Posted on 02/22/2014 7:43:34 AM PST by cunning_fish
KIEV (Reuters) - Leaders of mainly Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine that are loyal to President Viktor Yanukovich challenged the legitimacy of the national parliament on Saturday and said they were taking control of their territories.
The move appeared to increase the possibility of a split in the sprawling former Soviet republic of 46 million, despite denials by the leaders that this was their intention.
The Kiev parliament has passed a series of measures that would reduce the president's powers and pave the way to the formation of a national unity government and early presidential elections.
Mikhaylo Dobkin, Governor of Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, told regional leaders meeting in the city: "We're not preparing to break up the country. We want to preserve it."
But a resolution adopted at the meeting said: "The decisions taken by the Ukrainian parliament in such circumstances cause doubts about their ... legitimacy and legality."
It added: "The central state organs are paralyzed. Until the constitutional order and lawfulness are restored ... we have decided to take responsibility for safeguarding the constitutional order, legality, citizens' rights and their security on our territories."
One speaker urged the creation of civilian patrols to restore order. Another said those gathered should fear reprisals if anti-Yanukovich protesters in Kiev seize power in the whole of the country.
With people at the meeting chanting "Russia! Russia!", the atmosphere contrasted with the mood in the capital Kiev where protesters want the Moscow-backed Yanukovich to resign.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
They'd better be careful because that's exactly how the ethnic Ukrainians will feel and if they want their country back, they'll take it.
Any ethnic Russians ought to hightail it out of there.
Don't bet on it.
When we were children, my sister made the mistake of telling a friend in earshot of my Ukrainian grandmother that her grandmother was Russian.
THAT didn't happen again.
There are cultural differences as well as linguistic.
Same way obama won.
Well the Olympic Flame has been extinguished, so a Russian annexation of Eastern Ukraine is upcoming.
“Look at the former KGB agent Putin’s Russia.”
It didn’t bother you that Bush Sr. was a former CIA man.
CIA and NSA are not better than the former KGB.
CIA gave the world the Al Qaeda.
Do you think the world must thank them?
“Any ethnic Russians ought to hightail it out of there.”
There are 15 million ethnic Russians in Ukraine.
They won’t go anywhere else. It would suffice to secede from Ukraine and attach their territory to Russia.
BTW Crimea and Donetsk were Russian until 1958, when Kruschev decided to move them to the federal republic of Ukraine, part of Soviet Union.
Putin can sit back and do nothing.
The 15 millions will do what they want to do.
“There are cultural differences as well as linguistic.”
There are TWO letters in the cyrillic alphabet which are pronounced differently in Russian and Ukrainian, and TWO bi-syllable letters which don’t exist in Ukrainian.
Other than that, the two languages are identical.
Anybody who know Russian can understand and speak “Ukrainian” and vice-versa.
BTW, historically Kiev was the cradle of Russia.
Kievan Rus was founded by Eastern Slavs in the 5th century.
According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg of Novgorod conquered Kiev in 882.
The only other time Ukraine was an independent state happened for two years in 1918, after the dismantle of the Hapsburg empire.
In 1941 Hitler promised them independence to gain the people support, but never kept his word.
Bush was a politically appointee who served one year as Director. Putin was a career KGB officer with 16 years service before he resigned.
CIA and NSA are not better than the former KGB.
Nonsense. There is no moral equivalency between the KGB and our intelligence services. The KGB served despotic, totalitarian regimes that killed tens of millions of its own people. They crushed internal dissent and helped put down uprisings in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany. They served the "Evil Empire" that enslaved and killed millions. They were an instrument of the Soviet police state.
CIA gave the world the Al Qaeda. Do you think the world must thank them?
Elaborate. How did the CIA give the world AQ?
Why do keep repeating like a parrot of the media “Putin was a KGB agent” and ignore the rest of his career?
He was not an “agent”. When he resigned from KGB, he was lieutenant colonel in 1991.
Why do you never mention his PhD in international law?
His PhD thesis of 1975 was titled “The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations” and it argued that Russian economic success would depend on creating national energy champions. Which he put in practice when he was elected president of Russian Federation!
Why don’t you never mention that he taught at St.Peterburg University at the International Affairs section?
Why you NEVER mention that from 1990 for nine years, he was a main advisor of the mayor of St.Petersburg Anatoly Sobtchak and later the same post in Moscow?
See, Putin was not only a KGB man; he is also a well educated man, with important experience in management and international affairs.
Reducing 63 years of someone’s life to 14, it’s simply dishonest.
Once a Chekist, always a Chekist.
Once a CIA man, always a CIA man.
He spent 16 years as a KGB agent. In 1998 Putin was appointed head of the Federal Security, an arm of the former KGB, as well as head of Yeltsin's Security Council. In August 1999, Yeltsin dismissed his then-prime minister Sergey Stapashin, along with his cabinet, and promoted Putin in his place. Putin was part of the repressive Soviet security apparatus.
He has essentially been running Russia for the past 13 years. Due to term limits, he couldn't run for the Presidency in 2008, so he used his puppet, Medvedev to hold the Presidency and appoint Putin as the PM. Now he is back as President again. Any guess as to how long he will remain in office at the top either as President or PM?
See, Putin was not only a KGB man; he is also a well educated man, with important experience in management and international affairs.
That doesn't make him any less evil. Estimates of his net worth range from $3 billion to $75 billion. According to a report drawn up by former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, Putin has access to 58 aircraft, four yachts and nearly two-dozen homes. At the same time, some of Putin’s political allies have been showing up higher and higher on the Forbes list. So what’s Russia’s big man and oligarch maker worth? Political analyst and Putin critic Stanislav Belkovsky estimates $70 billion — if accurate, good for 2nd place in the world.
In a memo disclosed by WikiLeaks, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice quotes a Russian opposition figure as saying that "Vladimir Putin is nervously trying to secure his future immunity from potential law enforcement investigations into his alleged illicit proceeds."
So how did Putin acquire such wealth?
Reducing 63 years of someone’s life to 14, it’s simply dishonest.
Why are you defending a corrupt Russian dictator? Take a look at the State Department's 2012 Human Rights Report on Russia.
"Violations of Electoral Processes: Domestic and international observers described the presidential campaign as skewed in favor of the ruling party’s candidate, Vladimir Putin. Procedural irregularities marred voting , with reports of vote fraud, administrative measures disadvantaging the opposition, and pressure on election monitoring groups. Several gubernatorial elections in October were likewise criticized,"
“The Western part of the country worked with the Nazis and has a history of pogroms against Poles, Belorussians and other minorities. The Eastern part of the country is more wealthy and less prone to violence.”
This is not strictly true. For one thing, the much of the western part of what is now Ukraine was before WWII part of Poland. At the end of the war, the Poles were expelled by the Soviets.
If you lived in that part of the world during WWII, you had no choice, because you had Nazis and Communists. There was no good side on the scene. That is why some Ukrainians (along with many Russians) initially welcomed the Germans, but soon found that the invaders were no better than Stalin’s henchmen. Remember that Stalin had conducted a mass starvation campaign against the Ukrainian peasants. In a land which in soil and climate is a close match for Iowa, people starved by the millions.
As for the Russians in Ukraine, if they are not happy there, they should leave. They are free to go. If I were such a Russian, however, I would get along with my neighbors, and not try to encourage an invasion by a country led by a KGB man. That is carrying nationalism too far.
Speaking of oppressed minorities, the Tatars of Crimea, persecuted by Stalin beyond any pogroms, are in favor of a free Ukraine and against Russian rule. I don’t know of any minority at this time who would welcome the Russians, except other Russians themselves.
CC
I guess they voted early and voted often.
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