Russia reserves right to protect compatriots in Ukraine

[Star Wars]

Russia reserves right to protect compatriots in Ukraine


MOSCOW, March 14 (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday it reserved the right to protect compatriots in eastern Ukraine after clashes in the city of Donetsk in which one person was killed.

The Foreign Ministry said Thursday's violence in the industrial city, where many people speak Russian, showed the Ukrainian authorities had lost control.

A 22-year-old man was stabbed to death in the clashes between pro-Russian protesters and a crowd favouring European integration and denouncing Russian forces' seizure of Ukraine's southern region of Crimea.

"Russia is aware of its responsibility for the lives of compatriots and fellow citizens in Ukraine and reserves the right to take people under its protection," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Implying the pro-Russian protesters were not to blame, the ministry said peaceful protesters had been attacked by right-wing groups armed with pneumatic guns and batons who arrived from other parts of Ukraine.

Witnesses, however, said the pro-Russian demonstrators threw eggs, smoke bombs and other missiles and broke through a police cordon to beat their opponents with batons.

The death was the first reported in recent Ukrainian violence outside the capital, Kiev. Police detained four people accused of fomenting the clashes.

The right-wing party Svoboda, hostile to Russian policy, said the dead man was one of its local activists.

Donetsk, a city of 1 million, was calm on Friday morning.

Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of supporting groups in the Donetsk region which favour rule from Moscow and of sending militants over the border.

The Kremlin says its intervention in favour of ethnic Russians in Crimea was prompted by the removal of President Viktor Yanukovich in what it describes as a coup staged by right-wing nationalists.

Parliament has given President Vladimir Putin the right to use the armed forces to protect Russians in Ukraine if necessary.


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Everyone brace for SHTF scenario in Europe

 

[JAT BALWAN]

No one will mess with bear directly...

Europe without US dont even breath hard & US dont dare to take direct offencives ..

 

[Jzaib]

intresting development .. although i favour rassia but my educated guess is that they will have to bear consequences for it

 

[LordTyrannus]

intresting development .. although i favour rassia but my educated guess is that they will have to bear consequences for it

Russia lost a lot by working together with Imperialists. Russia will get stronger every day when it seals off its military, technology and economy against the west. China is enough as a trading partner.

 

[Parul]

Death Toll in Donetsk has Risen to 3! RIP!

 

[arp2041]

RUSSIA we are with you..........................!!!!

You can take our Agni 5s if you want

 

[vK_man]

RUSSIA we are with you..........................!!!!

You can take our Agni 5s if you want

Russians have Yars and Topols already.

 

[Star Wars]

Death Toll in Donetsk has Risen to 3! RIP!

Kiev sent bus loads of people to Donetsk with pepper spray and metal rods , did not go well with Russian supporters.

 

[nangyale]

Before anything Russia need to strongly support the people of eastern Ukraine, and help them set up local militias to protect themselves.

 

[nangyale]

• Serious clashes have taken place in the city of Donetsk. According to most accounts, the newly appointed billionaire governor Taruta attempted to organize a demonstration in support of "a united Ukraine". For this purpose he bused in from Kiev and western Ukraine. The local population organized a counter-demonstration. The cops tried to keep the two groups apart, but failed, and soon violent clashes happened. The Banderites were fewer in numbers, but were armed with metal bars, tear gas and other weapons, but the locals had the numbers on their side and eventually the Banderites had to withdraw. They were loaded in their buses under police protection and had to leave. At least one person died, many were wounded.
• In Lugansk the local SBU (security services), which is clearly under Banderite control, kidnapped the "popular governor".
• In Chernigov gangs of neo-Fascists are attacking and looting shops owned by Russian speakers.
• Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has declared that the new regime in Kiev is clearly unable to maintain order and that Russia reserves the right to protect the Russian speakers in the Ukraine

 

[nangyale]

The New Russia
An Interview With Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on Ukraine
by PAUL KLEBNIKOV
This interview appeared in the May 9, 1994, issue of Forbes magazine.

With Russia in chaos, it does sound a bit far-fetched to see her as an aggressor.

Russia today is terribly sick. Her people are sick to the point of total exhaustion. But even so, have a conscience and don’t demand that–just to please America–Russia throw away the last vestiges of her concern for her security and her unprecedented collapse. After all, this concern in no way threatens the United States.

Former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski disagrees. He argues that the U.S. must defend the independence of Ukraine.

In 1919, when he imposed his regime on Ukraine, Lenin gave her several Russian provinces to assuage her feelings. These provinces have never historically belonged to Ukraine. I am talking about the eastern and southern territories of today’s Ukraine.

Then, in 1954, Khrushchev, with the arbitrary capriciousness of a satrap, made a “gift” of the Crimea to Ukraine. But even he did not manage to make Ukraine a “gift” of Sevastopol, which remained a separate city under the jurisdiction of the U.S.S.R. central government. This was accomplished by the American State Department, first verbally through Ambassador Popadiuk in Kiev and later in a more official manner.

Why does the State Department decide who should get Sevastopol? If one recalls the tactless declaration of President Bush about supporting Ukrainian sovereignty even before the referendum on that matter, one must conclude that all this stems from a common aim: to use all means possible, no matter what the consequences, to weaken Russia.

Why does independence for Ukraine weaken Russia?

As a result of the sudden and crude fragmentation of the intermingled Slavic peoples, the borders have torn apart millions of ties of family and friendship. Is this acceptable? The recent elections in Ukraine, for instance, clearly show the [Russian] sympathies of the Crimean and Donets populations. And a democracy must respect this.

I myself am nearly half Ukrainian. I grew up with the sounds of Ukrainian speech. I love her culture and genuinely wish all kinds of success for Ukraine–but only within her real ethnic boundaries, without grabbing Russian provinces.

 

[MarkusS]

It is funny that only people from very poor countries support russia in this. Why is that? Its typical cheering for the underdog, but in the end russia can offer you nothing. Its a 3rd world country, full with poverty, no vision for future.

RUSSIA we are with you..........................!!!!

You can take our Agni 5s if you want

you are not, you want our food aid for your starving people.

 

[arp2041]

you are not, you want our food aid for your starving people.

Don't you belong to an ELITE GROUPING of Europe called - PIGS?????

We don't need any help from a Third rate country.

Last time I saw, both your flag nations were begging IAF to buy Eurofighter.

 

[nangyale]

Ron Paul slams US on Crimea crisis and says Russia sanctions are 'an act of war'
• Paul tells Guardian change in Ukraine is US-backed coup
• Views are opposite to those of son, Senator Rand Paul

Paul Lewis in Washington
theguardian.com, Saturday 15 March 2014 12.00 GMT

Ron Paul has run for president three times. Photograph: Jim Cole/AP
The former Republican congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul has launched a scathing attack on what he calls a US-backed coup in Ukraine, insisting the Crimean people have the right to align their territory with Moscow and characterising sanctions against Russia as “an act of war”.

He also said providing economic aid to Ukraine was comparable to giving support to rebels in Syria knowing it would end up in the hands of al-Qaida.

The libertarian guru’s remarks in an interview with the Guardian are almost diametrically opposed to those of his son, the Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul, who has called for stiff penalties against Russia and declared: “If I were president, I wouldn’t let [Russian president] Vladimir Putin get away with it.”

Ron Paul, who retired from his Texas congressional seat in 2012, has always adopted a sceptical view of US foreign interventions. He said that although the US had not been involved in any military overthrow of the government in Kiev, it had facilitated a coup in the sense of “agitating” elements who wanted to usurp Ukraine’s former president, Victor Yanukovych.

“The evidence is pretty clear that the NGOs [non-governmental organisations] financed by our government have been agitating with billions of dollars, trying to get that government changed,” he said. “Our hands are not clean.”

There is broad bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for the movement that brought about the departure of Yanukovych, as well as criticism of Putin for Russia’s military intervention in Crimea, which many view as a prelude to annexing the territory.

A Russian-backed referendum, in which Crimeans will be asked if they want to align their government with Moscow, will take place on Sunday, although western leaders argue the poll has no legitimacy or legal basis.

Paul said Crimeans should be allowed to break away from Kiev.

“I think everyone should have right to express themselves,” he said. “It is messy, that is for sure, because two big governments are very much involved in trying to tell the Ukranians what to do.”

However he said Russia had a more justifiable basis for being involved in Crimea than the US, and no government should prevent locals on the peninsula from determining their future.

“That is our how our country was started,” he said. “It was the right of self-determination, and voting, and asking and even fighting for it, and seceding. Of course libertarians were delighted with the secession of the various countries and units of government away from the Soviet Union, so yes, we want the people to make the decisions.”

He added: “The people of Ukraine would probably have a loose-knit association, with a rather independent east and west, and an independent Crimea. It would work quite well.”

Paul, who now runs his own internet TV channel, also took issue with a $1bn aid package for Ukraine which is going through Congress.

“Now we’re getting involved with the Europeans in trying to change the government of Ukraine,” he said. “Now they want our money. It is just like when we when we go out and try and throw out [Syrian president Bashar al-] Assad, we end up working with al-Qaida. Now we’re likely to give money to Ukraine so they can pay their bills to Russia. That is the insanity of it all.”

His son, an increasingly strong contender for the Republican presidential nomination, made a similar point in the Senate on Thursday, when he voted against a bill providing aid to Ukraine.

The Kentucky senator is far more pragmatic than his father, however, and is on a mission to recast his reputation as a mainstream potential commander-in-chief. This week, he used an op-ed piece in Time magazine to exhibit his foreign policy credentials, adopting a tough stance against Moscow.

“Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a gross violation of that nation’s sovereignty and an affront to the international community,” he wrote. “His continuing occupation of Ukraine is completely unacceptable, and Russia’s president should be isolated for his actions.”

He added: “Economic sanctions and visa bans should be imposed and enforced without delay.”

Ron Paul with his son Rand, at a 2011 presidential campaign event. Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AP
His father took the opposite view. “I think sanctions are horrible. They’re acts of war,” he told the Guardian.

“It is based on a moral principle of theft. They want to target sanctions against 20 or 30 bad Russians who they claim have committed a crime against humanity, and therefore we’re going to freeze their assets and steal from them.”

When it was suggested his position was opposite to that of his son, Paul replied: “Neither he nor I have ever pretended our views are identical. He still has the most libertarian views in the Senate.”