[Centraal] Crisis Oekraïne - Rusland #218 Tanks for calling

quote:

Polish consulate in Ukraine attacked with grenade launcher

Unidentified assailants attacked the Polish consulate in Lutsk, in western Ukraine on Wednesday, Radio Poland reported.

“It was probably a grenade launcher,” Polish Consul Krzysztof Sawicki told local media. “The projectile hit the top floor, leaving a hole of about 70 centimeters.”

No one was injured in the attack.

The Polish foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to Poland, Andrii Deshchytsia, in response.

“We expect and demand that the security of our institutions be improved across Ukraine,” a spokesman for the Polish foreign ministry said in a statement. He called on Ukrainian authorities to “explain the circumstances of the incident,” and to “identify and arrest the perpetrators.”

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko condemned the attack on Twitter, saying he had “urgently” ordered authorities to “take all reasonable measures to investigate this incident and the perpetrators.”

quote:

Poland Shuts Consulates in Ukraine After Grenade Attack

Poland temporarily closed its consulates in Ukraine after a grenade attack overnight at one of its buildings near the Polish border that Kiev said was intended to harm bilateral ties with Warsaw.

[..]

quote:

Op zondag 2 april 2017 02:47 schreef supermercado het volgende:
Ik ben best een leek op dit gebied en heb geen zin en tijd om zoveel terug te lezen, maar hier even 2 vraagjes.

Valt Oekraïne aan met alles wat ze hebben? Of hebben ze nog reserves?

En waarom helpt niemand Oekraïne? Ik bedoel putin zegt dat hij er weinig mee te maken heeft, dus dat lijkt me een soort vrijstelling om deze gasten op te ruimen?

quote:

Antisemitic Hate Crimes Thrive in Ukraine

During the last six months, there have been scores of hate crimes in Ukraine. When it comes to the Jewish community, these crimes include the desecration of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov’s grave in Uman, which was ‘crowned’ by a pig’s head with a swastika carved on it. This and other antisemitic attacks were documented with photos and detailed descriptions. All of them were reported to the Ukrainian police. The result? Nothing. And the world’s reaction? Nada.

The desecration of Jewish buildings and memorials has become quite common in Ukraine and, in some cases, the vandalism is repeated many times per year.

Simultaneously, there has been a disgusting attempt to rewrite history throughout the country. In a macabre-like episode, Ukrainian nationalists are trying to whitewash the Babi Yar massacre that took place during the Holocaust, and the country’s officials — including Kiev’s mayor — are allowing it. Ukraine is also erecting memorials and setting up exhibitions to honor the perpetrators of the most vicious antisemitic attacks that took place during the Holocaust.

quote:

UN court rejects Ukraine bid to block funding for pro-Russian rebels

The United Nations' top court denied a bid by Ukraine on Wednesday for measures to block alleged Russian support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Kyiv did not provide enough evidence to support its claim that Russia is funneling money and arms to groups in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government had been seeking an emergency interim court order demanding that Russia control its borders and prevent weapons, money and people from reaching the rebels while the case is heard in full.

The judges, however, found that so far Kyiv "has not put before the court evidence which affords a sufficient basis" to show that any funds from Moscow were used "to cause death or serious bodily harm to a civilian."

Protection for Tartars

Kyiv had also urged the court to order Moscow to stop racial discrimination against the ethnic Tartar community in Crimea, the area which Russia annexed in March 2014.

The court took Ukraine's side in the discrimination portion of the complaint, saying Russia "must refrain from maintaining or imposing limitations on the ability of the Crimean Tatar community to conserve its representative institutions."

In a 13-3 decision, the court also said Russia must also "ensure the availability of education in the Ukrainian language."

quote:

Op zondag 23 april 2017 13:45 schreef Infection het volgende:
OVSE-waarnemer omgekomen in Oost-Oekraïne

http://nos.nl/artikel/216(...)n-oost-oekraine.html

quote:

De Oostenrijkse minister Kurz heeft via Twitter zijn condoleances overgebracht aan de nabestaanden en zei te hopen dat de gewonden spoedig herstellen. Ook kondigde hij een grootschalig onderzoek aan en beloofde dat de schuldigen terecht zullen staan.

quote:

Op maandag 24 april 2017 02:00 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:

[..]

[..]

Lijkt me een loze belofte, dat laatste...

quote:

Ukraine spy agency 'may have seen planting of bomb that killed journalist'

A new documentary film alleges that Ukraine’s spy agency may have witnessed the planting of a car bomb that killed a prominent journalist last July in Kiev.

Pavel Sheremet had just left his home in the Ukrainian capital and was driving to work when his car exploded. He was killed instantly. The murder was the most high-profile assassination of a reporter in the country since the beheading in 2000 of the investigative reporter Georgiy Gongadze.

Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, had said it was a “matter of honour” that Sheremet’s case be promptly solved. He called for a transparent investigation by police and the security services. However, 10 months later no one has been arrested.

The film, Killing Pavel, suggests that an agent working for Ukraine’s intelligence services was present when the explosive device was hidden under the journalist’s car. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Slidstvo.info released the documentary on Wednesday, when it was screened on Ukrainian TV.

Investigators have said Sheremet was killed by a remotely detonated explosive device, most likely in retribution for his investigative work in Ukraine and other places. The journalist supported the pro-western uprising in 2014 that saw Viktor Yanukovych flee to Russia, but had also been bitingly critical of Ukraine’s new authorities.

Surveillance camera footage published by the media and police revealed that an unknown man and a woman approached Sheremet’s Subaru car on the street the night before the blast. The woman is seen kneeling beside the parked car on the driver’s side. She then plants the bomb.

The makers of Killing Pavel tracked down new surveillance footage not found by police. It gives fresh details of the apparent killers, who returned to the scene the next morning shortly before Sheremet got into his doomed vehicle.

The footage reveals several suspicious men who arrived in the street that night. They appeared to be carrying out surveillance. They were still there when the man and the woman went past and allegedly fixed the bomb. The Bellingcat citizen journalist group managed to identify their car – a grey Skoda – and its registration.

The investigative reporters subsequently tracked down one of the men and identified him as Igor Ustimenko. Ustimenko admitted being in the area that night and said he had been hired as a private investigator to keep watch on someone’s children. He denied seeing the bombers and said police had not contacted him.

The reporters then spoke to a government source. He confirmed that Ustimenko had been working since 2014 for Ukraine’s SBU secret intelligence service. Ustimenko declined to comment further. The film also presented evidence suggesting that Sheremet was under surveillance the day before his murder.

Ukraine’s interior minister, Arsen Avakov, has denied the government carried this out. A ministry spokesman declined to comment on the film. The security service did not immediately respond.

“The government of Ukraine repeatedly promised to find Pavel’s killer but it’s clear they didn’t do too much,” said Drew Sullivan, editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. “Now we have to consider the possibility that someone in government played a role in the murder.”

A pioneering television journalist in his native Belarus, Sheremet was forced to move to Russia after he was arrested in 1997 while reporting on border smuggling. His cameraman on that story, Dmitry Zavadsky, was kidnapped and killed in Belarus in 2000. Sheremet later moved to Ukraine, where he was a well-known journalist with his own radio show.

In his last blogpost for the Ukrainian Pravda newspaper, Sheremet said some militia commanders and veterans of the conflict with pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine had escaped punishment for other crimes. Sheremet’s partner, Olena Prytula, co-founded the paper with Gongadze, whose brutal murder ignited national outrage.

Sheremet made it only a few hundred feet down Ivan Franko Street when the explosion ripped through his car, mortally wounding him. An ambulance had already taken him away by the time Prytula arrived and recognised the charred hulk of their vehicle.

The killing caused a major scandal, and American FBI specialists were brought in to help identify the explosives. The United Nations deputy high commissioner for human rights, Kate Gilmore, said Sheremet’s murder would be a “test of the ability and willingness of Ukraine’s institutions to investigate assaults on media freedom”.

quote:

Diplomatie vergt veel geduld, stalen zenuwen en principes. Angela Merkel weet het als geen ander. Terwijl de Amerikaanse president in zijn eigen vorm van diplomatie de Noord-Koreaanse leider Kim Jong Un een ‘pretty smart cookie’ noemde, was de Duitse kanselier bij Vladimir Poetin. Bij de persconferentie na het gesprek sprak Merkel de Russische president aan op ‘de omgang’ met homoseksuelen in Tsjetsjenië, doelend op vervolging, marteling en gevangenschap. Ze wees hem op het belang van demonstreren als een van de rechten in een ‘civil society’. Net als de rol van ngo’s. Met een perkamenten gezicht hoorde Poetin het aan. Was Merkel afgelopen dinsdag daarom 2.200 kilometer naar het Oosten gevlogen?

Welnee. Poetin moest er even doorheen, door de diplomatieke reprimande van Merkel. De president en de kanselier zijn eraan gewend elkaar onverbloemd de waarheid te zeggen. Ze spreken elkaars moedertaal en dat schept snel duidelijkheid. Eigenlijk had Merkel liever een werkbezoek gehad in het Kremlin. Maar Poetin stond erop dat ze naar zijn zomerverblijf kwam in Sotsji, de mooiste badplaats aan de Russische rivièra.

Uitgerekend de plek waar Poetin tijdens de Olympische Spelen in 2014 tot de annexatie van de Krim besloot. Vanwege dat besluit is Merkel sindsdien niet meer in Rusland geweest: met zijn invasie schond Poetin het internationale volkenrecht. En dat terwijl Moskou in 1994 de onafhankelijkheid en soevereiniteit van Oekraïne had erkend. Alleen aan de herdenking van de Tweede Wereldoorlog had Merkel deelgenomen, uit respect voor de Russische bevolking.

Dat laat onverlet dat Merkel sinds de uitbarsting van de Oekraïnecrisis tientallen telefoontjes met Poetin heeft gevoerd. Enkel het naleven van het vredesakkoord van Minsk leidt tot opheffing van de Europese sancties, herhaalde Merkel. Alleen: een wapenstilstand is er nog altijd niet.

Maar in Sotsji stond meer op de agenda. Ruim honderd dagen nadat Trump president werd, is de internationale strategische situatie veranderd. Poetin roert zich niet alleen in Oekraïne en Syrië. Zijn expansiedrang manifesteert zich inmiddels in tal van landen waar Amerika zich heeft teruggetrokken en waar de Europese Unie (nog) geen positie heeft opgebouwd. Dat bleek uit een telefoongesprek dat Trump met Merkel voerde vlak voor de Amerikaanse vergeldingsactie in Syrië na de recente gifgasaanval.

Uit Amerikaanse informatie zou blijken dat Rusland de Taliban in Afghanistan van wapens voorziet. Ironisch gezien de smadelijke Russische aftocht destijds uit Afghanistan. Maar vooral verontrustend. Ook in de vroegere broederstaten op de Balkan zijn al enige tijd Russische ‘krachten’ aan het werk. Bijvoorbeeld in Montenegro, dat binnenkort Navo-lid wordt. Rusland is er veel aan gelegen om de Balkanregio juist uit de transatlantische organisatie te houden. Zelfs voor een staatsgreep in Montenegro schrokken de Russen niet terug, al werd die op het nippertje verijdeld.

In Bulgarije en Moldavië zitten inmiddels Moskouvriendelijke leiders in het zadel. En Servië, Macedonië en Bosnië-Herzegovina spelen tegelijkertijd een pro-Russisch als pro-Europees spel. Juist met al deze landen voert de Europese Unie gesprekken over lidmaatschap. De grens tussen geopolitieke belangen en de democratische rechtsstaat kan wel eens dun blijken te zijn. Merkel staat in haar diplomatie in de regio pal voor westerse waarden en de rechtsstaat. Amerika vreest verschuivende invloedssferen in een explosieve regio. De grotere rol van Rusland in de brandhaard Syrië bevalt Washington helemaal niet, noch die van Iran.

Reden te over voor Trump op een politieke oplossing voor het Syrië-conflict te koersen. Maar hoe? De ‘grote deal’ met Rusland heeft hij ‘even’ laten varen. Eenmaal in het Witte Huis bleek de wereld een stuk gecompliceerder. Maar een gesprek met Moskou over Syrië zou al heel wat zijn. Want over één punt zijn Merkel en Poetin het eens. Zonder deelname van de VS is een ‘effectieve oplossing’ van het conflict in Syrië niet mogelijk, zei Poetin in Sotsji. Merkel heeft in ieder geval voor elkaar gekregen dat Poetin en Trump elkaar in juli in Hamburg ontmoeten als de G20 bij elkaar komt. Merkel, voorzitter van de G20, had Sotsji nog niet verlaten, of Poetin en Trump hadden elkaar al aan de lijn. De belangen zijn groot. De kans op ongelukken ook. Zei Merkel zelf niet dat praten belangrijker is dan schieten? Het vereist alleen geduld en stalen zenuwen

"De boodschap van Trump aan Rusland, China en Iran is duidelijk; 'ik ga doen wat ik denk dat juist is. Als jullie dat niet leuk vinden, jammer dan'", zegt Elliott Abrams, oud-Midden Oosten-adviseur voor Ronald Reagan en George Bush sr.



Liever stabiliteit
De kritische houding jegens het Westen is in de loop der jaren toegenomen. "Waar wij in het Westen vaak de nadruk leggen op mensenrechten en vrijheid als ideaal hebben, ligt in Oost-Europa en Rusland vaak de nadruk op stabiliteit. Denk aan Pussy Riot, de feministische band die in de problemen kwam na een protest-optreden in de basiliek van Moskou. Veel Russen vroegen zich af of je wel de vrijheid moet hebben om gelovigen te grieven. Het verlangen naar stabiliteit is groter dan het verlangen naar vrijheid." In landen als Rusland, Bulgarije en Oekraïne noemt ongeveer driekwart van de bevolking zich nu orthodox christen - aanzienlijk meer dan 25 jaar geleden, zo constateert het Amerikaanse onderzoeksbureau Pew Research in een deze week verschenen rapport. Identificeerde in 1991 nog 37 procent van de Russen zich als orthodox, in 2015 was dat 71 procent. In andere voormalige Sovjetlanden deed zich sindsdien een vergelijkbare trend voor. "De orthodoxe identiteit is nauw verweven met de nationale identiteit, gevoelens van trots en culturele superioriteit", constateert Pew. "En met het idee dat kerk en staat verweven mogen zijn, en dat Rusland een tegenwicht voor het Westen kan vormen."

Dat nationale trots in Oost-Europa wordt gedefinieerd aan de hand van religie, is het gevolg van een herwaardering van het verleden, meent Bruening. "In Rusland, maar ook in de andere landen is de nationale cultuur voor een belangrijk deel gevormd door de kerk. Het christendom is de drager van de cultuur. En als je zegt 'ik ben orthodox', zeg je ook duidelijk wat je niét bent: seculier en Westers."

quote:

Ukraine blocks popular social networks as part of sanctions on Russia

The Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, has banned the country’s two most popular social networks, its most popular email service and one of its most widely used search engines as part of sanctions against Russian companies.

A decree by Poroshenko posted late on Monday expanded sanctions adopted over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine to include 468 companies and 1,228 people. Among them were the Russian social networks VK and Odnoklassniki, the email service Mail.ru and the search engine company Yandex, all four of which are in the top 10 most popular sites in Ukraine, according to the web traffic data company Alexa. The decree requires internet providers to block access to the sites for three years.

Poroshenko’s decree also blocked the site of the Russian cybersecurity giant Kaspersky Labs and will ban several major Russian television channels and banks, as well as the popular business software developer 1C.

quote:

Self-identification as a Ukrainian citizen marks an important difference between the Kyiv-controlled areas and the occupied territories. In the latter, 54 percent reported that they felt less like Ukrainian citizens than before 2013, while only 8 percent stated they felt more like Ukrainian citizens now, and 38 percent reported no change. Thus, a previously strong sense—generally underestimated in the West—of being a Ukrainian citizen has been the price paid during the war.

Looking at the cause of the war, the views in government-controlled Donbas are surprisingly split: 37 percent blame the conflict on Russia and 10 percent on Ukraine. Thirty percent think it was the result of Western intervention, and 23 percent see it as a local reaction against the Kyiv government. The figures for the occupied territories are more similar than might be expected, with the exception of the perceived role of Russia: 50 percent think the war resulted from Western intervention, 30 percent see it as a local reaction against the national government, 11 percent blame Ukraine, and 9 percent hold Russia responsible.

The biggest discrepancy between the two parts of Donbas is over the future status of the occupied territories. In Kyiv-controlled Donbas, a clear majority of 65 percent wants the territories to be parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts without a special status, while 26 percent think a special status in Ukraine is necessary, and about 9 percent see the future of these territories in Russia.

The views in the self-declared republics are more diverse than might be expected: 21 percent want these areas to be parts of Ukraine without a special status, and 35 percent would prefer a special status in Ukraine. Conversely, 11 percent want to see the territories as parts of Russia without a special status, and 33 percent would prefer a special status in Russia. Thus, the respondents’ main emphasis is on recognizing the territories’ special status, while there is an even split between those who see these areas as parts of Ukraine and those who consider them parts of Russia.

In terms of foreign policy, the two areas of Donbas are more in line than one might have thought. While vast majorities in both parts reject NATO membership, the widespread negative views of the EU might come as a surprise: 72 percent of respondents in government-controlled Donbas and 82 percent in the self-declared republics are against Ukraine joining the EU.

quote:

Ukraine Opens Criminal Probe Against Stalin, Beria For Crimean Tatar Deportations

Ukrainian officials have announced a criminal investigation into Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and his secret police chief, Lavrenty Beria, for the mass deportation of Muslim Tatars from the Crimean Peninsula during World War II, which killed tens of thousands.

quote:

Op zaterdag 3 juni 2017 11:39 schreef Solstice1 het volgende:
http://www.newsweek.com/v(...)-sweden-joins-619486

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed deep opposition to the idea of Sweden joining NATO, calling its potential membership of the U.S.-led alliance a “threat” that would need to be “eliminated.”

“If Sweden joins NATO this will affect our relations in a negative way because we will consider that the infrastructure of the military bloc now approaches us from the Swedish side,” Putin told state news agency Itar-Tass. “We will interpret that as an additional threat for Russia and we will think about how to eliminate this threat.”

http://www.newsweek.com/v(...)-sweden-joins-619486

Meer in het artikel. De kop is trouwens wat sensationeler dan het stuk. Maar voor Finland en Zweden wordt het blijkbaar steeds aanlokkelijker om ook bij de Navo te komen. Gezien de geschiedenis in Georgië en Oekraïne niet heel gek.

quote:

Op zaterdag 3 juni 2017 11:39 schreef Solstice1 het volgende:
http://www.newsweek.com/v(...)-sweden-joins-619486

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed deep opposition to the idea of Sweden joining NATO, calling its potential membership of the U.S.-led alliance a “threat” that would need to be “eliminated.”

“If Sweden joins NATO this will affect our relations in a negative way because we will consider that the infrastructure of the military bloc now approaches us from the Swedish side,” Putin told state news agency Itar-Tass. “We will interpret that as an additional threat for Russia and we will think about how to eliminate this threat.”

http://www.newsweek.com/v(...)-sweden-joins-619486

Meer in het artikel. De kop is trouwens wat sensationeler dan het stuk. Maar voor Finland en Zweden wordt het blijkbaar steeds aanlokkelijker om ook bij de Navo te komen. Gezien de geschiedenis in Georgië en Oekraïne niet heel gek.

quote:

Op zondag 4 juni 2017 10:38 schreef drexciya het volgende:

[..]

Wat een overdreven gedoe. Waarom krijgt Rusland overal meteen het stempel van agressor, terwijl de VS (met een veel malen omvangrijker militair budget en bases over de hele wereld) vrijwel overal mee wegkomt?

Wat ze in Syrië doen is behoorlijk efficiënt en het gaat in principe alleen maar van hun reguliere budget af.

Verder vergeet men steeds dat Rusland een historie heeft. Het hele idee achter het Oostblok was een bufferzone tegen het Westen. Dat is sowieso de reden dat men niet zit te wachten op NATO landen aan de grens. Maar de NATO lijkt er bijna op uit om wrijving te veroorzaken. Ik sluit in deze niet uit dat het militair-industrieel complex er op zit te wachten; een vijand is altijd goed voor de wapenhandel.

quote:

Ukrainians Celebrate Visa-Free Travel To EU

Ukrainians are celebrating the first day of visa-free travel to most EU countries, which President Petro Poroshenko welcomed as a "a final exit of our country from the Russian Empire."

The liberalized regime entered into force on June 11, allowing Ukrainian citizens who have biometric passports to enter all EU member states other than Ireland and the United Kingdom without a visa for up to 90 days during any 180-day period. It also applies to four Schengen Area countries that are not in the EU: Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.

quote:

There was a time when Mikheil Saakashvili was seen as the West’s great hope for reform in the former Soviet Union.

But since Thursday, he has had a more pressing problem: He is a man without a country.

He was in New York when he learned that Ukraine, his adoptive home, had stripped him of his citizenship. He had already lost his citizenship in his native Georgia, where he was once president.

"I have only one citizenship, that of Ukraine, and I will not be deprived of it," he said Friday, vowing to return to the country — where until last year he had been the governor of the southern port city of Odessa — and mobilize his supporters.

The Ukrainian migration service said in a statement that the decision was made after it was discovered that Saakashvili had supplied false information about pending corruption charges in Georgia when he filed citizen registration papers in 2015.

But Saakashvili, who has said the charges in Georgia are politically motivated, blamed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for the decision to leave him stateless.

quote:

Op maandag 31 juli 2017 21:23 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:
Oekraine heeft Saakashvili de Oekrainse nationaliteit ontnomen, en aangezien hij de Georgische kwijtraakte toen hij de Oekrainse aannam, is hij nu statenloos.

[..]

http://www.latimes.com/wo(...)-20170728-story.html