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

Kiev Violence A False Flag

March 5, 2014 by Bob Livingston

A leaked telephone conversation reveals that the snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev leading to charges of criminality against the deposed Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych were hired by U.S.-backed opposition leaders.



The telephone call between Estonia Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and EU Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton was allegedly hacked by agents of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to Yanukovych and uploaded to the Internet. Paet has confirmed the call is authentic.
The U.S. propaganda media blamed the violence, which resulted in at least 94 deaths and 900 injuries, on Yanukovych. It served to incite U.S. opinion against the Russia-backed Yanukovych, who was forced to flee to Russia and has been charged with numerous crimes.
But Paet learned from a doctor the injuries being treated were made by the same weapons.
“There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition,” said Paet.
In early February, senior U.S. State Department official Victoria Nuland was caught selecting the puppet Ukrainian opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk. According to Nuland, the U.S. has reportedly sunk $5 billion in the opposition in order to agitate for admittance to the EU.

Filed Under: Conservative Politics, Liberty News, Staff Reports

http://personalliberty.com/2014/03/0...-a-false-flag/

Order Out of Chaos: Gladio Snipers Behind Killings in Kyiv - Phone call between diplomats reveals dark underside to Euromaidan coup.

http://www.infowars.com/order-out-of...lings-in-kyiv/

Paul Joseph Watson on The Savage Nation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC-y...ature=youtu.be

Published on Mar 5, 2014

Paul Joseph Watson joins Michael Savage to discuss Ukraine, the energy war, and why some conservatives in America are supporting the coup.

http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/
http://www.infowars.com/
https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet

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Leaked Phone Call: Kiev Snipers Hired by US-Backed Opposition

Paul Joseph Watson | False flag killings used to delegitimize Yanukovich government.

http://www.infowars.com/leaked-phone...ed-opposition/

Laura Ingraham

VIDEO: AMERICA in DECLINE: Listen to Laura and Mike Rogers discuss the United States' limited options in ‪#‎Ukraine‬.

Is there anything the US can do?

Does inaction send a dangerous signal to the rest of the world?

Mike Rogers: The US has fewer options in Ukraine because...

Laura Ingraham, Mike Rogers



Mike Rogers: The US has fewer options in Ukraine because we're a naton in decline

video link: http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html...deoId=25680434

Mike Rogers: The US has fewer options in Ukraine because we're a naton in decline

Laura Ingraham, Mike Rogers
Source: Laura Ingraham

http://video.lauraingraham.com/Mike-...3#.UxgJEcMo6AJ

Coast To Coast AM ALTERNATIVE Hagmann & Hagmann - 04 March 2014 - CIA Insider & The Ukraine Conflict

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnc3JGKLOA0

Published on Mar 4, 2014

Coast to Coast AM regular guests Joe & Doug Hagmann present the Hagmann and Hagmann Report. Providing viewers and listeners information about current events and historical topics that transcend the political right-left paradigm and delve into the real issues behind the sugar-coated news. This unique, father-son detective duo uses their investigative abilities and resources to aggressively research and report on issues left untouched by the corporate media and those that exist beyond the scope of the non-traditional media. The show addresses many issues once considered mere fodder for "conspiracy theorists," tracing their roots from the various events that created them through the fabric of history to the present day.

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Russians: U.S. siding with surprising group

Achtung everybody!

Just when you thought the situation could not get more tense in Ukraine, now Russians say the U.S. is siding with a group that brings back horrific memories ...

WND EXCLUSIVE

Russians: U.S. siding with neo-Nazis

Moscow justifies aggression as battle against ultra-nationalists

Published: 1 day ago
F. Michael Maloof



WASHINGTON – A new equation in the Ukrainian crisis is a growing concern that ultra-nationalist Ukrainians could attack ethnic Russians.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated the ultra-nationalist threat is the reason for preparing to move Russian troops into the country.
The ultra-nationalists were instrumental in ousting pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, even though he turned down a European Union partnership agreement. Yanokuvych’s acceptance would have brought about austerity measures that the ultra-nationalists would have opposed.
They have shown an ability to operate among the tens of thousands of demonstrators in Kiev and are trained to confront security forces. They are equipped with helmets, masks, protective gear, weapons and Molotov cocktails.
Analysts say that the ultra-nationalist groups present a threat, since members are prepared and willing to confront security forces.

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Russian doctrine
Lavrov’s rationale for Russia’s aggressive response is based on a change to Russian military doctrine implemented after the 2008 Russian-Georgian conflict that says Russia will send its troops anywhere to defend Russians.
After the 2008 war, Russia issued passports and granted citizenship to ethnic Russians in the captured Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which Russia later annexed.
The thrust of the doctrine could be interpreted as an open-ended means of committing “legal” aggression, since ethnic Russians occupy all of the independent countries that once comprised the Soviet Union.
There are ethnic Russians not only in Ukraine but in all of the Caucasus, Central Asia and in the former Soviet Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Belarus, Poland and Finland.

‘Sieg heil’
The most prominent of the ultra-nationalist groups is the Pravy-Sektor, or Right Sector, whose leader now has called on Chechen Islamic militant chief Dokku Umarov to launch attacks in Russia.
Right Sector also opposes Russian influence in Ukraine. Its leader, Dmitry Yarosh, had threatened to send members to the Crimea to defend against Russian military intervention.
While Right Sector was involved in demonstrations that toppled Yanukovych, Yarosh, has let it be known that his group will resume violent demonstrations if the new interim government doesn’t deliver on the changes it promised.
Yarosh, however, was selected as a member of the National Security and Defense Council, which is part of the new interim government.
Right Sector and other ultra-national groups, such as Euromaidan, Patriot of Ukraine and White Hammer, are comprised mainly of males in their 20s and 30s who wear dark clothing and masks and are very aggressive during demonstrations.
The groups were directly involved in the beginning of demonstrations in January and occupied the Ukrainian presidential building and other government buildings.
One report said demonstrators hoisted Nazi SS and white power symbols on toppled memorials and destroyed a memorial to Ukrainians who died fighting German occupation during World War II.
The report said “sieg heil” salutes and the Nazi Wolfangel symbol was being displayed prominently in demonstrations in Maidan Square in Kiev, and neo-Nazi groups had established “autonomous zones” around the city.
Right Sector in particular is said to have wide support from the people throughout Ukraine.
“Right Sector’s emergence highlights how far-right and extremist groups can increase the impact of protects against autocratic regimes, political repression and austerity measures, sometimes effecting political change,” said a report by the open-intelligence group Stratfor.

Russia: U.S. doesn’t understand nuances
Lavrov further asserts that the West has sided with the ultra-nationalist groups, which he calls neo-Nazis, resulting in the violent government takeover.
Lavrov specifically accused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry of helping to incite the groups, ignoring the excesses of what has been referred to as “militant Russophobic and anti-Semitic forces” inciting demonstrations in Kiev.
“Not bothering to make any effort to understand the complex processes occurring within Ukrainian society or make an objective assessment of the environment which is furthering the degradation following the forceful seizure of power in Kiev by radical extremists, Kerry operates with a Cold War stamp, offering not to punish those who carried out the government overthrow, but the Russian Federation,” a Russian foreign ministry statement said.
The statement said Moscow “further accused European powers of standing idly by while the ‘newly born Kiev regime’ trampled on the EU mediated agreement of February 21, in which Yanukovich reached a deal with the opposition to settle the crisis.”
“The ministry noted the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland had signed off on the document which was thrown out of the window when opposition forces seized power the next day. In the process, the West has effectively allied itself with neo-Nazis who are smashing up Orthodox churches and synagogues while “declaring war on the Russian language.”

The ‘real power’ in Ukraine
A knowledgeable Ukrainian source in Stanford, Calif, told WND the “real power in Kiev and much of Western Ukraine today belongs to several rival neo-Nazi factions whose masked, well-armed adherents are busy looting abandoned properties and shaking down businesses for money to support their ‘revolution.’”
“They have already made territorial demands to each of the countries bordering the Ukraine, including the NATO members Poland, Hungary and Romania, and they have declared their intention to acquire nuclear weapons,” the source said.
Other European neo-Nazi parties, such as Jobbik in Hungary and the Golden Dawn in Greece, are “amateurs compared to Ukraine’s Svoboda and Right Sector,” said the source.
The Ukrainian groups use “the same slogans and the same Nazi symbols they used in 1941-1944, when they butchered 200,000-300,000 Poles and Jews, and in 1945-1954, when they butchered in the most gruesome ways imaginable tens of thousands of peaceful Ukrainian citizens whose only crime was to refuse joining their ranks.”
“Today, much of Ukraine is frozen in horror, fearing that the neo-Nazis might unleash a bloodbath that would overshadow the crimes they committed in 1941-1954,” the source told WND.
He said many of the neo-Nazis’ current leaders collaborated with Chechen terrorists during the Chechens’ terror campaign against Russia in 1990s.
“We have no idea what awaits us next,” the source told WND. “Russia may be able to save the Crimea from the neo-Nazis, but it would probably not have enough muscle to save Ukraine proper.”
Sources say that Right Sector and the other ultra-nationalist groups are linked to a constellation of international neo-fascist groups through the Alliance of European National Movements.

‘Activate’ the fight
Right Sector leader Yarosh’s appeal to Chechen Islamic leader Umarov to act against Russia was posted on Right Sector’s VKontakte social network.
The message, signed by “leader of Right Sector Dmitry Yarosh,” called on Umarov “to activate his fight” and “take a unique chance to win” over Russia.
Yarmosh’s appeal shows “the guts of the so-called new Ukrainian authorities,” according to Aliy Totorkulov, chairman of the Presidium of the Russian Congress of Peoples of the Caucasus.
“Extremists, nationalists of all stripes, flooded the peaceful republic threatening it with chaos and violence,” he said.
He added that the Ukraine’s “Maidan sponsors” and those involved in supporting instability in the Caucasus come from a “single-enter” of extremism.

“We strongly support the deployment of Russian troops to resolve the situation in Crimea as well as provide assistance to other Ukrainian regions where the population rejects nationalism and asks Russia for help and protection,” Totorkulov said.

http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/russians-...ith-neo-nazis/

Ukraine Crisis: Just Another Globalist-Engineered Powder Keg

March 4, 2014 by Brandon Smith

UPI

When one studies history, all events seem to revolve around the applications and degenerations of war. Great feats of human understanding, realization and enlightenment barely register in the mental footnotes of the average person. War is what we remember, idealize and aggrandize, which is why war is the tool most often exploited by oligarchy to distract the masses while it centralizes power.
With the exception of a few revolutions, most wars are instigated and controlled by financial elites, manipulating governments on both sides of the game to produce a preconceived result. The rise of National Socialism in Germany, for instance, was largely funded by corporate entities based in the U.S., including Rockefeller giant Standard Oil, JPMorgan and even IBM, which built the collating machines used to organize Nazi extermination camps, the same machines IBM representatives serviced on site at places like Auschwitz. As a public figure, Adolf Hitler was considered a joke by most people in German society, until, of course, the Nazi Party received incredible levels of corporate investment. This aid was most evident in what came to be known as the Keppler Fund created through the Keppler Circle, a group of interests with contacts largely based in the U.S.
George W. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, used his position as director of the New York-based Union Banking Corporation to launder money for the Third Reich throughout the war. After being exposed and charged for trading with the enemy, the case against Bush magically disappeared in a puff of smoke, and the Bush family went on to become one of the most powerful political forces in America.
Without the aid of international conglomerates and banks, the Third Reich would have never risen to power.
The rise of communism in Russia through the Bolshevik Revolution was no different. As outlined in Professor Anthony Sutton’s book Wall Street And The Bolshevik Revolution with vast detail and irrefutable supporting evidence, it was globalist financiers that created the social petri dish in which the communist takeover flourished.



The two sides, National Socialism and communism, were essentially identical despotic governmental structures conjured by the same group of elites. These two sides, these two fraudulent ideologies, were then pitted against each other in an engineered conflict that we now call World War II, resulting in an estimated 48 million casualties globally and the ultimate formation of the United Nations, a precursor to world government.
Every major international crisis for the past century or more has ended with an even greater consolidation of world power into the hands of the few, and this is no accident.
When I discuss the concept of the false left/right paradigm with people, especially those in the liberty movement, I often see a light turn on, a moment of awareness in their faces. Many of us understand the con game because we live it day to day. We see past the superficial rhetoric of Republican and Democratic party leadership and take note of their numerous similarities, including foreign policy, domestic defense policy and economic policy. The voting records of the major players in both parties are almost identical. One is hard-pressed to find much difference in ideology between Bush and Barack Obama, for example; or Obama and John McCain; or Obama and Mitt Romney, for that matter.
When I suggest, however, that similar false paradigms are used between two apparently opposed nations, the light fades, and people are left dumbstruck. Despite the fact that globalist financiers shoveled capital into the U.S., British, German and Soviet military complexes all at the same time during World War II, many Americans do not want to believe that such a thing could be happening today.
In response, I present the crisis in Ukraine versus the crisis in Syria.

Ukraine Versus Syria

It seems as though much of the public has already forgotten that at the end of 2013, the U.S. came within a razor’s edge of economic disaster — not to mention the possibility of World War III. The war drums in Washington were thundering for “intervention” in Syria and the overthrow of Bashar Assad. The only thing that saved us, I believe, were the tireless efforts of the independent media in exposing the darker motives behind the Syrian insurgency and the bloodlust of the Obama Administration. The problem is that when the elites lose one avenue toward war and distraction, they have a tendency to simply create another. Eventually, the public is so overwhelmed by multiple trigger points and political powder kegs that they lose track of reality. I often call this the “scattergun effect.”
The crisis in the Ukraine is almost a carbon copy of the civil war in Syria, culminating in what I believe to be the exact same intent.

The Money

Money from globalist centers has been flowing into the Ukrainian opposition since at least 2004, when the Carnegie Foundation was caught filtering funds to anti-Russian political candidate Viktor Yushchenko, as well as to the groups who supported him.
The Ukrainian Supreme Court called for a runoff due to massive voter fraud and the rise of the pro-Western Orange Revolution, determining the winner to be Yushchenko over none other than Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych went on to win the 2010 elections, and the revolution returned to oust him this year.
It has been discovered that the current revolution has also been receiving funds from NATO and U.S. interests, not just from the State Department, but also from billionaires like Pierre Omidyar, the chairman of eBay and the new boss of journalist Glen Greenwald, the same journalist who is now famous for being the first to expose National Security Agency documents obtained by Edward Snowden.
Much of the monetary support from such financiers was being funneled to men like Oleh Rybachuk, the right-hand man to Yanukovych during the Orange Revolution and a favorite of neoconservatives and the State Department in the U.S.
The International Monetary Fund has also jumped at the chance to throw money at the new Ukrainian regime, which would prevent default of the country and allow the opposition movement to focus their attentions on Russia.
The revolution in Syria was also primarily driven by Western funds and arms transferred through training grounds like Benghazi, Libya. There is much evidence to suggest that the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was designed to possibly cover up the arming of Syrian rebels by the CIA, who had agents on the ground who still have not been allowed to testify in front of Congress.
After this conspiracy was exposed in the mainstream, globalist-controlled governments decided to openly supply money and weapons to the Syrian insurgency, instead of ending the subterfuge.

The ‘Rebels’

Some revolutions are quite real in their intent and motivations. But many either become co-opted by elites through financing, or they are created from thin air from the very beginning. Usually, the rebellions that are completely fabricated tend to lean toward extreme zealotry.
The Syrian insurgency is rife with, if not entirely dominated by, men associated with al-Qaida. Governments in the U.S. and Israel continue to support the insurgency despite their open affiliation with a group that is supposedly our greatest enemy. Syrian insurgents have been recorded committing numerous atrocities, including mass execution, the torture of civilians and even the cannibalism of human organs.
The revolution in Ukraine is run primarily by the Svoboda Party, a National Socialist (fascist) organization headed by Oleh Tyahnybok.
So far, the opposition in Ukraine has been mostly careful in avoiding the same insane displays of random violence that plagued the Syrians’ public image. It is important to remember though that mainstream outlets like Reuters went far out of their way in attempts to humanize Syrian al-Qaida. Their methods were exposed only through the vigilance of the independent media. With the fascist Svoboda in power in the Ukraine, I believe it is only a matter of time before we see video reports of similar atrocities; but at that point, it may be too late.

John McCain?

I am now thoroughly convinced that John McCain is a ghoul of the highest order. He claims to be conservative yet supports almost every action of the Obama Administration. He is constantly defending anti-Constitutional actions by the Federal government, including the Enemy Belligerents Act, which was eventually melded into the National Defense Authorization Act; NSA surveillance of U.S. citizens; and even gun control.
And for some reason, the guy keeps showing up before or during major overthrows of existing governments. McCain was in Libya during the coup against Moammar Gadhafi.
McCain showed up to essentially buy off the rebels in Tunisia.
McCain hung out with al-Qaida in Syria.
And, what a surprise, McCain met with the Ukrainian opposition movement just before the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych. Why McCain? I have no idea. All I know is, if this guy shows up in your country, take cover.

Russia In The Middle

The great danger in Syria was not necessarily the chance of war with Assad. Rather, it was the chance that a war with Assad would expand into a larger conflagration with Iran and Russia. Russia’s only naval facility in the Mideast is on the coast of Tartus in Syria, and Russia has long-standing economic and political ties to Syria and Iran. Any physical action by the West in the region would have elicited a response from Vladimir Putin. The mainstream argument claims that the threat of Russian intervention scared off Obama, but I believe the only reason war actions were not executed by the White House and the globalists was because they didn’t have even minimal support from the general public. For any war, you need at least a moderate percentage of the population to back your play.
In Ukraine, we find the globalists creating tensions between the West and the East. Russia’s most vital naval base sits in Crimea, an autonomous state tethered to the Ukrainian mainland. Currently, Russia has flooded Crimea with troops in response to the regime change in Ukraine. The new Ukrainian government (backed by NATO) has called this an “invasion” and an act of war, while Western warmongers like McCain and Lindsay Graham spread the propaganda meme that Russia made such a move only because Putin believes the Obama Administration to be “weak.”
Clearly, the idea here is to engineer either high tensions or war between Russia and the United States. Syria failed to produce the desired outcome, so the Ukraine was tapped instead.

The False Paradigm And The Globalist Chessboard

So far, I have outlined what appears to be a correspondence of conspiracy between Syria and the Ukraine and how each event has the continued potential to trigger regional conflict or world war. But is this conspiracy one-sided? Are only the West and NATO being manipulated by globalists to box in Russia and provoke a conflict? And what do globalists have to gain by sparking such disaster?
As with every other catastrophic war, the goal is the erasure of sovereign identity while consolidating of economic, political and social power. It is not enough that global financiers dominate the banking industry and own most politicians; they want to transform the public psyche. They want us to ask them for global governance. This manufacture of consent is often achieved by pitting two controlled governments against each other and then, in the wake of the tragedy, calling for global unification. The argument is always presented that if we simply abandoned the concept of nation states and reform under a single world body, all war would “disappear.”
The question is whether Russia’s Putin is aware of the plan. Is he a part of it?
What I do know is that Putin has, a number of times in the past, called for global control of the economy through the IMF and the institution of a new global currency using the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR).
Loans from the IMF are what saved Russia from debt default in the late 1990s. And Putin has recently called for consultations with the IMF concerning Crimea. Remember, this is the same IMF that is working to fund his opponents in Western Ukraine.
Bottom line, if you believe in national sovereignty and decentralization of power, Putin is not your buddy. Once again, we have the globalists injecting money into both sides of a conflict. Global governance of finance and money creation ultimately means global governance of everything else.
Is a war being created through the false paradigm of East versus West in order to pave the road for global government? It is hard to say if the Ukraine will be the final trigger; however, the evidence suggests that if a conflict occurs, regardless of who “wins” such a nightmare scenario, the IMF comes out on top.
Imagine you are playing a game of chess by yourself. Which side wins at the end of that game: black or white? The answer is it doesn’t matter. You always win when you control both sides.

–Brandon Smith

Filed Under: Conservative Politics, Personal Liberty Digest™

http://personalliberty.com/2014/03/0...ed-powder-keg/

John McCain?

I am now thoroughly convinced that John McCain is a ghoul of the highest order. He claims to be conservative yet supports almost every action of the Obama Administration. He is constantly defending anti-Constitutional actions by the Federal government, including the Enemy Belligerents Act, which was eventually melded into the National Defense Authorization Act; NSA surveillance of U.S. citizens; and even gun control.
And for some reason, the guy keeps showing up before or during major overthrows of existing governments. McCain was in Libya during the coup against Moammar Gadhafi.
McCain showed up to essentially buy off the rebels in Tunisia.
McCain hung out with al-Qaida in Syria.
And, what a surprise, McCain met with the Ukrainian opposition movement just before the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych. Why McCain? I have no idea. All I know is, if this guy shows up in your country, take cover.

you got warned on John "Sluggo" McCain... this man is pure evil

What Are They Thinking?

March 4, 2014 by Bob Livingston

PHOTOS.COM

Washington has no moral authority to tell Russia not to invade Ukraine.
“You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pre-text,” Secretary of State John Kerry told the CBS program “Face the Nation” Sunday.
What a laughable assertion. Kerry supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He’s joined the Barack Obama regime’s threats against Iran. He’s supported assaults on Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Drone attacks, gun running and CIA-instigated uprisings are invasions, just as is sending in troops.
The U.S.-sponsored Ukrainian uprising is fast falling apart, and Russian President Vladimir Putin is not sitting idly by as the U.S./EU attempt to control the Ukraine and put U.S. missiles and a U.S. port so near Russia. Who can blame him? U.S. instigation in the Russia region has drawn Russia and China together and is pushing us toward war with two regional powers.
If the U.S. cannot defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, how can a depleted and weary U.S. war machine hope to defeat Russia and China?
Besides, how would U.S. citizens feel if Russia backed a “revolution” in Mexico in order to install a puppet regime and put Russian missiles and warships so close to the U.S.?

Filed Under: Conservative Politics, Freedom Watch, Hot Topics

http://personalliberty.com/2014/03/0...they-thinking/

Leaked EU’s Ashton Phone Tape: Kiev Snipers Were Hired by US Supported Opposition Leaders

Thursday 06 March 2014
By David Icke


‘On the 20th of February, according to reports, more than twenty protesters were killed by professional snipers. This was not a spontaneous event resulting from clashes between protesters and riot police, nor was it marked by an exchange of gunfire between the police and the Neo-Nazi militia.
The sniper killings had the hallmarks of a carefully planned operation. They happened within ‘the space of a few hours”. Moreover, the killings coincided with the meetings of President Viktor Yanukovych with a high level EU delegation. In a bitter irony, these targeted killings were used as a pretext to topple the government and issue an arrest warrant directed against president Yanukovych
The following RT report confirms what is already known. The US Sponsored opposition militia was behind the shooting of civilians on February 20th.
Civilian casualties were part of this staged agenda, with a view to accusing president Yanukovych of “mass murder”, thereby providing a justification for regime change on humanitarian grounds.’

Read more …

Was 'massacre' which started Ukraine revolution ordered by the new leaders? Leaked tape says Maidan snipers were NOT under control of ousted president but opposition which drove him from power

‘The snipers that started the Ukrainian revolution by firing on anti-government protesters in Kiev were given orders by the same group, it was claimed yesterday.
Rather than being hired by President Viktor Yanukovych, the snipers were in fact controlled by opposition figures, according to a leaked phone conversation apparently between a senior EU official and an Estonian politician.
The 11-minute call is said to be between the EU’s foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Estonia’s foreign affairs minister Urmas Paet, and was reportedly made on February 25 when Paet visited Kiev in the aftermath of the massacre.’

Read more …

Step by step, David Cameron's exhausting plan for Ukraine


‘Listening to PMQs on Wednesday was exhausting. The Prime Minister characterised his response to the Ukraine crisis as a series of steps.
Or, for the sake of clarity, a series of steps he would take before considering a series of steps. There were so many steps that even those of us watching from the gallery began to flush a shade of crimson. There was tough talk on avoiding escalation, but most of us would have settled for an escalator.
It all started clearly enough. The PM leant firmly on the dispatch box, furrowing his eyebrows as he twice repeated: “We need to be clear”.
The second time, he even pledged to be “absolutely clear”. Russia’s actions were, David Cameron said, “completely unacceptable”. Clearly. But what exactly would he do about it? Not missing a beat, he had the answer: “Costs and consequences need to follow.” Ah. One can imagine Vladimir Putin quaking as he calls in his foreign minister for a crisis briefing. “What are they threatening, Sergey?”
“It’s serious this time, Vlad, really serious. Not only costs – but consequences, too!”’

Read more …

UK seeking to ensure Russia sanctions do not harm City of London


‘Britain is drawing up plans to ensure that any EU action against Russia over Ukraine will exempt the City of London, according to a secret government document photographed in Downing Street.
As David Cameron said Britain and its EU partners would put pressure on Moscow after it assumed control of Crimea, a government document drawn up for a meeting of senior ministers said that “London’s financial centre” should not be closed to Russians. It did say that visa restrictions and travel bans could be imposed on Russian officials.
The picture of the document was taken by the freelance photographer Steve Back, who specialises in spotting secret documents carried openly by officials entering Downing Street. The document was in the hands of an unnamed official attending a meeting of the national security council (NSC) called by the prime minister to discuss the Ukrainian crisis.’

Read more …

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/l...ition-leaders/