For Putin, peace in Donbas is a catastrophe

That the Kremlin called the peace plan of the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko “an ultimatum” was probably not surprising for the head of state himself and for international observers. Poroshenko really did propose a peace plan, which is aimed to normalise the situation in Donbas and find ways to develop the region within the state of Ukraine. But Russia does not need a peace plan. And Russia does not need consultations between the Ukrainian government and the legitimate government of Donbas. And Russia definitely does not need early elections to the local government bodies in Donbas – for it, that would be a catastrophe. Russia needs the Ukrainian President to hold talks with those that had been appointed by the Administration of the Russian President to “represent” the citizens of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts – Pushilin, Gubarev, Bolotov and other cheats. 

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Kremlin-paid internet commenters caught red-handed

Confirmation that the command operates a network of paid pro-Kremlin commenters appeared on May 31, 2014. Anonymous International exposed the activities of the Russian Internet Research Agency, which feeds itself from Russia’s state budget. The goal of this organization is to create, through comments on the internet, the illusion of support for the Kremlin regime.

Interestingly, the owner of the agency, Eugene Prigozhin, is the founder of the holding company Concord, known as ‘Putin’s chef.’  The company’s direct management includes Maria Kuprashevich, who is known for having taken a job in the liberal media to commit espionage.

It was found that there is a staff of people working with strict accountability to the curators. These staff writers are paid for writing pro-government comments on the internet.

Kremlin secretly sends negotiators to Ukraine, Ukrainian MFA is not informed

The Kremlin’s official site reports that “Vladimir Putin is receiving regular updates on developments in southeast Ukraine”, and that “The President is following closely developments in southeast Ukraine, where a military operation is taking place against supporters of federalisation. Special Presidential Envoy Vladimir Lukin was sent to Ukraine to take part in talks on freeing the foreign military observers taken hostage earlier. Russian officials have not been able to make contact with Mr Lukin since the Ukrainian military operation began”.

Dmitry Tymchuk, leader of ‘Information Resistance’ group, informs that the delegation’s task is to make loud accusations of “gross violations of human rights” by the Ukrainian authorities and security forces in Eastern Ukraine.

FB appeal to Kyiv politicians: “You fucked up Crimea, and will fuck up East, South Ukraine, and Kyiv if you don’t react!”

Revolution – Euromaidan – Right Sector Facebook
For those especially “wise” politicians like Avakov, Parubiy, Turchynov, Yatseniuk, and others, let me explain what is going on in the East of Ukraine. 

European media ‘processed’ by Russian Permanent Mission to EU

According the sources of “Information Resistance” in Brussels, the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the EU has been recently conducting enhanced ideological “processing” of European media.

In particular, the editors of leading European media have been constantly receiving messages from the Russian Mission, which provides the “Kremlin” interpretation of events in Ukraine. Simply put, Russian diplomats are actively spreading outright lies and slander about the rampant “Banderites,” xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Ukraine.

These defamatory messages from the Russian Mission are signed by “Kirill Ivanov, the press attache of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the EU.”

Below is the example of the message that is sent regularly to European journalists. The second link – is their page in Russian.

Kremlin’s Gremlins: pro-Russian trolls have Kremlin IP addresses

We well know that the World Wide Web has been used for a long time as a tool to manipulate public opinion, as has been demonstrated in the past with the invasion of Iraq in 2003. But never before has the manipulation reached such a level as the Kremlin has taken it to for the past few years.

The Saint Petersburg Times describes how they uncovered a troll operation aimed at political opponents and American politics, culture, and way of life.

Delayed invasion/May Gambit – Thoughts from Kyiv on 22 March 2014

Mychailo Wynnyckyj PhD, March 23, 2014 

Is an invasion of eastern Ukraine by Russian troops imminent? This seems to be the question on everyone’s mind tonight. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper alluded to such a possibility during his press conference with Ukrainian PM Yatseniuk in Kyiv today. Yesterday, the US Embassy in Kyiv issued an updated travel warning: “The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer all non-essential travel to Ukraine and to defer all travel to the Crimean Peninsula and eastern regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lugansk due to the presence of Russian military forces in the Crimean Peninsula, and in Russia near the Ukrainian border.”

 

Putin’s point of no return

By Robert van Voren 

In the mid-1980s, one of my associates in Amsterdam wrote an article on the continued occupation of the Baltic countries and the Dutch refusal to acknowledge the annexation of the three countries by the USSR. He sent it to one of the main Dutch newspapers for publication, but saw it duly returned with a note saying: “the Baltic countries are part of the USSR and their independence is no longer an issue for discussion.” Five years later, the three republics reinstated their independence and now they are full-fledged parts of the European Union, without any hesitation. 

Careful Optimism or What Would Have Done (or Would Do) Ronald Reagan with the Situation in Crimea

8 March 2014

‘I am not going to start that World War III because of you”

General Michael Jackson (General’s response to the order to knock out Russian troops from the Pristina airport during the conflict in Kosovo in 1999)

“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them”

The words attributed to Vladimir Lenin

Instead of an introduction

Before proceeding to the main issue of this publication, I would like to place some coordinates that will define how I see the situation around the Crimea in its international aspect.

When Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia in 2000, during his first inaugural speech he mentioned, among other things, the restoration of Russia as a great power. Currently in the theory of international relations such a Russia means one that dominates at least in its region – in this particular case we are talking about the Post-Soviet space. It means that implementing Putin’s idea to restore Russia as a great power would not be possible without reformatting the former Soviet Union region with the Kremlin’s exclusive right to veto strategic decisions of the former Soviet republics – the so-called reincarnation of “Brezhnev Doctrine”, but in a much narrower region compared to the communist era.

In fact, during his time in power Putin allocated lots of time and resources for this aim. And Ukraine had and still has a central place in such plans – successfully implementing the plan to establish informal control over our state would mean that Putin will be able to conquer other countries in the European part of the former Soviet Union, given the much lower potential of these countries compared to Ukraine. Therefore, it is clear that any attempt of the West (either through NATO enlargement – which according to Moscow is an openly hostile form of Western activity — or in a milder form of association agreements and free trade area with the EU) to reformat former Soviet space without Russia’s participation, arouses resistance. Therefore, confrontation is inevitable: this in fact we are seeing today. The only question is in the manifestations and forms – a cold war could escalate into something more active.

Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine to hear challenge to presidential election and appointment of Acting President: ruling expected March 19

Left: Vladimir Putin, right: Viktor Medvedchuk

As of March 11, 2014, the Ukrainian Parliament’s decision to hold presidential election on May 25 of this year is coming under attack on two fronts. As reported by Espresso.TV, the first is a draft resolution registered in Parliament [on March 11, 2014] to postpone the election to December 7. The resolution is proposed by Eugene Murayev, a Member of Parliament with the Party of Regions who is considered to be a protégé of former Kharkiv Governor Mykhailo Dobkin. Opposition members have insisted that Murayev’s election in the Kharkiv oblast in 2012 stemmed from administrative pressure by Dobkin [who was Governor at the time but who announced in February that he intends to run in the presidential elections]. Dobkin, on the other hand, has long been considered to be an ally of Viktor Medvedchuk, [a pro-Russian oligarch and politician].