Thread: What Is Happening In Ukraine Is Far More Important Than Most People Realize

Ukraine Navy Chief Surrenders to Russians, Charged With Treason

REUTERS TV
Ukrainian navy chief Denis Berezovsky swears allegiance to the pro-Russian regional leaders of Crimea in Sevastopol on March 2, 2014 in this still image taken from video.

Ukraine launched a treason case on Sunday against the head of the navy, who surrendered his headquarters on Sunday in the Crimean port of Sevastopol — on only his second day on the job.
Denis Berezovsky was earlier shown on Russian television swearing allegiance to the pro-Russian regional leaders of Crimea. Russian forces have seized the Black Sea peninsula and told Ukrainian forces there to give up their weapons.
"During the blockade by Russian forces of the central headquarters of the navy, he declined to offer resistance and laid down his weapons," said Viktoria Syumar, deputy secretary of Ukraine's Security Council.
"The prosecutor's office has opened a criminal case against Denis Berezovsky under statute 111: state treason," she said. Another admiral, Serhiy Hayduk, was placed in charge of the navy.

LONELY PLANET / LONELY PLANET IMAGES
Map of Ukraine with the Crimea region highlighted— Reuters

First published March 2nd 2014, 1:27 pm

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukr...treason-n42526

12 Signs That Russia Is Ready To Fight A War Over Crimea

By Michael Snyder, on February 27th, 2014

Russia will never, ever give up Crimea without a fight. Anyone that thinks otherwise is just being delusional. TheRussian Black Sea fleet's main base at Sevastopol is far too strategically important. In addition, ethnic Russians make up approximately 60 percent of the population of Crimea, and most of the population is rabidly pro-Russian. In fact, many prominent Crimean politicians are already calling for reunification with Russia. So if you have been thinking that Russia is just going to fold up shop and go home now that pro-European protesters have violently seized power in Kiev, you can quit holding your breath. The truth is that Russia is more than willing to fight a war over Crimea. And considering the fact that vitally important pipelines that pump natural gas from Russia to the rest of Europe go right through Ukraine, it is not likely that Russia will just willingly hand the rest of Ukraine over to the U.S. and the EU either. If the U.S. and the EU push too hard in Ukraine, a major regional war may erupt which could ultimately lead to something much larger.

Russia and Ukraine have very deep historical ties. Most Americans may not think that Ukraine is very important, but the Russians consider Ukraine to be of the utmost strategic importance.
As an American, how would you feel if another nation funded and organized the violent overthrow of the democratically-elected Canadian government and replaced it with a government that was virulently anti-American?
By doing this to Ukraine, the United States and the EU are essentially sticking a pin in Russia's eye. Needless to say, Russia is extremely angry at this point and they are gearing up for war.
The following are 12 signs that Russia is ready to fight a war over Crimea...
#1 More Russian military vehicles continue to pour into Crimea. Just check out this video.
#2 Russian military vehicles have been photographed in the main square of Sevastopol.
#3 Russian military jets near the border with Ukraine have been put on combat alert.
#4 Russia has ordered "surprise military exercises" along the Ukrainian border.
#5 In connection with those "exercises", it is being reported that Russia has deployed 150,000 troops along the border with Ukraine.
#6 Russia already has approximately 26,000 troops stationed at their naval base in Sevastopol.
#7 Russian ships carrying additional soldiers have been spotted off the coast of Crimea...

Russia’s large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov has arrived near the Russia Black Sea Fleet’s base at Sevastopol, which Russia has leased from Ukraine since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The ship is reported to be carrying as many as 200 soldiers and has joined four additional ships carrying an unknown amount of Special Forces troops. Flot.com also reported over the weekend that personnel from the 45th Airborne Special Forces unit and additional divisions had been airlifted into Anapa, a city on Russia’s Black Sea coastline.

#8 Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the following statement to reporters on Wednesday...

"Measures are taken to guarantee the security of our facilities."

#9 An unidentified Russian official has told the Financial Times that Russia is willing to use military force to protect Crimea...

Moscow earlier revealed that it would be ready to go for war over the Crimea region in order to protect the large population and army installations.
“If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war. They will lose Crimea first [because] we will go in and protect [it], just as we did in Georgia,” an unidentified Russian official told the Financial Times.

#10 Officials in Sevastopol have "installed" a Russian citizen as mayor of the city.
#11 Approximately 120 pro-Russian gunmen have seized the Crimean parliament building and have raised the Russian flag.
#12 There are rumors that Russian authorities have offered protection to ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych...

Viktor F. Yanukovych, the ousted president of Ukraine, declared on Thursday that he remained the lawful president of the country and appealed to Russia to “secure my personal safety from the actions of extremists.” Russian news agencies reported that he had already arrived in Russia, but officials did not immediately confirm that.

No matter what the "new government" in Kiev says, and no matter how hard the U.S. and the EU push, Russia will never give up Crimea. The following is what a recent Debka article had to say about the matter...

There is no way that President Vladimir Putin will relinquish Russian control of the Crimean peninsula and its military bases there - or more particularly the big Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol. This military stronghold is the key to Russia’s Middle East policy. If it is imperiled, so too are Russia’s military posture in Syria and its strategic understandings with Iran.

And you know what?
The people of Crimea do not want Russia to leave either. In fact, they overwhelmingly want Russia to help defend them against the "new government" in Kiev.
As you read this, militia groups are being formed in Crimea to fight back against the "nationalist invasion" that they are anticipating. Just check out the following excerpt from a recent Time Magazine article...

Many of the people at the rally in Sevastopol were not just ready to believe. They were convinced of theimminent nationalist invasion. What scared them most were the right-wing political parties and militant groups that have played a role in Ukraine’s revolution. “What do you think they’re going to do with all those weapons they seized from police in Kiev? They’re going to come here and make war,” said Sergei Bochenko, who identified himself as the commander of a local militia group in Sevastopol called the Southern Russian Cossack Battalion.
In preparation, he said, his group of several hundred men had armed themselves with assault rifles and begun to train for battle. “There’s not a chance in hell we’re going to accept the rule of that fascist scum running around in Kiev with swastikas,” he said. That may be overstating the case. Nowhere in Ukraine has the uprising involved neo-Nazi groups, and no swastikas have appeared on the revolution’s insignia. But every one of the dozen or so people TIME spoke to in Sevastopol was certain that the revolt was run by fascists, most likely on the payroll of the U.S. State Department.

And just remember what happened back in 2008 in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Russians have already shown that they are not afraid to militarily intervene in order to protect Russian citizens.
So what would the U.S. and the EU do if a war erupts between Russia and Ukraine?
Would they risk a direct military confrontation with Russia in order to help Ukraine?
I am very concerned about where all of this could be heading.
What about you?
What do you think?
Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below...

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February 27th, 2014 | Tags: Crimea, Kiev, Michael T. Snyder, Natural Gas Pipelines, Russia, Russians, Sevastopol, Ukraine, War | Category:Commentary

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/a...ar-over-crimea

Right Sector Calls On Russia’s Bin Laden to Fight in Ukraine

Chechen Islamist has claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian civilians

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
March 2, 2014

Doku Umarov, leader of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, an al-Qaeda affiliate in the Caucasus. Image taken from a videotape in which Umarov took credit for the 2010 suicide attacks on the Moscow Metro.

Right Sector, the ultra-nationalist street fighting group that targeted police prior to the coup in Ukraine, has called for Doku Umarov to fight in a war against Russia.
Umarov, known as the “Bin Laden of Russia,” is a Chechen Islamist who has claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian civilians. According to media reports, his most recent threat was against the Olympics in Sochi, Russia. No terrorist attacks, however, occured during the games.
Russian media reports the appeal to recruit Umarov was issued by Dmitry Yarosh, the leader of the ultra-nationalist and fascist Right Sector. The group is aligned with other extreme nationalist groups in Ukraine, including “Trident,” Patriot of Ukraine, “White Hammer” and the Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian National Self Defense. Although it is not associated with the largest nationalist political party in the country, Svoboda, it has “a lot of common positions when it comes to ideological questions,” according to Yarosh.
The Voice of Russia reports:

President Yunus-bek Yevkurov of Ingushetia said that with his appeal to the leader of gangsters in the North Caucasus Doku Umarov, the leader of the Right Sector in Ukraine Dmitry Yarosh has confirmed that those who had been gangsters in the North Caucasus were also in Independence Square in Kiev. That appeal puts the Right Sector on a par with international terrorist organizations, he pointed out. He said that he was interested in the West’s response to this appeal because the West supported the new power in Ukraine.

There is a growing consensus in the United States Congress to support diplomatically, economically and, to a lesser degree, militarily the coup government in Ukraine.

Umarov’s connection to U.S. intelligence and the State Department
In April, 2013, we reported on Umarov’s shady connections. According to research conducted byEric Draitser and others, Umarov’s Kavkaz Center was funded by the State Department and several supporting fronts including the National Endowment for Democracy-funded Russian-Chechen Friendship Society.
The militant Chechen effort to undermine Russia is supported by a number of influential neocons. “Despite the fact that organs such as Kavkaz Center operate in the service of terrorists who advocate the destruction of Russia, their activity alone is not altogether significant if seen in a vacuum,” writes Draitser.

Rather, it is the association of these types of individuals and organizations with the US State Department and US intelligence that makes them particularly insidious. One such entity that bears scrutiny is the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (ACPC), previously known as the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya. As reported by Right Web at the Institute for Policy Studies, “The ACPC was founded in 1999 by Freedom House, a neoconservative organization that has worked closely with the U.S. government, receiving funds from theNational Endowment for Democracy and other U.S. democratization initiatives.” This intimate relationship between the ACPC and the US State Department indicates not merely a confluence of interests, but rather a direct relationship wherein the former is an organ of the latter.

This article was posted: Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 12:28 pm

Related Articles

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• This Is How the New Government in Ukraine Deals with Opponents

http://www.infowars.com/right-sector...ht-in-ukraine/

U.S. Prepares to Recall Diplomats, Impose Sanctions on Russia

Call for military assistance to the coup government in Kyiv

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
March 2, 2014

On Sunday Republicans mounted attacks against President Obama over what they consider his inappropriate response to the crisis in Ukraine.



Rep. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russians have “been running circles around us.”
“Putin is playing chess, and I think we are playing marbles — and I don’t think it’s even close,” he said.
“I believe it’s the naïve position of the National Security Council and the president’s advisers that, if we just keep giving things to Russia, they’ll wake up and say, ‘the United States is not that bad,’” Rogers said. “That is completely missing the motivations of why Russia does what Russia does.”
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told CNN “we have a weak and indecisive president,” and Obama’s lack of bellicose response “invites aggression.”
“None of us should be under any illusion about what President Putin is capable of doing in Ukraine,” said Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, in a statement. “Every moment that the United States and our allies fail to respond sends the signal to President Putin that he can be even more ambitious and aggressive in his military intervention in Ukraine.”
“Every moment that the United States and our allies fail to respond sends the signal to President Putin that he can be even more ambitious and aggressive in his military intervention in Ukraine,”McCain said in a statement. “There is a range of serious options at our disposal at this time without the use of military force. I call on President Obama to rally our European and NATO allies to make clear what costs Russia will face for its aggression and to impose those consequences without further delay.”
On Saturday the junior senator from Florida, Republican Marco Rubio, took to the pages of Politico to condemn Putin and Russia. “This is a critical moment in world history,” he ominously warned. “The credibility of the alliances and security assurances that have preserved the international order is at stake. If Putin’s illegal actions are allowed to stand unpunished, it will usher in a dark and dangerous era in world affairs.”
Rubio enumerated eight steps required “to punish Russia,” including convening an emergency meeting of NATO, boycotting the planned G8 meeting in Sochi, and adding Russian officials to the Magnitsky list, which imposes travel bans and other sanctions.
Rep. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said the decision by the upper house of the Russian Duma to respond militarily to protect Russia’s interests in Ukraine is an act “of aggression that violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” He demanded the U.S. ambassador to Rusia be recalled and members of the Putin government have their assets frozen and visas revoked. Cotton said the United States should supply military assistance to Ukraine immediately.
“Vladimir Putin is seizing a neighboring territory — again — so President Obama must lead a meaningful, unified response,” said the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee. He called for immediate sanctions against Russia.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said last week Russia should be booted out of the Group of Eight, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Security Council.
“As the President and his national security team are apparently the last to learn, Putin has scant regard for international norms when they run counter to his goal of re-establishing Soviet-style regional hegemony over unfortunate states like Georgia and Ukraine who have the temerity to want a more free, prosperous future for their people,” the Texas Republican said. “And Putin is under no illusions that the President’s vague threats mean any more than his infamous ‘red line’ in the Syrian desert.”
“The United States should stand with Ukraine,” he said.



Republicans are not alone. Democrats are also calling for action against Russia.
Rep. Eliot L. Engel, the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, posted a statement on his web page Saturday. Engel said “the international community should support Ukraine’s interim government in its efforts to restore order and return Ukraine to political and economic health. The United States and our allies must be ready to help, which is why I support a robust international economic assistance package and the Administration’s proposal to provide U.S. loan guarantees and other assistance to Ukraine. Today, Ukraine faces formidable challenges, but its people should know that the United States stands with them.”
Michigan Democrat Senator Carl Levin, who heads up the Armed Services Committee, proposed placing “a significant number of international observers on the ground in Ukraine. He said the presence of observers “could reduce the risk that Russia would make a false claim of provocative acts by Ukraine as an excuse for further violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, and thereby help avoid a conflict that nobody should want.”
Russia says it has moved into the semi-autonomous Crimea peninsula to safeguard Russian-speaking Ukrainians from a nationalist coup government in Kyiv.
Soon after taking power, the Verkhovan Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, abolished a law enacted in 2012 allowing regions of the country to officially use languages in addition to Ukrainian if they were spoken by over 10 percent of the population. Nearly half of the country’s regions, primarily those in the eastern part of the country, have adopted Russian as a second language.
Prior to the Euromaidan coup, Putin adviser Dmitry Peskov said Russia was concerned about growing Russophobia in the country.

This article was posted: Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 11:30 am

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http://www.infowars.com/u-s-prepares...ons-on-russia/

US Official Claims 6,000 Russian Troops In Complete Control Of Crimea - Crisis Map Update

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/02/2014 16:32 -0500

While the images and local news have been suggesting that Russia is in control on the Crimean peninsula, US officials (according to Bloomberg) have confirmed this:

• *RUSSIAN FORCES IN COMPLETE CONTROL OF CRIMEA: U.S. OFFICIAL
• *RUSSIA HAS 6,000 TROOPS IN CRIMEA, U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS
• *KERRY TO REAFFIRM SUPPORT FOR UKRANIAN SOVEREIGNITY, PSAKI SAYS

Obama, Merkel, and Cameron are now on a conference call to discuss this "fact" and officials have just reported that US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Kiev tomorrow (though we suspect not Sevastopol):

• U.S. IS FOCUSED ON ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC OPTIONS ON UKRAINE, NOT ON ANY POSSIBLE U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTION, U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS
• *U.S. CONSIDERING SANCTIONS ON RUSSIAN BANKS, OFFICIAL SAYS

Via AFP


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-0...sis-map-update

What we know for sure about Ukraine; what Americans must demand

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Carl Herman
*hat tip: Washington’s Blog*

What we know for sure about the situation in Ukraine is exactly what we know about Syria,Iran, and previously in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan:

1. The same “leaders” in US government and corporate media giving information about Ukraine lied to us about other wars. For one example, official US documentation proves that all of the reasons for war on Iraq and Afghanistan were known to be false as they were told.
2. Current US wars are not even close to being lawful. Two US treaties require that military armed attack is only lawful when another nation’s government attacks your nation first (or is an imminent threat).
3. The US has a history of lying to begin unlawful Wars of Aggression. In fact, this is business as usual when the history is comprehensively explained and documented. Please don’t believe anyone on this: you know enough history that a 5-minute examination of the facts in context will demonstrate this is objectively true.

Given what we know for sure, Americans must make one specific demand or be damned for more of the same:

Arrest US leaders in government and media for OBVIOUS current War Crimes.
This is the lawful action to remove criminals from power to do further harm, a basic test if Americans desire and deserve justice, and the only way to open the floodgates for insider whistle-blowers to bring forward the evidence of what is really happening in the Ukraine.
But go ahead and make a counter-argument if you have one: do you see another pathway for justice other than arrests of obvious criminal leaders lying and killing in unlawful wars?
The American public has a HUGE opening to voice their demands during the 2014 Worldwide Wave of Action that begins ~April 4 on the anniversary of Martin King’s assassination by the US government(civil court trial verdict), and completing ~July 4. The purposes of the 2014 Worldwide Wave of Action:

• Expose 1% oligarchs in the US and elsewhere as OBVIOUS criminals centering in war, money, andmedia (also in ~100 other crucial areas).
• Cause their surrender through arrests or Truth & Reconciliation.
• Initiate true freedom for all Earth’s inhabitants to explore ready breakthroughs in economics (linkshere) and technology, and discover what it is to be human without psychopathic criminals who joke about killing millions, harming billions, and looting trillions.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/...st-demand.html

Arrest US leaders in government and media for OBVIOUS current War Crimes.

there he is again: John "Attack the World" McCain

1. He armed the shit out of Al-qaida in Libya; Syria

2. He was in Ukraine just a month ago.... is he now going to arm the shit out of Neo-Nazi's as well? Thats who attacked the Ukraine Government .... seems to be the same pattern as Germany did in WWII; Muslims and Nazi's killing Christians and Jews all over again

I Don’t Know What’s Going On In Ukraine, But I Do Know One Thing: We Should STAY OUT OF IT

Posted on March 1, 2014 by WashingtonsBlog

It’s Not Our Fight

Most American mainstream media say that the Ukranian people rose up against a decadent dictator to chart their own destiny.
On the other hand, some knowledgeable commentators say that the Ukranian protests were really a violent coup initiated by the U.S., and carried out by Neo-Nazi factions within Ukraine.
People like Mark Ames argue that all sides have dirt on their hands.
Still others – like Charles Hugh Smith – say that there are much deeper forces at work. Indeed, some argue this is really a war over natural gas (and see this).
At this point, I have no idea which of these explanations is correct, or whether some combination of these forces is playing out in the region.
But I do know one thing: we should stay the heck out of Ukraine.
After all:

• Ukraine is far away … on the other side of the world

• As neighbors with Russia – and a former part of the Soviet Union – Russia considers the Ukraine to be part of its national security interest

• Russia is a nuclear power

Moreover, I want to stay out of another war for very practical reasons:

• War is horrible for our economy

• War leads to a destruction of liberties at home

• “Humanitarian war” is a scam

This isn’t our fight … and the downside of getting involved are gigantic.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/...hing-stay.html

Michelle Malkin

'Oh dear God!' Was this John Kerry Russia remark his most ludicrous yet? ==> http://twitchy.com/2014/03/02/oh-dea...ludicrous-yet/

Michelle Malkin

‘I could see this one from Alaska’: Hey journos, ‘stupid’ Sarah Palin was right about Ukraine all along ==> http://twitchy.com/2014/02/28/i-coul...ine-all-along/