Crisis in Ukraine

[LazyLion]

EU LINKS LIFTING RUSSIA SANCTIONS TO PEACE IN UKRAINE
By LORNE COOK
Associated Press

European Union leaders said Thursday that they won't lift economic sanctions against Russia until the peace agreement on eastern Ukraine is fully implemented.

EU President Donald Tusk said the decision reached at a two-day summit showed the common resolve of the 28 EU nations in the face of Russian involvement in the conflict.

It also underscored the support of the EU for Ukraine, which had urged the member nations to keep up the pressure on Russia until it meets all its obligations under a deal brokered in the Belarus capital of Minsk last month.

"We have to maintain our sanctions until the Minsk agreement is fully implemented," Tusk said.

Russia has denied any military involvement in the fighting in eastern Ukraine and said that EU and U.S. sanctions are unjustified.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk met Thursday with Tusk ahead of the summit and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to divide Europe over Ukraine. He told Tusk that a European show of unity would be "the best answer."

The European leaders did not impose any new sanctions, in part because a ceasefire called for in the Minsk agreement is largely holding. More than 6,000 people have been killed in the year-long conflict between the Ukrainian army and Russia-backed separatists.

The EU has visa bans and asset freezes in place targeting 150 individuals, including high-ranking Russians, and 37 entities such as banks, companies and rebel groups. It also has economic sanctions in place that have hit Russian financial and energy interests - as does the United States.

Yatsenyuk also expressed optimism about European backing for his government's call to the U.N. for international peacekeepers to be sent to eastern Ukraine. It was not immediately clear whether the EU approved such a force Thursday.

"Everyone wants to get peace in Europe. One of the tools to reach this peace is to deploy peacekeepers," Yatsenyuk said.

Also Thursday, an influential European Parliament committee voted in favor of a plan to provide Ukraine with 1.8 billion euros ($1.92 billion) in medium-term loans to help lift the country out of recession.

The move makes it a formality that the plan will be formally adopted on March 25, and would see two-thirds of the money disbursed by the end of the year.

---

Frank Jordans contributed to this article.


Source : Sapa-AP /avb
Date : 20 Mar 2015 00:12

 

[LazyLion]

EU CONSIDERS WAYS TO COUNTER RUSSIAN «DISINFORMATION»

EU leaders agreed Thursday to explore ways of countering perceived Russian propaganda over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, marking another fault line between the two sides.

Relations between Moscow and the West have reached their lowest point since the end of the Cold War over Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and its alleged support for separatists in the east of the country.

Moscow has been accused of accompanying these actions with a manipulative media strategy - in both Russian and other languages - to garner domestic support and justify Moscow's political and military aims beyond its borders.

In a joint statement, EU leaders on Thursday stressed "the need to challenge Russia's ongoing campaign of public disinformation about the conflict in Ukraine."

They tasked EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to propose a strategic communication plan by June.

The issue was first raised in January, when the foreign ministers of Britain, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania flagged Moscow's "active propaganda campaign," in a letter to the EU's top diplomat.

Russia's aim was to "discredit EU narratives; erode support for legitimate governments in the region; demoralize local populations; disorient Western policymakers; and undermine the concept of free, independent, pluralistic media," they wrote.

Moscow also wants to "convince the Russian public that Russia is the victim of a Western-driven conspiracy with the sole aim of keeping Russia down," the ministers said at the time.

As an example, media analysts point to Russia's new state-run international news agency, Sputnik, launched in November to provide "alternative news content" for a "multipolar world."

Recent stories on Sputnik's website include a report on Lithuania's reintroduction of conscription amid a "campaign of paranoia against Russia," and coverage of Crimea's "reunification anniversary," a year after what the West considers to be an illegal annexation.

"Russian propaganda is a problem everywhere," one EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity, ahead of Thursday's talks. "They are masters of that, because they have some decades of very concrete experience."

"We're up against ... a very systematic, and pretty sophisticated campaign of misinformation," another diplomat said, adding: "We know that it's corrosive. ... We have to up our collective and individual games."

Possible EU steps could include setting up a website to list cases of "deception and manipulation;" actively spreading the "European narrative" in the region; boosting media oversight; or supporting journalists in the region, the four ministers proposed in January.

But the bloc is cautious about doing more, according to diplomats.

The establishment of a Russian-language EU television network is out of the question, they have said, while it is for member states to decide whether to support foreign-language broadcasts such as Britain's BBC World Service and Germany's Deutsche Welle.


Source : Sapa-dpa /avb
Date : 20 Mar 2015 01:58

 

[Unhappy438]

[video=youtube;mhEe2PSaEW0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhEe2PSaEW0[/video]

 

[Unhappy438]

Nazi parties to participate in the International Russian Conservative Forum tomorrow

 

[Dave]

I kept thinking of a certain poster here when I read this article .

Ukraine conflict: Inside Russia's 'Kremlin troll army'
By Olga Bugorkova


Over the past year, Russia has seen an unprecedented rise in the activity of "Kremlin trolls" - bloggers allegedly paid by the state to criticise Ukraine and the West on social media and post favourable comments about the leadership in Moscow.

Though the existence and even whereabouts of the alleged "cyber army" are no secret, recent media reports appear to have revealed some details of how one of the tools of Russian propaganda operates on an everyday basis.

"Troll den"
The Internet Research Agency ("Agentstvo Internet Issledovaniya") employs at least 400 people and occupies an unremarkable office in one of the residential areas in St Petersburg.

Behind the plain facade, however, there is a Kremlin "troll den", an investigative report by independent local newspaper Moy Rayon ("My District") suggests.

The organisation, which the paper ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a restaurateur with close links to President Vladimir Putin who allegedly pays bloggers to produce hundreds of comments on top news websites and manage multiple accounts on Twitter, LiveJournal and other social media platforms.

"[During one 12-hour shift] I had to write 126 comments under the posts written by people inside the building. And about 25 comments on pages of real people - in order to attract somebody's attention. And I had to write 10 blog posts," a former employee, Anton, told Radio Liberty.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31962644

 

[Rubberpigg]

The United Kingdom doesn't need a troll army.
They have the BBC.

 

[snoopdoggydog]

Clinton Charity Tapped Foreign Friends

Foundation agreed not to seek donations from other governments, but cash kept flowing from individuals with connections to them

http://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-charity-tapped-foreign-friends-1426818602

 

[snoopdoggydog]

Forbes: сrimeans prefer living in Russia than in Ukraine

Magazine Forbes published results of a number of opinion polls carried out by Western research organisations

NEW YORK, March 22. /TASS/. Crimea’s residents prefer being part of Russia than of Ukraine, the U.S. magazine Forbes published results of a number of opinion polls carried out by Western research organisations,

One year after the peninsula in the Black Sea acceded Russia, Forbes said "poll after poll shows that the locals there - be they Ukrainians, ethnic Russians or Tartars are all in agreement: life with Russia is better than life with Ukraine."

"Despite huge efforts on the part of Kiev, Brussels, Washington and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the bulk of humanity living on the Black Sea peninsula believe the referendum to secede from Ukraine was legit," the magazine says.

In confirmation, Forbes cited the results of two opinion polls. In June 2014 the U.S. Gallup opinion poll organisation said that 83% of Crimea’s residents believed that the referendum on reunification with Russia reflected the views of the people.

In February 2015 the German marketing company GfK revealed that the Crimeans did not changed their attitudes: 82% of the population are for reunification with Russia.

"With two studies out of the way, both Western-based, it seems without question that the vast majority of Crimeans do not feel they were duped into voting, and that life with Russia will be better for them and their families than life with Ukraine," the magazine said adding that majority of the peninsula residents are ethnic Russians.

http://tass.ru/en/world/784220

some people will always remain unhappy lol

 

[AntiGanda]

http://tass.ru/en/world/784220

some people will always remain unhappy lol

Why unhappy?

Russians have always had a better life than Ukrainians.

When the peace process is over, their economy will bounce right back again.

However, Ukraine seems intent on altering the agreement mid-stream.

"Yatsenyuk also expressed optimism about European backing for his government's call to the U.N. for international peacekeepers to be sent to eastern Ukraine. It was not immediately clear whether the EU approved such a force Thursday."

 

[AntiGanda]

Now we have US soldiers in Ukraine. BTW the National Guard is another word for army troops.

What will happen next? Russian soldiers training militants in the East.

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=128413

SoD Moves Forward on Ukraine National Guard Training

By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2015 – The Defense Department is moving forward with plans to train members of the Ukraine National Guard beginning in late April, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said yesterday.
Click photo for screen-resolution image
U.S. paratroopers from the Army's 173rd "Sky Soldiers" Airborne Brigade, based in Vicenza, Italy, will train six Ukraine National Guard companies with a focus on internal security and territorial defense. U.S. Army photo
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

The department will use its authorities under the Global Security Contingency Fund as part of a joint DoD-State Department initiative to strengthen Ukraine's internal defense capabilities, Warren told reporters during a daily briefing.

“We plan on sending about 290 U.S. service members, specifically paratroopers from the [Army’s] mighty 173rd ‘Sky Soldiers’ Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy,” he said, to train six Ukraine National Guard companies with a focus on internal security and territorial defense.

The training will be conducted in western Ukraine at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in Yavoriv, near the border with Poland, Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said.

Training for Guard, Headquarters Staff

There will also be training for headquarters personnel, she added, focusing on the continued professionalization of Ukrainian staff members.

The training is part of a long-term strategy to build Ukraine's capacity and capabilities, she added, and to help increase the professionalism of its forces.

“It is similar to previous long-standing exercises we have conducted in Ukraine since 1995,” she said. “The United States conducts joint exercises and training with our partners and allies throughout Europe and all around the world.”

The United States believes there is no military resolution to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, but that Ukraine has a right to defend itself, Lainez said.

Sustaining Ukraine’s Defense

“This assistance is part of our ongoing efforts to help sustain Ukraine's defense and internal security operations. In particular, the training will help the Ukraine government develop its National Guard to conduct internal defense operations,” Lainez noted, adding that the program is designed to strengthen Ukraine's defense capability and capacity and assist in its defense reform.

The training mission involves equipping Ukraine security forces, and this nonlethal equipment includes basic field uniforms and equipment, body armor, night-vision devices and tactical radios, she said. The train-and-equip program for the Ukraine National Guard will cost $19 million, she added.

Austere Challenge 2015

Also in the region, Warren said, U.S. European Command yesterday began executing a large-scale defense exercise called Austere Challenge 2015 that will involve 4,000 U.S. service members.

The exercise consists of command-post simulations and aims to train and prepare Eucom and component command headquarters staffs to plan for and respond to crises, Warren said. The exercise is taking place at several locations in Germany and the United Kingdom, he added.

“Training events such as Austere Challenge are vital to ensuring the men and women of Eucom are well-positioned as America's forward presence,” Warren said, “standing alongside our proven and indispensable European allies and partners to ensure regional stability.”

(Follow Cheryl Pellerin on Twitter @PellerinDoDNews)

 

[Hoekachaka]

Hopefully this will make Putin think twice before sending more Russian soldiers into Ukraine. The training will be done in very Hi-Tech weapons such as intelligent drones and guided rockets. This will be a testing ground for NATO. In 6 or so months from now, Russian troops will die like flies and it will test Putin's grips on the nation.

 

[AntiGanda]

Hopefully this will make Putin think twice before sending more Russian soldiers into Ukraine. The training will be done in very Hi-Tech weapons such as intelligent drones and guided rockets. This will be a testing ground for NATO. In 6 or so months from now, Russian troops will die like flies and it will test Putin's grips on the nation.

What will they use to buy these hi-tech weapons? Vodka?

 

[Hoekachaka]

What will they use to buy these hi-tech weapons? Vodka?

The same currency the Ukrainian russians use to pay Putin for tanks and rockets No kidding. It is a very clever move the west did and I just don't see what Putin can do about it. Now he has a big dilema and only can wait for the body bags to come home. With Ukraine he took a bigger bite than he can chew.

 

[AntiGanda]

The same currency the Ukrainian russians use to pay Putin for tanks and rockets No kidding. It is a very clever move the west did and I just don't see what Putin can do about it. Now he has a big dilema and only can wait for the body bags to come home. With Ukraine he took a bigger bite than he can chew.

Justification for the sanctions is that Russian troops are in E. Ukraine.
Putting US and EU troops into W. Ukraine doesn't help that argument.

BTW, the militants got the majority of their weapons for storage or from ones abandoned by the Ukrainians.

 

[Hoekachaka]

You might very well be right regarding the weapons or at least some of them but the issue here is Russian troops in Ukraine. Theoretically there should be none. Shortly they will become canon fodder for Hi Tech western weapons and Putin can not even praise them as heroes. Go to YouTube and download some afghan video clips. It is sad. It is Putin's choice. The saddest part is that neither Ukrainian nor Russians want to fight each other. They lived in harmony for centuries.

 

[Dave]

BTW, the militants got the majority of their weapons for storage or from ones abandoned by the Ukrainians.

It was good going how they found military equipment in storage or abandoned that wasn't in use with the Ukrainian military...

 

[Unhappy438]

It was good going how they found military equipment in storage or abandoned that wasn't in use with the Ukrainian military...

Russian soldiers took their military equipment with them on vacation.

 

[Unhappy438]

NATO Says Russia's Still Pouring Arms Into Ukraine

Russia is still pouring heavy weapons into Ukraine, signaling that President Vladimir Putin has no intention of abiding by last month's ceasefire agreement, NATO's top military commander warned on Sunday.

U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove told an audience here at the German Marshall Fund Brussels Forum that Moscow continues to ramp up military and economic support to separatists in Eastern Ukraine. That conclusion was based on evidence gathered by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's joint intelligence unit in the U.K.

“We continue to see disturbing elements of air defense, command and control, resupply and equipment coming across a completely porous border,” he said.

Under the agreement reached last month in Minsk, Belarus, Russia is obligated to withdraw all troops and equipment from Ukraine and return control of the border to the Kiev government by the end of this year. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is supposed to monitor Russian compliance.

Breedlove said the Russian moves made Western consideration of arming Ukraine more pressing. He didn’t outright endorse sending lethal aid, but according to many reports, he has been making that case inside the Barack Obama administration.

“What we see is diplomatic tools being used, informational tools being used, military tools being used, economic tools being used against Ukraine," he said. "We in the West should consider using all of our tools in reply. Could it be destabilizing? The answer is yes. Also, inaction could be destabilizing.”

Victoria Nuland, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for European affairs, told the forum on Friday that Obama has not yet made a decision on arming the Kiev government. Nuland has made no secret of her support for the measure, but has encountered reluctance from senior White House staff members who don’t want to break ranks with European partners or give Russia an excuse to counter-escalate.

“We’ve seen, month on month, more lethal weaponry of a higher caliber … poured into Ukraine by the separatist Russian allies," Nuland said. "The kinds of equipment that the Ukrainian forces are confronting are much more sophisticated than what they have. I think the number one thing is for Russia to stop sending arms over the border so that we can have real politics.”

The European Union's high representative for foreign affairs, Federica Mogherini, refused to say whether she thought Russia was adhering to the Minsk pact. She said European leaders won’t make a judgment until July, when the next decision on EU sanctions is due, and that she was working to ease sanctions against Russia.

“We decided more than one year ago that … the only way of putting pressure on Russia was the economic one,” she said. “I wish we could lift the sanctions soon, but it depends on the situation on the ground in Ukraine.”

Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Russian parliament's international affairs committee, denied that any Russian troops are in Ukraine. “We are not sending troops into neighboring country. Mr. Breedlove believes we do. But we do not,” he said, evoking scoffs from the mostly European and American audience.

Breedlove and Nuland are fighting an uphill battle. Obama has said arming Kiev would be seen as an escalation and would unsettle the situation on the ground. Yet NATO's evidence shows that Russia is changing the status quo every day. So it's not arming Kiev that makes keeping the balance between the two sides impossible, raising the chances of greater violence.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, was highly critical of the West's approach. “We have signaled a willingness to accommodate," he said. "I’m not sure that, at this stage, we have succeeded in convincing the Russians that we are prepared to deter the kind of steps they are adopting.”

If Obama doesn’t want to give arms to Ukraine's military, he will have to find another way to turn up the heat on Putin. Some in Congress, along with State Department and White House officials, are preparing new sanctions measures. Yet while the White House waits for Europe to agree to either option, we get paralysis that plays into Putin’s hands.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-22/nato-says-russia-s-cheating-in-ukraine

 

[Unhappy438]

Europe’s Far Right Comes To Russia In Search Of Shared Values, Money — Or Just Attention

ST. PETERSBURG — A Scottish anti-abortion campaigner named Jim Dowson was railing against “Nazi fascists in the EU” in a hotel conference room when an image of a bare-chested Vladimir Putin riding a bear galloping through the Siberian wilderness appeared behind him.
“The salvation of my generation is the great Russian people, because Vladimir Putin understands that the rights of the majority should be put before the whims and perversions of the minority,” Dowson said. “Obama and America — they’re like females! They’re feminized men. You have been blessed by a man who is a man! And we envy that.”
Russia’s appeal to Europe’s fringe was on full show Sunday at the International Russian Conservative Forum, a conference organized by a pro-Kremlin ultranationalist party to cement far-right ties, as one participant put it, “from Gibraltar to Vladivostok.” United by their hatred of Washington, the European Union, and LGBT people, about two hundred far-right politicians and activists from across Europe gathered in St. Petersburg’s Holiday Inn to rail against liberal tolerance and implore Russia to lead the fight for Christian morality.
“Constantinople has been and gone,” said Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party until last year. “Rome and the persons who came from Rome have gone the same way. It’s absolutely inevitable that in the lifetimes of most of the people in this room, Western Europe will either become an Islamist caliphate or there will be a terrible civil war or perhaps both. Which makes the survival of Christendom absolutely impossible without the rise of the Third Rome: Moscow.”
Since returning to Russia’s presidency in 2012 on the heels of unprecedented protests against him, Putin has sought to recast Russia as a bulwark of conservative values. Though designed to shore up political support at home, measures like bans on offending religious believers and “gay propaganda” have also struck a chord with many on the European right who now see the Kremlin as an ideological fellow traveler. Leaders of anti-immigrant parties across Europe have received enthusiastic welcomes in Moscow. Others have visited Crimea and rebel-held eastern Ukraine to provide a fig leaf of legitimacy to separatists votes there as observers.
Russia has responded in kind. RT, the Kremlin’s foreign-language propaganda network, gives heavy airtime to insurgent European parties and rolling coverage to anti-EU demonstrations. A Russian bank gave France’s Front National — whose leader, Marine le Pen, is an open admirer of Putin’s — an $11.7 million loan last year. Many in Bulgaria saw a Russian hand in anti-fracking protests that helped reverse a shale gas deal with Chevron. One lawmaker from Hungary’s ultranationalist Jobbik party is even under investigation on charges of being a Russian intelligence agent.
Sunday’s conference aimed to formalize the relationship. Its program was adorned by a line from remarks Putin made in 2013 accusing Europe of backing away “from the Christian values at the foundation of European civilization.” Rodina, the party that organized the conference, caucuses with Putin’s United Russia party and enjoys the patronage of Dmitry Rogozin, a deputy prime minister who once led the party.
The very fact that the conference was happening at all suggested the Kremlin’s tacit approval, if not outright support. Last December, police repeatedly disrupted a streamed speech in the same venue by exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, arguably Putin’s top critic, then ended it by turning off the hotel’s electricity. Former Kremlin spin doctor Stanislav Belkovsky had to move a lecture for Khodorkovsky’s foundation in St. Petersburg twice after similar harassment on Saturday. Three members of a small crowd that gathered outside the Holiday Inn to protest the conference were arrested.

Rhetoric at the conference, however, outstripped — and sometimes contradicted — Russia’s official line. Of the three members of the European Parliament there, one, Germany’s Udo Voigt, has described Adolf Hitler as a “great German statesman.” The other two hail from Greece’s Golden Dawn, whose logo is a barely disguised swastika. “It’s a bizarre lineup,” Jared Taylor, an American “racial realist,” told BuzzFeed News. “It’s the fringe of the fringe.” Speakers railed, variously, against Freemasons; the corrupting influence of Hollywood; “Nazi fascists in the EU”; a “global cabal” of “bloodsucking oligarchs”; non-white immigrants practicing “alien traditions”; “fags and dykes”; and “Zionist puppet filth.”
This may have proved a bit much in Russia, where Putin frequently rails against “neo-Nazis” in Ukraine and has raised rhetoric over World War II to levels unseen since Soviet times. Rodina’s leader, lawmaker Alexei Zhuravlev had been scheduled to open the conference, but mysteriously failed to appear. “I have to go to Donbass immediately,” he tweeted on Friday, using a Russian name for the conflict zone in east Ukraine. “It’s an urgent matter. No further details.” Igor Morozov, a member of Russia’s upper house of parliament, also dropped out. State TV crews were conspicuously absent.
Conference speakers insisted their critics had it all wrong. “Everything that’s happening in the Donbass is anti-fascism. Everything that Ukraine does is fascism. There’s no other fascism in the world,” said Alexei Zhivov, leader of an obscure organization called the Battle For Donbass. Others tried to outdo each other in their fealty to Russia and Putin personally. “It is striking how cleverly and subtly President Putin is avoiding armed conflict,” said Voigt, the German far-right leader. Kris Roman, a Belgian man who runs a “think tank” called Euro-Rus that appears to consist solely of himself, listed several Kremlin critics who were murdered or died suspiciously. “I know where they live,” he said. “They live in hell.”
The irony of denouncing fascism and Nazism while espousing essentially the same views seemed to be lost on some participants. Dowson, the anti-abortion campaigner, called Obama a Nazi. “I don’t find it derogatory to be called a fascist,” Roberto Fiore, a former European lawmaker from Italy, told BuzzFeed News — apparently having forgotten that he signed an “anti-fascist memorandum” in Crimea last August. Russian nationalists who have fought alongside separatists in Ukraine handed out patches embossed with a kolovrat, a Slavic pagan equivalent to the swastika. “They have no idea,” Taylor, the American, said. “Well, they have an idea, but it’s a wrong idea.”
The conference, slated to last for eight hours, was forced to end early after the hotel reported a bomb threat. Organizers announced that it was a hoax and shepherded participants away to sign a joint resolution on the next steps for the movement, then awkwardly milled around when it emerged that none of them had actually read it.
The flurry of press attention alone seemed to justify the price of admission — attendees paid for their own flights — for many. Griffin said he hoped that the conference was just the start of more help from Russia. “If someone offered you a pot of money, would you take it?” he said.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/e...-russia-in-search-of-shared-values#.tog9aWaGG

 

[w1z4rd]