Ukraine's European Revolution?

[PDH]

I am pretty sure that the Ukraine's SCA battalions can hold them off.

[Solmyr]

Putin told the Crimean Tatar MP Mustafa Dzhemilev in a phone conversation that Ukraine's secession from the Soviet Union in 1991 was "not entirely legal".

[Valmy]

Putin told the Crimean Tatar MP Mustafa Dzhemilev in a phone conversation that Ukraine's secession from the Soviet Union in 1991 was "not entirely legal".

What would legal secession from the USSR have looked like?

[Tamas]

Putin told the Crimean Tatar MP Mustafa Dzhemilev in a phone conversation that Ukraine's secession from the Soviet Union in 1991 was "not entirely legal".

What would legal secession from the USSR have looked like?

I guess in his mind the only legal secession is the one which does not happen.

[Syt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/world/europe/ukraine.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=WO_KMA_20140313&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=0

Russia Massing Military Forces Near Border With Ukraine

MOSCOW — Russia's Defense Ministry announced new military operations in several regions near the Ukrainian border on Thursday, even as Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany warned the Kremlin to abandon the politics of the 19th and 20th centuries or face diplomatic and economic retaliation from a united Europe.

In Moscow, the military acknowledged significant operations involving armored and airborne troops in the Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions abutting eastern Ukraine, where many ethnic Russians have protested against the new interim government in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, and appealed to Moscow for protection.

A day after a deputy minister denied any military buildup on the border, the Defense Ministry released a series of statements beginning early Thursday that appeared to contradict that. They outlined what was described as intensive training of units involving artillery batteries, assault helicopters and at least 10,000 soldiers.

The operations confirmed, at least in part, assertions by Ukrainian leaders on Wednesday that Russia was massing forces, as well as amateur photographs that appeared to show columns of armored vehicles and trucks in a border village called Lopan, only 30 miles from the Ukrainian city Kharkiv. One statement announced that another 1,500 paratroopers from Ivanovo, east of Moscow, had parachuted onto a military base in Rostov, not far from the Ukrainian cities Donetsk and Lugansk.

With NATO announcing its own deployments of fighter jets and exercises to countries on Ukraine's western border, the crisis appeared to worsening despite 11th-hour diplomatic efforts to halt a secession referendum scheduled for Sunday in Crimea. The ouster of the government of Viktor F. Yanukovych and Russia's subsequent intervention in Crimea has deeply divided Russia and the West, and in Berlin, Ms. Merkel underscored the potential risks of what is being called the worst crisis in relations since the end of the Soviet Union.

Appearing before Parliament on Thursday, Ms. Merkel criticized Russia's actions in some of her toughest language to date, declaring that "the territorial integrity of Ukraine cannot be called into question."

"Ladies and gentlemen, if Russia continues on its course of the past weeks, it will not only be a catastrophe for Ukraine," she said. "We, also as neighbors of Russia, would not only see it as a threat. And it would not only change the European Union's relationship with Russia. No, this would also cause massive damage to Russia, economically and politically."

As Russia's largest trading partner in Europe, Germany is certain to have significant influence on the debate over how to respond to Russia's actions in Ukraine. Some politicians and observers in other European countries and in the United States have suggested that Germany's traditionally close trading and other ties with Russia have made it hesitant to adopt sanctions against Russia.

Ms. Merkel's speech, however, suggested that President Vladimir V. Putin might have miscalculated the anger the occupation and annexation of Crimea would cause – or that he might be impervious to it.

Mr. Putin, who has remained in Sochi to attend the Paralympics there, has so far showed no sign of bending to international criticism. In a meeting on Wednesday with the directors of national Paralympic teams, he implicitly reiterated the Kremlin's argument that the ouster of Mr. Yanukovych was an armed coup instigated by outside forces. "I would like to assure you that Russia was not the initiator of the circumstances we are now facing," Mr. Putin said.

In her remarks, Ms. Merkel rejected any comparison between the situation in Crimea today and that in Kosovo in the late 1990s, when NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days to halt the attacks on Kosovo Albanians by Serbian forces.

Ms. Merkel was clear that Germany would go along with the other 27 states of the European Union, and the United States, if Russia did not open meaningful diplomatic talks and the West moved to freeze Russian accounts and impose travel bans or restrictions on leading Russian figures.

"To make it unmistakably clear," she said, "nobody wants it to come to that."

The chancellor recalled that on Nov. 18, before Mr. Yanukovych rejected an association agreement with the European Union, she had made clear that the proposed accord was not directed against Russia and did not represent a choice for Ukraine between the West and Moscow.

On Thursday, she dwelled on the need for Russia to avoid what she predicted would be major damage to its interests by abandoning outdated geopolitics and adopting the 21st century language of mutual cooperation and interwoven globalization.

The possibility of sanctions has rattled Russia's markets and currency, and while some of the country's wealthiest tycoons have voiced concern, officials have responded to the threats defiantly, vowing to retaliate with sanctions of their own. "We are ready for any eventuality, working on all the options," said Aleksei Y. Likhachyov, a deputy minister of economic development. "Our sanctions will naturally be symmetrical."

As other leaders have, Ms. Merkel ruled out the use of force, but the military maneuvers on both sides underscored the risk of a far worse conflict over Ukraine's fate. She referred obliquely to "worrisome developments" in eastern Ukraine, however.

The unrest there – though less violent than in Kiev – has raised fears that Russia could do what it did in Crimea. There local officials defied the central government in Kiev and declared independence, even as Russian special forces took control of airports and other important government facilities.

Like Ms. Merkel, her vice chancellor, the Social Democratic party leader Sigmar Gabriel, warned Moscow that even Germany would not hesitate to go beyond a second round of European sanctions that will be set in motion on Monday if the Crimean referendum goes ahead and Russia does not embrace diplomacy.

"Germany is doing everything to prevent a third round of sanctions against Russia," Mr. Gabriel said, according to Reuters. But Europe should not hesitate, he added, if diplomacy failed.

For her part, Ms. Merkel assured reporters that the European Union would not flinch. "We are very rational, very calm and very much in accord," she said after a meeting with the visiting Czech prime minister, Bohuslav Sobotka.

Russia has not acknowledged the presence of additional forces in Crimea beyond those allowed by contract for the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, although officials and analysts have said they include Russia's elite special operations troops. On March 1, Mr. Putin asked for and received authorization from Russia's upper house of Parliament to order the use of the armed forces in Ukraine.

"The main aim of the ongoing activities is to check fully the teamwork of the units with subsequent combat training tasks on an unknown territory and untested ranges," one of the Defense Ministry statements said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Parubiy, claimed that Russian forces near the border totaled more than 80,000 solders, 270 tanks, 370 artillery systems and 140 combat aircraft. "Ukraine today is facing the threat of a full-scale invasion from various directions," he said.

Aleksandr Golts, an author and military analyst, noted that the operations were not training exercises like the huge one Mr. Putin ordered at the end of February that require notification of neighboring states under a series of conventional arms agreements.

He added that the operations were clearly intended as a warning of Russia's readiness to intervene, if necessary, noting that the parachute drop was on a scale not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union. They also served to tie down Ukraine's beleaguered military and prevent any effort to challenge the secession of Crimea.

"The goal is very clear: not to permit Ukrainian troops from moving toward Crimea," he said. He later met with his national security council in Sochi.

[Sheilbh]

Putin told the Crimean Tatar MP Mustafa Dzhemilev in a phone conversation that Ukraine's secession from the Soviet Union in 1991 was "not entirely legal".

Carl Bildt said it sounds like Russia may be questioning the legality of the Belavezha Accords on the dissolution of the USSR

[Syt]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/13/us-ukraine-crisis-austria-arrest-idUSBREA2C0UQ20140313

Ukrainian oligarch Firtash arrested in Vienna: sources

(Reuters) - The Ukrainian businessman arrested in Vienna this week at the request of U.S. authorities is Dmytro Firtash, Austrian government sources said on Thursday.

Firtash, 48, is one of Ukraine's richest men, an oligarch whose close links to Russia and involvement in the gas, chemicals, media and banking sectors gave him substantial influence, notably during the administration of recently ousted, Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich.

The Federal Criminal Office, had identified the man taken into custody only as Dmitry F. and said he had been under investigation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation since 2006.

Vienna is relevant!

[Tamas]

Putin told the Crimean Tatar MP Mustafa Dzhemilev in a phone conversation that Ukraine's secession from the Soviet Union in 1991 was "not entirely legal".

Carl Bildt said it sounds like Russia may be questioning the legality of the Belavezha Accords on the dissolution of the USSR

Well let's hope they don't. I really, really don't want to die in radiation poisoning.

[Sheilbh]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/russia-wipes-opposition-sites-from-the-internet

Russia Wipes Opposition Sites From The Internet
"I don't even know if anyone is reading this anymore."
posted on March 13, 2014 at 4:11pm EDT
Max Seddon

Russia has all but eliminated the free media as it fights an information war against the West over Ukraine, with prosecutors blocking independent websites and other publications making editorial changes under obvious Kremlin pressure.

Russia's general prosecutor's office announced late Thursday that it was blocking the independent news websites Kasparov.ru, run by chess champion and self-exiled opposition figure Garry Kasparov, EJ.ru, and Grani. ru for inciting "illegal activity" and participating in unsanctioned protests. Prosecutors also banned anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny's blog, by far the country's most popular and a flashpoint for anti-Putin sentiment, on the grounds that posting to it violated the terms of his house arrest, which bars him from using the internet.

"I don't even know if anyone is reading this anymore," read a post on Navalny's blog. The post said Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and his Foundation for Fighting Corruption have been running the blog since Navalny's bail was revoked Feb. 28. Numerous Twitter users reported that LiveJournal, the service hosting Navalny's blog, and the Ekho Moskvy radio website, which reposted it, were entirely unavailable on some internet providers, though Russia's internet registry said they had not been banned.

Russia passed a law late last year allowing prosecutors to ban websites that promote "rioting, racial hatred, or extremism" without a court order. The law also covers websites with foreign servers, which will be banned in Russia if their owner ignores a cease and desist letter. According to a list published by internet freedom activists, the only other websites to be banned under the law promote Islamic radicalism or white supremacism.

Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly moved to monopolize television, the majority of Russians' sole source of news, in the early 2000s shortly after he took power, but for years was largely content to allow the country's few dissenters space in print and online. After opposition activists bypassed an effective national media blackout through social and digital media to organize unprecedented demonstrations against him that catapulted Navalny to national fame, however, Russia began making steps to rein in the country's few independent publications and passed a law allowing it to block websites on request.

The political crisis in Ukraine has seen the Kremlin escalate its efforts to assert control over the flow of information, with every major independent publication making surprise masthead changes under obvious political pressure. Thirty-nine employees of Lenta.ru, the country's most popular independent news site, quit en masse Thursday after their owner unexpectedly fired its editor-in-chief. The founder of VK, Russia's wildly popular Facebook clone, was forced out of the company in January by Kremlin-linked investors after pressure over his efforts to resist censoring opposition pages.

Also Russia's got 10 000 troops on the border with Eastern Ukraine:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/13/russia-troops-ukraine-border

[Queequeg]

Well I'm so glad Edward Snowden is there to make sure the Russian government protects press freedoms and the privacy  of individual Russians. 

[Sheilbh]

Better than Obama's 'turnkey tyranny'

[Tamas]

Well I'm so glad Edward Snowden is there to make sure the Russian government protects press freedoms and the privacy  of individual Russians.

Yeah I have come around really hating that guy. It was important to uncover what the NSA has been doing to their own citizens, but this Snowden guy, I think, is a Russian agent.

He risked his life leaking the NSA stuff because he couldn't live with the injustice, but then continues to live silently in THIS Russia? Give me a break.

[frunk]

Yeah I have come around really hating that guy. It was important to uncover what the NSA has been doing to their own citizens, but this Snowden guy, I think, is a Russian agent.

He risked his life leaking the NSA stuff because he couldn't live with the injustice, but then continues to live silently in THIS Russia? Give me a break.

I don't think he started out as a Russian agent, but his own ego/self interest has pushed him into being one.

[Ed Anger]

I'm getting a bad feeling.

[Neil]

I'm getting a bad feeling.

So there won't be a war?