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Russia invades The Ukraine


Jamie_B

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Ukraine accuses Russia of 'military invasion'

 

 

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine — Ukraine's interior ministry accused Russia of a "military invasion and occupation" on Friday, saying Russian troops have taken up positions around a coast guard base and two airports on its strategic Crimea peninsula.

 

Ukraine's parliament sent an urgent plea to the U.N. Security Council for a meeting on the crisis and adopted a resolution demanding Russia halt actions it says are aimed at splitting Crimea from the rest of the country.

 

"I can only describe this as a military invasion and occupation," Ukraine's newly named interior minister, Arsen Avakov, wrote in a Facebook post.

 

Russia confirmed that armored vehicles from its Black Sea Fleet located in Crimea were moving around Crimea for "security" reasons and would not respond to the charges of Avakov. Russia's defense ministry told the Interfax news agency that there had been "no provocative acts in relation to units and divisions" from Russian forces stationed in the region.

 

Confusion erupted Friday over who has taken control of Crimea's parliament building and two of its main airports. Some officials in Crimea said the men were local defense forces who are pro-Russian; others that they were troops from the Black Sea naval base that Russia leases from Ukraine.

 

The road to a military airport at Sevastopol was blocked by two military trucks and some gunmen wearing camouflage uniforms and carrying assault rifles.

 

At Sevastopol's Belbek International Airport, around 15 to 20 members of a Ukrainian political party called the Russian Bloc representing ethnic Russians set up an informal blockade to support the armed men with their own civilian barricade a hundred meters from the airport. A private car has coffee, tea and sandwiches in its open trunk, free for anyone to take.

 

A Russian truck with insignias and number plates removed was spotted exiting the Sevastopol airport.

 

More checkpoints have been set up in the strongly pro-Russian city scrutinizing all arrivals, and Reuters reported that Russian military helicopters have traveled to the Crimea.

 

The blockade may signal an unwillingness to negotiate with Kiev, said Yaroslav Pylynskyi, director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, a policy research institute in Kiev.

 

"I heard the people blocking the airport were trying to prevent people from Kiev coming for negotiations," he said. "The (ethnic Russians in Crimea) did not want negotiations, because they are being controlled by Moscow. I guess they also do not know what to do in that situation."

 

At the airport in Simferopol, commercial flights were landing and taking off despite dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings patrolling with assault rifles. They didn't stop or search people leaving or entering the airport, and refused to talk to journalists.

 

One man who identified himself only as Vladimir said the men were part of the Crimean People's Brigade, which he described as a self-defense unit ensuring that no "radicals and fascists" arrive from other parts of Ukraine.

 

Meanwhile the Crimea parliament building remained occupied by about 50 armed men who took it over Thursday night and raised the Russian flag on the roof.

 

Political turmoil has been roiling Crimea after the parliament in the Ukraine capital of Kiev threw out the country's pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych for allowing the killing of more than 80 protesters.

A defiant Yanukovych, in his first public remarks since he fled Ukraine, declared Friday that he is still the legitimate president of Ukraine but said he would not ask Russia for military intervention to back his claim.

 

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Ukraine's ousted President Viktor Yanukovych addresses a news conference in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on Feb. 28.

 

(Photo: Pavel Golovkin, AP)

 

Seated in front of four Ukrainian flags but speaking in Russian, Yanukovych said he was not removed from power but fled Kiev out of fear for his life from "terrorists." He also blamed the "irresponsible" West for backing protesters.

 

"I am the legitimate president of Ukraine, elected by the people of Ukraine, and was elected in a free and democratic vote," the 63-year-old leader declared.

 

Speaking to reporters in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, he said he has not met with Russian President Vladimir Putin but said Moscow "cannot stay indifferent" to events in Ukraine.

 

He said Russia should "use all the leverage it has to prevent the chaos, the terror, that is unfolding in Ukraine" but added, "I do not accept any attempts for an intervention to break the sovereignty and integrity of Ukrainian territory."

 

The United States and Europe have appealed to Russia to stay out of Ukraine affairs; Russia accuses the West of meddling and trying to get Ukraine to weaken ties with Russia. Moscow has vowed to protect Russian-speaking Ukrainians in Crimea, and has been conducting military exercises near the Crimea border.

 

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The National Bank of Ukraine — the nation's central bank — put a $1,500 limit on foreign currency withdrawals in a bid to counter falling values in the hryvnia, Ukraine's currency.

Austria said it was freezing the bank accounts of Yanukovych, his son, Aleksander, and 16 others linked to Ukraine's former government, the Associated Press reports. Switzerland said it was doing the same.

 

1393591394000-EPA-UKRAINE-CRISIS-CRIMEA.

 

 

 

 

Armed men in military uniform patrol near a building at the airport in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine, on Feb. 28.

 

(Photo: Maxim Shipenkov, EPA)

 

In recent days large pro-Moscow rallies in Sevastopol have drawn thousands of jubilant supporters waving the Russian tricolor flag, while the Ukrainian national yellow and blue banner is a rare sight in the city.

On Friday, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, one of Russia's most outspoken ultranationalist politicians, paid a surprise visit to the city and gave a speech in front of the city's administration building.

 

"All the roads, all the ports, all the communications are under the control of the provincial Crimean government," he declared to thunderous applause of hundreds of people. "I don't want you to worry whether anything bad will happen tomorrow -- let's welcome the Russian flag that is flying over government buildings."

 

He said the people in Sevastopol could count on Russia's support and said that the land had long been part of Russia – a reference to the fact that Crimea was ceded to Ukraine's Soviet republic in 1954.

"I promise that Russia will render you all kinds of assistance – moral, economic and political," he said.

 

He then took an opportunity to take a swipe at Ukrainian nationalists who had introduced a bill to downgrade the official status of the Russian language.

"If they want somewhere only to speak Ukrainian then here we will speak only Russian," he said.

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Ukraine accuses Russia of 'military invasion'

 

1393591394000-EPA-UKRAINE-CRISIS-CRIMEA.

 

 

Armed men in military uniform patrol near a building at the airport in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine, on Feb. 28.

 

Armed men yes.  However, from the appearances, it does not appear they are locked and loaded.  Safeties are on ( lever in up position ) , no magazine in well = locked but not loaded.  Interesting situation.  Please don't let the next word be that the US is going to try and mediate the issue...

 

Ukraine being invaded by Russia.  Wonder when this will escalate beyond the borders OR IF it will...  Sounds like it already has but not military escalation is not yet beyond the borders.

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If Crimea really wants to be part of Russia, and they really do seem to be pro-Russian, the Ukraine should just let them go. There may be mineral/oil interests at play, so maybe I don't know what the fuck I am talking about.

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Russia already has land on the Black Sea, although not quite as far west as Crimea.  I figure this is more about showing who's boss under the guise of protecting ethnic Russians.

 

Somewhat unrelated story: a buddy of mine who was in naval intelligence for many years during the cold war recently had a vacation to Odessa, a place he never imagined being able to visit.  Must have been amazing to see the naval base.  It would be like a Russian sailor visiting San Diego or Norfolk.

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Warm water port. Plus access to the Med.


It also has direct access through Kerch to the Caucasus. Militarily, the Crimea is quite strategic.

Stalin re-populated this area of Ukraine...as well as other districts...with Russians back in the 1920's and 1930's after the starvation pogroms.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevastopol

 

The city continues to be the home of the Russian—formerly Soviet—Black Sea Fleet, and is now home to a Ukrainian naval base and has Russian naval facilities leased from Ukraine through 2042.

 

Try a Google map search and go to the satellite image viewing Sevastopol and the surrounding area.  The majority of what you see there is the largest in the area.  Odessa might be second.  You can even see the submarines and other warships currently in port ( and or not currently under cover ).

 

This lease that the Russians have does have an end date on it of 2042.  Unlike Guantanamo ( or GITMO for short ) which does not have an end date on it's quote unquote lease.  IF the Cubans decided they wanted GITMO and there was an invasion, the US would surely reply in kind.  Although the Sevastopol area is in the Ukraine, Ukraine has an agreement with Russia through 2042.  Note that it is 100 years after it fell to the Germans in 1942.  ( It was liberated in 1944 by the Soviets ).  It could be said that they are doing nothing more than protecting their interests...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_crisis

According to the 2001 census, ethnic Russians make up about 58% of the two million residents of Crimea. In Sevastopol, which houses a base for the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet (for more see: 2010 Kharkiv Pact), ethnic Russians make up 70% of the city's population of 340,000.[54] Ukrainians make up 24% of the Crimean population, while 12% are Crimean Tatars.[46][54] Crimean Tatars were not permitted to return home, and became an international cause celebre,[55] until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The continuing migration of Crimean Tatars to the region since the Soviet collapse is causing persistent tensions with Russians over land rights.[46]

 

In the 2010 local parliamentary elections, the Party of Regions received 357,030 votes, with the second-placed party, the Communist Party of Ukraine, receiving 54,172 votes.[56] Both parties were targeted by protesters during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution.[57][58][59]

 

According to Taras Kuzio, during the Viktor Yushchenko presidency (2005–10), Russia's relations with Ukraine deteriorated, prompting the Russian security service (FSB) and Russian military intelligence (GRU) to expand their covert support for pro-Russian forces in Southern Ukraine and Russian separatists in Crimea.[60] Following the Orange Revolution and the 2008 Russia–Georgia war, American diplomatic cables later leaked to the public noted that Russian military action against Ukraine was "no longer unthinkable."

 

Is it possible that the current situation is based on the Orange Revolution ( at least in part ) ?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Revolution

 

Activists in each of these movements were funded and trained in tactics of political organisation and nonviolent resistance by a coalition of Western pollsters and professional consultants who were partly funded by a range of Western government and non-government agencies but received most of their funding from domestic sources.[nb 2][2] According to The Guardian, the foreign donours included the U.S. State Department and USAID along with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, the NGO Freedom House and George Soros's Open Society Institute.[34] The National Endowment for Democracy, a foundation supported by the U.S. government, has supported non-governmental democracy-building efforts in Ukraine since 1988.[35] Writings on nonviolent struggle by Gene Sharp contributed in forming the strategic basis of the student campaigns.

 

Pay close attention to who was pro-western and who was pro-Soviet.  I guess you could even look at the voting percentages of the Crimea and who the "majority" were voting for.

 

Lots of activity going on with this region and it is not just a simple matter of Oil, transport, politics, warm weather port, etc...  It is a fucking mess to put it politely.  US should not even remotely attempt to meddle any further in what has an extreme potential to blow up in our faces...

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How are the beaches?  Resorts and casinos?
I know a lady from the Ukraine and she is smokin' hot (uber b(  o  )(  o  )bs) and
hammers vodka like water.  No kidding.


I did one Black Sea tour about ten years ago or so. Vodka was cheaper than the bottled water. Beaches were beautiful. Women were about comparable to other European women in that region. Perhaps they are a little more forward than anywhere in the US. The infrastructure outside the " resort " areas appeared to be worse or about equal to a third world country.

Note: this was 10 or more years ago so things might have changed since then.
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It also has direct access through Kerch to the Caucasus. Militarily, the Crimea is quite strategic.

Stalin re-populated this area of Ukraine...as well as other districts...with Russians back in the 1920's and 1930's after the starvation pogroms.


Yeah, which makes the talk of Crimea being predominantly Russian disingenuous at best. I mean, sure, now that they starved out everyone else it is..

I've said this elsewhere, but I think I may have preferred the ideological enemy to the iron fist/velvet glove stuff from this homophobic former KGB/Russian mafia arms dealing despot.

Putin's Russia is not our friend & we should probably stop pretending otherwise.
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Just a few thoughts on the situation in the Ukraine.  China agrees with Russia on its situation but yet China gave its assurance back in 1994 on security for Ukraine.  IF these security assurances received back in 1994 are no good, what security assurance does Iran have that IF they were to give up their nuclear ambitions ?  NONE.  My word of the day is irredentism.  See current mess in Ukraine or Germany's multiple annexations before the outbreak of WW2.  I have also taken a deep look at oil and gas lines from and to Ukraine.  Gazprom is a major factor in the Ukraine.  One only needs to eyeball the board of directors ( past and present ) to determine similarities to what has transpired in US history...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances

 

The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances is an international treaty signed on 5 December 1994, providing security assurances by its signatories in connection to Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The Memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear-powers, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. China and France later gave individual statements of assurance as well.

 

http://www.taraskuzio.net/media13_files/30.pdf

 

Copyright © 2010 The Jamestown Foundation

 

The Russian presidency began to build support for irredentism that had seemingly always been in place in the Russian parliament...

 

The final change from the 1990s has been the weakened support given by the Obama administration to Ukraine, returning the US to the ‘Russia-first’ policy, last pursued by the first Bush administration of the early 1990s.  Between 1993 and 2008, NATO and the Clinton and Bush administrations gave strong support to Ukraine’s national security interests. The Obama administration seeks to reset relations with Russia at the expense of not opposing the re-assertion of Russia’s sphere of influence in Ukraine. One motive for the US-Russian reset is to obtain Moscow’s support of action to halt Iran’s nuclear program. This plan, however, fails to recognize that Tehran would have no reason to halt its nuclear program if it were to look at how Ukraine’s security assurances, granted after it agreed to its own denuclearization in between 1994 and 1996, have been largely forgotten by Washington and Brussels. 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irredentism

 

Irredentism (from Italian irredento, "unredeemed") is any position of a state advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazprom

 

...is the largest extractor of natural gas and one of the largest companies in the world.

 

Gazprom possesses the largest gas transport system in the world, with approximately 158,200 kilometres of gas trunk lines

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Also can someone please explain to me how what Russia is doing now in the Ukraine any different from what the US did in Iraq or Granada or Panama or any of the sovereign nations we have invaded in the past 40 years. I'm not saying I agree with what Russia is doing but what world super power doesn't do whatever they want in the name of "protecting their interest" in another country.

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Also can someone please explain to me how what Russia is doing now in the Ukraine any different from what the US did in Iraq or Granada or Panama or any of the sovereign nations we have invaded in the past 40 years. I'm not saying I agree with what Russia is doing but what world super power doesn't do whatever they want in the name of "protecting their interest" in another country.

 

Iraq received no, signed by multiple nations, security assurances.  France, Russia, China, and Germany were pretty much against this action in Iraq.  To date, China supports Russia and it is not known if there are others jumping onboard yet.  Although Germany will probably take a different path than the others in diplomacy IMHO.   There are more similarities than there are differences.  One other item might be that this is a whole lot more complicated than Iraq.  It is not necessarily about one thing such as oil or WMD ( or lack of WMDs ).  It is a combination of age old excuses for annexation.

 

Sanctions imposed on Russia would curtail gas/oil etc... exports to France, Germany, China, UK, etc...  Not really China because they want to support Russia in its efforts to suppress Ukraine and the pipelines would remain open to them without stoppage.

 

An excellent timeline of events in the Ukraine;

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10672417/Ukraine-live.html

 

"While the UK does not directly import gas from Russia, we receive it through secondary imports, such as Russian exports of gas to Germany, and we import via pipelines from Belgium and Holland. 

 

"If the conflict persists, then sanctions are likely to be placed on Russia. These sanctions could include sanctions on gas exports, which would place considerable strain on the UK, France and Germany."

 

Compared to the strong position taken by the US there are different geopolitical interests at play in Europe, especially for Germany. 

 

Many in Berlin see the US is seen as too shrill, with Washington’s position born of distance from Russia and Ukraine while Germany has to deal with a situation close to its borders. 

 

There are also economic links between Germany and Russia particularly in terms of vital Russian gas imports for German industry. 

 

So Germany is much more pragmatic and conciliatory with a focus on keeping Russia at the diplomatic table. 

 

During the EU talks it will be important to see how Poland, and Lithuania line up with the US or Germany as both countries feel directly threatened by Russia’s actions in Crimea.

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http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/russias-medvedev-predicts-new-revolution-new-bloodshed-n42611

 

Russia's Medvedev Predicts 'New Revolution, New Bloodshed'

 

MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that Ukraine's leaders had seized power illegally, and predicted their rule would end with "a new revolution [and] new bloodshed."

 

...and more on Medvedev...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazprom

 

2000-2003: The Putin reforms

 

Gazprom's situation changed abruptly in June 2000, when Vladimir Putin became the President of Russia. Putin launched a campaign to rein in the oligarchs and, per his policy of the so-called national champions, to establish state control in strategic companies.[10] He launched an attack against what he saw as mismanagement and personal pilfering of state assets. After coming to power, Putin immediately fired Chernomyrdin from his position as the chairman of the company's board and used the stock owned by the state to vote out Vyakhirev. The two men were replaced by Dmitry Medvedev and Alexei Miller, who had previously worked with Putin in Saint Petersburg.[10] Putin's actions were aided by shareholder activism of Hermitage CEO William Browder and former Russian finance minister Boris Fyodorov. Miller and Medvedev were assigned the task of stopping the asset-stripping, but also to regain lost possessions. By denying Itera access to Gazprom's pipelines, Miller almost forced Itera to declare bankruptcy. As a result, Itera's management agreed to sell the stolen assets back to Gazprom.

 

Former members of the board:

 

Dmitry Medvedev (President of Russia, former campaign manager for Vladimir Putin, former First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Chairman 2000-2001 and again 2002-2008)

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Also can someone please explain to me how what Russia is doing now in the Ukraine any different from what the US did in Iraq 

It's functionally no different. For our SOS John Kerry to say things like this on Meet The Press: "You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext."

 

It's the very height of irony and hypocrisy in light of Iraq. The USA holds no moral high ground here and should quit acting like it does. The situations are really not all that different in the light of UN/International law.

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http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin#Quotes_about_Putin

 

I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country. George W. Bush, joint press conference (16 June 2001).

 

[In 2000] Vladimir Putin had the intelligence, energy and stamina the country needed to get Russia's economy on track and handle its complicated politics. Bill Clinton, as quoted in "Boris the Fighter" (29 April 2007), The New York Times.

 

I looked into his eyes and saw three letters: a 'K', a 'G', and a 'B'. John McCain, as quoted in "Hillary Clinton Campaigning Ponders Putin's Soul" (2008), Boston.

 

Putin is slouching…looking like that bored schoolboy in the back of the classroom. Barack H. Obama II, as quoted in "Obama: Putin is slouchin'", (9 August 2013), The Washington Post

 

Quotes by Putin himself;

 

It's extremely dangerous trying to resolve political problems outside the framework of the law — first the ‘Rose Revolution', then they'll think up something like blue. [word play here: "rose" having the colloquial sense of "lesbian" in modern Russian, and "blue" meaning "gay"] On the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine and the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia, News conference, (23 December 2004). 

 

Translation: You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place.
Interview, 4 November 2003

 

Translation: Comrade wolf knows who to eat. He eats without listening to anybody and it seems he is not ever going to listen.
On the U.S., whose military budget is 25 times bigger than Russia's; annual presidential address to the Federal Senate, 10 May 2006

 

People are always teaching us democracy but the people who teach us democracy don't want to learn it themselves. MUNICH, February 10, 2007

 

Bung;  We don't need any help from Kerry to look like hypocrites.  We do a nice job without any help at all. 

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Also can someone please explain to me how what Russia is doing now in the Ukraine any different from what the US did in Iraq

 

 

Well for one, imagine if we sent the entire 82nd Airborne into Kuwait without uniforms and had them pretend to be concerned Kuwaitis that were pro-Saddam and pro-annexation by Iraq.  Further, imagine there was a large ex-pat community of Americans in Kuwait and we then attempted to systematically starve all the native Kuwaitis to death, later claiming the area was "traditionally American".

 

Although you can draw parallels between the reasoning behind the occupation of Crimea & the Iraq war, there are enormous differences.  Much like there are between Iraq, Grenada, and Panama.

 

In a broader sense, the "tu quoque" argument is weak.  The Mongol conquests do not excuse stealing a bike.

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