Eastern Europe/Ukraine [Feb 6th 2015]

[chanakyaa]

Confronting Russia’s Weaponization of Information

[Bhurishrava]

http://www.ksta.de/politik/olga-moros-- ... 59094.html

Another journalist olga Moros found dead in Ukraine.

[Austin]

Information on the new Gas war with EU and Russia

Russia hints its gas export strategy may get harsher

[vijaykarthik]

Looks like Gazprom got paid again by the Ukranian gas company

[Multatuli]

US starts training Ukrainians to fight pro-Russia forces

US paratroopers on Monday began training Ukrainian government forces who will fight pro-Russian separatists in the east, angering Moscow as the deadly conflict rumbles on in the ex-Soviet country.

.....

Officials said some 300 US troops will train 900 members of Ukraine's National Guard, which is deployed in the east where heavy artillery fire is rumbling on despite a February ceasefire.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-starts-trainin ... 25519.html

[Yagnasri]

Now Russian will train Russian fighting against Western rulers and their proxies.

[prahaar]

There are Russians in many Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, etc.) and already they are being discriminated against for Soviet era bad blood. So there is a ready reason available for Russia. EU has not bothered to enforce fair society policies in these states. It is a bad idea to get bad apples in a large military alliance.

[UlanBatori]

Officials said some 300 US troops will train 900 members of Ukraine's National Guard, which is deployed in the east where heavy artillery fire is rumbling on despite a February ceasefire.

Time to post the 9-Step US State Department Liberation Cycle aka

Let (the) Freedom Ring(leaders loose).

Step 1: Advisors (Gulf of Tonkin Sequence)
Step 2: Air raids
Step 3: Boots On Da Ground: 50,000 dead or wounded, 3,000,000 with PTS
Step 4: "Ukrainization"
Step 5: Withdrawal
Step 6: Right Sector Nazis invade cities and mass-murder civilians; Secret Police with Blackwater/Whitewater/Al Obama School of Mercenaries in the lead.
Step 7: Ukrainian Freedom Fighters now armed with American weapons, with Russian advisors. UkBapzis emigrate to open bars in New York and Los Angeles. Maybe buy ranches in Idaho/Montana to be with all the other Nazis.
Step 8: Vodka comes streaming in: Ukraine becomes Free Russian Republic of Donetsk.
Step 9: US Sanctions To Induce Behavioral Change in Russians and Promote Freedom.
Go to Step 1.

[Philip]

Training them to be far better placed to perform that most famous US Army manouevre from Korea ,Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan,"beating the retreat".Famous American mil doctrine practised by legendary generals down to O'Bumbler of today,"he who takes flight and runs away,lives to flee another day"!

The "Saigon stampede" is a favourite tactic,equally popular is the "Baghdad belly",a squatting stance to be performed after dropping pants,when under fire ,to see if essential "eqpt" is in working order!

[Tuvaluan]

Famous American mil doctrine practised by legendary generals down to O'Bumbler of today,"he who takes flight and runs away,lives to flee another day"!

that's a memorable line to remind everyone of the essential pakiness of the US armed forced...who are not quite manly without their nooclear mijjiles to back their "threat" even as they run away handing over their weapons to Al Qaeda and ISIS...after fighting a war allegedly to eliminate Al Qaeda and ISIS. Useless, pompous turds.

[Austin]

Stephen F. Cohen ,The West vs Russia, Munk Debates,Should the West engage or isolate Russia

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pJlU62Ek4Q
Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX-HBJ9MhBE
Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFQvXO5rteU
Part 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUrwoYYusdc
Part 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgLynGEvQh8
Part 6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA7kb-wS0Z8
Part 7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqGvjrhzcL8

[vijaykarthik]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32403837
"Kazakhs find uneven playing field in Russia's trading bloc"

At the beginning of this year Russia and Kazakhstan, together with Belarus, launched the Eurasian Economic Union with great fanfare. But already this integration project, which is supposed to open borders and ensure free movement of goods, is facing restrictions and import bans.

In the past couple of months, Kazakhstan's committee for protection of consumers' rights has seized Russian products for "not meeting technical regulations".

Among them were five tonnes of poultry meat and two and a half tonnes of milk. Kazakh authorities also removed Russian mayonnaise, chocolate, butter, cheese, yogurt, beef, sausages, canned meat and other products from the shelves.

In response, Russian authorities refused to let nearly 60 tonnes of Kazakh cheese enter its territory last week. Russia's consumer watchdog also seized Kazakh dairy products for "not meeting quality and safety requirements".




Russian media called it a "trade war". But Kazakh officials claim that they are targeting only those producers who violated the regulations. They say their actions are not part of any policy to contain Russian imports.

Stuff like this will continue to be a worry - I think these are better settled outside the public eyes.

[Bhurishrava]

http://rt.com/news/188572-ukraine-riots ... -radicals/
Ukraine Right Sector threatens Poroshenko with Yanukovich’s fate

And this
http://www.europeonline-magazine.eu/erl ... 89404.html
Europe warns Ukraine for harbouring unrealistic EU membership hopes.

and the most interesting one is here -
Ukraine army attempts and fails to disarm Right sector in Dnipropetrovsk
http://en.censor.net.ua/news/334493/par ... nit_yarosh

[prahaar]

Does anyone know the details about the meeting of several old heads (specifically from Europe) of states with Putin? Ahtisarri ex-President Finland, Kofi Annan, Carter, etc. met Putin to have some Track-II type of discussions. It has only appeared in local press but the details about what transpired have not been communicated at least in English language media.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/ahtisaari_and_eld ... ev/7963326

[Austin]

News is out that German Intel knowing spied on Europe on behalf of CIA , Airbus is going to court over it.

Is Merkel a CIA Asset?

Airbus goes to court over reports of NSA/BND espionage

[Philip]

While this report smacks of the old Soviet propaganda style articles,it does contain many hometruths.Primarily that NATO today is not the military force it once was during the Cold War.Secondly,the Brussels babus have emasculated the eco strength of the EU through their profligacy,with nations like Greece on the verge of "Grexit". The re-emergence of Ottoman nationalism under grandee Erdogan (just look at his Ceaucescu style palace),which is straining to get off the leash and act with greater independence and ambition in ME affairs,is a threat to the EU's interests in the region as it is sponsoring Sunni extremism. Finally,the emergence of China willing to take on the US in the Asia-Pacific region,both economically and militarily ,is the US's most acute problem. If it is to meet that challenge,then burying the hatchet with Moscow should take precedence and reducing the threat to NATO.Neo-Nazism resurgence taking root in the UKR could spread to other EU states suffering eco-woes,who are already tense with the flood of refugees from Africa.

Why NATO is terrified of Russia
http://rt.com/op-edge/254213-nato-eu-ru ... omy-swift/

Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.

Published time: May 01,

The twin-pronged attack - oil price war/raid on the ruble – aimed at destroying the Russian economy and place it into a form of Western natural resource vassalage has failed.

Natural resources were also essentially the reason for reducing Iran to a Western vassalage. That never had anything to do with Tehran developing a nuclear weapon, which was banned by both the leader of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

The ‘New Great Game’ in Eurasia was always about control of the Eurasian land mass. Minor setbacks to the American elite project do not mean the game will be restricted to a mere “war of attrition”. Rather the contrary.

All about PGS

In Ukraine, the Kremlin has been more than explicit there are two definitive red lines. Ukraine won’t join NATO. And Moscow won’t allow the popular republics of Donetsk and Lugansk to be crushed.

We are coming closer to a potentially explosive deadline – when EU sanctions expire in July. An EU in turmoil but still enslaved to NATO – see the pathetic “Dragoon Ride” convoy from the Baltics to Poland or the “Atlantic Resolve” NATO show-off exercise - may decide to expand them, and even try to exclude Russia from SWIFT.

Only fools believe Washington is going to risk American lives over Ukraine or even Poland. Yet let’s plan a few steps ahead. If it ever comes to the unthinkable – a war between NATO and Russia in Ukraine – Russian defense circles are sure of conventional and nuclear superiority on sea and land. And the Pentagon knows it. Russia would reduce NATO forces to smithereens in a matter of hours. And then would come Washington’s stark choice: accept ignominious defeat or escalate to tactical nuclear weapons.

The Pentagon knows that Russia has the air and missile defense capabilities to counter anything embedded in the US Prompt Global Strike (PGS). Simultaneously though, Moscow is saying it would rather not use these capabilities.

Major General Kirill Makarov, Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces’ deputy chief, has been very clear about the PGS threat. Moscow’s December 2014 new military doctrine qualifies PGS as well as NATO’s current military buildup as the top two security threats to Russia.

Unlike non-stop Pentagon/NATO bragging/demonizing, what Russian defense circles don't need to advertise is how they are now a couple of generations ahead of the US in their advanced weaponry.

The bottom line is that while the Pentagon was mired in the Afghanistan and Iraq quagmires, they completely missed Russia’s technological jump ahead. The same applies to China’s ability to hit US satellites and thus pulverize American ICBM satellite guidance systems.

The current privileged scenario is Russia playing for time until it has totally sealed Russia’s air space to American ICBMs, stealth aircraft and cruise missiles – via the S-500 system.

This has not escaped the attention of the British Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) – as it gamed sometime ago whether Washington might launch a first strike against Russia.

According to the JIC, Washington might go rogue if "a) an extreme government were to take over in the United States, b) and there was increased lack of confidence by the United States in some if not all of her Western allies owing to political developments in their countries, c) and there was some sudden advance in the USA in the sphere of weapons, etc. that the counsels of impatience may get the upper hand."

US ‘Think Tankland’ spinning that Russian military planners should take advantage of their superiority to launch a first strike nuclear attack against the US is bogus; the Russian doctrine is eminently defensive.

Yet that does not exclude Washington doing the unthinkable the next time the Pentagon thinks of itself to be in the position Russia is now in.

SWIFT changes

The whole game used to be about who ruled the waves – the geopolitical gift the US inherited from Great Britain. Control of the seas meant the US inheriting five empires; Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands. All those massive US carrier task forces patrolling the oceans to guarantee “free trade” – as the hegemonic propaganda machine goes – could be turned against China in a flash. It’s a mechanism similar to the carefully choreographed “leading from behind” financial op to simultaneously crash the ruble/launch an oil war and thus smash Russia into submission.

Washington’s master plan remains deceptively simple; to “neutralize” China by Japan, and Russia by Germany, with the US backing its two anchors, Germany and Japan. Russia is the de facto only BRICS nation blocking the master plan.

This was the case until Beijing launched the New Silk Road(s), which essentially mean the linking of all Eurasia into a “win-win” trade/commerce bonanza on high-speed rail, and in the process diverting freight tonnage overland and away from the seas.

So NATO’s non-stop Russia demonizing is in fact quaint. Think about NATO picking a fight against the constantly evolving, complex Russia-China strategic partnership. And in a not so remote future, as I indicated here, Germany, Russia and China have what it takes to be the essential pillars of a fully integrated Eurasia.

As it stands, the key shadow play is Moscow and Beijing silently preparing their own SWIFT system while Russia prepares to seal its air space with S-500s. Western Ukraine is doomed; leave it to the austerity-ravaged EU – which, by the way, doesn’t want it. And all this while the same EU tries to handicap the US commercially with a rigged euro that still doesn’t allow it to penetrate more US markets.

As for an irrelevant NATO, all it can do is cry, cry, cry.

[Virendra]

West-NATO flutter is classic example of deep psychological, anticipatory panic; when you've hit your enemy as hard as you can and he gets back up.
All you can do now is wait for the counter attack ... Russian counter attack !!

[Philip]

Upswing in fighting in Ukraine sends civilians fleeing and puts truce in doubt
Eight Ukrainian soldiers are killed in past week, and another 40 wounded in attacks by pro-Russia separatists, in most intense clashes since Minsk ceasefire

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/m ... eparatists

The remains of a residential building destroyed in a shelling attack in the city of Horlivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine Photograph: Nikolai Muravyev/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis

Alec Luhn in Kramatorsk
Sunday 3 May 2015

Ukraine is experiencing its most serious increase in fighting in three months, sending more civilians fleeing and raising fresh doubts about the viability of a shaky February truce.

Another Ukrainian soldier was killed this weekend bringing the death toll in the past week to eight, with another 40 wounded in attacks in eastern Ukraine by pro-Russia separatists, the most intense clashes since the ceasefire agreed in Minsk.

Even if the conflict does not escalate again into war, civilians are continuing to flee the conflict area, adding to the country’s humanitarian crisis. More than 1.2 million people have been internally displaced by the conflict, which has killed more than 6,200 since April 2014.

A representative of Kiev’s “anti-terrorist operation” said on Saturday that eight soldiers had been wounded in one 24-hour period at the end of last week. The day before, two Ukrainian service personnel were killed and a further two wounded.

'There was heroism and cruelty on both sides': the truth behind one of Ukraine's deadliest days

The casualties were the latest in a surge of fighting that began a week ago, when the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported the “most intense shelling in Shyrokyne since fighting began in the area in mid-February 2015”. The village, which is 12.5 miles east of Mariupol, has been in contention as both sides have attempted to strengthen their positions near government-controlled city, a key port and metallurgical centre.

The next day, OSCE monitors reported 550 explosions outside Donetsk and warned of a “seriously deteriorated” security situation at rebel-controlled city’s airport. The Ukrainian military said last week that the geographical spread of ceasefire violations had increased.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, told a meeting of district administrations that separatist forces planned to begin an offensive in the second half of May. Nato military chief Gen Philip Breedlove said the next day that separatist forces have been making preparations “consistent with the possibility of an offensive”.

Although both Kiev and the self-declared separatist republics had claimed the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the frontline had been completed, OSCE monitors reported eight tanks near the line on the government-controlled side and a self-propelled howitzer near the line on the rebel side on Wednesday.

Konstantin Mashovets of InfoResist, a group of analysts with close ties to the Ukrainian military, told the Guardian that he expected isolated flareups to continue this month, rather than a full-scale offensive.

“We can expect an escalation of the conflict on a tactical level, a seizure of certain points in certain areas, a village here, a crossroads there,” he said. “Ukrainian forces could also respond, they could also take this or that crossroads or village.”

Any large campaign by the rebels would almost surely require the support of the Russian military, which has reportedly kept up a flow of ammunition to eastern Ukraine and deployed troops to lead key operations there. Such a move could provoke a response from Nato and the US. Russia’s economy is already sagging under western sanctions and low oil prices. Legislation passed by the US House of Representatives this week would allocate $200m (£132m) for the lethal weapons that Barack Obama has so far been unwilling to give Ukraine.

“Many said [Vladimir Putin] might want a big victory before 9 May, but that’s unlikely,” said Kiev-based analyst Oleksiy Melnik. “It’s unlikely he could do that without a huge operation, and the cost of this question rises every day.”

Moscow will observe the 70th anniversary of the Red Army’s victory over the Nazis with a military parade redolent of Soviet times. Kiev, on the other hand, will reportedly commemorate the end of the war on 8 May, as western Europe does.

Judging by recent clashes, rebel forces nonetheless appear to be trying to push Ukrainian forces back from their two major strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk. Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko told journalists on Friday: “We will have to take those territories that can guarantee the security of our lands.”

As the number of artillery exchanges and firefights has increased, civilians have continued to flee.

“Almost every day I find myself registering people from Donetsk and Horlivka, mostly families. There’s up to 10 a day easily,” said Tatiana Lugova, who works for the humanitarian aid organisation Caritas in Ale, a government-controlled city in the Donetsk region.

Local news site 06242 on Wednesday reported heavy artillery fire in Horlivka in a battle it said was the “most intensive since the so-called ceasefire began”.

More than 1.2 million have registered with the government as internally displace. But the actual number is likely to be far higher. In total, more than 5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN, and the government cannot fully meet these demands.

“The conflict affects the whole of Ukraine. People that fled the violence are all across Ukraine,” Barbara Manzi, country head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Guardian. “Communities have accepted them very generously but they are affected also by the hryvnia devaluation and the economy. Their ability to cope with the influx has decreased over time.”

The Kharkiv region north of Donetsk has taken in the most internally displaced people. The emergency ministry and local volunteers are providing people with food and temporary shelter and sending them on to other regions, since there is virtually no housing left there.

Vova, a car mechanic, fled to Kharkiv from the town of Amrosivka near the Russian border with his wife and one of his four children last week. They had gone to Russia when their house was destroyed by shelling in July, only to return after they could not obtain refugee status or find housing and work.

Vova left his three other children with relatives and took a bus and train to Kharkiv after rebel fighters threatened to force him to join their ranks. He said he could not remain at the mercy of armed men and sporadic shelling in Amrosivka.

“If you want, you can wait and they’ll come take you from your bed and take you to fight,” he said at Kharkiv train station, where he had spent the night on a mattress while his wife and son slept for free at the station hotel. “If you want, you can wait and they’ll frame you. If you want, you can wait and a shell will hit.”

Even more people are in need on the rebel side of the lines, where jobs are scarce and supplies are limited. According to Manzi, food prices in Luhansk are six times higher than in government-controlled territory. But both the government and the rebels have reportedly hindered some shipments of food and other supplies from reaching these areas.

Any surge in fighting could spark another huge wave of displaced people, as happened during the battles of Debaltseve in January and February, according to UN estimates. “If there’s as much as a 30km push, maybe in Mariupol or somewhere else, then 600,000 people will be moving in one day,” said Petro Matiaszek, director of programming at Caritas Ukraine.

[panduranghari]

Insanity Grips The Western World

Paul Craig Roberts

Just as Karl Marx claimed that History had chosen the proletariat, neoconservatives claim that History has chosen America. Just as the Nazis proclaimed “Deutschland uber alles,” neoconservatives proclaim “America uber alles.” In September 2013 President Obama actually stood before the United Nations and declared, “I believe America is exceptional.”

Germany’s political leaders and those in Great Britain, France, and throughout Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan also believe that America is exceptional, which means better than they are. That’s why these countries are Washington’s vassals. They accept their inferiority to the Exceptional Country — the USA — and follow its leadership.

It is unlikely that the Chinese think that a handful of White People are exceptional in anything except their diminutive numbers. The populations of Asia, Africa, and South America dwarf those that comprise Washington’s Empire.

Neither do the Russians believe that the US is exceptional. Putin’s response to Obama’s claim of American superiority was: “God created us equal.” Putin added: “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.”

If all countries are exceptional, the word loses its meaning. If America is exceptional, it means others are inferior for lacking this designation. Inferiors have less rights and can be bullied into submission or bombed into oblivion.

The Exceptional Country is above all the others and, therefore, doesn’t have to be concerned about how it treats them. Obviously, Americans and their vassals think America is exceptional as the millions of people murdered, maimed, and dislocated by Washington’s wars in eight countries in the 21st century has not resulted in condemnation of Washington. Merkel, Hollande, Cameron and the puppets in Canada, Australia, and Japan still suck up, holding tight to Washington.

Instead, Russia and Iran, countries that, unlike the US, are not militarily aggressive, are portrayed in the White People’s Media as threats and are condemned.

The White Media claims, and has claimed since February 2014, that there are Russian tanks and troops in Ukraine. Putin has pointed out that if this indeed was the case, Kiev and Western Ukraine would have fallen to the Russian invasion early last year. Kiev has been unable to defeat the small breakaway republics in eastern and southern Ukraine and would stand no chance against the Russian military.

Recently a brave news organization made fun of the White Media’s claim that Russian tanks have been pouring into Ukraine for 14 months. The parody pictured Ukraine at a standstill. All traffic on all roads and residential streets is blocked by Russian tanks. All parking places, including sidewalks and people’s front and rear gardens have tanks piled upon tanks. The entire country is immobilized in gridlock.

Although a few have fun making fun of the gullible people who believe the White Media, the situation is nevertheless serious as it concerns life on planet Earth.

There is little sign that Washington and its vassals care about life on Earth. Recently, the largest political group in the European Parliament–the European People’s Party–expressed a cavalier opinion about life on Earth. We know this, because, if we can trust Euractive, an online EU news source, the majority EU party believes that declaring the EU’s readiness for nuclear war is one of the best steps to deter Russia from further aggression. http://www.unian.info/politics/1070675- ... r-war.html The aggression to be stopped by Europe’s declaration of its readiness for armageddon is the alleged Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the “further aggression” is Putin’s alleged intention of reestablishing the Soviet Empire.

It must be disappointing to the Russian government to see that leaders of the European Union prefer to endorse nuclear war than to challenge Washington’s propaganda.

When I read that the governing party in the European Parliament thought non-existent aggression had to be stopped by a declaration of readiness for nuclear war, I realized that money could buy any and every thing, even the life of the planet. The European People’s Party was speaking in behalf of Washington’s propaganda, not in behalf of Europe. Europe’s nuclear war with Russia would end instantly with the destruction of every European capital.

The crazed vice-president of the European People’s Party, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski revealed who the real aggressor is when he declared: “Time of talk and persuasion with Russia is over. Now it’s time for a tough policy.”

Clearly, the European Parliament is a great danger to life on the planet. Is it realistic to think that Russia will allow herself to become a concubine of Washington?

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/04 ... g-roberts/

[Philip]

Is this why the billion and bullion-aire class are all making heavy investments in New Zealand,to flee there after Armageddon? new Zealand had then better sever its ties with the most exclusive whites-only "5-eyes" club of Anglo-Saxon nations,as who knows,it may be targeted too by the evil neo-Soviet empire or dragon-empire!

[Philip]

http://rt.com/business/254573-ukraine-w ... economist/

Ukraine named worst performing economy in 2015- The Economist
Published time: April 30, 2015 16:02

Ukraine has the fastest falling economy of 2015 according to the British periodical The Economist. The country has seen its GDP shrink by 6.5 percent since last April, with countries like Libya and Macau performing better.

The Ukrainian economy showed the most significant deepening recession compared to the rest of the world, according to the data, published on Wednesday by the head of the analytical department of the Economist Robert Ward. The research compared the one-year GDP growth of countries since April 2014. Libya’s economy dropped by 6.4 percent while Macau which turned out to be the third worst performing economy, experienced a 6 percent GDP decline. Equatorial Guinea came out fourth with a 5.5 percent GDP decline and fifth place went to Russia as its GDP fell by 4 percent.

Greece took fifteenth place, the country’s GDP showed a very slight decrease, according to the Economist.

Read more

​Ukraine’s economy reached its recession trough – National Bank head

On Monday, the head of Ukraine’s National Bank Valeria Gontareva said that the country’s economic recession had hit bottom and predicted gradual recovery starting from the second quarter of 2015. Later on Wednesday, the World Bank lowered Ukraine’s economic outlook, projecting the country’s GDP will fall 7.5 percent in 2015.

READ MORE: Default in Ukraine ‘virtual certainty’: S&P cuts foreign currency rating to ‘CC’
Five African countries are among the world's fastest growing economies. BRICS countries are represented by India at number six and China ranked as the twelfth fastest growing economy.

The Economist also published a ranking of the fastest growing economies in the world up to April, which puts Papua New Guinea on top.

[Bhurishrava]

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/World/20 ... e-to-hold/

Russia says EU does not want Ukraine truce to hold

Most EU leaders say they hope the ceasefire can be shored up but Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said: "The ceasefire no longer exists."

[Philip]

Vladimir Putin and John Kerry to hold talks amid signs of easing tensions

The Russian president and the US secretary of state will discuss the Ukraine ceasefire deal, Syria and the Iranian nuclear negotiations, in Kerry's first visit to Russia since 2013
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... sions.html

[vijaykarthik]

^ I think its more about Syria than the ceasefire.

All my hypothesis:

The GCC has become v upset and angry. They are increasingly desperate and the prospect of a n deal also allowed them to paper over their differences in the common forum and Egypt, UAE, Bahrain and Qatarkissed and made up. Even KSA made up with Qatar.

It does look like the GCC has asked for a written agreement for jt defense and US has said its diff. The fellas refused to meet Ombaba. And Ombaba has refused any kind of defense pact to them to respond to their 'snub'.

Now it seems logical that US approach Russia for a possibility to depose Assad from Syria. I think that's the more important bkgrnd. The sanctions are expiring in June end too. News about extension / allowing them to expire will give us the reqd answers / hints.

Looks like there is a massive attempt to contain Iran and all of these are side stories.

[Philip]

US-Russian come to an understanding on the UKR? If so it augurs well.The UKR conflict needs to be capped.

http://rt.com/news/257953-lavrov-kerry-sochi-talks/
Kerry urges Poroshenko to ‘think twice’ about reigniting Ukraine conflict
Published time: May 12, 2015

US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned Petro Poroshenko against inciting any new hostilities after the Ukrainian president vowed to win back Donetsk Airport. Kerry was in Sochi for high level talks with President Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov.

This was the first visit by a senior US official to Russia since the Ukrainian crisis broke out in 2014. Kerry has realized the need to “break down some of the mistrust on both sides.”

The mood between both parties was cordial and the US secretary of state along with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed a desire to see the Minsk agreement fully implemented.

“If indeed President Poroshenko is advocating a forceful engagement at this time, we would strongly urge him to think twice not to engage in this kind of activity,” Kerry said during a joint press conference with Lavrov in the southern Russian city.

Poroshenko violates Minsk deal vowing to recapture Donetsk Airport - Kremlin

On Monday, President Poroshenko pledged to take Donetsk Airport back: "I have no doubt - we will free the airport, because it is our land. And we will rebuild the airport."

However, his statement brought swift condemnation from Kerry, who added it would “put Minsk in serious jeopardy” and that “we would be very very concerned about the consequences.”

While Kerry and Lavrov admitted they didn’t always see eye to eye on Ukraine, they did agree that the Minsk agreement is the best way to solve the crisis and that diplomacy is the only way to peace. The diplomats urged everyone who has influence on any party in the Ukrainian conflict, to use it in a positive manner to ensure peace prevails.

“I urge him [Poroshenko], as I urge the Russians today. Anybody who has any control over anybody needs to take every step possible, to fully implement Minsk and clearly this means preventing any breaches of activity in regards to the ceasefire,” Kerry added.

During the talks, Russia's top diplomat stressed the current crisis in relations between the two nations is not Russia's fault. According to a foreign ministry press release, Sergey Lavrov said Russia is ready to work with the US, but only as an equal partner, “without attempts of dictate and coercion.”

The foreign minister said that escalating the confrontation and using sanctions to pressure Russia are a “dead end,” as Russia will not be made to “sacrifice its national interests and stances on the matters it sees as crucial.”

For his part, Kerry added that sanctions against Russia would be rolled back “if and when” all the points of the Minsk deal are implemented in Ukraine.

Marcus Papadopoulos, the editor of Politics First magazine, who spoke to RT said Washington is looking for a way out, or is at least trying to smooth relations with Moscow as they realize dialogue is the only option, as well as needing Russia’s help with regard to Syria and Iran.

[/b]“I would agree that the American’s are acutely aware that the sanctions that they imposed on Russia last year have emphatically failed to achieve their objective, which was to decimate the Russian economy and bring Russia to its knees,” Papadopoulos told RT.

Kerry held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which lasted for over four hours, instead of the planned one and a half hours. This followed similarly lengthy talks with Lavrov, while the two diplomats laid flowers at a World War II memorial.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (R) lay a wreath at the Zakovkzalny War Memorial in Sochi, Russia May 12, 2015 (Reuters / Joshua Roberts)

Kerry and Putin focused on discussing bilateral ties, as well as several major international issues.

The US secretary of state thanked the Russian president for the “directness” he showed during the talks, and the "detailed explanation of Russia's position on the issues that are causing divisions.”

Although Moscow and Washington didn’t totally agree on issues regarding Ukraine, Kerry and Lavrov both stressed they shared similar viewpoints on Syria, the threat of the Islamic State and the Iranian nuclear deal. The pair also discussed the developing conflict in Yemen.

Moscow saw the meeting between President Putin and Kerry in a positive light, even though there was no breakthrough. A Kremlin aide, Yury Ushakov, mentioned the Russian president was interested in normalizing relations between the two countries.

“As it was pointed out, this is what Russia wants and I hope this is in the interests of the USA as well. This is extremely important for the implementation of international stability and security,” Ushakov added, as cited by TASS.
White house representative Josh Earnest said at a press briefing he thought the US and Russia can cooperate effectively, despite the serious disagreements between them. He pointed out a number of issues where cooperation is already taking place, including space exploration and the chemical disarmament of Syria.

The independent agenda of Turkey and the Soothi Barbarians in the MEast,is alarming the US,which is seeing "rogue" states ,former allies attempting to defeat its policies supporting the most extreme jihadist groups.A thaw in US-Russian relations with both nations bringing their influence to bear upon the rogues entities,is the way forward to restore a semblance of peace ,defuse conflicts,lower the scale of fighting in the world's most dangerous region.

[panduranghari]

USA wanted a war on European door step against Russia, pitting Eurozone against Russia to finish Euro. I guess they have figured out their currency has no future and destroying its only credible replacement was only way to let the status quo to continue.

I think Washington saw this video and decided against it?

[UlanBatori]

The Spring is nearly gone, what is Comrade Vlad waiting for, I wonder.

John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (R) lay a wreath at the Zakovkzalny War Memorial in Sochi, Russia May 12, 2015 (Reuters / Joshua Roberts)

And gasoline prices are 25% up from the bottom, rising fast.
The ISIS is winning in Iraq.
The Al Qaeda is winning in Syria.
The Saudis are losing in Yemen.
Libya is gone to the Al Qaeda.

[abhishek_sharma]

Russia: Twenty Feet from War

[Philip]

The Baltic states should instead ask why the West/EU/US supported an illegal takeover of the UKR by fascist forces? That is the root of the problem,the disease,not the symptoms of Russian aircraft buzzing their airspace.In another site,the majority of Russians feel that NATO is planning to invade them! Some former East European states like Hungary and the Czech Republic are critical of the EU/NATO's campaign against Russia,and now Greece too. They do not fear any threat. Hopefully JoKerry's visit to Moscow will see a change in attitude from the US,which holds the strings of the West's behavior towards Russia. While the US and the West "tilt at the Russian "windmill",ISIS is merrily sweeping to victory in more parts of Iraq and the MEast.

[Philip]

Despite JoKerry's warning to the Chocolate soldier Poro,his offer to warmonger John McCain takes the cake!

McCain advising Ukraine? It’s totally insane!

Neil Clark is a journalist, writer and broadcaster. Published time: May 15, 2015

You really couldn’t make it up, could you? Serial warmonger and unsuccessful US Presidential candidate Senator John McCain has been offered a post as an advisor to Ukraine’s ‘Chocolate King’ President Petro Poroshenko.

He was supposed to join other neocon rejects such as Georgia’s fugitive ex-President (and famous tie-eater) Mikhail Saakashvili and the ex-Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt.

McCain has declined the offer, having tweeted quite positively about it earlier, but the very fact that the offer was made in the first place puts into question just how committed Kiev is to the Minsk II peace process.

Putting it mildly, John McCain is not the sort of person you call if you want to sort differences out with your opponents peacefully. Even by the hawkish standards of Capitol Hill, the right-wing Republican's record of supporting - and trying to escalate - military conflicts is quite extraordinary.

In 1999, he not only supported the illegal NATO ‘humanitarian’ bombardment of Yugoslavia - but also wanted boots on the ground. He was up - big time- for the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and for the Iraq war two years later. He joked about bombing Iran - putting the words “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Iran” to the Beach Boys hit ‘Barbara Ann’, but the joke wasn’t particularly funny as he made it clear that he thought “military action” against the Islamic Republic should remain an option.

In 2006, casting himself as a humanitarian, he called for NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Darfur. The same year he supported Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon. In 2011 he was a bellicose supporter of the war against Libya. In April 2011 he visited the country and said of the anti-government rebels “they are my heroes”. (Funnily enough, he’s been less vocal on Libya since the country has become a failed state - and his ‘heroes’ of 2011 have been killing each other.)

After Libya, the next country on his ‘To Do’ list was Syria. In May 2012, he became the first Senator to call for the bombing of “Assad’s forces”.

In May 2013, he did his usual routine and visited ‘rebels’ fighting the secular government. At a time when people of good will were trying to bring the conflict to an end, McCain not only called on the US to arm the “brave fighters” who he was photographed with, but for cruise missiles to be used against Syrian government forces.

This January it was reported that McCain was one of several senior US and French officials who were accused of entering Syria illegally.

It’s hard to disentangle McCain’s obsession with toppling Assad from his Zionism. McCain has described himself as “proudly pro-Israel”- and said, when he was standing for President, that if elected he would “work to further isolate the enemies of Israel such as Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah”. He wasn’t elected, but didn’t let his rejection by the American people hinder his warmongering efforts.

In the summer of 2013 McCain criticized Obama’s planned air-strikes against Syria - on the grounds that they didn’t go far enough. McCain didn’t just want to ‘degrade’ the Syrian government’s military capabilities; he wanted a much larger-scale operation to remove President Assad from power.

U.S. Senator John McCain (C) waves to pro-European integration protesters during a mass rally at Independence Square in Kiev December 15, 2013.(Reuters / Gleb Garanich)

For once though, McCain and the other hawks didn’t get their way. Shrewd Russian diplomacy and unexpected opposition from the British Parliament, put air strikes off the agenda. Assad survived. McCain had been angry with Russia in 2008, when Moscow had the temerity to respond to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s aggression against the civilian population of South Ossetia, but now he - and his fellow warmongers - were even angrier.

Time to get back at Putin and support ‘regime change’ in Ukraine! Off to the Maidan to hand out the cookies to the ‘pro-democracy’ protestors! “We are here to support your just cause, the sovereign right of Ukraine to determine its own destiny freely and independently,” the old ham McCain declared. In his enthusiasm for ‘regime change’ in Kiev it didn’t seem to matter at all to the man who was ‘proudly pro-Israel’, that he was sharing a platform with Oleg Tyahnybok - a far-right ultra-nationalist who had written in the past of Ukraine being run by a “Muscovite-Jewish” mafia and who had written open letters, less than ten years earlier, calling for more to be done to halt the “criminal activities” of “organized Jewry”.

Imagine if a left-wing anti-war figure had shared a platform with someone who had publicly expressed views such as these. But McCain did - and his fellow neocons were strangely silent.

Most people mellow in old age, but McCain seems to get even more aggressive with each year that passes. In 2013, the Mother Jones website put at 13 the number of countries that McCain had wanted the US to attack.

Last summer as Israeli forces pounded Gaza, McCain praised the Israeli government’s “admirable” sense of “restraint” Over 2,000 Palestinians - many of them women and children - were killed.

McCain appointed to Ukraine reform advisory team headed by fugitive Georgian ex-leader

In October, writing in Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, McCain was once again calling for military action against Assad.

He’s predictably attacked the US’s recent rapprochement with Iran- calling Secretary of State John Kerry “delusional”.

He’s also been smearing those who don’t want to join in a new Cold War with Russia over Ukraine. In December, he ludicrously claimed that Hungary, a multi-party democracy, was “on the verge of ceding its sovereignty to a neo-fascist dictator getting in bed with Vladimir Putin.”

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban responded angrily, by saying that his country’s “national independence” was at stake - and he was right. But at least the bombs haven’t yet dropped on Budapest - and the country hasn’t been ripped apart by ‘rebels’fighting the government, which usually happens in independently-minded countries John McCain and his fellow hawks don’t like.

This week’s visit to Sochi by John Kerry to meet Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, was interpreted, by my RT OpEdge colleague Bryan Macdonald, as a sign that US policy in relation to Ukraine was beginning to change in a positive direction.

Bryan says Ukraine has had its 15 minutes of fame and I hope he’s right. After months of bloody conflict in which thousands of people have been killed-and more than 2 million displaced, there is a peace - of sorts - in the country today. Minsk II is holding. There are definitely reasons to hope that the worst is over. However, there are worrying signs too. The Russophobic neocon faction in Washington and London don’t want the conflict in Ukraine to be resolved and for things to get back to normal, as they want sanctions on Russia to be extended, not lifted.

McCain himself has strongly criticized Minsk II. Usually so keen to support ‘rebels’ he has repeatedly called for the US to give the Ukrainian government the weapons they need to militarily defeat the rebels in the east.

“In almost every debate in the Senate and public TV he always makes the choice of the most violent response to any challenge facing our country. He wants to go to war in this country and that country,” was the damning verdict on McCain by the former US President Jimmy Carter.

If you genuinely wanted peace in Ukraine, then literally the last person in the world you would offer an advisory position to would be the senior Senator for Arizona. Get Carter perhaps, but McCain in Ukraine? Unless you really wanted war, the idea is totally insane.

http://rt.com/op-edge/258881-mccain-adv ... o-ukraine/

[Philip]

Ukraine crisis: Regional chief claims four Ukrainian soldiers have been killed as fighting erupts again in the east of the country
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 62275.html

[Philip]

Getting dumped?!

http://rt.com/news/261029-eu-membership ... -problems/
No promises’ on EU membership for Eastern states at Riga summit
Published time: May 22, 2015

The EU is not ready to welcome its eastern non-member partners, including Ukraine, according to a leaked draft resolution ahead of the Eastern Partnership Summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned EU leaders not to make false promises.

“We must not create false expectations,” Merkel said when speaking in front of the Berlin parliament before leaving for the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga on Thursday.

Bloc members have gathered in Latvia for a two-day summit to discuss EU membership for eastern European states, including Ukraine. The EU leaders are examining potential membership prospects for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, as well as the development of its Eastern Partnership program.

Merkel has set the stage for the summit by saying that the Eastern Partnership is not an “instrument of enlargement politics for the European Union and we must not make promises that we can’t fulfill.”

READ MORE: Europe to support reverse gas supplies to Ukraine – draft document

Moreover, European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said upon his arrival in Riga that the membership issue won’t be a focus. “They are not ready, we are not ready,” he said on Thursday.

In the latest development, a leaked draft resolution ahead of the summit revealed that the introduction of a visa-free regime with Ukraine will likely be postponed. This is bound to disappoint Kiev, which has been promoting the idea.

The Ukrainian government wanted “concrete assurances” and a roadmap for EU membership, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the German daily, Die Welt.

But the text of the resolution cited by Radio Free Europe only vaguely states that the participants “reaffirm the sovereign right of each partner freely to choose the level of ambition and the goals to which it aspires in its relations with the European Union. It is for the EU and its sovereign [partners] to decide on how they want to proceed in their relations.”

When commenting on Ukraine’s efforts to join the EU, European Council President, Donald Tusk, said: “They have their right to have a dream, but maybe not membership in the predictable future.”

​World swatting away Ukraine like ‘an annoying fly’ – ex-president Yushchenko

French President Francois Hollande has listed Ukraine’s high crime rate and migration as reasons for concern. “Europeans are naturally wary because there were some issues in Ukraine that we don’t have. Organized crime threatens our security; the same is true about migration.”

Former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday described the world as being fed up with Ukraine. “The world is getting tired of the Ukrainian issue … they’ve started swatting Ukraine away like a pesky fly.”

“It is interesting that in the last couple of weeks we definitely had a softening of the tone from the US towards Russia on this issue,” UK journalist and broadcaster Neil Clark told RT. “The Ukrainian government is rightly worried by this. That is why the rhetoric coming from Kiev has become more bellicose.”

The EU is adopting a “row back” attitude towards Ukraine, Clark added. “Now there is a kind of rollback, an awareness that this has gone as far as it can go, and the more realistic people in Europe quite clearly want an end of these sanctions on Russia because they are hurting the main European economies, such as Germany and France.”

Another reason for the EU to avoid a closer relationship with Ukraine is the cost. “There would be the whole expense of getting Ukraine into NATO and into the EU. Ukraine is a basket case economy. They have been dependent on Russian good will and Russian loans – they are heavily indebted to Russia, and paying back these loans,” Clark said. “They’ve created this kind of Frankenstein’s monster and they are worried about where it would lead now.”

In the meantime, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann adopted a stance similar to Merkel’s, urging his EU colleagues not to give their eastern European partners promises “we cannot keep,” TASS reported.

On Thursday, Belarus and Armenia had problems with signing the summit’s final document, Reuters reported. Both states reportedly refused to sign the first draft of the final resolution because it contained a phrase about Russia “illegally annexing” Crimea.

​Ukraine – EU Association Agreement should consider Russian interests – Spanish FM

The summit members are to draw up a second draft where the EU standpoint and the one of their eastern partners will be presented separately, reports say. By the end of the day Latvian President Andris Berzins stated that the final text had been agreed upon. However, it has not yet been presented to the media.

Under their EU Association Agreements, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine must commit to political and social reforms intended to meet the economic and democratic norms of the EU bloc countries. It envisages a gradual deepening of economic and political ties, which includes a free trade zone.

The association agreement, ratified by both Ukraine and the EU in mid-September of 2014, has been at the heart of Ukraine’s year of turmoil. The opposition rallied people to flood Kiev’s Maidan Square soon after President Viktor Yanukovich chose to delay signing the final decision on economic integration with the EU, saying he needed time to weigh possible gains and losses.

Russia, which has a 2,300-kilometer (1,430-mile) scarcely restricted border with Ukraine – the longest land border in Europe – had been demanding to discuss the parameters of the EU trade deal in a trilateral format, fearing an influx of European goods could have negative consequences for the Russian economy. Brussels, however, had been staunchly against any outside party influencing the deal. Ukraine expects to implement the economic part of the association agreement by the end of 2015.

“I think that we need to somehow include Russia’s interests into the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, this agreement needs to be complemented by cooperation with Russia,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Garcia-Margallo said in March after meeting his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow.

Russia had warned Ukraine that it would lose a preferential trading position in its $2.5 trillion market if it integrated closer with the EU, including the loss of duty-free imports.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he regrets the proposed talks on the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement “have still not started.”

[vijaykarthik]

Interestingly, Moldova and a clutch of nations are getting tired of the EU dr(e)am(a) and are trying to keep a path open to Russia too.

In the meanwhile, NATO is also trying to do its best and try and stir the cauldron so they do their best at Charlie Foxtrot

[panduranghari]

During the Cold War Washington was concerned about communists fomenting street protests that they could turn into revolutions, with groomed politicians waiting in the wings to take over the new government, thus expanding the Soviet empire. Today this is precisely what Washington does.

We recently witnessed this operation in Ukraine and now it seems to be underway in Macedonia.

The National Endowment for Democracy was established in 1983. The official purpose is to promote democracy abroad. The real purpose was to create dissension in Soviet Eastern Europe. Today the NED uses our tax money to overthrow governments not aligned with Washington.

The NED funds non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in countries targeted by Washington for political destabilization. These NGOs operate under such rubrics as “teaching democracy” and “human rights.” The NGOs develop cadres consisting of idealistic students and disgruntled politicians and set them against the existing government whose independence Washington wishes to curtail.

The idealistic students are simply dupes, and the disgruntled politicians simply desire power in office and will serve Washington in order to get it.

If Washington can grab Macedonia, Washington can stand between Greece and Serbia and perhaps persuade Greece to align with a Washington-supported natural gas pipeline that would supply Europe from Azerbaijan, thus reducing Russia’s influence in Europe.

link

[Bhurishrava]

http://www.dw.de/medvedev-russia-to-ado ... a-18472097

Ukraine has passed a law allowing delaying payment of debts.
Russia has reacted strongly as Ukraine owes it $3 billion.

[vijaykarthik]

^ saw this a couple of days back. I am not even sure if the tenuous argument, that Ukraine is using for including Russian debt in its list, is maintainable and legal.

Russia is considering its legal options and can potentially take Ukraine to the court on this. If it does drag Uk to court, other creditors will surely follow?

[Bhurishrava]

http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/ukra ... .bild.html

7 dead in attack on separatist leader inside separatist territory.

[Philip]

Why should Russia need to go to court? It should grab as much UKR territory as poss. as compensation,Mariupol,esp. Odessa,leaving the UKR without any major port!

To quote from the Bard,
"The lady doth protest too much,methinks!"

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/m ... nied-entry
Germany protests as MP who called Russia a 'warmonger' is denied entry
Germany has described as ‘incomprehensible and unacceptable’ Russia’s refusal to let a conservative lawmaker with links to Ukraine into the country

The head of the German-Ukraine parliamentary group, Karl-Georg Wellmann, right, with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko. Photograph: Soeren Stache/AFP/Getty Images

Reuters
Tuesday 26 May 2015 02.24 BST

Germany protested to Russia on Monday over Moscow’s refusal to let a conservative German lawmaker into the country, a decision the foreign ministry criticised as unacceptable in the latest sign of east-west tensions over the Ukraine crisis.

Karl-Georg Wellmann, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats and head of the German-Ukraine parliamentary group, had called Russia a “warmonger” this year for supporting separatist forces in Ukraine, which Moscow denies.

Wellmann, who has called for tougher sanctions against Russia, said he had spent the whole of Sunday night in the transit section of a Moscow airport and flew home the next morning, having been told he was not allowed to enter the country until 2019. He said no reason had been given.

He said he had a diplomatic passport to enter Russia and had planned to meet Russian and German embassy officials.

“I wasn’t planning to meet any opposition leaders or demonstrators,” he said. “Evidently I was stopped by certain powers.”

The German government issued a protest to the Russian ambassador in Berlin and Germany’s ambassador in Moscow, Ruediger Freiherr von Fritsch, delivered a démarche to the Russian foreign ministry as well.

“From the German government’s point of view Russia’s refusal to allow … Wellmann’s entry is incomprehensible and unacceptable,” a foreign ministry spokesman said. “Germany expects the refusal to allow him in to be lifted.”

The Russian foreign ministry declined to comment, citing its policy of not discussing any denials of entry. The federal migration service declined immediate comment.

Relations between Russia and Germany, countries with multibillion-dollar trade and energy links, are at a low point over the conflict in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by the west on Russia. More than 6,200 people have been killed in fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists.

Russia dismisses accusations from Ukraine, Nato and western powers that it is arming the separatists and supporting them with its own troops.

Last month Russia protested at Germany’s decision to deny entry at a Berlin airport to three members of a motorcycle club.

Last September the German co-chair of the Greens group in the European parliament, Rebecca Harms, said she had been barred from entering Russia. She said she believed she was on a secret Russian blacklist that could contain the names of politicians who had backed sanctions against Moscow.

[Philip]

And now Poland has a new "Dude" in charge!

Poland on 'the velvet road to dictatorship' after Andrzej Duda wins presidential elections

[/quote]The 43-year-old Eurosceptic and nationalist leader will become Poland's new president after winning 51.5 per cent of the vote

Opposition candidate Andrzej Duda celebrates with supporters his victory, as first exit polls in the presidential runoff voting are announced in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, May 24, 2015.

By Matthew Day, Warsaw
25 May 2015

Poland is on “the velvet road to dictatorship” following the victory of nationalist leader Andrzej Duda in Sunday’s presidential elections, a respected former anti-communist dissident warned on Monday.

Mr Duda, a Eurosceptic 43-year-old lawyer belonging to the socially conservative Law and Justice party, defeated Bronislaw Komorowski with 51.5 per cent of the vote, having campaigned on pledges of greater welfare spending and a reduction in the retirement age.

His party has spoken of the need to make wholesale changes to purge Poland of corruption and the poisonous legacy of the communist system that it claims still plagues the country, creating a “Fourth Republic”.

Adam Michnik, a prominent Solidarity activist who was imprisoned by Poland’s communist government, said he feared Law and Justice’s success could pose a threat to democracy in the country.

Mr Duda’s surprise win was a “radical change to the political landscape”, warned Mr Michnik, who is also editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s bestselling newspaper.

The party has long claimed that Poland avoided a true revolution with the end of communism in 1989, and instead communists were allowed to remain in place for the sake of social cohesion.

It believes that this has had a detrimental effect on the country, and so it has called for a deep cleansing process that critics claim is both neurotic and a danger to civil rights.

Mr Michnik’s warning was echoed by Wlodimierz Cimoszewicz, a former Polish prime minister, who said a Law and Justice victory swaddled Poland in “all the prejudices and obsessions of the Fourth Republic”.

The claims reflected anxiety felt by some in Poland that Mr Duda’s victory could herald a repeat of the political instability and fraught foreign relations that bedevilled Poland the last time Law and Justice dominated both parliament and the presidential palace.

• Polish presidential election: legalise child ***** and scrap benefits, promises candidate

Lech Kaczynski, one of the party’s founders, was president while his twin brother Jaroslaw served as prime minister in an unusual political double act.

A divisive figure in Polish politics, Mr Kaczynski enjoyed prickly and difficult relations with both Germany and Russia before dying in an air crash in western Russia in 2010.

Describing himself as the “spiritual heir” to Mr Kaczynski, Mr Duda has signalled that he is willing to take an assertive role in foreign policy and one reflecting his predecessor’s nationalistic and Eurosceptic character.

Although much power in Poland rests with the government, the president oversees foreign policy, and he can set its tone and character with visits and speeches.

“Today we have the right to speak in the European Union with a firm voice,” he said while on the campaign trail. “It’s time to step out of flow of mainstream foreign policies. We need to regain our strength.”

Mr Duda has also spoken about “recalibrating” Poland’s strong ties with German, and wants to devolve Brussels’ powers back to member states.

Along with riling Brussels, a Eurosceptic stance could put Mr Duda on a collision course with the current Polish government dominated by the centre-Right Civic Platform party.

Since coming into power eight years ago, it has concentrated on building ties with Germany, putting Poland at the heart of Europe and supporting the European consensus.

Mr Duda’s election could however lead to an improvement in relations with the UK, after a marked deterioration in recent years.

His victory comes just days before David Cameron is due to visit Warsaw to outline his case for European reform, and, like the British Prime Minister, Poland’s president-elect opposes any steps towards further EU integration.

Mr Duda has also said he wants to see a permanent Nato presence in Poland to uphold security on the alliance’s eastern flank, and wants to focus both Nato’s and the EU’s attention on what he perceives as the threat posed by a re-assertive Russia.
[/quote]

[chanakyaa]

Free money for Ukraine

Ukraine to lower funding costs with USAID-backed bond (From Reuters)