Late March 7 , 2014......
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-07/russian-troops-storming-ukraine-air-force-base-crimea-time-reports-citing-crimea-tv
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/07/2014 14:10 -0500
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/07/2014 16:22 -0500
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/07/2014 13:24 -0500
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/07/2014 11:55 -0500
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/07/2014 10:54 -0500
And......
http://rt.com/news/kiev-clashes-rioters-police-571/
Obama went on to insist that “in 2014 we are well beyond the dayswhen borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders,” leaving open the question of how Ukraine’s interim government, installed in the wake of violent protests just over a week ago, amount to “democratic leaders.”
The courts are saying Aksyonov, the head of the Russian Unity Party, was “illegally appointed” to Crimean premier, and that it was likewise illegal to organize a referendum on secession from the Ukraine.
In addition to the visa restrictions, the EU agreed to temporarily halt negotiations with Russia on a major economic pact, though how long that will last remains to be seen.
Lavrov was also harshly critical of US threats of sanctions and other punitive measures, calling them “unconstructive.” He said Kerry tried to downplay the moves, including today’s travel ban order, assuring Lavrov that no one is actually on the list of banned travelers yet.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-07/russian-troops-storming-ukraine-air-force-base-crimea-time-reports-citing-crimea-tv
Russian Troops Storm Ukraine Air Force Base In Crimea, Reuters Confirms
Update 2: ARMED ATTACKERS LEAVE UKRAINE MILITARY BASE IN SEVASTOPOL: TV5
* * *
Update, and this time from Reuters:
- ARMED MEN ENTER UKRAINIAN MILITARY POST IN CRIMEA AND TAKE CONTROL, NO SHOTS FIRED - REUTERS REPORTER ON THE SCENE
- UKRAINIANS AND FORCES THOUGHT TO BE RUSSIANS HOLD NEGOTIATIONS AFTER MILITARY POST TAKEN, NO ARMS SEIZED - REUTERS REPORTER
* * *
More lies, propaganda, or for once, the truth? Just out from Time's Simon Shuster:
В Севастополе российские солдаты штурмуют украинскую воинскую часть
China Sides With Russia On Sanctions; Ambassador Warns "Western Nations Would Be Hurting Themselves"
Amid a Russian spokesperson "hoping" tensions do not escalate into a new cold war with the US, China has come out (perhaps unsurprisingly) on Russia's side strongly condemning any sanctions:
"China has consistently opposed the easy use of sanctions in international relations, or using sanctions as a threat.”
The comments from China's Foreign Ministry reflect the country's close ties with Russia and confirm what Russia's ambassador to Canada noted, we "can always turn to China if the West follows through on threats of tougher sanctions," adding that "Western countries would largely be hurting themselves if they impose tougher sanctions."
Some cryptic words this morning:
- WESTERN STATEMENTS ON UKRAINE MAKE US THINK OF TASKS, MEANS AND SACRIFICE THEY ARE WILLING TO MAKE - RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
- *PESKOV HOPING FOR COMMON GROUND WITH WEST ON UKRAINE: RIA
- *PUTIN SPOKESMAN DOESN'T SEE NEW COLD WAR, RIA SAYS
Furthermore, as The Globe and Mail reports, it is clear the Russians have a plan...
Russia’s ambassador to Canada says he was surprised no one bothered to speak with him about the crisis in Ukraine before he received a diplomatic dressing-down last Saturday, and added his country can always turn to China if the West follows through on threats of tougher sanctions.In a wide-ranging interview with The Globe and Mail, Georgiy Mamedov insisted Russia wants to see the crisis in Ukraine resolved peacefully.And he said Western countries would largely be hurting themselves if they impose tougher sanctions or make good on warnings that they could boot Russia out of the G8.
Russia Threatens "Sanctions Would Hit US Like A Boomerang""
With chatter of overnight invasions increasing and rhetoric surging among the non-Russian-allied nations of the world, Russian foreign Miniister Lavrov has some serious words of warning for the West:
- U.S. SANCTIONS AGAINST MOSCOW WOULD "HIT THE UNITED STATES LIKE A BOOMERANG"
Lavrov added that "hasty and reckless steps" would harm Russian-American relations (and bear in mind Russian lawmakers are already drawing up a bill to confiscate western assets).
US Guided-Missile Destroyer Truxtun Has Entered The Black Sea
As we reported yesterday, after getting permission to cross the Bosphorus, the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun departed the Greek port of Souda Bay on its way to the Black Sea. As of a few hours ago, it is already there. Sky News reportsthat the USS Truxtun passed the Dardanelles strait earlier today on its way to the Black Sea amid heightened tension over the crisis in Ukraine and reports that Russia has now 30,000 troops in Crimea.
The naval escalation is not the only arms build up in proximity to the Ukraine: the Pentagon said six US F-15 fighter jets have arrived in Lithuania to bolster air patrols over the Baltics. The fighter jets and 60 US military personnel landed at Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania, adding to the four F-15s and 150 troops already there to do the air patrol mission.
As for the pretext for the Truxtun's move, it is only 300 miles away from Sevastopol for one simple reason: naval exercises.
Joint naval exercises with Bulgarian, Romanian and US vessels are to take place in the Black Sea on March 11.The naval forces of all three nations have stated no connection between the upcoming drill and the tensions on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based, the Bulgarian National Radio has reported.Vessels participating in the event include a Bulgarian frigate, three Romanian ships and US destroyer USS Truxtun. The US military described the joint military maneuvers as a "routine" deployment scheduled last year, long before the standoff in Ukraine.Crimea, however, is some 500 km to the north-east of the location where the drill is to be carried out.According to a statement by the US Navy, the Truxtun left Greece on Thursday after it was granted passage through the Black Sea Straits by Turkey, which controls their traffic.The USS Truxtun will be at the Bulgarian city of Varna's port from March 12 to March 14
And the Russian ICBM launch was just part of a "routine" drill too.
Pro-Russia Gunmen Block OSCE Monitors Entering Ukraine; Stymie Obama's Plan
One of the critical steps in President Obama's "off-ramp" de-escalation planfor the crisis in Ukraine was a so-called 'observer mission' by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to ensure that all citizens were being treated fairly. That 'plan' has hit a wall this morning as PTI reports that pro-Kremlin gunmen blocked the obersver entry. Seems like another red line just got crossed.
Via PTI,
Pro-Kremlin gunmen kept foreign observers from entering Crimea today as Russia welcomed the prospect of the Ukrainian peninsula joining the country amid the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.A convoy of vehicles from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) -- led by a police car and followed by two buses carrying the observers and a large number of cars waving Ukrainian flags -- were stopped at a checkpoint manned by armed men as they tried to enter Crimea for a second day.The observer mission is a crucial part of the so-called "off-ramp" US President Barack Obama is pushing to de-escalate a crisis in Ukraine that threatens to splinter the ex-Soviet nation of 46 million along its cultural divides.
With Gazprom threatening their gas supplies, we await President Obama's response to this denial of his plan and the actions of his allies in Europe...
And......
http://rt.com/news/kiev-clashes-rioters-police-571/
Friday, March 7
12:13 GMT:
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Shimonovich is due to visit Crimea during his ongoing visit to Ukraine.
“Shimonovich will make assessment of the existing and potential human rights abuses in Ukraine. He plans to visit Crimea, as well as the western and the eastern regions of Ukraine,” Rupert Colwill, press secretary of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, has announced.
According to Colwill, Shimonovich will be assisted by seven human rights experts, two of whom are currently in Kiev.
“Shimonovich will make assessment of the existing and potential human rights abuses in Ukraine. He plans to visit Crimea, as well as the western and the eastern regions of Ukraine,” Rupert Colwill, press secretary of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, has announced.
According to Colwill, Shimonovich will be assisted by seven human rights experts, two of whom are currently in Kiev.
12:03 GMT:
Vice-speaker of the State Duma and leader of the ruling United Russia faction, Vladimir Vasilyev, believes that Kiev is not doing enough to find out who is behind the killings during the violent uprising in the Ukrainian capital.
“Acts of violence, looting, killings – they have essentially not been investigated,” Vasilyev said, as cited by Interfax. He added the information keeps coming in in the form of leaks and recorded phone calls, and is somewhat ambiguous.
12:00 GMT:
Possible European visa sanctions against Russia will not yet affect ordinary Russian citizens, EU envoy to Russia Vygaudas Usackas said in an interview to Echo of Moscow radio.
“An ordinary person, a citizen of Russia, who is now able to apply for a visa to the EU – those people will not have any obstacles, at the moment,” Usackas said.
“An ordinary person, a citizen of Russia, who is now able to apply for a visa to the EU – those people will not have any obstacles, at the moment,” Usackas said.
11:44 GMT:
The current circumstances in the east of Ukraine and Crimea were not inspired by Russia, President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Russia, according to Peskov, is merely a country being asked for help.
“And as Putin put it, Russia is the country which in no way can ignore these events. But the origin of those events is inside Ukraine,” ITAR-TASS cited Peskov as saying.
“And as Putin put it, Russia is the country which in no way can ignore these events. But the origin of those events is inside Ukraine,” ITAR-TASS cited Peskov as saying.
10:58 GMT:
Ukrainian troops, who do not recognize the new government of Crimea, will be able to leave the peninsular freely, according to Vladimir Konstantinov, the speaker of the Crimean parliament.
“It will then go like this: if you do not want to swear allegiance to the new authorities, we will do everything for you to peacefully and calmly leave the territory. No problem. We understand you. That’s a tough situation. You swore your allegiance, although to whom is now a big question,” Konstantinov said as cited by the Crimean parliament.
“Those who stay will be assigned to the new armed forces with new rules, and, by the way, new working conditions and salary and retirement settlement, etc,” he added.
10:36 GMT:
Ukrainian Paralympic chief, Valery Sushkevich, said on Friday his team would pull out of the Winter Paralympic Games if Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
"I am very afraid that despite the world's wishes and my call that the irreversible will happen during the Paralympics. I declare: we will pull out of the 11th Paralympic Games in Russia that very second if the thing we fear and which we are against ... happens," he told a news conference, clearly referring to a possible invasion by Russian troops into Ukraine. (Reuters)
09:56 GMT:
Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened criminal cases in regard of threats received by the heads of four Russian southern regions: Belgorodskaya, Kurskaya, Bryanskaya and Voronezhskaya.
The threats via email were allegedly sent by Ukrainian radical nationalist groups after the Crimea region initiated breaking away from Ukraine.
09:13 GMT:
There will be no war between Russia and Ukraine, the speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament said on Friday.
"It's complete nonsense, it absolutely does not reflect our intentions, the feelings of empathy and the pain we feel for the Ukrainian people," said Valentina Matvienko, head of the Russian Federation Council.
"We are absolutely sure that there will never be a war between the two brotherly nations."
08:30 GMT:
The Central Election Commission of Ukraine has blocked access to the database of voters to the Crimean authorities, according to the commission’s press service, as quoted by RIA-Novosti.
The move comes ahead of the March 16 referendum on whether Crimea should become part of Russia’s territory.
Russia hits back at US ‘barefaced cynicism and double standards’ over Ukraine
The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the US State Department of double standards and low-level propaganda after it published a list of President Vladimir Putin’s “false claims” about the events in Ukraine.
“The State Department is trying to play on a shamelessly one-sided interpretation of the events,” ministry spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich said on Thursday. “Surely, Washington cannot admit that they were nurturing Maidan [protests], encouraging the violent overthrow of the legitimate government, and thus clearing the way for those who are now pretending to be a legitimate power in Kiev.”
On Wednesday, one day after the Russian president's media conference on the events in Ukraine, the US State Department accused him of lying and published a “fact sheet” of Putin's 10 “false claims” surrounding the crisis.
Moscow said that it will not respond to such “low-level propaganda.”
“We will only say, yet again, that we are dealing with unacceptable arrogance and a pretense of having a monopoly on the truth,” Lukashevich said in a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website.
The United States has “no moral right” to lecture about observing international laws and respecting the sovereignty of other states, the diplomat added.
“What about the bombing of former Yugoslavia or the invasion of Iraq over a fabricated cause?” Lukashevich pointed out.
There have been quite a few examples of American military foreign interventions when there was no real threat to US security: Vietnam, Lebanon, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Libya, and Panama.
“The Vietnam War claimed the lives of two million civilians, not to mention totally destroyed the country and polluted the environment,” the diplomat said. “On the pretext of providing security to Americans who simply happened to be in conflict zones, the US invaded Lebanon in 1958 and the Dominican Republic in 1965, attacked tiny Grenada in 1983, bombed Libya in 1986, and occupied Panama three years later.”
“Still, they dare to blame Russia of ‘armed aggression’ when it stands up for its compatriots – who comprise the majority of Crimea’s population – in order to prevent ultra-nationalist forces from organizing yet another bloody Maidan.”
Apparently, Washington cannot adequately handle the development of events which are not in line with American templates, Moscow said. But this is no reason to shift the blame, the ministry concluded.
The two nuclear powers have been involved in a bitter dispute over the Ukrainian crisis, with Washington giving its backing to the coup-appointed government. The US has repeatedly accused Russia of “invading” the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, ignoring the fact that an existing 1997 agreement between Russia and Ukraine allows Moscow to keep up to 25,000 Black Sea Fleet troops in the peninsula.
Following the violent uprising which resulted in the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovich,Crimean authorities denounced the coup-appointed government in Kiev and declared that all Ukrainian law enforcement and military deployed in the peninsula must take orders from them. The government of the republic – which comprises of mostly Russian speakers – asked Moscow to provide assistance to ensure peace and order in the region.
Crimea is to decide in a March 16 referendum whether it wants to remain within Ukraine or join Russia.
Obama: Crimea’s Secession Referendum a Violation of International Law
Insists 2014 'Well Beyond the Days' of Secession
by Jason Ditz, March 06, 2014
President Obama continues to express outrage at the idea of the Crimea seceding from the Ukraine, and today insisted that an impending referendum on whether Crimeans want to secede itself “violates international law.”
Obama went on to insist that “in 2014 we are well beyond the dayswhen borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders,” leaving open the question of how Ukraine’s interim government, installed in the wake of violent protests just over a week ago, amount to “democratic leaders.”
Obama’s interpretation of international law also didn’t appear to be based on anything concrete, as indeed international law is pretty vague on the matter and secession through referendum has been treated as a valid option in the past.
The most noteworthy recent example was the 1991 independence referendum in Croatia, which likewise came over the objection of the recognized sovereign nation, in that case Yugoslavia.
Croatia’s route is strikingly similar to Crimea’s, with its regional parliament similarly preceding the referendum with votes supporting the secession policy. The referendumwas overwhelmingly supportive of secession.
Recognition after the vote remained a struggle, with the question of whether people have a right to secede unanswered under international law. In that case, Britain and France similarly argued they did not, though German backing eventually led to international recognition of the Croat nation. Ironically, among the first nations to recognize Croatia’s independence was the Ukraine.
As a practical matter secession is not so much a question of law as a question of whether the suzerain power can crush the secession movement by force. The Russian deployment into the Crimea effectively keeps Ukraine from doing so, and means the Crimea secession, assuming it is approved by referendum, will be a matter of fact even if East-West brinksmanship keeps the US or others from officially recognizing that fact for some time.
Ukraine Issues Arrest Warrants for Crimea PM, Others
Charges Based on Calling for Secession
by Jason Ditz, March 06, 2014
Ukraine’s interim government is looking to crack down on the Crimea’s autonomous parliament today for its move toward secession, issuing arrest warrants for the region’s Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov as well as the speaker of parliament and several other MPs.
The courts are saying Aksyonov, the head of the Russian Unity Party, was “illegally appointed” to Crimean premier, and that it was likewise illegal to organize a referendum on secession from the Ukraine.
The Crimean parliament initially set the referendum for May, but Aksyonov pushed it up to the end of March, and today officials say it has been moved up against to March 16, in the hopes of avoiding a protracted standoff.
Crimean officials have been under pressure to agree to talks with the Ukrainian interim government about some settlement short of secession. The talks are almost certainly impossible now with every major Crimean leader facing immediate arrest if they leave the peninsula for anywhere else in the Ukraine.
US, EU Unveil Travel Ban on Russians, Threaten Sanctions
Russian Parliament Threatens Retaliatory Asset Freezes
by Jason Ditz, March 06, 2014
The US and the European Union have unveiled the first round of sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis today, amounting to little more than a travel ban for a handful of unnamed officials and a lot of threats for future economic measures.
In addition to the visa restrictions, the EU agreed to temporarily halt negotiations with Russia on a major economic pact, though how long that will last remains to be seen.
The sanctions come with a US demand for immediate negotiations between Russia and the interim Ukraine government, which Russia does not recognize as legitimate. Previously there had been some talk of negotiations between Ukraine and Crimea’s governments, though with Ukraine seeking to arrest materially all of the Crimean officials, that meeting is even less likely.
The demand was followed with threats for major economic sanctions, though these are unlikely since the US lacks significant economic ties with Russia to sever, and the EU nations have too much to lose from halting trade with Russia.
Russia’s parliament, meanwhile, is threatening retaliatory asset freezes if the US follows through on threats to seize the assets of Russian companies. They vowed that any sanctions would be mutual.
Russian FM: Still No Agreement With US on Ukraine
Warns US Threats Are 'Unconstructive'
by Jason Ditz, March 06, 2014
Following yesterday’s Paris talks, Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov again today in Rome. Lavrov says the meeting didn’t end with any agreement or real progress.
Lavrov was also harshly critical of US threats of sanctions and other punitive measures, calling them “unconstructive.” He said Kerry tried to downplay the moves, including today’s travel ban order, assuring Lavrov that no one is actually on the list of banned travelers yet.
Lavrov went on to say that the travel ban’s existence, even if it doesn’t cover anybody yet, was a major sticking point on Russia making any deal with them.
Ultimately, Kerry is still pushing the Paris demands for Russia to agree to recognize the newly installed interim government in the Ukraine and enter into direct negotiations with them on ending secession efforts in the Crimea. Lavrov said he would report on the demands to President Putin, though it so far seems unlikely any deal will be reached.
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