SIMFEROPOL, March 9 (RIA Novosti) – The authorities in Ukraine’s breakaway region of Crimea on Sunday ruled out negotiations with the central government, which they say is illegitimate. “The incumbent authorities are absolutely illegitimate, they were brought to power by guns, knives and baseball bats. While they are in office, there will be no dialog not only with them, but […]
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(Interfax – March 9, 2014) Crimean Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Konstantynov said during negotiations in the Russian State Duma that the decision to hold a referendum in Crimea and the decision made by the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to join Russia are forced measures caused by threats made by Ukraine. “Volodymyr Konstantynov pointed out the importance of […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – editorial – March 6, 2014) As the U.S. and Europe consider financial sanctions to punish Russia for trampling on Ukraine’s sovereignty, they are coming up against an uncomfortable reality: Those sanctions tend to cut both ways. But how deep do they cut? Russia is far more financially intertwined with the West than it was back in […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Tim Ash – March 7, 2014) Ok, so here is my quick fix for a solution herein. The West – or US – has just rediscovered the wheel almost by hitting on the idea of financial sanctions as a way to get Russia back to the negotiating table. This will have impact and even […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – March 7, 2014) Let’s get a few things straight at the start. Russia’s actions in Crimea is not the start of a war nor is it an invasion. There are no tanks on the street. No shots have been fired. No one has died. In fact almost no force […]
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(Interfax – March 6, 2014) Most Russian citizens believe that their country should actively protect the interests of ethnic Russians in Crimea, the head of the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM), Valeriy Fedorov, has said. He was speaking at an Open Tribune session in the State Duma on 6 March, as reported by privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax on […]
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(Kremlin.ru – March 4, 2014) Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region The President of Russia met with media representatives to answer a number of their questions, in particular with regard to the situation in Ukraine. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues, How shall we do this? This is what I’d like to suggest: let’s have a conversation, rather than an interview. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine, March 4, 2014) The only place where you can see the Crimean peninsula from Russia is Port Kavkaz, a small harbor on the Kerch Strait, from where it takes only 20 minutes to get from Russia to Crimea by ferry. From there, the two entities look as close as they […]
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SIMFEROPOL. March 4 (Interfax) – Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov said a referendum may be held in Crimea before March 30. “I think the referendum will be held even before March 30. We will make this decision in a working group [on the organization of the referendum] and we will try to fully learn what the people of Crimea want […]
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(Interfax – March 2, 2014) A senior Russian diplomat has said that Russia does not want war with Ukraine and will support those in favour of stronger relations between the two countries, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 2 March. Another report quoted the diplomat, State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister Grigoriy Karasin, saying that Russia has to protect […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Anatol Lieven – March 3, 2014) Anatol Lieven is a professor in the War Studies Department of King’s College London and a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC. A new, updated edition of America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism, was republished in September 2012 by Oxford University Press. Russia and the […]
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SIMFEROPOL, March 1 (RIA Novosti) – The Crimean Prime Minister said Saturday that Russian troops are operating on the Ukrainian peninsula and made a personal appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin for more assistance. The Kremlin said in a subsequent statement that it would not ignore the request for help. Sergei Aksyonov, who was appointed prime minister after a parliamentary […]
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MOSCOW, March 1 (RIA Novosti) – Armed men dispatched from Kiev to the southern Ukrainian region of Crimea attempted an overnight storm of the local Interior Ministry, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday. “As a result of this perfidious provocation several people were injured,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “This confirms that certain well-known political circles in Kiev […]
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(Interfax – February 22, 2014) The south and east of Ukraine are not seeking to break away but they reject “political diktat” from “extremists” in Kiev, a senior Russian MP warned in reports on 22 February. Aleksey Pushkov, of the ruling One Russia party, chairs the State Duma’s international affairs committee. He was in Kharkiv to observe a congress of […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has ruled out the possibility of Russia moving troops into Ukraine’s autonomous Crimea region. “This doesn’t mean at all that we are going to brandish the sword and move our troops somewhere. That’s complete rubbish. Nothing of the kind is the case or can be,” Putin told a news conference in […]
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