union wasn’t like this,” Nemtsov wrote.
(Blog editor's head slumps to chest; how quickly they forget)
Nemtsov said he believed the banner was installed with Kremlin approval, given the prominent location on Arbat Street, a major thoroughfare that leads directly to Red Square and is heavily patrolled by the traffic police.
“March 2014 marks a turn in the country from authoritarianism to dictatorship,” Nemtsov said, adding, “Could you imagine a banner of the same size hanging on Dom Knigi if it said, ‘Putin get out!’ or ‘Putin stop lying!’ Can you imagine it? Of course not.”
If Obummer stopped lying I think I would stop living.
--more--"
"Thousands rail against Putin, Kremlin at Moscow rally" Associated Press April 14, 2014
Did I mention that protests in Russia are fun?
Take that, Occupy Wall Street!
MOSCOW — More than 10,000 people turned out for an anti-Kremlin rally Sunday to denounce Russian state television’s news coverage, particularly of the crisis in neighboring Ukraine.
That's all?
In promoting the Kremlin line, state television has portrayed the new pro-Western government in Ukraine as a ‘‘fascist junta’’ under the control of the US government and determined to oppress Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.
At least some media are reporting the truth.
The broadcasts have taken on a harsh anti-American tone.
Wah, wah, wah!
Some of those who took part in the demonstration, called a ‘‘March of Truth,’’ carried blue and yellow Ukrainian flags. One woman, wearing a traditional Ukrainian wreath of flowers on her head, held up a sign with President Vladimir Putin’s picture and the words: ‘‘Stop lying.’’
Tell that to Barack Obummer!
Among those who spoke to the crowd was Andrei Zubov, a history professor who was fired from one of Moscow’s most prestigious universities last month after criticizing Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
Try criticizing AmeriKa's war criminal invasions in an AmeriKan clazzroom and see how long you are teaching. Then bring up 9/11 Truth and see what happens.
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Ohio teacher fired over remark on Obama
Forget what I just typed. You can't even question the leader.
Zubov argued against the annexation of Crimea by comparing it with Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria on the eve of World War II.
Zubov told the crowd that by lying to the Russian people on television, the government was leading the country toward ‘‘an abyss.’’
AmeriKa is going to beat you because of the much longer head start.
The United States and Ukrainian governments have accused Russia of orchestrating the unrest in eastern Ukraine in an effort to split the country. Russia has denied any involvement.
Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday on ABC’s ‘‘This Week’’ that the violence carries ‘‘the tell-tale signs of Moscow’s involvement.’’
She is an embarrassment to the U.S.!
--more--"
And how does this all shake out?
"Playing to Putin’s end game; It is best to watch what Putin does, not listen to what he says" by Nicholas Burns | Globe Columnist April 10, 2014
We shouldn’t believe anything Moscow says about what it is doing....
This from a member of the Bush administration State Department.
What we shouldn't believe is anything this neo-con war-pusher hays to say.
It is best with Putin not to listen to what he says but watch what he does.
That's why I read the Globe. To keep an eye on $hitter elites.
He massed thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border to intimidate its people and government.
NBC took a camera crew up there with Russian approval and proved that's a lie, but don't let it get in the way of the lovely propaganda narrative burning at you.
As Secretary of State John Kerry argued this week, the Russian government sent in its own operatives to stir up protests in the big cities of eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland — Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk, and Dnepropetrovsk. Gangs of armed men seized Ukrainian government offices and alternatively pleaded for Russian help in organizing plebiscites to vote for freedom from Ukraine.
Kerry is describing what the U.S did in Kiev.
How should the United States and Europe respond? The problem President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel face is that Putin holds the far stronger hand in the poker match.
And therein lies the problem. Putin is playing chess and these idiot AmeriKan war-mongers are playing poker!
Better hope Putin doesn't call!
He can act quickly and decisively without worrying about his rubber-stamp Duma and an approving Russian public. He has a plan — dominate and neutralize the countries around Russia to create a buffer zone from his adversaries NATO and the European Union.
Will it be as big as the one Israel has with Lebanon, Syria, Palestine?
Obama and Merkel are playing a much weaker hand. They have wisely decided not to use their strongest card — NATO’s far stronger military — to counter Putin’s aggression.
Yeah, "sanctions would hit hard and might give Putin pause, but Obama can return to President George W. Bush’s missile defense proposal and NATO can move more military forces to the Baltics and Poland, as Putin respects one thing — power."
Let's hope "wiser" heads prevail and force is not used.
A suddenly aggressive Russia is now a major preoccupation of Obama’s presidency. With the increasing global perception of a weakening America as backdrop, the president will need to continue to draw a bright red line....
Oh, another Obummer red line! Gimme a f***ing break!
--more--"
Boston Globe op/ed writers are mind-readers!
"VLADIMIR PUTIN a bully? Prone to view global affairs as a macho competition? Surely, no one was surprised to hear George W. Bush relate this killer anecdote to his daughter, NBC’s Jenna Bush Hager: After the then-US president introduced the Russian leader to his beloved Scottish terrier, Barney, (right, with Bush in 2005), Putin exclaimed, “You call that a dog?” Later, in Moscow, Putin proudly introduced Bush to his own dog, a “huge hound.” He boasted: “Bigger, stronger, and faster than Barney.” Bush didn’t mention his response to the Russian leader. But the verdict on Putin is inescapable: Big dog, small man.
And the verdict on my piece of jew$hit?
--more--"
I wonder what the artist known as W would have made of that:
"GEORGE W. BUSH wasn’t the most reflective of presidents: He famously declined to admit to any mistakes. But now he’s deeply engaged in the most reflective of hobbies — painting, and portraits, to boot. On Saturday an exhibition of Bush’s work opened at his presidential library in Texas, featuring images of the world leaders he knew. Rather than offer charcoal sketch-style likenesses, Bush engaged in a visual exploration of his relationships with his subjects. Thus, Tony Blair, a stalwart ally, is presented as somber and upright, wheras Vladimir Putin is depicted in a more mishapen, abstract way — which Bush says was an attempt to capture the Russian president’s worldview. Bush’s use of a different medium to offer his impressions of an eventful eight years in office is a revealing contrast to the flood of ghostwritten accounts that usually inundate bookstores after public figures retire.
So when does he start painting from inside a jail cell?
--more--"
Also see: Bush Sr.’s profile of some courage
He was in on JFK's death and they are honoring him?
Boston Globe op/ed writers are mind-readers!
"VLADIMIR PUTIN a bully? Prone to view global affairs as a macho competition? Surely, no one was surprised to hear George W. Bush relate this killer anecdote to his daughter, NBC’s Jenna Bush Hager: After the then-US president introduced the Russian leader to his beloved Scottish terrier, Barney, (right, with Bush in 2005), Putin exclaimed, “You call that a dog?” Later, in Moscow, Putin proudly introduced Bush to his own dog, a “huge hound.” He boasted: “Bigger, stronger, and faster than Barney.” Bush didn’t mention his response to the Russian leader. But the verdict on Putin is inescapable: Big dog, small man.
And the verdict on my piece of jew$hit?
--more--"
I wonder what the artist known as W would have made of that:
"GEORGE W. BUSH wasn’t the most reflective of presidents: He famously declined to admit to any mistakes. But now he’s deeply engaged in the most reflective of hobbies — painting, and portraits, to boot. On Saturday an exhibition of Bush’s work opened at his presidential library in Texas, featuring images of the world leaders he knew. Rather than offer charcoal sketch-style likenesses, Bush engaged in a visual exploration of his relationships with his subjects. Thus, Tony Blair, a stalwart ally, is presented as somber and upright, wheras Vladimir Putin is depicted in a more mishapen, abstract way — which Bush says was an attempt to capture the Russian president’s worldview. Bush’s use of a different medium to offer his impressions of an eventful eight years in office is a revealing contrast to the flood of ghostwritten accounts that usually inundate bookstores after public figures retire.
So when does he start painting from inside a jail cell?
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Also see: Bush Sr.’s profile of some courage
He was in on JFK's death and they are honoring him?
