The Russia/Ukraine Crisis Thread

[Godfather]

http://i60.tinypic.com/sdkc4l.jpg

Russia’s Upper House of Parliament on Saturday approved the use of armed forces in Ukraine’s Crimea, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin asked the Federation Council to approve the use of armed forces in the Crimea “until the normalisation of the socio-political situation in that country.”

Russian lawmakers had urged Mr. Putin to take measures to stabilise the situation in Crimea and protect the Russian-majority population.

Earlier, the Prime Minister of Crimea claimed control of all military, police and other security services in the region and appealed to Mr. Putin for help in keeping peace there.

In a statement reported by local and Russian news agencies, Sergei Aksenov declared that the armed forces, the police, the national security service and border guards will answer only to his orders. He said any commanders who don’t agree should leave their posts.

“Understanding my responsibility for the life and security of citizens, I appeal to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin for assistance in guaranteeing peace and calmness on the territory of the autonomous republic of Crimea,” Mr. Aksenov said in his statement.

Armed men described as Russian troops on Friday took control of key airports in Crimea, where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk opened a Cabinet meeting by calling on Russia not to provoke discord in Crimea.

“We call on the government and authorities of Russia to recall their forces, and to return them to their stations,” Mr. Yatsenyuk was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. “Russian partners, stop provoking civil and military resistance in Ukraine."

At the United Nations, the Ukrainian ambassador, Yuriy Sergeyev, said on Friday that 10 Russian transport aircraft and 11 attack helicopters had arrived in Crimea illegally, and that Russian troops had taken control of two airports in Crimea. “Some of them identified themselves as Russians. We know specifically some of the units,” Mr. Sergeyev said. He also said the Russians had captured the main air traffic control center on Crimea.

[perrhaps]

Look out, you sneaky goddamn Russkies! Our President is going to send both Hillary Clinton and John Kerry over to Moscow to put the fear of God in you!

[deebakes]

he's probably more afraid of martina navratilova and johnny weir :idk:

[Godfather]

Not that NATO will respond, nor should it... but Lithuania and Latvia have invoked Article 4 within the last few hours meaning NATO must meet to talk about the Crimea crisis. This is only the 4th time in history it has been invoked

Lithuania invokes Nato treaty on Ukraine
http://euobserver.com/tickers/123321
Lithuania's FM Linkevicius has said Russia's decision to deploy forces in Ukraine means "Nato, art. 4 becomes valid," referring to article 4 of the Nato treaty. The article says Nato members must meet for consultations if "the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened."

[Godfather]

Ukraine also has its military on full alert (which I understand is largely Russian - be interesting to see what would even happen on the small chance they try and stand and fight)

Ukraine armed forces on full combat alert
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-03-01/ukraine-armed-forces-on-full-combat-alert/

Ukraine put its armed forces on full combat alert and warned Russia that any military intervention in the country would lead to war.

After a more than three-hour meeting with security and defence chiefs, Acting President Oleksander Turchinov said there was no justification for what he called Russian aggression against his country.

Standing beside Turchinov, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said he had urged Russia to return its troops to base in the Crimea region during a phone call with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and called for talks.

"Military intervention would be the beginning of war and the end of any relations between Ukraine and Russia," Yatseniuk told reporters.

[Godfather]

Russian military arriving at Crimean military airport

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddimkpGA4kw


And here they are heading to Sevastopol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxoZgHfhRSk

[Godfather]

http://i60.tinypic.com/hvuzar.jpg

[Loser]

I find this entire situation hypocritical.

If south korea was suddenly invaded, you think the US wouldn't protect it's assets there? :roll:

[Godfather]

I find this entire situation hypocritical.

If south korea was suddenly invaded, you think the US wouldn't protect it's assets there? :roll:

I disagree that the 'entire situation' is hypocritical. Our media and politicians in the West are critical of Russia, and I guess you're calling them the hypocrites for the anti-Russian spin? I can see that argument. In support of what you're saying, it's not as simple as CNN is making it look. This is from the Crimea:

http://i.imgur.com/pMqsRsD.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UVdFPN8.jpg



But media's spin/hypocrisy aside - this event itself is still world news, it's not every day this happens in Europe. I'm really curious to see how it will all play out.

[DemonGeminiX]

Vitali Klitschko is gonna beat all of them Russians up.

[Godfather]

Vitali Klitschko is gonna beat all of them Russians up.

He's actually calling for national mobilization of Ukraine. He really does want to save his country.

[Godfather]

Looks like the fighting is getting going. As a bystander I would think that if the Ukraine is going to stand and fight, it would be a grave mistake not to fight for Sevastapol. The place is a fortress.


http://zik.ua/en/news/2014/03/02/russians_storming_ukraine_navy_unit_in_sevastopol_ 466437

Russians storming Ukraine navy unit in Sevastopol
“The Russian troops have started to storm the 39th Navy unit located on Lazarevska St. Ukrainians have blocked the way with an armored personnel carrier, asking journalists to rush to the spot,” Ukrayinska Pravda reports March 2.

At night, Ukraine troops recovered the Navy HQs and Border Guards HQ in Balaclava.

The 39th training battalion barracks have been attacked too. The Russian soldiers are posted around the unit, threatening to open fire, UP correspondent reports.

Ukraine military reject Russian offers of surrender. They show restraint, don’t open fire but stand firm.

[DemonGeminiX]

I don't blame him. Putin's a fuckin' bully. If that cocksucker had his way, he'd undo everything his predecessors accomplished, reclaim all the territories that used to be in the USSR, and go back to fighting the Cold War.

[DemonGeminiX]

Looks like the fighting is getting going. As a bystander I would think that if the Ukraine is going to stand and fight, it would be a grave mistake not to fight for Sevastapol. The place is a fortress.


http://zik.ua/en/news/2014/03/02/russians_storming_ukraine_navy_unit_in_sevastopol_ 466437

Russians storming Ukraine navy unit in Sevastopol
“The Russian troops have started to storm the 39th Navy unit located on Lazarevska St. Ukrainians have blocked the way with an armored personnel carrier, asking journalists to rush to the spot,” Ukrayinska Pravda reports March 2.

At night, Ukraine troops recovered the Navy HQs and Border Guards HQ in Balaclava.

The 39th training battalion barracks have been attacked too. The Russian soldiers are posted around the unit, threatening to open fire, UP correspondent reports.

Ukraine military reject Russian offers of surrender. They show restraint, don’t open fire but stand firm.

Definitely not good.

[Godfather]

I don't blame him. Putin's a fuckin' bully. If that cocksucker had his way, he'd undo everything his predecessors accomplished, reclaim all the territories that used to be in the USSR, and go back to fighting the Cold War.

I agree. I've seen a good number of people posting stories like "Crimea welcomes Russia". Even CNN (which I was incorrect in saying they wouldn't) has run such stories.

Of course, it's true and a valid point. But the history of the Crimea isn't this simple, it spans back more than just 80-years. There are also Turkic people who had lived there for centuries and are mostly Muslims. In and around WWII, the Soviets essentially shipped them off to prison in Uzbekistan or Siberia to starve, while the upper class moved in and started building lake-houses and naval bases. So it's no small wonder that those fairly recently arrived Ukrainian-Russian people (roughly 60% of the population in my understanding) are happy to see the Russians return. On the other hand, I have to imagine that the Tatars who have returned home since Ukrainian independence aren't feeling so hopeful about all this. In fact, they're probably shitting bricks right now.

[DemonGeminiX]

They could make the story of Crimea into a soap opera. That shit would never end.

[Godfather]

They could make the story of Crimea into a soap opera. That shit would never end.
:lol:

In season 3 to boost ratings, they can do a cross-over episode with the Balkans soap opera.

[FBD]

Its sad that pretty much everyone involved here has just their own self interest at heart. Which is ok for the Ukranians. EU/USA/NATO, its the fuckin gas, Russia, its the fkn gas and also the fact that Ukraine was part of its old empire, which putin seems to want to inflate Russia's sphere of influence back out to.

Ukraine has seen a currency collapse, lost like 50% of its value against gold (nothing else is a reliable indicator on bad money fkage) and part of the EU/Nato/USA's interest is to get the fuggin Ukraine into an IMF bailout scheme so they can be bled just like Cyprus and Greece and the rest of the PIIGS and anyone else they can bring under the gianst fucking vacuum cleaner of money and resources and debt drop that is the IMF.

Bring everyone together, bail everyone out, set up a scheme to manage it all from the top...that is what our world is under fire from these days. That is the goal of the international banking cartels and huge businesses - in case nobody knew that already.

[Lambchop]

I think Putin and Obama should mud wrestle and the winner gets Ukraine.

[redred]

Obama would be needing a lot of his own care package after that fight :lol:

[DemonGeminiX]

Obama wouldn't last ten seconds in a fight against Putin. The lanky community organizer vs the former KGB warlord wannabe.

[FBD]

nor would
dubya,
billy,
read my lips,
ronnie,
carterfucker,
johnson,
tricky dick,
...
in fact I think you'd probably have to go back to about Teddy Roosevelt to find an american pres that would last more than a minute in the ring with putin. not because he's a great guy, he's just one of those hardass kgb motherfuckers.

[DemonGeminiX]

Yeah, Teddy was a tough sonofabitch. You can't find many guys in politics like that these days.

[Godfather]

John Kerry: "You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pre-text," Kerry told the CBS program "Face the Nation."


Bahahaha

Still doesn't make Russia right. You can focus on the hypocrisy all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that Russia is about to invade another country and people will die.

[Muddy]

Putin is also a black belt in Judo..

[Hugh_Janus]

:popcorn:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzLtF_PxbYw

[Muddy]

We could run some vbookie stuff on this if I wasnt broke..:lol:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News and The Associated Press


http://i.imgur.com/3STrI3W.jpg

Ukraine’s new leaders Monday called for Western nations to rally against Russia’s invasion of the country’s Crimean Peninsula, making a plea for economic and political support as Moscow continued to be defiant.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk insisted that Crimea remains Ukrainian territory despite the presence of thousands of Russian troops who have secured control over the disputed peninsula without suffering any casualties or firing a shot.

"Any attempt of Russia to grab Crimea will have no success at all. Give us some time," he said at a news conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who is visiting Kiev.

"For today, no military options [are] on the table," he said, adding that what they urgently need is an economic and political support.

"Real support. Tangible support. And we do believe that our Western partners will provide this support," he said.

Hague said on the BBC that Moscow would face "significant costs" for taking control of Crimea.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday justified the use of Russian troops streaming into the neighboring Crimea region as a necessary protection for his country's citizens living there.

The use of Russian troops is necessary "until the normalization of the political situation" in Ukraine, Lavrov said at an opening of a month-long session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"We are talking here about protection of our citizens and compatriots, about protection of the most fundamental of the human rights -- the right to live, and nothing more," Lavrov said.

A Ukraine defense ministry source told the Interfax news agency that Russia's fleet has given the country's forces in Crimea until 3 a.m. to surrender or else they will "face a storm," according to Sky News.

Ukraine has accused Russia of a military invasion and has called on the Kremlin to withdraw its troops. Lavrov dismissed the criticism, and said that "information is coming in about preparations for new provocations that are being committed, including against the Russian Black Sea fleet," which is based in Crimea, a strategic peninsula now effectively under Russian control.

"Those who are trying to interpret the situation as a sort of aggression and threatening us with sanctions and boycotts, these are the same partners who have been consistently and vigorously encouraging the political powers close to them to declare ultimatums and renounce dialogue," Lavrov said. "We call upon them to show a responsibility and to set aside geopolitical calculations and put the interests of the Ukrainian people above all."

Lavrov will meet later Monday with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the situation.

Lavrov called on Ukraine to return to the Feb. 21 agreement signed by pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych aimed at ending his country's three-month political crisis. He fled after signing an agreement with the opposition and foreign ministers of France, German and Poland to hold early elections this fall and surrender much of his powers. But opposition supporters kept pushing for his immediate dismissal.

Lavrov said Yanukovych kept up the agreement, but criticized the opposition, saying they "did nothing."

"The illegal arms have not been relinquished, the government buildings and streets of Kiev have not been completely freed, radicals maintain control of cities," Lavrov said. "Instead of a promised national unity government a 'government of the victors' has been created."

European Union foreign ministers are working on a joint response to Russia's military incursion that could include economic sanctions.

The 28 foreign ministers are holding an emergency meeting on Ukraine Monday to discuss what Germany's foreign minister, Frank Walter Steinmeier, called "Europe's most dramatic crisis" since the end of the Cold War.

The uncertainty of the situation sent global stocks tumbling on Monday.

On Sunday, a senior Obama administration official told reporters that Russia had taken "complete operational control of the Crimean peninsula, some 6,000-plus airborne and naval forces, with considerable materiel [equipment].

"There is no question," the official continued, "that they are in an occupation position in Crimea, that they are flying in reinforcements, and they are settling in."

Pro-Russian troops on Monday took over a ferry terminal in the city of Kerch, on the easternmost tip of the peninsula, approximately 12 miles by boat from Russian territory. The men refused to identify themselves, but they spoke Russian and the vehicles transporting them had Russian license plates.

Troops that Ukraine says are Russian soldiers have also occupied airports in Crimea, smashed equipment at an air base and besieged a Ukrainian infantry base.

On Sunday night, Ukraine's defense ministry said two Russian fighter jets violated the country's airspace in the Black Sea and that it scrambled an interceptor aircraft in response, according to Sky News.

Faced with the Russian threat, Ukraine's new government moved to consolidate its authority, naming new regional governors in the pro-Russia east, enlisting the support of the country's wealthy businessmen and dismissing the head of the country's navy after he declared allegiance to the pro-Russian government in Crimea.

Yatsenyuk said there was no reason for Russia to invade Ukraine and warned that "we are on the brink of disaster."

Western leaders were left scrambling for possible ways to defuse the crisis as phone calls were exchanged and threats and protests were made.

The Group of Seven nations -- including the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain -- said Sunday night that they're suspending participation in the upcoming economic summit scheduled to be held in Sochi, the recent site of the Winter Olympics, in protest of Russia's actions.

Earlier Sunday, President Obama spoke with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the four leaders expressed their "grave concern" over "Russia's clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity," the White House said. The leaders pledged to work together on a package of financial assistance to Ukraine, which is nearly bankrupt.

Outrage over Russia's military moves mounted in world capitals, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry calling on President Vladimir Putin to pull back from "an incredible act of aggression." Kerry also announced Sunday that he would go to Kiev Tuesday for diplomatic talks.

Following an emergency meeting of NATO in Brussels Sunday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a press conference that Russia should pull back its forces and refrain from interfering elsewhere in Ukraine, according to Reuters. NATO is urging the two countries to seek a peaceful resolution through dialogue.

Ukraine is not a NATO member, which means the United States and Europe are not obligated to come to its defense. But Ukraine has taken part in some alliance military exercises and contributed troops to its response force.

So far, however, Ukraine's new government and the West have been powerless to counter Russia's tactics. Russia has also said China is largely "in agreement" with its response to Ukraine, according to Sky News.

Russia has long wanted to reclaim the lush Crimean Peninsula, part of its territory until 1954. Russia's Black Sea Fleet pays Ukraine millions annually to be stationed at the Crimean port of Sevastopol and nearly 60 percent of Crimea's residents identify themselves as Russian.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

http://i.imgur.com/V87J9hR.png

[perrhaps]

.

"Real support. Tangible support. And we do believe that our Western partners will provide this support," he said.

Umm.. Would you settle for a "red line" ultimatum from our Community-organizer-in Chief ?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

http://i.imgur.com/V87J9hR.png

(CNN) -- [Breaking news update, posted at 11:22 a.m. ET]

Russia has issued an ultimatum to Ukrainian forces in the Crimea to clear out by 5 a.m. Tuesday or face a "military storm," according to Russian state-run news agency Interfax, which cited a Ukrainian Defense Ministry source.

Aleksandr Vitko, Russia's Black Sea fleet commander, said that "ff they won't surrender by 5 a.m. tomorrow (10 p.m. ET Monday) there will be a military storm on all UA (Ukraine Armed) military forces all over Crimea," Interfax reported, citing a source in Ukraine's Defense Ministry.

A Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman, Vladislav Seleznyov, told CNN that members of the Russian military are going to Ukrainian military bases in Crimea and demanding surrender. The Russian troops are threatening "harsh reaction" if the Ukrainians don't comply, Seleznyov said.

Ukraine Security Service spokesman Petro Tymchyshyn said there that Ukraine is not aware of any official Russian ultimatum.

[FBD]

in other news, Russia denies this :lol:

[Acid Trip]

Someone is about to light the WWIII fuse...

[FBD]

they better not dammit

[Acid Trip]

they better not dammit

Someone better tell Putin then.

[Hal-9000]

embarrassingly..I learned about Crimea's politics (and geography) by playing a flight simulator called IL2 Sturmovik, WW2 planes and battles :lol:

that piece of land is like the red whore who will let anyone in..

[Godfather]

http://i59.tinypic.com/axi5gp.png

[Godfather]

Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity. To seize everything you ever wanted. One moment. Would you capture it or just let it slip?

His bombs are heavy; Kiev's weak, can't hold steady

His troops in Crimea already, scarin' John Kerry

He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready

To drop bombs - but he keeps on forgetting

About Moscow, the protests get so loud

He gives the order and right then the troops roll out

Fuck the pacifists, he can just choke 'em out,

Peacetime's over, the game's up, WORLD WAR NOW!

[Godfather]

What a nice guy......

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin says ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has sent a letter to Putin asking him to use military force in Ukraine to restore law and order.

"Under the influence of Western countries, there are open acts of terror and violence," Churkin quoted the letter from Yanukovich to Putin in the third emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

"People are being persecuted for language and political reasons," Churkin read. ”So in this regard I would call on the President of Russia, Mr. Putin, asking him to use the armed forces of the Russian Federation to establish legitimacy, peace, law and order, stability and defending the people of Ukraine."

After reading the letter, Churkin held up a copy of the original letter from Yanukovich to Putin for council members to look at.

Churkin also told the UN Security Council that it is about protecting the rights of the Russian-speaking population there.

Russia considers it necessary to ensure that the agreement between Viktor Yanukovich and the opposition on the crisis in Ukraine is fulfilled, Churkin told the UNSC.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

The Associated Press


http://i.imgur.com/i7trzB6.jpg

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow reserves the right to use all means to protect Russians in Ukraine as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was on his way to Kiev. Tensions remained high in the strategic Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea with troops loyal to Moscow firing warning shots to ward off protesting Ukrainian soldiers.

In his first comments since Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev, Putin said he considers him to still be Ukraine's leader, and hopes that Russia won't need to use force in predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

He rejected the Western threat to punish Russia with sanctions over its action in Ukraine, saying they will backfire against the West.

Earlier Tuesday, the Kremlin said Putin had ordered tens of thousands of Russian troops participating in military exercises near Ukraine's border to return to their bases. The massive military exercise in western Russia involving 150,000 troops, hundreds of tanks and dozens of aircraft was supposed to wrap up anyway, so it was not clear if Putin's move was an attempt to heed the West's call to de-escalate the crisis that has put Ukraine's future on the line.

It came as Kerry was on his way to Kiev to meet with the new Ukrainian leadership that deposed a pro-Russian president, and has accused Moscow of a military invasion in Crimea. The Kremlin, which does not recognize the new Ukrainian leadership, insists it made the move in order to protect Russian installations and its citizens living there.

On Tuesday, Russian troops who had taken control of the Belbek air base in the Crimea region fired warning shots into the air as around 300 Ukrainian soldiers, who previously manned the airfield, demanded their jobs back.

About a dozen Russian soldiers at the base warned the Ukrainians, who were marching unarmed, not to approach. They fired several warning shots into the air and said they would shoot the Ukrainians if they continued to march toward them.

The shots reflected tensions running high in the Black Sea peninsula since Russian troops — estimated by Ukrainian authorities to be 16,000 strong —tightened their grip over the weekend on the Crimean peninsula, where Moscow's Black Sea Fleet is based.

Ukraine has accused Russia of violating a bilateral agreement on conditions of a Russian lease of a naval base in Crimea that restricts troop movements, but Russia has argued that it was acting within the limits set by the deal.

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said Monday at the U.N. Security Council that Russia was entitled to deploy up to 25,000 troops in Crimea under the agreement. Churkin didn't specify how many Russian troops are now stationed in Crimea, but said that "they are acting in a way they consider necessary to protect their facilities and prevent extremist actions."

Churkin said that Russia wasn't trying to ensure the return to power of Yanukovych, but still considers him the legitimate leader of Ukraine and demands the implementation of a Western-sponsored peace deal he signed with the opposition that set presidential elections for December. Russian envoy at those talks did not sign the deal. Yanukovych fled the capital hours after the deal was signed and ended up in Russia, and the Ukrainian parliament set the presidential vote for May 25.

There was no sign of tensions elsewhere in Crimea early on Tuesday. A supposed Russian ultimatum for two Ukrainian warships to surrender or be seized passed without action from either side, as the two ships remained anchored in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Vladimir Anikin said late Monday that no ultimatum had been issued.

Early on Tuesday, the Kremlin said Putin ordered troops participating in military exercises alongside Russia's western border to return to their permanent bases. The order was in line with an earlier plan to complete the exercise early this week.

The maneuvers, which Putin ordered on Wednesday involved scrambling fighter jets to patrol Russia's western frontiers and stoked fears that the Kremlin might send troops into Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine.

In Brussels, meanwhile, the ambassadors of NATO's 28 member nations will hold a second emergency meeting on Ukraine on Tuesday after Poland, which borders both Russia and Ukraine, invoked an article calling for consultations when a nation sees its "territorial integrity, political independence or security threatened," the alliance said in a statement.

President Barack Obama has said that Russia is "on the wrong side of history" in Ukraine and its actions violate international law. Obama said the U.S. was considering economic and diplomatic options that will isolate Russia, and called on Congress to work on an aid package for Ukraine.

In return, Russia's agricultural oversight agency issued a statement Tuesday declaring the reversal of its earlier decision to lift the ban on imports of U.S. pork. It said the existing U.S. system of checks don't guarantee its safety.

Putin's economic advisor, Sergei Glazyev, said that Russia can develop financial ties with other nations to offset any potential Western sanctions.

The European Union's foreign ministers on Monday threatened Moscow with halting talks on visa liberalization and negotiations on further economic cooperation unless Russian troops on the Crimean peninsula pull back over the next three days.

The bloc's 28 heads of state and government will hold an emergency meeting on the situation in Ukraine on Thursday that will decide on imposing the sanctions if there is no de-escalation on the ground, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.

[Jezter]

Im just waiting for the draft call... Madafakin Putin. If he gets the ball rolling with Ukraine, he might want to try us again too... conveniently already has training in the Gulf of Finland...

[Hal-9000]

Im just waiting for the draft call... Madafakin Putin. If he gets the ball rolling with Ukraine, he might want to try us again too... conveniently already has training in the Gulf of Finland...

I flew missions in the Gulf of Finland in the same game as I mentioned above :lol:

hey, kill me.. it's how I learn about history :oops:

[Jezter]

I flew missions in the Gulf of Finland in the same game as I mentioned above :lol:

hey, kill me.. it's how I learn about history :oops:

It's nice to learn and game though.

[redred]

Is there an automatic draft in Finland jezzie ? Damn the battle fields could have the smell of coconut hair products wafting over them

[Jezter]

Is there an automatic draft in Finland jezzie ? Damn the battle fields could have the smell of coconut hair products wafting over them

:lol: I didn't have time to use any hairproducts while serving. Only when waiting for the holiday bus to come pick us up.

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

[redred]

Good luck :lol:

[Jezter]

Good luck :lol:

Pioneer Jez salutes! :lol:

[redred]

Have you ever had any training ?

[Jezter]

Have you ever had any training ?

I have, cuz I served in the Finnish Defence Force, Engineer Regiment in Keuruu. I am a pioneer for reals. So I be called upon amongst the first ones if shit hits the fan.

[FBD]

I've read a lot of conflicting shit on this. But it basically seems like....as usual, a created country's lines were drawn with an ethnic divide right in the middle of it. East seems to want to be a part of russia, west looks at greece and what, they think they arent headed that way under IMF bailouts and forced austerity from brussels? Fact of the matter is, everyone has a lot to lose right here - and the US is playing a game there it doesnt have to, and it has no real regional interests there outside of those very small groups of people who get together and play geopolitical games. We're lucky that China's interests dont necessarily coincide with Russia's here, because if they both decided to fuck the US hard, they could, although the caveat there is its going to cost everyone's oligarchy quite a sum of money (probably mostly interms of money they havent made/stolen yet) so TPTB in the respective countries hopefully have a lot to not be trigger happy about.

[Jezter]

http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/apqAnq9_460s.jpg

[DemonGeminiX]

:-s

The Russians had a Naval base in Crimea all this time?

[DemonGeminiX]

I have, cuz I served in the Finnish Defence Force, Engineer Regiment in Keuruu. I am a pioneer for reals. So I be called upon amongst the first ones if shit hits the fan.

:-k

Engineer regiment?

So when you guys go to war and y'all whip out some uber-brand new super tech and it blows up in y'all's faces, we know who to blame.

:nana:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

:-s

The Russians had a Naval base in Crimea all this time?

It's been there a long time, I think it was there when Crimea was actually still a part of Russia before Khrushchev gave it to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954.

[Jezter]

:-k

Engineer regiment?

So when you guys go to war and y'all whip out some uber-brand new super tech and it blows up in y'all's faces, we know who to blame.

:nana:

Haha! Yeah, if I didn't blow up myself first. There's a reason I never gained any significant rank... :D

[Jezter]

:-s

The Russians had a Naval base in Crimea all this time?


It's been there a long time, I think it was there when Crimea was actually still a part of Russia before Khrushchev gave it to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954.

The whole story with Crimea is difficult, riddled with war and weird exchanges of power. And there's the whole another deal with Sevastopol...

[Muddy]

http://i.imgur.com/kEBFacG.jpg

[Hal-9000]

I have, cuz I served in the Finnish Defence Force, Engineer Regiment in Keuruu. I am a pioneer for reals. So I be called upon amongst the first ones if shit hits the fan.


:shock:


I did not know this....


no wonder you look like a big jarhead :lol:



*salutes*

[Muddy]

I have, cuz I served in the Finnish Defence Force, Engineer Regiment in Keuruu. I am a pioneer for reals. So I be called upon amongst the first ones if shit hits the fan.


The only thing you have ever served, is a plate of hamburgers at Shoney's..

http://i.imgur.com/Vq1FeD2.jpg

[Goofy]

The only thing you have ever served, is a plate of hamburgers at Shoney's..

http://i.imgur.com/Vq1FeD2.jpg

Dr Evil's spaceship :shock:

[DemonGeminiX]

Just being reported on the Fox News Channel: Crimea lawmakers have voted to split with Ukraine and join Russia. Ukrainian officials have declared it illegal.

[Muddy]

:lolwut:

[DemonGeminiX]

It looks like they kept the lawmakers out that would have voted against the referendum. It's supposed to be put to a public vote. Let's see if it gets that far and if it's rigged.

[Pony]

That could be an interesting public vote. I believe 60% of the local population is Russian.

[Jezter]

:shock:


I did not know this....


no wonder you look like a big jarhead :lol:



*salutes*
Lovely backhanded compliment! :lol: Yeah, 255 days.

The only thing you have ever served, is a plate of hamburgers at Shoney's..

http://i.imgur.com/Vq1FeD2.jpg
:'(
But he sort of looks like me tho. :D

[FBD]

Just being reported on the Fox News Channel: Crimea lawmakers have voted to split with Ukraine and join Russia. Ukrainian officials have declared it illegal.

if this happens, bets on vbookie which does better in 2 years :lol:

[Godfather]

The Muslim Tatars in Crimea are getting giant "X"s marked on their doors...

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/03/who-will-protect-the-crimean-tatars.html

At first, Rustem Kadyrov could barely make out the mark outside his house, in the Crimean town of Bakhchysarai, but it filled him with terror. It was an X, cut deep into the gray metal of the gate, and its significance cut even deeper, evoking a memory Kadyrov shares with all Crimean Tatars. Kadyrov, who is thirty-one, grew up hearing stories about marks on doors. In May of 1944, Stalin ordered his police to tag the houses of Crimean Tatars, the native Muslim residents of the peninsula. Within a matter of days, all of them—almost two hundred thousand people—were evicted from their homes, loaded onto trains, and sent to Central Asia, on the pretext that the community had collaborated with the Nazi occupation of Crimea.

Kadyrov’s grandmother, Sedeka Memetova, who was eight at the time, was among those deported. “The soldiers gave us five minutes to pack up,” she told me, when I visited the family on Thursday. “We left everything behind.” Memetova still has vivid memories of her journey into exile: the stench of the overcrowded train carriage, the wailing of a pregnant woman who sat next to her, and the solemn faces of the men who had to lower the bodies of their children off of the moving train—the only way, she said, to dispose of the dead. Four of her siblings were among the thousands of Crimean Tatars who never even made it to their final destination, Uzbekistan.

Starting in the nineteen-sixties, the Soviet Union began to allow survivors of the deportation to return. Memetova and her family came back to Crimea almost three decades ago, in 1987. This weekend, at around 3 P.M. on Saturday, Memetova’s forty-four-year-old daughter, Ava, looked out the window and saw four young men, strangers to the neighborhood, walking down the street, armed with batons. The men were also carrying pieces of paper, Ava told me—which she believes were lists of homes belonging to Crimean Tatars. Seventy years after Memetova’s deportation, her house had been marked once again. “Just as we thought we finally had a future,” she said. “How could anyone do this in the twenty-first century?”

When I walked up Chiisty Istochniki Street from the Memetovas’ house, I saw similar marks on four other houses, all of them residences of Crimean Tatars, Kadyrov said. The houses of their Russian neighbors, however, had not been touched. Similar markings have been reported in other parts of Bakhchysarai, and in some areas of the regional capital, Simferopol. Kadyrov told me that he called the police, who came out see his gate, but they refused to register a case. He was not surprised. “The police will not help us,” he said. “They told me Crimean Tatars are not a priority for them. Of course not—they are punishing us because we do not want Putin here.”

Kadyrov’s Russian neighbors have noticed the markings but dismissed his worries. “Whoever did it was just joking,” one woman, who did not wish to be named, told me. “We get along with our neighbors fine,” she continued. “But it would be helpful if Crimean Tatars stopped supporting Kiev.”

Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, claims that his country has an obligation to protect the Crimean peninsula’s Russians, a majority of its population, from what he called an “orgy of nationalists, and extremists, and anti-Semites” rampaging through the streets of Kiev. “What does that mean for us?” Kadyrov asked. “Who will protect us?”

Crimea is now firmly under the control of a new, pro-Moscow government, which does not recognize the authority of the new administration in Kiev. On Thursday, as the United States and European Union ramped up pressure on the Kremlin—announcing sanctions and visa restrictions against involved individuals—the regional parliament in Crimea voted unanimously to declare the peninsula part of Russia. A previously scheduled referendum on more autonomy for Crimea within Ukraine was moved up from March 30th to March 16th, and changed to a question about merging Crimea with Russia.

There are about three hundred thousand Crimean Tatars on the peninsula, and although they constitute only fifteen per cent of its population they have great political significance. If they do not back the upcoming referendum, it will be far more difficult for the pro-Moscow government in Crimea to legitimize what is in effect a Russian annexation of the peninsula. This, Crimean Tatars told me, is precisely why pressure is growing for them to turn their back on Kiev.

Over the past week, Moscow has sent a series of delegations to meet with the leaders of the Crimean Tatar community. On Wednesday, the President of Tatarstan, an autonomous Muslim republic in Russia, met with members of the representative body of Crimean Tatars, known as the Mejlis. Another member of his delegation, Ilshat Aminov—the head of Tatarstan’s state broadcaster—paid a visit on the same day to the journalists at a Crimean Tatar television channel, ATR, which has been openly supportive of the new government in Kiev.

I happened to be at ATR when Aminov arrived. His laughter echoed through the newsroom as he walked around, praising the station’s modern equipment and avoiding any discussion of the news. When I asked Aminov about the reason for his visit, he said, simply, “I am here to support my brothers in a time of trouble.” Linur Yunusov, a senior journalist at ATR, told me that while no Russian official had ever bothered to visit Crimean Tatars before, Moscow was now sending one delegation after another. “This sudden brotherly love is overwhelming,” he joked.

At one point, a journalist inside the newsroom called Aminov’s attention to a television screen, which showed masked Russian soldiers blocking the entrance to a military base outside Simferopol. “This is our live position,” the journalist said, provocatively. “A perfect view of the Russian occupation.” Aminov didn’t take the bait. “Which editing software do you use?” he replied.

The delegates visiting from Russia have made many promises to the Crimean Tatars to solicit their political support: seats in the new government, financial assistance, official language rights, and rural-development programs. These offers resonate, particularly as the community feels that its plight has been largely ignored by the government in Kiev for the past quarter century. Many Crimean Tatars remain bitterly disappointed that Kiev has not delivered on its many promises to pass laws that would recognize victims of Stalin’s deportation or establish Crimean Tatar-language schools.

“We are on a verge of losing our culture, our language, our identity,” Yunusov, the senior journalist, told me. And yet, like most of the Crimean Tatars I have interviewed, he believes that the community will be safer if the peninsula remains part of Ukraine. “For us, a European Ukraine is the only way of making sure that we survive as people,” he said. “We need European laws to protect our identity. After what happened in 1944, we can never trust the Russians.”

Eskandar Baiibov, a deputy in the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, told me firmly that his community is unanimous in its backing for the government in Kiev, and that Crimean Tatars would boycott any referendum on joining Russia. But he is also terrified, he admitted, of the price that they might have to pay for refusing to give the Kremlin the support it wants.

“We are already seeing signs that they are trying to intimidate us, to split us, to stir trouble,” Baiibov said. “Ukrainians are also vulnerable, but at least they have Ukraine to go to. Where will we go? Crimea is our only home.” After the regional parliament voted to merge Crimea into Russia on Thursday, the chairman of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, released a statement to the press, calling for the United Nations to “immediately consider” sending a contingent of international peacekeepers into Crimea, “in order to deëscalate the military conflict … which can lead to mass casualties among the entire civilian population of the peninsula.”

But the prospect of U.N. peacekeepers landing on the peninsula anytime soon is less than slim. And so, as Crimea prepares for a referendum on its future, its native people are preparing for the worst. In Bakhchysarai, Ava’s husband has cut up metal rods and placed them throughout the house so the family can use them to fight off any possible intruders. The men of Chiisty Istochniki Street now take turns patrolling the neighborhood at night, and Rustem Kadyrov has applied for travel documents for his children.

“Many of us want to get wives and children out of here, to somewhere safe,” Kadyrov told me. The men, he said, will stay.

Above: Crimean Tatars hold a rally near the parliament building in Simferopol. Photograph by Baz Ratner/Reuters.

[Godfather]

Maybe they should give them a yellow badge to wear around town, make them easier to identify so the local militias can protect them better......

[DemonGeminiX]

That's seriously fucked up.

[Griffin]

are their children called tatar tots? :-k

[FBD]

read some reports that about half of Ukraine's 40 tons of gold was quietly removed from the country, delivered to the airport in a string of unmarked vehicles...

...and people at the airport who questioned it to their supervisors were told they should mind their own business and not meddle in the affairs of others...

[Acid Trip]

read some reports that about half of Ukraine's 40 tons of gold was quietly removed from the country, delivered to the airport in a string of unmarked vehicles...

...and people at the airport who questioned it to their supervisors were told they should mind their own business and not meddle in the affairs of others...

Nothing sketchy about that at all...

[Muddy]

The Muslim Tatars in Crimea are getting giant "X"s marked on their doors...

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/03/who-will-protect-the-crimean-tatars.html

At first, Rustem Kadyrov could barely make out the mark outside his house, in the Crimean town of Bakhchysarai, but it filled him with terror. It was an X, cut deep into the gray metal of the gate, and its significance cut even deeper, evoking a memory Kadyrov shares with all Crimean Tatars. Kadyrov, who is thirty-one, grew up hearing stories about marks on doors. In May of 1944, Stalin ordered his police to tag the houses of Crimean Tatars, the native Muslim residents of the peninsula. Within a matter of days, all of them—almost two hundred thousand people—were evicted from their homes, loaded onto trains, and sent to Central Asia, on the pretext that the community had collaborated with the Nazi occupation of Crimea.

Kadyrov’s grandmother, Sedeka Memetova, who was eight at the time, was among those deported. “The soldiers gave us five minutes to pack up,” she told me, when I visited the family on Thursday. “We left everything behind.” Memetova still has vivid memories of her journey into exile: the stench of the overcrowded train carriage, the wailing of a pregnant woman who sat next to her, and the solemn faces of the men who had to lower the bodies of their children off of the moving train—the only way, she said, to dispose of the dead. Four of her siblings were among the thousands of Crimean Tatars who never even made it to their final destination, Uzbekistan.

Starting in the nineteen-sixties, the Soviet Union began to allow survivors of the deportation to return. Memetova and her family came back to Crimea almost three decades ago, in 1987. This weekend, at around 3 P.M. on Saturday, Memetova’s forty-four-year-old daughter, Ava, looked out the window and saw four young men, strangers to the neighborhood, walking down the street, armed with batons. The men were also carrying pieces of paper, Ava told me—which she believes were lists of homes belonging to Crimean Tatars. Seventy years after Memetova’s deportation, her house had been marked once again. “Just as we thought we finally had a future,” she said. “How could anyone do this in the twenty-first century?”

When I walked up Chiisty Istochniki Street from the Memetovas’ house, I saw similar marks on four other houses, all of them residences of Crimean Tatars, Kadyrov said. The houses of their Russian neighbors, however, had not been touched. Similar markings have been reported in other parts of Bakhchysarai, and in some areas of the regional capital, Simferopol. Kadyrov told me that he called the police, who came out see his gate, but they refused to register a case. He was not surprised. “The police will not help us,” he said. “They told me Crimean Tatars are not a priority for them. Of course not—they are punishing us because we do not want Putin here.”

Kadyrov’s Russian neighbors have noticed the markings but dismissed his worries. “Whoever did it was just joking,” one woman, who did not wish to be named, told me. “We get along with our neighbors fine,” she continued. “But it would be helpful if Crimean Tatars stopped supporting Kiev.”

Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, claims that his country has an obligation to protect the Crimean peninsula’s Russians, a majority of its population, from what he called an “orgy of nationalists, and extremists, and anti-Semites” rampaging through the streets of Kiev. “What does that mean for us?” Kadyrov asked. “Who will protect us?”

Crimea is now firmly under the control of a new, pro-Moscow government, which does not recognize the authority of the new administration in Kiev. On Thursday, as the United States and European Union ramped up pressure on the Kremlin—announcing sanctions and visa restrictions against involved individuals—the regional parliament in Crimea voted unanimously to declare the peninsula part of Russia. A previously scheduled referendum on more autonomy for Crimea within Ukraine was moved up from March 30th to March 16th, and changed to a question about merging Crimea with Russia.

There are about three hundred thousand Crimean Tatars on the peninsula, and although they constitute only fifteen per cent of its population they have great political significance. If they do not back the upcoming referendum, it will be far more difficult for the pro-Moscow government in Crimea to legitimize what is in effect a Russian annexation of the peninsula. This, Crimean Tatars told me, is precisely why pressure is growing for them to turn their back on Kiev.

Over the past week, Moscow has sent a series of delegations to meet with the leaders of the Crimean Tatar community. On Wednesday, the President of Tatarstan, an autonomous Muslim republic in Russia, met with members of the representative body of Crimean Tatars, known as the Mejlis. Another member of his delegation, Ilshat Aminov—the head of Tatarstan’s state broadcaster—paid a visit on the same day to the journalists at a Crimean Tatar television channel, ATR, which has been openly supportive of the new government in Kiev.

I happened to be at ATR when Aminov arrived. His laughter echoed through the newsroom as he walked around, praising the station’s modern equipment and avoiding any discussion of the news. When I asked Aminov about the reason for his visit, he said, simply, “I am here to support my brothers in a time of trouble.” Linur Yunusov, a senior journalist at ATR, told me that while no Russian official had ever bothered to visit Crimean Tatars before, Moscow was now sending one delegation after another. “This sudden brotherly love is overwhelming,” he joked.

At one point, a journalist inside the newsroom called Aminov’s attention to a television screen, which showed masked Russian soldiers blocking the entrance to a military base outside Simferopol. “This is our live position,” the journalist said, provocatively. “A perfect view of the Russian occupation.” Aminov didn’t take the bait. “Which editing software do you use?” he replied.

The delegates visiting from Russia have made many promises to the Crimean Tatars to solicit their political support: seats in the new government, financial assistance, official language rights, and rural-development programs. These offers resonate, particularly as the community feels that its plight has been largely ignored by the government in Kiev for the past quarter century. Many Crimean Tatars remain bitterly disappointed that Kiev has not delivered on its many promises to pass laws that would recognize victims of Stalin’s deportation or establish Crimean Tatar-language schools.

“We are on a verge of losing our culture, our language, our identity,” Yunusov, the senior journalist, told me. And yet, like most of the Crimean Tatars I have interviewed, he believes that the community will be safer if the peninsula remains part of Ukraine. “For us, a European Ukraine is the only way of making sure that we survive as people,” he said. “We need European laws to protect our identity. After what happened in 1944, we can never trust the Russians.”

Eskandar Baiibov, a deputy in the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, told me firmly that his community is unanimous in its backing for the government in Kiev, and that Crimean Tatars would boycott any referendum on joining Russia. But he is also terrified, he admitted, of the price that they might have to pay for refusing to give the Kremlin the support it wants.

“We are already seeing signs that they are trying to intimidate us, to split us, to stir trouble,” Baiibov said. “Ukrainians are also vulnerable, but at least they have Ukraine to go to. Where will we go? Crimea is our only home.” After the regional parliament voted to merge Crimea into Russia on Thursday, the chairman of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, released a statement to the press, calling for the United Nations to “immediately consider” sending a contingent of international peacekeepers into Crimea, “in order to deëscalate the military conflict … which can lead to mass casualties among the entire civilian population of the peninsula.”

But the prospect of U.N. peacekeepers landing on the peninsula anytime soon is less than slim. And so, as Crimea prepares for a referendum on its future, its native people are preparing for the worst. In Bakhchysarai, Ava’s husband has cut up metal rods and placed them throughout the house so the family can use them to fight off any possible intruders. The men of Chiisty Istochniki Street now take turns patrolling the neighborhood at night, and Rustem Kadyrov has applied for travel documents for his children.

“Many of us want to get wives and children out of here, to somewhere safe,” Kadyrov told me. The men, he said, will stay.

Above: Crimean Tatars hold a rally near the parliament building in Simferopol. Photograph by Baz Ratner/Reuters.


Can you read this to me while I lay in bed?

[FBD]

next up for ukraine, deposit confiscation...

It would appear the IMF's dirty little fingerprints are all over this latest piece of legislation in Ukraine. The Ukraine Finance Ministry is proposing to take a very-similar-to-Cyprus approach to bailing in its despositors:

*UKRAINE PROPOSES NEW TAX ON DEPOSITS EXCEEDING 100,000 HRYVNIA
*UKRAINE TAX PROPOSAL WOULD INCLUDE 1.5% OF ALL DEPOSITS

This would appear a measure designed to stabilize the budget for potential IMF negotiations and fits perfectly with what the IMF has consistently hinted as the next steps for many nations.



This is further to the news last week that a 25% deposit "tax" was being considered...

Via Tax News,

Ukraine's parliament is to consider draft laws which would ban foreign-currency bank deposits and introduce a 25% tax on interest on deposits in banks and other financial institutions in circumstances where the interest received is more than 5% above the rate set by the National Bank of Ukraine.



The proposed amendments to banking and tax legislation were put forward by Yevhen Sihal, who is a member of the country's ruling Party of Regions. In an explanatory note submitted with the drafts, he argued that the higher tax rate will encourage consumer spending, reduce the cost of business loans, and provide extra funding for the country's Pension Fund. Sihal also explained that his tax proposal is based on the experience of the Russian Federation.



Sihal's proposals have united the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the country's Communist Party in opposition. The NBU was quoted as saying that it was concerned about the politicization of economic issues, and that its policy was to increase the deposit base in line with international practice, while Communist leader Petro Symonenko suggested that the owners of large deposits will simply move their funds abroad to avoid the tax.

We assume, just as with Cyprus, that the big money has already left the building leaving small businesses and the average joe to foot the IMF-demanding bill (for the good of the country) to get their bailout funds.

[FBD]

From a russian friend of mine who speaks both russian and ukranian fluently...wrt crimea, and how russians and crimeans and any ukranian that has not drank the US/EU/IMF kool-aid...



Nah, it's not annexation. Annexation was, e.g., taking California and Texas from Mexico.



Crimea was something else. E.g., if Obama had the power to give California to Texas, just for administrative purposes, and then some 35 years later Texas announced its independence from the USA, retaining California within its borders, and another 20 years later an unconstitutional armed coup seized the power in Texas and California didn't like the new direction and the new government and held a referendum as to whether to stay part of Texas or return to the US, and 97% of its residents voted for rejoining the US and the US accepted them back, without a single shot fired --



that would have been an identical scenario to what happened in Crimea. Hardly an annexation by any standards, historic or modern.

[FBD]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RxSzSWbcxo

[FBD]

wait, I thought disarming the militias etc was precondition for imf bailout...

what? not going to happen?

ok, unleash the bailout anyway

And Now The Real Economic Pain Begins As IMF Unleashes $27BN Bailout In "Near Bankrupt" Ukraine

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-27/and-now-real-economic-pain-begins-imf-unleashes-27bn-bailout-near-bankrupt-ukraine


fuckin IMF

[FBD]

......

IMF approved the $17bn tranched loan to Ukraine last night, Gazprom gets paid; Ukraine gets its cash; and the door's wide open for the US and EU to pour more 'controlling influence' into the divided nation... Except there's one thing:

IF UKRAINE GOVERNMENT LOSES EFFECTIVE CONTROL OVER EAST OF COUNTRY, $17 BLN IMF BAILOUT WOULD NEED TO BE REDESIGNED

Which, roughly translated, appears to mean go to war with pro-Russian forces (and thus Russia itself if Putin sees his apparent countrymen in trouble) or you don't get your money!

.....


whos hellbent on war

[FBD]

"East Ukraine Votes For Independence: Turnout Reported "Off The Charts""

Looks like Donetsk and Lugansk regions have given the kiev nazis the finger...

...and the US State department once again asserts that any true grassroots movement is illegitimate and against both international and ukrainian law...

um, yeah, just like a state seceding from the US government they consider to be an illegal action. :roll: (although I'm sure things have to get much worse here for that to happen :popcorn: )

[FBD]

Joe Biden's son appointed to the board of directors to Ukraine's largest gas producer...nope no cronyism/nepotism there...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/farce-complete-joe-bidens-son-joins-board-largest-ukraine-gas-producer

What, couple days after Luhansk votes to stay out of Ukraine, and they already tried assassinating the new governor:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/peoples-governor-newly-independent-luhansk-survives-assassination-attempt

[FBD]

A clearly irritated Sergei Lavrov - Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs - appeared on Bloomberg TV this morning and warned that "Ukraine is as close to civil war as you can get." The minister further exclaimed that Russia "would like to understand how helicopters with a UN logo were used against protesters in the south-east," adding that "Russia has serious suspicions that mercenaries from the USA are acting in Ukraine’s south-east." Furthermore, Lavrov warned that "attempts to force Ukraine into NATO may have a strong negative impact on the whole system of European security." But apart from that... BTFWWIII

A UN-marked Helicopter being used by Ukraine forces against Donetsk regional militia


And the raw feed via LiveLeak:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_g5TKSb8AI

Ironically - the UN also wants to know why... (http://rt.com/news/158832-un-ukraine-helicopter-scandal/)



The UN has voiced concerns over the apparent use of UN-marked helicopters by Kiev troops in their military operation against Donetsk regional militia. A video of a white-painted Mil Mi-24 strike helicopter with UN logo has emerged.

When inquired about the United Nations’ stance on the use of peacekeeper-marked military hardware in non-peacekeeper operations, the office for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson said such use would violate UN rules.

“It is the responsibility of Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) that provide Contingent Owned Equipment to peacekeeping missions to remove all logos and signage bearing the UN's name once such equipment has been repatriated to the home country or is no longer being used for official UN purposes,” the office told RT.

It added that UN-marked aircraft can be used for missions tasked by the UN and that UN’s Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support is in contact with the Ukrainian authorities to clarify the issue.

And - as Lavrov explains in the clip below - Russia seriously wants to know why...

[i]As ITAR-TASS reports, (http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/731584)


Russia strongly opposes attempts to force Ukraine into NATO, Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov stated in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

“Attempts to force Ukraine into NATO may have a strong negative impact on the whole system of European security, and we would be strongly opposing it,” he stressed. The minister added that this issue concerns not only Ukraine and NATO, but Russia as well.

According to Lavrov, Moscow urges to investigate the alleged Kiev’s using of helicopters with UN marks in the military operation in the country’s south-east. “Ukraine is as close to civil war as you can get,” the Russian minister emphasized. “We would like to understand how helicopters with UN logo were used against protesters in the south-east,” the minister said.

“Russia has serious suspicions that mercenaries from the USA are acting in Ukraine’s south-east,” Lavrov pointed out.

Commenting on the news about the start of the ‘round table’ on ways of settling the crisis in Kiev, the Russian minister noted that for the success of the national dialogue, Ukraine needs an equal participation of all the country’s regions in this process.

“I don’t know which the exact list of participants of the widely advertised ‘round table’ in Kiev is. We are convinced that for the success of the national dialogue, an equal participation of all Ukraine’s regions is needed, and not only of the south and east, but of the west as well,”

[FBD]

ffs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqxKddrXqwU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqxKddrXqwU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3wBXkR0rJ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3wBXkR0rJ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rakO52huC8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rakO52huC8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItWaRqtMu6A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItWaRqtMu6A



:(

not pretty, just a warning.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/P_7IgxN6AbI



I guess this stuff isnt newsworthy over here....well, hey, it certainly was when yankuyovich was prez of ukraine, but now that its a usnato puppet regime there, no need to report this stuff.

[FBD]

Joe Biden's son appointed to the board of directors to Ukraine's largest gas producer...nope no cronyism/nepotism there...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/farce-complete-joe-bidens-son-joins-board-largest-ukraine-gas-producer

What, couple days after Luhansk votes to stay out of Ukraine, and they already tried assassinating the new governor:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/peoples-governor-newly-independent-luhansk-survives-assassination-attempt


WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden, the youngest son of Vice President Joe Biden, faces no automatic review of his law license in Connecticut following his discharge from the U.S. Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine use, Connecticut legal authorities said Friday.

Hunter Biden works in Washington as a private equity executive and board director of an international (Ukrainian) energy firm, but he is admitted to practice law in Connecticut, where attorneys' privileges can be examined under a disciplinary review system. Legal clients, state lawyers, judges and any citizen can file grievances, but as of Friday, none had been filed, authorities said.

Lawyers in Connecticut face automatic review of their bar admission only when they have been convicted of a crime, said Michael P. Bowler, Connecticut's Statewide Bar Counselor, who heads a team of lawyers that investigate attorney grievances. Criminal convictions have to be reviewed by a statewide grievance committee, as do other complaints, which can range from drug and alcohol abuse to inadequate legal representation.

"At this point, I'm not aware that Mr. Biden has been arrested for anything, and certainly not convicted," Bowler said. The Navy's brief confirmation of Biden's discharge did not cite any arrest or charges. Two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press he was kicked out after testing positive for cocaine, confirming what was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Bowler added that Biden had told state authorities in 2007 that he was also admitted to the bar in Washington, D.C. Current District of Columbia bar records do not show Biden as member.

The Navy said Thursday that Biden was discharged in February from a part-time position as a public affairs officer in the Navy Reserve but did not provide a reason. Biden released a statement through his attorney saying, "I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge."
:tup: