Ukraine crisis: The delicate deal Hollande and Merkel can offer Putin | Mr. Obama, send arms to Ukraine, let country defend itself against Russia - Fox News
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Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande fly to Moscow on Friday to offer Vladimir Putin a new deal on Ukraine
 Fox News |
Mr. Obama, send arms to Ukraine, let country defend itself against Russia
Fox News At noon on Friday, in front of the White House, Ukrainian-Americans and friends of Ukraine from all over the world will call upon President Obama to act now to stop Russia from continuing its support of terrorist activity in eastern Ukraine. This march ... Western arms will not make Russia back downFinancial Times all 10 news articles » |
Meeting to discuss escalating Ukraine crisis follows talks in Kiev
 Коммерсантъ |
Дорогой господин Ассанж
Коммерсантъ Скотленд-Ярд потратил уже около £10 млн за круглосуточное дежурство полицейских у посольства Эквадора, где уже почти 1000 дней скрывается от экстрадиции в Швецию основатель WikiLeaks Джулиан Ассанж. Таким образом, британские налогоплательщики, на плечи которых ... Присмотр за Ассанжем стоил Великобритании 13 миллионов евроРидус Полиция Лондона потратила на Ассанжа 10 миллионов фунтовПолит.ру Полицейский пост у посольства Эквадора в Лондоне, где укрывается основатель WikiLeaks, обошелся казне в 10 млн фунтовNEWSru.com TUT.BY Все похожие статьи: 27 » |
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Any Russian Region Could, With Outside Help, Become a Donbas, Kazarin Says by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, February 6 – Like many countries, the Russian Federation suffers from many regional and ethnic tensions, any one of which could become a Donbas if an outside power provided it with assistance, a reality that both Moscow and many in the West appear to have forgotten, according to Ukrainian commentator Pavel Kazarin.
In a note for Haqqin.az, Kazarin points out that few regional or ethnic divisions explode into violence unless they have outside sponsorship such as Vladimir Putin has been providing for small groups in Donetsk and Luhansk and that if such sponsorship ends, these conflicts generally are resolved politically rather than militarily (haqqin.az/dictatorship/38587).
Russians “love to say” that the conflict in the Donbas is “only a civil war” and that “various regions” in Ukraine could easily follow in its footsteps. But they are less willing to recognize that “it turns out that exactly such ‘a Donbas’ could be created somewhere in Penza or Novgorod,” two Russian regions, if they got the same kind of support Putin is giving.
Kazarin begins his analysis by pointing out that “no ‘south east’ exists” in Ukraine. What pro-Moscow groups are referring to are “only several regions of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts,” a small number of urban agglomerations surrounded by agricultural areas which have “not fallen under the influence of the separatists.”
Nor have separatist sentiments and actions spread to other parts of Ukraine, despite the predictions of many in Moscow, the Ukrainian analyst points out. “Kharkiv and Mykolayev, Odessa, Zaparozhe, and Kherson all these territories continue to peacefully exist within Ukraine.”
The portion of the Donbas that has exploded has done so not so much because of conditions there but because of the introduction of an outside spark and the continuing support of an outside power. Indeed, Kazarin continues, the best evidence of that is to be found in the statements of people like Igor Strelkov.
In an interview to “Zavtra,” Strelkov, one-time supreme commander of the Donetsk Peoples Republic army, explicitly said that “if it had not been for his interference, then in the Donbas all would have been peaceful just as in Kharkiv or Odessa” (zavtra.ru/content/view/kto-tyi-strelok/).
Obviously, Strelkov feels that his contribution has not been adequately appreciated, but his words call into question and “de-sacralize” the myth that the Kremlin has promoted throughout the last year, the myth that the Donbas was ready to rise and would have done so regardless of what anyone else did.
After Strelkov’s interview, Kremlin propagandists went into action to try to contain the fallout, Kazarin says. “They began to say that yes, Strelkov and his detachment through the match but if the region as a result of its contradictions had not been ready to burn, there would not have been a fire.”
“This is nonsense,” Kazarin says, “because such ‘contradictions’ exist in the most varied regions of the world but they become military conflicts only if there is some act of pitiless will.” Consider Belgium or Quebec or Catalonia. All have regional interests, even secessionist ones, but in none of these have such attitudes led to military actions.
“More than that,” he continues, using the Kremlin’s logic, it would be “possible to organize a war in any Russian region. For example, in Penza. Or in Vladivostok. Or in Saransk.” Using that logic, then it is clear that “any region of the Russian Federation is condemned to war with the federal center.”
More than almost any other country, Russia has multiple and serious inter-regional and inter-ethnic problems. There are conflicts between donor regions and recipient ones, between the rich and the poor, between the corrupt neo-feudal system and the increasingly impoverished population. And using the Kremlin’s logic, all that is needed for a conflagration is a match!
There is even evidence for this: the actions of the Primorsky kray “partisans” who accused the Russian interior ministry of illegality and sought to oppose it. They were eventually caught and imprisoned, but polls showed that almost as many Russians viewed them as battlers against corruption as criminals and more than one in five expressed sympathy with them.
Such figures suggest, Kazarin continues, that “any Russian region could be transformed into a Donbas. It is sufficient,” he suggests, “to choose a region and send to it one’s own ‘Igor strelkov’” and then wait for an explosion.
There are of course some superficial differences between Ukraine and Russia. In Ukraine, these outside forces “exploited the theme of regional and worldview distinctions,” while in Russia, one would need to exploit “protests against the stratification of society, social divisions, and the theme of post-Soviet nostalgia.”
But the point is this: all suggestions by Moscow or others that “’if there hadn’t been Strelkov, there would have been someone else who would have thrown the match’ are false. There are contradictions in any society. But they are less like gasoline than like TNT” and the latter needs a detonator if it is to explode.
And that reality calls attention to what is after all the major difference between Russia and Ukraine: “Ukraine has not exported instability to Russia. But Russia very much has to Ukraine.”
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 Газета Труд |
Маккейн признал вину США в применении в Донбассе кассетных бомб
Газета Труд США частично несут вину за то, что украинские силовики применяют кассетные боеприпасы на юго-востоке Украины. Об этом в интервью интернет-изданию Sputnik заявил глава комитета по вооруженным силам сената Конгресса США, член Республиканской партии Джон Маккейн. Поможет ли сенатор Маккейн Украине: шансы заставить Обаму поставлять оружие Киеву крайне малыМосковский комсомолец Маккейн хочет добиться поставок летальных вооружений КиевуНТВ.ru Киев применял кассетные бомбы из-за СШАДни.Ру День -Правда.Ру -Аргументы и факты Все похожие статьи: 161 » |
E-commerce giant Amazon has asked Crimean users to shut down their accounts within a week due to U.S. sanctions on the region, which Russia annexed from Ukraine last year.
If West Allows Russia a Role in Donbas, Moscow Will Destabilize Ukraine for Decades, Georgian Diplomat Saysby paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, February 6 – In their rush to end the fighting in southeastern Ukraine, Western governments are in danger of creating a far larger and long-lasting problem for the region and themselves in the future, according to Bacho Korchilava, because if the West legitimates a role for Russia in the Donbas, Moscow will be able to destabilize Ukraine for decades ahead.
In a comment on NV.ua, Korchilava, who served as press attache at the Georgian embassy in Kyiv, says that “if Russian peacekeepers appear in the Donbas, Russia will obtain a powerful level on Ukraine;” and Georgia’s experience shows that Moscow will use it to destabilize the situation well into the future (nv.ua/opinion/korchilava/kak-rf-zakonserviruet-konflikt-v-donbasse-na-desyatiletiya--32682.html).
The Georgian diplomat offers his comments on this point, he says, because ever more people are talking about some kind of joint peace-keeping force in southeastern Ukraine and because these same people appear to have forgotten how Moscow exploited exactly the same method against his own country.
If Russian forces are involved in some kind of peace-keeping operation in Ukraine, that will create a situation in which Russia “will be able to use it as a powerful lever” on Kyiv, blocking its development and its integration into Western organizations like the European Union and NATO. Neither will take in a country with such “problems.”
“Why am I so certain?” Korchilava asks rhetorically. “Because that is what has already happened with us in Georgia. In fact, it has happened twice, first in South Osetia and a second time in Abkhazia.”
In the case of South Osetia, these forces were organized by the OSCE and in that of Abkhazia, by the United Nations. And the peacekeeping contingents were composed differently. But because the Russians were involved in both, the result, the Georgian diplomat says, was the same – and disastrous for Georgia.
In South Osetia, there was a mixed force consisting of four battalions, one from the Russian Federation, one from North Osetia, one from anti-Tbilisi forces in South Osetia, and one from Georgia. “Why such a strange formula was adopted no one can explain to this day,” Korchilava says.
But Russian officers were in command, and consequently, “with three votes against one, the command of the Georgian battalion never could influence the decisions and actions of this continent. Everyone knows the result.”
In Abkhazia, the continent was called “the Collective Forces for the Support of Peace of the Commonwealth of Independent States,” but despite its name, Russia decided who was in it and who was not. And despite seven years of effort, Tbilisi was never able to get Ukrainian troops to replace Russian ones there. Once again, “everyone knows the result.”
The same thing will happen in the Donbas “if Russian peacekeepers appear there. They will simply fix the border between the Donbas and Luhansk and all the rest of Ukraine.” They will promote the flow of contraband and narcotics and allow for “trans-border crime. “Just as it was with us” Georgians.
Such Russian peacekeepers will “constantly” promote local clashes “in order to keep Ukraine in tense situation and not allow it to develop. More than that, they will become a guarantee of the existence of these two gray zones, the DNR and the LNR, guarantees of the existence of two illegal quasi-formations.”
“And they will also guarantee that Ukraine will not be able to conduct an operation to restore the constitutional order” as well.
As a general rule, Korchilava says, “Russian peacekeepers are unacceptable regardless of how they are dressed up.” And consequently, if the international community decides that peacekeepers are necessary, it is absolutely necessary that it insist that they consist of anyone except the Russians.
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As Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande fly to Russia, they will need to carefully gauge the psychology of a man who has brought Europe to the brink of war, says former diplomat Charles Crawford
 РИА Новости |
Джо Байден: сейчас момент, когда США и Европа должны держаться вместе
РИА Новости Украине нужна наша финансовая помощь и поддержка в то время, как она проводит реформы, сказал вице-президент. Также он обвинил РФ в несоблюдении всех подписанных ей соглашений. Вице-президент США Джо Байден. Архивное фото. © AP Photo/ Winslow Townson. Байден обвинил Россию в стремлении перекроить карту ЕвропыИнтерфакс Байден: России не позволят перекроить карту ЕвропыУНИАН Все похожие статьи: 190 » |
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Experts from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation ask the Ministry of Defence to detail what military movements have been undertaken
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The leaders of Germany and France are expected to take peace proposals to Moscow on Friday on the second leg of a dramatic initiative to end a conflict in Ukraine that has killed more than 5,000 people.
 Mail.Ru |
Расмуссен рассказал о вероятности интервенции России в страны Балтии
Mail.Ru Россия может начать гибридную атаку на страны Балтии, чтобы проверить, мобилизуется ли НАТО против таких действий, предположил бывший генеральный секретарь альянса Андерс Фог Расмуссен в интервью газете The Telegraph. Увеличить ... Бывший глава НАТО заявил, что Россия может начать вторжение в страны БалтииДеловой Петербург Экс-глава НАТО заявил о вероятности нападения России на БалтиюУНИАН Путин может развязать гибридную войну в странах Балтии, предупредил бывший генсек НАТОNEWSru.com УКРАИНСКАЯ ПРАВДА -ЛІГА.net -Ридус Все похожие статьи: 40 » |
Another Defeat for Putin’s ‘Russian World’ – Very Few Russians in Estonia Want to Leave by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, February 6 – Over the last two year period for which statistics are available, only 37 ethnic Russians moved from Estonia to the Russian Federation despite Moscow’s program for resettling what it calls “compatriots” and the regular complaints of Russian officials that Estonia is oppressing its ethnic Russian minority.
In today’s issue of the Moscow newspaper “Novaya gazeta,” journalist Vyacheslav Ivanov suggests that it is important for everyone to understand why despite the oft-reported problems of ethnic Russians in the Baltic countries, “the majority of Russians there prefer to live in Estonia” than to return to Russia (novayagazeta.ru/society/67143.html).
Ivanov begins his article by recounting what happened when in the summer of 1994, the Russian Drama Theater in Tallinn put on Chekov’s “Three Sisters.” In that performance, actors dressed like Soviet officers left the stage at the end when the sisters talk about going “to Moscow, to Moscow!”
Their departure was met with thunderous applause, not because the performance was especially noteworthy but because it occurred when Russian troops finally left Estonia after it recovered its independence – and those applauding were not so much Estonians and ethnic Russians living there who viewed their withdrawal as a positive step.
To be sure, Ivanov continues, some ethnic Russians did leave – about 27,500 a year between 1991 and 1996. Most of these people were either retired military personnel and their families or civilians who “for various reasons considered it impossible for themselves to continue to live in independent Estonia.”
After 1996, the number of those departing began to decline precipitously to less than a thousand a year in the early 2000s. And in 2011, the number of ethnic Russians arriving to live in Estonia exceeded, admittedly by a small percentage, the number of those departing or dying, Ivanov says.
Today, 1,315,000 people live in Estonia. About 70 percent of them are ethnic Estonians, approximately 26 percent ethnic Russians, and the rest “representatives of other nationalities.” In 1940, non-ethnic Estonians constituted less than 10 percent of the population and their number included Old Believers who had been living there since the 17th century.
Urmas Ott, an Estonian television host, once told him, Ivanov continues, that “Estonians at the beginning of the 1990s especially after the withdrawal of Russian forces from Estonia very much hoped that if not all ethnic Russians then their absolute majority would do the same.” Now, it is different, although Ott said Estonians remain a “patient” and “tolerant” people.
“Perhaps,” Ivanov suggests,” precisely these qualities of the ‘titular’ resients of Estonia are in a well-known sense a guarantee of the preservation of the balance between the two language communities. Not the main and not the only but one of the key factors.”
Another factor is that ethnic Russians living in Estonia have been profoundly affected by Estonian values: They are very different from their compatriots elsewhere, by their “greater restraint” and “greater moderation in their views. Although,” he adds, “from the point of view of Estonians, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if they were even more so.”
A major social-political problem in Estonia, the Russian journalist continues, is the existence of a large number of residents who are without citizenship and the large number who are citizens of a foreign country, in this case, Russia. Many in Estonia and Europe consider what Tallinn has done in this area far from “far-sighted,” but not everything is as it appears.
There are approximately 330,000 ethnic Russians in Estonia. About 120,000 of them have Estonian citizenship, about 100,000 are citizens of the Russian Federation, and about 100,000 are non-citizens who have many but not all the rights of those who are citizens of Estonia.
But at the same time, Ivanov continues, these non-citizens who carry what are known as “gray” passports have in a certain respect “more rights than do the citizens” of either of the other countries. They can go to Russia without a visa, something Estonians cannot; and they can go to the European Union without a visa, something Russian citizens cannot.
That is a considerable advantage as is the fact that Estonia even in Soviet times was distinguished by a relatively high standard of living. That still makes it attractive, but other “non-material” qualities are almost certainly more important. These include an independent judiciary which protects people even when they act in ways that some Estonians don’t like.
Many in Russia followed the 2007 case of the “Bronze soldier” monument whose removal from the center of Tallinn to a military cemetery sparked protests. But far fewer are aware that some of those arrested at the time later won their cases in Estonian courts – or that such vindications are far from unique.
Ivanov concludes that “the situation of the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia is far from ideal.” Unemployment is higher among Russians there than among Estonians, and pay is lower for them than for Estonian citizens. But what is important is that activists in Estonia are constantly raising these issues and often winning their cases.
That is one more reason why ethnic Russians in Estonia aren’t moving back to Russia where activists have far fewer victories and where the courts have far less independence than they do in European Estonia.
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PM’s office issues robust defence after being criticised by army general and shadow foreign secretary for not being present at Moscow discussions
Stung by claims that David Cameron is a diplomatic irrelevance as France and Germany spearhead efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, Downing Street has insisted Britain is playing an active role in Europe’s response to Russian aggression.
No 10 issued a robust defence after being criticised by an army general and the shadow foreign secretary for not being present at the diplomatic table when Europe is under threat of “total war”.
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A European-led bid to quell fighting in Ukraine shifted to Moscow on Friday with Russian leaders warning that any proposals could be crushed if Washington decides to arm Ukraine’s military.The parallel tracks from the West — a peace bid while also considering the addition of more firepower in the conflict — presented an increasingly complicated backdrop to the talks planned with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Read full article >>
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Police in Vienna have arrested a man for persistently sneaking into expensive seats in the city’s prestigious State Opera.
When Iranian Politicians Use U.S. Green Cards As A Political Weapon by noreply@rferl.org (Golnaz Esfandiari)
"Death to America" might be a common refrain in Tehran, but several Iranian officials and parliamentarians reportedly hold documents allowing them to live and work in the United States.
Последняя попытка Меркель и Олланда by Радио Свобода
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На чем могут сойтись Порошенко, Путин, Меркель и Олланд? Какой вариант мирного выхода из ситуции может быть...
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From: Радио Свобода
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 РИА Новости |
Глава МИД Турции покинул Мюнхенскую конференцию
РИА Новости Глава МИД Турции Мевлют Чавушоглу заявил, что отказался от участия в конференции из-за решения добавить в число участников заседания по Ближнему Востоку представителей Израиля. Мевлют Чавушоглу. Архивное фото. © Фото: официальный сайт Мевлюта Чавушоглу. АНКАРА ... СМИ: глава МИД Турции отказался от участия в Мюнхенской конференции по безопасностиТАСС Глава МИД Турции отменил свое участие в Мюнхенской конференции в ответ на присутствие представителя Израиля1news.az Турция отказалась от участия на мюнхенской конференцииEynulla Fatullayev Все похожие статьи: 20 » |
Ingush Opposition Activist Detained In Chechnyaby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service)
A prominent opposition activist from Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia has been detained in neighboring Chechnya.
A prominent Chechen militant in the Islamic State (IS) group has given an explanation of why, in his view, the entire world, including the United States, the Persian Gulf states, and even actors, musicians, scantily clad women, and those who make "bawdy TV series" are opposed to the militants in Syria and Iraq.
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Russia's Foreign Ministry has used a series of rebel rocket attacks on the Syrian capital to press for coordination between Damascus and the U.S.-led coalition in the fight against the Islamic State group.
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Мария Алехина и Надежда Толоконникова - участницы Pussy Riot - о выживании в зоне, таблетках от головы и защите...
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From: Радио Свобода
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Путин, Сталин и ялтинский мир by Радио Свобода
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Прекратила ли свое существование ялтинская система послевоенного урегулирования, как Сталин заслужил...
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From: Радио Свобода
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Police and eyewitnesses say a man set himself on fire outside the mayor's office in the Russian city of Kaliningrad on February 6.
«Суд над тунеядцем Бродским» by Радио Свобода
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4 и 5 декабря в петербургском музее Достоевского прошли премьерные показы спектакля «Суд над тунеядцем...
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From: Радио Свобода
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 Bloomberg View |
One Year Later, Crimeans Prefer Russia
Bloomberg View As European leaders engage in shuttle diplomacy to still the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, Crimea, where the Russian onslaught began almost a year ago, has become all but forgotten. It isn't the subject of any talks, and the international ... |
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UN Human Rights Chief: Islamist Militants Think Like Nazisby webdesk@voanews.com (Jerome Socolovsky)
The first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who is both an Arab and a Muslim also Thursday became the first one to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The Jordanian prince said the more recent slaughters of defenseless people by Islamist militants - and the death by fire of a pilot from his own country - were perpetrated by what he called “takfiri” or “infidels.” He said they are deceiving their followers with Nazi-like chauvinistic lies. VOA’s Jerome Socolovsky reports.
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US President Barack Obama will "soon" decide whether to arm Ukraine against pro-Russian separatists but prefers a diplomatic solution, according to Secretary of State John Kerry. Duration: 00:56.
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From: AFP news agency
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IS Executions Show Need to Shut Guantanamo, Obama Administration Saysby webdesk@voanews.com (Michael Bowman)
Proof that the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, inspires and rallies the world’s most savage terrorists has flashed across television screens around the world in recent weeks, a deputy undersecretary of defense said Thursday. “It is no coincidence that recent ISIS [Islamic State] videos showing the barbaric burning of a Jordanian pilot and the savage execution of a Japanese hostage each showed the victims clothed in an orange jumpsuit, believed by many to be the symbol of...
Under Siege, Ukraine Awaits Decision on Lethal Aidby webdesk@voanews.com (Al Pessin)
At the last checkpoint before the battle zone, Ukrainian troops keep a careful watch on who goes in, while families squeeze into cars to leave and busloads of children head out to relatives or shelters. Just beyond is the mostly deserted town of Papasna, which has repeatedly been hit by shelling. Many of those who remain support the rebels and are not happy to see Western visitors. Mayor Yuriy Onishenko and a handful of his staff members, who are loyal to the Kyiv government,...
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