US/NATO/EU and the desperate subversion of Ukraine

[John Dolva]

RT : Ukraine’s acting interior minister urged the far-right group Right Sector to vacate its HQ in Kiev after a downtown shootout instigated by one of its members injured three, including deputy mayor Bogdan Dubas.

Kiev’s ‘Dnepr’ hotel, which serves as headquarters for the Right Sector movement, has been surrounded by police after members of the group retreated there following a shootout in the center of Ukraine’s capital, not far from the landmark Maidan (Independence Square).

Earlier, a Right Sector member opened fire by the ‘Mafia’ restaurant on the Kreschatyk Street, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov stated on his Facebook page. All of the injured have been transferred to hospital, two of them sustained serious wounds. The suspect has been detained.

Kiev city administration confirmed that deputy mayor Dubas was injured, adding that he just happened to be passing by in the area at the moment of the shootout. The other injured were members of Maidan self-defense force.

Police have been negotiating with the Right Sector at the hotel, urging the members to put down their arms and vacate the premises. Avakov called on members to leave the hotel by morning.

The gunman and a group of his supporters stormed the restaurant and barricaded themselves in one of the rooms. Radicals refused to surrender the attacker.

Before the arrival of the police, heavily armed men from the Right Sector drove up to the restaurant and provided the shooter with passage out of the place and escorted him to the hotel ‘Dnepr,’ Avakov said.

RT :

Tuesday, April 1

05:42 GMT:

Gunmen belonging to the nationalist Right Sector movement have left the Dnepr Hotel in Kiev, where they had their unofficial headquarters, ITAR-TASS reports. The activists have taken their backpacks out of the hotel, loaded them on a truck and left for a suburban recreation facility.

Overnight, Ukrainian police held talks with the Right Sector, urging the movement’s members to disarm. The results of the negotiations are not yet clear.

Monday, March 31

18:08 GMT:

Russia has condemned the act of vandalism perpetrated earlier by a Euromaidan activist in Odessa.

“Such messages do not cause anything but resentment …This is the desecration of the memory of millions of people who fought against the Nazis and an insult to the memory of millions of Ukrainians, including those who gave their lives in the struggle against the Nazi occupiers. This is definitely a complete disregard of historical memory,” said Russian Foreign Ministry commissioner for human rights, Konstantin Dolgov.

Alena Balaba, press secretary of the Udar party, has thrown several St. George’s ribbons into the eternal flame commemorating the navy and filmed the happening. She also commented on her actions on her Facebook page, saying that St. George’s ribbons are “a far-fetched symbol invented by narrow minded Moscow PR managers, not ‘a ribbon of victory’.” The ribbons commemorate the heroes of World War II.

18:05 GMT:

A member of the ultra-nationalist Right Sector party has opened fire in Kiev’s Independence Square and injured three people, witnesses told Ukrainian news agency UNN. The man reportedly wanted to bring alcohol through Maidan cordons, but was stopped by a self-defense squad. The gunfire wounded two members of the self-defense forces and a passer-by, according to UNN. The man fled the scene. Police have arrived at the spot and are talking to witnesses.

[John Dolva]

The Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) has ordered the Interior Ministry and the Intelligence Service to disarm illegal paramilitary groups immediately.

The bill, approved by 256 MPs, was submitted by Sergey Sobolev, the head of the Batkivshchina (Fatherland) Party in the Rada.

“The Interior Ministry and the Intelligence Service gave people two weeks to hand in the illegally possessed weapons,” Sobolev said, according to ITAR-TASS. “Thousands have given their weapons away. That campaign has now expired. If the bill is passed, then each policeman will know for sure how to act upon seeing armed people.”

[John Dolva]

"Moscow will make Crimea a special economic zone with tax breaks to attract investors, Russian Prime Minister has announced at a government session in Crimea’s capital Simferopol."

[John Dolva]

Are EU/NATO/US mothpieces interests trying to annex with ukraine? Simply, the answer is yes. It might turn out that the current sabre rattling is aimed at annexing a part of the russian federation as well. I suspect so. If so then that is now the main 'battle line'. The russian federation will, of course, not stand for such a thing. Imagine someone trying to annex (funny word, join, bind) Puerto Rico or Hawaii. NATO on the other hand is moving itself into ukraine and other nations bordering russia. A recipe for calm? Tension?

[John Dolva]

BBC :

"A Ukrainian far-right leader accidentally shot and killed himself during a shoot-out with police last month, an investigation has concluded.

The inquiry by the interior ministry said Oleksandr Muzychko, aka Sashko Bily, had shot himself in the heart as police tried to wrestle him to the ground during the chase.

He was a member of the Right Sector - a key player in Ukraine's mass protests."

"The Right Sector played a prominent role in the Kiev protests - and the clashes with police - that led to the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych from power."

[John Dolva]

RT : The republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol have become part of Russia’s southern military district, reports RIA Novosti. A decree to that effect was signed by President Vladimir Putin and comes into force today.

[John Dolva]

Thursday, April 3

07:21 GMT:

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russia asked NATO for detailed explanations of its plans to boost its military presence in Eastern Europe.

00:19 GMT:

Eight military exercises will be held in Ukraine with NATO members, RIA Novosti quoted the head of the Information Policy Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Evgeniy Perebeynis, as saying. Ukraine’s parliament previously approved the decision to host foreign troops for multinational military exercises.

[John Dolva]

Kiev detains Berkut officers in murky ‘Maidan snipers’ probe

Published time: April 03, 2014 09:00

Edited time: April 03, 2014 09:46

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Kiev on February 19, 2014 (RIA Novosti / Andrey Stenin)

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Ukrainian prosecutors have detained several Berkut riot police officers, saying they may be behind the mass killings by unidentified snipers in Kiev on February 20.

The new twist adds further mystery to the politically-loaded investigation.

The detainees belonged to ‘Berkut black company’, acting Prosecutor General Oleg Makhnitsky told journalists on Thursday.

The General Prosecutor’s office explained that unlike regular Berkut troops, which went unarmed to the confrontation with anti-government protesters, the special operations unit was issued with sniper rifles to provide cover for their Berkut comrades.

“Their task was, as they explained, although we don’t fully believe them, to shoot back at advancing protesters and allow the regular Berkut troops retreat,” acting Deputy Prosecutor General Aleksey Baganets said.

A total of 12 officers were detained in the investigation, including the commander of the unit. The alleged involvement of other Ukrainian police and security units in the mass killings is still under investigation.

February 20 was the bloodiest day of the anti-government protest in Ukraine, which saw President Viktor Yanukovich ousted. According to the Ukrainian Health Ministry, 42 people were killed on that day, almost half of the total death toll in the three-month confrontation.

Protesters and police officers alike were among killed and injured by sniper fire, with a strong suspicion that both sides were shot at by the same snipers with the goal of inciting more violence.

Berkut troops, who bore the brunt of protester violence during the Ukrainian crisis, have been blamed by Maidan activists of police brutality and other crimes. In several incidents protesters captured, humiliated and beat up Berkut officers. Following the February armed coup, the riot police units were disbanded, with troops partially reenlisting into other units and partially resigning.

Speaking later on Thursday, acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov identified the unit commander under the investigation as Dmitry Sadovnik. He added that the police officers are suspected of killing 17 protesters.

The acting minister also reported of an alleged conspiracy between former senior Interior Ministry officials and several civilians to stage attacks on protesters. Avakov didn’t provide any details on who could have killed police officers during the stand-off, citing an ongoing investigation.

Earlier official reports on the investigation pointed to a third “non-Ukrainian” party being behind the snipers, although there was no development on those allegations so far.

The identity of the ‘Maidan snipers’ is a hot political topic both domestically and internationally. A leaked conversation between EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet discussed a “stronger understanding” that somebody among the new Ukrainian authorities were behind the snipers.

Yanukovich, in his latest interview, said the radical part of the Maidan responded with sniper fire to an agreement he signed with opposition leaders, which among other things resulted in the pullback of security troops from Kiev.

Earlier Aleksandr Yakimenko, the man who headed the Ukrainian Security Service at the time of the confrontation, said the so-called Maidan Self-Defense Force was controlling the building, from which snipers killed people in the Kiev streets. He said he believes the snipers could be mercenaries from former Yugoslavia.

There are theories blaming other law enforcers for the bloodshed. A recent Daily Beast report alleged that the snipers came from the elite Alfa group of the Ukrainian Security Service. The report prompted comments from Olga Bogomolets, an influential Maidan activist and presidential hopeful, who said it casts doubt on the Ukrainian investigation into the killings, which may be conducted by the same people who committed the crimes.

Kiev on February 19, 2014 (RIA Novosti / Andrey Stenin)

Moscow sees another likely culprit in the killings. The radical Right Sector group is responsible for many crimes during the protest and was likely behind the snipers as well, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview on Sunday.

While the Right Sector and the Maidan Self-Defense Force were both involved in violent confrontations with the police during the Kiev protests, the two organizations have different leaders and a different history with the new Ukrainian authorities.

The Self-Defense Force answered to Andrey Parubiy, who now chairs the Ukrainian National Defense Council. Many members of the force have enlisted into the freshly created Ukrainian National Guard, which de facto legitimized the paramilitary organization.

Right Sector on the other hand is now at odds with the authorities following a number of incidents, including the death of one of its leaders, Aleksandr Muzychko, in a police raid aimed at arresting him and a shooting by a Right Sector activist at Kiev deputy mayor followed by a police siege of the Right Sector headquarters in Kiev. The confrontation culminated in a parliamentary decree demanding disarmament of illegal armed groups in Ukraine, with the Right Sector as the prime target of the crackdown.

Both Russia and the West, at odds on many issues over the Ukrainian crisis, agree that an impartial and comprehensive investigation into the sniper case was essential for future stability in the country. But with signals coming from the investigation looking incoherent, the Ukrainian authorities may be tempted to spin the case for political gains, either domestic or international.

[John Dolva]

Reuters :

"... Russia dismisses allegations

Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, ..., said Ukrainian officials' claims were not credible, according to the Associated Press news agency.

"Truth should be established transparently and in full scope," Lavrov said on Thursday. "I don't want to judge now how precise and reasonable the announcement [by the Ukrainian authorities] is. Anyway, it contradicts a massive amount of evidence to the contrary."

He was speaking following a meeting of foreign ministers from members of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO)

The CSTO is a regional military alliance comprising Russia and five other post-Soviet states - Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Lavrov held talks with fellow CSTO foreign ministers in Moscow.

He said the alliance was not seeking seeking a confrontation with NATO.

"The CSTO is not interested in escalating tensions with anyone including NATO," he said.

Al Jazeera's Kim Vinnell, reporting from Kiev, said officials in Moscow believed far-right ultra-nationalists - rather than government forces - were responsible for carrying out the attacks on protesters, with the end goal of ousting Yanukovich. ..."

edit correction

Edited April 4, 2014 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

RT :

Authorities in Kiev have routinely ignored evidence in the case of sniper shootings on the Maidan, while suggestions of probes into the matter never came from official channels, Russian FM Lavrov said.

Part of the agreement signed by President Yanukovich and the leaders of the Ukrainian opposition, involved the prospect of a joint investigation into the events of February 20 and what preceded them, Mr Lavrov told journalists following a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

However, "those who seized power tore it up" and "forgot about issues like stopping radical elements and disarming armed groups," he said.

Those who fought at Independence Square were amnestied, but calls for investigations are suddenly appearing six weeks later, the FM continued.

Independent experts have been giving their analysis of sniper activity, their tactics and their positions, but this has all been ignored, Lavrov said in an answer to why Moscow was less enthusiastic about investigating Kiev than it was Crimea.

The telephone conversation between the EU's Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet was also ignored, in which they clearly discuss a cover-up to place the blame of civilian deaths on the opposition and not on the ousted government. In that 11-minute conversation, posted on YouTube, Paet says he heard word that the shooting of police and civilians in Kiev in February was the work of provocateurs working with the protest movement, and not Yanukovich's security forces; to which Ashton replies: "I didn't know... Gosh."

Continuing on Ukraine, Lavrov stated that "the West has in effect taken upon itself the role of the master of the Ukrainians' fates," especially at a time when the Ukrainian government isn't "capable of self-sufficiency."

The reason for the continuing lack of consensus on the crisis stems from the inability of the current government to "respect without exception the rights of all Ukrainians - among them the right to use one's mother tongue - as well as the inability to respect the wishes of all the country's regions," Lavrov underlined.

The FM finished with a reminder that Russia has on several occasions proposed constitutional reform in Ukraine, and which would go a long way toward diffusing the political situation there.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

[John Dolva]

Here's some odd, but good, news : Reuters :

"Due to operational reasons beyond our control, McDonald's has taken the decision to temporarily close our three restaurants in Simferopol, Sevastopol and Yalta," McDonald's said.

A Reuters report said that the company had offered to relocate staff who wished to move to Ukraine."

[John Dolva]

Most ukrainian military persons stationed in the republic of crimea have chosen to remain in the rc, become russian citizens and join the russian military rather than transfer to ukraine. Meanwhile a small ukrainian contingent is permitted to remain in the republic of crimea while the orderly shipping of ukrainian equipment to ukraine completes. Overall the transition to full membership in the russian federation is proceeding well.

Hopefully more western multinational companies like mcdonalds will leave (and stay away) allowing local resources to fill any perceived gaps.

[Steven Gaal]

OpEdNews Op Eds 4/4/2014 at 11:02:02

Sleepwalking to Armageddon?

By Mike Krauss

==================

In a just published book that too few Americans will read, All the Presidents' Bankers, Nomi Prins lifts the cover from a century long cooperation and coordination between Wall Street and the White House, stretching back to Teddy Roosevelt in the years just before creation of the Federal Reserve.

As Wall Street veteran Pam Martens explains in a review of the book on her blog, Wall Street on Parade, "Wall Street can collapse, get bailed out by the taxpayers, cause a Great Recession and still call the shots in Washington."

Every American can now see that on account of Wall Street and with the collaboration of successive administrations, the prosperity of millions of Americans has been shattered, perhaps never to be recovered.

Massive unemployment is lied away by not counting the millions who have given up looking for work. Foreclosures roll on. Home sales are plummeting. A generation of young Americans now graduates college with massive debt and no jobs. Or they take the jobs at Wal-Mart that used to be filled by the less educated.

Who go where? Onto welfare, food stamps and unemployment, which many in Congress want to cut. Where does this lead? For the answer, look no further than Wal-Mart's most recent annual report.

It notes: "Our business operations are subject to numerous risks, factors and uncertainties, domestically and internationally, which are outside our control " These factors include " changes in the amount of payments made under the Supplement[al] Nutrition Assistance Plan and other public assistance plans, changes in the eligibility requirements of public assistance plans ""

Wal-Mart's major market is low-income shoppers. The company is acknowledging that public assistance programs are a significant factor in its revenue and profits. Increasingly, Wal-Mart's customers are too poor to shop at Wal-Mart.

The message in Prins' book is that the economic trends, Wall Street practices and federal government collusion of today are in so many ways and so very frighteningly like the years before the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed.

Are we sleepwalking into an economic Armageddon?

It is not the only looming catastrophe. The other is a confrontation with Russia.

Forget the story line from Washington parroted by the national media. The crisis over Ukraine has nothing to do with democracy and freedom. It is about an almost messianic assertion of American "exceptionalism," used as cover by Wall Street for more looting, in this case Ukraine.

Paul Craig Roberts is a former, high security clearance assistant secretary of the Treasury to Ronald Reagan, former editor of the Wall Street Journal and an acknowledged expert on Eastern European and Russian affairs. He is also not widely read. But you want to read his most recent blog.

"The drive to war is blatantly obvious. The lies are obvious, and the entire West is participating, both media and governments" Everywhere in the West the message is the same. 'Putin invaded and annexed Crimea, Putin is determined to rebuild the Soviet Empire, Putin must be stopped'" The extraordinary transparent lie that Russia sent an army into Ukraine and annexed Crimea is now accepted as fact everywhere in the West""

What actually happened is that the elected government of Ukraine backed out of a U.S. deal to join the EU, when many of its citizens understood that was a set-up for "austerity" and the looting of their pensions and assets by Wall Street.

The U.S. organized a coup and now calls the government it installed freedom loving heroes. Nuts. They are Washington puppets -- and Nazi thugs into the bargain -- and they are Wall Street patsies. That government immediately signed off on the Wall Street "aide" package: high interest loans to be paid for by the extraction of the wealth and prosperity of every Ukrainian.

Well, not every. Those parts of Ukraine that were historically a part of Russia went running right back to Russia, in a thoroughly democratic referendum, the kind of self-determination Washington says it supports -- except where Wall Street profits are concerned.

To get Wall Street its way Washington is playing a juvenile game of "Chicken" with Russia, an energy rich, nuclear power, ratcheting up the threat of military action.

Roberts concludes that this entire chain of events looks like the manipulation, cupidity and stupidity that led Europe and the U.S. into World War I and warns of the horrific consequences of another war in Europe -- a nuclear war.

For your own security and safety and that of your family and neighbors, give Fox, CNN and all the rest a rest. Read Prins, Roberts and Martens. Decide for yourself if the nation is sleepwalking to Armageddon

[John Dolva]

If one goes by the reportage in traditional western media outlets it seems that more focus is on the brown wave. This is good. It is also important to look at the role it plays in instances like kiev. In turn one can recognise parts of the eu/nato/us (it's also called the f,uk,us alliance) mouthpieces for what they are. It's important to not forget the people. In crimea it was fascsm no, freedom yes that put the stamp on that event. There are those who choose to recognise that and there are those who don't. The west is walking a very tight rope in asserting that its response to the situation in any way delegitimises fascism. That's the true colour of the west. Brown.

[John Dolva]

Agreement on the Settlement of Crisis in Ukraine - full text

The full text of the deal signed by Ukraine's opposition leaders and President Viktor Yanukovych, released by Germany's foreign ministry

• theguardian.com

Concerned with the tragic loss of life in Ukraine, seeking an immediate end of bloodshed and determined to pave the way for a political resolution of the crisis, We, the signing parties, have agreed upon the following:

1. Within 48 hours of the signing of this agreement, a special law will be adopted, signed and promulgated, which will restore the Constitution of 2004 including amendments passed until now. Signatories declare their intention to create a coalition and form a national unity government within 10 days thereafter.

2. Constitutional reform, balancing the powers of the President, the government and parliament, will start immediately and be completed in September 2014.

3. Presidential elections will be held as soon as the new Constitution is adopted but no later than December 2014. New electoral laws will be passed and a new Central Election Commission will be formed on the basis of proportionality and in accordance with the OSCE & Venice commission rules.

4. Investigation into recent acts of violence will be conducted under joint monitoring from the authorities, the opposition and the Council of Europe.

5. The authorities will not impose a state of emergency. The authorities and the opposition will refrain from the use of violence. The Parliament will adopt the 3rd amnesty, covering the same range of illegal actions as the 17th February 2014 law.

Both parties will undertake serious efforts for the normalisation of life in the cities and villages by withdrawing from administrative and public buildings and unblocking streets, city parks and squares.

Illegal weapons should be handed over to the Ministry of Interior bodies within 24 hours of the special law, referred to in point 1 hereof, coming into force. After the aforementioned period, all cases of illegal carrying and storage of weapons will fall under the law of Ukraine.

The forces of authorities and of the opposition will step back from confrontational posture. The Government will use law enforcement forces exclusively for the physical protection of public buildings.

6. The Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, Poland and the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation call for an immediate end to all violence and confrontation.

Kyiv, 21 February 2014

Signatories

Viktor Yanukovych, President of Ukraine

For the Opposition

Vitaliy Klichko, UDAR

Oleh Tyahnibok, Svoboda

Arsenij Yatseniuk, Batkivshchyna

Witnessed by

For the EU

Radoslaw Sikorski, Polish foreign minister

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German foreign minister

Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister

For the Russian Federation

Vladimir Lukin, Russian special envoy

...the rest, as they say, as they say, is history.