Russian Invasion Of Ukraine (Formerly: Democratic Malaise Draws Ukraine Eastwards)

[American Patriot]

Yikes....

cold war nukes still there?

Should Ukraine Have Gotten Rid of Its Cold War Nukes?



March 3, 2014

By Elaine M. Grossman
Global Security Newswire


A woman protests against Russian military intervention in the Crimea region of Ukraine on Sunday in New York City. (Kena Betancur/Getty Images)



With Russian troops now occupying Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, Kiev's beleagered interim leaders may be thinking twice about their nation's 1994 decision to abandon nuclear weapons.


The East European country actually held the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. But Kiev in 1994 agreed to transfer all its atomic arms to Russia for elimination, shortly thereafter joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear nation, and within two years was weapons-free.


At the time, John Mearsheimer was one of very few who saw it as an unwise move.


"As soon as it declared independence, Ukraine should have been quietly encouraged to fashion its own nuclear deterrent," the University of Chicago scholar wrote in a 1993 Foreign Policy piece. "A nuclear Ukraine ... is imperative to maintain peace between Ukraine and Russia. ... Ukraine cannot defend itself against a nuclear-armed Russia with conventional weapons, and no state, including the United States, is going to extend to it a meaningful security guarantee."


Today Moscow is sending more troops to Ukraine, where it bases its Black Sea Fleet, amid consternation in Washington and throughout Europe that the nation's entire eastern region might soon fall under Russian control. President Obama last Friday threatened there would be "costs" to Russia if it intervened, but stopped short of offering specifics.


Is Mearsheimer -- still a political science professor at Chicago -- feeling vindicated?


"I do think they should have kept their nukes," he said on Sunday via email. "If Ukraine had a real nuclear deterrent, the Russians would not be threatening to invade it."


Even given Russia's Cold War-reminiscent actions over the past week, others are thinking Ukraine's two-decade old move to jettison its nuclear stockpile was the right call.

In fact, Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2011 called for other nations in the region to join his country in creating an East European nuclear weapon-free zone.


“Ukraine with nuclear weapons is one heck of a dangerous idea," John Isaacs, executive director of the Council for a Livable World, said in a Monday email. "There is already in the mix eastern Ukraine vs. western Ukraine, East vs. West Cold War overtones, Russian vs. U.S. interventionism. ... It would be like tossing a package of lighted matches into a vat of flammable fluids. The results would be unpredictable, but hazardous for everyone’s health.”


Yet, rewinding history just a few weeks, Mearsheimer said it is possible that none of the recent instability in Ukraine would have occurred if the nation had kept its atomic arms at the close of the Cold War.


"I doubt whether we would have been so anxious to foster a coup," Mearsheimer said of the United States, had Yanukovych and his government wielded a nuclear arsenal. "One treads very lightly -- to put it mildly -- when threatening the survival of a nuclear-armed state, or even the regime in charge of it."


Isaacs, however, sees the risk of nuclear war as simply too high for these arms to act reliably as a stabilizing tool for conflict deterrence.


"There is no predicting what Russia would have done if Ukraine had retained nuclear weapons," he told Global Security Newswire. "We do know that the risk of nuclear holocaust would have increased immeasurably."

[American Patriot]

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!



Response...

14:40.00EST - State Department commits to never again "Like" Putin's Facebook status updates

[American Patriot]

U.S. warns Russia on Ukraine ultimatum

People protesting against Russian troops in Ukraine gather outside an European Union emergency foreign ministers meeting in Brussels March 3, 2014. (Reuters)


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By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Monday, 3 March 2014
Any Russian ultimatum to Ukraine threatening a possible attack would be a “dangerous escalation” of the tensions in Crimea, a U.S. official said Monday after source in the Ukrainian defense ministry said Moscow did give his country a warning.

Washington was working to find out if Moscow has demanded Ukrainian leaders surrender or face an all-out assault.
“If true” it would be “a dangerous escalation of the situation and we would hold Russia directly responsible,” Agence France-Presse quoted a State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki as saying.
Russian Black Sea Fleets denied that it gave an ultimatum to Ukrainian forces in the strategic Crimea to surrender by 5 a.m. on Tuesday or face an assault.
The news came after Interfax quoted an unnamed source in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry earlier on Monday as saying a deadline to surrender at 0300 GMT had been set by the Black Sea Fleet’s commander.

However, a Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman told Agence France-Presse that Russian forces have given Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum to surrender their positions in Crimea or face an assault.

“The ultimatum is to recognize the new Crimean authorities, lay down our weapons and leave, or be ready for an assault,” said Vladyslav Seleznyov, the regional ministry spokesman for the Crimea.
He said base commanders had informed the ministry of “different times” for the ultimatum to expire.

The ultimatum, Interfax said earlier, was issued by Alexander Vitko, the fleets commander, Reuters reported.
Russian parliament

There the Russian parliament speaker said Monday that is no need yet to use Russia’s “right” to launch military action in Ukraine, after President Vladimir Putin won legislative approval to send Russian forces,


“The decision by the Federation Council (upper house) just gives the right and this right can be used in case it is necessary. But currently is not necessary,” State Duma lower house speaker Sergei Naryshkin told state television, adding he did not even want to utter the word “war.”


Meanwhile, pro-Russian soldiers have already further cemented their control over the Ukrainian strategic region of Crimea by seizing a ferry terminal in the city of Kerch about 20 kilometers (12 miles) by boat to Russia, the Associated Press reported.


The move intensifies fears that Moscow will send even more troops in Crimea which also houses the Russian Black Sea Fleet. However, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed on Monday accusations that Moscow is invading the strategic peninsula, and justified the use of Russian troops streaming in the former soviet neighbor as a necessary protection for his country’s citizens living there.


The move comes as the U.S. and European governments are trying to figure out ways to halt and reverse the Russian incursion


Some 300 pro-Russian demonstrators have also occupied on Monday the regional government building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, stronghold of former president Viktor Yanukovych, an Agence France-Presse reporter witnessed.


Between 3,000 and 4,000 protesters had gathered earlier in front of the building brandishing Russian flags and chanting “Russia, Russia!,” before a smaller group broke into it, smashing windows and occupying several floors.
Lavrov criticizes threats

Lavrov, meanwhile, criticized threats of “sanctions and boycotts” over his country’s role in Ukraine.

He said the use of Russian troops is necessary “until the normalization of the political situation” in Ukraine, the Associated Press quoted him as saying at an opening of a month-long session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Lavrov added: “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.”
Ukrainian border guards said on Monday that 10 Russian combat helicopters and eight military cargo planes started flowing into the country’s Crimea, in violation of accords between the two countries.
Four Russian warships have been in the port of Sevastopol since Saturday.
Lavrov 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, which is 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,” he added.
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 the opposition “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.”
OSCE to start deploying

A top U.S. diplomat to Europe said that “advance teams” from the OSCE will start deploying in Ukraine late Monday but Russian objections mean the body has yet to agree on a full-scale mission.
“Today there was an announcement that the OSCE will begin deploying tonight monitors to Ukraine who can provide neutral facts and provide a true assessment of facts on the ground,” AFP quoted Victoria Nuland as telling in Vienna.

Talking on the sidelines of a special meeting of the OSCE, Nuland said she hoped these “advance teams” will “be permitted to travel to Crimea where they are needed most, as well as to key cities in eastern Ukraine.”

Lamberto Zannier, secretary general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said there were currently three additional personnel travelling to the crisis-wracked former Soviet country.

Representatives from the 57 member states of the OSCE were yet to agree on whether to send a large-scale monitoring mission, as favored by Washington and others, Nuland and other officials said.
Meanwhile, Britain’s foreign secretary said the U.K. is not discussing military options in its attempts to reverse the Russian incursion into Ukraine but insisted that Moscow must face “significant costs” over its moves in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula that its troops now control.

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.
EU to meet on Ukraine

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she would hold talks in Madrid on Tuesday with Lavrov, as the bloc announced an emergency summit on the crisis.

“Extraordinary summit of EU presidents & prime ministers called for Thursday to help de-escalate situation in Ukraine,” EU President Herman Van Rompuy wrote on Twitter, after EU foreign ministers warned Russia that ties could suffer if it does not change course after its military intervention in Crimea.

Ashton said after chairing the Ukraine crisis talks gathering the EU’s 28 foreign ministers that she would travel on to Kiev on Wednesday.

[Avvakum]

This is what I think is going to happen ultimately. Poland will get part of it's pre-1939 frontier back at Ukraine's expense, Russia will get the Crimea and the areas south and east of the Don river from Ukraine, so that Russia can than gobble up the 'trans-dneister republic' river area from Moldova, which will likely go back to Romania-as it should. Belarus will join Kazakhstan and the remainder of Ukraine with the Russian Federation in a new 'Eurasian Union'. Ukraine's 'Right Sector' and Svoboda parties will get the noose or the firing squad.

Germany and Russia are the real geopolitical players here.

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Sokoladinis Zuikis ‏@DarinZanyarGirl 27s RUSSIAN NAVY ATTACKS UKRAINE MILITARY FORCES IN KIEV -- #Ucrania #Russia #Ukraine LIVE VIDEO HERE - http://superdoopz.com/warvideos/Russia-Attacks-Ukraine-Military-Forces-In-Kiev …



LessTrodden ‏@LessTrodden 1m

#Ukraine Crimean army base commander confirms #Russia's demand to disarm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNKsLlK52ss … via @VICE

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Putin crosses Obama's pink line

Exclusive: Michael Savage declares, 'The neocons don't care which side you're on'



Let me make sense of what’s happening in Ukraine for you as that country descends into armed chaos, threatening to oust the legitimately elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and place the country in the hands of rebel forces spearheaded by Ukrainian neo-Nazis and Chechen Islamist radicals.

Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, along with Obama adviser and designated liar Susan Rice, are neo-conservatives, neocons for short. The neocons, first in the form of the Trilateral Commission and more recently as the Carlyle Group, thrive on military conflict. When the world is at war, the neocons and the defense contractors who work with them make enormous amounts of money.

The neocons don’t care which side you’re on, as long as they can work with you to create a political situation that they can grow into a war from which they will profit.

The Ukrainian “revolution” was fostered and encouraged by Nuland, Rice and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. These three were instrumental in staging a destabilization campaign. Working with Ukrainian neo-Nazis, they fostered the Ukrainian uprising that has caused elected the Ukrainian president to flee from Kiev.

Arizona Sen. John McCain was also part of this duplicity. McCain went to Kiev in December last year and helped incite the mobs that would overthrow the legitimately elected president. If there were such a thing as a Nobel Anti-Peace Prize, McCain would win it hands down for his work in Egypt and Syria, topped off by what he’s done in Ukraine.

The U.S.-supported insurgents have taken over Kiev and now hold the Ukrainian people hostage as the U.S. stands down. Barack Obama mouthed the emptiest of words – there will be “costs” to Russia for military action against the insurgents – while the U.S. found that its hands were tied.

In the early stages of the rebellion, Ukrainian President Yanukovich met with the rebels staging the uprising, and the two parties agreed to stop the violence and make an orderly transition to a new government chosen in a new set of elections. Instead, the right-wing rebels ignored the agreement and took over Kiev by force, with their armed patrols maintaining control through violence.

The situation in Ukraine has been painted as a conflict between Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the so-called bad guys, and Ukrainian rebels, the so-called good guys who seek to oust Russia from a position of influence in Ukraine and install a new government that will be responsive to the Ukrainian people.

Don’t believe a word of it.

The Ukrainian nationalists are fascists. Washington’s original purpose for staging a coup in Ukraine was to move Ukraine away from Russia and bring Ukraine into the European Union. In other words, the neocons and the bought-and-paid-for “moderates” in the Obama administration wanted to wrest control of Ukraine from Putin’s hands and gain economic and energy control over the country. As Dr. Stephen F. Cohen has pointed out, Western nations, with the U.S. leading the way, have been provoking Putin for decades. We’ve expanded NATO to include former Soviet states – Ukraine looks like the next target – and we’ve attacked allies of Russia, including Libya and Iraq. The U.S. – along with other Western nations – through our incursions into the politics, economics and national security of Russia and several of its allies, has effectively caused the situation that is now unfolding in Ukraine. Cohen is right.

Putin is certainly not a good guy, but he is not the villain in this. The Jews have always been canaries in the coal mine of human rights in Russia, and Putin has been better to Russian Jews than any other Russian leader in the past century. With the elected government now driven out of Ukraine, the anti-Semitic U.S.-backed fascist thugs who have assumed control are vandalizing synagogues and threatening the lives of Jews in Crimea.

Putin has also been forced to deploy military assets to Crimea, an important region that Russia ceded to Ukraine in the 1950s, when the USSR was reaching the height of its power and Ukraine was one of its puppet states. The majority population in Crimea is Russian, and its warm-water Black Sea ports are critical to Russian military and trade interests. Russia cannot afford to let the Crimean region fall into the hands of the insurgents who are trying to take over Ukraine.

In addition to deploying military assets in Crimea, Putin has contacted his allies in at least eight other strategically located countries to assure that Russia has access to those countries’ military facilities so Putin’s forces can extend their long-range naval and strategic bomber capabilities. In other words, the U.S. interference in Ukrainian politics has resulted in Putin expanding his military influence, while at the same time Barack Obama is bent on shrinking our own military to pre-World War II levels.

Once again, the incompetent, uninformed and uninvolved president of the U.S. has drawn a pink line in the sand. Obama doesn’t know whose side he’s on. He didn’t even bother to attend the meeting of his national security advisers on Friday afternoon as the Ukrainian conflict was escalating and Putin was deploying his military. The new game in Washington, D.C., is not “Where’s Waldo?” It’s “Where’s Barry?” They took the trouble to Photoshop Obama into pictures of national security meetings during the Benghazi crisis. In this case, they’re not even bothering to pretend he’s in charge.

Obama hasn’t got a clue about what the conflict in the Ukraine means. Nuland and Rice, two of the four horsewomen of the apocalypse who seem to make so many critical decisions of this administration, told him to blame Putin, so that is what he did.

Now the Russian and Ukrainian people are at grave risk from the Ukrainian nationalists and Chechen Islamic jihadists into whose hands the U.S. has worked to place the fate of that country, and Putin has called on his allies to assist him in expanding his military presence around the world.

The greatest hypocrisy here comes from those who call for open borders with Mexico and amnesty for 30 million illegal aliens who have violated our territorial integrity. It is our own politicians and advisers – Sens. Dick Durbin, Lindsey Graham and John McCain, along with national security renegades like Zbigniew Brzezinski and Madeleine Albright – who have made our borders meaningless. Our foreign enemies are less to be feared than the American subversives who are orchestrating the takeover of Ukraine by pro-Islamist Ukrainian neo-Nazis.



Pentagon cuts off ties with Russian military over Ukraine

By James Rosen
McClatchy Washington BureauMarch 3, 2014 Updated 4 hours ago
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PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS CHAD J. MCNEELEY — U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff

Latest developments on National Security, defense and related foreign affairs from McClatchy DC's Hannah Allam, Jonathan Landay, James Rosen, Marisa Taylor and Ali Watkins.

The Pentagon said Monday evening it was freezing contacts with the Russian military over the Kremlin's incursion in Ukraine.

Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, called on Russian troops in the Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula to return to their bases as required under agreements with the Ukraine government.

"Although the Department of Defense finds value in the military-to-military relationship with the Russian Federation we have developed over the past few years to increase transparency, build understanding and reduce the risk of military miscalculation, we have, in light of recent events in Ukraine, put on hold all military-to-military engagements between the United States and Russia," Kirby said.

"This includes exercises, bilateral meetings, port visits and planning conferences," he said.

Kirby, however, knocked down what he described as media speculation about U.S. ship movements in response to the Russian aggression.

"There has been no change to our military posture in Europe or the Mediterranean," Kirby said. "Our Navy units continue to conduct routine, previously planned operations and exercises with allies and partners in the region."

The Pentagon's punitive move came a day after the United States and the six other leading industrialized democracies in the G-7 organization suspended their plans to participate in a June summit in Sochi, Russia, site of the recently completely Winter Olympics.




Loose Canons
Crimea River

Obama is irrelevant to Putin's next moves.

By Jed Babbin – 3.3.14

Sometime last Thursday, our intelligence community was telling its bosses that there was little or no chance that Russian President Putin would order his troops to seize control of Ukraine. These are the same guys that are telling us that Iran isn’t building nuclear weapons.

Fortunately, I have better sources. My friend Matt Keegan is a Russia expert and a serious student of their military. On Friday, Matt emailed me to point what should be in the front of the minds of President Obama and the other naïfs trying to figure out what was (and is) going on.

First, he said, Russia wants to control Ukraine because it believes it needs a land bridge to its strategic naval base at Sevastopol on the Black Sea. (The base has been there for about 200 years. When the Evil Empire fell apart, Russia began renting it from Ukraine.) He also pointed out that there are about eight major gas pipeline routes from Russia through Ukraine to reach Europe and Sevastopol. Without controlling Ukraine, Russia risks Ukrainian tariffs on gas or even pipeline sabotage. All of which meant, he said, that the Russians would send military forces into Ukraine to control some or all of that nation.

When we spoke on Friday, Keegan pointed out that the pictures of the Russian troops who had seized control of the major airports in Crimea showed that there were no magazines in their weapons. These guys were not the “junior varsity,” he said. He knew they weren’t “militia troops,” because they “showed significant discipline inconsistent with a small isolated paramilitary group that is in a threat zone. These professionals felt little or no threat, and knew how to behave to maintain a calmer presence.” By Saturday the photos showed troops that had seized most of the Crimean peninsula. All of them had their rifle magazines in place, ready to fire.

When Obama spoke on Friday, he said he was “deeply concerned” about Russian actions and added that “there would be costs for any military intervention.” What those costs were, Obama didn’t say. He later diluted that statement, saying we’d talk to other countries to see what the costs might be. (Which means there won’t be any.)

Saturday was a big day for Obama-style diplomacy. President Obama had what the Washington Post reported was a “tense” 90-minute conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the conversation Obama said that Russia’s failure to return their troops to bases in Ukraine would “impact Russia’s standing in the international community.” Chuckie Hagel said, “This could be a very dangerous situation if this continues in a provocative way.” Just how an invasion could be a non-provocative act he didn’t say.

Hours later, Putin ordered Russian troops to seize control of the places essential to control the Crimea. He also got permission from the Russian rubber-stamp parliament to send in more troops anywhere in Ukraine he’d like them to go.

As this is being written, hundreds of masked troops — almost certainly Russian special operations troops — are surrounding Ukrainian military bases in the Crimea. So far, Putin hasn’t gone farther but masses of Russian troops on the border aren’t planning a vacation near the seaside resort of Balaclava where the Brits came a’ cropper. (See Tennyson, Alfred E.)

We can’t yet see how far Putin will go. He may content himself with the Crimea or he may want to seize Kiev and put his boy, Yanukovych, back in control. The length and breadth of the pipeline network argues for wider intervention, as does Russia’s land access to Sevastopol. In short, there’s a lot at stake here, not just for the Russians but for America and Europe as well.

The stakes include Russia’s ability to act in blatant violation of the 1994 agreement it signed with the United States, Britain, and Ukraine without suffering any consequences. The agreement requires the parties to respect the sovereignty and borders of Ukraine. It also requires them to “refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine,” and to not to blackmail Ukraine with economic weapons.

Though it’s not a real treaty, the agreement isn’t meaningless. It’s not a mutual defense treaty obligating us to go to war to defend Ukraine. It’s not a guarantee of Ukraine’s borders or neutrality, which was the sort of agreement that Britain, France, and Germany went to war over in 1914. But its breach should have some effect, such as the sanctions against Russia we’ll get to in a minute.

1994 was a year in which Russia had just begun to catch its breath after the fall of the Berlin Wall. At the time it was signed, the agreement wasn’t believed to be more than a photo op intended to make Bill Clinton look respectable (at least for a moment). Since 1994, however, Russia has become much stronger and Obama’s bluffs aren’t working on Putin.

On Thursday, Ukraine’s new Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatseniuk, called on the United Nations Security Council and the agreement’s parties to help defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity or whatever is left of it.

Ukraine has ordered a full mobilization of its troops. Russia will find that they are not a force that can be ignored, but if Putin chooses all-out war the Ukrainians will be defeated. Putin is most likely to consolidate his gains in the Crimea and try to restore Yanukovych or another puppet to power in Kiev over the next several months. Without any response from America and NATO, he’ll have plenty of time to do that and more.

We will not — and should not — go to war to defend Ukraine. Sending ships into the Black Sea is a foolish idea that could only come from neocon interventionists such as Lindsey Graham (and it has). But there are things we can and should do. If you believe we should do more, read on. If you want to read what we will do, stop here. Obama won’t do anything that will offend Putin any more than Boehner would do anything to offend Obama.

If an American president actually had any knowledge of geopolitics and diplomacy, if he wanted to put real pressure on the Russians, he could do a lot, and almost none of it has to do with the UN Security Council sideshow now playing in New York.

Such an American president would make a speech to the nation in which he would ask Congress for legislation imposing sanctions on Russia that would bar any banking transactions between Russian and American banks. That would bring the Russian economy to a crashing halt. He would also ask for trade sanctions against Russia and to bar travel to the U.S. of any Russians involved in the Ukraine takeover. The 1994 agreement promised no one would conduct economic war against Ukraine. For violating the agreement, Russia should have the tables turned on it.

In that speech, the American president would recall the days when nations such as Ukraine suffered under the yoke of Communism. He would recall every act of Russian oppression of its satellites from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution onward. Lech Walesa’s heroism in Poland would be worthy of special praise. The president would name the heroes of those oppressions and name the Soviet oppressors who were guilty of the acts of oppression. He would recall the hopes that rose in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell and condemn those who believe that the fall of the Soviet Union was — as Putin said — one of the great tragedies of the 20th century.

The president would then — again naming names — talk about the heroes of Ukraine’s revolt against Yanukovych and how the hope of freedom cannot be ignored by freedom-loving people all over the world. It would be important to make very clear that the Ukrainians didn’t mistake it for a call to arms, because — again — we wouldn’t go to war over Ukrainian freedom.

That is how American presidents interested in defending freedom speak.

If our president had diplomatic skills, similar actions would be asked for in meetings with our NATO allies. Some — like Britain because it signed the 1994 agreement — might join in. British Prime Minister David Cameron should be asked to address the European Union and ask for similar action. The EUnuchs won’t do anything but they should have to see, first hand, how we are unafraid to speak in the defense of freedom.

Inevitably, we’ll participate in some manner in the UN charade. We know — and the Ukrainians know — that the Security Council won’t do a bloody thing because the Russians will veto any resolution offered against them. But our ambassador should make a speech that condemns the Security Council for — again — failing to deal with outright aggression.

But never mind. This is the Era of Obama. This president is not interested in defending freedom and has been conceding ground to its enemies since 2009.

This will get much worse. Ukrainians will fight, lives will be lost, and from Obama there will be thousands of words all of which will be meaningless and justly ignored.

About the Author
Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. You can follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin.

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[American Patriot]

Posted on Tuesday, 03.04.14

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US prepares $1B aid package for troubled Ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, shakes hands with Palestinian lead negotiator Saeb Erekat, left as Kerry departs Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Ukraine on Monday night, March 3, 2014. With them is State Department Mideast adviser Martin Indyk. Kerry was headed to Kiev in an expression of support for Ukraine's sovereignty, and the EU threatened a raft of punitive measures as it called an emergency summit for Thursday. Kevin Lamarque, Pool / AP Photo

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By LARA JAKES

AP National Security Writer

KIEV, Ukraine -- Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Kiev Tuesday to show U.S. support for the fledgling Ukraine government, and the Obama administration announced with his arrival a $1 billion energy subsidy package. The fast-moving developments came as the United States readied economic sanctions amid worries that Moscow was ready to stretch its military reach further into the mainland of the former Soviet republic.
Kerry arrived as the Ukraine government grapples with a Russian military takeover of Crimea, a strategic, mostly pro-Russian region in the country's southeast, and as Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wouldn't be deterred by economic sanctions imposed punitively by the West.
While on the ground, Kerry was planning to pay homage to the dozens of protesters who were slain Feb. 20 in anti-government demonstrations which culminated days later in the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych.
As Kerry arrived, the White House announced the package of energy aid, along with training for financial and election institutions and anti-corruption efforts. U.S. officials traveling with Kerry, speaking on grounds of anonymity, said the Obama administration is considering slapping Russia with unspecified economic sanctions as soon as this week.
Additionally, the officials said, the U.S. has suspended what was described as a narrow set of discussions with Russia over a bilateral trade investment treaty. It is also going to provide technical advice to the Ukraine government about its trade rights with Russia. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be quoted by name before the official announcement was made.
Putin pulled his forces back from the Ukrainian border on Tuesday, yet said that Moscow reserves the right to use all means to protect Russians in the country. He accused the West of encouraging an "unconstitutional coup" in Ukraine and driving it onto anarchy, declaring that any sanctions the West places on Russia will backfire.
Speaking from his residence outside Moscow, Putin said he still considers Yanukovych to be Ukraine's leader and hopes Russia won't need to use force in predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
In Washington Tuesday morning, the White House said the $1 billion loan guarantee was aimed in particular at helping insulate Ukraine from reductions in energy subsidies. Russia provides a substantial portion of Ukraine's natural gas and U.S. officials said they were also prepared to work with officials in Kiev to reduce their dependence on those imports. The White House said the assistance was meant to supplement a broader aid package from the International Monetary Fund, which currently has officials in Ukraine working with that country's new government.
On Monday, the Pentagon announced it was suspending military-to-military engagements between the United States and Russia, including exercises, bilateral meetings, port visits and conferences.
European leaders already are considering sanctions on exports of Russia's natural gas, uranium and coal industries. U.S. sanctions likely would be similar to Europe's.
Some Republicans in Congress were considering a possible package of "debilitating economic sanctions" to get Putin's attention. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said that the U.S. and Europe should act collectively to threaten the Russian stock market, economy and ruble if Russia doesn't withdraw from Crimea.
"We can't just keep talking," Royce said Monday. "We need to do something."
The European Union issued a Thursday deadline for Putin to pull back his troops from Crimea or also face a rejection of visa liberalization and economic cooperation negotiations that have long been in the works.
The U.S. officials traveling to Kiev said Washington is warily watching to see whether Russia will try to advance beyond Crimea.
They cited reports of Russian helicopters nearly flying into mainland Ukraine airspace before being intercepted by jets controlled by Kiev. The officials said it's believed that as many as 16,000 Russian troops have deployed to Crimea, while Ukrainian forces amassed on both sides of an isthmus that separates the region's peninsula from the mainland.
The officials also said there is no support currently within the Obama administration to eventually let Russia annex Crimea — a possibility that has been raised quietly amid questions about U.S. interests in the pro-Russian region. They said it is up to the Ukraine government to decide whether a referendum should be held to let the Crimean people decide their own fate.
Speaking Monday at a U.N. session in Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attempted to deflect blame back on the West. He defended the deployment of Russian troops in Ukraine as a necessary protection for his country's citizens living there.
"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.
"This is a question of defending our citizens and compatriots, ensuring human rights, especially the right to life," he said.
President Barack Obama on Monday described the Russian advance as a violation of international law. He called on Congress to approve an aid package for the new Ukrainian government and repeated earlier threats that the U.S. will take steps to hobble Russia's economy and isolate it diplomatically if Putin does not back down.
"The strong condemnation that has proceeded from countries around the world indicates the degree to which Russia is on the wrong side of history," Obama said.


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/0...#storylink=cpy

[vector7]

Moscow might be forced to drop the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to pay off debts

http://news.yahoo.com/kremlin-aide-s...--finance.html

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Kremlin aide was quoted on Tuesday as saying that if the United States were to impose sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, Moscow might be forced to drop the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to pay off any loans to U.S. banks.

Sergei Glazyev, who is often used by the authorities to stake out a hardline stance but does not make policy, was cited by RIA news agency as saying Moscow could recommend that all holders of U.S. accounts of Russian businesses and individuals.

[vector7]

Lavrov: West should take notice of Ultra-nationalist claims for Poland’s territories

Russia March 04, 18:24 UTC+4



TUNIS, March 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Western partners who care for Ukraine’s fate need to take notice of overtly ultranationalist territorial claims against Poland, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference in Tunis on Tuesday.

Ultranationalists in question were represented by organizations like Right Sector "whose members are outspoken in their interviews that it is unfair that traditional, historically and ethnically Ukrainian territories are part of Poland, and it is a good idea to have them back".

“Nobody mentions this fact for some reason, and nobody takes any coercive measures to nip such attempts in the bud,” Lavrov said.

“Nobody mentions this fact for some reason, and nobody takes any coercive measures to nip such attempts in the bud,” Lavrov said. http://en.itar-tass.com/

[vector7]

03.04 World Equity Markets Rally as Russia Threatens to Dump US Bond Holdings


by John Galt
March 4, 2014 05:45 ET

The myth that the Ukraine crisis has been contained was enough for CNBC to declare that Putin has blinked and the propaganda machine known as the Fed and US government to order banksters to buy stocks to provide the appearance of stability in a still tense situation in Russia.



Meanwhile as this article was created Interfax news agency reports:

14:11
GAZPROM TO STOP GRANTING DISCOUNTS TO UKRAINE AT BEGINNING OF APRIL – MILLER

The Russians have also wasted no time warning the West over any sanctions promising to take a drastic course of action which will further destabilize European and world markets despite the phony rally which has started today:

Putin Adviser Urges Dumping US Bonds In Reaction to Sanctions

From the RIA Novosti article:

MOSCOW, March 4 (RIA Novosti) – An adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that authorities would issue general advice to dump US government bonds in the event of Russian companies and individuals being targeted by sanctions over events in Ukraine.

Sergei Glazyev said the United States would be the first to suffer in the event of any sanctions regime.

“The Americans are threatening Russia with sanctions and pulling the EU into a trade and economic war with Russia,” Glazyev said. “Most of the sanctions against Russia will bring harm to the United States itself, because as far as trade relations with the United States go, we don’t depend on them in any way.”

Glazyev noted that Russia is a creditor to the United States.

“We hold a decent amount of treasury bonds – more than $200 billion – and if the United States dares to freeze accounts of Russian businesses and citizens, we can no longer view America as a reliable partner,” he said. “We will encourage everybody to dump US Treasury bonds, get rid of dollars as an unreliable currency and leave the US market.”

According to US Treasury data from the end of 2013, Russian investments in US government bonds total around $139 billion out of a total of $5.8 trillion of US debt held in foreign hands.

I tend to think that the propaganda displayed by CNBC and other media outlets that this crisis is contained and Putin has backed down is as usual premature and only the wishes of the Obama regime which can ill afford any conflict with a major power due to the incompetence and structural weakness of this administration. If anything the crisis is just now beginning as the eastern, more Russian portions of the Ukraine will soon be in full revolt from Kiev and demand Russian military protection.

After today’s rally watch for further actions after Secretary of State Kerry leaves Kiev with nothing more than demands for more money as the Ukrainian government is broke and will need more money to function in even the most basic of operations even without a direct conflict with the Russian military.

[vector7]

Pentagon official: 'Asia Pivot' being reconsidered

March 04, 2014, 10:11 am
By Kristina Wong

A senior defense official said the president's pivot to Asia is being reconsidered under defense budget constraints, according to Defense News.

"Right now, the pivot is being looked at again, because candidly it can't happen," Katrina McFarland, assistant secretary of defense for acquisition, said at Aviation Week's Defense Technologies and Requirements conference on Tuesday.

The remarks come the same morning as the Pentagon is due to unveil its 2015 defense budget request, which is expected to prioritize the pivot to Asia.

The Obama administration first rolled out the strategy in 2011, but since then, attention has been disrupted by continuing crises in the Middle East.

Adm. Jonathan Greenert has said the pivot, which would shift 60 percent of ships to the Asia Pacific, would be slowed by shrinking defense budgets, but McFarland's comments are the first time a defense official has said it is being reconsidered.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill...#ixzz2v0p3zIEK

RUSSIACHINA UNITE!



Senior Chinese, Russian diplomats discuss CIS affairs

English.news.cn | 2014-03-03 23:51:06 | Editor: yan

MOSCOW, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping and his Russian counterpart Grigory Karasin agreed Monday that the international community should work on the harmony and stability of the Commonwealth of Independence States (CIS).

Both sides agreed that CIS countries' sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and their development strategies should be respected, and outside powers should stay away from internal affairs of this region.

The international community, they said, should respect history and reality when dealing with issues concerning certain country's internal affairs and relations among the region's states.

Prospects, fates and fundamental interests of certain country should be prioritized, they said, adding the international community should also do more to promote unity and harmony in this region.

The two diplomats expressed deep concern over the current situation in Ukraine, condemning the violence in that country.

They called on all relevant Ukrainian parties to resolve their disputes through dialogue and consultation within legal frameworks, thus ensuring stability, economic growth and social harmony of the country.

China and Russia, they noted, treasure traditional friendship with the Ukrainian people, and are willing to do whatever they can to support and help the Ukrainians.



In pictures: Chinese airborne troops conduct training

English.news.cn | 2014-03-03 11:09:30 | Editor: Fu Peng



English.news.cn | 2014-03-03 11:09:30 | Editor: Fu Peng



English.news.cn | 2014-03-03 11:09:30 | Editor: Fu Peng

IMG]http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2014-03/03/126212120_13938109459151n.jpg[/IMG]

English.news.cn | 2014-03-03 11:09:30 | Editor: Fu Peng




English.news.cn | 2014-03-03 11:09:30 | Editor: Fu Peng






China's aircraft carrier leaves for tests, training

QINGDAO, March 2 (Xinhua) -- China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, Sunday left its homeport of Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province on tests and training missions.

The journey is the first of its kind for Liaoning in 2014 and is part of its yearly tests and training schedule, according to sources with he People's Liberation Army Navy.

The aircraft carrier and its crew have conducted a series of tests and trainings, including landing and takeoff by various aircraft on its deck.http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/ch..._133154325.htm





China Fields New Intermediate-Range Nuclear Missile

DF-26C deployment confirmed
Follow @FreeBeacon
Chinese Internet photos first published Feb. 29, 2012 show China's new DF-26c intermediate-range ballistic missile.

Chinese Internet photos first published Feb. 29, 2012 show China's new DF-26c intermediate-range ballistic missile.

BY: Bill Gertz Follow @BillGertz
March 3, 2014 4:59 am

U.S. intelligence agencies recently confirmed China’s development of a new intermediate-range nuclear missile (IRBM) called the Dongfeng-26C (DF-26C), U.S. officials said.

The new missile is estimated to have a range of at least 2,200 miles—enough for Chinese military forces to conduct attacks on U.S. military facilities in Guam, a major hub for the Pentagon’s shift of U.S. forces to Asia Pacific.

As part of the force posture changes, several thousand Marines now based in Okinawa will be moved to Guam as part of the Asia pivot.

In April, the Pentagon announced it is deploying one of its newest anti-missile systems, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) to Guam because of growing missile threats to the U.S. island, located in the South Pacific some 1,600 miles southeast of Japan and 4,000 miles from Hawaii.

[vector7]

INTERFAX: 21:24 RUSSIA WILL HAVE TO RESPOND TO POSSIBLE U.S. SANCTIONS, "AND NOT NECESSARILY SYMMETRICALLY" - RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY



Amir Husain ‏@amirhusain_tx 39s
#Ukraine now under #cyberattack http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-576...tensions-rise/ …

Danny Peele ‏@vitamedia 1m
Did #Russia just hack into (and censor) CNN's newsfeed about warships moving toward #Ukraine in the Black Sea? #CNN (on U-verse)

Alexander Marquardt ‏@MarquardtA 6m
Massive Russian convoy just passed through checkpoint toward Sevastopol. 40+ vehicles, all with Russian license plates w/ "21".

[Phil Fiord]

It occurs to me there has been some lag and intermittent trouble with the net here for a couple of weeks and that coincides with the issue here in Ukraine. If Russia is hacking the Ukraine net, have they been messing with our servers, or attempting to anyway?

This site, http://www.internetpulse.net/ , as of right now shows Cogent and Level3 links to and from others as having some heavy latency. Those companies contract with our government as well as companies.

[vector7]

Russia test fires intercontinental ballistic missile: Interfax

more --zerohedge ‏@zerohedge 3m
Russian ICBM hit target in Kazakhstan - IFX

still more -- http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/0...0M14IW20140304

[American Patriot]

Was about to post about the ICBM....

doh

[vector7]

Where is this situation headed?

[American Patriot]

Where is this situation headed?

I think the ICBM was a planned test fire - but, it is an obvious and blatant poke in the eye with a sharp stick to Obama. Russia has just made a very, very threatening move at the United States. On the bright side, this is job security for my Agency.... heh

[American Patriot]

I have not yet heard FNC report ordering troops back....

Updated: March 5, 2014 01:32 IST
Tensions ease as Putin orders troops to pull back from border

Vladimir Radyuhin Share · Comment (1) · print · T+

• 
  AP President Vladimir Putin answers journalists' questions on current situation in Ukraine, at the Novo-Ogaryovo presidential residence outside Moscow on Tuesday.
  
• 
  AP Pro-Russian soldiers block the Ukrainian naval base in the village of Novoozerne, Ukraine, on Monday.
  
• 
  AP Ukrainian navy corvette Ternopil is anchored at Ukrainian navy base in Sevastopol, Ukraine, early Tuesday. Russian troops said to be 16,000 strong tightened their stranglehold on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

TOPICS
World

Russia

Ukraine

unrest, conflicts and war

conflict (general)

Denies Russian forces had been deployed in Crimea

East-West tensions over Ukraine eased on Tuesday as President Vladimir Putin said he saw no need “for now” to send troops to the neighbouring state and ordered Russian armed forces to be pulled back from Ukraine’s border.

“As for the use of armed forces, there is no such need for now,” Mr. Putin said in his first public comments on the Ukraine crisis.

Describing use of force as a choice of “last, very last resort,” Mr. Putin warned that he could still go for it if the violence that swept Kiev in recent weeks spilled over to Ukraine’s Russian-speaking eastern regions.

Looking relaxed and confident Mr. Putin fielded questions on Ukraine from Russian and foreign journalists for about 90 minutes at a news conference at his state residence outside Moscow.

“If people ask us for help —and we have a formal request from [Ukraine’s] legitimate President – we reserve the right to use all means available to protect those citizens,” he said.

Addressing a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting on Monday Russia’s Ambassador Vitaly Churkin read out a letter Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovych sent to Mr. Putin asking him to use military force in Ukraine to help restore law and order.

Mr. Putin denied Russian troops had been deployed in Ukraine’s Crimea. He said the masked armed men who had taken full control of the peninsula were “local forces of self-defence.”

The Russian leader confirmed that 150,000 troops who had been holding snap military drills near the Ukrainian border over the past seven days were returning to their bases.

Asked if he felt concerned that a war could break out in Ukraine, he said: “I’m not worried because we have no plans and will not fight a war against the people of Ukraine.”

He said Russia had no intention to annex Crimea. While Mr. Putin’s comments helped defuse tensions, the rift between Russia and the West over Ukraine appeared to be widening.

Act of aggression: Kerry

On a short visit to Kiev on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned Russia’s “act of aggression” against Ukraine.

Addressing a press conference after meeting Ukraine’s Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov and Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Mr. Kerry pledged that “the U.S. will stand by the people of Ukraine.”

Mr. Putin denounced the makeover of power in Ukraine as an “unconstitutional coup and armed power grab” and said Ukraine’s interim leaders were “illegitimate,” whereas Mr. Yanukovych was still the lawful President, even if he “has no political future.”

Asked about U.S. threat to penalise Russia, he warned that sanctions would “hurt both sides.”

His economic adviser Sergei Glazyev said on Tuesday that should the U.S. resort to sanctions, Moscow might drop the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to repay loans to U.S. banks.

As Mr. Kerry offered $1 billion in loan guarantees for Ukraine in addition to 610-million Euro loan from the European Union, Mr. Putin said Gazprom would scrap next month a heavy price discount it extended to Ukraine in December because of piling debts for earlier supplies.

Mr. Kerry vowed to work with allies to “isolate” Russia if it did not “de-escalate” its intervention, but Moscow said it had China on its side.

After a somewhat equivocal expression of support from China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday, Moscow said Mr. Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping shared “close” views on Ukraine over telephone on Tuesday.

[American Patriot]

BTW, yesterday I said to my family that I fully expected Kerry to make comments and Moscow to act.

Lerch would say something stupid and Putin would DO something equally as stupid - but dangerous.

And it happened. Kerry blathered, Putin acted by "test" firing an ICBM....

That missile was a warning that Russia can obliterate DC in the blink of an eye. Kerry said we'd stand by the Ukrainians. Putin said "Sure, but you will die...."