Crisis in Oekra�ne #96 oorlog met Novorossia

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Ukraine’s voters have no one to turn to

As the dust kicked across Kiev’s Independence Square yesterday, and the storm clouds began to roll in, several protesters – many of whom had been camping out on the square for the past six months – emerged from their tents and headed to their local polling station. President Victor Yanukovych may have fled Ukraine months ago, but his opponents have remained to make sure the new government does not start following a similar path.

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The frontrunner, and eventual victor, was Petro Poroshenko, a multi-millionaire who made his fortune from selling chocolate, and who owns one of Ukraine’s major television stations. But on asking voters from across the country whether they were excited for a Poroshenko presidency, the answer was often resigned and pessimistic.

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The legitimacy of the government in Kiev is constantly questioned in the east. But it is under threat elsewhere, too. It was striking yesterday that most of the people showing up to vote were relatively elderly. The young have stayed away from the ballot box not because they do not want to be part of Ukraine, but because they are unwilling to give credibility to a political system that delivers up rulers whose pro-Western or pro-Russian stances are a facade behind which lurk similar levels of corruption.

Meanwhile, in Kiev’s independence square, the barricades remain high – and have even been reinforced. After more than six months, the protesters seem unwilling to move off the square; many have asserted that they will stay there until even the opposition is swept from power, and a whole new generation of politicians has emerged – a generation that no longer sees politics as a business, but as a responsibility.

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Stop forcing Ukraine into a narrative of Moscow versus Washington

Anyone who tells you Ukraine is a battle between Russia and the west is wrong.

The history of Ukraine's crisis began not in February, with Viktor Yanukovych's flight, but in 1991, with independence. Desperate to break communism, privatisers sold state assets as quickly as they could. They didn't care who got them; they just wanted private property to exist. They thought the new owners would insist on their rights, and thus build a stable society, governed by the rule of law.

It was the west that killed that dream. By moving their wealth offshore – to Austria, the Caribbean or the various UK-owned tax havens – Ukraine's property owners could enjoy western property rights, while benefiting from chaos at home. That turned the privatisers' calculations on their head.

This was not Russia against the west; everyone piled in. Just look at the needless intermediary company created by Dmitry Firtash in 2004 to buy gas from Russia and sell it to Ukraine, making more than $600m a year. RosUkrEnergo was a west-east joint venture: half owned by Russia's Gazprom, half owned via an Austrian bank. Every dollar it earned was a dollar less for ordinary Ukrainians.

The corruption was obscene. Ukraine has Europe's second-highest HIV rate, with 230,000 Ukrainians infected with the virus, yet in 2012 and 2013 more than a fifth of the budget for anti-retrovirals was embezzled through rigged auctions. Anti-corruption campaigners estimate 30% of the annual procurement budget was stolen: that's $15bn a year, the same amount Ukraine is now begging from the IMF. In the three years of Yanukovych's rule, his son became Ukraine's second richest man. And Yanukovych jailed Yulia Tymoshenko, a political rival who had run against him as president, to show how tough he was.

The protesters are still on the Maidan in central Kiev because this isn't their first revolution. Back in 2004-5 they ousted Yanukovych and elected a president who appointed Tymoshenko to head his government. They trusted her to make things better and went home, but corruption continued. This time they're keeping the pressure on.

This is what the revolution is about: Ukrainians trying to wrest control of their country from the oligarchs of Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and elsewhere who – with help from east and west – have robbed them for 23 years. The left should be cheering them on.

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Who will benefit from the IMF's $17bn bailout of Ukraine? Not its people

It should be remembered that the actual beneficiaries of all such IMF bailouts are not the people of the country concerned but their creditors, the holders of government bonds and the large banks. The bondholders are set to be paid out in full despite their failed bets. Operating within the "Washington consensus", IMF bailouts are a supranational form of loan-sharking. Their impact is familiar to hundreds of millions of people in developing countries, especially in Africa and in Latin America. They are also increasingly familiar to the populations of the European periphery whose living standards have been driven lower throughout the current economic crisis.

The prescription in what the fund calls special adjustment programmes is always the same: privatisations, lower government payrolls, lower government social spending and lower wages. The latter are always a particular point of principle, disregarding the fact that the world cannot become more competitive against itself. Lower wages do not in any event lead to greater competitiveness, otherwise Ukraine would already be one of the most competitive countries in the whole Eurasian land mass. But lower wages do boost profits, which benefits the new private owners of formerly state-controlled sectors.

The effect of the IMF intervention, then, acting as it does in the interest of western creditors rather than the Ukrainian people, will be only to further impoverish the population of Ukraine.

twitter:

PaulaSlier_RT twitterde op dinsdag 27-05-2014 om 16:45:02 Kiev govt gives ultimatum to Donetsk: either you surrender or we use our special weapons. reageer retweet

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Op dinsdag 27 mei 2014 19:51 schreef theNull het volgende:

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PaulaSlier_RT twitterde op dinsdag 27-05-2014 om 16:45:02 Kiev govt gives ultimatum to Donetsk: either you surrender or we use our special weapons. reageer retweet

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Missing monitors in Donetsk: 4 member-team (Danish, Swiss, Estonian and Turkish, all male).

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Vliegveld Donetsk in handen Kiev

_{dinsdag 27 mei 2014, 19:36 (Update: 27-05-14, 20:03)}

De strijd om de luchthaven van de Oekra�ense stad Donetsk is voorbij: de leider van de pro-Russische separatisten heeft toegegeven dat het vliegveld weer in handen is van regeringstroepen.

Volgens de separatisten zijn er aan hun kant vijftig doden gevallen. De meeste slachtoffers vielen gisteren. Vandaag kwam daar nog een aantal bij, toen de separatisten zich terugtrokken naar de stad. Over slachtoffers aan regeringszijde is niets bekend.

Vrachtwagens
NOS-verslaggever Gert-Jan Dennekamp vertelde in het Radio 1 Journaal dat een vrachtwagen vol separatisten, die terugkeerden naar Donetsk, door een gevechtshelikopter was beschoten. "Dat is een hele bloedige zaak geworden, daar zijn veel slachtoffers bij gevallen", zei hij.

Even later kwam een vrachtwagen met separatisten in een buitenwijk onder vuur te liggen. De chauffeur werd geraakt en reed tegen een boom, waarna de vrachtwagen kantelde. "Ook daarbij zouden separatisten zijn gedood", zei Dennekamp.

De stad zelf leek vanavond volkomen verlaten. De winkels waren gesloten, de restaurants ook en de markt was dicht. Een chauffeur zei tegen Dennekamp: "Ik heb verdriet om mijn stad. Ik heb de straten nog nooit zo leeg gezien".

Moskou
De strijd om de luchthaven begon gistermiddag, nadat de separatisten het hoofdgebouw hadden bezet. Het Oekra�ense leger viel hen daarna aan. Het was voor het eerst dat dat met zo'n vastberadenheid gebeurde.

Vermoedelijk speelde de verkiezing van Petro Porosjenko tot nieuwe president een belangrijke rol. Die zei na het bekend worden van de uitslag dat de opstand in het oosten zo snel mogelijk de kop moet worden ingedrukt.

OVSE
In het oosten van Oekra�ne zijn vandaag vier OVSE-waarnemers verdwenen: een Turk, een Zwitser, een Deen en een Est. De Deense regering zegt dat ze door separatisten worden vastgehouden.

Eind vorige maand verdwenen in hetzelfde gebied zeven OVSE'ers. Ook zij waren door separatisten ontvoerd. Die lieten hen na een week gaan.

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Op dinsdag 27 mei 2014 19:55 schreef UpsideDown het volgende:

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Ik hoor Poetin hi�r lachen.

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news24hukr twitterde op dinsdag 27-05-2014 om 20:41:34 Ukrainian foreign minister dismisses Russia's demand on stopping operation in eastern Ukraine: Acting Ukrainia... http://t.co/EOp8WX77xV reageer retweet

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Op dinsdag 27 mei 2014 20:42 schreef theNull het volgende:

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twitter:

news24hukr twitterde op dinsdag 27-05-2014 om 20:41:34 Ukrainian foreign minister dismisses Russia's demand on stopping operation in eastern Ukraine: Acting Ukrainia... http://t.co/EOp8WX77xV reageer retweet

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"Inwoners Donetsk vrezen oorlog in hun stad"

De beelden uit Donetsk, waar pro-Russische milities vechten met het Oekra�ense leger, doen denken aan de verschrikkingen in de Balkanoorlog. Verslaggever Gert-Jan Dennekamp is in Donetsk.

VIDEO

SPOILER

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Ukraine Elects A New President: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 43)

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Op dinsdag 27 mei 2014 18:36 schreef UpsideDown het volgende:

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Ja, Poetin omleggen en alle problemen lossen vanzelf op.

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ChristopherJM twitterde op dinsdag 27-05-2014 om 20:45:48 #Donetsk airport unlikely to open anytime soon. Footage shows terminal destroyed after fierce gun battle yesterday http://t.co/0oRpN4Qdo0 reageer retweet

� азрушенный аэропорт в Донецке 27 мая 2014

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Ukraine moves step closer to visa-free EU travel

Ukraine moved a step further closer to visa-free travel to the EU on Tuesday when the EU's executive ruled it had put in place the required legislative reforms.

Ukraine "meets the first-phase requirements," a European Commission statement said.

"The second phase where the Commission will be checking the implementation of these rules can therefore be launched."

This will see the EU checking whether laws on issuing secure documents or controlling illegal immigration, for instance, are actually in place.

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EuromaidanPR twitterde op dinsdag 27-05-2014 om 22:10:03 #Kyiv mayor voting: 60% of polling stations counted. #Klitchko's firmly winning 56,50% http://t.co/Bxu91cHlbI |EMPR http://t.co/qLswK9VFOz reageer retweet

Ukraine army 'in control' of Donetsk airport

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Fear reigns in Ukraine's fifth largest city

"Yes, were open! Can you believe it?" said the young woman at the checkout counter. "We love money more than our lives - thats why were here," she said in a tone mixing black humour with bitter irony, when asked why they were open when the McDonalds nearby was closed.

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Kadyrov denies media reports about participation of combat units from Chechnya in Donetsk

Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov has denied reports of Ukraine's media about participation of combat units from Chechnya in military actions in Donetsk. He wrote this in one of his official pages in social networks.

"Ukrainian sources circulated reports that some 'Chechen units' from Russia intruded into Donetsk. I am officially declaring that this is not true. No 'Chechen servicemen' or, still less, 'military columns from Chechnya' are involved in the conflict," Kadyrov stated.

The Head of the Republic has emphasized that Chechnya is one of the constituent entities of the Russia (RF) and, in accordance with the Constitution of the country, has no armed forces.

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Op woensdag 28 mei 2014 10:32 schreef deelnemer het volgende:

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Op woensdag 28 mei 2014 10:35 schreef Happel het volgende:

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In een van de laatste Vice News filmpjes staat wel een groep Tjetjenen die daar op vrijwillige basis naar toe is gekomen.

SPOILER: waarschuwing: schokkende beelden

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Op woensdag 28 mei 2014 11:02 schreef deelnemer het volgende:
Er komt wel een stroom propaganda van (pro) Russische zijde. Daar wordt ik ook geen wijs uit.
Bijvoorbeeld deze beelden uit Lugansk.

SPOILER: waarschuwing: schokkende beelden

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Is dat in scene gezet?
Zo nee, waarom horen we daarover niets?
Zo ja, gaat propaganda zo ver?

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Op woensdag 28 mei 2014 11:05 schreef Happel het volgende:

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Dat youtubekanaal ziet er nogal eenzijdig uit voor een human rights organisatie.