Crisis in the Ukraine

[blake 3:17]

Restarting this thread: http://www.revleft.com/vb/ukraine-eu...505/index.html

As the Ukraine debate rages, both sides are getting it wrong
It's possible to condemn Vladimir Putin's invasion – and to believe that Kiev's new government is no place for fascists


Jonathan Freedland



In debates about affairs far away, "both" seems to be the hardest word. Ukraine has been a case in point, the discussion reduced to a slanging match of binaries, each side hurling false dichotomies at the other – insisting that every aspect of this unfolding crisis can be reduced to an either/or choice, when in fact the truth very often comes down to both.

So one side loudly condemns Russia for its armed incursion into Crimea, thereby violating Ukrainian sovereignty. What hypocrisy, cry their opponents. How dare the west criticise Russia when the US, Britain and its allies invaded Iraq 11 years ago. That's the choice. Either Russia is in the wrong or the west is in the wrong. You can't have it both ways.

Except you can. It's perfectly possible for a westerner to oppose both Russia's action in Crimea and the invasion of Iraq – indeed, to oppose both for the same reason: as unmerited violations of sovereignty. Admittedly, that might be tricky for John Kerry, given his Senate vote in 2002 giving George W Bush the authority to use military force against Saddam Hussein – a record that should have given him pause before denouncing Vladimir Putin for acting "in a 19th-century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext".

But it's silly to throw the Iraq precedent back at Barack Obama. He is president of the United States, in part, because he opposed the 2003 invasion. It was his stance on Iraq that helped him defeat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. You can condemn Obama if you like over Libya or the continuing US drone warfare, but the specific example of Iraq does not make his position on Crimea hypocritical. It makes it consistent. To ignore that fact, to hold the current administration responsible for the sins of its predecessor – as if Obama and Bush are simply the interchangeable faces of permanent US power – is to ignore the cardinal principle that in democratic societies governments change. Perhaps not in Russia, where Putin has been in charge since Bill Clinton was in the White House – but in the democratic world, that's how it works.

That's far from the only empty choice offered up in the Ukraine debate. One camp slams the crudity of Putin's lies and deceits – his press conference this week recasting him as a Kremlin version of "Comical Ali", hilariously defying the facts as he insisted that the Russian troops everyone could see with their own eyes in Crimea were in fact Ukrainian civilians who had popped to the local fancy dress shop to stock up on Russian military uniforms. His charmingly retro claim that Russian forces had been invited into Ukraine by the latter's ousted president – just as Soviet troops were invited into Hungary in 1956 and invited again into Czechoslovakia in 1968 – had one commentator suggesting Putin had lost his mind.

Standing against them is the opposing camp, which urges you to look instead at the new forces ruling Ukraine. This camp notes the influence of far rightist groups Svoboda (which traded originally under the historically resonant name of the Social-National party of Ukraine) and the Right Sector, now rewarded with seats in Ukraine's government, and of the fascistic paramilitaries patrolling the streets of Kiev wearing swastika armbands and parroting anti-Jewish slogans. They alert you to the torch-lit parade of ultra-nationalists commemorating Stepan Bandera, hailed a hero of Ukrainian independence despite his wartime collaboration with the Nazis.

Yet it should be possible to face the truth of both these situations, to condemn Putin's de facto dictatorship in Moscow and to be appalled by the presence of fascists in a 21st-century European government in Kiev. Yet too often the warring camps close their eyes to one even as they denounce the other. This goes not only for commentators and pundits, slugging it out online and on air; John Kerry and European Union foreign ministers should realise that it would not undermine their stance against Russian interference in Ukraine if they were to condemn the racist thugs who played a role in the Maidan uprising and have won a slice of power. It is possible to hold both positions at once.

Indeed, to do otherwise is to deny that reality is always stubbornly, maddeningly complex. Take the question of antisemitism, which has become a battleground in the war of words over Ukraine – with Putin casting himself as the defender of the besieged Jews of that country. It is quite true that Svoboda's leaders once claimed Ukraine was ruled by a "Moscow-Jewish mafia" – quite something, given that Jews make up an estimated 0.15% of the country's population – or that they lambasted the Ukrainian-born actress Mila Kunis as a "dirty Jewess". True too that synagogues have been on the receiving end of Molotov cocktails and that one communal leader was frightened enough to suggest that Jews get out of Ukraine for their own safety.

Yet it's also true that young Jews were themselves active in the Maidan protests, even forming their own combat group against the now-ousted government. True too that when Jewish leaders asked Kiev's new authorities for protection for key community buildings, they got it instantly. Nor can one ignore the Jewish leaders who believe some of these antisemitic attacks were performed by pro-Russian provocateurs, bent on discrediting Kiev's new masters, just as one cannot dismiss Thursday's letter to Putin from the Ukrainian Jewish leadership, telling the Russian president to back off and accusing him of both exploiting the issue of antisemitism and hypocrisy, given his country's own record.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...th-sides-wrong

[blake 3:17]

Boris Kagarlitsky: ‘Polite intervention’ and the Ukrainian uprising

By Boris Kagarlitsky, Moscow; translated by Renfrey Clarke
March 4, 2014 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Why, do you suppose, war has not yet broken out between Russia and Ukraine? The answer is very simple: no one plans to go to war, and no one can. Kiev for practical purposes does not have an army, while the government that has appeared in Kiev has no control over half of Ukraine, and cannot even exercise particular control over its own supporters. If the Ukrainian authorities make any serious attempt to mobilise their forces, this will merely provoke new protests. Even rumours of such a possibility have been enough to provoke anti-government demonstrations in Odessa.
Moscow, meanwhile, is rattling its sabres, but very cautiously. If the Kremlin were really serious about sending troops onto Ukrainian territory, it would not have asked permission from the Council of the Federation, but would simply have issued the order. Instead of real action we saw PR action, with a “unanimous vote by the senators”. A war broke out in the virtual space of the internet, backed by hysterical commentaries from liberals and malevolent howls from conservative propagandists. In essence, this was enough to fulfil the tasks faced by the authorities at present.
‘Neither peace nor war’
The psychological effect was almost as if we were waging a serious war somewhere near Kharkov. Meanwhile, there were no victims and there was no destruction. Unless, that is, we count the collapse of the ruble. Here too, however, things were not so simple; for several months, the Russian government and the Central Bank had been seeking a devaluation of the national currency. At least since September analysts had been forecasting figures of 37 rubles to the dollar and 50 to the euro. The Ukrainian events merely accelerated this process, and helped the financial authorities carry out their plan while evading responsibility for devaluing the savings of our citizens.
When a certain number of leftists, repeating century-old slogans, speak of “a war unleashed in the interests of large-scale capital”, they once again get things wrong. Instead of repeating clichés from old text books, what is needed is a little economic analysis. The truth is that large-scale capital, both private and bureaucratic, has no need at present for a war.
Human vices often rebound to the advantage of society. If our government and military leadership were made up of intelligent, principled and decisive people, we could indeed expect far more unpleasant developments. The Russian economy is highly dependent on the gas pipeline that passes through Ukraine. The economies of many European Union countries, not to speak of Ukraine, also depend on this pipeline operating without interruption. Of course, the investments made by “our” oligarchs in Ukrainian enterprises need defending, but military action would sooner exacerbate the problems here than solve them. The cynicism and avarice of our present-day rulers are the best guarantee that there will not be a major war.
The authorities in Kiev are also satisfied. They are able to employ the “Russian threat” to consolidate the new regime, to explain away economic difficulties as the result of external pressure, and in retrospect, to justify their own steps that have brought Ukraine to collapse. The present situation of “neither peace nor war” thus suits both governments perfectly, at least for the moment. The only significant cause for unease is Moscow’s aim of preserving the fugitive Viktor Yanukovich as the “real president”, while hinting at the possibility of restoring him to the Kievan throne.
But this should not be taken too seriously; as stated earlier, the people in the Kremlin are cynical, will not make any serious undertakings to the Ukrainian fugitive, and if they do, will break them. Of course, it is very convenient for the Kremlin authorities to have a “lawful president” on hand, but if an opportunity fails to present itself, the former legitimate ruler will be transformed in the space of five minutes into an unwelcome foreigner.
Crimea
In Crimea, Russian forces have restricted themselves to “polite intervention”. Of course, this was a violation of sovereignty, but let’s be honest: in an analogous situation the French, Americans and British would have done the same. When the French held off from intervening in Rwanda and allowed a bloodbath to go ahead, progressive opinion condemned them wrathfully for their inertia. When the same French state intervened in Mali and prevented a full-scale civil war, the same progressive opinion angrily denounced the intervention. An analogous situation has emerged with Crimea. Both possible decisions were associated with the prospect of serious political and moral losses, with the risk of coming under fire from domestic and international criticism. In Moscow the choice was in favour of a local intervention, but an effort was made to carry it out as cautiously as possible.
So far, Russian forces have acted in a far more restrained fashion than the French and Americans in similar situations. Perhaps this is not because of the government but despite it; on both sides, it may simply be that the good sense of the lower ranks has prevailed in conditions where the hierarchy of command has been weakened.
The Russian special forces have not stormed the bases of the Ukrainian troops, but march around them and squabble half-heartedly with the Ukrainian commanders trying to persuade the latter to hand over their weapons. The Ukrainians refuse, referring not to the oath they have taken and to their loyalty to their homeland, but to the fact that the weapons are state property, for which the commanders of the base are responsible. The Russians respond to these arguments with understanding; if they were in the place of their Ukrainian colleagues, they would do the same.
It is a new form of war, without gunfire or casualties. No one wants to start shooting, and no one particularly cares what happens to the obsolete armoured personnel carriers or to the firearms stored in the barracks. At any rate, neither side is prepared to risk life and limb and this provides cause for hope.
‘The sheepskin is not worth dividing up’
The Russian elites are mortally afraid of seriously angering the West, but in the West too people have realised that they will not achieve their goals in Ukraine without Russian help. The European Union does not need a zone of chaos on its eastern frontier, a new Somalia or Congo on its very doorstep. Nor is it possible for the EU to send its own troops or police onto Ukrainian territory, as in Bosnia or Kosovo, or at any rate without Russian assent.
The US press criticises Moscow fiercely, but indicates plainly that the US will not help Kiev, since there are no appropriate treaties and Ukraine is not a member of NATO. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has already refused money to Kiev, in particularly blunt fashion. IMF head Christine Largarde has declared that Ukraine does not need immediate financial assistance:
We do not see anything critical that would be worth panicking about at the moment. We definitely hope that no-one rushes in with large sums, which would in fact be pointless if these contributions were not evaluated in the proper manner.
In Brussels and Washington, the decision evidently has already been made that the sheepskin, as we Russians say, is not worth dividing up, that with the prospects uncertain the risk is just too great. If anyone has to bear the moral, material and financial costs of restoring order, the thinking goes, then let it be the Russians.
In principle, the strategy of confining the conflict to Crimea alone suits both the Kremlin and the West – and perhaps even the new authorities in Kiev too. In recent times the German press has been urging Ukraine to sacrifice Crimea for the sake of integration into Europe. The problem, however, is that the process is developing spontaneously, and that it is no longer controlled by a few politicians. Both in Moscow and in Kiev the governments in the recent period have shown plainly that they are incapable of working out any long-term strategy. It is thus quite obvious that the crisis will grow and deepen, but not according to the scenario promised by the people who are terrifying themselves and others with the spectre of a Russo-Ukrainian war.
More than likely, the present authorities in Kiev will not hold out for long in any case. Commentators in Moscow who are sympathetic to them remind us constantly that most of the ministries in the new government are not held by radicals from Svoboda or the Right Sector, but by more moderate politicians. Meanwhile, the commentators neglect to mention that these “moderates” are hostages of the radicals. As Mao said, power comes from the barrel of a gun. In circumstances where the army has fallen to pieces, and the organs of law enforcement have either been smashed, or are demoralised, or have been placed under the control of the Right Sector, it is the radical nationalists who control the situation. The “moderates” in the government are only tolerated because they have promised to stop the eastern provinces splitting away. Now that they are failing to cope with this task, they will be purged. Either western Ukraine will move against Kiev as well, seeking the formation of a more resolute and “national” government as a “response to Russian aggression”, or the same impulse will come from within the capital itself. In either case, right-wing pressure will result in such a government being formed that Kiev itself will rise in revolt.

full article: http://links.org.au/node/3752

[aristos]

Anonymous have started a campaign against the Kiev Junta.
A group calling themselves cyber-berkut have blocked many Ukrainian government sites and claim to be responsible for the Catherine Ashton leak. They promise more unpleasant surprises for the fascists in the near future.

Facebook page

https://www.cyberguerrilla.org/blog/?p=17585

At the same time the Ukrainian government has blocked access to Ukrainians to many Russian sites as well as youtube (this I believe only for select areas in the Southern and Eastern regions). Websites belonging to the Ukrainian government will delete all Russian language content before 10th March. Russian TV reception has also been disconnected in Ukraine.

[aristos]

A Ukrainian newspaper has published a draft with the list of economic reforms the Junta will undertake in order to pay back EU/IMF debts. Among these are:
- cancellation of practically all subsidies for science and research as well education.
- Severe cuts to the salaries of medical personnel as well as to subsidized healthcare
- price hikes of utilities (increase predicted to be around 300%) and state subsidies for public transport.
- All pensions will be cut in half.
- Eligibility for unemployment benefits only after 6 months continuous employment.
- cancellation of subsidies to practically all sport-clubs and sport related schools for children and youths.
- Price increase for school lunches.
- Raising of college tuition fees.
- Privatization of state owned mass media including printing presses.

Additionally it is rumored that the Power stations will be sold off (at discount prices naturally) to the German energy conglomerate RWE. This is a potentially hazardous turn of events. There are 7 active nuclear power stations in Ukraine providing around 50% of all electricity. During the Yushenko presidency they temporarily stopped buying Russian nuclear fuel and started using German nuclear fuel instead. The problem is - it turned out to be incompatible, resulting in frequently taking the power plants offline for lengthy maintainance repairs. At last they resumed using Russian nuclear fuel again. However with the looming sanctions against Russia and the takeover of the power plants by RWE the problem is likely to arise again. Let's hope that German capitalists do not create a second (or several) Chernobyl incidents.

Russian officials are now looking into constitutional measures they can take, in order to confiscate EU/US assets in Russia in case of sanctions. There are a lot of factories there built by many huge US/EU based international corporations.

[Anti-Traditional]

A Ukrainian newspaper has published a draft with the list of economic reforms the Junta will undertake in order to pay back EU/IMF debts. Among these are:
- cancellation of practically all subsidies for science and research as well education.
- Severe cuts to the salaries of medical personnel as well as to subsidized healthcare
- price hikes of utilities (increase predicted to be around 300%) and state subsidies for public transport.
- All pensions will be cut in half.
- Eligibility for unemployment benefits only after 6 months continuous employment.
- cancellation of subsidies to practically all sport-clubs and sport related schools for children and youths.
- Price increase for school lunches.
- Raising of college tuition fees.
- Privatization of state owned mass media including printing presses.

Additionally it is rumored that the Power stations will be sold off (at discount prices naturally) to the German energy conglomerate RWE. This is a potentially hazardous turn of events. There are 7 active nuclear power stations in Ukraine providing around 50% of all electricity. During the Yushenko presidency they temporarily stopped buying Russian nuclear fuel and started using German nuclear fuel instead. The problem is - it turned out to be incompatible, resulting in frequently taking the power plants offline for lengthy maintainance repairs. At last they resumed using Russian nuclear fuel again. However with the looming sanctions against Russia and the takeover of the power plants by RWE the problem is likely to arise again. Let's hope that German capitalists do not create a second (or several) Chernobyl incidents.

Russian officials are now looking into constitutional measures they can take, in order to confiscate EU/US assets in Russia in case of sanctions. There are a lot of factories there built by many huge US/EU based international corporations.

Fuckkk! The IMF don't hang about, do they? bloody hell...

[Red Commissar]

Does anyone know more about this?

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukra...es-338745.html

Voters in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea who vote in the March 16 referendum have two choices – join Russia immediately or declare independence and then join Russia.

So the choices are “yes, now” or “yes, later.”

Voting “no” is not an option.

The lack of choice wouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with how Soviet or Russian elections are run.

The Crimean parliament released the design of the ballot that will be used for the referendum, which will be taking place as thousands of Russian soldiers are in control and – it appears – Russian President Vladimir Putin is calling the shots.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has annulled the referendum as illegal and unconstitutional, but the pro-Kremlin Crimean authorities who took power on Feb. 27 do not recognize the legitimacy of central government and have said they will proceed with the vote.

The ballot asks two questions and leaves no option for a “no” vote. Voters are simply asked to check one of two boxes:

Do you support joining Crimea with the Russian Federation as a subject of Russian Federation?

And:
Do you support restoration of 1992 Crimean Constitution and Crimea's status as a part of Ukraine?

That Constitution declares that Crimea is an independent state.

The questions are written in Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar, the three most widely spoken languages on the peninsula, and the paper carries a warning in all three languages that marking both options will invalidate the ballot.

Volodymyr Yavorkiy, a member of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, says that not only is the referendum completely illegal, the ballot for it doesn't stand up to any criticism.

“There is no option for ‘no,’ they are not counting the number of votes, but rather which one of the options gets more votes,” says Yavorskiy. “Moreover, the first question is about Crimea joining Russia, the second – about it declaring independence and joining Russia. In other words, there is no difference.”

He says with no choice available, “it's clear what the result will be.”

Mykhailo Malyshev, head of the Crimean parliament's commission on referendum, said the election will have 1,250 polling stations equipped with web cameras for the vote.

“We have a desire and preparations for installing web cameras at polling stations.

They can play a great role during the vote, and if technically it is possible, the web cameras will be installed,” UNIAN news agency quoted him as saying.

Malyshev also said that 2.5 million ballots will be printed. However, according to the Central Election Commission data, as of Feb. 28, 2014 there were only just over 1.5 million voters in Crimea.

The Central Election Commission, which has also said that the Crimean referendum is illegitimate, took an emergency decision on March 6 to close off the state register to all authorities of the autonomy. In its ruling, the commission said it was doing it “to protect the database of the State register of voters from unsanctioned use of personal data and unsanctioned access and abuse of access.”

Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected]

[Rurkel]

Does anyone know more about this?

The second question is about Crimea formally remaining a part of Ukraine, while becoming de-facto independent.

I don't think that Russian or Ukrainian elites actually want a war so far, but nationalistic propaganda and rhetoric gone on for too long can, unhappily, have certain unintended consequences. Hope they won't come to pass.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Swedish nazis are reported to be travelling to Ukraine to learn from and assist their Svoboda friends.

[aristos]

Swedish nazis are reported to be travelling to Ukraine to learn from and assist their Svoboda friends.

There is now reliable information from the workers at the Borispol airport that many mercenaries are being flown in from all over the world. The number being mentioned is 30 planes per day. It is suspected they will be used in attacks on Crimea and to repel Russian forces, should these cross the border to protect ethnic Russians in case of mass ethnic cleansing. They are estimated to number from 3,5 to 4 thousand and growing. Moreover, some Ukrainian army detachments have began moving out to take positions. Yesterday I posted a video documenting a huge artillery column moving towards the border with Crimea.
Today there is info that a regiment from Sumsk Oblast together with the tank division from Desna are taking positions along the north-eastern border in preparations to repel any possible attacks by the Russian army from that direction.
Moreover in addition to Right Sector political commissars having formally taken charge of all military units an accelerated rotation of soldiers and officers serving all over the country has been enacted. Normally the soldiers in Ukraine serve where they come from, but fearing that their loyalty does not lie with the Kiev authorities (understandably so - the soldiers will not shoot their relatives) this enables the authorities to exchange the soldiers in the unruly regions with loyal ones from the West, who due to russophobic indoctrination will have less qualms to follow orders.

In Crimea itself a group of Right Sector fighters was arrested. There is info they are being sent in in order to execute terrorist attacks and stop the referendum.

[aristos]

In Donetsk where there are increasing clashes between the ever increasing anti-Kiev movement and authorities. The local Berkut forces have openly stated that they are on the side of the local populace and therefore will not follow orders to disperse the crowds, on the contrary they seem to have taken arms against the Oligarch appointed as Governor by Kiev and his cronies. At the same time more and more police from other regions are being sent to Donetsk to suppress the resistance. The lower ranking police officers themselves are supposed to have spilled the beans about how their own families have been practically taken hostage back home in Western Ukraine, so that either they put down the unrest using any means necessary or their families will suffer.

Also leaders of the more militant resistance movements in other parts of the country have begun disappearing.

[aristos]

In Kiev itself the situation is rapidly getting worse and worse for the inhabitants. The armed thugs, be they Right Sector gangs, ordinary criminals, or those who feel they can use the lawlessness to their personal advantage have been terrorizing the city ever since Yanukovich fled and cops disappeared from the streets. The inhabitants of Kiev are requested (ordered) to help out with restoration works (the entire area of the Maidan protest has been severely damaged) and if they refuse will have 10% deducted from their salaries to pay for the repairs. Needless to say, in such a chaotic situation those 10% will quietly disappear into certain private pockets.
Abductions, rape and disappearances are the order of the day. Armed men occupy offices and houses. They force the owners of the offices to pay for all the utilities the thugs are using threatening violence in case of refusals. Kiev is also now being overwhelmed by the poor inhabitants from other parts of the country, mostly from decrepit villages, who have set their eyes on the relative splendour of the capital. Since no one is taking responsibility for public order, if you are armed you can take what you want. Violent redistribution of wealth, in other words. Most Kievans are now in shock at what has come out of the protests they so passionately supported a mere week or two ago. Anyone who still can is trying to sell off all their real estate and flee (and with each day this veering more and more towards the impossible). Naturally, the vast majority most don't have the means to escape.

I wrote earlier that the Right Sector have taken control of the Kiev morgue and crematorium.
The crematorium, as seen by the emanating smoke, is currently working non-stop. Kievans are saying among themselves that this is an action geared towards hiding evidence of the constant terror by criminal gangs associated with the Maidan "self-defence"-committees operating all around Kiev.
A source working just across the street from the morgue reports that trucks are unloading long, seemingly heavy, bulky objects wrapped in plastic garbage bags. Before, usually the morgue received a couple of bodies frequently throughout the day. Now the deliveries are done once every 24 hours at night and in large bulk.
A Kiev woman has reported that her son-in-law was stopped in the street a couple of days ago, stuffed into a car and taken away. He was one of the leaders of anti-maidan activists who demanded back in January and February that the city centre be cleared of the barricades and was advised several times beforehand to leave the city. The despairing woman was able to persuade one of the "nicer" "self-defence"-officers to find out what happened. After making inquiries he told her that it was too late for him, but that the woman should accept this and move on, and instead "think about her daughter and grandchildren and not do anything stupid".

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Not that I don't believe this but without sources you might as well be making all of this shit up. Can you link to wherever you're reading this stuff?

[aristos]

At the Borispol airport, tonight at 2 a.m. arrived 4 CIT vans and two Volkswagen cargo trucks. In very short order, 15 armed masked men in body armour, dressed in black, unloaded 40+ strongboxes from the CIT vans onto a chartered jet and took off. It is speculated they have flown out the Ukrainian gold reserves. The troubled airport personnel informed the airport administration about this, after which they were firmly told to mind their own business.
Later today a source in the Ministry for Taxes and Income told that according to his information on the order of the leaders of the provisional government the entire gold reserves of Ukraine were flown out to the United States.

[aristos]

Not that I don't believe this but without sources you might as well be making all of this shit up. Can you link to wherever you're reading this stuff?

For anyone who speaks Russian here are some blogs with different info, you can find the original sources there:

http://hippy-end.livejournal.com/239976.html

http://putnik1.livejournal.com

http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com

http://ai-zhilin.livejournal.com

http://gleb1368.livejournal.com

http://eduard-456.livejournal.com

http://ivakin-alexey.livejournal.com

http://grey-croco.livejournal.com

http://ukrnovosti.net

http://ukrainefacedchoice.odnako.org

[PhoenixAsh]

This is going to be interesting:


Ukraine has missed its payment deadline for gas supplies. As its debt is increasing, Gazprom does not rule out it may cut gas supplies to the country, the Russian energy giant’s head Aleksey Miller has said.

“Today, March 7, is the deadline for making a payment for the February gas supplies to Ukraine,” Miller told journalists on Friday, adding that Gazprom has not received payment on account.

“Given the discount for the first quarter the outstanding debt has increased to $1.89 billion,” Miller added.

“Factually it means that Ukraine has stopped paying for gas. This contravenes the contract terms and international trade practice. But we can’t deliver gas for free”.

If Ukraine doesn’t pay its bills it risks plunging into a crisis similar to the one in 2009, Miller warned.

During the transit crisis five years ago supplies of Russian gas to Europe were cut off for 20 days because of the tension between Russia and Ukraine.

Earlier this week President Putin said that starting from April 1 Gazprom would no longer offer Ukraine the lower price agreed in December. The aid package to Kiev included $15 billion in bonds purchases and a 33 percent gas discount, that reduced the price to $268.50 per 1,000 cubic meters down from $400.

Currently Ukraine buys more than 50 percent of its gas from Russia, but aims to become energy independent by 2020. Before the protest kicked off in Ukraine, the country signed a $10 billion shale gas exploration deal with Chevron.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

the country signed a $10 billion shale gas exploration deal with Chevron.

That's fracking wonderful, too. Mmm the Russian and Euroamerican imperialist struggling over who controls the gas supplies. Though I think that the dubious underwater pipeline between Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea is operational, right? So it wouldn't throttle supplies to Germany totally.

[Sentinel]

Swedish nazis are reported to be travelling to Ukraine to learn from and assist their Svoboda friends.

One of these vermin - from the nazi Party of the Swedes - was also given at least 5 minutes on national radio a few days ago, to pretty much unchallengedly propagate his views and why he wants to help create a Ukraine for 'genetical ukrainians'. Totally incredible.

***

But yeah, this really is a crisis with a big C. Imo the soundest position really is to condemn the fascist junta in Kiev, support national self-determination for the russian minority, with rights for majority russian regions to decide which country to belong to and restored minority rights for others.

That said, the motives of Putin to invade are obviously questionable as well, and frankly his regime is only marginally better when it comes to minority rights. The natural thing is to call for workers self-organisation as a solution here.

But I'm pessimistic that is realistic to expect before the clash of conflicting nationalist and imperialist interests we seem to be moving towards fast, happens and workers from all nationalities suffer again.

[aristos]

That's fracking wonderful, too. Mmm the Russian and Euroamerican imperialist struggling over who controls the gas supplies. Though I think that the dubious underwater pipeline between Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea is operational, right? So it wouldn't throttle supplies to Germany totally.

NordStream is operational but in 2013 was working at 40% of maximum capacity.
However, Russian gas is also fed to Europe via two other pipelines (not counting Ukraine).

[Red Commissar]

The "Olga" in the conversation between Estonian FM Paet and EU's Asthon has for her part said that she never recalled having that conversation and that she was not qualified to make autopsies of any kind

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/20...sianstyle.html

One especially explosive conspiracy theory emerged Wednesday in a leaked phone call between EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and her Estonian counterpart, Urmas Paet. The tape, which the Estonian foreign ministry confirmed was accurate, features Paet outlining a conversation with a woman named Olga, who told of evidence showing that the victims in Kyiv, police and demonstrators alike, were killed by the same bullets.

“So there is a stronger and stronger understanding that behind snipers it was not Yanukovych, it was somebody from the new coalition,” Paet says.

Russia Today feasted on the story, presenting it as evidence to back President Vladimir Putin’s allegation that the deaths on Kyiv came at the hands of opposition provocateurs.

The Olga in question was identified by Russian media as Olga Bogomolets, a Ukrainian doctor who worked throughout the clashes to treat wounded.

Told of the tape, however, Bogomolets denied having any such conversation. She said she has no such evidence as she was never in a position to compare wounds.

“During the entire confrontation in Kyiv, I did not have access to law enforcement officers who died, and therefore I could not give any information on the nature of the injuries,” she told Ukrainska Pravda.

“I’m a doctor, not a forensic medical examiner to give this kind of assessment.”

I'm guessing the source they're referring to is this pravda but I can't read it...

[aristos]

The "Olga" in the conversation between Estonian FM Paet and EU's Asthon has for her part said that she never recalled having that conversation and that she was not qualified to make autopsies of any kind

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/20...sianstyle.html




I'm guessing the source they're referring to is this pravda but I can't read it...

The "Olga" in question is Olga Bogomolets - a Ukrainian multi-millionaire medical entrepreneur and owner of a chain of medical clinics, who was featured in the news in Ukraine last summer, because a rights activist accused her of sending thugs after him, who knocked out his teeth and brutally beat him (he suffered damage to internal organs) on the day of the court hearing, where he accused her of illegally appropriating the land and river surrounding her castle.

For those speaking Russian here are the links:

http://ru.tsn.ua/ukrayina/izvestnogo...ka-315906.html

http://www.ua-pravda.com/slabiy-pol/...i-ukraini.html