Russia Blames U.S. For Security Crises, Turmoil In Ukraine
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - Top Russian officials accused the United States on Thursday of seeking political and military dominance in the world and sought to put blame on the West for international security crises, including the conflict in east Ukraine.
Evoking Cold War-style rhetoric, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said a drive by the United States and its allies to bring Kiev closer to the West was a threat to Moscow and had forced it to react.
"The United States and its allies have crossed all possible lines in their drive to bring Kiev into their orbit. That could not have failed to trigger our reaction," he told an annual security conference in Moscow.
Echoing his comments, General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, told the meeting: "Considering themselves the winners of the Cold War, the United States decided to reshape the world to fit its needs.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/16/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-idUSKBN0N70W820150416
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geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)
Igel
(35,275 posts)They want our serfs.
The Russian narrative basically says that Ukrainians can have no independent thinking. Which is the old Russian narrative. And the intermediate Russian narrative. Sort of a monotone.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)
bemildred
(90,061 posts)A journalist supportive of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich was gunned down in Kiev on Thursday, the third death this week of a prominent critic of Ukraine's Western-backed government.
Russian media and other loyalists of Yanukovich, who was ousted in February 2014 after a three-month rebellion, were quick to label the deaths "political murders." Ukrainian officials suggested the slayings were motivated by Kremlin supporters seeking to get rid of witnesses to Moscow meddling in Ukrainian domestic affairs.
Oles Buzyna was shot to death from a passing car by two masked men around 1:20 p.m. in central Kiev, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Buzyna, 45, had been managing editor of the newspaper Segodnya from January through March, when he resigned to protest what he said was censorship and interference with personnel policies. The newspaper is part of the SKM business consortium owned by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, whose empire was based in Donetsk before the conflict between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian government forces erupted a year ago.
http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-ukraine-pro-russia-activists-deaths-20150416-story.html#navtype=outfit
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Head of the Center for Applied Political Studies "Penta" Volodymyr Fesenko expressed such an opinion in an interview with UNIAN.
"These killings [Kalashnikov and Buzyna] have got something in common: they've been referred to by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his press conference [shortly after they had happened]. The murders happened right before Putin's call-in show and were used to prove the thesis of alleged political terror in Ukraine," the expert said.
Fesenko says that the killed persons in fact had no great weight in the current opposition, in the [opposition] protest movement, but they were pro-Russian figures and even infamous ones. "Therefore, there is a suspicion that Kalashnikov and Buzyna became ritual sacrifice on the altar of Russian propaganda to allegedly confirm the accusation of political terror in Ukraine," he said.
"Putin had to refer to certain, available proof during his press conference. Of course, this is only a suspicion, but the concourse of these circumstances gives grounds for such conclusions," he said.
http://www.unian.info/politics/1068104-recently-shot-buzyna-and-kalashnikov-ritual-sacrifice-on-altar-of-russian-propaganda-expert.html
bemildred
(90,061 posts)KIEV (REUTERS, AFP) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday ordered "a quick and transparent" investigation into the murders of a pro-Russian journalist and an ex-lawmaker loyal to ousted President Viktor Yanukovich.
"Their nature and political import are clear - this is a deliberate act, which plays into the hands of our enemies," his press service quoted him as saying in an online statement.
The comment came after Oles Buzyna, 45, a supporter of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, was shot in the street, interior ministry official Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook in an account confirmed by the ministry's spokesman.
http://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/europe/story/ukraine-president-poroshenko-orders-probe-killings-journalist-and-ex-lawmake
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Two pro-Russian journalists from Ukraine were shot dead this week in their native country, with at least one of the deaths happening Thursday. Oles Buzina, a news editor, was killed Thursday afternoon. Sergey Sukhobok, who was an oppositionist known for his pro-Russian views, was also killed, though it is unclear exactly when he died because of conflicting reports. Both were prominent figures in the country’s journalism scene.
Buzina, 45, who in addition to his journalism was renowned for his work as an author and a TV presenter, was killed while jogging on a street near his Kiev home Thursday afternoon, local time. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry adviser Anton Geraschenko characterized it as murder, reported the Segodnya newspaper in Ukraine. Geraschenko reportedly wrote a Facebook post indicating that Buzina was killed after being shot from a blue sedan with foreign license plates.
The Interior Ministry later reported that two masked men were responsible for the killing and that an investigation was being led by Interior Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Pascal. Buzina, who would frequently publish pro-Russia opinion pieces, and resigned last month as editor-in-chief of the Segodnya over censorship.
Sukhobok, who suffered a similar fate in Kiev, was either killed Monday or hours earlier than Buzina Thursday. He was known for his outspoken, oppositionist views that sympathized with Russia, according to local publication Novorussia. Details are scarce on how he was killed, and police had not issued a comment about his death. Sukhobok, 50, founded Ukrainian news websites ProUA and Okbom. His funeral is scheduled for Friday and in Poltava where his family lives, according to an obituary published in Okbom, which said he was killed Monday. However, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty reported Sukhobok was killed Thursday.
http://www.ibtimes.com/who-are-oles-buzina-sergey-sukhobok-2-pro-russian-ukrainian-journalists-killed-kiev-1884863
bemildred
(90,061 posts)The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic threatened Thursday that pro-Russian rebels will take the port city of Mariupol if Ukrainian forces continue their "aggression" toward them. Oleksandr Zakharchenko’s comments, made on Russian TV, come as intense fighting in Donetsk, as well as Mariupol, threatens to reignite the war in eastern Ukraine and scuttle the already fragile Minsk II agreement.
"We will free our compatriots,” Zakharchenko said of Russians living in Mariupol. “About 23,000 soldiers are under my command, while another 30,000 people are on standby. It is very easy to take the flank of Mariupol. Do not forget that our mothers and sisters live there."
"We believed and will believe that we are part of the Soviet Union, part of Russia," added Zakharchenko.
Zakharchenko has said, however, that the Minsk II agreement will be honored provided Ukrainian forces stop attacking his rebels.
http://www.ibtimes.com/pro-russian-rebel-leader-threatens-take-mariupol-blames-ukrainians-truce-breakdown-1885358
bemildred
(90,061 posts)(Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday that economic strength, rather than military might, would ultimately determine the outcome of the West's standoff with Russia over Ukraine.
Speaking at a Brookings Institution event in Washington, Schaeuble described the standoff with Vladimir Putin as a "new systemic conflict" that would be won by the side with greater "soft power" and a stronger economy.
"In the long term, the conflict with Putin's Russia will be decided only on the basis of economic strength," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/16/ukraine-crisis-germany-idUSL5N0XD4RJ20150416?rpc=401
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed a possible war between Moscow and Kiev and said that he did not harbour any ambitions of reviving the Russian empire.
These statement were made during the annual televised question and answer session, which was held on Thursday.
Putin answered a total of 90 questions during the “Direct Line with Vladimir Putin”, which lasted for three hours and 55 minutes, TASS news agency reports.
According to him, the Western sanctions against Russia were aimed at restraining Moscow and they were no longer related to the developments in Ukraine as the Minsk ceasefire was being respected.
http://www.novinite.com/articles/167945/Putin+Considers+War+with+Ukraine+Impossible%2C+Has+No+Imperial+Ambitions
bemildred
(90,061 posts)During a two-day tour of the Baltic Sea region, Steinmeier (pictured above, left) said on Thursday that speculative Russian strategies such as offering to remove trade embargoes against individual EU member states will not succeed.
"It might be that there are some attempts like this and there will be in the future. There were such attempts and they were not successful," Steinmeier said.
Despite controversial debates over the issue between EU member states, Steinmeier said that unity had prevailed.
"Our decision was taken, so I think the attempt to split Europe will fail," the German foreign minister said.
http://www.dw.de/russia-cannot-divide-europe-over-ukraine-says-steinmeier/a-18388419
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Hillary Clinton has diverged from President Barack Obama’s Ukraine policy by calling for more military assistance and greater financial aid for the partially war-torn former Soviet country. Clinton, who announced her run for U.S. president on Sunday, said that if Ukraine was to succeed against Russian-supported separatists, it would need better support from the U.S.
"I think we need to provide more financial assistance for the government of Ukraine, as it is trying to make the transition from a nonprofessional, corrupt system to a system that operates according to the global rules,” Clinton told Voice of America in an interview Wednesday.
While the U.S. has provided basic equipment and training for Ukraine’s military, Obama has been reluctant to offer more help and has ruled out giving lethal assistance, despite overwhelming pressure from Congress prompting him to do so. A resolution calling for lethal aid passed 348-48 in Congress in March. However, Obama, who admitted to being influenced by German Chancellor Angela Merkel when making his decision, said that he would prefer to give February’s Minsk II agreement a chance to bring peace to the region before resorting to alternative measures.
So far that peace has been elusive.
http://www.ibtimes.com/hillary-clinton-calls-greater-military-assistance-financial-aid-ukraine-1884637
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Russian President Vladimir Putin is still denying that there are any Russian troops in Ukraine.
During an hours-long question-and-answer show on Thursday, Putin said he wants a "stable, peaceful Ukraine" and that Ukrainians and Russians are one people.
Im what seems to be imitating US President Barack Obama's favorite phrase, "Let me be clear," Putin said: "I will say this clearly: There are no Russian troops in Ukraine."
http://www.businessinsider.com/putin-i-will-say-this-clearly-there-are-no-russian-troops-in-ukraine-2015-4
bemildred
(90,061 posts)n a marathon phone-in, Vladimir Putin has criticised the US for treating the country as inferior and repeated his denial there are any Russian troops fighting in neighbouring Ukraine.
The Russian president said Washington could have good ties with Moscow but added it "doesn't need allies, they need vassals".
He also stated that Russia does not view any other country as an enemy and "we don't recommend anyone to see us as enemy".
That assertion came despite tensions with the West over Russia's role in neighbouring Ukraine and his criticism of the government in Kiev, which he accused an economic blockade of the eastern of the country where separatists have seized power.
http://news.sky.com/story/1466212/russia-sees-no-one-as-an-enemy-putin-says