Been a busy day here..So don't miss-Car bomb in Kiev ? Very Unclear. Which is looking very hoaxish.And the 3 part essay written in 1947 - The Lost Tools of Learning- Dorothy Sayers Part 1- A treatise that is both prophetic and offering up a solution1st- Porous borders between the Ukraine and Russia- Take a look at google earth. The East of Ukraine, well actually most of Ukraine was a gift from Russia, but I had taken a look some months ago at specific areas along the "border". Farmers fields, wooded areas, streets with houses all indicative of once having been common grounds. Porous, indeed.
MOSCOW—Ukraine lost even more control over its porous border with Russia on Friday when it abandoned eight border posts that had become the target of sustained attacks from separatist fighters.
The State Border Guard Service said it had opted to pull its forces back from the crossings into Russia's Rostov region because it had become impossible to "prevent a threat to the lives and health of the local population."Seven of the posts are in the southeastern Lu(g)hansk region, where pro-Russian rebels appear to have gained firmer control in recent days despite a stepped-up military operation ordered by the government in Kiev.The eighth crossing at Marynivka, in neighboring Donetsk region, was the scene of heavy fighting on Thursday. The border service said the battle raged for hours after an armored personnel carrier, seven vehicles loaded with fighters and four flatbed trucks equipped with machine-gun turrets approached the border posts from both sides of the frontier.
Eight border crossings, now controlled by separatists.Refugees? The answer is yes
Russia has increasingly tried to depict Ukraine's military assault in the east as a humanitarian issue. On Thursday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the fighting has driven thousands of Ukrainian civilians across the border into Russia. Kiev, however, said there was little evidence of a refugee crisis.The Ukrainian border service said it had seen no detectable spike in the number of people crossing into Russia. On Friday, Russian lawmaker Vladimir Pligin told the Interfax news agency that Russia had received about 800 requests for refugee status from people coming in from Ukraine.
Judging by these statements there are clearly refugees. Russia is saying thousands. Kiev is saying there is 'little evidence'. That tells us there is evidence of refugees entering Russia and Kiev is going to downplay the numbers. Ukraine border service says 'no detectable spike' which means we aren't acknowledging it.More evidence for refugees comes from the UN, but, the report from the UN is spun
On May 20, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees issued a report saying that while an estimated 10,000 Ukrainians had been displaced within the country, "the number of Ukrainian asylum-seekers in other countries has remained low."
10,000 Ukrainians have been displaced but numbers going to other countries have been lowHow low? How high? How many? That's anyones guess, but, clearly there are refugees!And some have entered Russia, no matter the lie/spin from Kiev or UN.The Economist- Vladimir Putin’s European adventures
The Russian president’s strategy towards Ukraine and the West may not have worked as well as he hoped.
It's an 'interesting' presentation of reality? I am really not quite sure if Russian strategy, alone, is being discussed. Or if this information presents a case of things not working out so well for Russia? As opposed to not working out so well for NATO/US. You decide?
In Ukraine, Mr Putin may also presume he is getting what he wants, even if Moscow is not directing day-to-day fighting in the east. Ukraine’s newly elected president, Petro Poroshenko, who will be inaugurated this weekend, is inheriting a messy and intractable conflict that will divert attention and resources from other problems, not least a floundering economy. Financial woes and the need to end the fighting will force Mr Poroshenko to deal with Mr Putin—though the reverse is also true, since the Kremlin will have to accept Mr Poroshenko as a valid interlocutor.
There is that admission Moscow is not directing day to day fighting. And yet the NATO media persists in presenting this as the case? It's not credible.
At a minimum, Mr Putin and separatist forces in the east, inspired and in many cases supported by the Kremlin even if not run by it, have created facts on the ground that make the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO impossible.
There is that admission yet again! The separatist forces may be 'inspired' by a great many things... perhaps even Putin but they are not being run by the Kremlin. Oh and how is the prospect of Ukraine not joining NATO a loss for Putin?
It may be that Mr Putin was not dissuaded from invading eastern Ukraine by the threat of sanctions, but that he would have gone in only if there had been no other way to achieve these goals. The tens of thousands of Russian troops stationed on the border—Western military officials say all but a handful have returned to their bases—were there mainly to intimidate and deter Ukrainian forces and to act as cover for rebel paramilitaries to take over more government buildings.
The sanctions were ineffective. Useless. The stationing of the Russian troops at the border server to deter Ukraine forces and embolden rebel separatists via sheer intimidation. Again, how is this a fail for Russia?It seems so far Russia has been pretty effective in achieving goals without direct intervention of any kind.If only the US could exercise such restraint in it's affairs, anywhere.
The Kremlin may thus have flipped the switch for an anti-Kiev insurgency that it cannot easily turn off. The violence of what Kiev is calling its “anti-terrorist operation” is also hardening local sentiment. On June 2nd a rocket apparently launched by a Ukrainian military jet killed several people outside an administrative building occupied by separatists in Luhansk. Hostility to the new authorities in Kiev was formerly inchoate (was it?) and fed by Russian propaganda, but more civilian deaths and a sense of siege have made it harder to reverse
The Kremlin, as the Economist has told us more then once, is more inspiration then anything else. How can the Economist writer claim the Kremlin has flipped a switch it can't turn off? Just doesn't make sense.What is correct is that the cruelty Kiev is displaying is intentionally inflaming the situation as opposed to calming it down. There is evidence to support that. Still no evidence to support one claim of Kremlin involvement or intervention internally in the Ukraine.
- European leaders see the $450 billion of annual trade with Russia as too large to risk tougher sanctions. -The sale of Mistral ships, worth €1.2 billion ($1.7 billion) and highly important to France’s arms-export industry, shows commercial considerations winning out.-The rise of far-right parties (anti EURO parties) across Europe gives Mr Putin further comfort. Movements like France’s National Front have an “ideological convergence” with the Kremlin.-The hoped-for anchoring in Asia is a large geopolitical gamble, (according to who?) the result of which will only slowly become apparent. On May 29th in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, Mr Putin signed a deal to create a Eurasian Economic Union with the Kazakh and Belarusian presidents
The spectre of increased NATO forces on Russia’s borders in Poland and the Baltic states has become a reality thanks to Mr Putin’s actions in Ukraine. (?) And having fought to preserve its sovereignty and economic leverage in relation to Europe and the West, Russia risks replacing them with a new dependence on China.
NATO forces on Russia's border because of Mr Putin's actions in Ukraine?- The economist is fully in bizarro world with that one- F' the EU. 5 Billion dollars. Mercenaries from Israel and other nations.Ring any bells Economist propagandist?And a "new dependence on China" ?!?! What?!?! I find that statement incredible. Simply incredibleChina the largest market on the planet. Hungry for energy. And the economist calls this 'dependence'Sheesh!Yah, I have a couple more articles for further reading:From CNN- I found this to be an interesting readCBS-Ukraine leader gives little sign of quick end to conflict
He also took a firm line on Russia's annexation of Crimea this spring, insisting that the Black Sea peninsula "was, is and will be Ukrainian." He gave no indication of how Ukraine could regain control of Crimea
He will just go kill a whole bunch of people that's what the warlord/oligarch will do!