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"21:25: A Russian professor of philosophy at the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs has been sacked from his job after comparing President Vladimir Putin's actions in Crimea to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938. Prof Andrei Zubov's interview with Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty can be read in full here. "
Back when i was talking about Libya and such; from Putin:
“When I ask them ‘Do you believe you do everything legitimately,’ they say ‘Yes.’ And I have to remind them about the US actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, where they acted either without any UN Security Council mandate or through perverting a mandate, as was the case in Libya,”
As I stated a few posts ago and throughout; the Libya deal was the straw that broke the camel's back, The US basically ignored Russia, and the US did not live up to its side of the agreement it had with Russia over Libya; this cost us Syrian support from Russia as well. This was the latest in a series of cumulative events that has led up to what we have now; this issue did not happen in a bubble, external events were the major factor in this decision.
When McCain visited the protesters, and coupled with Nuland's leaked comments, Putin probably then determined to draw a line, as it was blatantly clear the US did not consider Russia's national security interest one bit. Who knows what he knows that we do not know.
"21:25: A Russian professor of philosophy at the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs has been sacked from his job after comparing President Vladimir Putin's actions in Crimea to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938. Prof Andrei Zubov's interview with Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty can be read in full here. "
"Angelina, Londonemails: I am a Russian student living in the UK for the past four years. I come from Rostov-on-Don which is right on the border with Ukraine and have been to Crimea many times. It is fair enough that what is going on inside Russia is my burden to bear, the injustice and crime of all kinds is down to me and my people to resolve. However, being punished by the international community for the decisions of the president who I have never voted for, whose regime already took away my rights inside Russia is not fair. The past weekend there were protests in Russia against any armed conflicts with Ukraine, but I haven't heard either BBC or Sky mentioning that, nor have they mentioned that only in Moscow 300 people were arrested for participating in those peaceful protests. Here I am, not supporting my own government and in danger to speak up against it, damned by my fellow Ukrainians and rejected by the democracies that preach and practice human rights. "
From what I see and read online, not all Russian speaking Ukrainians want to stick with Russia and many Russian speaking Ukrainians condemn and oppose the Russian intervention. It looks like even in the Eastern parts of Ukraine, people are divided.
Of course I don't expect all Russian speaking Ukrainians to support unification with Russia, as not all Russians support Putin "automatically" as well.
So today I started looking into Reuters report, about that "tide of opinion turning against Russia in Donetsk."
Number one - I was surprised to see their comment like
"CHAINS AND AXE HANDLES
In Kharkiv, another eastern city, Saturday's protest turned violent, with scores of people injured when pro-Russian demonstrators armed with chains and axe handles stormed the regional parliament building and trashed it, savagely beating the heavily outnumbered civilians who turned out to defend it."
Why is Reuters not saying that the building has been seized by the radicals that were provoking the crowd during the meeting with the mayor and that's what set people on fire, since police was unwilling to do the job having orders from Kiev. Why are they talking about some "chains and axe handles" instead of describing the real situation, unless we are talking about two different administration buildings on the same day, which is unlikely.
Another thing- why are they talking about "over thousand" participation in that "tide of opinion" meeting, when the person present there is clearly seeing not more than few hundreds people at that meeting?
Few hundreds out of 982,000 inhabitants- that's not much! and since they organized this meeting via internet, they come across as Russian equivalent of "liberals" - Navalny's followers or Yabloko's for example. Which - again - is not much.
And the last but not least - I thought that Western advisers, after giving Kiev a good advise on overturning the language law, gave the next advise that seems to backfire big time. I thought Eastern Ukrainians would be pacified having governors-billionaires from their own turf appointed from Kiev, but look what happened as the result of it in Donetsk yesterday
In general, it seems to me, that the majority of Ukrainians support the idea of closer ties with the EU.
I suspect that overall the number of Ukrainians wishing it is bigger throughout the country, however it looks like in the East the number of people not wishing this outcome are greatly concentrated.
Quote:
I understand that we may look at the same things differently, look at different things and use different sources of information. Still, it would seem very strange to me if every Russian speaking Ukrainian living somewhere in the Eastern part of Ukraine and speaking Russian as their first language would automatically side with Russia just by the virtue of being an enthic Russian.
As I've said - no, of course not, yet the picture I see is that Ukrainians are better off going their separate ways - West vs East, because I think it's the easier way to avoid possible calamities.
Ukrainian population suffered enough through centuries being at the cross-roads, so I wouldn't want seeing it again. I happen to like Ukrainians, even though under the current circumstances I find them to be a bit naive.
"CHAINS AND AXE HANDLES
In Kharkiv, another eastern city, Saturday's protest turned violent, with scores of people injured when pro-Russian demonstrators armed with chains and axe handles stormed the regional parliament building and trashed it, savagely beating the heavily outnumbered civilians who turned out to defend it..
BS as it is! Pro-russian demonstrators were absolutely unarmed, but neo-nazis were armed with chains and axe handles. I have watched the video myself.
To make matters worse, President Obama just agreed to pay Putin (indirectly) $1 billion US taxpayer dollars for invading Crimea.
Ukraine's treasury having been looted of $70 billion, the White House leaked yesterday that they were going to get Congress to authorize $1 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine. Today, Gazprom (the Russian gas and oil giant) announced they were removing Ukraine's discount on fuel it purchases from Russia. Hours later, Secretary of State Kerry makes a big announcement in Kiev that the US will give Ukraine $1 billion in 'immediate energy assistance.'
Which Ukraine will now have to pay to Russia for this winter's heating bill.
Putin just got his invasion paid for by the US taxpayer.
When you think about it, Obama didn't stand a chance against Putin.
In 1977, Putin had just moved from the second directorate of the KGB (counterintelligence) to the first directorate (foreign intelligence) and was working hard at his post in Dresden, East Germany, spying (and recruiting spies) for the Soviet Union.
According to his autobiographies, in 1977, Obama was smoking dope and ditching high school classes with his surfer buddies in Hawaii...
To make matters worse, President Obama just agreed to pay Putin (indirectly) $1 billion US taxpayer dollars for invading Crimea.
Ukraine's treasury having been looted of $70 billion, the White House leaked yesterday that they were going to get Congress to authorize $1 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine. Today, Gazprom (the Russian gas and oil giant) announced they were removing Ukraine's discount on fuel it purchases from Russia. Hours later, Secretary of State Kerry makes a big announcement in Kiev that the US will give Ukraine $1 billion in 'immediate energy assistance.'
Which Ukraine will now have to pay to Russia for this winter's heating bill.
Putin just got his invasion paid for by the US taxpayer.
I wondered about it myself.
The new gov. in Kiev said that Ukraine needs $36 billions and I doubt that anyone can come up with money that this country needs. The industrial base of Ukraine is in the East and it's going to be hit hard with gas price going up; no wonder they are all up in arms down there.
Of course next loans from IMF will come with strings attached, and that usually means the destruction of "inefficient" local economy, ( speaking of the East again,) and again they know they'll be targeted.
And this one billion form the US?
Yeah, that most likely will go straight to Putin's pocket.
God help these people ( the Ukrainians.)
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