Crisis in Oekraïne #62 Rusland is een tankstation.

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Workers fear for the future in Ukraine's industrial east

Standing outside Donetsk's coal mine, Igor Yefremov mused over the future of Ukraine's heavy industry. "If we join the European Union our mines and factories will shut down," he said. "Already the orders from Russia are drying up. Russia doesn't want us because of the chaos in Kiev."

Yefremov was waiting to meet his brother-in-law, who was working on the early shift at the city centre mine. Above ground, the scene was tranquil. Off-duty workers sat on benches in a small, sunny rose garden, dwarfed by two giant pit frames.

It has been a tumultuous month for Ukraine. There has been a revolution in Kiev, the abrupt exit of the country's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and military occupation. Russia has seized Crimea, denounced the country's new interim government as "fascist" and launched an all-out information war to justify Crimea's annexation.

The uprising against Yanukovych started last November when he dropped plans to sign an association agreement with the EU, and instead announced a $15bn bailout from Moscow. Last week, Ukraine's new interim prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, signed the original agreement in Brussels. In theory, at least, this puts Ukraine on a path towards European integration.

But in the heavily industrialised Donbass area of eastern Ukraine, many are wondering what this geopolitical tug of war might mean for them. The Donets basin – the political home of Yanukovych and his Party of Regions – hosts numerous Soviet-era factories: machine-building works, steel and chemical plants, mines, and medium-sized businesses that make fridges.

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Economists say that Kiev's move towards the EU will have positive and negative consequences. The EU last week abolished import tariffs for Ukrainian goods, previously at 14%. This will help Ukraine's agricultural sector, they suggest – principally businesses that export milk, cheese and sunflower oil. The EU says the deal will help trade between Moscow and Kiev.

http://www.theguardian.co(...)-industrialised-east

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Clegg 'shocked' by Farage's stance on Ukraine

Nick Clegg has gone on the attack following his EU debate with Nigel Farage, accusing the UKIP leader of "siding with Putin" on Ukraine.

At the end of their hour-long clash, Mr Farage said the EU had "blood on its hands" for encouraging revolution.
Clegg 'shocked' by Farage's stance on Ukraine
Mr Clegg, speaking on his weekly LBC radio show, said he was "shocked" by the UKIP leader's comments, which he would raise at the pair's next debate.

A YouGov poll for The Sun suggested Mr Farage had won by 57% to 36%.

Mr Farage will get a chance to react to the debate on Friday, when he takes part in an LBC phone-in - and the pair will stage another debate on whether Britain should stay in the EU on 2 April, which will be shown on BBC Two.

Most newspapers declared the UKIP leader the winner of the first round, taking their cue from the YouGov poll:
[..]
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-26761258

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Nationalists Keep Ukraine on Edge as Stability Is Elusive
By Aliaksandr Kudrytski and Jake Rudnitsky Mar 27, 2014 11:38 AM GMT+0100
http://www.bloomberg.com/(...)s-start-to-fray.html

Beneath the scorched, black facade of the Trade Union building in Kiev’s central square, armed nationalists who stoked the deadly overthrow of Ukraine’s previous rulers are undermining their successors.

A month after the uprising, militants in camouflage gear and flak jackets line up empty glass bottles ready to be turned into Molotov cocktails, defying demands to abandon their arms. Some of the protesters who fought riot police for regime change are now turning on the new administration. One of their commanders was killed in a firefight with police this week.

“The people who’re still here helped install the new authorities but now they want to slip out of our control,” said Vyacheslav, 40, a Pravyi Sektor activist in sand-colored U.S. military fatigues. He declined to give his last name because of the tensions. “We’ll stay to keep them in check.”

As Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk races to stave off bankruptcy and grapples with Russia’s takeover of Crimea, his interim cabinet is battling unrest among former allies within the country’s borders. Nationalist groups risk damaging security, discrediting the government and handing Russia a pretext to push its forces further into Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin says is in the grip of fascists.

[..]

“Muzychko’s death was a signal to other ultra-right wing groups,” Makarkin said. “Europe and the U.S. have told the authorities in no uncertain terms that the government needs to deal with this issue.”

Russia, which says it had to annex Crimea to protect its kin from a backlash, has pounced on the unrest. Incidents in eastern Ukraine, where Russian is widely spoken, have sparked concern Putin will give the green light for thousands of troops on his neighbor’s border to advance.

To help bolster Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund reached a staff-level agreement with the government that unlocks $27 billion in international support over the next two years, the lender said in an e-mailed statement today. If approved by the IMF’s board in Washington, it would be the country’s third bailout since 2008.

Ukraine’s new rulers have added fuel to Russia’s narrative, naming four members of the nationalist Svoboda party to the government. Svoboda, labeled racist and anti-Semitic by the European Union parliament in 2012, an accusation it denies, got posts including deputy premier and prosecutor general.

Fighting Enemies

The party’s lawmakers have also caused a storm outside the corridors of power. Ihor Miroshnychenko, who had to apologize in 2012 for an anti-Semitic slur toward Ukrainian-born actress Mila Kunis, was filmed physically intimidating the head of state-run UT1 television. He accused the executive of pro-Russian coverage and made him sign a resignation letter.

While Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok said afterward that the authorities must use legal means to fight Ukraine’s “enemies,” Russian state TV channels such as English-language RT pounced on the video to back up the Kremlin’s claims of extremism.

A Kiev court on March 25 ordered providers to stop carrying three Russian state channels as of today, according to a statement from Volia, a Ukrainian cable operator. Volia added TV Rain, an independent Russian channel that has been dropped by major cable companies at home amid a crackdown on the opposition.

Arresting “Goons”

“Moscow is continuing to gather multiple cases of gross violations of the rights of the Russian-speaking population and other ethnic groups in Ukraine by homegrown ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said March 26.

The government, which has seen the hryvnia drop 20 percent since Yanukovych was deposed, has begun to fight back. Prosecutors opened a criminal case into the UT1 attack, while Interior Minister Avakov pledged to arrest “goons” who dress in protest-movement outfits after a “huge number” of disturbances.

“Let’s distinguish between the real self-defense force that did and still does exist and those thugs who disguise themselves in the same clothes,” Avakov said. “Everyone who’s covering themselves and acting under the guise of self-defense, carrying weapons or shields, is a criminal.”

More than 3,000 guns and 30,000 bullets were surrendered to authorities during the amnesty, the Interior Ministry said March 24 on the government website.

Kalashnikovs, Handguns

The government is also proposing militants join a newly created National Guard in which 4,000 enlisted on the first day. Many of those who’ve remained stationed in the tent camp at Independence Square, or Maidan, have refused because the new force reports to the police rather than the army, which remained neutral as Yanukovych fled to Russia.

Aside a rickety wooden table that doubles as a recruiting post, Pravyi Sektor nationalists lure passers-by to join their militia instead of the National Guard, which is seeking volunteers nearby. The bulk of the uniformed paramilitaries -- who show off weapons including a hunting rifle, a handgun and a Kalashnikov -- scoffed at the idea of uniting protesters with the police with whom they so recently locked horns.

“What we see here is Maidan syndrome,” said Oleksandr Suprunyuk, a 51-year-old construction-company owner who’s also a member of the 38th division of the protesters’ defense force. “Many of these people lost their friends here and they’re still full of hatred. Time must pass to heal this.”

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"Russia produced approximately 510 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas in 2011, and approximately 60% of it was sold on the domestic Russian market. Russia has one of the highest domestic consumption rates per capita of natural gas - understandably so, since Russia is one of the world's coldest countries, and heating and electricity use is high. Russian industry also depends heavily on natural gas.

Russia uses a four-tier pricing system for natural gas: two tiers for domestic prices, one for the former Soviet states and one for its European customers. Russia has long capped domestic natural gas prices, a practise left over from the Soviet era. Currently, Russia charges between $75 and $97 per thousand cubic metres (tcm) on the domestic market, with households and municipal entities, such as schools and hospitals, paying the lower price and industrial entities paying more. Most of the former Soviet states pay in the mid-$200s and Europe pays $350 to $450 per tcm.

Russia's natural gas firms - primarily Gazprom - are suffering financially because of measures that let domestic users pay a fraction of the price Russia's foreign customers pay. In the past decade, the Kremlin has permitted Gazprom to increase its price by 14 to 25% a year. This gradual increase has prevented a massive backlash from natural gas consumers in Russia because it has been accompanied by improving economic standards in the country. However, Gazprom says this increase is insufficient.

Gazprom has continued to stay afloat and remain strong because of its sales abroad, where its revenue is approximately $279 per tcm (double the cost of production).
http://www.euractiv.com/e(...)emma-analysis-512092

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United Nations General Assembly Vote Isolates Russia

UNITED NATIONS — In the first barometer of global condemnation of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Ukraine and its Western backers persuaded a large majority of countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday to dismiss the annexation as illegal, even as Russia sought to rally world support for the idea of self-determination.

The resolution, proposed by Ukraine and backed by the United States and the European Union, represented the latest effort to isolate President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia over the annexation, which followed a March 16 referendum in the peninsula that has been internationally regarded as Ukrainian territory.

The resolution garnered 100 votes in favor, 11 votes against, with 58 abstentions. The two-page text does not identify Russia by name, but describes the referendum as “having no validity” and calls on countries not to recognize the redrawing of Ukraine’s borders.

Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsia, called Russia’s actions “a direct violation of the United Nations Charter.”

Russia said Crimea should not have been part of Ukraine anyway and appealed to another element in United Nations principles: the right of Crimeans to self-determination.

That assertion was disputed by Samantha Power, the United States ambassador, in the debate that preceded the vote. Coercion cannot be the means to self-determination, she argued. “The chaos that would ensue is not a world that any of us can afford,” she said.

The most poignant argument came from Costa Rica. Small states have only the power of international law “to defend our sovereignty,” its ambassador, Eduardo Ulibarri, said. The resolution proposed by Ukraine, he said, would help to reaffirm that power.

The resolution was regarded as an important pressure point on Russia by the United States and European Union, which had been lobbying intensely for its passage. “This is critical for the U.S.-Europe strategy to isolate Putin and condemn him internationally for Russia’s violation of the U.N. Charter in invading Crimea,” said Nicholas R. Burns, a former American diplomat in the Bush administration.

Although the resolution has no enforcement power, it is symbolically significant in the history of General Assembly votes. The United States has rarely corralled a majority of General Assembly members, especially after the American-led invasion of Iraq more than a decade ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/20(...)-on-Crimea.html?_r=0

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Ukraine leader Turchynov seeks approval for joint Nato exercises

Ukraine's leader sought parliamentary approval yesterday for military exercises with Nato partners that would put American troops in direct proximity to Russian forces in the annexed Crimea peninsula.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov's request came as the chief of Russia's general staff announced in Moscow that his forces were now in full control of all of Ukraine's 193 military bases in the Black Sea region before its seizure by Kremlin forces at the start of the month.

Turchynov said Ukraine wanted to conduct two sets of military exercises with the United States this summer - Rapid Trident and Sea Breeze - that have prompted disquiet in Russia in previous years.

Ukraine is planning two additional manoeuvres with Nato member Poland as well as joint ground operations with Moldova and Romania.

The Sea Breeze exercises have especially irritated Moscow because they had on occasion been staged in Crimea - the home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Those manoeuvres have in more recent years been moved to the Black Sea port of Odessa where Ukraine also has a naval base.

An explanatory note accompanying Turchynov's request to parliament said the naval section of Sea Breeze would this time be conducted over a 25-day span between July and October out of two Odessa ports and "along the waters of the Black Sea".
http://www.scmp.com/news/(...)joint-nato-exercises

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Op donderdag 27 maart 2014 20:03 schreef theNull het volgende:

twitter:

EuromaidanPR twitterde op donderdag 27-03-2014 om 19:58:58 Live stream from the rally of the Right Sector activists near the #Ukrainian Parliament now http://t.co/EzX1SSgik9 | PR News reageer retweet

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Beneath the scorched, black facade of the Trade Union building in Kiev’s central square, armed nationalists who stoked the deadly overthrow of Ukraine’s previous rulers are undermining their successors.

A month after the uprising, militants in camouflage gear and flak jackets line up empty glass bottles ready to be turned into Molotov cocktails, defying demands to abandon their arms. Some of the protesters who fought riot police for regime change are now turning on the new administration. One of their commanders was killed in a firefight with police this week.

“The people who’re still here helped install the new authorities but now they want to slip out of our control,” said Vyacheslav, 40, a Pravyi Sektor activist in sand-colored U.S. military fatigues. He declined to give his last name because of the tensions. “We’ll stay to keep them in check.

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Op donderdag 27 maart 2014 20:11 schreef TLC het volgende:
A new classified intelligence assessment concludes it is more likely than previously thought that Russian forces will enter eastern Ukraine, CNN has learned.

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Op donderdag 27 maart 2014 20:28 schreef theNull het volgende:

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EuromaidanPR twitterde op donderdag 27-03-2014 om 20:25:40 FALSE All #Russian Media reports that the Verkhovna Rada of #Ukraine are captured by the Right Sector. Live: http://t.co/EzX1SSgik9 |PR reageer retweet

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In Kiev, the activists of the "right sector" blocked the building of the Verkhovna Rada and demanded the resignation of the acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov , which , in their opinion , ordered the destruction of Alexander Muzychko movement coordinator . They also urged the tribunal to give former acting Defense Minister Igor Tenyukh for inefficient Command, in the Crimea. Several thousand radicals and their supporters chanting " Revolution! " And plan to storm the parliament. On this evening, March 27 writes "Ukrainian Truth" .

Gathered in front of several thousand people. Militants besieged Radu tires, smashed glass on the front door. When the protesters came Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov , they booed him with cries of "Shame! ".

By vsedeniyam "Vesti ", one of the organizers of the rally became a member of the political council of the "right sector " Oleg Odnorozhenko he called to occupy parliament as MPs take " anti-national " laws . On the morning of Friday , March 28 , the extremists are going to be on duty to the Parliament , and at noon to report on what is happening on Independence Square .

Currently, to the parliament building shrink column "right sector," come and civilians it is reported that some protesters are armed .

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Op donderdag 27 maart 2014 20:31 schreef Woestijnvos het volgende:
Gebeurd nog maar weinig.