Here is the latest I have been able to quickly round up:Russia/Crimea/UN/Russia setting agenda in Ukraine-
Russia called for a national unity deal in Ukraine even as it tightened its stranglehold over Crimea, a bold combination of diplomacy and escalating military pressure. The U.S. and European Union floundered for solutions — while global markets panicked over the prospect of violent upheaval in the heart of Europe.
The use of the word stranglehold is interesting and evocative but not accurate.Recent news is reporting, according to the western backed regime change government, that there are approximately 16,000 Russia troops in the Crimea Is that an accurate number? That is anyone’s guess? Anyone? The information I found tell us all that, under a 2010 agreement, as many as 25,000 soldiers can be in the CrimeaSo..... the 16,000 number is well below the 25,000 number that has been agreed upon and is not indicative of a 'stranglehold'According to Washington Post-
President Vladimir Putin knows there is little the West can do to get him to reverse his mobilization in Crimea, or to stop him from sending additional troops into other parts of Ukraine. ( Due to the fact that their is an arrangement) But trade sanctions against Russia could be painful, and there are ways for him to get what he wants — keeping Ukraine from slipping out of his grasp — without ratcheting up the military pressure.
Putin- cause yesterday I had scary Kerry
The plan Russia pushed Monday (UN) calls on Ukrainian politicians to return to their earlier agreement to form a government of national unity. Importantly, the presidential election under that scenario would be held in December and not in May, as the government formed by victorious protesters has planned.
This would buy the Kremlin time. In the coming months the Ukrainian economy could go into free fall, with the West helpless to stop it. There would be new pressure within Ukraine to turn to Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on Ukraine to return to a Feb. 21 agreement between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his opponents just before Yanukovych fled to Russia and his opponents named a new government.
Lavrov said representatives of Russia-friendly Ukrainian regions should be brought into the new government.
“Instead of a promised national unity government, a ‘government of the victors’ has been created,” he said at U.N. meetings in Geneva.
A government of victors has been created. Lavrov is being very diplomatic.
This has been the position of the Kremlin all along, but now it is negotiating from a position of strength.Russia has taken control of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based. Russian troops controlled all Ukrainian border posts and all military bases on Monday.Putin also has left open the option of sending troops into eastern and southern Ukraine, where many ethnic Russians live. “We are talking about protection of our citizens and compatriots,” Lavrov said Monday.This has raised fears in Kiev and the West that Russia will annex these regions as well
The current instability plays into Moscow’s hand by making it more difficult for the new government to persuade the International Monetary Fund to provide the billions of dollars in loans that Ukraine needs to avoid default.
While Putin most likely is relishing Russia’s ability to strike fear in Kiev and world capitals, Lavrov’s statements suggest he might be willing to make a deal that could serve him better in the long run.
The western backed fascists outlawed the Russian language. It does appear there was at least one attempted terror attack in Crimea, which was prevented. Likely there were others. It would make sense.However, I would think the cutting off of almost all communications for the Crimean populace could be considered an act of terror? It certainly must have scared many civilians, considering, all that is going on..Germany seems uninterested in upping the ante- Unlike Obombin' everything and scary KerryMerkel is governing by coalition
Heavily dependent on Russian gas and closer to Moscow than any other leading western nation, Germany faces a major policy dilemma as the Ukraine crisis descends into a Cold War-style confrontation of tit-for-tat threats and ultimatums.
For weeks, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her three-month old coalition government have gone out of their way to avoid antagonising Vladimir Putin, remaining measured even as Washington and other capitals ratcheted up the rhetoric.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a protege of former chancellor and Putin friend Gerhard Schroeder, has travelled to Moscow and Washington to urge restraint.
Merkel has stayed in almost daily phone contact with Putin as the crisis has deepened.Two weeks ago she lobbied hard to win Kremlin backing for a deal mediated by Germany, France and Poland to resolve the standoff in Kiev, only to see that crumble within 24 hours when Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovich was deposed and fled the country.
So, Merkel and company negotiated the transitional government deal that Yanukovich agree to, and the Kremlin backed- The Kremlin backed that deal. Therefore the Washington Post is lying, bullshitting, prevaricating, fabricating, fibbing, misleading etc. when the Washington Post makes this claim
WP LIES- "Ironically, that agreement received the blessings of the West, but not Russia, at the time"
Considered in the context of Victoria Nuland's.......... "F'ing of the EU"Now we know she did. She brought the heightened potential for war right to their doorSo why is the neo-con-shill for Israel along with her husband, still in the so called democratic government of Obama?
"Germany is very concerned about its relations with Russia. There are the economic ties, but this is also about geopolitics - the idea in Berlin that Russia must be included," said Ulrich Speck, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe. "The biggest threat from Germany's perspective is a new Cold War."