Proof Kiev snipers hired by Maidan leaders - leaked EU's Ashton phone tape

Update: 2014 March 05 4:30 PM est

 

News Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/ashton-maidan-snipers-estonia-946/

The snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev were allegedly hired by Maidan leaders, according to a leaked phone conversation between the EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian foreign affairs minister, which has emerged online.

Full Phone Conversation Between Urmas Paet & Catherine Ashton

Video Source

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEgJ0oo3OA8

“There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition,” Paet said during the conversation.

“I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh,” Ashton answered.

The call took place after Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Paet visited Kiev on February 25 at the peak of clashes between the pro-EU protesters and security forces in the Ukrainian capital.

Paet also recalled his conversation with a doctor who treated those shot by snipers in Kiev. She said that both protesters and police were shot at by the same people.

“And second, what was quite disturbing, this same Olga [Bogomolets] told as well that all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and then people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides,” the Estonian FM stressed.

Ashton reacted to the information by saying: “Well, yeah…that’s, that’s terrible.”

“So that she then also showed me some photos she said that as a medical doctor she can say that it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it’s really disturbing that now the new coalition, that they don’t want to investigate what exactly happened,” Paet said.

The Estonian FM has described the whole sniper issue as “disturbing” and added, “it already discredits from the very beginning” the new Ukrainian power.

His overall impressions of what he saw during his one-day trip to Kiev are “sad,” Paet said during the conversation.

He stressed that the Ukrainian people don’t trust the Maidan leaders, with all the opposition politicians slated to join the new government “having dirty past.”

The file was reportedly uploaded to the web by officers of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to ousted President Viktor Yanukovich who hacked Paet’s and Ashton’s phones.

 

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Estonian Foreign Ministry confirms authenticity of leaked call on Kiev snipers

 

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/estonia-confirm-leaked-tape-970/

Estonian foreign ministry has confirmed the recording of his conversation with EU foreign policy chief is authentic. Urmas Paet said that snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev were hired by Maidan leaders.
 

Paet told RIA-Novosti news agency that he talked to Catherine Ashton last week right after retiring from Kiev, but refrained from further comments, saying that he has to “listen to the tape first.”

 

“It’s very disappointing that such surveillance took place altogether. It’s not a coincidence that this conversation was uploaded [to the web] today,” he stressed.

 

“My conversation with Ashton took place last week right after I returned from Kiev. At that time I was already in Estonia,” Paet added.

 

Paet also gave a press conference about the leaked tape on Wednesday, saying that the dramatic events in Kiev, which resulted in people being killed, must become the subject of an independent investigation.

 

The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a statement on its website, saying that the recording of the leaked telephone conversation between Paet and Ashton is “authentic.”

 

 

The phone call took place on February 26 after Estonia’s FM returned from his visit to Ukraine, which took place soon after the end of street violence in Kiev, the ministry added.

“We reject the claim that Paet was giving an assessment of the opposition’s involvement in the violence," the statement stressed, adding that the FM was only providing an overview of what he had heard during his Kiev visit.

 

RT has contacted Ashton’s spokesperson, Maja Kocijancic, who said “we don’t comment on leaked phone conversations.”

 

The US government declined to comment on the leaked phone conversation between EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and the Estonian foreign affairs minister.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she had nothing to say on the issue, ITAR-TASS reported. However, she did accuse Russia of leaking the tape, stating that “this was another example of how the Russians work.”

 

The call took place after Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Paet visited Kiev on February 25, following the peak of clashes between the pro-EU protesters and security forces in the Ukrainian capital.

 

 

 

Anti-government protesters take cover as they are under fire reportedly of police sniper during clashes police in the center of Kiev on February 20, 2014.(AFP Photo / Sergei Supinsky)

It was reportedly uploaded to the web by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to ousted President Viktor Yanukovich who hacked Paet’s and Ashton’s phones.

During the conversation, Paet stressed that “there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition.”

According to the Estonian FM, “all the evidence shows”that the “same snipers” at Maidan were shooting at people from both sides – the police and the protesters.

Ashton reacted to the information by saying: “Well, yeah…that’s, that’s terrible,” adding that the matter is worth investigating.

 

94 people were killed and another 900 injured during the standoff between police and protesters at Maidan Saquare in Kiev last month.

News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine

 

 

Deploying military force is last resort, but we reserve right - Putin

 

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin (RIA Novosti / Alexey Nokolskiy)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/putin-statement-ukraine-russia-743/

Russia will not go to war with the people of Ukraine, but will use its troops to protect citizens, if radicals with clout in Kiev now try to use violence against Ukrainian civilians, particularly ethnic Russians, Putin told the media.

Putin, who was given a mandate by the Russian senate to use military force to protect civilians in Ukraine, said there is no need for such an action yet.

Putin cited the actions of radical activists in Ukraine, including the chaining of a governor to a stage as public humiliation and the killing of a technician during an opposition siege of the Party of Regions HQ, as justification for Russia to be concerned for the lives and well-being of people in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Incidents like those are why Russia reserves the option of troop deployment on the table.

“If we see this lawlessness starting in eastern regions, if the people ask us for help – in addition to a plea from a legitimate president, which we already have – then we reserve the right to use all the means we possess to protect those citizens. And we consider it quite legitimate,” he said.

Russia is not planning to go to war with the Ukrainian people, Putin stressed, when a journalist asked if he was afraid of war. But Russian troops would prevent any attempts to target Ukrainian civilians, should they be deployed.

“We are not going to a war against the Ukrainian people,” he said. “I want you to understand it unambiguously. If we do take a decision, it would only be to protect Ukrainian citizens. Let anybody in the military dare, and they’d be shooting their own people, who would stand up in front of us. Shoot at women and children. I’d like to see anyone try and order such a thing in Ukraine.”

Putin dismissed the notion that the uniformed armed people without insignia who are currently present in Crimea are Russian soldiers. He said they are members of the Crimean self-defense forces and that they are no better equipped and trained than some radical fighters who took part in the ousting of Yanukovich.

He assured that the surprise military drills in Russia’s west which ended on Tuesday had nothing to do with the Ukrainian situation.

Sanction threats are counterproductive

Asked about criticism of Russia over its stance on Ukraine, Putin dismissed the accusations that Russia is acting illegitimately. He stated that even if Russia does use force in Ukraine, it would not violate international law.

At the same time he accused the United States and its allies of having no regard to legitimacy when they use military force in pursuit of their own national interests.

“When I ask them ‘Do you believe you do everything legitimately,’ they say ‘Yes.’ And I have to remind them about the US actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, where they acted either without any UN Security Council mandate or through perverting a mandate, as was the case in Libya,” Putin said.

“Our partners, especially in the United States, always clearly and formulate for themselves their geopolitical and national interests, pursue them relentlessly and then drag the rest of the world in, using the principle ‘You are either with us or against us’. And harass those refuse to be dragged in,”he added.

As for the sanctions Russia faces over Ukraine, Putin said those threatening them should think of the consequences to themselves if they follow that path. In an interconnected world a country may hurt another country if it wishes, but it would be damaged too.

Threats are counterproductive in this situation, Putin warned. He added that if G8 members choose not to go to Sochi for a planned G8 summit, that would be up to them.

 

(Reuters / David Mdzinarishvili)

Putin sympathies with Maidan protesters, rejects coup

Putin stressed that the Ukrainian people had a legitimate reason to protest against Yanukovich’s power, considering the overwhelming corruption and other faults of his presidency.

But he objected to the illegitimate way his ouster took place, because it undermined the political stability in the country.

He said that while he personally was not fond of months-long streets protests as a means to pressure the government, he sympathized with the Maidan demonstration members, who were genuinely outraged with the situation in Ukraine.

But at the same time he warned that what happens in Ukraine now may be a replacement of one group of crooks with another, citing the appointments of certain wealthy businessmen with questionable reputations.

Asked about the presence of snipers during the violent confrontation in Kiev last month, Putin said he was not aware of any order from the Yanukovich government to use firearms against the protesters. He alleged that the shooters could have been provocateurs from one of the opposition forces. He added that what he was sure of is the fact that police officers were shot at with lethal arms during the confrontation.

Yanukovich is certainly powerless in Ukraine, but legally speaking he is the legitimate president of the country, Putin said. The way the new authorities in Kiev replaced him did not enhance their credibility.

At the same time Putin does not see any political future for Yanukovich, which he told the ousted Ukrainian president himself. He added that Russia allowed him to come to its territory for humanitarian reasons, because if he remained in Ukraine he could have been summarily executed.

 

Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych arrives for his press-conference in southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, on February 28, 2014. (AFP Photo / Andrey Kronberg)

Equal participation in Ukraine's future for all Ukrainians

The Russian government is currently engaging with the self-proclaimed govern of Ukraine with the goal of preserving economic ties between the two countries. However, any normal relations would only be possible after Ukraine has fully legitimate branches of government, Putin said. He considers that he has no counterpart in Kiev now, so he personally has no partner to communicate with.

The Russian president stressed that Russia wants to see equal participation of all citizens of Ukraine in defining the future of the country. The resistance to the authorities in Kiev, which is evident currently in the eastern and southern Ukraine, shows clearly that currently Kiev does not have a nationwide mandate to govern the country.

Russia will be watching the planned presidential election in Ukraine, Putin said. If it is conducted in an atmosphere of terror, Russia will consider it unfair and will not recognize its results, he warned.

Putin commented on the issue of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, which Russia committed to preserve. He said that Western powers reject Russia’s assessment of the events in Ukraine as a coup and insist on calling it a revolution.

Some Russian experts, Putin warned that if Ukraine had undergone a revolution, then the nation that came out of it is not the same that it was before, similarly to how Russia transformed after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

If this is the case, Moscow may consider itself no longer bound by any treaties it has with Ukraine, Putin warned.

 

News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine

 

 

Washington’s hubris, evil sets stage for war

 

Anti-government protesters clash with Ukrainian police during a rally in Kiev on January 19, 2014

By: Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/03/03/353111/usas-hubris-evil-set-stage-for-war/

In some quarters public awareness is catching up with Stephen Lendman, Michel Chossudovsky, Rick Rozoff, myself and a few others in realizing the grave danger in the crisis that Washington has created in Ukraine.

The “puppet” politicians who Washington intended to put in charge of Ukraine have lost control to organized and armed “neo-nazis,” who are attacking Jews, Russians, and intimidating Ukrainian politicians. The government of Crimea, a Russian province that Khrushchev transferred to the Ukraine Soviet Republic in the 1950s, has disavowed the “illegitimate” government that “illegally” seized power in Kiev and requested Russian protection. The Ukrainian military forces in Crimea have gone over to Russia. The Russian government has announced that it will also protect the former Russian provinces in eastern Ukraine as well.

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn pointed out, it was “folly” for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to transfer historic provinces of Russia into Ukraine. At the time it seemed to the Soviet leadership like a good thing to do. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and had been ruled by Russia since the 18th century. Adding Russian territory to Ukraine served to water down the “Nazi elements” in western Ukraine that had fought for Hitler during World War 2. Perhaps another factor in the enlargement of Ukraine was the fact of Khrushchev’s Ukrainian heritage.

Regardless, it did not matter until the Soviet Union and then the former Russian empire itself fell apart. Under Washington’s pressure, Ukraine became a separate country retaining the Russian provinces, but Russia retained its Black Sea naval base in Crimea.

Washington tried, but failed, to take Ukraine in 2004 with the Washington-financed “Orange Revolution.” According to Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, since this failure Washington has “invested” $5 billion in Ukraine in order to foment agitation for EU membership for Ukraine. EU membership would open Ukraine to “looting” by Western bankers and corporations, but Washington’s main goal is to establish US missile bases on Russia’s border with Ukraine and to deprive Russia of its Black Sea naval base and military industries in eastern Ukraine. EU membership for Ukraine means NATO membership.

Washington wants missile bases in Ukraine in order to degrade “Russia’s nuclear deterrent,” thus reducing Russia’s ability to resist US hegemony. Only three countries stand in the way of Washington’s hegemony over the world, Russia, China, and Iran.

Iran is surrounded by US military bases and has US fleets off its coast. The “Pivot to Asia” announced by the warmonger Obama regime is ringing China with air and naval bases. Washington is surrounding Russia with US missile and NATO bases. The “corrupt” Polish and Czech governments were paid to accept US missile and radar bases, which makes the Polish and Czech “puppet” states prime targets for “nuclear annihilation.” Washington has purchased the former Russian and Soviet province of Georgia, birthplace of Joseph Stalin, and is in the process of putting this “puppet” into NATO.

Washington’s Western European "puppets" are too greedy for Washington’s money to take cognizance of the fact that these highly provocative moves are a direct strategic threat to Russia. The attitude of European governments seems to be, “after me, the deluge.”

Russia has been “slow” to react to the many years of Washington’s provocations, hoping for some sign of good sense and good will to emerge in the West. Instead, Russia has experienced rising demonization from Washington and European capitals and foaming at the mouth vicious denunciations by the West’s media w…. The bulk of the American and European populations are being brainwashed to see the problem that Washington’s meddling has caused in Ukraine to be Russia’s fault. Yesterday, I heard on National Public Radio a presstitute from the New Republic describe Putin as “the problem.”

The ignorance, absence of integrity, and lack of independence of the US media greatly enhances the prospect for war. The picture being drawn for insouciant Americans is totally false. An informed people would have burst out laughing when US Secretary of State John Kerry denounced Russia for “invading Ukraine” in “violation of international law.” Kerry is the foreign minister of a country that has illegally invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, organized the overthrow of the government in Libya, tried to overthrow the government in Syria, attacks the civilian populations of Pakistan and Yemen with drones and missiles, constantly threatens Iran with attack, unleashed the US and Israeli trained “Georgian army” on the Russian population of South Ossetia, and now threatens Russia with sanctions for standing up for Russians and Russian strategic interests. The Russian government noted that Kerry has raised hypocrisy to a new level.

Kerry has no answer to the question: “Since when does the United States government genuinely subscribe and defend the concept of sovereignty and territorial integrity?”

Kerry, as is always the case, is “lying” through his teeth. Russia hasn’t invaded Ukraine. Russia sent a few more troops to join those at its Black Sea base in view of the violent anti-Russian statements and actions emanating from Kiev. As the Ukrainian military in Crimea defected to Russia, the additional Russian troops were hardly necessary.

The “stupid” Kerry, wallowing in his arrogance, hubris, and evil, has issued direct threats to Russia. The Russian foreign minister has dismissed Kerry’s threats as “unacceptable.” The stage is set for war.

Note the absurdity of the situation. Kiev has been taken over by ultra-nationalist “neo-nazis.” A band of ultra-nationalist thugs is the last thing the European Union wants or needs as a member state. The EU is “centralizing power” and “suppressing the sovereignty” of the member states. Note the alignment of the neoconservative Obama regime with anti-semitic neo-nazis. The neoconservative clique that has dominated the US government since the Clinton regime is heavily “Jewish,” many of whom are dual Israeli/US citizens. The “Jewish” neoconservatives, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and National Security Adviser Susan Rice, have lost control of their coup to neo-Nazis who preach “death to the Jews.”

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on February 24 that Ukrainian Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman advised “Kiev’s Jews to leave the city and even the country.” Edward Dolinsky, head of an umbrella organization of Ukrainian “Jews,” described the situation for Ukrainian “Jews” as “dire” and requested Israel’s help.

This is the situation that Washington created and defends, while accusing Russia of stifling Ukrainian democracy. An elected democracy is what Ukraine had before Washington overthrew it.

At this time there is no “legitimate” Ukrainian government.

Everyone needs to understand that Washington is lying about Ukraine just as Washington lied about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, just as Washington lied about Iranian nukes, just as Washington lied about Syrian president Assad using chemical weapons, just as Washington lied about Afghanistan, Libya, NSA spying, torture. What hasn’t Washington lied about?

Washington is comprised of three elements: Arrogance, Hubris, and Evil. There is nothing else there.
---------------------------------

Dr Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.

News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine

 

Putin holds aces, Obama deuces

By: Finian Cunningham

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/03/353101/putin-holds-aces-obama-deuces/

As Russian troops pour into Ukraine consolidating control over the southern Crimea region it looks as if President Putin has finally had enough of playing games according to bent Western rules.

Vladimir Putin knows that world public opinion and a good many nations are on Russia's side in its show of strength against the cabal of rogue Western states led by Washington.

The morally bankrupt Western cabal tried to play its "sanctimonious card" at the weekend after Putin ordered more troops into the southern Ukrainian territory. American President Barack Obama said with tiresome cliché "the US stands with the international community in condemning violation of Ukraine's sovereignty".

Even more absurdly, US Secretary of State John Kerry later lambasted Russia's "brazen aggression". With a ridiculous straight face, probably due to years of botox treatment, Kerry said: "You just don't invade another country on phoney pretext in order to assert your interests. This is an act of aggression that is completely trumped-up in terms of its pretext. It's really 19th century behaviour in the 21st century."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shot back that US threats of sanctions and veiled military confrontation against Moscow are "completely unacceptable".

And the subsequent increase in Russian troop deployment in the Crimea seems to be a clear sign that Moscow is snubbing Washington's warnings with the contempt that they deserve.

For a start, Russia knows that it is morally and legally right to make its latest moves. With a Russian ethnic population comprising up to 60 per cent of the Ukraine, particularly in the East and South of the country, Moscow has a responsibility to protect its compatriots in a territory with a long shared history and heritage. Russia has real vital national interests at stake in the Ukraine, and it is entitled to exercise this protection - unlike countless American trumped-up interventions around the globe.

Secondly, Russia knows that the phoney American rulers and their European proxies have been making a mockery of international law in Ukraine over many years and especially in the last three months, during which the West has inflamed social and political unrest to the point where the elected authorities in Kiev were ousted two weeks ago in a Western-backed coup d'état. It is only Western rulers and their delusional media who pretend that the events in Ukraine were "a popular uprising".

The American, British, French and German governments have orchestrated a regime change operation, which now sees a rabble of neo-Nazis and fascists in power in Kiev. The rabid anti-Russian politics of this Western-backed junta poses a real and present threat to the pro-Russian population. True to plan, this junta of unelected quislings who came to power on the back of murderous street violence - violence fully supported and encouraged by the Western states – will in short order give the green light to NATO troops being stationed on Russia's borders.

A third factor emboldening Putin to act decisively in a show of strength against these Western powers is that the Russian leader knows that world opinion is on his side. The world has had enough of US-led state terrorism and lawlessness, declaring war on countries on trumped-up pretexts, including Iraq and Afghanistan, where more than one million have been killed by American and British forces with total impunity. These illegal wars of aggression were based on proven outright lies and fabrications with the collusion of Western media.

The world has had it with US-led aggression against Iran with murderous sanctions that, again, are based on wanton and transparent lies that infringe on the legally entitled rights of the Iranian nation to develop nuclear technology.

The world is sickened by American sponsorship of the genocidal Israeli regime against the Palestinian people - a grotesque regime whose illegal stockpile of nuclear weapons is an affront to international law and morality.

And the world is abhorred by the US-led covert war of aggression on Syria for the past three years, conducted with the help of Arab despots and head-choppers, which has resulted in over 130,000 deaths and millions thrown into abject misery.

More than anything perhaps, the world, including many ordinary Americans, is disgusted by the shameless deception, double standards and hypocrisy of Washington and its European acolytes who claim to represent decency, democracy and the "international community".

In a hollow headline, the London Financial Times claimed: "World rounds on Russia over Crimea move". This is typical Western elite vanity that presumes to speak for the world majority.

The New York Times added: "So far, the Kremlin has shown no sign of yielding to international pressure".

What international pressure? The only people that seem to be in a fluster are the elites in Washington and their slavish coterie of European stooges in London, Paris and Berlin.

In actuality, the world has pointedly remained muted on Russia's moves to defend its interests in Ukraine. China, now the world's biggest trading nation, has indeed sided with Russia. India and the other members of the Non-Aligned Movement have made no comment.

This is because the majority of the world knows who the real aggressors are. The latter are the US and its cronies among the financially and morally bankrupt G7 capitalist club of elite mis-rulers.

With Russia supplying up to 35 per cent of Europe's oil and gas, Moscow knows too that it holds an important ace in this new game. If the EU is foolish enough to push Washington's asinine agenda against Russia over the unrest and violence in Ukraine - which the US and the EU instigated in the first place - then Moscow can bring bankrupt Europe to its knees by turning off the fuel taps.

The old game of one-sided, bent rules - long played by Washington and its Western allies - is over. There's a new game in town, and where Putin has a few aces to play, the bankrupt West is holding a bunch of deuces.
------------------------------

 

Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Originally from Belfast, Ireland, he is now located in East Africa as a freelance journalist, where he is writing a book on Bahrain and the Arab Spring, based on eyewitness experience working in the Persian Gulf as an editor of a business magazine and subsequently as a freelance news correspondent. The author was deported from Bahrain in June 2011 because of his critical journalism in which he highlighted systematic human rights violations by regime forces. He is now a columnist on international politics for Press TV and the Strategic Culture Foundation.

News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine

 

US Treasury Secretary to AIPAC: US monitoring Ukraine with ‘grave concern’ Kerry States All Options on the Table

 

Updated: 2014 March 03 

 

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/02/352977/us-monitoring-ukraine-with-grace-concern/

The United States says it is observing the situation in Ukraine with “grave concern” after Russia deployed its troops to the strategic Ukrainian Crimea region.

“Before turning to the focus of my remarks, let me say that we are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine with grave concern,” said US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew before the 2014 AIPAC Policy Conference.

“As President Obama told President Putin yesterday, Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity is a breach of international law,” according to the prepared text for delivery posted on the Press Center of US Department of the Treasury.

He added that the White House is prepared to provide the new officials in Kiev with as much financial support they need to fix their crisis-hit economy.

“The United States is prepared to work with its bilateral and multilateral partners to provide as much support as Ukraine needs to restore financial stability and return to economic growth, if the new government implements the necessary reforms,” said the Treasury Secretary.

Mr. Lew said that Washington has called on Ukraine to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund and that an IMF program must be the center piece of any assistance package.

“I have spoken several times to the Ukrainian Prime Minister who assures me that the government is prepared to take the necessary steps to build a secure economic foundation, including urgently needed market reforms that will restore financial stability, unleash economic potential, and allow Ukraine’s people to better achieve their economic aspirations.”

The US Treasury Secretary made the remarks as Secretary of State John Kerry threatened Russia with economic sanctions in case it does not withdrew its military forces form the Ukrainian region.

“There are visa bans, asset freezes, isolation with respect to trade, investment,” the US Secretary of State said during the CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

“American businesses may well want to start thinking twice about whether they want to do business with a country that behaves like this. These are serious implications,” he added.

Kerry who is going to travel to Ukraine on Tuesday to show Washington's support for Ukraine's new leadership also threatened that Russia could be ousted from the Group of Eight (G8).

“Russia is going to lose, the Russian people are going to lose, and he’s going to lose all of the glow that came out of the Olympics, his $60 billion extravaganza,” Kerry said, adding that “He [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is not going to have a Sochi G8, he may not even remain in the G8 if this continues."

Speaking on ABC’s This Week television program, Kerry issued a starker warning to Moscow, stressing that “all options are on the table” to deal with the crisis.

The upper house of the Russian parliament on Saturday approved Russian president’s request to deploy troops to Crimea. Putin made the request after Crimea’s regional prime minister asked him to help restore peace and calm in the region.

Ukraine has been gripped by protests since November when the government decided to shelve a trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.

Russia bears no resemblance to Iraq, Syria: Analyst

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/02/352973/russia-not-similar-to-iraq-syria/

A Russian political analyst and journalist has dismissed US President Barack Obama’s warning that ''there will be costs'' if Moscow intervenes militarily in Ukraine, stating that Russia bears no resemblance to Iraq and Syria, Press TV reports.

“Russia is not Iraq, Russia is not Syria. You cannot interfere there with impunity as it was in Iraq and Syria. Russia can fight back. So I hope that people in the European Union will come back to their senses and they will try to resolve this business (crisis in Ukraine) through dialogue,” Dmitry Babich said in an exclusive interview with Press TV on Sunday.

He also defended the deployment of Russian troops in the strategic Ukrainian region of Crimea.

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin actually deployed the troops on his own - the Russia law gives him these powers, but he asked for permission from the parliament and got that permission,” Babich pointed out.

On Saturday, the Russian parliament granted Putin permission to use the country's military in Ukraine. Putin said the move is needed to protect ethnic Russians and the personnel of a Russian military base in Crimea.

"I'm submitting a request for using the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine pending the normalization of the socio-political situation in that country," the Russian president noted in a statement released by the Kremlin.

Babich also argued that the European Union could not play a role as mediator in the long stand-off between the now-ousted president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, and the opposition.

“The reason (Russian President) Vladimir Putin decided to basically pressure, you know, to show the government of Ukraine that he is going to protect Crimea is because the EU has been a very bad intermediary in the dialogue between former President Yanukovych and the opposition,” the Russian pundit said.

“I think the message is mostly to the West and to the new Ukrainian leadership. Putin shows the red line, which the West and the new Ukrainian illegitimate government cannot cross in Crimea,” Babich also commented.

On February 28, Obama urged Russia to pull back from Ukraine's Crimea region or face possible consequences.

"We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine," he said in televised comments from the White House. "The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine."

News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine

 

Syria - The Crime and the Criminals

Source: Anthony Lawson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTC-F1vtrNI

The Syrian civil war, insurrection, rebellion, revolt, uprising, call it what you will, was not home grown in Syria by Syrians with differing outlooks as to how their nation should be governed—as the mainstream media would have you believe—it was part of a strategy preplanned by vicious, sociopathic foreigners called "Neocons" and they began their planning in 1991, following the first invasion of Iraq, code-named: Dessert Storm. To date, the major beneficiary of their diabolical planning has been Zionist Apartheid Israel, but that maybe coming to an end.

Important links. Note: Some links may not work in some locations.

Boycott Divestment Sanctions
http://www.bdsmovement.net/
Article: Boycott would-be MPs who are Friends of Israel

http://mycatbirdseat.com/2014/02/50005-bds-this-is-your-big-chance/
European Elections
http://www.elections2014.eu/en

Links for General Reference:
Halliburton, Dick Cheney, and Wartime Spoils
https://www.commondreams.org/views03/0403-10.htm
Martial Law
http://www.911myths.com/html/jeb_bush_declared_martial_law_.html
Dov Zakheim (1)
http://wikispooks.com/wiki/9/11:Israel_did_it#Rabbi_Dov_Zakheim_and_Systems_Planning_C
Dov Zakheim (2)

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=55524
PNAC

http://www.septemberclues.info/PNAC_fearmongerers.pdf
Rebels preparing to behead Christians (1)
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ead_1372329728#J4WI9dOuGfPPzFPd.03&use_old_player=1
Rebels preparing to behead Christians (2)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ead_1372329728#X5ZZwRhHM3Q1qy2i.99

McCain with al Qaeda
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Israel's Undisputed Role In Training Middle East Terrorists
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Global Research
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Tony Cartalucci

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2011/11/un-report-on-syria-based-on-witness.html

Wesley Clark A Time to Lead
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Wesley Clark - America's Foreign Policy "Coup"
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U.N. Security Council: U.S. Vetoes of Resolutions Critical to Israel
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Maidhc O' Cathail - On 10th aniversary Israel partisans behind Iraq war still at large

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The Shadows in the Cave BBC 11th March, 2004
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European Friends of Israel
http://www.matanel.org/content/efi-%E2%80%93-european-friends-israel

 

Obama calls on Putin to pull Russian troops from Ukraine

 

 

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/03/02/352843/obama-to-putin-pull-troops-from-crimea/

Russia and the United States remain on a collision course over the restive Ukrainian region with Washington calling on Moscow to pull its troops in Crimea back to their bases.

US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed the escalating crisis on telephone for 90 minutes on Saturday.

According to a statement issued by the White House, Obama expressed "his deep concern over Russia's clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity" and called on Putin to order withdrawal of Russian forces from Crimea back to their bases.

The US president also threatened that Moscow’s refusal would “impact Russia’s standing in the international community.”

Obama warned that Moscow’s action in the Black Sea region could lead to more political and economic isolation for Russia.

Putin, however, said that his country reserves the right to protect Russian interests and ethnic Russians in Ukraine.

“In the case of any further spread of violence to Eastern Ukraine and Crimea,” a statement issued by Putin’s office said, “Russia retains the right to protect its interests and the Russian-speaking population of those areas.”

Earlier on Saturday, the Russian parliament approved Putin’s request to deploy troops into Crimea.

Putin said that the mission is necessary to protect ethnic Russians and the military base in Crimea known as the Black Sea Fleet.

The Russian president has yet to decide on the troop deployment, but reports emerging from the region show two Russian anti-submarine warships have appeared off the Ukraine coast.

Meanwhile, US Senator Bob Corker called for immediate sanctions against Russia for any potential military intervention in Ukraine.

"Vladimir Putin is seizing a neighboring territory — again — so President Obama must lead a meaningful, unified response," Corker said in a statement.

The Ukrainian army was put on a combat alert as the country’s acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said on Saturday that any Russia’s military intervention will lead to a war in the crisis-hit country.

Ukraine’s Donetsk calls for referendum, votes to restore Russian’s official status

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/ukraine-donetsk-protests-referendum-383/

The City Council in the eastern city of Donetsk has refused to recognize Ukraine’s self-imposed government and called for a referendum on the region’s status. The council has made Russian alongside Ukrainian the official language in the region.

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“Until all the legitimacy of the new laws approved by Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian Parliament] is clarified, the City Council [of Donetsk] will take full responsibility for its territories,” said the document approved by Donetsk City Council during the special session of March, 1. The report comes from Ukraine-based Zerkalo Nedeli newspaper.

Donetsk is the capital of the coal-rich Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. Beside Donetsk, a major economic, industrial and scientific center, Donbass includes Lughansk and Dnepropetrovsk regions.

The Council called for a referendum on Donbass’s future, urging the local parliament to set the date immediately. The move is set to “protect the citizens from possible violent actions on the behalf of radicalized nationalistic forces,” the council said in a statement.

In addition, the members of the city council have voted to set up self-defense squads.

Russian language has been re-introduced as an official language along with Ukrainian in the area where a plurality of its residents are ethnic Russians (48.15%) and Russian-speaking Ukrainians (46.65%). This decision came after the new power in Kiev abolished the minority languages law.

Also, the Donetsk authorities said they consider Russia a strategic partner.

The council’s session was called as pro-Russian activists gathered in the center of Donetsk, demanding local authorities to hold a referendum on the future of the region. The protesters seized the regional administration building and hoisted the Russian flag above it.

Eastern Ukraine and Crimea are seeing massive pro-Russian demonstrations against the new self-proclaimed central government, with many government buildings being topped with Russian flags.

News Updates on the unfolding events in Ukraine