Civil War in Ukraine: Western Empire vs Russia

[axj]

Here is another analysis by Stratfor's George Friedman. While clearly pro-U.S., it is interesting to read, even if just to understand how the other side might see the long-term implications of what is going on:

The first and second world wars were about the status of Germany in Europe. That was what the Cold War was about as well, although framed in a different way. We are once again discussing the status of Germany. Today it has no western threat. The eastern threat is weak, far away and potentially more of an ally than a threat. The force that drove Germany in two world wars is not there now. Logically, it has little reason to take risks.

The American fear of a Eurasian hegemon is also a distant one. Russia is far from being able to pose that kind of threat. It is still struggling to regain its buffers. Just as Germany is not prepared to engage in aggressive actions, the United States will continue its century-old strategy of limiting its exposure for as long as possible. At the same time, the buffer countries face a potential threat that prudence requires they prepare for.

However, it is not clear that the Russian threat will materialize, and it is not clear that, rhetoric aside, the Russians have the political will to act decisively. The buffer states' optimal solution would be a massive NATO intervention. That won't happen. The second best would be a massive American intervention. That won't happen either. The buffer states want to shift the cost of their defense to others -- a rational strategy if they can achieve it.

The impersonal forces of geopolitics are driving Russia to try to retake its critical borderland. Having done that, the nations bordering Russian power will not know how far the Russians will try to go. For Russia, the deeper the buffer, the better. But the deeper the buffer, the higher the cost of maintaining it. The Russians are not ready for any such move. But over time, as their strength and confidence grow, their actions become less predictable. When facing a potential existential threat, the prudent action is to overreact.

The buffer states need to arm and ally. The United States will provide a degree of support, regardless of what the Germans, and therefore NATO, do. But the basic decision is in the hands of the Poles, Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians, Serbians and Azerbaijanis, along with those in the other buffer states. Some, like Azerbaijan, have already made the decision to arm and are looking for an alliance. Some, like Hungary, are watching and waiting. Mark Twain is supposed to have said, "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme." There is a rhyme that we can hear. It is in its early stages and few are yet locked into a course as Germany was in 1914. The forces are beginning to gather, and if they do, they will not be controlled by good will.

_http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/borderlands-new-strategic-landscape

I think what is missing in Friedman's analysis (as usual) is the possibility of economic chaos, as well as the impact of Earth changes. Reading his analysis, it sounds like all is hunky-dory when in fact the whole financial system is hardly able to survive in its current form much longer.

 

[Lumiere_du_Code]

May 6th 2014

NSA's recruiting office sent out a mystifying tweet Monday morning, prompting observers to question whether perhaps the agency had sent the nonsense message by accident. But on closer inspection, the tweet turned out to be a code designed to lure in would-be cryptographers — though by cipher standards, it's a pretty simple one.
...
This type of cryptogram is among the oldest and simplest, one version of it having been used by none other than Julius Caesar.
...
The message is:

"Want to know what it takes to work at NSA? Check back each Monday in may as we explore careers essential to protecting our nation."

Not quite as disappointing as "Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine," but still not as exciting as people might have hoped.
...
When contacted for more information, an NSA spokesperson wrote in an email to NBC News that the coded tweet is not in fact the first, and is "part of recruitment efforts to attract the best and the brightest."

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/code-cracked-mysterious-nsa-tweet-decrypted-seconds-n97546.

These are the "efforts to attract the best and the brightest"?

Idiots

They are only capable of shedding blood all over the world, dumba**es

--------------------

I saw this news on RT, there commentators laughed at this, people write: encryption of the next message will be left to the right :)

and Russians, with whom I communicate, almost all negative assessment petition entry of Russian troops in Ukraine, they are outraged that the residents of cities, where living a million people can not rise to his defense, even 1% of these people, so why Russian soldiers must die for those who do not do anything to protect themselves. and it's true. I am also deeply angered by this, that we have no one rises to the fight against the fascist junta. it is abnormal. people are hoping to sit out, believing that their misfortune touches and come Uncle Vova (president Putin) and do everything for them.

"Now the psychos are hunting him and another camera-man"

So it is now common practice in our country. Today I read the material, where the Odessites killers talking to each other, in the Ukrainian language: consider and remember everyone you removed, remember that we will pay for it, the more freaks soak, the more greenery ($) cut down.
oligarchs literally staged headhunting, it's a terrible medieval practice, the whole country really now lives in the Middle Ages. Companies hire "people killer" to "cleanse Ukraine of traitors." And where now Frau Nuland & Frau Ashton? they called Yanukovych a bloody dictator. but genocide of Ukrainians now called "monopoly Kiev junta to ensure order in the country"!
damn bitches (sorry for it, I dont have other words...)
I want these bastards found themselves in that Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk or Slovyansk, and then went on to let the world to broadcast their "holy truth"

 

[Lumiere_du_Code]

first photo from Odessa: "Daddy, kill the nazi"

 

[luc]

It's already a bit older, but I found this article by an African author quite interesting who analyses Putin's strategy based on "the art of war" by Sun Tzu:

How to win a war without a fight
_http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/91369

This is interesting especially in light of Putin's martial arts background. He and his team seem to be a superb strategists...

All strategies aside though, it's just heartbreaking to see what happens in Ukraine, and I hope it will get better one way or the other.

 

[angelburst29]

Interruption of transportation at Airport's and Railways.

Over 15 domestic and international flights cancelled in Donetsk airport
_http://en.itar-tass.com/world/730568

DONETSK, May 6. /ITAR-TASS/. Over 15 domestic and international flights have been cancelled in the airport of Ukraine’s Donetsk on Tuesday. This information was placed on the online enunciator of the Donetsk airport.

According to local media reports, the reception and departure of aircraft has been temporarily suspended by the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine.

On Friday, May 2, the country’s aviation authorities unilaterally banned Russian air carriers from performing flights to Donetsk and Kharkiv. Later, the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine stated that it had not prohibited Russian air carriers to fly to Kharkiv. The authority’s statement says, “now there are only restrictions on flights along a specific route between Donetsk and Russia”.

Blocking of railway traffic

On Monday, the press service of the Donetsk Railway reported that the rail traffic on Ukraine’s east was interrupted. In particular, the traffic has been blocked at the branches Lozova – Sloviansk – Druzhkivka, Forpostnaya – Krasnyi Liman in the directions Bukino – Izyum – Kharkiv and Tropa - Kupyansk.

“As a result, 14 pairs of passenger trains of the Donetsk Railway changed their route, two pairs of passenger trains of the Southern Railway have been cancelled, 29 pairs of commuter trains have been cancelled, nine pairs have changed routes,” the document specifies.

The press service noted that “from May 2, 2014, there is no voltage in the overhead system of the branch Lozova – Sloviansk – Druzhkivka, the electrical signal tower on the Sloviansk station does not work, as the Sloviansk railway station, and the railroads on the Forpostnaya station are blocked”.

Ukrainian Party of Regions Demands Turchynov’s Resignation
_http://www.novinite.com/articles/160300/Ukrainian+Party+of+Regions+Demands+Turchynov%E2%80%99s+Resignation

Ukraine’s Party of Regions has demanded the resignation of the acting President, Interior Minister, and head of Security Services over the events in Odessa.

"The faction of the Party of Regions believes that acting Commander-in-Chief Mr. Turchynov, Interior Minister Avakov and SBU head Nalyvaichenko are personally and fully responsible for the punitive operation in eastern Ukraine and the deaths of people who were burned alive in Odessa. We demand the immediate resignation of these three officials”, Party of Regions MP Mykola Levchenko said, quoted by Interfax.

Also on Tuesday, President Turchynov dismissed the head of Odessa’s regional administration, Volodymyr Nemyrovsky. Igor Palytsia replaces him on the position.

The clashes in Odessa on May 2 led to the death of 46 people, while many more are still unaccounted for. The interim government in Kiev has often been blamed for being unprepared to deal with the escalating tensions around the country, while the authorities accuse pro-Russian forces of destabilizing eastern Ukraine.

 

[Andrian]

Thanks to people's comments on an article on RT news article i watched an very interesting and would say pretty objective video analysis by Piakin Valerii Viktorovich born 07/05/1963 ,currently working to the Conceptual Technologies Foundation ,he also is a member of Altai region's advisers board.
( _http://fct-altai.ru/ - the site of the Foundation here also you can find the author's small biography, it's in Russian)

Well why i found the video interesting is because he discusses the current situation in Ukraine from the perspective of Russia,UE and USA ,he also talks a lot what happened on 2 may in Odessa and why Odessa was chosen, because ,yeas, the slaughter in Odessa was a planned operation,he estimates that like 2 weeks before the bloody event(2 may),the head of the Odessa's police wanted to resign just on 26 of April and "they" those who planned all this didn't let him to resign for fear to not disclose the details of the operation.The right sektor thugs could do what they did because people in Odessa were unarmed ,unprepared they just didn't expect such a heinous,monstrous thing that will happen to them(and because the local police didn't intervene),he said that unfortunately peaceful mettings won't help(and i agree) to survive to this crisis he advices people to inform themselves to act to defend themself ,he gave an example, The Slavyansk Region ,people other there armed themself right sektor thugs tried to crush them and couldn't.He also mentions Syria, saying that the thugs who are fighting against Assad many are mercenaries from ex USSSR Countries,now also he says that USA tried through Syria war to get close to Russia and weaken her ,but they failed and are trying now through Ukraine,(by the way he speculates that the thugs from Syria are directed towards Ukraine,to fight against Ukrainian people and possibly to fight against Russia),when Crimea was lost for the current Ukrainian Government, they(USA ) deliberately chose Odessa because it's a at the border with Romania ,Romania which is a country that it's politics is controlled by the USA(they have a military base there ) for them(USA) is very important to get those troops from Romania in Odessa because its a very fast move (like i said Odessa is just at the border with Romania).He also mentions Italy that recently has announced that wants to be a part of the International Peaceful Contingent in Odessa ,he presumes that Italy(if will arrive first in Odessa) could try to negotiate with Russia something like : " we would make all possible to keep as far and as long as possible the troops from Romania and other thugs out of Odessa if you will make us a good offer".
THIS is the link to the Video ,the video is in Russian unfortunately.

P.S.
I hope that my comment is not to too confusing , sorry for that.

P.P.S.
Forgot to inser the link.

 

[Mr. Premise]

She's another one of these political animals who wraps themselves up in the facade of being "progressive" or "humanitarian" in order to serve the elite agenda (whether they realize it or not). No wonder she fits so well into the Bam Bam's Administration. The icing on the cake of Power's bio though is who she is married to.

OMG! I didn't know she was married to Cass Sunstein. I hate Samantha Power. She is our Bernard-Henri Levy.

 

[Corvus]

The Slavyansk Region ,people other there armed themself right sektor thugs tried to crush them and couldn't.He also mentions Syria, saying that the thugs who are fighting against Assad many are mercenaries from ex USSSR Countries,now also he says that USA tried through Syria war to get close to Russia and weaken her ,but they failed and are trying now through Ukraine,(by the way he speculates that the thugs from Syria are directed towards Ukraine,to fight against Ukrainian people and possibly to fight against Russia),when Crimea was lost for the current Ukrainian Government, they(USA ) deliberately chose Odessa because it's a at the border with Romania ,Romania which is a country that it's politics is controlled by the USA(they have a military base there ) for them(USA) is very important to get those troops from Romania in Odessa because its a very fast move (like i said Odessa is just at the border with Romania).He also mentions Italy that recently has announced that wants to be a part of the International Peaceful Contingent in Odessa ,he presumes that Italy(if will arrive first in Odessa) could try to negotiate with Russia something like : " we would make all possible to keep as far and as long as possible the troops from Romania and other thugs out of Odessa if you will make us a good offer".

They want to get Russia in guerilla warfare like in Syria but they are naive also because Russians also have some tactics devised to minimaze losses from such warfare like encircliment of resistence pockets until they begin to starve and surrender while others troops continue to advance(and they have plenty of those) and do the same thing and using more aerial bombordments then engaging wih ground troops. And Italians are looking for ways to get their gas supplies flowing, do not think US is happy that some eu countries are taking independent steps but it seems it will become more and more common when their economies crumble and markets crash.

 

[Ennio]

She's another one of these political animals who wraps themselves up in the facade of being "progressive" or "humanitarian" in order to serve the elite agenda (whether they realize it or not). No wonder she fits so well into the Bam Bam's Administration. The icing on the cake of Power's bio though is who she is married to.

OMG! I didn't know she was married to Cass Sunstein. I hate Samantha Power. She is our Bernard-Henri Levy.

Yes, she is a driving force of war in the U.S. and incredibly influential it seems. This is a pretty good analysis from Counterpunch:

_http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/06/samantha-power-and-the-weaponization-of-human-rights-2/

JUNE 06, 2013
Samantha Power and the Weaponization of Human Rights

by CHASE MADAR

Yesterday Barack Obama nominated Samantha Power as UN Ambassador. This profile of Power by lawyer Chase Madar ran in CounterPunch on September 10, 2009.

American liberals rejoiced at Samantha Power’s appointment to the National Security Council. After so many dreary Clintonites were stacked into top State Department positions—Dennis Ross, Richard Holbrooke, Hillary herself—here was new blood: a dynamic idealist, an inspiring public intellectual, a bestselling author of a book against genocide, a professor at Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights. And she hasn’t even turned 40. The blogosphere buzzed. Surely Samantha Power was the paladin, the conscience, the senior director for multilateral affairs to bring human rights back into U.S. foreign policy.

Don’t count on it. “Human rights,” a term once coterminous with freeing prisoners of conscience and documenting crimes against humanity, has taken on a broader, more conflicted definition. It can now mean helping the Marine Corps formulate counterinsurgency techniques; pounding the drums for air strikes (of a strictly surgical nature, of course); lobbying for troop escalations in various conquered nations—all for noble humanitarian ends.

The intellectual career of Samantha Power is a richly instructive example of the weaponization of human rights. She made her name in 2002 with A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. In this surprise global bestseller, she argues that when confronted with 20th-century genocides, the United States sat on the sidelines as the blood flowed. Look at Bosnia or Rwanda. “Why does the US stand so idly by?” she asks. Powers allows that overall America “has made modest progress in its responses to genocide.” That’s not good enough. We must be bolder in deploying our armed forces to prevent human-rights catastrophes—to engage in “humanitarian intervention” in the patois of our foreign-policy elite.

In nearly 600 pages of text, Power barely mentions those postwar genocides in which the U.S. government, far from sitting idle, took a robust role in the slaughter. Indonesia’s genocidal conquest of East Timor, for instance, expressly green-lighted by President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger, who met with Suharto the night before the invasion was launched and carried out with American-supplied weapons. Over the next quarter century, the Indonesian army saw U.S. military aid and training rise as it killed between 100,000 and 200,000 East Timorese. (The figures and the designation of “genocide” come from a UN-formed investigative body.) This whole bloody business gets exactly one sentence in Power’s book.

What about the genocide of Mayan peasants in Guatemala—another decades-long massacre carried out with American armaments by a military dictatorship with tacit U.S. backing, officer training at Fort Benning, and covert CIA support? A truth commission sponsored by the Catholic Church and the UN designated this programmatic slaughter genocide and set the death toll at approximately 200,000. But apparently this isn’t a problem from hell.

The selective omissions compound. Not a word about the CIA’s role in facilitating the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Indonesian Communists in 1965-66. (Perhaps on legalistic grounds: Since it was a political group being massacred, does it not meet the quirky criteria in the flawed UN Convention on Genocide?) Nothing about the vital debate as to whether the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths attributable to U.S.-led economic sanctions in the 1990s count as genocide. The book is primarily a vigorous act of historical cleansing. Its portrait of a “consistent policy of non-intervention in the face of genocide” is fiction. (Those who think that pointing out Power’s deliberate blind spots about America’s active role in genocide is nitpicking should remember that every moral tradition the earth has known, from the Babylonian Talmud to St. Thomas Aquinas, sees sins of commission as far worse than sins of omission.)

Power’s willful historical ignorance is the inevitable product of her professional milieu: the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. One simply cannot hold down a job at the KSG by pointing out the active role of the U.S. government in various postwar genocides. That is the kind of impolitic whining best left to youthful anarchists like Andrew Bacevich or Noam Chomsky and, really, one wouldn’t want to offend the retired Guatemalan colonel down the hall. (The KSG has an abiding tradition of taking on war criminals as visiting fellows.) On the other hand, to cast the U.S. as a passive, benign giant that must assume its rightful role on the world stage by vanquishing evil—this is most flattering to American amour propre and consonant with attitudes in Washington, even if it doesn’t map onto reality. A country doesn’t acquire a vast network of military bases in dozens of sovereign nations across the world by standing on the sidelines, and for the past hundred years the U.S. has, by any standard, been a hyperactive world presence.

For Samantha Power, the United States can by its very nature only be a force for virtue abroad. In this sense, the outlook of Obama’s human-rights advocate is no different from Donald Rumsfeld’s.
[...]

 

[Laura]

I reckon somebody ought to write an article about Power and her connections and her role in Ukraine and connect some dots.

 

[angelburst29]

The more I read and see, it is as if - the Gates of Hell - have opened up and the Demon's are on the loose?

_http://www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/who-is-behind-the-ukraine-crisis/87201#more-87201

Published on May 3, 2014 (Three short video clips)

Tank ran over an old local villager from Yasnogorsk (near Slaviansk)

Paralyzed man can’t get up. Tanker from Ukraine army asking what happens?
The crowd shouting to the Ukrainian soldiers “fascists!"

 

[angelburst29]

If true, I can only imagine things getting more violent?

S. Arabia Relocating Takfiri Fighters from Syria to Ukraine
_http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930214000824

Sunday May 04, 2014 - TEHRAN (FNA)- Saudi Arabia has sent a large number of Takfiri fighters in Syria to Ukraine to fight the pro-Russian protesters in the European country.

"A large number of terrorist Takfiri fighters in Syria, who bear Saudi and Chechnian nationalities and receive financial and military backup from the Saudi intelligence agency, have been transferred to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on several planes to help the Ukrainian army in its fight against the pro-Russian population," an Arab security official told FNA on Sunday on the condition of anonymity due to the secrecy of the issue.

"The forces have been immediately dispatched to Kramatosk city in Eastern Ukraine, and are now fighting beside the Ukrainian army forces against the pro-Russians under the name of militias who support the government," the source added.

The source explained that Saudi Arabia seeks to take revenge from Russia and pro-Russian people in Ukraine due to Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the war on rebel groups.

Last Summer, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar reportedly offered Russian President Putin a deal, saying if Russia abandoned Syria, Saudi Arabia would protect the Sochi Olympics from Islamic terrorists. Putin angrily rebuffed the offer. In January, two terrorist bombings, for which the Saudis were blamed, happened only 400 miles away from the site of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

According to the leaked diplomatic account of last summer’s meeting, Bandar sought Russia’s cooperation on several Mideast concerns, including Syria, and told Putin, “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us.”

Putin reportedly responded, “We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned. We are interested in developing friendly relations according to clear and strong principles.”

Besides safety for the Sochi Olympics, Bandar raised the potential of Saudi cooperation with Russia on oil and other investment matters, saying, “Let us examine how to put together a unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of oil. The aim is to agree on the price of oil and production quantities that keep the price stable in global oil markets,” according to the diplomatic account.

A source close to the Russian government said in January that this mix of overt inducements and implied threats infuriated Putin who barely kept his anger in check through the end of the meeting with Bandar. Putin viewed Bandar’s offer to protect the Sochi Olympics as something akin to a Mafia don shaking down a shopkeeper for protection money by saying, “nice little business you got here, I’d hate to see anything happen to it.”

Putin then redoubled his support for the Syrian government in response to Bandar’s blend of bribes and warnings. The source said Russia also issued its own thinly veiled threats against the Saudis. The Saudis may have substantial “soft power” – with their oil and money – but Russia has its own formidable “hard power,” including a huge military, the source said.

 

[Siberia]

Here is an interesting interview about Odessa and the situation in general. Two guests are interviewed: professor of politics at the University of Rhode Island and professor of political economy at Moscow State University:

Is Ukraine Descending Into Civil War?

https://youtu.be/tV8yuBqEhjI?list=UUrmm_7RDZJeQzq2-wvmjueg

The transcript of the interview is here: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/23533-is-ukraine-descending-into-civil-war.

 

[Lumiere_du_Code]

May 6, 2014, it is the children of the city Sloviansk, they holding placards reading "Stop the bombardment of the city of guns", "Remove "Grad's" from us!" (in Russian - ГРАД - reactive volley-fire system), "If we die - millions of people will not forgive you", "Do not kill us", "Soldier, do not shoot!", "We are not terrorists".

troops of junta shoot cars, one family tried to get out of town to be saved, this car was without warning and checks immediately shot. at least two dead there.
yesterday was killed by a sniper 30-year-old resident of the city, which just came out on the balcony in the apartment! She instantly killed by a sniper. punishers did not see who before them, just kill everyone.

on May 7:

14:05 (MSK)
Defense forces met fierce resistance Ukrainian security forces while trying to take the TV tower Slovyansk, Interfax reported.
"The battle began early in the morning and still continues. We under shooting from all weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, "- said the representative of the militia. According to him, a grenade was fired and militia checkpoint near the village Andreevka (near Sloviansk). There may have wounded.
Militias say about the complexities associated with the evacuation of victims.

13:43 (MSK)
LifeNews camera crew came under mortar attack near Sloviansk where the Ukrainian army is conducting a military operation against the local population. Alexei Kazannik reporter and cameraman Alexander Matveev came under fire during a live broadcast, it was reported on the channel's website. A few minutes before the shelling Kazannik reported that near the checkpoint Ukrainian troops disguised installation "Grad".
what is "Grad":

2:20 (MSK)
Slovyansk is under siege, residents were taken hostage in their own city, told Itar-Tass by telephone representative SDF city.
"The city is surrounded, while civilians are not releasing. Recently, he tried to leave the personal car family with a young child , but it was to open fire, killing at least two people," - said the representative of the militia.
According to him, at checkpoints around the city there were "yet unidentified men in black uniforms". "We can assume that this "right sector", but still no precise data on this we have" - he explained.

clearly obvious crush assigned task until May 11, and by all means disrupt the referendum. slipped information about the destruction of passports, as already in the Crimea before the referendum was.
all costs want to disrupt the referendum, because they know that after the east it would be a military junta aggressor and occupier, and then Russia will 100% - as peacekeepers in the autonomous republic at her request. purely on logic. so they rage.
CIA - because obviously. and all for the loan from the IMF...

 

[Lumiere_du_Code]

if there is an opportunity, place please these photos with children somewhere on visited websites or forums.
Here literally the smell of blood and a presentiment of cleaning of the region resisting to nazis till May 9-11 soars in air. it is very disturbing. civilians are died every day, children, young people, old men who in general have no relation to rebels...