LA Times: Russia sends tanks and troops into Ukraine, seizes a strategic town

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/19/us-russia-usa-putin-idUSKCN0J30Y520141119?utm_source=twitter

Putin greets new U.S. envoy with demand not to interfere

 

President Vladimir Putin greeted the new U.S. ambassador to Russia on Wednesday with a demand for Washington to treat Moscow as an equal partner and stay out of its internal affairs.

 

The new envoy, John Tefft, said in a written statement after presenting his credentials that he wanted to strengthen "people-to-people" ties but there were serious differences over Ukraine.

 

Their comments underlined the chasm between the former Cold War enemies as Tefft succeeds Michael McFaul, who was behind President Barack Obama's planned "reset" in relations with Russia and whose posting was marked by controversy and tension.

 

Putin met Tefft with a slight smile and they then stood stiffly beside each other posing for photographers during a Kremlin ceremony for new ambassadors.

 

"We are ready for practical cooperation with our American partners in different fields, based on the principles of respect for each others' interests, equal rights and non-interference in internal matters," Putin said in a short speech.

 

His remarks were blunt though less fierce than some of his earlier criticism of Washington, which he has accused of trying to dominate world affairs and suppress Russia.

[visionary]

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/156629

Putin Sparks Georgia Fury with 'Annexation' Deal in Abkhazia

 

Russia cemented control over neighboring Georgia's rebel Abkhazia region Monday with a "strategic partnership" deal that the Georgian government said amounts to annexation.

 

President Vladimir Putin signed the "alliance and strategic partnership" agreement which formalizes Russian dominance of the tiny separatist region's foreign policy, armed forces and economy, as well as placing Russian guards on the border with the rest of Georgia.

 

The signature "is a step towards a de facto annexation of the Abkhazia region by the Russian Federation" and a "violation of the principles of Georgia’s territorial integrity and international law," Georgian Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili told journalists.

"The Georgian government condemns the illegal step."

 

More than 30,000 opposition supporters protested in Tbilisi this month against the planned deal, which comes amid a diplomatic firestorm over Russia's involvement in a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea last March.

 

Abkhaz opposition parties have also voiced fears that the agreement undermines their tiny would-be country's bid for real independence.

Some provisions of the agreement "may have undesirable consequences for the sovereignty" of Abkhazia, the Council of Abkhazia's Public Chamber said on Friday.

 

The deal that Putin signed after talks with Abkhaz President Raul Khajimba in the Black Sea resort of Sochi says Moscow and Sukhumi will unite armed forces and jointly guard Abkhazia's border with Georgia.

 

It also creates a shared law enforcement system and a common economic and customs space.

 

The agreement, which says it is prompted by "new global and regional challenges and threats," specifies that any attack against Abkhazia will be viewed as aggression against Russia, which will provide military aid.

 

Putin also said that Russia would give Abkhazia five billion rubles ($111 million) in 2015.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/26/us-ukraine-crisis-eu-sanctions-insight-idUSKCN0JA0B620141126?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Europe feels sting in the tail of Russia sanctions

 

At a technology fair in Moscow last month, European executives faced the new reality of doing business in Russia since the West imposed sanctions: the number of companies at the international showcase had shrunk by half from a year ago.

 

"The impact on business couldn't be clearer. Fewer stands, fewer companies," said Mark Bultinck, a sales executive for Belgian digital screen maker Barco, which had a booth at the annual expo for the audiovisual industry.

The impact of the sanctions was already clear to Barco.

 

The company lost Russia's biggest shipbuilder as a client when the United States and the European Union blacklisted United Shipbuilding Corporation in July, meaning Barco could no longer sell screens to the company for its vessel training simulators.

 

Barco's experience shows how sanctions are having a broad impact not just on Russian companies but on European ones too and at a time when Europe's weak economy can ill afford it.

 

The European Union and the United States imposed economic sanctions on Russia in late July, targeting the Russian energy, banking and defense sectors to punish Moscow's support for rebels in eastern Ukraine, the West's toughest steps yet.

 

As EU governments consider blacklisting more Ukrainian separatists and potentially more Russians and companies over the crisis in Ukraine, anecdotal evidence and new EU data show the economic costs for Europe of pressuring the Kremlin.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/27/us-russia-nato-security-idUSKCN0JB0BU20141127?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

West struggles with Russia's 'ambiguous warfare' tactics

 

When Russians crossed the border to fight with rebels in eastern Ukraine earlier this year, Moscow said the soldiers had not been deployed but had gone on their own vacation time.

   

When Estonia was the victim of a cyber attack in 2007 and blamed Moscow, the Kremlin responded that it could not always control patriotic Russian hackers.

  

Western strategists who built their defenses to counter a massive invasion, nuclear missiles or terrorism are still trying to work out how to cope with this sort of threat that disrupts and destabilizes from behind a mask of deniability.

 

After soldiers without insignia took control in Crimea last March, Western military officials developed their own nickname for Russian personnel operating in unmarked uniforms or in plainclothes: Little Green Men.

 

NATO is considering how to counter such "ambiguous warfare" techniques should Russian President Vladimir Putin try something similar in the Baltic member states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

 

It has deployed some U.S. and allied tanks and planes there to signal NATO's commitment to defend all its members with force and is considering bolstering police there, perhaps with officers from Nordic states, to help detect any Russian infiltration.

Military experts say Russia's unconventional strategy on its western flank, especially in non-NATO member Ukraine, is proving remarkably effective, and it has recently been combined with a global show of force on a scale not seen since the Cold War.

 

Russian warships probed the limits of Australian territorial waters before the G20 summit in Brisbane this month and Moscow said nuclear bomber patrols which have been overflying western Europe would now reach as far as the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Russia's underlying point, western analysts say, is clear: as it reasserts its influence over countries on its borders, it is reminding the West of how cataclysmic the consequences could be if military force were used to stop them.

 

"Putin is taking the measure of the West's willingness to keep exerting pressure on Ukraine," said Nikolas Gvosdev, professor of national security studies at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/01/us-ukraine-crisis-military-idUSKCN0JF1ZN20141201?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Ukraine says Russian special forces involved in attacks on airport in east

 

The Ukrainian military accused Russian special forces on Monday of taking part in attacks on the strategically important Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has intensified in recent days despite a September ceasefire deal.

 

Kiev also accused Russia of smuggling ammunition for heavy artillery into the area to step up the assault.

 

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of sending troops and military equipment to support rebels in the east, where pro-Russian separatism erupted in April. The Kremlin denies it is involved in the conflict, which has killed over 4,300 people.

 

Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said there had been particularly fierce fighting at the airport of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk over the weekend and said Russian troops were involved.

 

"These are Russian special forces. It's already the third day that they've been trying to do something," he told Reuters by telephone.

 

There has been continued shelling from both sides, even after a peace deal signed by Ukraine, Russia and separatist leaders on Sept. 5 under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

 

Lysenko said three Ukrainian servicemen had been killed in the past 24 hours in intensified artillery strikes from the rebels that he linked to the arrival of another large aid convoy from Russia on Sunday.

[visionary]

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268743/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=gf0umc9R

Gun battle breaks out in Chechen capital, 9 dead

 

A gun battle broke out early Thursday in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, leaving at least three traffic police officers and six gunmen dead, authorities said. The fighting punctured the patina of stability ensured by years of heavy-handed rule by a Kremlin-appointed leader.

 

Security officials and the leader of Chechnya said militants traveling in several cars killed three traffic police at a checkpoint in the capital of the republic, Grozny. State news agency RIA-Novosti cited an unnamed law enforcement source as stating that five police officers were killed.

 

More than six hours after fighting broke out, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said a multi-story publishing house building the militants had occupied in central Grozny had been destroyed by fire and six of the gunmen had been killed.

 

He later said several other gunmen had been found in a city school and an operation was under way to "liquidate" them, the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

 

Although unrest is common across the North Caucasus, forceful security measures adopted by Kadyrov have spared Grozny significant violence for several years.

 

An Associated Press reporter saw the publishing house building in flames and heard the sound of heavy-caliber gunfire before dawn, several hours after the unrest erupted. The AP reporter also saw the body of someone in civilian clothing in the street near the publishing house as fighting was still ongoing, but it was not clear how and when the person had been killed.

[JMS]

1 US Dollar equals 54.31 Russian Ruble

[grhqofb5]

 

1 US Dollar equals 54.31 Russian Ruble

 

 

So a DVD of Rocky IV would cost about 108.62 Rubles, if its still not banned?

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/opinion/masha-gessen-the-myth-of-the-russian-oligarchs.html?smid=tw-share

The Myth of the Russian Oligarchs

 

Moscow’s most popular joke today is unfunny: “Next year Putin, the ruble, and a barrel of oil will converge at just over 63.” Allow me to translate: The ruble will soon be trading at 63 to the dollar, or nearly double what the dollar was worth in Russia a year ago (meaning most Russians will be roughly 50 percent poorer); a barrel of oil will fall to $63 a barrel, roughly 2005-level prices, devastating the Russian economy; and President Vladimir Putin will turn 63. All three predictions are depressingly realistic: The Russian economy appears headed for disaster just as certainly as Mr. Putin will most likely celebrate his next birthday in October 2015. And more likely than not, he will still be president of Russia then.

 

Conventional wisdom — or conventional hope — among many of the people who would like to see the end of the Putin regime has long been that a turn for the worse in the Russian economy will make the moneyed elite turn on the Russian president. Journalists, pundits and Mr. Putin’s political opponents in Russia have predicted that Western sanctions and the economic disaster they hasten will result in a coup d'état staged by oligarchs. There is just one problem with that argument: There are no oligarchs anymore.

 

When Mr. Putin became acting president 15 years ago this month, Russia was an oligarchy — indeed the oligarchs, a small group of men who had grown very rich in the preceding decade, were instrumental in picking Putin out of obscurity and installing him at the helm. But within months, he made the oligarchs an offer they could not refuse: give up all of their political power and some of their wealth in exchange for safety, security and continued prosperity, or else be stripped of all power and assets.

 

He meant it. The media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky, who rejected the new rules, was forced into exile in the summer of 2000, and uber-oligarch Boris Berezovsky followed him a few months later. When the richest man in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, refused any such bargain, he was jailed and his company was taken away. The process of destroying the Russian oligarchy was completed.

 

In the 11 years since Mr. Khodorkovsky’s arrest, Mr. Putin has consolidated power into what the political scientist Karen Dawisha calls “kleptocratic authoritarianism.” Its essential characteristic is all-encompassing corruption, which makes all the moneyed men of the Russian elite — and they are all men, and all moneyed — profoundly interdependent. Many of them have held public office during this time, but it has invariably been subject to three interlocking conditions: They had to pay to get into office, and though they could use the office for accumulating greater wealth, they could not use it to wield or gain political power.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/11/us-russia-poland-baltic-idUSKBN0JP2G920141211?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Poland says Russian maneuvers in Baltic unprecedented

 

Russia's military is engaging in an unprecedented amount of activity around the Baltic Sea, Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said on Thursday.

 

The minister said that Poland, a member of the NATO defense alliance, was not under threat of attack and the Russian maneuvers were most likely designed to test how NATO forces in the region reacted.

 

NATO says its patrols in the region have seen heightened activity by Russia's military, especially its aircraft, since the beginning of the standoff between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.

 

Since Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula earlier this year, NATO has also beefed up air patrols of the Baltic region and moved soldiers and equipment to eastern Europe for exercises.

 

Moscow says by stepping up its presence on Russia's borders, the alliance is further fuelling tensions. The alliance says those measures are to reassure its eastern European members, who fear they could be Russia's next target.

 

"Over the past few days we have seen unprecedented activity by the Russians in the Baltic Sea, both the Baltic fleet and Russian aircraft," Siemoniak told Polish broadcaster TVN24.

 

"We are concerned about that. NATO is trying to prepare some kind of reaction," he said, without saying what form that response would take.

 

"We are not under threat of attack. These activities don't have the character of preparing for an attack."

[visionary]

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21636047-president-remains-popular-his-ukrainian-adventure-could-change-faster-many?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/putin_s_people

Putin’s people

 

The president remains popular for his Ukrainian adventure, but that could change faster than many expect

 

A GOVERNMENT television channel dubbed Vladimir Putin’s latest state of the nation address “A Message from Above”. Dmitry Kiselev, Mr Putin’s chief propagandist, even likened it to speeches by Roosevelt, Churchill and De Gaulle.

 

Mr Putin’s sermon had both messianic and defensive overtones. He called Crimea a sacred place, rather like the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. “It was in Crimea, in the ancient city of Chersonesus or Korsun, that Grand Prince Vladimir was baptised before bringing Christianity to Rus…this allows us to say that Crimea and Sevastopol have invaluable civilisational and even sacred importance for Russia. And this is how we will think of it—from now and forever.” Andrei Kuraev, a Russian Orthodox deacon, noted in his blog that, although Mr Putin’s statement had little basis in religion, it resembled Mussolini’s 1930s assertion that “Ethiopia, from now and forever, belongs to Italy which has become what it was during the time of Julius Caesar.”

 

In fact, remarkably few Russians are even aware of Vladimir’s baptism in Crimea. For them the peninsula is linked to hedonism rather than spirituality. It was a place for holidays, summer romances, state sanatoriums and dachas. It is also at the heart of Russia’s post-imperial nostalgia, and it was to this that Mr Putin was appealing. Soviet ideology proclaimed a Utopian future; modern Russian ideology focuses on the past. But the key ingredient of confrontation with America remains the same. In his speech Mr Putin cast it as part of an existential struggle for Russia’s survival as a sovereign state, likening the West to Hitler who “set out to destroy Russia and push us back beyond the Urals”.

The main reason why people believe propaganda is because it resonates with their own feelings. As Mikhail Yampolsky, a cultural historian, argues, the dominant feeling, exploited and fuelled by the Kremlin, is of resentment: a sense of jealousy and hostility. People who are deprived of any say in their own fate turn their resentment on an imagined enemy, be it Ukrainian “fascists” or American imperialists.

 

Yet, just as with Soviet propaganda, which blamed outside enemies for the country’s failures, resentment is vulnerable to reality. When television pictures contradict people’s personal experience, they stop working. “You can’t really ‘sell’ anything to people, that they don’t wish to buy,” says one television boss. As the ratings show, Russians are tiring of news about Western aggression. “People now want to watch melodramas and fairy tales,” says the TV boss.

 

What most Russians really need is news about the unfolding economic crisis that Mr Putin’s message from above largely ignored. The continuing fall in the rouble, eroding living standards and a sharp rise in food prices are worrying people far more than the fate of separatists in Ukraine. Now that sanctions are starting to bite, enthusiasm for war and isolation is diminishing fast. “Cognitive consonance between propaganda and people’s self-feel does not withstand external shocks,” says Mikhail Dmitriev, head of New Economic Growth, a think-tank.

 

Over the past nine months opinion polls find that support for the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine have fallen from 74% to 23%. Many who dismissed Western sanctions as irrelevant now fret over Russia’s isolation. “The sanctions are working,” says Lev Gudkov, head of the Levada Centre, an independent pollster. The consumers who have emerged in Russia’s big cities in the past decade are “not prepared to tighten their belts,” he adds. This does not mean that such people are prepared to sacrifice their consumption for civic freedoms, either.

[visionary]

http://www.interpretermag.com/russia-update-ruble-slides-past-58-to-dollar-brent-at-62-is-there-really-a-return-to-conventional-units/#5686

Ruble Below 65.72 Per Dollar. 81.82 Per Euro, 102.91 Per Pound

19:59 (GMT)

 

As of 19:52 GMT, just a few minutes ago, XE values the Russian ruble at 65.725 per dollar. At one point, however, the ruble was valued as high as 66.593:

 

XE also says the current exchange rate is 81.822 per ruble and 102.911 per British Pound.

Published in Press-Stream Russia Today: December 15, 2014 in Publication Russia Update

http://www.interpretermag.com/russia-update-ruble-slides-past-58-to-dollar-brent-at-62-is-there-really-a-return-to-conventional-units/#5689

In Dramatic Move, Russian Central Bank Raises Interest Rates By 6.5%

22:14 (GMT)

 

The Russian Central Bank has made a significant and historic interest rate hike in order to stop the ruble from bleeding the country dry, raising the rate from 10.5% to 17%:

 

Last week the rates were raised 1%, and it did nothing to stop the decline in the currency. The standard analysis at the time was that the Central Bank was trying to make a correction without looking desperate. This is desperate.

 

The late breaking news corresponds to that large dip in the exchange rate, but note that the recovery of the ruble was very brief. Before the announcement the ruble was trading at 65.50 to the US dollar. Now it is at 65.21. This indicates that it's possible this move may not even have an impact on the ruble's value, but it's other consequences will have a dramatic impact.

 

Either way, however, it's too early to tell whether this move will work.

[visionary]

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268798/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=arg6oCXY

Dems, GOP press Obama to back Russian sanctions

 

Republicans and Democrats spoke with one voice on Monday in pressing President Barack Obama to sign legislation that would slap new sanctions on Russia while providing weapons and other assistance to Ukraine.

 

The widely popular legislation cleared Congress late Saturday, but the White House has remained non-committal about whether Obama will sign it into law. Administration officials say the president is evaluating the measure, which would target Russia's energy and defense industries.

 

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, issued a statement saying the bipartisan bill underscores Congress' "strong moral commitment to the cause of the Ukrainian people" and he called on Obama to sign it immediately.

 

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said lawmakers "stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with the Ukrainian government and its people against the aggression of Vladimir Putin who continues to upend the international order."

 

The legislation would require the president to impose penalties on state-owned arms dealer Rosoboronexport and other Russian defense companies tied to unrest in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Syria. The sanctions would be extended to individuals and entities that help the companies.

 

The bill also would give the president the authority to provide lethal and non-lethal military assistance to Ukraine. This includes anti-tank weapons, counter-artillery radar and tactical surveillance drones. The bill also authorizes $350 million over two years to cover the cost.

 

Russia annexed Crimea earlier this year and has given support to pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, angering Western nations.

 

Visiting NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, Ukraine's prime minister asked for help for his country's military as it tries to tamp down pro-Russian insurgents and pleaded for more financial aid from the European Union.

 

Arseniy Yatsenyuk said it was difficult to fight a Russia that is "armed to the teeth."

 

Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko spoke Monday by phone and together urged Russia to ensure its "separatist proxies" cease blocking humanitarian aid in eastern Ukraine, according to a White House statement. Biden reaffirmed U.S. economic commitments to Ukraine and welcomed its ceasefire declared Dec. 9, the White House said.

[SkinsFTW]

All I have to say is:

 

[visionary]

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/227281-wh-obama-to-sign-sanctions-bill-with-russia-on-brink-of-crisis?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Obama to sign sanctions bill as Russian economy nears 'brink of crisis'

 

The White House said Tuesday that President Obama would sign a bill allowing additional sanctions against Moscow, as officials warned that Russia's economy is on the "brink of crisis."

 

"If I were chairman of President Putin's council of economic advisers, I would be extremely concerned," Jason Furman, who holds that position in the Obama administration, told reporters at the White House.

 

The new sanctions legislation comes as the value of Russia's currency, the ruble, has collapsed in recent weeks alongside a dramatic fall in the price of oil, Russia's top export.

Furman said Russian leaders had "only bad choices," as they weigh increasing interest rates — and constraining the domestic economy — or allowing the ruble to continue to depreciate on the international stage.

 

On Monday, Russia’s central bank announced it would raise its key interest rate from 10.5 to 17 percent — the largest single increase since 1998, preceding a government default on its debt. It was the sixth interest rate increase this year by Russia.

 

"I think they are facing a very serious economic situation and it's a serious economic situation that is largely of their own making and largely reflects the consequences of not following a set of international rules," Furman said.

 

The United States and Europe have implemented penalties on Russia's energy, financial and military sectors following Russia's incursions into Ukraine.

 

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the president would sign by week's end new legislation that imposes new penalties on Russian weapons exports and oil production imports. The legislation also targets Moscow’s national energy company if it withholds supplies from European states, and makes rolling back sanctions more difficult.

 

The White House had not previously said whether the president would sign the bill, signaling some concern that the unilateral steps could cause tensions with European allies that could be exploited by Moscow.

 

Earnest said ultimately, Obama opted to sign the legislation because it "does preserve the president's flexibility" to decide when and how to impose the new penalties.

 

Still, the White House spokesman acknowledged "it does send a confusing message to our allies because it includes some sanctions language that does not reflect the consultations that are ongoing."

[visionary]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/12/16/250248_rubles-plunge-ignites-russia-fears.html?rh=1

Ruble’s plunge ignites Russia fears

 

A free-falling Russian ruble Tuesday prompted fears that the nuclear-armed nation could be entering a deep economic recession with the potential for unrest, as citizens and investors try to get their hands on cash amid crippling international sanctions and sinking oil prices.

 

The Russian central bank tried to right the ship with a surprisingly large interest rate hike, to 17 percent, before the nation’s financial markets opened Tuesday. But it was for naught as the already limping ruble fell another 20 percent against the U.S. dollar.

 

“What we’ve seen in the last few days is real financial panic,” said Anders Aslund, a Russia expert for the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

 

Problems in Russia circled the globe, with volatile trading in European financial markets and wild inter-day swings on Wall Street. Blue chips on the Dow Jones industrial average were up 155 points at midday before swinging to losses and closing down 111.9 points to 17,068.94.

 

The jump in Russian rates was designed to keep investors there from fleeing the country, sweetening their returns. Instead, investors shrugged it off and proceeded to head for the exits.

 

Russia is being hit by a double blow: falling oil prices and international economic sanctions levied in the wake of Russia’s moves into Ukraine.

 

Even before the extraordinary action on the ruble, the central bank had warned that if oil prices stay where they are today, in the range of $60 a barrel, the economy would contract sharply. Higher interest rates now further raise the cost of borrowing for Russian businesses, deepening the expected contraction.

 

“Nothing they do with monetary policy can help. If you have something that is fundamentally wrong, you can’t fix it with monetary policy,” said Aslund, who said Russian President Vladimir Putin must find a face-saving way to back out of his foray into the Ukraine and lift the sanctions.

 

Adding to the pressure, White House spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed Tuesday that President Barack Obama will sign this week a bill that imposes further sanctions on the Russian economy. Ultimately, he said, “it will be up to President Putin to decide whether or not the economic costs are worth it to him and are worth it to the Russian people.”

[JMS]

I was discussing this with a analyst who specializes in the Russian investment market yesterday.   He was saying that the worst possible thing to happen to the Russian economy next,  would be if Putin outlawed taking rubles abroad or outlawed Russians converting their money into other currencies...      And he said that Putin had that in the works...     That's when the floor drops out entirely and we see folks taking wheel barrows full of Rubles to buy a loaf of bread...

 

64.60  rubles to the dollar latest spot check...  The Ruble is dropping like a stone.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/19/us-russia-crisis-eu-idUSKBN0JX04M20141219?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

EU leaders ready long confrontation with Russia

 

European Union leaders warned Moscow they were ready exercise their combined muscle over the long haul in a confrontation with an economically wounded Russia if President Vladimir Putin refused to pull back from Ukraine.

 

"We must go beyond being reactive and defensive. As Europeans we must regain our self-confidence and realize our own strengths," said Donald Tusk, the former Polish premier who chaired a brief EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.

 

In comments that were part warning to Russia, where falling oil prices and Western trade sanctions have brought financial havoc, and part exhortation to an EU bloc divided between hawks and doves, Tusk said a united European front was vital.

 

"It is obvious we will not find a long-term perspective for Ukraine without an adequate, consistent and united European strategy towards Russia," he added, his remarks bringing a briskly opinionated new style to the first such meeting he has chaired as president of the leaders' European Council.

 

"Today we are maybe not too optimistic. But we have to be realistic, not optimistic."

 

Meeting on a day when Putin mounted a wordy defense of policies on Ukraine and the economy, then leaders of the 28 EU states conferred on how to handle their giant eastern neighbor longer term after a year of crisis and mutual trade sanctions that have brought warnings of a return to Cold War.

 

Some in the EU have said they should switch their focus away from supporting Ukraine to seeking a detente with Moscow. That might be in the longer term interests of businesses, which have suffered loss of trade and fear a spillover from the Russian financial crisis.

 

But for all their differences in attitudes to Russia, leaders made clear their determination to stick together as they have over the past year, while offering Putin both the threat of stick and the carrot of mutually beneficial commerce.

 

They agreed to keep up financial aid to help Ukraine carry out reforms to its post-Soviet political and economic systems.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/markknoller

Pres Obama signs Executive Order barring new US investment or dealings in the Crimea region of Ukraine to up pressure on Russia.
4:20 PM

 

The Exec Order also bars the importation into the US or of any goods, services, or technology from Crimea region of Ukraine.
4:22 PM

 

Pres Obama again calls on Russia to end "its occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea," & cease support of separatists in E. Ukraine.
4:27 PM

[visionary]

http://conflictreport.info/2015/01/23/hard-evidence-the-regular-russian-army-invades-ukraine/

Hard evidence, the regular Russian army invades Ukraine

 

Over the last 72 hours, increaring reports of regular “Russian army” deployments inside Ukraine emerged, not only from blogging insiders and investigative homepages, but also from the Ukrainian president and army command themselves (a very rare move, despite the widely dominating verbal calming down attempts). Nonetheless, footage to prove such “new” statements was lagging over the first days, a fact, understandable under the current circumstances of the Moscow regime, not willing to uncover its full-scale military invasion into Ukraine. However since yesterday, January 22, several undeniable video sequences from different front sectors across Donbas emerged, undeniably supporting the Ukrainian intelligence reports.

 

 

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_116852.htm

NATO Secretary General statement on the attack on Mariupol

 

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has sharply escalated, with indications of a large-scale offensive by Russian-backed separatists at multiple locations in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts as well as against the city of Mariupol. This is in utter disregard of the ceasefire. The shelling of residential areas in the city of Mariupol from separatist-controlled territory has cost the lives of at least 20 civilians, and injured many more.

 

For several months we have seen the presence of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, as well as a substantial increase in Russian heavy equipment such as tanks, artillery and advanced air defence systems. Russian troops in eastern Ukraine are supporting these offensive operations with command and control systems, air defence systems with advanced surface-to-air missiles, unmanned aerial systems, advanced multiple rocket launcher systems, and electronic warfare systems.

 

I strongly urge Russia to stop its military, political and financial support for the separatists, stop destabilising Ukraine and respect its international commitments.

 

[Larry]

What took em so long?

Seems like it's been over a year since we told em that we weren't going to do anything but sanctions.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/25/us-ukraine-crisis-casualties-idUSKBN0KX08B20150125?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Pro-Russian rebels attack key port; Ukraine says at least 30 dead

 

Pro-Russian rebels launched an offensive against the strategic port of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, prompting the European Union's foreign policy chief to warn of a further "grave deterioration" in EU-Russian relations.

 

Mariupol's city administration said the rebels had killed at least 30 people and injured 83 others by firing rockets from long-range GRAD missile systems.

 

The city of 500,000, on the Sea of Azov, is vital for eastern Ukraine's steel and grain exports and straddles the coastal route from the Russian border to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula in southern Ukraine seized by Russia last March.

 

President Petro Poroshenko, pledging to protect Ukrainian territory, said he would convene an emergency meeting of his country's security council on Sunday.

 

"Today an offensive was launched on Mariupol. This will be the best possible monument to all our dead," Russia's RIA news agency quoted rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko as saying at a memorial ceremony in the separatist-held city of Donetsk.

 

Zakharchenko said the separatists also planned to encircle Debaltseve, a town northeast of Donetsk, in the next few days, Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

 

Eastern Ukraine has seen an escalation of fighting in recent days that Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed on Kiev. The rebels have ruled out more peace talks.

 

Poroshenko responded angrily to the fighting in Mariupol, a city the rebels tried to capture last autumn before a fragile ceasefire was agreed in eastern Ukraine. Kiev fears the rebels want to build a land bridge from Russia to Crimea.

 

"We are for peace, but we accept the challenge of the enemy. We will protect our motherland," Poroshenko said in a statement.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/28/russias-bizarre-proposal-to-condemn-west-germanys-1989-annexation-of-east-germany/

Russia’s bizarre proposal to condemn West Germany’s 1989 ‘annexation’ of East Germany

 

Russian lawmakers will consider a new statement that would condemn an event that happened 25 years ago – the reunification of Germany.

 

According to Russian news agency Tass, State Duma speaker Sergey Naryshkin has asked the Duma's Committee on Foreign Affairs to look into condemning the "annexation" of East Germany by West Germany in 1989.

 

Given the time that's passed and the relative success of German reunification, the idea has struck many as absurd: Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union in 1989, called it "nonsense"  Wednesday. Similar outlandish statements have been made by Russian lawmakers recently – last year, one proposed a ban on high heels, for example.

 

However, this proposal can't be as easily dismissed: Naryshkin is an ally of President Vladimir Putin and it seems unlikely he would have made such a bold statement without the Russian leader's approval.

 

And while the events it concerns may be long in the past, the motivation is likely the present. The plan was originally put forward by Nikolay Ivanov, a Communist Party lawmaker, who has argued that the reunification of Germany was insufficiently democratic. "Unlike Crimea, a referendum was not conducted in the German Democratic Republic," Ivanov was quoted as saying, referring to the region of Ukraine that broke away to join Russia last year after a disputed referendum.

 

Russia and Germany have an important, if complicated, relationship. Chancellor Angela Merkel is perhaps the closest Western leader to Putin – she grew up in East Germany, and – like Putin, who served with the KGB in Dresden –  can speak both German and Russian. However, Merkel has been a prominent voice supporting sanctions on Russia after actions in Ukraine, and the relationship has been strained. Merkel famously told President  Obama that the Russian leader was living "in another world."

 

Ivanov pointed to comments made by the Luxembourgian president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Anne Brasseur, who had accused Russia of annexing Crimea, and said his proposal was a "form of a retaliatory step." Merkel herself had also recently condemned Russia for its actions in Crime. “The annexation of Crimea is a violation of something that has made up our peaceful coexistence, namely the protection of borders and territorial integrity,” Merkel said last week in Davos, Switzerland.

 

https://twitter.com/ARothNYT

Russia suspending membership in Parliamentary Assembly of Europe until 2016 after the body voted to deny Russia voting rights through April.
2:45 PM

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/world/us-taking-a-fresh-look-at-arming-kiev-forces.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

U.S. Considers Supplying Arms to Ukraine Forces, Officials Say

 

With Russian-backed separatists pressing their attacks in Ukraine, NATO’s military commander, Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, now supports providing defensive weapons and equipment to Kiev’s beleaguered forces, and an array of administration and military officials appear to be edging toward that position, American officials said Sunday.

 

President Obama has made no decisions on providing such lethal assistance. But after a series of striking reversals that Ukraine’s forces have suffered in recent weeks, the Obama administration is taking a fresh look at the question of military aid.

 

Secretary of State John Kerry, who plans to visit Kiev on Thursday, is open to new discussions about providing lethal assistance, as is Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, officials said. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who is leaving his post soon, backs sending defensive weapons to the Ukrainian forces.

 

In recent months, Susan E. Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, has resisted proposals to provide lethal assistance, several officials said. But one official who is familiar with her views insisted that Ms. Rice was now prepared to reconsider the issue.

 

Fearing that the provision of defensive weapons might tempt President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to raise the stakes, the White House has limited American aid to “non-lethal” items, including body armor, night-vision goggles, first aid kits and engineering equipment.

 

But the failure of economic sanctions to dissuade Russia from sending heavy weapons and military personnel to eastern Ukraine is pushing the issue of defensive weapons back into discussion.

 

“Although our focus remains on pursuing a solution through diplomatic means, we are always evaluating other options that will help create space for a negotiated solution to the crisis,” said Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/75499ec6706e40b4bce90b163f51ba16/ukraine-diplomatic-flurry-goes-new-round-germany

Ukraine president presses for quick cease-fire

 

Ukraine's president is pushing for a quick cease-fire in his country's troubled east and insists that the conflict there must be resolved, not frozen.

 

Petro Poroshenko is also renewing Kiev's call to be provided with defensive weapons, something that's opposed by European countries.

 

Poroshenko was speaking at the Munich Security Conference Saturday amid a flurry of international diplomacy to calm the Ukraine conflict.

 

Poroshenko said that "there is no temporary solution — this conflict must be resolved, not frozen."

 

He said Ukraine stands ready for a "comprehensive and immediate cease-fire" and Russia should be ready too.

 

http://www.newsweek.com/europe-us-clash-over-ukraine-course-305170

Europe, U.S. Clash Over Ukraine Course