Revolution in Ukraine: Western-engineered Coup d'État?

[Persej]

The Crimea referendum is tomorrow

And in the same day in Venice!

Venice prepares for referendum on secession from Italy

Voting will begin on Sunday in a referendum on whether Venice and its surrounding region should secede from the rest of Italy, in a bid to restore its 1,000-year history as a sovereign republic.

"La Serenissima" – or the Most Serene Republic of Venice – was an independent trading power for a millennium before the last doge, or leader, was deposed by Napoleon in 1797.

The republic encompassed not just Venice but what is now the surrounding region of Veneto and it is there that the vote will take place from Sunday until Friday.

Campaigners have been inspired by the example of Scotland, which will hold its referendum on independence from the rest of the UK in September, and Catalonia, where around half the population say they want to break away from Spain.

Activists say that the latest polling shows that 65 per cent of voters in the Veneto region, which includes historic cities such as Treviso, Vicenza and Verona, are in favour of cutting ties with Rome.

For decades there has been deep-seated dissatisfaction in the rich northern regions of Italy with what is widely regarded as inefficient and venal rule from Rome, as well as resentment that hard-won tax revenues are sent south and often squandered.

Around 3.8 million people in the Veneto are eligible to vote and campaigners hope to achieve a majority in favour of independence.

They want a future independent state to be known as "Repubblica Veneta" – in English the Republic of Veneto.

They acknowledge that the vote is not binding on the national government in Rome and could cause a massive constitutional upheaval, but insist that if it passes, they will start taking steps to withhold taxes, in what would effectively be a unilateral declaration of independence.

"If there is a majority yes vote, we have scholars drawing up a declaration of independence and there are businesses in the region who say they will begin paying taxes to local authorities instead of to Rome," Lodovico Pizzati, the spokesman for the independence movement, told The Telegraph.

"It won't be like in Scotland, where London has said it will recognise a vote in favour of independence. Rome has tried to ignore us, but we are not going to wait for their recognition.

"People are fed up with the economic crisis and have had it with Rome.

Scotland and Catalonia are way ahead of us, but the Veneto is very fertile ground – there has been an independence movement here since the 1970s," said Prof Pizzati, a former World Bank economist who currently teaches at California State University.

But many people in the Veneto are opposed to the idea of seceding from Italy. "It is anachronistic to think of a Europe made out of regions when we should strive for a Europe of stronger nations," said Pietro Piccinetti, the head of a committee campaigning for a no vote.

"We want to change, but within a stronger Italy."

By coincidence, the vote will take place on the same day as Crimea's referendum on independence from Ukraine.

"Venetians not only want out of Italy, but we also want out of the euro, the EU and Nato," said Raffaele Serafini, another pro-independence activist.

Like several other regions of Italy, the Veneto's ties with the rest of the country are fragile and of relatively recent origin.

After Napoleonic troops ended Venice's independence in 1797, the lagoon city was part of the Austrian empire for 60 years.

It was only in 1866 that it was annexed to the newly-unified Kingdom of Italy.

_http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10698299/Venice-prepares-for-referendum-on-secession-from-Italy.html

 

[Keit]

Voting will begin on Sunday in a referendum on whether Venice and its surrounding region should secede from the rest of Italy, in a bid to restore its 1,000-year history as a sovereign republic.

Both events turn out to be quite symbolic, considering the Ides of March.

 

[Persej]

Both events turn out to be quite symbolic, considering the Ides of March.

Didn't want to bring this up, but now that we are talking about symbols, tommorow will also be held parliamentary elections in Serbia. Yes, it is not so important country, but it seems to me that it is today the only country in Europe that generally likes Russia (Belarus doesn't count ;)). Another interesting coincidence. :)

 

[thorbiorn]

‘Pushed to leave’: Packing moods among Ukraine’s Jewish minority amidst far-right rise
Published time: March 15, 2014 18:42
With the beating of the head of Hatzalah’s local branch in Kiev and an earlier attack on a synagogue, many from the Jewish minority tell RT they feel they will be forced to leave the country, where the far-right is capitalizing on the turmoil.
[...]
To protect themselves, the Jewish people of Ukraine organized self-defense courses led by ex-elite fighters of the Israeli army. The participants of the courses still refuse to speak on camera, except for one, who asked to cover his face, so that he is not recognized.

“Everyone should learn how to defend themselves, given the situation here. We know that Maidan movement is nationalist,” the man said.

That was the news yesterday. I was wondering if Delta, the Jewish Euromaidan hero from a few days earlier, has got new work to do or became wiser in the meantime?

Anti-Semitism comes full circle: Israeli Defence Forces unit led fascist militia in Kiev - How much involvement did Israel have in neo-Nazi coup d'état?Cnaan Liphshiz
Times of Israel
Sat, 01 Mar 2014 06:49 CS
[...]
The Blue Helmets comprise 35 men and women who are not Jewish, and who are led by five ex-IDF soldiers, says Delta, an Orthodox Jew in his late 30s who regularly prays at Azman's Brodsky Synagogue.

[...]

As platoon leader, Delta says he takes orders from activists connected to Svoboda, an ultra-nationalist party that has been frequently accused of anti-Semitism and whose members have been said to have had key positions in organizing the opposition protests.

"I don't belong [to Svoboda], but I take orders from their team. They know I'm Israeli, Jewish and an ex-IDF soldier. They call me 'brother,'" he said. "What they're saying about Svoboda is exaggerated, I know this for a fact. I don't like them because they're inconsistent, not because of [any] anti-Semitism issue."
[...]
Still, Delta's reasons for not revealing his name betray his sense of feeling like an outsider. "If I were Ukrainian, I would have been a hero. But for me it's better to not reveal my name if I want to keep living here in peace and quiet," he said.

Fellow Jews have criticized him for working with Svoboda. "Some asked me if instead of 'Shalom' they should now greet me with a 'Sieg heil.' I simply find it laughable," he said. But he does have frustrations related to being an outsider. "Sometimes I tell myself, 'What are you doing? This is not your army. This isn't even your country.'"
[...]

 

[Nević Nenad]

Both events turn out to be quite symbolic, considering the Ides of March.

Didn't want to bring this up, but now that we are talking about symbols, tommorow will also be held parliamentary elections in Serbia. Yes, it is not so important country, but it seems to me that it is today the only country in Europe that generally likes Russia (Belarus doesn't count ;)). Another interesting coincidence. :)

Don't know why you didn't count Belarus, it is still in Europe :D
Election in Serbia are not just parliamentary but general, which means that power could be changed on all levels except president, which is anyway just symbolic figure with no real power.

Maybe it is interesting to say that Serbia sent election observers on Crimean referendum by the call from Crimean parliament. Serbian parliament vice president as one of them.

http://www.novosti.rs/%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8/%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B0/%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0.393.html:482768-Potpredsednik-Skupstine-Nenad-Popovic-posmatrac-referenduma-na-Krimu

http://www.blic.rs/Vesti/Svet/448453/Dveri-posmatraci-referenduma-o-statusu-Krima

Few days earlier there was group of men from Serbia who joined Crimean self defense forces on their own. Actually they are more hilarious entertainers than soldiers, but there it is . . .

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/krise-in-der-ukraine-serbische-freischaerler-ziehen-auf-die-krim-12838739.html

Of course, the CIA paid Serbian officials "expressed worry on that" the very same minute :)


edit: added from "Maybe it is interesting . . . " onward.

 

[seek10]

Reading crimea on wiki and found this as interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimea

On 28 February 2014, Russian Ground Forces occupied airports and other strategic locations in Crimea.[53] The interim Government of Ukraine described the events as an invasion and occupation of Crimea by Russian forces.[54][55] However, Russian troops have been stationed in Crimea for over a decade under an agreement with Ukraine,[56] although the number of forces present in late February 2014 constituted a violation of Ukrainian-Russian treaty agreements.[citation needed]

They can insert it without citation ?.

 

[Persej]

Don't know why you didn't count Belarus, it is still in Europe :D

Because I think that you cannot NOT like Russia if you speak Russian. :)

Election in Serbia are not just parliamentary but general, which means that power could be changed on all levels except president, which is anyway just symbolic figure with no real power.

No, they are not general because local elections are just in Belgrade.

 

[Windmill knight]

RT reports:

Crimean govt: Referendum website downed by cyber-attack from US

http://rt.com/news/crimea-referendum-attack-website-194/

The official website of the Crimean referendum is down due to a cyber-attack that originated from the US, Crimean authorities say.

The exact location from which the website’s servers were attacked was Illinois University, Crimean minister of information and mass communications Dmitry Polonsky told Itar-Tass news agency.

“This place turned out to be the Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign. A massive scanning of the servers took place from there before the attack,” Polonsky said.

The assault started during the night (2300 GMT Saturday). At 1000 GMT Sunday, the referendum2014.ru site still wasn’t functioning.

Polonsky stressed that the referendum website has been “DDoS-attacked regularly since its launch.” The portal with .ua domain was replaced with .ru after several attacks.

The referendum is taking place in Crimea, with the vote reported to be peaceful and with high turnout, according to both international observers and Crimean authorities.

On Friday, major Russian government web resources were attacked with DDoS malware – those included the Russian president’s website, as well as those of the Foreign Ministry and the Central Bank.

Also, state media websites – the Channel One and Russia-24 TV channels – were under attack, reportedly from Kiev. The targeted Russian media said the attacks were linked to their editorial policy in covering Ukraine.

Finally, on the same day, an attempted radio-electronic attack on Russian TV satellites from the territory of Western Ukraine was recorded by the Ministry of Communications.

DDoS is the kind of cyber-attack during which requests are sent to the attacked website from many computers, usually virus-infected.

 

[Corvus]

A logical outcome considering that some of the "volunteers from Maidan self-defense squads" probably would otherwise be unhappy with the austerities being put in place for the manjorty of Ukrainians. Therefore the new rulers need to create a situation where none of these "volunteers" would need to go against them. What better way than to arm them and cut down everybody else.

They think they are securing themselves, at least Yats and his moderates and US backers behind them. I think it is quite opposite because when people go again on streets because of those austerities and deeper economic crisis those radicals can easily jump to people side and use it to take control of whole goverment in new cue, especially when they have control of military now, and have their brown shirts fully armed. But it is similar situation like in nazi germany with SA and SS units that were not part of army and were neded for jobs that regular army could not do with such ease. But the primary reason is because they can not trust the military because as shown when sent to Crimea and with navy flagship they went to Crimean side, they are divided. In this way they will create loyal force they can count on, but as said it is two edged sword.

 

[Keit]

Exit polls show that more than 93% in Crimea voted for being part of Russia.

 

[Cosmos]

CNN news:

- Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says vote is unlawful, cites irregularities

- Kerry repeats in call to Lavrov the U.S. position that vote is illegal

And in german news they say that the EU also says it is illegal and that both the US and the EU do not want to recognize the referendum.

What a load of BS.

Black is white and white is black, or so they want us to believe. And they know full well, as everyone else does who has looked into it, that this referendum is not illegal or unlawful in any way. Quite the contrary...

 

[Psalehesost]

Black is white and white is black, or so they want us to believe. And they know full well, as everyone else does who has looked into it, that this referendum is not illegal or unlawful in any way. Quite the contrary...

Or - maybe they don't really know it? Psychopath Humanoids - Beyond Insanity.

They make pronouncements without substantiation. To them, these pronouncements represent what reality is . . . pronouncement by pronouncement. The present pronouncement may contradict what they said a moment ago. This means nothing to them. They make no attempt to deal with the contradiction.

They demonstrate a total lack of understanding what we mean by a "fact." [...]

It became clear they thoroughly believed their pronouncements erased not only the evidence presented but also [their confronter, in smearing him]. They "pronounced" him to be no longer in existence. For them, whatever they "declare" is what's real. What WE call reality is not real to them. THEY "pronounce" what is to be considered real.

 

[Cosmos]

Black is white and white is black, or so they want us to believe. And they know full well, as everyone else does who has looked into it, that this referendum is not illegal or unlawful in any way. Quite the contrary...

Or - maybe they don't really know it? Psychopath Humanoids - Beyond Insanity.

They make pronouncements without substantiation. To them, these pronouncements represent what reality is . . . pronouncement by pronouncement. The present pronouncement may contradict what they said a moment ago. This means nothing to them. They make no attempt to deal with the contradiction.

They demonstrate a total lack of understanding what we mean by a "fact." [...]

It became clear they thoroughly believed their pronouncements erased not only the evidence presented but also [their confronter, in smearing him]. They "pronounced" him to be no longer in existence. For them, whatever they "declare" is what's real. What WE call reality is not real to them. THEY "pronounce" what is to be considered real.

Yes.

Maybe they have again created their very own delusional reality. Quite staggering to think about... Some people just do not seem to have any capability whatsoever of recognizing, understanding or value facts aka. objective reality.

 

[Keit]

- Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says vote is unlawful, cites irregularities

I listened to the press conferences they had during the day and after closing the polls, and all the inspectors (and apparently, there were many) said that there were no irregularities. But there were reporters (from foreign media channels) who tried to stir a controversy. One of them posed a question the following way: "What can you tell us about irregularities. Were there any, since we know that no election happens without them?" The speaker insisted that there were no irregularities and everything was lawful.

Also, now listened to the press conference with inspectors (from Austria, Italy, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Catalonia, Latvia, Poland, etc.). They gave their first impressions. Already in the morning there were people waiting, in the first hours voted 50%. They say that the difference from other elections were, that people congratulated each other, and elderly who had trouble to walk, still, asked for officials to come to their homes so they will be able to vote. According to the inspectors there were no irregularities. EU inspectors, by the way ignored the referendum.

Also, apparently more than 80% voted (in Simferopol 85%) and it was a record, elections wise. People who never voted before came to vote this time.

 

[Windmill knight]

Here's a source:

http://rt.com/news/crimea-vote-join-russia-210/

About 93% of Crimeans in referendum voted to join Russia - exit poll

About 93 percent of voters in the Crimean referendum have answered ‘yes’ to the autonomous republic joining Russia and only 7 percent of the vote participants want the region to remain part of Ukraine, according to first exit polls.

Polling stations closed in Crimea after the referendum where residents were to decide on the future status of the region.

“The results of the referendum exit polls in Crimea and Sevastopol: 93 percent voted for the reunion of Crimea with Russia as a constituent unit of the Russian Federation. 7 percent voted for the restoration of the 1992 constitution of the Republic of Crimea and Crimea’s status as part of Ukraine,” the Crimean republican institute for political and social research said in a statement as cited by RIA Novosti.

The overall voter turnout in the referendum on the status of Crimea is 81,37%, according to the head of the Crimean parliament’s commission on the referendum, Mikhail Malyshev.

The preliminary results of the popular vote in Sevastopol are expected to be announced at 2030 GMT during a meeting in the center of the city that hosts Russia's Black Sea fleet.

Over a half of the Tatars living in the port city took part in the referendum, with the majority of them voting in favor of joining Russia, reports Itar-Tass citing a representative of the Tatar community Lenur Usmanov.

About 40% of Crimean Tatars went to polling stations on Sunday, the republic’s prime minister Sergey Aksyonov said.

In Simferopol, the capital of the republic, at least 15,000 have gathered to celebrate the referendum in central Lenin square and people reportedly keep arriving. Demonstrators, waving Russian and Crimean flags, are watching a live concert and awaiting the announcement of preliminary results of the voting.

"The international community will not recognize the results," @PressSec says on #Crimea. Crowd #Simferopol says: "Ros-si-ya! Ros-si-ya!"

— David M. Herszenhorn (@herszenhorn) March 16, 2014

International observers are planning to present their final declaration on the Crimean referendum on March 17, the head of the monitors’ commission, Polish MP Mateush Piskorski told journalists. He added that the voting was held in line with international norms and standards.

Next week, Crimea will officially introduce the ruble as a second official currency along with Ukrainian hryvna, Aksyonov told Interfax. In his words, the dual currency will be in place for about six months.

Overall, the republic’s integration into Russia will take up to a year, the Prime Minister said, adding that it could be done faster. However, they want to maintain relations with “economic entities, including Ukraine,” rather than burn bridges.

Moscow is closely monitoring the vote count in Crimea, said Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Karasin.

“The results of the referendum will be considered once they are drawn up,” he told Itar-Tass.

The decision to hold a referendum was made after the bloody uprising in Kiev which ousted President Vladimir Yanukovich from power. Crimea - which is home to an ethnic Russian majority population - refused to recognize the coup-appointed government as legitimate. Crimeans feared that the new leadership would not represent their interests and respect rights. Crimeans were particularly unhappy over parliament's decision to revoke the law allowing using minority languages – including Russian – as official along with the Ukrainian tongue. Crimeans staged mass anti-Maidan protests and asked Russia to protect them.

Now things are going to get very interesting. Russia will annex Crimea, the new Ukranian government and the west will protest much, but if they do nothing apart from protesting, they will look like the bunch of fools they are. My guess is Obama and Co. will seek to impose some limited economic sanctions on Russia and make a big show of it. But if Russia and China retaliate with similar or tougher measures, which they can do hard (and both have already threatened to do so), then that might be the much anticipated push into the final global economic collapse. For example, they can drop the dollar, stop buying US bonds, stop selling gas to Europe or increase their prices, etc, making the dominoes fall.

If that happens, then who knows what the west will do next, seeing that they will be losing their place at the top. I'd like to think that being rational, even if pathologically selfish, their reason will tell them that escalating into an actual shooting war with the east would be a very bad idea, even for their own interests. But then again, this is my assumption that they have some capability for rationality remaining at that point. World wars have happened in the past after all... Hopefully they just tell us they are very very upset and shocked and leave it at that.

So! I can't wait to see what happens next.