Popcorn Please While "Putin's Agitators" Rule in Kiev
While anything seems possible, the operating assumption among some American and European officials is that Mr. Putin will not overtly invade eastern Ukraine but instead opt for a murky middle plan, using local agitators and perhaps undercover special forces to stir even more unrest in largely Russian-speaking areas of the country.
U.S. Challenge Now Is to Stop Further Putin Moves, NYT
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Putin is watching TV. Calls up his Chief of Intelligence: “Give Tyagnibok a medal for banning the use of Russian in Ukraine. What do you mean he isn't one of ours? Ok, give Yarosh a medal for the idea of blowing up Ukrainian gas transit lines. What do you mean, that's his own doing? How about that cretin Lyashko? How about those cretins from Svoboda—Miroshnichenko and others? So, DO WE HAVE ANY AGENTS ON THE GROUND IN UKRAINE AT ALL?! Where the hell are they? What the hell do you mean they bought a dump-truck of pop-corn and a tanker truck beer and are watching it like a movie?!!!” Hangs up in disgust. Calls again: “How could you let Muzychko get killed?”
via Cluborlov
Indeed Putin can just sit back and enjoy the popcorn. The putschists government is doing its very best to disgrace itself, to in-fight with its ideological friends and to push Russian speaking Ukrainians closer to Russia. Just notice today's decision to suspend even more Russian language TV services in Ukraine. How is that supposed to convince Russian speakers in Ukraine that their voices will be heard?
The fighting between the paramilitary rightwingers from the Pravyi Sektor and the Svoboda fascists has only started:
The Ukrainian radical group Right Sector demands Interior Minister Arsen Avakov's immediate dismissal and the arrest of members of the Sokil (Falcon) special task force involved in killing nationalist leader Oleksandr Muzychko nicknamed Sashko Bily in the Rivne region early on Tuesday.
The response from the Svoboda party minister:
Ukraine's Interior Ministry has started a sweep of arrests against the nationalist Right Sector organization, after its activists threatened revenge for the police killing of one of their leaders, Oleksandr Muzychko, a news report said.
Popcorn indeed.
According to Google news search no U.S. media picked up on the published Tymoshenko phone call in which she talks to her political ally Shufrych about mass killing Russians. Yahoo news carried an AFP agency text and a Washington Post blog entry tried to obfuscate the content of the talk. Except that there is nada in U.S. media while German papers were all over it. Of interest is not only the rather vulgar talk but the fact that it was held in Russian. This while the fake blond gas princess and her friends always uses Ukrainian in public speech to promote her fake nationalism. The leaked call will thereby not only alienate Russian speaker from Tymoshenko also the Ukrainian speakers which she tries to embezzle.
Why should Russia try to create unrest in eastern and southern Ukraine when the putsch government in Kiev is doing its very best to create such itself? To the growing unrest one can add the likely economic collapse that will come rather sooner than later. Any "western" help will be conditioned on austerity and impoverishing the people as well as on political reform that the oligarchs and the current politicians will not allow to happen. Under such condition further unrest is a given while Ukraine falls apart and there is no need at all for Russia to intervene to achieve such.
Russia will do nothing nefarious, it will do just nothing. Russia will not help, neither economically nor politically, unless Kiev and the "west" are willing to pay its price: A federalized Ukraine with strong regions and a weak central government.
Posted by b on March 26, 2014 at 13:14 UTC | Permalink
« previous pageSorry, Der Spiegel reports it, too
Der Spiegel has been very "pro-Putin" recently.
Posted by: somebody | Mar 28 2014 11:04 utc | 202
FAZ reports it, too - and oh dear - Germany might be isolated within NATO
Posted by: somebody | Mar 28 2014 11:11 utc | 203
Obombas WW1 take;A fight for freedom.I mean,never has anyone ever articulated that idiotic war as a fight for freedom,unless one was a member of the British Empire and wanted to continue it's rape and pillage campaign.The man boy is a nothing.
As a TCM junkie,the other day they had a Fitzpatrick travelogue about Russia,and was very sympathetic.During WW2,many favorable stories about Russia were put forth,as they were our ally,but once Churchill uttered his post war iron curtain speech,the narrative changed 180.
Posted by: dahoit | Mar 28 2014 13:37 utc | 204
dahoit @204
Wilson sold WWI as "making the world safe for democracy," demonstrating that the gullibility of the American public is nothing new.
Posted by: shargash | Mar 28 2014 15:51 utc | 205
From the Russian Strategic Culture Foundation: 'Right Sector' radicals will try to take Supreme Rada by storm on Saturday morning
Posted by: William Bowles | Mar 28 2014 16:08 utc | 206
Here's some comic relieffrom RT. Sorry if this has been posted before.
Posted by: peter radiator | Mar 29 2014 0:07 utc | 207
Was this the same phone call?
President Obama underscored to President Putin that the United States continues to support a diplomatic path in close consultation with the Government of Ukraine and in support of the Ukrainian people with the aim of de-escalation of the crisis. President Obama made clear that this remains possible only if Russia pulls back its troops and does not take any steps to further violate Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. President Obama reiterated that the United States has strongly opposed the actions that Russia has already taken to violate Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
and
Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the United States of America Barack Obama.The two leaders continued exchanging views on the crisis in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin drew Barack Obama’s attention to continued rampage of extremists who are committing acts of intimidation towards peaceful residents, government authorities and law enforcement agencies in various regions and in Kiev with impunity.
In light of this, the President of Russia suggested examining possible steps the global community can take to help stabilise the situation. The two presidents agreed that specific parameters for this joint work will be discussed by the Russian and US foreign ministers in the near future.
Vladimir Putin also pointed out that Transnistria is essentially experiencing a blockade, which significantly complicate the living conditions for the region’s residents, impeding their movement and normal trade and economic activities. He stressed that Russia stands for the fair and comprehensive settlement of the Transnistria conflict and hopes for effective work in the existing 5+2 negotiation format.
Posted by: somebody | Mar 29 2014 7:33 utc | 208
somebody
Cant US understand they lost?! Whats wrong with these people?
Also did you hear the "new" nato leader warmongering against Russia?
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 29 2014 8:37 utc | 209
First results of that Obama-Putin non-talk
New York Times - and the shady British Daily Telegraph - agree that there might be no Russian troop build up on the Ukrainian border
But today the voices of those in Russia who live closest to Ukraine are far less bellicose than leaders in Russia and in the West. “Everyone has got an aunt, a cousin, or some relative in Ukraine,” Mr. Strelkov said. “My wife is Ukrainian. How could we go to war with ourselves?”On the stretch of four-lane highway leading from Belgorod to the border, where a warm patch of spring has brought farmers out to cultivate their fields and trees into bloom, there are signs of heightened precautions.
Border guards, formerly unarmed, now stand with Kalashnikovs. A checkpoint had been bolstered to a six-man patrol and officers often inspect cars with Ukrainian plates.
Yet at least overtly, the military presence is invisible. Rather than waiting tensely for the first shots to ring out, most residents see a slow cooling and cross-border trips becoming more infrequent.
Valery Perfilyev, a taxi driver who regularly ferried Russians across the border to shop in Kharkiv, an industrial hub, and young men visiting the nightclubs and, occasionally, brothels of the city, said that traffic had slowed to a trickle since the ouster of President Viktor F. Yanukovych last month.
“We were the oxygen,” he said, referring to the money that entered Ukraine through Russia. “Now it is like that has been cut off. They need us as much as we need them.”
At the stations along the railroad that leads from the city to Kharkiv, administrators declined to discuss troop movements or confirm recent videos that showed a column tanks and other military vehicles purportedly being unloaded at a railway stop 10 miles from the border.
A representative of the Ministry of Defense also refused to comment on troop movements.
Posted by: somebody | Mar 29 2014 8:42 utc | 210
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 29, 2014 4:37:47 AM | 209
You don't think in the terms of "win" and "lose" in the multipolar world.
There are is a major problem now
- How to keep the assumption that the Kyiv government is legal needed for IMF loans and the value of Ukrainian government bonds
Posted by: somebody | Mar 29 2014 9:06 utc | 211
This here is the - shady - British Daily Telegraph
There will be no haircuts for creditors under the deal, unlike the EU-IMF formula in Greece and Cyprus. This amounts to a bail-out for Russian state banks and Western funds accused of propping up the previous regime and for vulture funds that bought Ukrainian debt cheaply for quick gain.
Tim Ash, from Standard Bank, said: “Ukraine has been the ultimate moral hazard play and it’s cavalier to expect taxpayers to cover this.”
Mr Ash said it has been obvious since 2011 that Ukraine was heading for the rocks, yet funds continued to snap up its bonds, betting that the country was “too big and geopolitically important to fail” and would always be bailed out in the end by Russia or the West.
Posted by: somebody | Mar 29 2014 9:13 utc | 212
actually in this case the Daily Telegraph is telling it like it is - from the above link
The deal requires the backing of the IMF board in Washington, where Asian and Latin American members may balk at coddling creditors. Leaked transcripts of a board meeting of Greece’s rescue reveal mounting anger at the way the IMF has been used to bolster European banks. Sources close to the IMF say Ukraine’s public debt will peak at around 50pc at the end of this year, far below the danger level. “This is not high,” said one expert. “It would take a catastrophic shock to make it unsustainable.”
Posted by: somebody | Mar 29 2014 9:17 utc | 213
somebody
Actually sometimes you lose, west lost in Ukraine, they must accept this.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 29 2014 9:41 utc | 214
billmon @billmon1 6h
EU: "Remember those fascist groups in Ukraine that we told you weren't a problem? Well, they're a problem now." http://eeas.europa.eu/statements/docs/2014/140328_04_en.pdf
billmon @billmon1 6h
Some guy named Turchynov claims fascists are trying to destabilize Ukraine. Obviously must be one of Putin's stooges. http://bit.ly/1dW44Gk
Posted by: brian | Mar 29 2014 9:51 utc | 215
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 29, 2014 5:41:02 AM | 214
There are more than two sides and more than two players - it is a multipolar world, remember?
Bundesbank, PBOC Sign Accord to Make Frankfurt Yuan Hub
Maybe more like - "if two sides quarrel a third is laughing" - that is the translation of a German proverb ...
Posted by: somebody | Mar 29 2014 10:05 utc | 216
somebody
Its Russia vs EU/US/NATO. Thats 2 sides. EU/US/NATO lost Crimea. Simple.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 29 2014 11:57 utc | 217
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 29, 2014 7:57:34 AM | 217
How can they 'lose' something they did not have?
Posted by: somebody | Mar 29 2014 12:09 utc | 218
somebody
They "had it"/succeeded when Viktor was kicked out.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 29 2014 13:37 utc | 219
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 29, 2014 9:37:48 AM | 219
You are right, they failed. That does not mean there was anything to win or to lose.
They failed in a destabilization campaign that was supposed to end in Moscow. If successful it would have made the area unsafe for years to come. Like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia or Libya.
And it was not "the West". It was a warmongering faction in the West. If "the West" had been united it might have succeeded.
It will still take a while before Ukraine is stable again. But the instability will not spread.
For Ukrainians it was lose-lose. For Russia and Europe, too. For China, it was a win. For the US, neither.
Posted by: somebody | Mar 29 2014 15:17 utc | 220
somebody
If ukraine kept united they would indeed have won.
I dont see the destabiliziation to have ended yet.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 29 2014 15:49 utc | 221
Nowadays while investing in truck, one is assigned many choices. There are many used trucks available for sale which can leave a particular questioning about whether to find a new truck maybe a used one.
Posted by: used trucks for sale | Apr 9 2014 18:17 utc | 222
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Yanukovich calls for regional referenda
Somehow this is news mainly in BRICS media. He also leaves the Party of Regions that would expel him anyway.
Posted by: somebody | Mar 28 2014 11:02 utc | 201