Ukraine On Terror Alert Amid Explosion Threats

[dipsydoodle]

Source: RIA Novosti

KIEV, February 9 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian security agents are on high alert following reports of planned explosions in the country that could cause mass casualties, the national security service said Sunday.

A warning has been issued concerning high-risk facilities across Ukraine, including nuclear and hydro power plants, international airports, railway stations and bus stations, cross-country pipelines and weapons storage facilities.

Read more: http://en.ria.ru/world/20140209/187364652/Ukraine-On-Terror-Alert-Amid-Explosion-Threats.html

[bananas]

1. Including nuclear power plants - which will meltdown in 8 hours with no cooling.

As we saw at Fukushima.

[another_liberal]

2. I guess this is the kind of thing that can happen . . .

When the Western media goes out of its way to excuse people throwing Molotov cocktails at other human beings, I guess this is the kind of thing that can happen.

Deadly violence is still deadly violence, no matter how much you agree with the cause it purports to champion. Encouraging a little of it only leads dangerous sociopaths to commit bigger, far worse outrages.

[ColesCountyDem]

10. Our Civil War wasn't fought with elder stalks charged with rose water, to quote Abraham Lincoln. n/t

[another_liberal]

13. Meaning what?

Are you suggesting it's just fine to immolate policemen with bottles of flaming gasoline, because one disagrees with the government in power? Would you encourage those dissatisfied with President Obama and the Democratic Party to adopt such tactics? After all, if it is acceptable in Ukraine, why would the same thing not be acceptable here?

[pampango]

14. Have any police been immolated? Several protesters have died from gunshots.

Is that acceptable? Few here at DU would condone violence coming from either side.

It is certainly in the interest of the Ukrainian president to portray the protesters as violent criminals. The vast majority of them are peaceful demonstrators braving months of cold weather. Many believe that the violent minority are government agents whose goal is to make the protest look like out of control violence.

It is much easier to sell a crackdown on demonstrators then than it is if they are perceived to be legitimate peaceful protesters. None of us know how many of those throwing Molotov cocktails are a violent fringe of the protest movement and how many are agents provocateur. In either case, hard liners in the government (and arguably in Moscow) know they are helping to make the case for a crackdown on all the demonstrators.

http://zyalt.livejournal.com/984735.html

[another_liberal]

15. Yes, several police have been hospitalized with severe gasoline burns.

Others have been hospitalized due to beatings by protesters with clubs, bricks and etc. If none have yet died, that is not for a lack of trying on the part of their attackers.

If you really support popular change in Ukraine you should realize, and admit, that some of the protesters are clearly "violent criminals." That faction of the protesters should not be encouraged by efforts to diminish the seriousness of their actions. To do so only helps discredit the entire movement.

[pampango]

16. Agreed. Nor should we downplay violence from the authorities. Both should be

acknowledged and condemned.

The latest from Kiev:

70,000 protesters rally in Independence Square on Sunday

The Ukrainian national anthem rang out in Kyiv on Sunday as around 70,000 people gathered in the city’s Independence Square .

Elsewhere in the square there was a demonstration in support of a Russian TV station Dozhd – meaning rain – which can no longer broadcast after cable providers axed it. The station made its name covering massive street protests in Russia against President Putin and has accused authorities of censorship.

French intellectual Bernard Henry Levy was in the square on Sunday and praised the Maidan movement:

“I haven’t seen neo-Nazis, I haven`t heard anti-Semites, I have heard the contrary – an incredibly mature movement, incredibly determined and very deeply liberal … I think the ambition of this Ukrainian movement is more bigger. What I hear in the Maidan is a willingness to revitalize the European dream, to restore its content, give it life. When people say ‘Europe’ here it isn’t a vague word, it means citizenship, it’s means rule of law, it means increasing freedom.

It’s a Europe which we too often lose the meaning of in Western Europe, but here in Maidan they are rediscovering its meaning,” said Levy.

http://www.euronews.com/2014/02/10/ukrainian-protesters-demonstrate-in-support-of-axed-russian-tv-station/

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. Mr. Levy is very fond of liberal interventionism.

[pampango]

18. That may well be. Whether he is a liberal interventionist or a conservative isolationist,

I have not heard anyone offer a differing opinion of the 70,000 person protest march in Kiev yesterday. Have you?

“I haven’t seen neo-Nazis, I haven`t heard anti-Semites, I have heard the contrary – an incredibly mature movement, incredibly determined and very deeply liberal … I think the ambition of this Ukrainian movement is more bigger. What I hear in the Maidan is a willingness to revitalize the European dream, to restore its content, give it life. When people say ‘Europe’ here it isn’t a vague word, it means citizenship, it’s means rule of law, it means increasing freedom.

A peaceful demonstration by 70,000 shows a lot of 'maturity', 'determination' and 'deeply liberal', IMHO.

[ColesCountyDem]

19. What I am suggesting is the political reality that...

... those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. However, as others have pointed out, there is no concrete evidence that any member of the Euro-Maidan movement has thrown a Molotov cocktail at the police. It is possible, even likely, that those who HAVE done so may well be agent provocateurs.

[another_liberal]

20. You make a valid point . . .

That may well be the case. What troubled me was a rather wide-spread tendency on the part of protest supporters on these boards to excuse the use of deadly violence, such as hurling Molotov cocktails, by whomever was doing it.

[ColesCountyDem]

21. Got it!

I think we are far more in agreement than at first seemed to be the case.

[TwilightGardener]

3. I don't know...would Russia want an excuse to stir up fear and send in troops?

Who would be causing this sort of (threatened) terror--the protestors? And why? It wouldn't help them at all. Need to be highly skeptical here.

[another_liberal]

4. Why blame Russia?

They would have far more to lose than some wild-eyed revolutionary with no concern for innocent victims. Russia is, after all, a down wind neighbor of Ukraine. Also, just consider the terrific PR damage President Putin's government would suffer if evidence of Russia being the source of these rumors was to come to light.

All considered, I doubt these threats originated with the Russians.

[TwilightGardener]

6. Because the fear is that they'll try to move militarily on Ukraine if it turns into

a failed state/catastrophe. Why would revolutionaries and protestors want to invite the Russian military in? And I think Russia certainly isn't above using terror threats to control people--the question is, who is in control of what's left of the Ukraine government and security forces, and are they reporting this out of apolitical, genuine concern?

[another_liberal]

7. Some dissatisfied segment of the Ukrainian government behind the threats?

At least in my opinion, that is far more likely. There are those who now enjoy position and preferment who would be left out in the cold by a move toward the EU and the West in general. President Putin, on the other hand, is almost certainly not about to risk isolating Russia internationally and bringing down his own government through an invasion of Ukraine.

[1000words]

5. This seems a little convenient

[Igel]

8. Gotta love ria.ru.

1/25 or so the authorities in Ukraine put the power stations on alert. Special security "regime" and all that. Not just nuclear power plants. But also hydroelectric and oil plants.

It was big news. By 1/26 in Moscow they were talking about how there might be a second Hiroshima in Ukraine.

On 1/30 they were still talking about how the extremists had made anonymous threats against the power plants. The Russian-language press, that is. Presumably they had knowledge of who personally made the anonymous threats. At the time it struck me as strange. The Ukrainian-language press found it amusing, by and large.

As DUers would have said, "Terra! Terra!"

Nothing happened. Nothing. Except that some were even more convinced that the nasty "khokhly" were more violent than ever. ("khokhol" is a term of abuse for Ukrainians. You're called out if you say "zhidy", the offensive term for Jews; not if you say "khokhly".)

So now it's back, since not much has changed. Things have calmed down a bit, but the stalemate on Euromaidan continues. The terror-alert didn't seem to matter on 1/25, so perhaps a more alarmist alert is necessary. (I'm still sorting out the cable channel Dozhd' takeover business.)

Lots more things are on high alert. Most places are just reporting the official statement (so http://ua.korrespondent.net/ukraine/politics/3303227-zahroza-vybukhiv-sbu-pryvodyt-u-hotovnist-subiekty-borotby-z-teroryzmom just printed it plain).

http://fakty.ua/176453-sbu-zayavila-o-povyshennoj-ugroze-teraktov-v-ukraine is a bit more cynical, although it's generally more pro-Russian. At the end it adds that "Напомним, 7 февраля исполняющий обязанности министра внутренних дел Виталий Захарченко не исключил, что во время открытия зимней Олимпиады в Сочи украинские «праворадикальные группировки», чтобы «затмить это событие и привлечь внимание к себе и своим требованиям», осуществят теракт" with a link to the original article.
("Let's recall that on 7 February the interim internal affairs minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko didn't rule out that during the opening of the winter Olympic Games in Sochi Ukrainian 'right-radical groupings', in order 'to eclipse this event and draw attention to themselves and their demands' would carry out a terrorist act.&quot

At some point perhaps the SBU will have a real terrorist act that all their "checking of forces" and "verifying readiness" will be used for. On the other hand, it's all for the purpose of being ready for any illegal or criminal acts of a terrorist nature. Which is, not so amusing, precisely how the Ukr. government has characterized the opposition--not just the opposition on Euromaidan, but those marching in other cities and anybody in or supporting the opposition.

It's convenient that the Russian ambassador, the press reports, warned the US today about extremists in Ukraine and how something must be done about them. Perhaps part of the 10 tons of humanitarian assistance Poland was shipping to the Euromaidan folk was part of the extremist acts, because the government of Ukraine stopped it in customs today for lengthy inspection.

[JDPriestly]

9. My instinctual reaction is that this threat was concocted by someone with a lot of power in

Ukraine. I don't think this is for real.

Who would gain if such a threat were carried out? Certainly not the protestors. The threat of explosions would give the government or the Russians a perfect excuse for violent repression.

But if the explosions happened, the government would have to deal with the damage and if found out, face international repercussions and damage to their reputation.

Russia -- maybe, but Russia is trying to look like an attractive, responsible trading partner in the world. Such a ploy would make them look like fools and much, much worse. It would make them look dangerous.

i think it is a bogus threat. Somebody crazy got this idea.

[MysticHuman]

12. I hope you are correct! n/t

[MysticHuman]

11. My Daughter lives in Kiev....

She is just a couple of blocks from where the large protests were being held last month....

I have told her she has to think about returning home.

I hope Ukraine doesn't start turning into an Iraq....