Ukraine: The D.C. battle that wasn’t [Media Trying to stop criticism of Obama]

Politico ^ | 3/3/14 | Alexander Burns

[SoFloFreeper]

At last, Washington has found a fight it does not want to have. When the Russian parliament authorized the deployment of military forces in Ukraine, sending black-clad gunmen into the former Soviet Republic, it might have been expected to touch off yet another battle between the White House and congressional Republicans....

[shove_it]

[Jim Noble]

Has Merkel gone to Moscow yet?

Independence for Galicia and the Volhynia means nothing but trouble for Europe. Trading them to Poland in exchange for East Prussia to Germany and Kiev to Russia, OTOH, could work out.

You never know...

[lodi90]

Nice map. You have a map of California in the 19th century? How about Texas? Are you in favor of giving them back to Mexico? How about we put that up for a vote in Los Angeles?

[RatRipper]

I wonder if Obama weak/ lack of reaction is what he meant when he told Putin “he would have more flexibility after the election”????

A pundit ought to pose the question out loud.

[Travis McGee]

Please read #14, then we’ll have a discussion.

There is not one single country in Eastern Europe that has not shifted its borders repeatedly a couple times a century.

[ineocon]

Boycott Russian made goods in the USA in protest of the war against Ukraine

Thankfully, there are only few of them:
1. Vodka
Do not buy Stoli, Smirnoff, Russian Standard or other Russian brands – there are lots of high quality alternatives (Nemiroff, Belvedere, Grey Goose, Kettle One, etc.)
2. Kasperski antivirus software
Do not buy this software. As Russian friends joke, one department of the lab creates the virus and another one creates the antidote. There are plenty of alternatives.
3. Lukoil
Do not buy gas at the Lukoil gas stations. They are owned by the Russian oligarch tycoon Alekperov who is a close ally of Putin

Not one American dollar should support Putin’s Russia war against Ukraine.

Please spread this message around

[gusopol3]

Krosan posted this last night on another thread: That in not accurate. While Yanukovich was elected rather fairly he was elected into a different position as by 2004 constitutional President did not have much power. The amendment was passed after the Orange revolution and 90% of the legislators voted for it. He managed to use his limited power together with corrupt judges to overturn the constitution claiming there had been procedural errors 6 years ago and started to use by old 1996 constitution, that gave him very large powers. It began to became clear that he is consolidating his power and there might be no more fair elections ever. He was also impeached by legal parliament, who had given up on him. Also the 2004 constitution was restored. And new elections were scheduled.

Which sounds suspiciously like the Chavez model for Venezuela, which turns up in Putin's plans as well

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/russia-seeks-access-bases-eight-countries-its-ships-and-bombers

as well as Obama's "I have a phone. I have a pen ," and a judiciary in my hip pocket.

[Leaning Right]

Putin’s main guy Stalin thought he had a piece of that.

Here's an interesting piece of trivia (or maybe it's not trivia). From Wikipedia:

Vladimir Putin's paternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin (1879–1965), was employed at Vladimir Lenin's dacha at Gorki as a cook, and after Lenin's death in 1924, he continued to work for Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. He would later cook for Joseph Stalin when the Soviet leader visited one of his dachas in the Moscow region.

[Travis McGee]

Just pack a bag, gas up your BMW, and hit the autobahn heading east if you feel so strongly.

Just don't ask the U.S. military to join your quest to preserve the latest iteration of Eastern European political boundaries.

[mac_truck]

Where are the lists of american NGO’s that received 5 billion dollars to destabilize ukraine?

Great question...

Centre UA, New Citizen, & Chesno are three Ukrainian groups that were receiving large sums of money from USAID and the Congressionally funded National Endowment for Democracy as early as 2010. The Ukrainian groups receiving the US aid money specifically targeted MPs from the Party of Regions in the eastern half of Ukraine as well as President Yanukovitch.

[Travis McGee]

Excellent video!

[Berlin_Freeper]

Expand your imagination and let civilized countries impose economic and political pressures.

Or you can rollover for Putin and live on the hope the fight never comes to you next.

[Travis McGee]

I’m all for countries doing what they want with sanctions, etc.

I’m not for a fools’ military crusade to preserve Khrushchev’s gift of the Crimea.

[Monterrosa-24]

By your logic all of the Ukraine could just as well go back to Russia too. You mention 1954 as if it were only yesterday but it really means that for two and a half generations the Crimea has been Ukrainian.

I have extended family in the Crimea and they do not want to be part of Russia. They are Ukrainian.

The last Czar's favorite palace was Livadia on the southeast coast of the Crimea and both Russians and Ukrinians take pride in it and it and the adjoining coasts are popular with tourists. The Ukraine is easier for many tourists than Russia. Americans need no visa to visit the Ukraine but need one for Russia. I enjoy touring both countries but this coup de main by Russia while the Ukraine is in a state of reorganization is disgusting, perverted, illegal, and typically fascist.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Glad I was finally able to help you.

[Travis McGee]

For 2.5 generations Crimea has been “Ukrainian” according to political maps, following Nikita Khrushchev’s unilateral gift to purchase Ukrainian political support for his succession after Stalin.

But ethnically and in reality, it was and is Russian, before and after Khrushchev’s big bribe, which was then a USSR internal political matter.

[Vaduz]

LOL indeed

[Monterrosa-24]

Do not mistake those that speak Russian in the eastern Ukraine and the Crimea for those who want to be part of Russia. Many Ukraininans speak Russian but do not want to be part of Russia.

[gusopol3]

He’s looking for a base in Venezuela as well as Cuba. It would no doubt fit well with Maduro’s problems to allow it, and then Putin should certainly be allowed to protect Russian interests there if unrest threatens them. Next we’ll be told on this thread that the US is fomenting the rebellion in Venezuela as well, as though there are no legitimate grievances.

[OpusatFR]

I do realize that.

This is now, and there is a matter of those pipelines and the FUTURE of those pipelines not only in Ukraine, but throughout the whole contested mess from Syria and environs.

Russia lost when Trans-Adriatic Pipelin took over building the pipelines carrying gas from Azerbaijan through Greece, Albania and under the Adriatic ending in Italy. The first leg starts in 2015, I think.

Azerbaijan’s SOCAR’s on-again off-again relationship with Russia is also intersting. SOCAR has 20% of the TAP.

National pride and history are moot. None of the powers think of that. Iraq and Syria would not exist if ethnicity entered into their thinking. It doesn’t.

I’m not saying Russia doesn’t have the right to an ancient claim, nor am I contesting the right of those of Russian descent, language, schooling and tradition to rejoin it.

But, it’s all about the gas and oil. Russia will be losing its monopoly (should we say stranglehold) and it is not taking it well.