14:10
5.4.2014
Yulia Tymoshenko warns against a "second Yalta" in a piece for Project Syndicate.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent phone call to US President Barack Obama to seek renewed diplomatic talks, followed by a Russian white paper on how to resolve a crisis of the Kremlin’s making, is in fact offensive to peace.
CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphPutin’s gambit is akin to the infamous Yalta Conference in 1945, where Joseph Stalin made Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt complicit in a division of Europe that enslaved half of the continent for almost a half-century. Today, Putin is seeking to make the West complicit in the dismemberment of Ukraine by negotiating a Kremlin-designed federal constitution that would create a dozen Crimeas – bite-size chunks that Russia could devour more easily later.
CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphPutin’s gambit is akin to the infamous Yalta Conference in 1945, where Joseph Stalin made Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt complicit in a division of Europe that enslaved half of the continent for almost a half-century. Today, Putin is seeking to make the West complicit in the dismemberment of Ukraine by negotiating a Kremlin-designed federal constitution that would create a dozen Crimeas – bite-size chunks that Russia could devour more easily later.
14:07
5.4.2014
More "chaos" in Kyiv. Volunteers cleaning up the Maidan...
14:05
5.4.2014
Couldn't resist this juxtoposition:
13:58
5.4.2014
Some key quotes from Gazprom chief Aleksei Miller speaking on April 5 on Rossia-24 television:
On revoking the discount Ukraine received as part of the 2010 Kharkiv Agreement on leasing the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol:
"From the time the discount came into effect, the discount has come to $11.4 billion. This is the sum that was not received by the Russian government, by Russia's budget. This is the debt incurred by Ukraine to the Russian Federation, to the Russian budget. And from the point of the Russian government there is a question now about the necessity of finding a way to pay off this debt."
On the 2009 agreement Miller says is now in force:
"The people who have come to power are the people who took part in preparing and signing the contracts that are in effect currently. This includes the new head of Naftohaz Ukraina, who was named [to that post] just a few days ago. In 2009 he worked for Naftohaz Ukraina, in a somewhat lower position, but still he took part in preparing the existing contracts."
And on the possibility of reversing the flow of gas in Ukraine's pipelines:
"There are great doubts about the physical possibilities of a reversal [of the gas flow] from Slovakia, for example, to the region of Donetsk, Kharkiv or Kyiv. And if it can, then there is another question that arises whether this is really a physical reverse or only a virtual reverse on paper that lets Ukraine take Gazprom gas in Ukrainian pipelines when the point of exchange [destination] is [intended to be] in Europe. It is necessary to look closely if this type of scheme is legal."
On revoking the discount Ukraine received as part of the 2010 Kharkiv Agreement on leasing the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol:
"From the time the discount came into effect, the discount has come to $11.4 billion. This is the sum that was not received by the Russian government, by Russia's budget. This is the debt incurred by Ukraine to the Russian Federation, to the Russian budget. And from the point of the Russian government there is a question now about the necessity of finding a way to pay off this debt."
On the 2009 agreement Miller says is now in force:
"The people who have come to power are the people who took part in preparing and signing the contracts that are in effect currently. This includes the new head of Naftohaz Ukraina, who was named [to that post] just a few days ago. In 2009 he worked for Naftohaz Ukraina, in a somewhat lower position, but still he took part in preparing the existing contracts."
And on the possibility of reversing the flow of gas in Ukraine's pipelines:
"There are great doubts about the physical possibilities of a reversal [of the gas flow] from Slovakia, for example, to the region of Donetsk, Kharkiv or Kyiv. And if it can, then there is another question that arises whether this is really a physical reverse or only a virtual reverse on paper that lets Ukraine take Gazprom gas in Ukrainian pipelines when the point of exchange [destination] is [intended to be] in Europe. It is necessary to look closely if this type of scheme is legal."
13:54
5.4.2014
13:53
5.4.2014
FSB admits officer Sergei Beseda in Kyiv Feb 20-21, in contact w SBU. Also requested mtg w Yanuk, says didn't pan out http://t.co/xprdP9mbNH
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) April 5, 2014
13:47
5.4.2014
RT @AndreiSoldatov Wow, the FSB admits general Sergei Beseda was in Kyiv on Feb 20-21. http://t.co/1NMXZeLTeU
— tom balmforth (@BalmforthTom) April 5, 2014
13:33
5.4.2014
Still more from Donetsk:
13:32
5.4.2014
More from Donetsk:
Pro-Russian rally in #Donetsk outside city council bldg demanding referendum on federalization pic.twitter.com/qnfDgTq6vs pic via @EuromaidanPR
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) April 5, 2014
12:43
5.4.2014
More of Darth Vader on the campaign trail...
такое утро pic.twitter.com/opTIL5jMj2
— Feldman (@EvgenyFeldman) April 5, 2014