Goede aanleiding om Daily Show aflevering met Jamie Oliver te herkijken, Jon Stewart's parodie van Glenn Beck is fantastisch http://thedailyshow.cc.co(...)hile-wearing-glasses 4 clips, 15 minutenquote:Has Russia Figured Out How to Evade U.S. Counterintelligence Operations? Why the Crimean Invasion Has Washington Worried
As U.S. satellites observed Russian troops gathering near Crimea’s border last month, officials in the nation’s capital were shocked that they hadn’t received earlier notice of military action in the area.
In fact, prior to Russia’s takeover of Crimea, U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted virtually no Russian communications suggesting a possible invasion of the peninsula, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The failure of the U.S. intelligence community to provide Washington with detailed information on Russia’s plans before they were set into motion has many in the nation’s capital worried that the Kremlin has somehow figured out how to elude U.S. eavesdropping, the report adds.
“Even though there was a warning, we didn’t have the information to be able to say exactly what was going to happen,” a senior U.S. official said told the Journal.
In response to this surprising failure, the U.S. is scrambling to improve its communications-interception efforts. The idea is that the expanded coverage will provide U.S. officials with better information that may help them predict Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next move.
“We have gone into crisis-response mode,” a senior official told the Journal.
Still, even in “crisis-response mode,” U.S. officials are worried that Russia will continue to cloak its actions and that troop movements may continue to go undetected.
“That is the question we’re all asking ourselves,” an official said.
As a result of Russia’s swift and nearly silent takeover of Crimea, the Obama administration is “very nervous,” the Journal reported, citing an official familiar with the matter.
“This is uncharted territory,” the official said.
When Russia decided to make its play for Crimea, U.S. intelligence agencies were busy observing troops on Russian soil. Washington hadn’t anticipated that the takeover would come from Russian troops already inside the peninsula.
But that’s exactly what happened.
A few officials admitted there were some slight inconsistencies between intelligence reports on Ukraine, Russia and Crimea, but they said the reports didn’t contain anything substantial enough to suggest a sudden takeover. These same officials also said that the Russian takeover was so swift that there was little the U.S. military and President Obama could have done differently.
This leaves the lingering question: How did Russia manage to pull this off virtually undetected?
“Some U.S. military and intelligence officials say Russia’s war planners might have used knowledge about the U.S.’s usual surveillance techniques to change communication methods about the looming invasion,” the Journal reported. “U.S. officials haven’t determined how Russia hid its military plans from U.S. eavesdropping equipment that picks up digital and electronic communications.”
The Journal is careful to note that although the U.S. maintains assets observing Russia, most of the Washington’s attention is set on the Middle East.
Further, it’s important to remember that the U.S. had information as early as December indicating that Putin had his eye on Crimea, prompting the U.S. to expand satellite coverage of the area. However, after expanding coverage of Russia and observing initial satellite imagery, U.S. officials concluded that the Russian movements around and inside Crimea were typical military exercises.
They were mistaken.
By Feb. 26, U.S. officials had changed their minds and were certain Russia was going to make a play for Crimea — but they still lacked corroborating evidence of a possible invasion.
“We didn’t have someone [from the Russians] saying: ‘Let’s do this,’ ” a U.S. official said, stressing that they never intercepted early communications from Russian officials pointing to a takeover of Crimea.
Now, the annexation of Crimea complete, U.S. officials believe Russia was able to move as quickly as it did because it had already slipped small bands of highly trained soldiers into the area, somehow avoiding detection by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Of course, it’s possible that the U.S. didn’t intercept any invasion communications because there weren’t any. That is, the takeover could have been a last-minute decision from Putin that was known only by him and his closest advisors.
“Some U.S. and U.K. officials believe that Russia’s takeover plan was drawn up in advance and ready to go, reducing the need to discuss it,” the Journal reported.
Then again, as certain U.S. officials fear, it’s possible that the Russians have been given information on how to avoid U.S. spying.
Obama on Feb. 28 issued his final public warning against Putin. It was too late: Russia had already seized control of Crimea, its sights set on the peninsula’s important naval installations. On March 18, Putin signed a treaty declaring Crimea a part of the Russian Federation, the latest development in a takeover that apparently caught the U.S. off guard.
“This is the kind of thing young military officers are going to be reading about in their history books,” an official said.
A spokesperson with the CIA did not immediately return TheBlaze’s request for comment.
Ik vraag me toch af of Snowden bepaalde informatie doorgespeeld heeft of dit nog zal doen (onder druk van het Kremlin). Ze hebben met hem iig wel een enorme troef in handen.quote:Op zaterdag 29 maart 2014 22:12 schreef meth1745 het volgende:
Geen idee of hier ook maar iets van klopt, kreeg tijdens het lezen plots een paginagrote overlay met Glenn Beck (click op "no thanks I want to go back to MSM" om het te sluiten)...
Wel handig, had niet gemerkt dat ik op zijn site was beland.
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twitter:RolandOliphant twitterde op zondag 30-03-2014 om 12:37:09Lavrov blames Pravy Sektor and an unnamed foreign government (3 guesses who he's referring to) for Kiev snipers. http://t.co/zkmfOcNHh1 reageer retweet
twitter:obk twitterde op zondag 30-03-2014 om 12:39:50Lavrov zegt: de rechts-radikalen uit Kiev zitten zelf achter het bloedbad op Maidan http://t.co/1t5JLbTvoJ reageer retweet
Tevens:twitter:obk twitterde op zondag 30-03-2014 om 12:41:36En: 'Als het Westen de regering in Kiev erkent moet het ook het referendum op de Krim erkennen' http://t.co/t9TbY5P5Hx reageer retweet
quote:Exclusive: Photographs Expose Russian-Trained Killers in Kiev
The slaughter of 53 protesters in the Maidan on February 20 changed history. Now, exclusive photographs show what really happened.
KIEV, Ukraine—The first crack of a sniper’s round in Kiev’s Independence Square came shortly after nine o’clock on the morning of February 20 and the last about seven hours later at around four o’clock in the afternoon drawing to a close the bloodiest day in what had been a months-long struggle to oust Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych.
Many of the 53 people slain died from clean shots to the head or neck—telltale wounds inflicted by expert marksmen; while others were gunned down at closer quarters by less expert assassins armed with AK-47 assault rifles.
Most of the photographs accompanying this article were taken on February 20, and they appear to reveal the truth about who carried out the shootings in Independence Square on that day—a fateful one for both Ukraine and for Europe, which suddenly witnessed the continent’s worst political violence of the 21st century. The pictures shared exclusively with The Daily Beast show members of a crack anti-terrorist unit known as the Alfa Team in the courtyard of the headquarters of Ukraine’s feared state security service, the SBU, preparing themselves for battle. The agency’s seven-story headquarters occupies an entire city block and is just three streets from the Maidan.
The SBU is the successor intelligence agency to the Ukrainian branch of the Soviet-era KGB and it still maintains exceptionally close ties to Moscow. For many years “leading SBU functionaries came from the KGB,” says Boris Volodarsky, a former Russian military intelligence officer and author of the book The KGB’s Poison Factory. He says Russia’s intelligence service, now known as the FSB, has made sure over the years to maintain deep penetration of its Ukrainian counterpart and to ensure that its “agents and associates remain in place.” That was easily done during thepresidency of the pro-Russian Yanukovych.
A U.S. intelligence source says that “since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Western security services have considered Kiev to be FSB territory.” Instructors from Russian Special Forces have trained Alfa units.
...
The unique photographs and 90 gigabytes of video material shared with The Daily Beast provide strong evidence that the massacre in the Maidan was in fact a vicious and clinical assault ordered by the pro-Russian Yanukovych regime and executed by its arch loyalists. But that has not prevented the Kremlin from attempting to orchestrate its own narrative of events.
...
http://www.thedailybeast.(...)killers-in-kiev.html
quote:
http://www.kyivpost.com/c(...)ignation-341218.htmlquote:Several hundred members and supporters of the militant nationalist Right Sector swarmed Ukraine’s parliament building for the second day in a row on March 28 to demand the resignation of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and a fair investigation into the suspicious death earlier in the week of one of its leaders.
Many in the group, outfitted in military fatigues, bulletproof vests and balaclavas, carried clubs, hunting knives and hatchets, but they did not use them. They remained peaceful and positioned outside the doors through the afternoon as lawmakers took part in a session inside.
Right Sector first gathered more than 1,000 members of the group – now an officially registered political party – on Constitution Square outside the Verkhovna Rada late on March 27. While they did not storm the building, several windows were shattered. Right Sector's Kyiv leader Ihor Mazur said the first ones on the scene who broke the windows were not members of his group, but “provocateurs.”
“But separate citizens ran ahead. When we came here, the glass (in the parliament house near the central entrance) had been already smashed,” Ukrainian News reported Mazur as saying.
Radical Party leader Oleg Lyashko appeared from the building shortly after to try to temper the crowd, which chanted “Rev-o-lut-sia!” and picketed the building into the night.
Tempers cooled after independent lawmaker Yuriy Derevianko announced that an ad hoc interim commission would be set up in parliament to investigate the situation surrounding the suspicious death of Right Sector leader Oleksandr Muzychko, also known as Sashko Bily.
“Truth (in Muzychko’s death) should be established. Thus, an interim commission will be set up in parliament on March 28 to probe into the case with obligatory participation of Right Sector representatives,” he told Right Sector protesters on March 27.
A total of 232 of 279 lawmakers voted for the creation of the special commission decision on March 28. It will be led by independent Yuriy Derevianko, but is comprised of representatives of all factions as well as three representatives of public organizations.
Acting President and Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksandr Turchynov said before the vote on the creation of the commission that parliament “should ensure the clear and transparent verification of the circumstances surrounding the death of this man (Muzychko).”
Ik zie je punt niet. Vice interviewt mensen, vraagt waarom dat ze daar staan en ze zeggen dat dat is omdat de Oekraïense interim-regering te weinig doet aan de Krim-kwestie. Dat Kyivpost daar iets anders over vindt doet niets af aan de kwaliteit van het Vice artikel.quote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 13:35 schreef meth1745 het volgende:
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http://www.kyivpost.com/c(...)ignation-341218.html
Mooi werk van Vice News, geen woord over de aanleiding voor de betoging, in de plaats daarvan zeggen dat het protest over het verlies van de Krim gaat.
Wat was het grote probleem met Russische media alweer?
quote:Krimtataren verklaren zichzelf ook onafhankelijk
Wat de Russen op de Krim doen kunnen wij ook, moeten de Krimtataren hebben gedacht. Daarom claimen zij als de oorspronkelijke bewoners van het schiereiland hun eigen gebied, hun eigen onafhankelijkheid. Tijdens een spoedzitting van de Majilis, de raadgevende vergadering van de Krimtataren, werd daartoe besloten. ''Wij gaan niet weg van de Krim, hoe moeilijk ze het ons ook maken'', hield Mejis-voorzitter Refat Tsjoebarov de congresgangers voor.
Inmiddels is ook duidelijk dat de Krimtataren niet de beloofde 20 procent van de vertegenwoordigers in het regionale parlement krijgt. Volgens vice-parlementsvoorzitter Grigori Ioffe werd die toezegging gedaan voordat de annexatie van de Krim door Rusland een feit werd. ''De Russische wetgeving kent zo'n voorbehoud niet'', aldus Ioffe.
quote:
quote:A Russian Internet group called “Anonymous International” has leaked what it claims is a “tyomnik”—a list of prepackaged news stories prepared by the Kremlin for Russia’s central television news stations. The group does not name its source for the document, but the whistleblower says Vladimir Putin’s administration is the author.
The tyomnik (see below for a translation of the first two sections) instructs TV journalists to justify Russia’s recent annexation of Crimea, to laud President Putin’s efforts to develop the region, and even to advertise Crimea’s tourist season, on which the local economy desperately relies. (Russian journalist Ilya Barabanov joked that the talking points for Crimean vacations—“nearby, safe, among our own people”—are oddly similar to the slogan for the Sochi Olympics: “hot, cool, yours.”) The document also coaches television news stations to propagate an apocalyptic description of events in the Ukrainian heartland, where criminals and fascists supposedly run wild.
Russian television has long been infamous for parroting the Kremlin on political issues. It is still rare, however, that the public glimpses this propaganda system’s internal workings. If Anonymous International’s leak is genuine, Russians are getting to peek behind the curtain today.
Dat is veruit de meest waarschijnlijke versie, alle speculaties, conspiracy theories, leaked calls ten spijt.quote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 12:44 schreef DeJori het volgende:
The unique photographs and 90 gigabytes of video material shared with The Daily Beast provide strong evidence that the massacre in the Maidan was in fact a vicious and clinical assault ordered by the pro-Russian Yanukovych regime and executed by its arch loyalists. But that has not prevented the Kremlin from attempting to orchestrate its own narrative of events.
Bogomolets is daar toch nog op terug gekomen? Het gesprek tussen Paet en Ashton was gebaseerd op een gerucht dat Bogomolets had gehoord:quote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 14:17 schreef meth1745 het volgende:
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Dat is veruit de meest waarschijnlijke versie, alle speculaties, conspiracy theories, leaked calls ten spijt.
Marek Chodakiewicz's verhaal ("Ukraine: Code Orange" video van Institute of World Politics) over face recognition software van een "old NATO ally" was dan inderdaad bullshit.
Het verklaart wel niet wat Urmas Paet in het gesprek met Ashton vertelde over z'n gesprek met Olga Bogomolets. Dat het een misverstand was lijkt wel erg onwaarschijnlijk; wil Bogomolet liever niet toegeven dat ze zulke verdenkingen koesterde, of speelt Urmas Paet een dubieuze rol?
quote:Olga Bogomolets said she had not told Mr Paet that policemen and protesters had been killed in the same manner.
"Myself I saw only protesters. I do not know the type of wounds suffered by military people," she told The Telegraph. "I have no access to those people."
But she said she had asked for a full forensic criminal investigation into the deaths that occurred in the Maidan. "No one who just sees the wounds when treating the victims can make a determination about the type of weapons. I hope international experts and Ukrainian investigators will make a determination of what type of weapons, who was involved in the killings and how it was done. I have no data to prove anything.
"I was a doctor helping to save people on the square. There were 15 people killed on the first day by snipers. They were shot directly to the heart, brain and arteries. There were more than 40 the next day, 12 of them died in my arms.
"Our nation has to ask the question who were the killers, who asked them to come to Ukraine. We need good answers on the basis of expertise."
Mr Paet's assertion that an opposition figure was behind the Maidan massacre was not one she could share.
"I think you can only say something like this on the basis of fact," she said. "Its not correct and its not good to do this. It should be based on fact."
She said the new government in Kiev had assured her a criminal investigation had begun but that she had not direct contact with it so far.
"They told me they have begun a criminal process and if they say that I believe them. The police have not given me any information on it."
M'n punt was niet over de Westerse media, en eigenlijk ook niet over Vice News, het gaat me om de objectiviteit (of gebrek eraan) van Simon Ostrovsky, de journalist. Hij is geen John Simpson, laat ik het daar bij houden.quote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 13:52 schreef DeJori het volgende:
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Ik zie je punt niet. Vice interviewt mensen, vraagt waarom dat ze daar staan en ze zeggen dat dat is omdat de Oekraïense interim-regering te weinig doet aan de Krim-kwestie. Dat Kyivpost daar iets anders over vindt doet niets af aan de kwaliteit van het Vice artikel.
Misschien staat niet iedereen daar met dezelfde intentie?
Edit: even ter aanvulling voordat ik verkeerd begrepen wordt: ik ontken niet dat ze er stonden omdat ze boos zijn om de dood van Muzychko. Meerdere westerse media melden het echter ook (bron en bron) en Vice is toch meer achtergrond als breaking news.
Ik heb de video nog niet bekeken maar ik kan me goed voorstellen dat zijn wereldbeeld gekleurd is geraakt door wat hij daar heeft meegemaakt. Als je ziet hoe de Russen (vaak agressief) vs de Oekraïners (vaak open) hem behandelen, kan ik me indenken dat dat op een gegeven moment zijn weerslag heeft op hoe hij de hele situatie waarneemt.quote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 14:41 schreef meth1745 het volgende:
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M'n punt was niet over de Westerse media, en eigenlijk ook niet over Vice News, het gaat me om de objectiviteit (of gebrek eraan) van Simon Ostrovsky, de journalist. Hij is geen John Simpson, laat ik het daar bij houden.
Geen protest danquote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 14:41 schreef meth1745 het volgende:
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M'n punt was niet over de Westerse media, en eigenlijk ook niet over Vice News, het gaat me om de objectiviteit (of gebrek eraan) van Simon Ostrovsky, de journalist. Hij is geen John Simpson, laat ik het daar bij houden.
Het zou een misverstand zijn, maar gezien de grote verschillen tussen de versies is die uitleg wat mager...quote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 14:23 schreef DeJori het volgende:
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Bogomolets is daar toch nog op terug gekomen? Het gesprek tussen Paet en Ashton was gebaseerd op een gerucht dat Bogomolets had gehoord:
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Ik weet natuurlijk niet in wat voor omstandigheden dat gesprek plaatsvond, of ze elkaars taal spreken etc...quote:In a weird post-script to the event a few days after the massacre Estonian Foreign Affairs Minister Urmas Paet spoke with E.U. foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton in a phone call tapped and leaked to the public on YouTube, most likely by Russian intelligence operatives or their allies. Paet is heard saying that a doctor in the Maidan during the shootings said she thought the snipers were shooting at both police and the protesters and that the shooters were acting on the orders of the opposition. Bogomolets has been identified as his source, but she says she has no idea how Paet could think that was what she was saying. “Snipers were killing protesters,” she says. “Maybe it was a misunderstanding,” she adds.
twitter:SCMP_News twitterde op zondag 30-03-2014 om 15:02:36Resolution to Ukraine’s crisis taking shape, says Russia | http://t.co/XAY2d5TLNr reageer retweet
quote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 15:06 schreef JimmyJames het volgende:
twitter:SCMP_News twitterde op zondag 30-03-2014 om 15:02:36Resolution to Ukraine’s crisis taking shape, says Russia | http://t.co/XAY2d5TLNr reageer retweet
De Duitsers spraken vier weken geleden over een federaal Oekraine, maar of dat idee nu nog een kans maakt?quote:The West was showing openness to the idea of a federalised Ukraine, he said. "They are listening. I can say that a federation [for Ukraine] is far from being a forbidden word in our talks."
He said he expected the West to make this point clear to the strongly pro-European Union new Ukrainian government.
He said the new Ukrainian constitution should also make clear explicitly that the country was a neutral state - ruling out any future membership of Nato.
Let op! NSFL:twitter:shaunwalker7 twitterde op zondag 30-03-2014 om 14:48:55My God this is disturbing http://t.co/NxTJtu7wpv reageer retweet
SPOILEROm spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.Ik ben DeJori en ik wil aangesproken worden als DeJori. Ik heb handboeien en ik heb pepperspray. Ik los dat hier op op mijn manier. Aight?
twitter:EuromaidanPR twitterde op zondag 30-03-2014 om 17:08:09BREAKING: #Russian troops looting #Ukrainian military bases & loading their cars http://t.co/lE9CHQamVt |PR #Crimea http://t.co/qDClTTNWlG reageer retweet
Ik vind weinig terug over hem, maar een tiental jaar geleden werkte ene Simon Ostrovsky voor de Moscow Times, deed ondermeer verslag over Beslan. Misschien is hij zelf Russisch?quote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 14:48 schreef JimmyJames het volgende:
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Ik heb de video nog niet bekeken maar ik kan me goed voorstellen dat zijn wereldbeeld gekleurd is geraakt door wat hij daar heeft meegemaakt. Als je ziet hoe de Russen (vaak agressief) vs de Oekraïners (vaak open) hem behandelen, kan ik me indenken dat dat op een gegeven moment zijn weerslag heeft op hoe hij de hele situatie waarneemt.
twitter:hdevreij twitterde op zondag 30-03-2014 om 19:07:08#Ukraine talks: Kerry and Lavrov are meeting in the Russian embassy in Paris - AFP reageer retweet
Weet niet wie het geschreven heeft, maar dat is niet wat er besloten werd.quote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 13:56 schreef theNull het volgende:
Krimtataren verklaren zichzelf ook onafhankelijk
Wat de Russen op de Krim doen kunnen wij ook, moeten de Krimtataren hebben gedacht. Daarom claimen zij als de oorspronkelijke bewoners van het schiereiland hun eigen gebied, hun eigen onafhankelijkheid. Tijdens een spoedzitting van de Majilis, de raadgevende vergadering van de Krimtataren, werd daartoe besloten. ''Wij gaan niet weg van de Krim, hoe moeilijk ze het ons ook maken'', hield Mejis-voorzitter Refat Tsjoebarov de congresgangers voor.
In Rusland zijn er 22 autonome republieken (23 met de Krim erbij). Autonomie houdt in dat ze ondermeer een officiële taal, een parlement en eigen wetgeving kunnen kiezen.quote:Crimean Tatars' want autonomy after Russia's seizure of peninsula
(Reuters) - The Crimean Tatars' assembly voted on Saturday in favor of seeking "ethnic and territorial autonomy" for the indigenous minority on the Black Sea peninsula annexed from Kiev by Moscow.
The 300,000-strong Muslim minority make up less than 15 percent of Crimea's population of 2 million and has so far been overwhelmingly opposed to Russia's annexation of the peninsula.
Crimean Tatars' assembly leader Refat Chubarov told more than 200 delegates: "In the life of every nation there comes a time when it must make decisions that will determine its future."
"I ask you to approve ... the start of political and legal procedures aimed at creating ethnic and territorial autonomy of the Crimean Tatars of their historic territory of Crimea."
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However, their proposal to seek autonomy signals they would be ready to negotiate their status with Russia.
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Some Crimean Tatars at Saturday's assembly denounced the proposal for autonomy as a betrayal of Ukraine.
Others insisted it prevented another mass exodus and said safeguarding their right to live on the land they consider home was a priority.
"Had we been the majority here, we could think of doing something, but we are not and we just have to formally acknowledge the reality as it is," said Aleksander Aliyev, who was deported to Central Asia from Crimea aged five.
http://www.theguardian.co(...)-sergei-lavrov-parisquote:"Frankly speaking, we don't see any other way for the steady development of the Ukrainian state apart from as a federation," he added. Under the Russian plan, which Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin reportedly discussed in a phone call initiated by Moscow on Friday, each region would have control of its economy, taxes, culture, language, education and "external economic and cultural connections with neighbouring countries or regions," Lavrov said.
"Given the proportion of native Russians [in Ukraine], we propose this and we are sure there is no other way."
The Russian proposal to radically alter the way Ukraine is governed and administered is certain to arouse strong opposition in Kiev, where it will be viewed by critics of Moscow's intervention in Crimea as a roundabout way of breaking up or partitioning the country.
Het lijkt dan ook een vrij zinloos gedoe, die meeting.quote:Op zondag 30 maart 2014 23:52 schreef SureD1 het volgende:
RT @AFP: #BREAKING: Lavrov says no US-Russia deal on Ukraine but "constructive" talks to continue
Ze zijn er niet uit dus....
Edit: Kerry op CNN nu.
Edit 2: als ik den twittert mag geloven krijgen we weer twee (zeer) verschillende lezingen krijgen van dezelfde meeting. Lavrov schijnt te zeggen dat Ukraïne niet als eenheidsstaat kan functioneren en een federatie moet worden, terwijl Kerry zegt dat het niet eens besproken is omdat dat inappropriate zou zijn met Ukraïne niet aan tafel.
Edit 3: Een grondwetswijziging van een soevereine staat @gunpoint is nog 100x erger dan een referendum @gunpoint....belachelijk...
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