Sooo....no talk on Kiev's gradual descent into Mad Max beyond Thunderdome status??

[IGSaint12]

Dude was on TV like

Putin don't play no games lol ppl in here talkin bout sanctions, gonna fuk around and make putin cut off gas to 80% of Europe just cause he is in a good mood

Unless he has china pick up that 80% gas that he cuts off, Russia's economy would tank.

 

[Grams]

6,000 Russian forces in the region is it?

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

b/c NATO can only show force to countries that can't fight back.

why isn't NATO flexing?
i know that Ukraine is not a NATO member but this seems like a situation that would call for at least symbolic actions.

Cause Ukraine ain't join NATO

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

e. Many important questions remain. One relates to the principle of “territorial integrity.” Yes, that is important, but it is not the only principle to consider. Russians would argue, with some substance in the argument, that the U.S. is interested in territorial integrity only when its interests are served. American governments have a record of ignoring it when convenient, as when it and its NATO allies violated Serbian territorial integrity by creating and then recognizing an independent Kosovo. Also, by supporting the separation of South Sudan from Sudan, Eritrea from Ethiopia, and East Timor from Indonesia.

So far as violating sovereignty is concerned, Russia would point out that the U.S. invaded Panama to arrest Noriega, invaded Grenada to prevent American citizens from being taken hostage (even though they had not been taken hostage), invaded Iraq on spurious grounds that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, targets people in other countries with drones, etc., etc. In other words, for the U.S. to preach about respect for sovereignty and preservation of territorial integrity to a Russian president can seem a claim to special rights not allowed others.

Yeah, pretty much.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

3.17pm GMT

Interfax is quoting a Ukrainian defence ministry source as saying the Russian fleet has given Ukrainian forces in Crimea until 3am GMT to surrender or face “storm”.

This needs to be treated with caution given the only source is an unnamed official.

RUSSIAN FORCES POSE ULTIMATUM Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Alexander Vitko posed an ultimatum to the... http://t.co/GA67x84sLg

— Euromaidan PR (@EuromaidanPR) March 3, 2014

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

2.41pm GMT

Video has been posted online of the extraordinary meeting at which Rear Admiral Denis Berezovsky, who defected to the Russian-supported Crimean authorities, one day after being appointed Ukrainian navy commander-in-chief, tried unsuccessfully to persuade other officers to follow in his footsteps. At the meeting he was denounced as a traitor by his replacement as navy chief commander, Serhiy Haiduk.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

11.33am GMT

Russia is continuing to block telephone services in some areas of Crimea, a Euromaidan activist claims.

Channels of communications still being blocked in Crimea,says national provider Ukrtelecom.#crimeanInvasion

— Kateryna_Kruk (@Kateryna_Kruk) March 3, 2014

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

9.49am GMT

Russian news agency Interfax is claiming that more than 5,000 people from Ukrainian interior ministry forces, border service and military have defected to the pro-Russian side in Crimea.

Such claims need to be treated with caution. While clearly there are some defections, Russian media reported yesterday that 675,000 people had fled Ukraine for Russia and warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe”, but reporters on the ground in Crimea suggested the story was fabricated.

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

Thats been Putins Goal since the fall of the USSR. @ putin

lol, Putin isn't trying to rebuild the USSR exactly. He wants to create an economic bloc with some of the old Soviet states in order to rival the EU. The EU/NATO/US have gradually gotten closer and closer to Russia since the end of the Cold War. They knew what would happen if they started this kinda situation in Ukraine, the EU knew full well what it was doin when it gave the ultimatum to choose between their deal and Putin's deal.

Honestly when I look at it objectively, it's been the West's actions that caused all this from the protests in Kiev to Russia's eventual taking of Crimea. They knew what would happen and did it anyway because like @alybaba's article pointed out it's been a contest between the sides for influence. Ukraine had a chance of forming a balanced coalition govt, however it was the west that took no issue with the opposition flat out taking power and then claiming it was democratic. Fact is, the Eurocentric side of that aisle was just as corrupt as the side Yanukovich came from. The corruption is rife on both sides, but it's been the west that's been less willing to come to a common ground. So now Putin gon Put.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

10.08am GMT

Russia’s state gas producer Gazprom has warned Ukraine that it may increase the gas price for Kiev after the first quarter. Reuters quotes Andrei Kruglov, Gazprom’s chief financial officer, as saying.

The situation with payments is worrying. Ukraine is paying but not as well as we would like it to ... We are still thinking about whether to extend the pricing contract into the next quarter based on current prices.

Ukraine has expressed the hope that the gas price will remain stable, amid fears that it will be used as a political weapon by Moscow.

Russia agreed in December to reduce the gas price for Kiev to $268.50 per 1,000 cubic metres, a cut of about one third from around $400 which Ukraine had paid since 2009. The reduction was part of a wider financial deal Moscow signed with Kiev after Ukraine spurned an EU trade deal - a decision that prompted the protests that led to the ousting of Viktor Yanukovych.

Ukraine consumes about 55bn cubic metres of gas each year, and more than half of this amount is imported from Russia. Gazprom exported 161.5bn cubic metres of gas to Europe last year.

The last dispute over gas pricing between Russia and Ukraine caused shortages in Europe over the winter of 2009.

Kruglov said Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine was normal.

Updated at 10.52am GMT

9.58am GMT

Russia’s internet monitoring agency has blocked 13 internet pages linked to the Ukraine protest movement that helped oust the country’s Russia-leaning president, AP reports.

Roskomnadzor said in a statement published online Monday that it had been ordered by the general prosecutor’s office to shut down the pages on Russia’s leading social media website, VKontakte.

The agency said the groups “propagandised the activity of Ukrainian nationalist groups”, and accused them of encouraging “terrorist activity” and “participation in unsanctioned mass actions”.

The largest pro-demonstration group, which has more than 500,000 members, was not accessible to users on Russian territory on Monday.

Updated at 10.15am GMT
​

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

11.25am GMT

Russia’s central bank has sold up to $10bn, or 2% of its gold and foreign exchange reserves, to stem the rouble’s fall today, Moscow foreign exchange dealers estimated, via Reuters.

The central bank releases its interventions in foreign exchange markets only with a two-day lag.
At 10.50am GMT the rouble was trading 2.1% down against the dollar on the day at 36.49.

Updated at 1.07pm GMT

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

3.17pm GMT
Interfax is quoting a Ukrainian defence ministry source as saying the Russian fleet has given Ukrainian forces in Crimea until 3am GMT to surrender or face “storm”.

This needs to be treated with caution given the only source is an unnamed official.

RUSSIAN FORCES POSE ULTIMATUM Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Alexander Vitko posed an ultimatum to the... http://t.co/GA67x84sLg

— Euromaidan PR (@EuromaidanPR) March 3, 2014

Yeah I just saw the breaking news, I don't think that's a coincidence since NATO is meeting today.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

1.20pm GMT

Summary
• Russian fighter jets violated Ukrainian airspace twice during the night, the Ukrainian defence ministry said. It said a Ukrainian interceptor aircraft was scrambled, preventing any “provocative actions”.

• Russian troops have taken over a ferry terminal on the easternmost tip of Crimea in the city of Kerch and Russian armoured cars were lining up on the Russian side of the Kerch Channel. Kerch is about 20km (12 miles) by boat to Russia

• The Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, has ordered the construction of a bridge connecting Russia to Crimea.

• Pro-Russian protesters have taken over the first floor of a regional government building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. A Reuters reporter said protesters have seized the first floor but were unable to go higher because lifts were disabled and stairwell doors shut. Pro-Russian protesters also reportedly stormed a government building in Odessa.

• Rear Admiral Denis Berezovsky, who defected to the Russian-supported Crimean authorities, one day after being appointed Ukrainian navy commander-in-chief, tried to persuade other officers to defect at an extraordinary meeting this morning. His overtures were unsuccessful and at the same meeting he was denounced as a traitor by his replacement as navy chief commander, Serhiy Haiduk.

• The UK government has ruled out military action but is considering a range of economic sanctions, including slowing visas for Russian business people. Foreign secretary William Hague has been visiting Ukrainian leaders in Kiev today.

• Germany, France and Britain are all advocating mediation to resolve the crisis, possibly via the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. A spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel said Vladimir Putin had been open to the idea of a “contact group”.

• The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Russia’s decision to allow troops to be sent to Ukraine is meant to deter radicals from using violence in the country and to facilitate reconciliation. He also urged all sides to stand by the 21 February agreement on constitutional reforms between Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders.

• The Russian rouble traded at new all-time lows this morning and the Russian stock market was down 11% in early trading. The fall in the value of the rouble came despite an emergency interest rate cut by the central bank.

Updated at 1.37pm GMT

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]