Posted on 03/01/2014 6:45:23 PM PST by Jim Robinson
The unofficial pro-Moscow leader of Ukraine's autonomous Crimea region has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for help to ensure peace.
A Kremlin source said it would "not leave unnoticed" the request from Sergiy Aksyonov.
Reports speak of a clash overnight in Crimea's capital and an attempt to seize a Ukrainian missile base.
Ukraine's interim Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, accused Russia of seeking to provoke an escalation.
He was speaking at the first meeting of his cabinet, installed after the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych. New Defence Minister Ihor Tenyukh accused Russia of "recently" deploying 6,000 extra soldiers to Ukraine.
US President Barack Obama warned Moscow against any military intervention as unidentified soldiers, thought to be Russian, fanned out in the south of the peninsula, surrounding airports and communications centres.
According to Mr Aksyonov, soldiers from Russia's Black Sea Fleet based in Crimea are helping to guard strategic buildings. But the fleet's press service only told a Russian news agency Ria-Novosti it would help guard fleet installations.
Under the agreement governing the presence of the fleet in Crimea, the Russians must co-ordinate all troop movements outside the fleet's base areas with the Ukrainian authorities beforehand.
The head of Russia's upper house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, said she could not rule out the dispatch of a "limited contingent" of troops to Crimea to "guarantee the security of the Black Sea Fleet and Russian citizens living on the territory of Crimea".
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Ping a roo
Exactly what is an “autonomous republic?”
Send lawyers, guns, and money...
Bump
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.” - Yogi Berra
I think be in 3 2 1 on Lawyers
Ukraine is a unitary state so autonomy was given to the Russian Crimea to calm separatist passions.
For awhile it helped. But Russians were never happy about the arrangement and they chafed living in someone else’s country.
No worry; Mother Russia has the fix for it.
Ex KGB as savior and protector of the oppressed of the west. Half the world will buy it.
Anschluss.
Closer to home, parts of Georgia (South Ossetia and Abkhazia) are occupied by Russian troops and effectively outside the control of the government of Georgia. That could be what Putin has in mind for the Crimea. He may not care if the rest of the world recognizes the de facto arrangement. Or the control of Crimea may be meant to be a step towards bringing all of Ukraine under his control.
Yogi Berra is the greatest living American philosopher.
I think Putin wouldn’t go that far.
But there’s no way the Russians would allow Ukraine to go completely free without getting the Crimea back...Any Russian leader who allowed this would have been overthrown faster than you could say “Borscht.”
here it comes...
Russia is a multinational state. That is how it has defied predictions of a breakup. Russians are the core of the state but there are more than 100 different nationalities in Russia. So the complex nature of Ukraine is not new for the Russians.
Yes. In all of Russia there’s only one warm water port... Crimea.
Obama’s meddling in Ukraine has, and could only have, brought disaster upon the Ukrainians.
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