A "People's Republic of Donetsk" has been declared - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26919928.
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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-0...lear-war-drill
on Thursday Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces began a massive three-day exercise involving 10,000 soldiers and 1,000 pieces of equipment from more than 30 units. The major purpose of the drill is to ensure Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces have sufficient readiness to conduct offensive operations involving the massive and simultaneous use of nuclear missiles.
Russia’s 1997 national security concept stated that Russia would use its nuclear arsenal “in case of a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation,” whether that threat came in the form of nuclear weapons or from a conventionally superior military power.
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The only slaves who are happy, are the crazy ones.
A "People's Republic of Donetsk" has been declared - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26919928.
The use of "People's Republic" is interesting. Is there anything vaguely socialist about it?
Formerly soso17
No. Nothing at all. The term is used here as a way to indicate that it is by popular support from yhe inhabitants . At least that is the rationale behind it.
It seems that Putin's Russia, for all their anti-Soviet rhetoric, uses the terminology whenever it suits them.
-sosolo
Formerly soso17
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-0...ks-join-russia
Moldova's Transnistira region, in a 2006 referendum some 97% of the population voted to become part of Russia.
this appears to have been confirmed after the president of the territory said the following:
•TRANSNISTRIA SEEKING TO JOIN RUSSIA AFTER WINNING INDEPENDENCE
•TRANSNISTRIA PRESIDENT SHEVCHUK SPEAKING TO REPORTERS ON RUSSIA
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The only slaves who are happy, are the crazy ones.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-0...s-peoples-army
the anti-government (pro-Russia) movement in Donetsk has taken dramatic steps to bolster itself by creating a "people's army," or National Army of Donetsk. mostly civil volunteers, but also police and army defectors, say they “defend their motherland from the fascist army that’s going to kill them.” They demand “a referendum to be independent from Kiev”
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The only slaves who are happy, are the crazy ones.
See also: http://reddit.com/r/socialism http://www.reddit.com/r/anarchistnews http://reddit.com/r/anarchism
The only slaves who are happy, are the crazy ones.
Ukraine is caught between a rock and hard place. If they attack, there will be civilian causalities, bad PR, they'll lose the already meager support they have from the people in the West and most importantly Russia will act. No way Russia will allow a civil war on its border. If they don't attack, eastern Ukraine from Kharkiv to Odessa is lost.Pro-Russian separatists seize Ukrainian armoured vehicles
About 100 armed men ride on top of seized vehicles in central Kramatorsk as Ukrainian military helicopters hover above
- Luke Harding and Alec Luhn in Slavyansk
- theguardian.com, Wednesday 16 April 2014 10.13 BST
Pro-Russian forces on ride on an armoured vehicle seized from the Ukrainian army. Photograph: Luke Harding
Pro-Russian armed separatists have seized five armoured personnel carriers and a tank from the Ukrainian army, which they then drove in a victory lap through the centre of Kramatorsk in Ukraine's east, where government forces are attempting to wrest back control of the city.
About 100 heavily armed men, some in balaclavas and wearing military fatigues, rode on top of the seized armoured vehicles, the first of which was flying a Russian tricolour. Several hundred locals gathered around the convoy, cheering, tooting their car horns and waving in support as it rolled past Kramatorsk's railway station, not far from the airfield where Ukrainian soldiers clashed with separatists on Tuesday.
Ukrainian military helicopters hovered above the dramatic scenes in central Kramatorsk but there seemed to be no attempt by government forces to try to wrest back control of the situation.
Crowds look on as pro-Russian separatists drive round the city on armoured vehicles. Photograph: Luke Harding The seized armoured personnel carriers were driven to Slavyansk, where a Russian flag had been raised above a checkpoint at the city entrance. A jet plane resembling a Su-27 circled low over the town's square.
The pro-Russian militiamen who drove the troop carriers into Slavyansk refused to say where they had got them.
"From space," one said. "They came on their own," said another.
There were, however, reports that six Ukrainian pieces of armour in Kramatorsk had fallen into the hands of pro-Russian militia. The troop carrier driven into Slavyansk did not look modern enough or well kept enough to be Russian armour.
Locals gathered as the militiamen parked the vehicles near city hall. A pair of women recognised one man and hugged him, suggesting that at least some of them were local.
The new "people's mayor", Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, arrived and greeted the men, then led a group of them off the square toward other occupied buildings.
But not all the locals who had gathered joined the hero's welcome. One man who identified himself only as Valery angrily asked the militiamen, who were enforcing a wide perimeter around the armoured vehicles, what they were doing.
"Part of the population supports them," he said. "But people who work, like me – I'm an entrepreneur – they don't want this."
Valery said he didn't support calls for a referendum and wanted to vote in the presidential elections planned for 25 May, which many here say they will boycott.
"People think everything in Russia is spread with honey," Valery said – a statement that provoked angry exclamations and arguments from nearby crowds.
Separately, there were unconfirmed reports that armed men have captured the city administration building in nearby Donetsk.
Pro-Russian protesters seeking independence from Kiev have occupied at least nine government buildings in the region for more than a week – but this is the first time that separatist forces deep inside Ukraine have managed to seize heavy military equipment and a further sign that the situation in the east is slipping out of Kiev's grip.
Ukrainian government forces launched their first significant military action in the east of the country on Tuesday, clashing with about 30 pro-Russian gunmen at a provincial airfield and heightening fears that the standoff could escalate into a major armed conflict.
Shots were fired in Kramatorsk airport as Ukrainian special forces stormed in to reassert Kiev's control. As troop helicopters hovered above and tempers flared, a Ukrainian general was set upon by a group of local people incensed that two protesters had been injured, knocking off his military-issue fur hat and yelling: "Jail him."
At the same time as Kramatorsk airport was being seized, elite Ukrainian units were also gathering outside the nearby city of Slavyansk in an operation aimed at taking back control from armed pro- Russian groups.
Ukraine's acting president said the recapture of the airport was just the first such action aimed at restoring Kiev's control over the east.
"I just got a call from the Donetsk region: Ukrainian special forces have liberated the airport in the city of Kramatorsk from terrorists," Oleksandr Turchynov told parliament.
"I'm convinced that there will not be any terrorists left soon in Donetsk and other regions and they will find themselves in the dock – this is where they belong."
Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, declared the Ukrainian moves "anti-constitutional acts" and in a phonecall to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, demanded that the UN condemn them. But the US voiced strong support for the Ukrainian operation, arguing that the government in Kiev "has to respond" to armed groups.
"We understand the government of Ukraine is working to try to calm the situation in the east and note the measured approach of the Ukrainian security forces thus far," said White House press secretary Jay Carney.
Representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the US and the European Union are due to meet in Geneva on Thursday for the first time since the crisis began in February, but there were clear signs that the situation in eastern Ukraine risked spiralling out of control before the diplomats could meet.
The mayor of Slavyansk said the pro-Russian local people there were being supported by unmarked troops from Russia and Crimea. Turchynov gave pro-Russians in eastern Ukraine until Monday morning to give up their arms and the buildings they had seized, but instead a pro-Russian mob took over yet another government building in Horlivka that day. A man who appointed a new police chief there later said he was a lieutenant colonel in the Russian army.
General Vasily Krutov, the commander of the Ukrainian operation in the region, said the government's ultimatum would not be extended. That would be "too humanitarian", he said. He added that civilian casualties were possible but his forces would try to make sure "not one innocent person suffers".
He said: "Unfortunately we face a difficult situation because those realising their plan are hiding behind human shields" – an apparent reference to the many pro-Russian local people who have taken part in taking over buildings. "Some of them are cynically working toward their own ends, but many are under the influence of propaganda," he said.
At the White House, Carney said the Ukrainian authorities had repeatedly sought to negotiate a peaceful resolution with armed groups occupying buildings in eastern cities, and made clear that use of force was not its "preferred action".
But he continued: "That said the Ukrainian government has a responsibility to provide law and order. These provocations in eastern Ukraine are creating a situation in which the government has to respond."
Asked what advice the CIA director, John Brennan, who visited Kiev on Saturday, and other US officials have given security forces in Kiev, Carney replied: "We urged the Ukrainian government to move forward, gradually, responsibly, and with all due caution, as it deals with this situation caused by armed militants.
"Let's be clear: the way to ensure that violence does not occur is for these armed paramilitary groups, and these armed so-called pro-Russian separatists, to vacate the buildings and to lay down their arms."
William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said in a speech to the City of London on Tuesday that the EU was completing preparations for "far-reaching economic, trade and financial sanctions whenever necessary" against Moscow.
"In recent days Russia has deliberately pushed Ukraine to the brink, and created a still greater risk of violent confrontation," he said. "We call on Russia to stop these actions and to condemn the lawless acts in eastern Ukraine."
The UN human rights office, meanwhile, said ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine had falsely claimed to be under assault to justify Russian intervention, warning that such propaganda could affect Ukraine's presidential election next month.
Russia condemned the report, saying it was one-sided and seemed to have been "fabricated" to fit pre-formed conclusions.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...oured-vehicles
I think they'll have to be content with whatever scraps they can gather from the table tomorrow in Geneva.
I can see the US administration trying to use Russia’s potential further military involvement in the east of Ukraine as "evidence" (according to the parameters of the US narrative) of Russia’s "malign" intentions. To reiterate, in order to head off the predictably hysterical charges by some on here of "Russian apologetics", I am not suggesting that Russia is all sweetness and light. I am simply attempting to describe (and predict) the larger geopolitical game that is being played out here.
Anti-Soviet rhetoric, surely Putin uses pro-Soviet rhetoric. Rehabilitating its history, saying he misses the Soviet empire.
pew pew pew
As in speaking favorably of the official Marxist-Leninist ideology and the "actually existing socialism", paying lip service to Bolsheviks and calling for a return to the centrally-planned economy? Never happened, so cut the bullshit.
Just in the past few weeks Russian TV aired a few "documentaries" calling Ukraine a "virtual construct" whose borders "were drawn on a whim by Bolsheviks", accusing the latter of illegal transfer of the "historic Russian land"(in reference to Eastern Ukraine) to Ukrainian SSR and such.
source: http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...tuation-nuanceMaidan or anti-Maidan? The Ukraine situation requires more nuance
We should support the progressive wings of both factions, not tie ourselves up with hypocritical justifications of one or the other
- Volodymyr Ishchenko
- theguardian.com, Tuesday 15 April 2014 10.17 BST
- Jump to comments (241)
Pro-Russian activists clash with Maidan supporters as they storm the regional government building in Kharkiv on 1 March 2014. Photograph: Sergey Bobok/AFP
I have little doubt that Russian security services were in some way involved in the recent escalation of violence in several towns in eastern Ukraine.
The seizures of administrative buildings on 12 April were well co-ordinated between different towns, the armed men were well equipped and showed high levels of military training. This does not necessarily mean that Russian special operations units are directly taking part; those men could be former Ukrainian riot police officers, many of whom fled to Crimea and Russia to escape punishment from the new government. But all of this does not preclude the fact that the planned provocation happened in the context of mass, grassroots, self-organised social protests which started against the new government in eastern Ukrainian regions after former president Viktor Yanukovych was toppled.
The Maidan movement has never had majority support in eastern and southern regions in Ukraine. After it succeeded in toppling the government, many people were scared and outraged with the exaggerated pictures they saw on television of violent clashes in Kiev, armed paramilitary groups including many far right elements controlling the streets, attacks on Lenin's monuments, and the far right Svoboda party included into the new government. Many people in the east call it the "Kiev junta" and disapprove of its actions.
Of course, there is a large degree of irrational fear driving the protesters, especially concerning the overstated problem of Russian language discrimination. But it would be hypocritical to employ double standards. Just as Maidan was not a "revolution", anti-Maidan is not a "counter-revolution" either. Maidan was called a "revolution of dignity" but people in eastern Ukraine are also proudly talking about their dignity, regional identity, historical memory, Soviet heroes and language.
The anti-Maidans in the east are no more irrational than Maidan protesters who were hoping for the European dream but gained (quite expectedly) a neoliberal government, IMF-required austerity measures and increasing prices. In the eastern Ukrainian protests, "Russia" – with its higher wages and pensions – plays the same role of utopian aspiration as "Europe" played for the Maidan protesters. The economic situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate and the national currency has lost more than 50% of its value in two months, so the protesters in the Donetsk region are talking more about the socio-economic problems the Ukrainian state was not able to solve for 23 years: collapsed enterprises, unemployment and low wages. They demand nationalisation and decent rewards for their labour.
It will sound paradoxical for those who celebrated grassroots self-organisation in the Maidan, but the anti-Maidan protests in eastern Ukraine are even more grassroots, decentralised, network-type and leaderless at the moment. Neither the Party of Regions nor the Communist Party of Ukraine play the same role of political representation for anti-Maidan as the three former opposition parties did for Maidan. The so called "representative of south-eastern Ukraine", the former Kharkiv region governor Mykhailo Dobkin, whom Russia was going to invite to the negotiations with the EU and US on an equal basis with the Kiev government, was violently booed by protesters in Lugansk. Equally, they do not trust the oligarchic elite of eastern Ukrainian origin; or the wealthiest person in Ukraine, Rinat Akhmetov, who has taken on a peacemaker role; or the new Donetsk governor Serhiy Taruta. And they do not want the discredited and corrupt Yanukovych back.
The social base of the protest seems to be more plebeian, poorer and less educated than on Maidan; we see more workers and pensioners and not so many intellectuals and higher-educated professionals who would help to formulate clear demands and defend them in the media.
This is precisely why these protests can be so easily influenced from the outside. It is not difficult to intervene, provoke and manipulate a decentralised revolt of scared people to serve Russian interests.
The anti-Maidan protests cannot be supported wholeheartedly and without reservation. Like Maidan they are diverse. Some people support joining Russia, some support more local autonomy within the Ukrainian state. Russian far-right nationalists, who are no better than the Ukrainian nationalist Svoboda or Right Sector, participate in the protests together with leftist organisations. The public in eastern and southern Ukraine is split. Simultaneously, with anti-Maidan rallies and seizures, demonstrations in support of the new government and a united Ukraine take place.
Even if from an abstract point of view a demand for federalisation and the direct election of the region's governors sounds democratic, in Ukrainian reality it would instead give more powers to local "big men" rather than lead to a vivid local self-government. And like in western Ukraine during the final stages of the Maidan rebellion, the local Donetsk police is now sabotaging the government's orders and is often allowed to take control of the buildings and weapons without much resistance, sometimes even taking the side of the protesters.
Rather than constructing necessarily hypocritical justifications as to why military suppression of some armed protesters is better than military suppression of other armed protesters, why the pro-Ukrainian far right is better than the pro-Russian far right, why the Ukrainian neoliberal government is better than the Russian neoliberal government, or why we are ready to fight Russian imperialism but ready to accept western imperialist interests in Ukraine, it would be better to support progressive wings of both Maidan and anti-Maidan, and try to unite them against the Ukrainian ruling class and against all nationalisms and imperialisms on shared demands for social justice.
The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater?
Here at least We shall be free
I am quite certain he once said something along the lines of people that miss the USSR are being stupid.
So if he claims otherwise now he is lying.
You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror...
"People in Russia say that those who do not regret the collapse of the Soviet Union have no heart, and those that do regret it have no brain. We do not regret this, we simply state the fact and know that we need to look ahead, not backwards. We will not allow the past to drag us down and stop us from moving ahead. We understand where we should move. But we must act based on a clear understanding of what happened." - Putin, 2005.
"Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century. As for the Russian nation, it became a genuine drama. Tens of millions of our co-citizens and compatriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself." - Putin, 2005.
I'm quite sure you can resent the Soviet system and society and be happy for its collapse, and still be wishing to regain the geopolitical supremacy of the USSR, at the same time.
Yeah, some stupid tankies hailed it and its leader as glorious anti-fascist and anti-imperialist developments, turns out the guy is the leader of a paramilitary rusophile neo-nazi organisation
The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater?
Here at least We shall be free
Is the Kiev government going to claim that their own elite 25th Airborne Brigade, which defected yesterday, is a Russian 5th column?
You can see that the soldier here is wearing the blue telnyashka of the paratroopers, meaning that they're defectors and not "a pro-russian armed separatist" militia claimed by that guardian article.
Any proof?
From what I've read the foto of him in the neo nazi fatigues was photoshoped.
There is his biography (a short summary of his political activities) floating online.
According to it there is no way he could have been part of it because the organization itself did not exist when he became politically active (basically the dates and places do not support the accusation).
