Crisis in Ukraine

[Dave]

Ukraine wanting to join NATO obviously isnt the same as NATO trying to extend west (i dont think they actually do want to btw). As things stand, i dont see any signs that Ukraine will join NATO.

Or even east .

 

[Hamish McPanji]

They have 8% of the seats in Parliament. Hardly fair to call them the EU and NATO's bedfellows. They don't make policy and they don't represent the whole Ukraine.

Interestingly enough, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is the 2nd biggest party in Russia, occupying 20% of the seats in their legislature.

Not parliament, they constitute part of the current government of Ukraine, there's a difference.

 

[DreamKing]

if I count correctly, only 4/28 of EU countries do not belong to NATO.

 

[Unhappy438]

No, not at all.

But after joined EU that is higher possibility to join nato. (yes/no?)

No

Or even east .

, thanks for the correction

 

[Taranis]

Ukraine wanting to join NATO obviously isnt the same as NATO trying to extend west (i dont think they actually do want to btw). As things stand, i dont see any signs that Ukraine will join NATO.

They can't join NATO because they have a territorial dispute. Don't you see the beauty of what Russia has done?

 

[Unhappy438]

They can't join NATO because they have a territorial dispute. Don't you see the beauty of what Russia has done?

Im not the one arguing that they can and will, speak to DreamKing.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Not parliament, they constitute part of the current government of Ukraine, there's a difference.

What part?

 

[DreamKing]

No

only 4/28 are not NATO , but you said "No" (not likely).

how can I believe that you are not biased?

 

[Unhappy438]

only 4/28 are not NATO , but you said "No" (not likely).

how can I believe that you are not biased?

To be honest i don't really care what you believe, you asked a yes or no question and i answered it.

 

[Mystic Twilight]

How do you beat Russia when they have this:



On a more serious note, I can't see NATO accepting another member without Russia putting up a hissy fit. Even though technologically we can start and end a war without leaving a couch, NATO being so close to Russia is going to be a reminiscence of the cold war with the USSR and Cuba at the USA's front door. That is a lot of influence and puts pressure on Russia and their relations and stance on foreign policy.

 

[LazyLion]

MOSCOW THREATENS US RETALIATION OVER BLOCKED FUNDS TRANSFER

Moscow on Wednesday threatened retaliatory action against US diplomats after US bank JP Morgan blocked a transfer of funds carried out by a Russian envoy.

Russia considered as "unacceptable, illegal and absurd the decision of JP Morgan Chase bank to block the transfer by the Russian ambassador in Astana to insurance company Sogaz," said Alexander Lukashevich, a spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry.

The move was carried out "under the pretext of anti-Russian sanctions introduced by the United States," the spokesman added.

Sogaz is linked to Russian bank Rossiya, which is on the list of companies and individuals subject to US sanctions over Moscow's move to annex Crimea.

"Washington should understand that any hostile action towards Russian diplomats is not only a gross violation of international law but also a prelude to reprisal measures that would not fail to have an impact on the work of the US embassy and consulate in Russia," he said.

"JP Morgan Chase has therefore done a disservice" to the US administration, added the spokesman.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mr
Date : 02 Apr 2014 09:58

 

[Compton_effect]

U.S. to send 600 more troops to Romania

[ 02 April 2014 00:42 ]

Baku-APA. The United States is to deploy 600 more marines in southeastern Romania, at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Airport Administrative Center, according to a letter Romanian President Traian Basescu sent on Tuesday to the parliament, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

According to the president, he approved a request of the United States concerning the deployment of elements of a U.S. marines unit called Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crises Response, consisting in up to 600 troops, and of several military aircrafts, according to the bilateral agreement on the activities of U.S. forces based on Romanian territory.

Following the new deployment, the total number of U.S. military in Romania reaches a maximum of 1,600 troops.

American soldiers in the summer of 2010 began to settle in the new base at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Airport, which can accommodate 1,600 troops.

The base was designed and equipped according to the U.S. standards, with a fund of 50 million dollars from the United States.

Currently, there are four U.S. military bases in southeastern Romania, including the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base, which has been heavily used by the United States to transport troops and equipment for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

[LazyLion]

NATO'S SUSPENSION OF COOPERATION WITH MOSCOW A 'COLD WAR' MOVE: RUSSIA

Russia on Wednesday accused NATO of succumbing to "Cold War" instincts after the alliance suspended all cooperation with Moscow over the Crimea crisis.

"Basic instincts of Cold War have awoken in NATO, affecting rhetoric accordingly," the official Twitter page of Russia's mission to NATO quoted envoy Alexander Grushko as saying.

"'The alliance is under threat!' Seems like taxpayers will have to fork out for military games," he said.

The Western alliance's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday said that NATO is "suspending all practical cooperation with Russia, military and civilian" over Moscow's speedy annexation of the Crimea peninsula and reported massing of troops near Ukraine's border.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin derided the announcement, remarking that it was made on April Fool's Day.

"Last time (in 2008) they were freezing for three months, and thawed by December," he said, referring to Russia's short war with neighbouring Georgia.

"What can I say: it's a Cold War, so they are still freezing," he wrote on Twitter.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mr
Date : 02 Apr 2014 10:56

 

[Taranis]

MOSCOW THREATENS US RETALIATION OVER BLOCKED FUNDS TRANSFER

Moscow on Wednesday threatened retaliatory action against US diplomats after US bank JP Morgan blocked a transfer of funds carried out by a Russian envoy.

Russia considered as "unacceptable, illegal and absurd the decision of JP Morgan Chase bank to block the transfer by the Russian ambassador in Astana to insurance company Sogaz," said Alexander Lukashevich, a spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry.

The move was carried out "under the pretext of anti-Russian sanctions introduced by the United States," the spokesman added.

Sogaz is linked to Russian bank Rossiya, which is on the list of companies and individuals subject to US sanctions over Moscow's move to annex Crimea.

"Washington should understand that any hostile action towards Russian diplomats is not only a gross violation of international law but also a prelude to reprisal measures that would not fail to have an impact on the work of the US embassy and consulate in Russia," he said.

"JP Morgan Chase has therefore done a disservice" to the US administration, added the spokesman.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mr
Date : 02 Apr 2014 09:58

How immature! Targeting a diplomat so he can't pay his insurance in such a petty manner will not go down well with Russians.

 

[Dave]

Except me making a horrible spelling error, which Russia neighbouring countries are housing permanent NATO bases?

Poland and Romania only now made themselves available to assist NATO with this matter, including the possibility to establish permanent NATO bases.

NATO also made it clear not to protect Ukraine due to them not being a NATO member, it is also not yet clear should the Ukrainians had agreed to approved NATO exercises in its territory, NATO only stated more support to eastern European countries.

U.S. to send 600 more troops to Romania

It seems the Romanian airbase is pretty permanent and only a few hundred km from Ukraine and just over the Black Sea from Russia.

Mihail Kogălniceanu air base

As of October 2009 the US has spent $48 million upgrading the base. Plans are for the base to initially host 1,700 US and Romanian military personnel.

Since 2009 the US operates a Permanent Forward Operating Site (PFOS) several times larger than the temporary base housed in the former 57th Air Base; the new base has 78 buildings and uses the land of the former Romanian 34th Infantry Brigade base.

 

[Nanfeishen]

NATO'S SUSPENSION OF COOPERATION WITH MOSCOW A 'COLD WAR' MOVE: RUSSIA

Russia on Wednesday accused NATO of succumbing to "Cold War" instincts after the alliance suspended all cooperation with Moscow over the Crimea crisis.

"Basic instincts of Cold War have awoken in NATO, affecting rhetoric accordingly," the official Twitter page of Russia's mission to NATO quoted envoy Alexander Grushko as saying.

"'The alliance is under threat!' Seems like taxpayers will have to fork out for military games," he said.

The Western alliance's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday said that NATO is "suspending all practical cooperation with Russia, military and civilian" over Moscow's speedy annexation of the Crimea peninsula and reported massing of troops near Ukraine's border.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin derided the announcement, remarking that it was made on April Fool's Day.

"Last time (in 2008) they were freezing for three months, and thawed by December," he said, referring to Russia's short war with neighbouring Georgia.

"What can I say: it's a Cold War, so they are still freezing," he wrote on Twitter.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mr
Date : 02 Apr 2014 10:56

Lol Nice to see the Russians havent lost their sense of humour.

 

[LazyLion]

SWISS MOVE TO BOLSTER EU SANCTIONS OVER UKRAINE

The Swiss government has decided not to adopt European Union sanctions against 33 people in connection with Russia's annexation of Crimea, but will prevent them from using Switzerland to get around the visa bans and asset freezes.

The Swiss Federal Council, which includes the president and six other ministers, said those subject to EU sanctions won't be able to use "financial intermediaries" in Switzerland for new business.

In a statement Wednesday, the council said the 33 people won't be permitted to transfer any assets that they hold outside the EU into Swiss banks.

The council says its aim is "to prevent creating the perception that Switzerland's financial center could benefit from the EU sanctions."


Source : Sapa-AP /dm
Date : 02 Apr 2014 16:17

 

[zippy]

It seems the Romanian airbase is pretty permanent and only a few hundred km from Ukraine and just over the Black Sea from Russia.

Lithuania is also experiencing an increase in activity

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26849732

There has been an American invasion of a former Soviet Airbase in the middle of Lithuania. They are, of course, invited guests - more than 100 US Air Force personnel, along with F-15 fighter jets and a Nato early-warning radar plane with its characteristic mushroom-shaped dish on top.

These days, residents of the nearby town of Siauliai are more worried about uninvited guests from the east. And in fellow former Soviet state Ukraine, they have just seen their worst fears confirmed.

Lithuania's Defence Minister Juozas Olekas does not describe it as a new Cold War. To him, he says, "it feels hot and very near", adding that Nato must to do more to stop what he calls "this aggression".

Warplanes from the Russian Federation already fly close to nervous Baltic states. Their arrival is often unannounced and invisible to civil air traffic controllers.

The Russian air force rarely submits flight plans or "squawks" communication signals while in the air. Sometimes it can seem as if they were carrying out a combat mission, though they're not technically breaking any rules.

The warplanes avoid Nato airspace, following a narrow corridor over the Baltic Sea. Sometimes they turn towards Kaliningrad - the small Russian enclave between Lithuania and Poland, now joined by Crimea as a Russian-controlled quirk of the map.

At Nato's Combined Air Operations Centre, deep in the countryside of northern Germany, they pool the resources of all the alliance's military radar to track the Russian activity.

The base in Uedem is surrounded by wire and patrolled by guards with dogs. We are taken past bunkers covered by grass, before being given a rare glimpse inside one of the operations rooms.

More than a dozen staff in different Nato camouflage uniforms and speaking a variety of accents are closely monitoring computerised maps showing scores of white dots. Here they can track every single plane flying in area stretching from the Alps in the south right to the northern tip of Norway.

Gp Capt Stephen Richards of the UK's RAF is the air operations commander at Uedem. He tells me that over the years they have seen a gradual increase in war plane activity, consistent with what he calls "Russian ambition" - and President Vladimir Putin's increased defence spending. Now they are spotted virtually every week.

Asked if he is worried by it, he says he is not, but adds "we need to be aware".

From Uedem they can scramble fighter jets right across northern Europe.

Back in Lithuania, an alarm sounds at the F 15 fighters' temporary home - pilots aim to be in the air within fifteen minutes.

They're here because the small Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, lack sufficient aircraft to police their own skies. So Nato's wealthier members take turns doing it for them.

Normally they send four jets, but this time the US has sent ten F-15s. And suddenly there have been offers of more planes from half a dozen countries, including the UK, Denmark and France.

Lt Col Lendy Reneger, US Air Force commander at the base in Lithuania, says the alliance's response to recent events has been "swift and strong".

He says there's no more powerful message than showing "air superiority", though he carefully avoids naming Russia.

He also declines to answer when I ask him if he or his pilots have spotted any Russian warplanes up close during their patrols. "I can't comment on the specifics of the operation," he says.

A Nato Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft takes off during the Lithuanian - NATO air force exercise at the Siauliai airbase An Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft during a Lithuania-Nato exercise at the Siauliai airbase
Swedish air force Grippen fighters shown during Nato joint military exercises in Lithuania Sweden's air force is keen to show solidarity with its Baltic neighbours after last year's embarrassing slip-up when it had no-one to scramble when a Russian bomber came close to its air space
Nato is keen to stress that, in a nervous post-9/11 world, air policing is as much about investigating suspicious civilian aircraft as it is about facing off against old enemies. And, up in the air, the F-15s show us how they would deal with an unidentified plane.

From a Lithuanian transport plane we watch as two of the US fighters pull up alongside and signal for us to land.

For this exercise they have been joined by two Swedish Grippen fighters. The Swedish Air Force was embarrassed last year when they failed to scramble when a Russian bomber flew close to their coast.

It was Easter and they were on leave. They do not want to be caught napping again.

The Baltic states, on the other hand, have always been quick to identify threats from their eastern neighbour.

Maj Gen Edvardas Mazeikis, the head of the Lithuanian air force, says "of course we feel threatened," before adding that it is not yet "the enemy at our gate".

He thinks Nato's response to the crisis has been correct, but his defence minister wants more.

Juozas Olekas says Nato should have a permanent presence, including ground troops, in the Baltic states.

But therein lies a dilemma for the alliance's leaders. Would more reassurance for its smallest members be a catalyst for another Cold War?

 

[LazyLion]

NATO VOICES 'GRAVE CONCERN' OVER RUSSIAN TROOP BUILDUP
by Dmitry ZAKS

Russia's military presence on the flashpoint border with Ukraine is of "grave concern" and Moscow's forces could invade in days if the Kremlin gave the order, NATO has warned.

With tens of thousands of Russian troops massed at its border, Ukraine's new government took the first step Wednesday towards granting more powers to the country's regions, but stopped well short of creating the kind of federation sought by Moscow.

NATO's top commander General Philip Breedlove told the Wall Street Journal and New York Times that Russian troops were poised to attack with 12 hours' notice and could take large swathes of Ukrainian territory in three to five days.

"Essentially the (Russian) force is ready to go," Breedlove told the Wall Street Journal.

"We believe that it can move within 12 hours... We believe it could accomplish its objective between three to five days," he added.

NATO estimates that Russia has deployed some 40,000 troops to its border with eastern Ukraine after annexing the southern Crimea region last month in response to the fall of Ukraine's Kremlin-backed president.

In the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War, both Washington and Kiev have been increasingly worried that Moscow intends to seize southeastern parts of Ukraine with large populations of ethnic Russians following the Crimea takeover.

Breedlove said potential new targets for Russia included a land corridor linking Crimea and mainland Russia, the strategic Odessa port and the breakaway Russian-speaking region of Transdniestr in Moldova.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he shared that assessment and warned of a "very massive Russian military buildup along the Ukrainian border".

"This is really a matter of grave concern," Rasmussen said, at the close of a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.

Ukraine's high-stakes plan to allow greater regional autonomy came after a veiled Kremlin threat to raise the price it charges for crucial gas deliveries for a second time in a week.

But having won vital financial backing from the IMF last week as well as moral support from NATO, the Western-backed government appeared ready to resist the Kremlin's diplomatic attempts to dislodge the more Russified regions in the east of the ex-Soviet country from direct Kiev rule.

The government said it would like to eliminate the current practice under which local governors are appointed by the president and move toward an election system.

But it said nothing about granting regions the right to set their own trade policies or establish special relations with foreign states.

"The main idea behind the concept is to decentralise power in the country and substantially broaden the authority of local communities," the government said.

Moscow has sought radical constitutional reforms in Ukraine in the wake of the February overthrow of a pro-Kremlin regime whose rejection of closer ties with Europe sparked months of protests.

Russia would like to see Ukraine transformed into a federation that allows eastern regions in the vast nation of 46 million people to adopt Russian as a second state language and overrule some decisions coming from Kiev.

The Kremlin has argued the changes were needed because ethnic Russians have come under attack from the ultra-nationalist forces that helped overthrow Kiev's Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych in February.

But Washington and its European allies fear that Russia -- having already annexed Crimea -- is using the federation idea as an excuse to further splinter Ukraine by granting the Kremlin veto powers over Kiev's regional policies.

US officials have instead urged Ukraine's new leaders to introduce more targeted reforms that undercut Russian President Vladimir Putin's arguments for sending troops into southeastern Ukraine.

As the international sanctions against Moscow stack up, NASA has cut all contacts with Russia except for cooperation aboard the International Space Station, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge news website on Wednesday.

The US space agency did not immediately return calls for comment. There are currently three Russians and two Americans among the six astronauts aboard the space station.

The military buildup on Ukraine's border follows months of economic pressure that Moscow poured on Kiev in a seeming effort to force its leaders to reverse deepening ties with the West.

Russian state energy giant Gazprom -- which the Kremlin has long been accused of using as a weapon against uncooperative ex-Soviet and eastern European states -- on Tuesday hiked the price it charges Ukraine for natural gas shipments by 44 percent.

The punishing but largely expected step eliminated a price discount that Putin had extended the old government in December in reward for its decision to reject closer EU ties.

In a speech in Washington, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned that the crisis poses a danger to the broader world economy.

And in an interview with Russian television, deposed Ukraine president Yanukovych said he did not approve of Crimea leaving Ukraine, but blamed the new authorities in Kiev for the region's annexation by Russia.

"How can I as president of the country see the country falling apart?" he said from exile in southern Russia.

Meanwhile Russian opposition activist and chess legend Garry Kasparov on Wednesday urged the international community to make Putin respect the sovereignty of nations.

"He's very good at raising stakes all the time. I believe he has a very weak hand but he's very good in bluffing," Kasparov said during an event in Mexico City, calling for tougher US and European sanctions against Russia.


Source : Sapa-AFP /gm
Date : 03 Apr 2014 06:11

 

[DreamKing]

Mr Yanukovych, now in Russia, said he would try to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to return Crimea to Ukraine.

"Crimea is a tragedy, a major tragedy," he said.

"We must set such a task and search for ways to return to Crimea on any conditions, so that Crimea may have the maximum degree of independence possible... but be part of Ukraine."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26857734

what's done is done.

too late.