Crisis in Ukraine

[Jola]

Russian Soldiers Were In Debaltseve Fighting Against Ukrainian Military, Claims Russian Newspaper

http://www.ibtimes.com/russian-sold...nst-ukrainian-military-claims-russian-1822868

So how long will it be before the Editor / journalists of this publication get arrested ?

Wait for it ...

 

[Xarog]

So how long will it be before the Editor / journalists of this publication get arrested ?

Wait for it ...

That seems to be more of a Ukrainian tactic these days.

 

[Seriously]

That seems to be more of a Ukrainian tactic these days.

No response to the report or is that also a Ukrainian tactic?

The report specifically mentions four Russian soldiers who had joined the DPR from the Russian Motorized Rifle Brigade, which corroborates past claims by Ukrainian soldiers that they were fighting against regular Russian soldiers.

 

[Xarog]

No response to the report or is that also a Ukrainian tactic?

Unlike you, I don't jump to conclusions or summarily dismiss things out of hand. The story may be true, or it may just be hot air; if it's true then I suspect more details will emerge in the days to come.

 

[Seriously]

Unlike you, I don't jump to conclusions or summarily dismiss things out of hand. The story may be true, or it may just be hot air; if it's true then I suspect more details will emerge in the days to come.

So you will wait for the Russian spin to this report and come here spamming this thread with your BS again.

 

[Xarog]

So you will wait for the Russian spin to this report and come here spamming this thread with your BS again.

No, I already know what the Russians will say because unlike you I actually did some digging. In the original story it clearly states that all of the Russian soldiers claimed to have been part of Debaltsev handed in their signed resignations to the Russian army before they left. Under iternational law those are not Russian soldiers.

So like I said, if the story is true we can expect more detailed accounts of the same story to follow.

 

[Seriously]

No, I already know what the Russians will say because unlike you I actually did some digging. In the original story it clearly states that all of the Russian soldiers claimed to have been part of Debaltsev handed in their signed resignations to the Russian army before they left. Under iternational law those are not Russian soldiers.

So like I said, if the story is true we can expect more detailed accounts of the same story to follow.

So now in your eyes they are suddenly not russian soldiers anymore then? Why are they then operating sophisticated Russian artillery or did the tanks and advanced Buk's also resign from the russian army?

LOL, Just like it was not Russian soldiers that took over Crimea.

 

[Rubberpigg]

Which Corporations are Benefiting from Ukraine Fiasco?

Saturday, 21 February 2015

In a year beginning with the notorious February military coup in Ukraine, also known as the Euromaidan revolution, the Ukrainian economy has come to the brink of default.

It has turned out that a $27 billion bailout, offered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and multinational creditors to Kiev, will not be enough to bolster the anemic Ukrainian economy as well. However, new loans, requested by Kiev to keep its economy afloat will only exacerbate the situation, experts say, pointing to the fact that Ukraine, saddled with heavy debts, will not be able to pay them off in the forthcoming decades.

According to IMF chief Christine Lagarde, an expanded emergency package will amount to $40 billion over the four year period and will come via international creditors, including major Western powers, for instance Switzerland and the United States, the World Bank, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The chief of the IMF clarified that the decision was made due to the fact that the Ukrainian regime has already carried out a string of tough economic reforms, particularly increasing gas tariffs for the country's households to 56 percent, adopting a flexible exchange rate regime, freezing numerous social programs and conducting "governance reforms" of state-owned enterprises.

The Ukrainian government is irresponsibly driving the nation deeper and deeper into a debt trap, analysts say, while the country's financial and industry sectors are facing tremendous losses unable to facilitate the growth of the state's economy. More than 50 percent of Ukrainian enterprises are unprofitable: over the last nine months the financial losses of large and medium-sized companies in the country mounted over $14 billion.
Ukrainian GDP dropped by 7.5 percent. According to some estimates, Ukraine's external debt (including the debts of the country's enterprises) could reach $135.85 billion, with a debt repayment of $58.55 billion in 2015 alone.
On the other hand, the internal war, launched by Kiev against the Ukrainian eastern region in 2014 has severely weakened the country's economy.

Making matters worse, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported in November 2014 that the country's gold bullion reserves had diminished tremendously. Surprisingly, the NBU head provided no explanation where the country's gold has gone.
Valeria Hontareva, the Governor of the Bank, admitted that there was almost no physical gold left in the vaults, adding that the amount of solid gold ingots barely covered one percent of the Ukrainian national reserves.
The statement immediately sparked controversy among experts, since in February 2014 Ukrainian official gold holdings amounted to 42.3 tons, or 8 percent of the state's reserves.
So far, over the year Ukraine's overall gold and foreign currency reserves reduced from around $17 billion to $6.42 billion, analysts point out.

Meanwhile, a sinister atmosphere surrounds the seizure of the country's high-quality arable lands by Ukrainian moguls and foreign firms, funded by the World Bank and EBRD.
According to German lawmakers, some prominent Western corporations including Monsanto and DuPont have been involved into land-grabbing in Ukraine, using the ongoing military conflict as a cover.
The state's arable territory comprises of 32 million hectares, however, about 17 million hectares have already come under control of transnational holdings.

As Kiev's prolonged the moratorium on land sales lasts until 2016, investors took out a 50-year lease on Ukraine's agricultural territories, planning to buy the lands, once the state ban is lifted.
The Ukraine-EU association agreements open the doors to the liberalization of the state's economy and relaxation of its agricultural laws. While the West is obviously benefitting from the reforms, Ukraine's small and middle-sized farms have been put under threat.

Ukrainian experts and political activists point out that the corrupt regime of Viktor Yanukovych was replaced by another venal group.
According to Tatyana Montyan, a Kiev-based lawyer and politician, the West is not interested in Ukraine's development: the 45-million nation could become the EU's economic rival.
Using the longstanding turmoil in eastern Ukraine as a smokescreen, the Ukrainian moguls are exporting capital abroad instead of reinvesting money into the state's economy. So far, the country has no chance to recover, burdened with huge debts.
Analysts underscore that the IMF has long been using its "debt trap" strategy, referring to the example of Greece and other European debt-laden countries.

The question remains, if the Ukrainian nation still believes in the success of Euromaidan revolution of February 2014…

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/26999/52

 

[Jola]

So now in your eyes they are suddenly not russian soldiers anymore then? Why are they then operating sophisticated Russian artillery or did the tanks and advanced Buk's also resign from the russian army?

LOL, Just like it was not Russian soldiers that took over Crimea.

That ^

 

[Xarog]

So now in your eyes they are suddenly not russian soldiers anymore then?

I said under international law.

Why are they then operating sophisticated Russian artillery or did the tanks and advanced Buk's also resign from the russian army?

Um. Russia has long admitted that there are some Russians inside Ukraine. Even if this story does turn out to be true, it still does not mean that the various claims of Russian tanks etc. are also true. And Hollande and Merkel were the ones to most recently point out they have not seen evidence of Russian tanks inside Ukraine.

LOL, Just like it was not Russian soldiers that took over Crimea.

Actually the claim was that the Russians invaded Crimea. And it wasn't true; the only Russian soldiers in Crimea at the time were allowed to be there by previous agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Expecting Crimea to have zero Russian soldiers on its soil when Russians had been stationed there for the last half-century before, without interruption, would be just a little bit daft, wouldn't you agree?

 

[Seriously]

I said under international law.


Um. Russia has long admitted that there are some Russians inside Ukraine. Even if this story does turn out to be true, it still does not mean that the various claims of Russian tanks etc. are also true. And Hollande and Merkel were the ones to most recently point out they have not seen evidence of Russian tanks inside Ukraine.


Actually the claim was that the Russians invaded Crimea. And it wasn't true; the only Russian soldiers in Crimea at the time were allowed to be there by previous agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Expecting Crimea to have zero Russian soldiers on its soil when Russians had been stationed there for the last half-century before, without interruption, would be just a little bit daft, wouldn't you agree?

Whatever suits your fancy and gives you a hardon to spin it the way you believe. Only fools cannot see that Putin is trying to do.

 

[Xarog]

Whatever suits your fancy and gives you a hardon to spin it the way you believe. Only fools cannot see that Putin is trying to do.

Sigh.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-21/de-dollarization-russia-ratifies-100-billion-brics-bank

Read not only the story but look at the comments people are leaving. There is a totally different perspective to this conflict which typically only receives a cursory investigation but its vital to understand what is going on. It explains, for example, why the Europeans were trying to work out a diplomatic deal with Russia while at the same time Nuland was saying, "**** the EU," and planning to drive a rift between the two.

The crisis in Ukraine is connected to the oil price which is in turn connected to the US Dollar which is in turn connected to every political decision that the U.S.A. has made since Nixon took the Dollar off the gold standard. The two countries with the highest gold reserves today are China and Russia. The U.S.A. has been attempting to monetise all its debt in a vain attempt to re-inflate the debt bubble that popped in 2007/2008 and the U.S. national debt is now sitting at $18 trillion. There is no way in hell that they're ever going to be able to repay this. Russia has known this ever since the U.S. Federal Reserve started with its Quantitive Easing lunacy. When it finally does pop it's going to make all other asset bubbles look like tom thumbs next to a dynamite factory.

The only litmus you need in order to predict what the United States will do in terms of foreign diplomacy is to ask yourself what is ultimately good for the U.S. Dollar hegemony. Russia, with its intention to create alternatives to SWIFT, to the IMF, to the World Bank using a basket of currencies instead of the world relying upon a single currency stands in direct antithesis to that. And that is why the only litmus you need in order to predict Russian foreign diplomacy is to ask yourself what Russia would do to stabilise itself in the event of a worldwide currency crisis.

As I have said many times, the Russian national and particularly government debt are dramatically lower than China, the EU, The US, or any of the other BRICS. Russia also has vast foreign currency reserves built up over years of frugal economic policies. Russia basic expansion strategy has been to build economic trades involving natural resources. When*, not if, the Dollar finally collapses, the degree of economic integration between the EU and Russia will have a profound impact on the world's ability to recover from the shock. But this is the one thing that the US simply cannot tolerate in terms of geopolitics; the day the EU considers its relationship with Russia more important than its relationship with the US is the day the US dream of global hegemony dies the death it so rightly deserves. Therefore one can expect that the US will do everything in its power to ensure that Russian/EU relations remain as sour as possible.


*Think I'm crazy? The world's oil price has been falling at the same time as oil stores have hit record highs. Tankers are being hired to fill with oil because speculators think they can sell it later at a profit. But there's only so many places you can store oil before it runs out. There is every indication to suggest that we are rapidly going to reach a storage problem with regards to oil. When that happens expect the price to collapse like never before along with all the sundry drama resulting from the general deflation fallout (which technically the developed world is already in). And this is just one of several really really crappy indicators which suggests all is not well in our global economy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Dry_Index <- is at an all time low. International goods sales are coming to a grinding halt.

 

[Unhappy438]

Blast 'kills three' during pro-govt march in eastern Ukraine

An explosion killed three people and wounded more than 10 on Sunday in Ukraine's government-controlled eastern city of Kharkiv, officials told AFP.
The explosion happened during a pro-Ukrainian march marking the one-year anniversary of the overthrow of the country's former pro-Kremlin president.
The city's prosecutors office said three people died. An AFP reporter saw two bodies lying on the ground covered with Ukrainian flags.
Kharkiv police spokeswoman Natalia Zakharova said an investigation would be opened into an apparent "terrorist explosion" caused by an unidentified device. She said at least 10 people had been wounded.
Kharkiv is located more than 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the frontline where pro-Russian rebels are fighting government forces.
Other marches celebrating the overthrow of former president Viktor Yanukovych a year ago, after street protests brutally repressed by snipers, were taking place in Kiev and other parts of government controlled Ukraine on Sunday.
A UN-backed ceasefire came into effect in Ukraine's east a week ago but has been largely ignored by both sides in the conflict.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/blast-kills-three-during-pro-govt-march-eastern-121725507.html#w3rm87C

 

[Unhappy438]

Terrorists

 

[Seriously]

Sigh.

Snip biased repetitive garbage.

Do you really think that the"west" prefer to not work with putin for a stable EU region. Putin is the one that cannot stand people wanting to rune their own country. Putin stated with Chetnya and will not stop until he restored the former USSR. That is his ultimate goal. If you disagree you should go see see a psychiatrist or other head shrink.

 

[Xarog]

Do you really think that the"west" prefer to not work with putin for a stable EU region. Putin is the one that cannot stand people wanting to rune their own country. Putin stated with Chetnya and will not stop until he restored the former USSR. That is his ultimate goal. If you disagree you should go see see a psychiatrist or other head shrink.

Don't worry, economic integration is the likely outcome in the long term. This whole Ukraine affair is just a little bump in the road caused by the first death throes of a dying empire.

 

[Unhappy438]

Video of bombing - semi NSFL

[video=youtube;2aAXoxfqV-0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aAXoxfqV-0[/video]

 

[Xarog]

Terrorists

Yup. Only question is who.

 

[Unhappy438]

Yup. Only question is who.

A Russian political party claimed the attack.

 

[Xarog]

A Russian political party claimed the attack.

Can you be more specific?