Effectively defined by the West, of course. Who's interests do you think I want forwarded? I'm not Russian. I don't live in their sphere of interest, nor do I want to.
It very well could be tampered with, I don't know.
I guess it's a done deal, huh?Crimea and Sevastopol are now officially part of the Russian Federation, the Kremlin said in a statement, citing today's signing ceremony involving Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of Crimea and the mayor of Sevastopol.
Crimea is an autonomous region within Ukraine with a majority Russian-speaking population. It has its own parliament, but the Ukrainian government had veto power over its actions.
But with political instability and demonstrations rocking Ukraine in the past several months, President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed out of office and observers charged that Russia saw its chance to annex the strategic territory. A hastily called referendum Sunday resulted in 96.7% of the region's voters saying they wanted to become part of Russia, according to the Crimean Electoral Commission.
The United States and other Western powers have said Sunday's vote was illegal and placed sanctions on more than two dozen Russian officials and their allies in Crimea.
For complete coverage of breaking news, go to CNN TV, CNN.com and CNN Mobile.
It was 95%. It MAY have been tampered with? lol
I don't know why you went on with the rest of your post, I told you that I understand what Russia is doing.
.
The American State Department does not have their 'puppet government in Kiev'. Remember this is the same State Department who blamed the Libyan killings on a Youtube video and still haven't gotten to the bottom of that matter. And you think Victoria Nuland, Joe Biden Barrack Obama or any of them can install a puppet government in the Ukraine? BHO may be a community organizer but Kiev is, as he once said, beyond his pay grade.
Rinat Akhmetov, the wealthiest oligarch, has been fairly close to Mr. Yanukovych
I think it would be useful if Mr. Akhmetov was using his influence with President Yanukovych to encourage him to negotiate in a serious way to find a solution.
If there was some threat that there might be financial or travel sanctions on Mr. Akhmetov, that could be a useful lever
In the meantime, a website quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Washington and Brussels had agreed to introduce immediate sanctions against Yanukovich and leading oligarchs, in the case of a crackdown on the protests on Maidan square.
According to the website Censor.net, one of the media which were recently raided by the police, US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has not only warned told Yanukovich about the sanctions, but also named the people who would be hit in the first place.
Reportedly, those named were oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, founder and President of System Capital management and ranked as 47th richest man in the world with a fortune of $15.4 bln, Vadim Noninsky, owner of Smart Holding Group, with an estimated fortune of $1.9 bln, and the brothers Andriy and Serhiy Klyuyev, rich businessmen and politicians from Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions.
As the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Klyuyev has allegedly used his power to secure multi-billion contracts for members of the Yanukovich family.
According to Censor.net, these oligarchs are targeted because they control the MPs of the Party of the Regions. The U.S. reportedly wants the Party of the Regions to vote in favour of four demands by the opposition:
1. The calling of early presidential elections (normally elections were due in 2015);
2. Calling early parliamentary elections;
3. Freeing former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko from jail and restoring her citizen’s rights;
4. Opening court cases against police and special force members who took part in the crackdown on protests.
Reportedly, Nuland said that the non-compliance with these requests would put at major risk the foreign activities of the companies DTEK and Metinvest. DTEK is an energy holding and the largest private company in Ukraine. Metinvest is a holding company of mining and steel assets. Both are owned by Akhmetov.
Nuland reportedly said that the companies had moved assets to Europe, that their markets were in Europe and the United States, and all their representatives had property abroad.
The US assistant secretary of state also met with Akhmetov, which signalled that Yanukovich was no longer seen as a valid interlocutor, censor.net wrote.
Apparently as a reaction, Akhmetov declared that he favoured Ukrainian rapprochement with Europe.
I said it quite clear... 1/4th the current size to defend the nation. I did mention our defense spending is more than all our allies and biggest enemies combined. I waited for you to give ANY example of where we are lacking in Navy, Air Force, or Army... You have no reasoning behind your demand for more more more other than they won't send flyers... :roll:
Then of course your CON rant about the social safety net... now I could give a dozen examples of Empires collapsing under their own weight... but we know those songs quite well don't we?
So in a global conflict, which would require who knows how many fronts, you think 1/4 the size of our troop base will handle it just fine. That'll be great when Russia and China join forces against us, and all we have is Canada and Europe with the three bags of bottle rockets. And those "empires" collapsed because they grew to large through massive land grabs, not from the size of the military. How ridiculous. We are not imperialists. We defend those that can't defend themselves, sometimes. No one else on the planet steps in to defend anyone unless we beg like dogs for them to do so.
What is this Global Conflict- a sudden world war flashing up out of no where? Are we to rush to everyone else's aid? We was talking national defense, not defending the world. If a conflict breaks out in a region we would be better served to have allies who have built their own defense force rather than think we are coming to protect them.
Why are China and Russia joining forces? Why would they want to attack us? The Cold War was for economic advantage not war. We would do far better to concentrate on what made us great which wasn't arms but commercial trade.
Massive land grabs???? Ummm that means a massive military to defend trade routes and economic interests in those regions... same as now without direct ownership of the Empire... more a lease plan... We are VERY much Imperialists, our forces never leave a nation we 'help' and our corporations are the modern day eqiv of the East India Tea Company.
So the rationale for a military spending as much as most our allies and all our major enemies is to be the Policeman of the World???? :doh
Would YOU fight and die for Darfur????
If Putin thinks or can just manufacture the fear that his pipelines across Ukraine are in danger, he will move across the entire country. If he does that, NATO will move troops to the border of each of the surrounding NATO countries. That's when this could get actually dangerous for the entire world. Even here in the US mainland.
If he does, maybe he'll finally clean up the mess the Russians made at Chernobyl.
Washington's Man Yatsenyuk Setting Ukraine Up For Ruin
Ukraine’s interim prime minister, Arseniy “Yats” Yatsenyuk, may prove to be arsenic to the beleaguered nation.
“Recall the phone exchange between the Ukraine ambassador and Victoria Nuland (Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs) that got leaked out, where she basically said ‘we want Yats in there.’ They like him because he’s pro Western,” says Vladimir Signorelli, president of boutique investment research firm Bretton Woods Research LLC in New Jersey. “Yatsenyuk is the the kind of technocrat you want if you want austerity, with the veneer of professionalism,” Signorelli said. “He’s the type of guy who can hobnob with the European elite. A Mario Monti type: unelected and willing to do the IMFs bidding,” he said.
Mario Monti was a centrist Italian technocrat who passed an austerity package that called for increased taxes, pension reform and measures to fight tax evasion.
Over the past several weeks, Ukraine has been battling political infighting between pro-Russian Ukrainians and pro-Europeans. The fight stepped into high gear in the fall when Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych decided to tilt towards Moscow instead of Brussels in a trade deal. Last week, Yanukovych left Kiev and headed to an undisclosed location, believed to be holed up in a Russian Naval base.
After Yanukovych and the political opposition agreed to an orderly transition toward new elections, the opposition shattered the agreement quickly and took strategic positions around Kiev. Many voices in the Western press say the country could break apart.
Despite these ominous signs, Ukraine Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt hailed the current crisis as “a day for the history books.” Most of the mainstream media have leaned decisively in the anti-Yanukovych camp.
Ukraine’s new 450-seat parliament approved the appointment of the former Central Banker Yatsenyuk on Thursday by a vote of 371 to 1. Oddly enough, earlier this month, the pro-Western Yats trailed behind popular opposition leaders such as former heavyweight boxer Viltali Klitschko and the leader of the nationalist, Svoboda Party, Oleh Tyahnybok. But Yats had friends in high places and while he does not have strong support of the electorate, and would have no chance of winning an election, he is pro-IMF austerity and apparently the bulk of parliament is as well.
“Yatsenyuk was saying that what the Greeks did to themselves we are going to do ourselves,” said Signorelli. “He wants to follow the Greek economic model. Who the hell wants to follow that?”
Also today, Yatsenyuk promised to implement “very unpopular measures” to stabilize the country’s finances. The government said it needs $35 billion to support the country over the next two years. His language in a news report broadcast by Bloomberg today indicates he is heading toward a potentially destabilizing austerity campaign:
“The treasury is empty. We will do everything not to default. If we get the financial support from the IMF, the U.S., we will do it. I’m going to be the most unpopular prime minister in the history of my country,” he said. “But this is the only solution. I would never promise any kind of huge achievements. First and the most important issue is to stabilize the situation.”
He also said that, “We want Russia to have transparent and fair relations with Ukraine. We want to be partners with Russia…we strongly believe it will never intervene with a military force in Ukraine.”
Under the brewing divide-and-conquer political crisis lies Ukraine’s economic problems. The Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia, is down over 16% year-to-date, a record decline against the dollar.
It is unclear the kind of measures Yatsenyuk will tolerate, but it appears austerity is the path forward. That includes a regimen of tax increases, interest rate hikes and further currency devaluation.
Yanukovych resisted the International Monetary Fund’s demand to raise taxes and devalue the currency. Yatsenyuk doesn’t mind. For economists who think austerity is a disaster, Ukraine is on a path to ruin.
“We saw this in the 90s and what the IMF did to Russia with Yeltsin. They’ll do that to Ukraine,” said Signorelli. Remember Slobodan Milošević in Yugoslavia? After the IMF finished with Yugoslavia it was only a matter of time before the separatist movements gained traction,” he said. “I think things in Ukraine can get really really bad.”
Ukraine oligarch claims he pleaded with Yanukovich to resign
“The last time I spoke with Viktor Yanukovich was in Donetsk on 22 February,” he said, referring to the largest city in Ukraine’s industrial eastern heartland where both men rose to the highest ranks of Ukrainian political and business power.
“Given the situation in the country, I was persuading him to resign,” Akhmetov said.
After fleeing Ukraine last month soon after his purported conversation with Akhmetov, the former president reappeared in Russia, giving two press conferences in the city of Rostov on Don, a short drive from Donetsk.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt has welcomed a proposal by Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov on resolving the political crisis in Ukraine.
"I welcome the wise advice of Rinat Akhmetov on the current crisis," he wrote on his page on Twitter on Friday.
Akhmetov said in a statement on December 13 that Ukraine is a free democratic country, since Ukraine took to the streets for peaceful rallies, and that the country would not swerve from this path. He called on the Ukrainian authorities, opposition politicians and moral leaders of the country to sit at the negotiating table and make a decision from which "every Ukrainian and Ukraine will benefit in the short, medium and long term."
Yanukovych’s three pressure points: Akhmetov in London, Kluyev in Vienna, Yanukovych Jr in Pechersk
Serhiy Leshshenko, Ukrainska Pravda
Tuesday, December 17, 2013, 07:56
Today, the regime stands on three pillars on whom efforts should be concentrated: Yanukovych, Akhmetov and Kluyev.
Akhmetov. He has turned out to be especially vulnerable to loss of reputation in the West. The 30 Ukrainian activists who picketed his apartment in London got to him more than the 300,000 on the Maidan in Kyiv. Reportedly, after the London protests outside the prestigious One Hyde Park building, he requested specially trained people to go to the neighbors and apologize for the inconvenience. In internet groups, provocateurs were launched to sabotage a planned picket of SCM’s London offices on the basis of some strange information from Kyiv.
A warning from US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland about possible sanctions against the “sponsors of the regime” forced him to abandon his preferred tactic of staying in the shadows. Last week, Akhmetov and his younger partner, Vadym Novynskiy went to talk reason into Yanukovych.
Akhmetov continues to control some 50 members of the legislature, who have failed to condemn the bloodshed on the Maidan in any way. To put an end to the conflict, Akhmetov doesn’t really need Yanukovych. He can resolve the crisis alone, simply by getting those of his drivers, lawyers and managers who sit in the Verkhovna Rada, to vote to “reboot” the government.
It may just be me, but I sense a theme coming from one of our glorious members.
Keep the faith... Maybe someone will believe you.
It may just be me, but I sense a theme coming from one of our glorious members.
Keep the faith... Maybe someone will believe you.
USA demands from Akhmetov and Kliuyev to rise a party revolt against Yanukovych. Sanctions otherwise
I's become known of the details of the meeting between the Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Rinat Akhmetov.
Nuland reported that in case of a dispersal of the Euromaidan the US and EU leaders got agreement on a single reaction. That is immediate sanctions against primer politicians and oligarchs in the surroundings of Yanukovych. Moreover, the list will be continued by the names both of those, who are responsible for the the forced dispersal, and of those, who didn’t stand for the peaceful scenario. This remark won’t let anyone of the leaders of the Regions Party to avoid responsibility. What is even more important, Nuland provided the list of politicians, who will be sanctioned in the first place. Those are Rinat Akhmetov, Vadim Novinsky, Andrey and Sergey Kliuevs.
The USA anticipates that the Regions Party fraction will support all of four demands in order to begin peaceful negotiations:
1. To announce pre-term election of the President.
2. To announce pre-term elections of the Parliament.
3. To release Tymoshenko from jail and to recover her civic rights in full.
4. To open criminal cases on all the executives of the Ministry of Interior Affairs and the Berkut, who participated in dispersals of peaceful demonstrations.
Nuland was very precise that unfulfillment of these conditions will question any operational activities of the Metinvest and System Capital Management companies in foreign countries. The crucial moment is that the meeting was held with just Akhmetov. It means that the US does not consider Yanukovych as a reliable partner. Since the last means to communicate with Yanukovych were exhausted, the USA and EU decided to make final efforts before sanctioning Ukrainian oligarchs. They urged leaders of the Regions Party to go against Yanukovich’s will and in fact to rise a party revolt.
Ok, no matter who gets hurt in the foreign policy action, so long as US interests are advanced, that's your yardstick. I understand.
Ok, and I told you that I would support the US doing the same thing, under the same circumstances, with or without a rigged referendum.
It's not just me. Apparently Euromaidan, the people that were protesting against Yanukovych, believed it. Here's something from their Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/emaidanua/posts/558345107588502
Victoria Nuland wasn't just out there passing out cookies. She was threatening to kick some butt!
Well it looks like the people of Crimea has spoken. NINETY FIVE PERCENT voted to join Russia. WOW!!!
We'll see what the people in Washington say who have been pushing democracy and the will of the people.
Ukraine crisis: Early results show Crimea votes to join Russia - CNN.com
WHO CARES HOW MANY PEOPLE IN THE CRIMEA WANT TO BE PART OF RUSSIA!!!
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