by Pepe Escobar Anyone who believes Washington is deeply enamored of ‘democracy’ in Ukraine must hit eBay, where Saddam Hussein’s WMDs have been found, and are on sale to the highest bidder. Or pay attention to the non-denial denials of the Obama administration, which swears on a daily basis there’s no ‘proxy war’ or Cold War redux in Ukraine. In a nutshell; Washington’s bipartisan Ukraine policy has always been anti-Moscow.
Yes, today the Sochi Olympics ended in a huge success for Russia and President Putin. And no, I don’t mean the medal count (even though it was a total triumph for Russian athletes: 33 medals, including 13 gold, 11 silver and 9 bronze). I mean the fact that no terrorist attack succeed in disrupting these games and that even though the list of sophisticated and determined forces wanting an attack
So it is done. Yanukovich has fully capitulated. He has signed a deal with the insurgents which, according to the BBC, includes the following provisions: The 2004 constitution will be restored within 48 hours, and a national unity government will be formed within 10 days Constitutional reform balancing the powers of president, government and parliament will be started immediately and completed by September A presidential election will be held after
Russian news sources are reporting the President Putin has chaired a meeting of the Security Council of Russia, the highest national security advisory board to the Russian President tasked with coordinating national security policies. The SCR heard a report by the Chairman of the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, and the Chairwoman of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, about their consultations with Vladimir Konstantinov, the Chairman of the Supreme Council of
This is probably yet another case of way too little and way too late, but I suppose that this is better than nothing. It is, however, still pathetic that it took 13 dead policemen killed by opposition snipers to finally convince the regime to deploy counter-sniper teams. Let’s hope that Yanukovich will not condemn these guys tomorrow morning and blame the violence on them (like he did with the Berkut
Looking at the amazing footage coming out of not only Kiev, but also from many other cities in the Ukraine, one can get the idea that what is taking place is absolute total chaos and that nobody controls it. This is a very mistaken impression and I think that this is a good time to look at who the actors of this conflict are and what they really want. Only
According to the very latest news, 13 policemen have been killed by sniper fire. The insurgents are storming the Parliament which is being evacuated. The Internal Ministry has announced that the police forces will be allowed to use firearms to defend their lives.In Kiev stores and office buildings are being looted and set on fire.In the meantime in Lvov and Zhitomir the local government offices have been stormed and take
Exactly as I expected, Yanukovich’s “truce” offer has resulted in an immediate resumption and even escalation of violence: 35 fatalities, innumerable casualties, policemen taken hostage and sniper fire. See for yourself this new footage:
Sorry, only in Russian, but the images speak for themselves:
I have just finished watching a very interesting panel discussion on the First Russian TV channel about the events in the Ukraine. The participants were a rather diverse mix of Russian and Ukrainian experts, all very strongly opposed to the nationalist insurgents but otherwise with a wide spectrum of opinions. The majority of the panelists, both from Russia and the Ukraine, were extremely critical of Yanukovich whom they blamed for
Sure enough. Yanukovich has backed down. Again. RT reports: Ukraine’s president, opposition agree to a truce. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leaders agreed to a truce following a meeting which focused on how to end the crisis in Ukraine peacefully, the president’s press office confirmed. “Following the meeting, the parties announced: 1. Truce 2. The start of negotiations to end the bloodshed, to stabilize the situation in the country,
Written for the Asia Times As the dramatic events in the Ukraine are unfolding the topic of what President Yanukovich can, or can not do, regularly comes up and I think that this is a good time to go back to basics and look at what a government – any government, regardless of its political orientation – can and even must do when confronted with an urban armed insurrection.First, a
This pearl from the BBC and “Radio Liberty”: Ukraine’s “We are Europeans” movement urges the country’s Olympians at the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, to stop competing to show solidarity with the protesters, Radio Liberty reports. Nine policeman are killed, all of them by gunshots, and the “Ukrainian Europeans” want the athletes to disrupt the Games in Russia in solidarity with the gunmen who killed the cops.You got to admire
A full scale armed insurrection seems to be taking place in the center of Kiev. RT reports 7 dead policemen, 11 dead civilians. 135 cops have been hospitalized, 35 are in critical condition. A total of 221 people have sought medical attention, 114 of them were hospitalized. The offices of the Regions Party of Yanukovich have been torched. The opposition leaders are demanding a constitutional change and Yanukovich’s departure. Communist
Thanks for Karin for sending me the link to this great “confession” by Victoria Nuland (wife of Robert Kagan and former Hillary “spokesperson”):
This is a conversation between two senior German diplomats: Helga Schmid, Deputy Secretary General for Catherine Ashton’s European External Action Service and Jan Tombinski, the EU ambassador to Ukraine.It goes like that: (my own quickie rough translation from German) Hello?This is Helga. I wanted to tell you in confidence that the Americans are going around saying that we are too weak and that their stance is stronger on sanctions. I
An anonymous commentator has just drawn my attention to this recording, and even though I am, of course, not sure that it is real, it is simply too good not to pass on. So with the usual caveat emptor, here is this gem: Now, is it really real? A sound recording of this type is really easy to fake, I could do that on my home computer using a sound
