Ukraine - US and Russian Interest

News UPDATE on April 23, 2014: 北约加强东欧军事部署 五艘军舰奔赴波罗的海 NATO enhances its military deployment in Eastern Europe. Five navy ships are hurrying to the Baltic Sea. On April 22, five navy ships left the German port of Kiel heading for the Baltic Sea in order to enhance military deployment in that area and for emergency response in case of a sudden incident to happen. These five NATO ships are coming from Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Estonia. Four ships are minesweepers, one is a supply ship. According to Philip Breedlove, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, the NATO ships are intended to ensure maritime safety in the area. [Source: People's Network (China) 人民网 on April 23, 2014: 北约加强东欧军事部署 五艘军舰奔赴波罗的海]

徳媒：美国对俄强硬姿态使欧洲陷入困境 German media: The U.S. [way of] facing Russia's tough attitude gets Europe caught in a difficult position. Obama's [way of] meeting with the tough position of Russia's policy makes Europe suffer from severe loss. [Source: People's Network (China) 人民网 on April 23, 2014: 徳媒：美国对俄强硬姿态使欧洲陷入困境]

美国向乌克兰提供更多军援 欲与波兰深化防务合作

The U.S. provide more military aid for Ukraine and
want Poland to deepen its defence cooperation.

On April 17 and while meeting with his counterpart from Poland, U.S. defence secretary Hagel announced that President Obama had already granted "unlethal" military aid to Ukraine, comprising medicine, helmets, sleeping mats, water cleaning devices, tents and small-size generators, as well as manually operated oil pumps.

This is the second time after Russia entering Crimea in the middle of March that Ukraine receives military help from the U.S.. The first delivery at the end of March comprised food rations for military use.

Furthermore, Hagel made clear the U.S. want Poland to make changes in its defence cooperation. The targeted domains are including special forces, air force, anti-missile units, training and manoeuvre practice and are reaching up to an increased formation of joint air force units together with its allies.

From 2012 on U.S. air force had stationed F-16 war planes in Poland for joint training. At the beginning of March [2014] when the Ukrainian situation worsened, the Pentagon decided to deploy another 12 F-16 war planes and 200 troops in Poland. In that frame, Hagel mentioned as well the participation of Romania where 12 F-16 regularly bought war planes had been deployed last year.

[Source: People's Network (China) 人民网 on April 18, 2014 => 美国向乌克兰提供更多军援 欲与波兰深化防务合作]




Chuck Hagel - First prominent politician from the West to visit
China's aircraft carrier Liaoning in early April 2014.

" The Ukrainian crisis is likely to push Russia to develop a crucial relationship with China, and it’s also probable that the US will cozy up more with China to balance against Russia, both of which benefit China, Chinese expert Andrew Leung told RT. "

The above quotation has been taken from an expert interview on a further deepening of economic cooperation between Russia and China after Russia, pressured by the West, needs to find new markets for its natural energy resources and another payment system, such avoiding the U.S.$ system. => The complete interview was published by RT, Russia's state TV, on its website on April 21, 2014.

A related "independent" comment on this website is reading as follows:
" The bottom line is that the hilarious irony of the situation is that in all its efforts to stop or slow down the formation of another Eastern Bloc, the west has set the stage for something even bigger: the creation of a pan-Eurasian economic union (and potentially, military alliance via expansion of the CSTO).
Eurasia is rising, and in time, the west will realize that it is too late to stop it. "

CSTO is the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the most prominent members of which are China and Russia. In 2013, CSTO already reached an agreement in the Syrian crisis and which was opposing the official NATO position: Russia – China and CSTO draw Red Line about NATO Despotism.




Russia's Putin and China's Xi JinPing on a CSTO meeting in Sochi, February 2014.

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One of today's visitors to "blueprint news" and who came from Odessa, Ukraine.

Ukraine - Crimean Referendum

Latest Development (March 16, 03:30 GMT): According to different German news sources, some secondary NATO websites should have been disabled by hacker activity. All sources are mentioning a possible relationship with the Crimean referendum which is to begin only some hours later. [Main Source: German N-TV news] => Related NATO paper: NATO and Cyber Defence. The New York Times (March 16, European edition): Russia Seizes Gas Plant Near Crimea Border, Ukraine Says => illustrated article Crimean News Agency QHA (March 17): - Turnout of votes 64% by 15:00 on day of referendum (i.e. March 16). - 93% of Crimeans voted for Russia. - 90% of Crimean Tatars didn't take part in referendum. - Dead body of a Crimean Tatar with signs of torture found in Crimea. - Ukrainian soldier to swear an oath to Crimea or leave. - Referendum results to be adopted on March 17. - Crimean authorities to introduce Russian ruble in April. - Russia's Putin tells Germany's Merkel referendum in Crimea is legal.

The Muslimic and Turkish speaking minority of Tatars in the
[Autonomous] Republic of Crimea [picture from archives].

زعيم مسلمي القرم: تدخلوا قبل وقوع المجازر

Crimea's Muslimic leader: [Intervention] prior to the occurrence of massacres.

طالب زعيم التتار المسلمين في القرم مصطفى جميليف اليوم الخميس حلف شمال الاطلسي الناتو بالتدخل "قبل وقوع مجزرة"، داعيا أبناء الأقلية لمقاطعة الاستفتاء المقرر الأحد القادم في شبه الجزيرة الأوكرانية حول انضمامها إلى روسيا.ـ

Today, Thursday [i.e. March 13], the leader of Crimea's Muslimic Tatars, Musdafa Djamilif, called for the North Atlantic Pact NATO to intervene "prior to the occurrence of massacres" [while inviting] the descendants of [that] minority to boycott the referendum [which is] to be held next Sunday on the Ukrainian peninsula on the issue of its affiliation to Russia.

وقال جميليف في اتصال هاتفي مع وكالة فرانس برس من بروكسل "ندعو تتار القرم لمقاطعة الاستفتاء"، مضيفا "طالما ان الامم المتحدة لن توافق أبدا، بسبب الفيتو الروسي في مجلس الأمن الدولي، على إرسال قوات حفظ سلام دولية إلى القرم، فإن حلف شمال الأطلسي عليه أن يتدخل كما فعل في كوسوفو (...) قبل وقوع مجزرة في القرم".ـ

In a telephone call with the [news] agency France-Press in Brussels, Djamilif said: " We are calling the Crimean Tatars to boycott the referendum ", [and he added:] " Since the United Nations will never agree to a deployment of international peace-keeping forces in Crimea because of Russia's veto in the international Security Council, [what] if the North Atlantic Pact therefore intervenes like it did in Kosovo (...) before it comes to a massacre in Crimea. "

And Djamilif added being decided to meet with the secretary general of the North Atlantic Pact, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

[Source: Network of Al-Arabiya TV العربية نت on March 14, 2014]

Editor's Note: The Tatar minority comprises about 12-15% of the Crimean peninsula's population.

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The following excerpt belongs to an article on the problem of self-rule in Crimea, Kosovo and other countries and was published by Peter Baker, staff-writer for The New York Times, on March 8, 2014. I consider this to be a " must have read ".

" The Kosovars’ secession from Serbia in 1999 drove a deep wedge between the United States and Russia that soured relations for years. Washington supported Kosovo’s bid for independence, culminating in 2008, while Moscow saw it as an infringement of Serbia’s sovereignty.

Now 15 years later, the former Cold War rivals again find themselves at odds, but this time they have effectively switched sides: Russia loudly proclaims Crimea’s right to break off from Ukraine while the United States calls it illegitimate. The showdown in Ukraine has revived a centuries-old debate over the right of self-determination versus the territorial integrity of nation-states. "

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" No Right to Finance Bandits "
[quoting Ukraine's ousted
president V. Yanukóvich]

The above article from the Spanish website of Russia's state-run TV Russia Today RT was published on March 13 and deals with Russia's interest to avoid any disturbances of its gas deliveries to the Ukraine and other countries.

On the occasion of his meeting with German vice-chancellor and minister for economy and energy, Sigmar Gabriel, the president of Russia's energy giant Gazprom, Alexéi Miller, is quoted with the following words:

" Even though we have all rights from the valid contract to request prepayment, we refrain from doing so because we don't want to promote an economic collapse of Ukraine. Neither do we want the appearance of risks for Russian gas delivery to Europe. "

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"Minority Report":

Ukraine - New Voices

As there are many sides involved in the Ukrainian drama, so there are many voices to be heard. This, however, doesn't make it easier to receive a complete picture of the situation. To add some further pieces to the puzzle, here are selected news I collected while searching the web and watching satellite TV during the last days.



نحو ألف من المسلحين يحاصرون وحدات من حرس الحدود الأوكرانيين في شبه جزيرة القرم

About 1,000 troops besiege units of the Ukrainian border guard on the Crimean peninsula.



موسكو: قرار الرئيس بوتين بالتدخل العسكري في اوكرانيا يحظى بتأييد شعبي روسي على أنه حماية للروس هناك

Moscow: As to the military intervention of the Ukraine, president Putin is enjoying the support of the Russian people [under the aspect of] a protection of the Russians there.

[Al-Jazeera Arabic TV on March 2]

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Analista: Las sanciones se podrían tomar como declaración de guerra.

An analyst is saying the sanctions [considered by U.S. and EU] could be taken as a declaration of war.

The above headline is referring to a live interview with some expert from Madrid. The running text below is implying that Ukrainian military units should have decided to surrender "in masses" to Russian intervention troops. This, however, has been denied by different independent observers.

[RT-TV (Russia Today) on March 2]



From Moscow with Love ..............
Limpia Noticias - News Cleaner
To help you clean your TV-screen.
A new product provided by RT-TV
(Russia Today, Spanish program).

[ Editor's WARNING: Keep it away from immature persons ! ]




Above: Spanish website of Russia Today RT on March 4, 2014.

Now, here is an article chosen from today's English website of Russia's RT-TV and which is titled: Russia is allowed to have 25,000 troops in Crimea...and other facts you didn’t know. I'm sure this has the truth, even though, it might be only half of the truth as foreign military out of its local base could easily be considered as an invasion.

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