Month: March 2014

(opendemocracy.net – Paul Rogers – March 6, 2014) The dangerous stand-off with Russia over Ukraine is also a display of the west’s skewed perceptions and moral vanities. Paul Rogers is professor in the department of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He is openDemocracy’s international-security editor, and has been writing a weekly column on global security since 28 September […]

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – DONETSK, Ukraine – March 8, 2014) Just a month ago, few people were talking about more autonomy for Donetsk — less still about it joining Russia. But with Russian troops in Crimea and the Black Sea peninsula soon to vote on joining Russia, some in Donetsk are agitating for a referendum to widen the […]

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Volodymyr Verbyany, Daryna Krasnolutska & Stepan Kravchenko – March 9, 2014) Pro-Russian forces advanced in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, ignoring Western calls to abandon a military takeover in the run up to a separatist referendum slated for March 16. Russian forces took control of the province’s Chernomorskoye border base today, detaining Ukrainian soldiers, a day after gunmen […]

(Interfax – March 8, 2014) Ukraine did not ask Russia to hold a meeting in Paris at the level of foreign ministers, while when planning contacts in Paris between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Western counterparts nothing was said about expanding the number of participants, a Russian Foreign Ministry source has said. “When planning contacts between the Russian […]

(Interfax – March 8, 2014) Ukraine is not abandoning the hope to preserve good neighborly relations with Russia and Russians, Ukraine’s Acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsa said. “We would like to have good neighborly relations with all our neighbors, including Russia. That is the reason why we are still keeping the option of a diplomatic dialogue with Russia, keeping the […]

(RFE/RL – rferl.org –  March 07, 2014) With officials in the Ukrainian region of Crimea preparing a referendum on joining the Russian Federation and Russian lawmakers drafting legislation that would enable Moscow to accept Crimea as a new subject of Russia, RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson discussed the issue of annexation with Adam Roberts, senior research fellow in international relations at […]

MOSCOW, March 8 (RIA Novosti) – The head of Russian diplomacy on Saturday slammed Ukrainian post-revolutionary authorities and alleged attempts to demonize Russia’s involvement in the Ukrainian crisis. “The so-called ‘interim government’ [in Ukraine] is not independent and, sadly, depends on radical nationalists who seized power in an armed coup,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Ukrainian opposition took power in […]

MOSCOW. March 8 (Interfax) – Ukraine could soon announce setting up a commission to investigate the so-called problem of Maidan snipers, which arose after publication of the transcript of a telephone conversation between Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton. It was reported earlier that the head of the […]

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Kateryna Choursina, Eduard Gismatullin and James M. Gomez – March 6, 2014) Near a display of confiscated weapons from elite police who fired on Ukrainian protesters during Kiev’s uprising, Mykola stands guard duty in a shack beside a barricade of tires, wire and park benches. The hated riot police gone, activists in camouflage mingle with tourists […]

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Darya Lyubinskaya, special to RBTH – March 3, 2014) Russians hold rallies in support of and in protest against sending troops to Ukraine. Rallies in support of and against a possible military operation in Ukraine were held in several Russian cities yesterday. Rallies of those who oppose a military intervention in Crimea ended […]