(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexey Eremenko – June 18, 2014) As Ukrainian separatists concede imminent defeat unless Russian tanks roll in, it is time for Kiev to consider plans for reconciliation with the rebel regions, Russian and Ukrainian analysts said. Local elites that tacitly endorsed the separatists at first in hopes that they could be used as a bargaining […]
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KYIV. June 18 (Interfax) – Ukrainian law enforcement units will encircle Slovyansk to liquidate the armed opposition and regain full control over the state border in eastern regions, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said. “We are taking resolute steps and conducting successful operations towards the restoration [of control] over the state border,” the president told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday. “We […]
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KIEV, June 18 (RIA Novosti) – President Petro Poroshenko has suggested dismissing acting Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia, the Ukrainian parliament said Wednesday. The president has also nominated Ukraine’s Ambassador to Germany Pavlo Klimkin to take over the post of foreign minister. On Saturday, Deshchytsia shouted offensive remarks directed toward Russian President Vladimir Putin. The foreign minister was spotted chanting abusive […]
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… 7. Carnegie Moscow Center: Balázs Jarábik, Poroshenko`s Team: Managers of the Nation?
8. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, Russia cuts gas to Ukraine. But will Moscow take the bigger loss?
9. Business New Europe: Ben Aris, Exactly what is a fair price for Ukraine to pay for Russian gas?
10. Financial Times: Q&A: the Gazprom dispute. …
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – June 16, 2014) The escalating conflict in Ukraine marks an unfortunate tendency in the world of international relations: The people responsible for defusing the crisis are losing their ability to be diplomatic. The latest gaffe came June 14, when Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia tried to calm a mob that had attacked the […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – KYIV June 17, 2014) Not long ago, Aleksandr Borodai was a little-known political consultant with nationalist leanings. Back in 1993, he was among those defending hard-liners barricaded inside the Russian White House in their showdown with President Boris Yeltsin. He wrote regularly for the ultranationalist newspaper “Zavtra” and in 2011 co-founded the “patriotic” online television channel Den-TV. […]
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MOSCOW. June 17 (Interfax) – State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov suspects the U.S. has pushed Kyiv into refusing to pay for Russian gas. “Attacks on the Russian Embassy, yesterday’s attempt to attack the [Russian] Consulate in Odesa, the affront put upon the Russian president, the ongoing arrests of Russian journalists and the refusal to pay for gas, […]
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… 36. Paul Goble: Window on Eurasia: Putin’s War in Ukraine Marks Rebirth of Stalinism in Russia, Chubais Says. (Igor Chubais)
37. Reuters: Disciplined Russia to keep it tight against Korea. (soccer)
38. RFE/RL: Russia To Test Migrant Workers On Country’s History.
39. Interfax: NASA wishes to carry on ISS cooperation after 2020 – newspaper. …
[“Meanwhile, Back in Ukraine; Tanks mysteriously roll in from Russia” – Wall Street Journal editorial – June 16, 2014] The Wall Street Journal addresses claims of Russian material support for instability and revolution in Ukraine, including tanks: Waves of Russian tanks and divisions of infantrymen are one way to undermine the budding democracy in Kiev. But an overt invasion would force a reluctant America and […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, June 15, 2014) Moscow believes that there may be a third power behind Ukraine’s intransigent position in its talks with Russia over gas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian journalists on Sunday [15 June] that the Ukrainian authorities are making use of “impunity because they are being protected by our Western partners, or at least some […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – June 16, 2014) Russia’s state-owned Gazprom cut Ukraine’s gas supply off at 10 a.m. Moscow time for failing to pay its bills after talks broke down ahead of a June 16 deadline. “This decision was taken due to systematic failure of Naftogaz Ukraine to pay,” Gazprom said in a statement. “The debt of the […]
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[“Russia’s Gazprom reduces gas to Ukraine after deadline passes” – Maria Kiselyova, Denis Pinchuk – June 16, 2014] Reuters reports on Russia’s move to ratchet back gas flows to Ukraine, with potential also to impact Russian gas supplies to the EU: Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom reduced supplies to Ukraine on Monday after Kiev failed to meet a deadline to […]
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GORKI. June 16 (Interfax) – The conditions that were proposed to Kyiv during gas talks were better than the conditions in place under former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, Gazprom (MOEX: GAZP) CEO Alexei Miller said at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Firstly, the Russian side was ready to guarantee that the discount of $100 per 1,000 cubic […]
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(Interfax – Rostov-na-Donu, June 15, 2014) Over 109,000 residents of southeastern areas of Ukraine entered Rostov Region between 4 and 14 June in view of the difficult situation in Donbass [Donetsk Region], chief of the information policy directorate of the government of Rostov Region Sergey Tyurin has told Interfax South [news] agency. “As of today, over 109,000 people have entered […]
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(opendemocracy.net – David Marples – June 13, 2014) David Marples is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta, Canada. For summer 2014 he is Visiting Professor at the Slavic and Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University, Japan. Who is Igor Strelkov? He has power, but by whose authority? On 11 June, the self-proclaimed mayor of […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#132 :: 15 June 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php 1. In Moscow’s Shadows: Mark Galeotti, Those Mysterious Tanks in Ukraine. 2. […]
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… 24. Deutsche Welle: Ukraine’s information war
25. www.opendemocracy.net: Joanna Szostek, The limitations of Russian propaganda in Ukraine. Russian TV is waging a propaganda war against Ukraine. But is it working?
26. EuromaidanPR.com: More Russian terrorists arrive in Ukraine. …
[“Without water, east Ukrainians struggle to survive” – AFP – June 12, 2014] AFP covers the difficulties of accessing usable water for civilians caught up amidst instability in eastern Ukraine: For the past week, since fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government troops led to the destruction of the water supply, a trip to the fountain on Lenin Square has become […]
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(Interfax – June 11, 2014) The Kiev authorities have officially refused Russia the right to provide humanitarian aid to those who need it in southeast Ukraine, therefore it is necessary to do this through local militia, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 11 June, quoting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “We are trying to provide humanitarian aid to those […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Tim Ash, Standard Bank – June 12, 2014) Bloomberg reports that Russia gave Ukraine an extra six days to make payments for natural gas as the countries resumed European Union-brokered talks in Brussels on June 11. The new deadline is 10 a.m. Moscow time June 16, Alexey Miller, chief executive officer of Russian gas […]
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(Interfax – June 10, 2014) The Kremlin has distanced itself from statements by presidential adviser Sergey Glazyev, which he made at a roundtable discussion on the Ukrainian crisis in Moscow on Tuesday 10 June, the Russian Interfax news agency reported on 10 June. A senior source in the Kremlin once again stressed that “all thoughts and suggestions of Sergey Glazyev […]
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BRUSSELS, June 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will not introduce advance gas payments for Ukraine and review its gas debt downwards if Kiev pays off $2 billion of its gas debt by June 16 and clears arrears in full by June 26, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Wednesday. “It was suggested to review the payoff schedule for debts accumulated in […]
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(Interfax – June 10, 2014) Forty-seven percent of Russian citizens recently interviewed by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) have spoken negatively of Ukraine’s new President Petro Poroshenko, a mere 3 percent have said they like him, another 23 percent of respondents have said they know nothing about him, and 27 percent were undecided. The results of the FOM survey, which […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#129 :: 11 June 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php 1. Financial Times: Kiev anti-terror operation takes toll on Slavyansk residents. 2. […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble -Staunton, June 10, 2014) Over the last several days, many in the West have professed to see Moscow pulling back from its subversive aggression against Ukraine and expressed confidence that the crisis Vladimir Putin’s actions there have caused is approaching an end that both Russia and the West will be able to live with, […]
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(RFE/RL – Levko Stek – June 9, 2014) Working as a courier is usually straightforward. You get a parcel, you get an address, you hit the road. But it’s a different story altogether when your destination is a military checkpoint outside the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, the epicenter of the smoldering separatist conflict, and your vehicle is packed to […]
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(Stratfor.com – George Friedman – June 10, 2014) Editor’s Note: This is the final installment in George Friedman’s recent series written during his journey from the Baltics, through Central and Eastern Europe and then east to Turkey and Azerbaijan. I traveled between Poland and Azerbaijan during a rare period when the forces that shape Europe appear to be in flux, and most […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – June 10, 2014) President Vladimir Putin has not shied away from expressing his preferences about the future of Ukraine, suggesting the country should refrain from federalization and joining Western political and military alliances in order to give more power to the Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine and normalize relations with Russia. These […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Daria Marchak, Daryna Krasnolutska, Volodymyr Verbyany – June 10, 2014) Russian, German and Polish officials met in St. Petersburg to advance Ukraine peace talks after President Petro Poroshenko called for an evacuation corridor so civilians can flee fighting in the country’s battle-torn east. A day after Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said peace talks with Russia were yielding […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Glenn Kates – BEREHOVE, Ukraine – June 6, 2014) A foreign leader whose country pines for its lost empire advocates self-rule for a Ukrainian province and gives passports to its residents. The call resonates among many in the region, where tens of thousands of people don’t even speak the Ukrainian language. Donetsk? Luhansk? Not quite. This is happening along Ukraine’s […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Ilya Vasyunin – June 6, 2014) Ilya Vasyunin is an independent journalist, he previously worked at TV Rain and at Russkaya Planeta. People are not yet calling the situation in Eastern Ukraine a ‘civil war,’ but the battle for Donetsk might change that. During the two months of fighting between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army in Slovyansk, Donetsk, […]
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KYIV. June 9 (Interfax) – A hundred percent of the combat and patrol units of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry will be involved in the operation in eastern Ukraine, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said. “I have decided that a hundred percent of combat and patrol units of the Interior Ministry will take part in the antiterrorism operation. This is not only […]
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The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 04, 2014 FACT SHEET: U.S. Security Assistance to Ukraine The United States is working to bolster Ukraine’s ability to secure its borders and preserve its territorial integrity and sovereignty in the face of Russian occupation of Crimea and a concerted effort by Russian-backed separatists to destabilize eastern Ukraine. […]
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The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 04, 2014 Remarks by President Obama and President-elect Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine After Bilateral Meeting Warsaw Marriott Hotel Warsaw, Poland 10:45 A.M. CET PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it is a great pleasure for me to have the opportunity to have my first extended meeting with President-elect Poroshenko and to […]
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… 1. Wall Street Journal: Matthew Kaminski, The Battle on the New Russian Front. How Ukrainians united to turn back Kremlin rebels in one eastern city.
2. Reuters: Fog of war falls heavy after violence in eastern Ukraine region.
3. Interfax: Negative attitude to U.S., EU reaches its maximum in Russia – poll. …
[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#124 :: 4 June 2014 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php To subscribe to the JRL email version, email David Johnson at davidjohnson@starpower.net 1. Business New […]
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DONETSK, June 4 (RIA Novosti) – Alexander Khodakovsky, one of the chief commanders with self-defense forces of Ukraine’s breakaway Donetsk Republic, has told RIA Novosti that the majority of its troops are residents of eastern and southern Ukraine who took to arms to protect their homes. “[They come from] Kharkiv, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia. We’ve become the center of […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer, Volodymyr Verbyany, Daria Marchak – June 4, 2014) President Vladimir Putin offered the first face-to-face talks with Barack Obama since pro-Russian separatists unleashed an insurgency that’s claimed almost 200 lives in Ukraine. The Russian leader, who rejected accusations his military is present in Ukraine, said he’s ready to meet Obama this week in France […]
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PARIS, June 4 (RIA Novosti) – It was never Russia’s intention to destabilize the situation in Ukraine or send its troops to invade the country’s south and east, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday in an interview with France’s TF1 channel and Europe1 radio station. “There are neither military personnel nor Russian instructors in southeastern Ukraine,” Putin stressed. When asked […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Tim Gosling in Prague – June 3, 2014) Raising hopes that Moscow and Kyiv are now serious about finding a route out of the crisis in Ukraine, the EU reported late on June 2 that the pair is mulling a proposed compromise on gas. Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom earlier extended the June 2 […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Elena Mazneva, Stephen Bierman, Daryna Krasnolutska – June 2, 2014) Russia gave Ukraine an extra week to pay in advance for gas supplies or risk a cutoff, as the Ukrainian government said its forces killed five pro-Russian rebels in an upsurge in fighting in the eastern city of Luhansk. Russian gas export monopoly OAO Gazprom (OGZD) […]
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(Interfax – June 2, 2014) The European Commission has effectively supported the Russian position in the second and third round of talks on payment of Ukraine’s gas debt to Russia, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview with Rossiya 24 television. “I consider that the European Commission has behaved quite constructively at these and previous consultations and many of […]
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KIEV, June 2 (RIA Novosti) – A special operation of Ukrainian forces against independence supporters in the country’s southeast could last as long as one year, said Semen Semenchenko, commander of the Donbass battalion, a pro-Kiev militia set up by the Right Sector nationalist movement. “Unlike many people who believe that the ATO [anti-terrorist operation] will end in just a […]
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MOSCOW, June 2 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday voiced his surprise at the Western media’s spin of the ongoing bloodshed in southeastern Ukraine and the fact that they either hushed up the real situation or showed “different pictures” instead. “We are very concerned by what is going on there. People are being killed every day, […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, June 1, 2014) One of the problems that Moscow propagandists face is that many of the arguments they put out for political change in Ukraine apply with equal or even greater force to the Russian Federation and thus have the potential to spark demands inside the latter country that the Kremlin is […]
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… 21. The National Interest: Robert Merry, How to Start a Civil War in Ukraine (and How to Avoid One).
22. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: Peter E. Davis and Siegfried S. Hecker, Why the US should keep cooperating with Russia on nuclear security.
23. Asia Times: Pepe Escobar, The future visible in St Petersburg. …
MOSCOW, May 30 (RIA Novosti), Nastassia Astrasheuskaya – While much of Ukraine’s population and most western governments tie high hopes with the newly elected president Petro Poroshenko, a former diplomat and now a successful entrepreneur, foreign critics say his millions are likely to stand in the way of bringing democracy to the country that finds itself in deep political crisis. […]
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KIEV, May 30 (RIA Novosti) – The Ukrainian forces have not confirmed the media reports that it planned to complete the special operation against federalization supporters in the eastern regions of the country by June 14, news agency UNN reported Friday. “As for the media reports on the timeframes of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, most likely it’s total nonsense,” UNN reported, […]
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… 4. Wall Street Journal: East Ukraine Town Digs In for Fight. Pro-Russian Locals Rally to Repel Military Attempt to Retake Town, Blaming Government for Bloodshed.
5. Kyiv Post: Civilian Donbas Battalion forming National Guard unit.
6. Reuters: Quoting Old Testament, new pro-Russia militia group lines up in Ukraine.
7. The Herald (Scotland): Pro-Russian separatists beyond Kremlin control.
8. Reuters: Russia has withdrawn most troops from Ukraine border: U.S. official. …
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Aleksandra Vagner – LUHANSK, Ukraine, May 29, 2014) Probably the most surprising thing that struck me during my four days reporting from the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine last week came as soon as I arrived. Men armed with automatic weapons stood around the station, watching everything that was going on. From what I’d read, I had expected such men […]
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