JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.
OTHER RUSSIA-UKRAINE NEWS I DONE
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/malaysia-airlines-plane-with-239-on.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-blamed-for-deaths-in-ukraine.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russian-forces-tighten-grip-on-crimea.html http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-ukraine-situation-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-has-this-crimea-situation-well.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/eu-leads-diplomacy-on-ukraine-crimea.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/putin-pulls-back-from-brink-of-world.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russias-stock-market-fell-11-and-lost.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/watch-stock-markets-oil-today-from-this.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russian-troops-surround-ukraines-army.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-unanamously-approves-troops-in.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/02/russia-troops-copters-in-crimea-and-kiev.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/02/watch-for-afghanistan-to-have-next-arab.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/02/is-this-ukraine-situation-beggining-of.html
THE RUSSIA - UKRAINE SITUATION AT 8:55AM TUE MAR 11,14
WELL TODAY CRIMEA HAS JUST VOTED TO BECOME AN INDEPENDENDENT STATE.NOT A RUSSIAN STATE.INTERESTING.NOW THEY DO NOT OUTRIGHT WANNA JOIN MOTHER RUSSA.THIS COULD GET UGLY THEN.SINCE THE CRIMEA HAS JUST GOT ITS OWN ARMY. AND NOW WANTS IITS INDEPENDENCE.WELL NOW THEN RUSSIA IS AN OCUPIER OF CRIMEA AND NOW THE NATO TROOPS SHOULD BE ABLE TO COME IN AND TRY TO TAKE BACK THE AIR BASES THAT MOTHER RUSSIAS PUTIN OVER TOOK.THIS COULD GET UGLY NOW.AS PUTIN WILL NOT WANT TO LEAVE THE CRIMEA.
Nato jets to fly along Ukrainian border
Today @ 07:43-By EUOBSERVER-MAR 11,14
Nato on Monday decided to deploy reconnaissance planes in Poland and Romania to monitor the Ukrainian crisis. "All reconnaissance flights will take place solely over alliance territory," a Nato spokesman told the BBC. The US has already added six additional F-15s to the Nato air policing mission over the Baltics.
Moldova may be next on Russia's list, says MEP
Today @ 12:58-MAR 11,14-By EUOBSERVER
"First Crimea, then Ukraine, and we've received some messages that Moldova may be next before the [Russian] elections in September. So we are very concerned," French MEP Joseph Daul, leader of the centre-right EPP said Tuesday, referring to Russian President Putin's actual and potential actions in his country's neighbourhood.
World Bank in $3bn offer to Ukraine
Today @ 09:13-By EUOBSERVER-MAR 11,14
The World Bank on Monday announced it would offer Ukraine up to $3bn of support in 2014, reports Reuters. Some $2bn will be paid out this year as part of on-going projects. Another $1bn, conditioned on economic reforms, would be provided to the new government.
Crimea seeks to become independent state
Published March 11, 2014-Associated Press-Foxnews
The Crimean parliament voted Tuesday that the Black Sea peninsula will declare itself an independent state if its residents agree to split off from Ukraine and join Russia in a referendum.Crimea's regional legislature on Tuesday adopted a "declaration of independence of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea." The document specified that Crimea will become an independent state if its residents vote on Sunday in favor of joining Russia in the referendum.Western nations have said they will not recognize the vote as legitimate. But the move might be used as an attempt to ease tensions with Crimea existing as a self-proclaimed state without Russia moving quickly to incorporate it into its territory.After a brief war between Russia and Georgia in 2008, some leaders sin Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia also asked to join Russia, but their request was never granted.Meanwhile, Ukraine's acting president on Tuesday called for the formation of a national guard and for the mobilization of reserves and volunteers into the country's armed forces.
Oleksandr Turchynov asked the national parliament to approve turning the country's Interior Ministry troops into a National Guard "to defend the country and citizens against any criminals, against external and internal aggression."Turchynov said that the mobilization will include those who have previously served in the army and volunteers.Russian forces have strengthened their control over Ukraine's Crimea region in the run-up to a referendum set for Sunday on whether to split off and become part of Russia.Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who will fly to Washington to meet with Barack Obama on Wednesday, called on Western nations to defend Ukraine against a nation "that is armed to the teeth and that has nuclear weapons. "Meanwhile, Ukraine's fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, accused the country's new government of fomenting civil war.Yatsenyuk asked Russia, the U.S. and European Union member Britain to abide by a treaty signed in 1994, in which they pledged to guarantee Ukraine's security in exchange for giving up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons."We are not asking for anything from anyone," Yatsenyuk told parliament. "We are asking for just one thing: military aggression has been used against our country. Those who guaranteed that this aggression will not take place, must from the one side pull out troops and from the other side must defend our independent, sovereign state."Parliament was to vote later Wednesday on the motion on mobilization and the appeal to the West.Yanukovych, speaking in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, repeated the Russian claim that the new Ukrainian authorities are kowtowing to radical nationalists, and that they posed a threat to Russian-speaking eastern regions.Yanukovych, who fled last month after months of protests, said he would soon return to Ukraine.
THE RUSSIA - UKRAINE SITUATION AT 1:05PM TUE MAR 11,14
EU summit to call for action on Russian gas
Today @ 15:31-By EUOBSERVER
EU leaders next week plan to call for a reduction of EU dependence on Russian gas, draft summit conclusions seen by Reuters, say. The document voices concern on "high energy dependency rates, especially on gas, and calls for intensifying efforts to reduce them, especially in the most dependent member states."
11 Mar. 2014-NATO
NATO Deputy Secretary General discusses partnership with Moldovan lawmakers
NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow discussed the advantages of cooperation and partnership and the crisis in Ukraine with a delegation of Moldovan lawmakers on Tuesday (11 March 2014). “We want to look for ways to strengthen your efforts on the reform path,” the Deputy Secretary General told the parliamentarians.Moldova is a valued partner for NATO, Ambassador Vershbow said. He thanked the seven-member parliamentary delegation for their country’s commitment to increased political dialogue and cooperation with the Alliance. Ambassador Vershbow thanked Moldova for its recent decision to contribute troops to the Alliance’s mission in Kosovo. A contingent of 41 soldiers joined the KFOR operation on 8 March. It is the first time that Moldova participates in a NATO mission. He also congratulated Moldova’s decision to move closer to the European Union with the recent initialling of an Association Agreement. The Ambassador said that European integration is compatible with closer relations with NATO.During the meeting the Deputy Secretary General reiterated NATO’s respect for Moldova’s constitutional neutrality and underlined that Allies continue to support the country’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Moldovan delegation was led by Mr. Alexandru Cimbriciuc, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defence and Public Order and head of Moldova’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
France and Germany should stop arms sales to Russia
Today @ 08:36-MAR 11,14-EUOBSERVE-By Tomas Jermalavicius and Kaarel Kaas
TALLINN - The EU says its sanctions against the Kremlin in the light of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine could involve suspending some military co-operation.The ambiguities of national positions and limitations of Western leverage aside, there is one particular area which should immediately be on the table for discussion - exports of military equipment and military technology transfers that are taking place between some EU countries and Russia.A few years ago, the Baltic states were considered “hysterical” for raising objections to the French agreement to sell Moscow its state-of-the-art Mistral-class amphibious assault (also known as “projection and command”) ships.The deal came soon after the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 - a conflict which unnerved many Nato Allies.It not only boosts Russia’s “power projection” capabilities, but also involves transfer of some sophisticated military technology that Russia will be all too glad to incorporate into developing its domestic defence industrial base and future military capabilities.A powerful signal was sent to everyone concerned: no matter what the Kremlin is up to in its immediate neighbourhood and beyond, no matter how much selling arms to it upsets allies, and no matter what are the long-term strategic consequences of such policy, earning a buck (billions, actually) is a higher priority.The Mistral, as it turned out, was also - figuratively speaking - an ice-breaker.Other projects and deals followed, such as joint Franco-Russian development of a new generation of Infantry Fighting Vehicles. Thales, a French electronics and defence technology giant, is also helping to equip the Russian armed forces with thermal-vision, or night-operations, capability.As recently as last month, Dmitri Rogozin, Russia’s first deputy prime minister in charge of the defence industry, declared a new era of Franco-Russian military co-operation, involving joined competences and deeper exchange of information.
Germany is also expanding its military exports to Russia.
Its Federal Security Council, headed by the Chancellor, has made a habit of dolling out export permits left and right to sending German-made military equipment to countries which have dubious human rights records and which could potentially misuse the materials to suppress domestic dissent or to stir up regional conflicts.Russia is among them - getting up to 500 export permits in 2011 alone, according to the Military Equipment Export Report.One recent sale is particularly worrying: German authorities have agreed to sell to Russia a state-of-the-art brigade-level training facility, which is currently available only to the most technologically advanced Western nations.For Rheinmetall Defence, one of Germany’s largest producers of military equipment, the order is worth over €100 million.It will enable Russian brigade-sized units to test combat readiness for combined-arms operations, using Rheinmetall equipment to simulate realistic battlefield conditions and assess troop and staff performance.This will be not a step, but a leap forward for the Russian armed forces and their capability to conduct large-scale conventional military operations.
Putin’s logic
While modest in financial terms next to the French Mistral contract, the German deal constitutes a significant transfer of technology, with sensitive computing and communications hardware and software ending up in the hands of the Russian military - to be studied, copied and built-upon in the future.It means that for Germany - but also to France, Italy, and other Western nations that sell military equipment to Russia - Moscow is a partner, despite its behaviour in Georgia and now in Ukraine.
And a lucrative partner at that.
It is helping to keep European production lines and shipyards humming, jobs intact - not something to turn a blind eye to when times are tough economically. Not least when politicians want to get re-elected in constituencies which host major defence industry facilities.There is perhaps an underlying assumption that military equipment sales to the Kremlin might bring about a measure of influence over its behaviour, which the selling side may choose to leverage at critical points in time.But Russian leader Vladmir Putin’s logic is different: if the Georgia war did not put a dampener on military technology transfers, why should occupying a part of Ukraine be any different? He seems to think the military co-operation is too valuable to Berlin and Paris for them to take tough action. And he may be right.It poses the question: who is influencing whom at this stage, the producer or the client?
Sanctions
Enter the EU. Perhaps, the situation will start changing if sanctions to Russia are really put on the table.It would be obvious and natural to include terminating any military exports and armament co-operation as well as cutting any transfer of military (or even dual-use technology) to Russia into the overall package of sanctions.But this might prove to be a rather naive expectation, given how much the fragmented European defence industry needs cash from sources other than the dwindling defence budgets of Nato and EU nations.Do EU countries not see that the current situation is, slowly but surely, contributing to the erosion of Western technological dominance in military affairs? That it is strengthening an increasingly aggressive geopolitical rival and deepening regional military imbalances?
In the long term, there will be costs.
The ambition to have more integration in EU countries’ military-industrial complexes - both on the demand and on the supply side - will remain hostage to national interests and fears, diminishing the prospect of the EU ever emerging as a powerful entity in international security affairs.Some Nato and EU nations bordering Russia will be increasingly driven to trust less those allies who sell weapons to Russia and to rely even more heavily on the US as a security guarantor.Meanwhile, if push comes to shove, Nato planners will find themselves facing a far more capable military rival.The law of holes says that if you are in a hole, you should stop digging.But do Paris and Berlin even realise they are digging a hole, both for themselves and their allies? The impact of the current crisis on their military exports, armament co-operation and technology transfer policy vis-a-vis Russia will give an answer to this question.Tomas Jermalavicius is a research fellow at The International Centre for Defence Studies (ICDS), a Tallinn-based think tank. Kaarel Kaas is editor-in-chief of Diplomaatia, an Estonian journal of international affairs published by ICDS
Poland urges Germany to buy less Russian gas
10.03.14 @ 18:09-MAR 11,14-EUOBSERVER-By Andrew Rettman
BRUSSELS - Polish leader Donald Tusk has said Germany should reduce its gas dependence on Russia for the sake of EU foreign policy.Speaking to press on Monday (10 March) at a military base in Siemirowice, on Poland’s Baltic Sea coast, he said: “In future, we will not be able to successfully resist against aggressive or expansionist steps by Russia if so many European countries will be dependent on [Russian] gas and will go even further down the road of dependence.”He singled out Germany ahead of a visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel to Poland on Wednesday.“German dependence on Russian gas could effectively limit European sovereignty,” Tusk said.“I will speak about this with Chancellor Merkel above all else, in what way Germany could correct its economic behaviour so that dependence on Russian gas does not paralyse Europe when it needs to act quickly and unambiguously,” he added.“It’s not just about Germany, but Germany is a good example of this phenomenon [growing dependence] in recent years.”Tusk spoke after EU leaders last week considered a broad range of sanctions - including on Russian gas and oil - in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.Russian state firm Gazprom has also threatened to stop deliveries to Ukraine, which transits Russian gas to Europe, over unpaid bills.According to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, Russia last year supplied 167 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Europe’s 270 bcm gas imports.Some EU countries - such as Bulgaria, Finland, and Lithuania - get all their gas from Russia, while Germany relies on Russia for about 40 percent of its supplies.It also buys large amounts of Russian oil and coal, but it is easier to switch oil and coal providers, unlike gas, which is delivered mainly by fixed pipelines.In a sign of Germany and Russia’s ever-closer energy relations, Merkel in 2011 turned on the taps at Nord Stream, a €7.4 billion pipeline to bring Russian gas directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea.The man who orchestrated the project, former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, now works for Gazprom and speaks out on Russia’s side.He told German daily Die Zeit on Monday that while Russia’s intervention in Crimea is illegal, Germany should not point fingers because it took part in Nato bombings of Serbia in 1999 without a UN mandate.He also blamed the EU for causing the crisis by giving Ukraine an either/or choice on free trade ties with the EU or Russia. “That was the EU’s first mistake, which led to the conflict between Kiev and Moscow,” he said.Meanwhile, the Ukraine crisis has already impacted EU-Russia energy ties.EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger told German daily Die Welt on Monday he has suspended talks with Russia on a legal conflict over the South Stream pipeline, a project to pump more gas from Russia to Europe under the Black Sea."I won't accelerate talks about pipelines such as South Stream for the time being, they will be delayed," he said.A spokeswoman for the EU foreign service noted the same day that EU institutions have begun “preparatory work” on potential visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials, which could trigger a Russian retaliation.Ukraine itself gets 90 percent of its gas imports from Russia.But the EU is working on new arrangements to pump up to 8 bcm a year of gas in a “reverse flow” from Germany, Poland, or Slovakia to Ukraine to cut Russian dependence to 60 percent.EU officials told EUobserver the reverse gas could start flowing in six months’ time.It would come from a mixture of sources in Europe’s integrated pipeline network. But in the long term, EU countries are increasingly looking to shale gas, from inside Europe and from the US, as an alternative to Russian imports.
Ukraine forms new defense force, seeks Western help
By Alastair Macdonald and Andrew Osborn -MAR 11,14-Yahoonews
KIEV/SEVASTOPOL (Reuters) - Ukraine's interim leaders established a new National Guard on Tuesday and appealed to the United States and Britain for assistance against what they called Russian aggression in Crimea under a post-Cold War treaty.Blaming their ousted predecessors for the weakness of their own armed forces, acting ministers told parliament Ukraine had as few as 6,000 combat-ready infantry and that the air force was outnumbered nearly 100 to 1 by Moscow's superpower forces.There was no let-up in the war of words, with the pro-Russian regional parliament in Crimea approving a declaration of independence that will take effect if people on the Black Sea peninsula vote to unite with Russia in a referendum on Sunday.The national parliament in Kiev said it would dissolve the Crimean assembly if it did not cancel the plebiscite.Viktor Yanukovich, whose overthrow last month after protests triggered the gravest crisis in Europe since the Cold War, insisted from his refuge in Russia that he was still Ukraine's legitimate president and commander of its armed forces.Acting Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, who will visit the White House and United Nations Security Council this week, said a 1994 treaty under which Ukraine agreed to give up its Soviet nuclear weapons obliged Russia to remove troops from Crimea and also obliged Western powers to defend Ukraine's sovereignty.He said a failure to protect Ukraine would undermine efforts to persuade Iran or North Korea to forswear nuclear weapons as Kiev did 20 years ago. The terms of the Budapest Memorandum oblige Russia, Britain and the United States as guarantors to seek U.N. help for Ukraine if it faces attack by nuclear weapons.
DISARMAMENT PACT
Parliament passed a resolution calling on the United States and Britain, co-signatories with Russia of that treaty to "fulfill their obligations ... and take all possible diplomatic, political, economic and military measures urgently to end the aggression and preserve the independence, sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine".NATO powers - and the authorities in Kiev - have made clear they want to avoid a military escalation with Moscow, which has denied its troops are behind the takeover of Crimea 10 days ago by separatist forces - a denial ridiculed by other governments.The European Union and United States have been preparing sanctions against Russia, though with some reluctance, especially in Europe, which values commercial ties with Moscow.Direct diplomacy has stalled this week. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry turned down an invitation to Moscow until Russia modifies its stance. Ukrainian premier Yatsneniuk said he had been unable to reach either Russian President Vladimir Putin or Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for the past five days.Russia says the overthrow of Yanukovich was a coup backed by the West and that it has the right to defend the interests of the ethnic Russian majority in Crimea, a territory of two million that the Kremlin transferred from Russia to Ukraine at a time when the collapse of the Soviet state was unthinkable.
NATO AWACs surveillance planes were beginning flights over Poland and Romania to monitor events in Ukraine and the U.S. navy was preparing for exercises in the Black Sea with NATO allies Bulgaria and Romania over the next few days.Yatseniuk, who said he supported efforts to set up a "contact group" of major powers to resolve the crisis, accused Russia of seeking to undermine the world security system:"This is not a two-sided conflict. These are actions by the Russian Federation aimed at undermining the system of global security," he told parliament.
NATIONAL GUARD
Acting president Oleksander Turchinov said the National Security and Defence council had decided to raise a new National Guard among veterans. He accused Yanukovich of leaving the military in such a poor state that it had to be built "effectively from scratch".The acting defence minister said Ukraine had not been prepared for military confrontation with Russia. Having mobilized its forces, he said the country had only 6,000 combat-ready infantry out of a nominal infantry force of 41,000 -compared to over 200,000 Russian troops on its eastern borders.Turchinov warned against provoking Russian action, saying that would play into Moscow's hands. The National Guard, based on existing Interior Ministry forces, would "defend citizens from criminals and from internal or external aggression".A partial mobilization would begin of volunteers drawn from those with previous military experience, he said.Yatseniuk said the government was doing all it could to finance pay and equipment for the armed forces, but that Kiev needed help from Western guarantors of its security.Western powers have been careful to note that Ukraine, not being a member of NATO, has no automatic claim on the alliance to defend it. But Yatseniuk said the principles of its 1994 nuclear disarmament pact entitled it to expect assistance."What does the current military aggression of the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory mean?" he said."It means that a country which voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons, rejected nuclear status and received guarantees from the world's leading countries is left defenseless and alone in the face of a nuclear state that is armed to the teeth."I say this to our Western partners: if you do not provide guarantees, which were signed in the Budapest Memorandum, then explain how you will persuade Iran or North Korea to give up their status as nuclear states."(Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets, Pavel Polityuk, Richard Balmforth and Ron Popeski in Kiev; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Ron Popeski)
OTHER RUSSIA-UKRAINE NEWS I DONE
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/malaysia-airlines-plane-with-239-on.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-blamed-for-deaths-in-ukraine.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russian-forces-tighten-grip-on-crimea.html http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-ukraine-situation-today.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-has-this-crimea-situation-well.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/eu-leads-diplomacy-on-ukraine-crimea.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/putin-pulls-back-from-brink-of-world.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russias-stock-market-fell-11-and-lost.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/watch-stock-markets-oil-today-from-this.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russian-troops-surround-ukraines-army.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/03/russia-unanamously-approves-troops-in.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/02/russia-troops-copters-in-crimea-and-kiev.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/02/watch-for-afghanistan-to-have-next-arab.html
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2014/02/is-this-ukraine-situation-beggining-of.html
THE RUSSIA - UKRAINE SITUATION AT 8:55AM TUE MAR 11,14
WELL TODAY CRIMEA HAS JUST VOTED TO BECOME AN INDEPENDENDENT STATE.NOT A RUSSIAN STATE.INTERESTING.NOW THEY DO NOT OUTRIGHT WANNA JOIN MOTHER RUSSA.THIS COULD GET UGLY THEN.SINCE THE CRIMEA HAS JUST GOT ITS OWN ARMY. AND NOW WANTS IITS INDEPENDENCE.WELL NOW THEN RUSSIA IS AN OCUPIER OF CRIMEA AND NOW THE NATO TROOPS SHOULD BE ABLE TO COME IN AND TRY TO TAKE BACK THE AIR BASES THAT MOTHER RUSSIAS PUTIN OVER TOOK.THIS COULD GET UGLY NOW.AS PUTIN WILL NOT WANT TO LEAVE THE CRIMEA.
Nato jets to fly along Ukrainian border
Today @ 07:43-By EUOBSERVER-MAR 11,14
Nato on Monday decided to deploy reconnaissance planes in Poland and Romania to monitor the Ukrainian crisis. "All reconnaissance flights will take place solely over alliance territory," a Nato spokesman told the BBC. The US has already added six additional F-15s to the Nato air policing mission over the Baltics.
Moldova may be next on Russia's list, says MEP
Today @ 12:58-MAR 11,14-By EUOBSERVER
"First Crimea, then Ukraine, and we've received some messages that Moldova may be next before the [Russian] elections in September. So we are very concerned," French MEP Joseph Daul, leader of the centre-right EPP said Tuesday, referring to Russian President Putin's actual and potential actions in his country's neighbourhood.
World Bank in $3bn offer to Ukraine
Today @ 09:13-By EUOBSERVER-MAR 11,14
The World Bank on Monday announced it would offer Ukraine up to $3bn of support in 2014, reports Reuters. Some $2bn will be paid out this year as part of on-going projects. Another $1bn, conditioned on economic reforms, would be provided to the new government.
Crimea seeks to become independent state
Published March 11, 2014-Associated Press-Foxnews
The Crimean parliament voted Tuesday that the Black Sea peninsula will declare itself an independent state if its residents agree to split off from Ukraine and join Russia in a referendum.Crimea's regional legislature on Tuesday adopted a "declaration of independence of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea." The document specified that Crimea will become an independent state if its residents vote on Sunday in favor of joining Russia in the referendum.Western nations have said they will not recognize the vote as legitimate. But the move might be used as an attempt to ease tensions with Crimea existing as a self-proclaimed state without Russia moving quickly to incorporate it into its territory.After a brief war between Russia and Georgia in 2008, some leaders sin Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia also asked to join Russia, but their request was never granted.Meanwhile, Ukraine's acting president on Tuesday called for the formation of a national guard and for the mobilization of reserves and volunteers into the country's armed forces.
Oleksandr Turchynov asked the national parliament to approve turning the country's Interior Ministry troops into a National Guard "to defend the country and citizens against any criminals, against external and internal aggression."Turchynov said that the mobilization will include those who have previously served in the army and volunteers.Russian forces have strengthened their control over Ukraine's Crimea region in the run-up to a referendum set for Sunday on whether to split off and become part of Russia.Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who will fly to Washington to meet with Barack Obama on Wednesday, called on Western nations to defend Ukraine against a nation "that is armed to the teeth and that has nuclear weapons. "Meanwhile, Ukraine's fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, accused the country's new government of fomenting civil war.Yatsenyuk asked Russia, the U.S. and European Union member Britain to abide by a treaty signed in 1994, in which they pledged to guarantee Ukraine's security in exchange for giving up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons."We are not asking for anything from anyone," Yatsenyuk told parliament. "We are asking for just one thing: military aggression has been used against our country. Those who guaranteed that this aggression will not take place, must from the one side pull out troops and from the other side must defend our independent, sovereign state."Parliament was to vote later Wednesday on the motion on mobilization and the appeal to the West.Yanukovych, speaking in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, repeated the Russian claim that the new Ukrainian authorities are kowtowing to radical nationalists, and that they posed a threat to Russian-speaking eastern regions.Yanukovych, who fled last month after months of protests, said he would soon return to Ukraine.
THE RUSSIA - UKRAINE SITUATION AT 1:05PM TUE MAR 11,14
EU summit to call for action on Russian gas
Today @ 15:31-By EUOBSERVER
EU leaders next week plan to call for a reduction of EU dependence on Russian gas, draft summit conclusions seen by Reuters, say. The document voices concern on "high energy dependency rates, especially on gas, and calls for intensifying efforts to reduce them, especially in the most dependent member states."
11 Mar. 2014-NATO
NATO Deputy Secretary General discusses partnership with Moldovan lawmakers
NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow discussed the advantages of cooperation and partnership and the crisis in Ukraine with a delegation of Moldovan lawmakers on Tuesday (11 March 2014). “We want to look for ways to strengthen your efforts on the reform path,” the Deputy Secretary General told the parliamentarians.Moldova is a valued partner for NATO, Ambassador Vershbow said. He thanked the seven-member parliamentary delegation for their country’s commitment to increased political dialogue and cooperation with the Alliance. Ambassador Vershbow thanked Moldova for its recent decision to contribute troops to the Alliance’s mission in Kosovo. A contingent of 41 soldiers joined the KFOR operation on 8 March. It is the first time that Moldova participates in a NATO mission. He also congratulated Moldova’s decision to move closer to the European Union with the recent initialling of an Association Agreement. The Ambassador said that European integration is compatible with closer relations with NATO.During the meeting the Deputy Secretary General reiterated NATO’s respect for Moldova’s constitutional neutrality and underlined that Allies continue to support the country’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Moldovan delegation was led by Mr. Alexandru Cimbriciuc, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defence and Public Order and head of Moldova’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
France and Germany should stop arms sales to Russia
Today @ 08:36-MAR 11,14-EUOBSERVE-By Tomas Jermalavicius and Kaarel Kaas
TALLINN - The EU says its sanctions against the Kremlin in the light of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine could involve suspending some military co-operation.The ambiguities of national positions and limitations of Western leverage aside, there is one particular area which should immediately be on the table for discussion - exports of military equipment and military technology transfers that are taking place between some EU countries and Russia.A few years ago, the Baltic states were considered “hysterical” for raising objections to the French agreement to sell Moscow its state-of-the-art Mistral-class amphibious assault (also known as “projection and command”) ships.The deal came soon after the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 - a conflict which unnerved many Nato Allies.It not only boosts Russia’s “power projection” capabilities, but also involves transfer of some sophisticated military technology that Russia will be all too glad to incorporate into developing its domestic defence industrial base and future military capabilities.A powerful signal was sent to everyone concerned: no matter what the Kremlin is up to in its immediate neighbourhood and beyond, no matter how much selling arms to it upsets allies, and no matter what are the long-term strategic consequences of such policy, earning a buck (billions, actually) is a higher priority.The Mistral, as it turned out, was also - figuratively speaking - an ice-breaker.Other projects and deals followed, such as joint Franco-Russian development of a new generation of Infantry Fighting Vehicles. Thales, a French electronics and defence technology giant, is also helping to equip the Russian armed forces with thermal-vision, or night-operations, capability.As recently as last month, Dmitri Rogozin, Russia’s first deputy prime minister in charge of the defence industry, declared a new era of Franco-Russian military co-operation, involving joined competences and deeper exchange of information.
Germany is also expanding its military exports to Russia.
Its Federal Security Council, headed by the Chancellor, has made a habit of dolling out export permits left and right to sending German-made military equipment to countries which have dubious human rights records and which could potentially misuse the materials to suppress domestic dissent or to stir up regional conflicts.Russia is among them - getting up to 500 export permits in 2011 alone, according to the Military Equipment Export Report.One recent sale is particularly worrying: German authorities have agreed to sell to Russia a state-of-the-art brigade-level training facility, which is currently available only to the most technologically advanced Western nations.For Rheinmetall Defence, one of Germany’s largest producers of military equipment, the order is worth over €100 million.It will enable Russian brigade-sized units to test combat readiness for combined-arms operations, using Rheinmetall equipment to simulate realistic battlefield conditions and assess troop and staff performance.This will be not a step, but a leap forward for the Russian armed forces and their capability to conduct large-scale conventional military operations.
Putin’s logic
While modest in financial terms next to the French Mistral contract, the German deal constitutes a significant transfer of technology, with sensitive computing and communications hardware and software ending up in the hands of the Russian military - to be studied, copied and built-upon in the future.It means that for Germany - but also to France, Italy, and other Western nations that sell military equipment to Russia - Moscow is a partner, despite its behaviour in Georgia and now in Ukraine.
And a lucrative partner at that.
It is helping to keep European production lines and shipyards humming, jobs intact - not something to turn a blind eye to when times are tough economically. Not least when politicians want to get re-elected in constituencies which host major defence industry facilities.There is perhaps an underlying assumption that military equipment sales to the Kremlin might bring about a measure of influence over its behaviour, which the selling side may choose to leverage at critical points in time.But Russian leader Vladmir Putin’s logic is different: if the Georgia war did not put a dampener on military technology transfers, why should occupying a part of Ukraine be any different? He seems to think the military co-operation is too valuable to Berlin and Paris for them to take tough action. And he may be right.It poses the question: who is influencing whom at this stage, the producer or the client?
Sanctions
Enter the EU. Perhaps, the situation will start changing if sanctions to Russia are really put on the table.It would be obvious and natural to include terminating any military exports and armament co-operation as well as cutting any transfer of military (or even dual-use technology) to Russia into the overall package of sanctions.But this might prove to be a rather naive expectation, given how much the fragmented European defence industry needs cash from sources other than the dwindling defence budgets of Nato and EU nations.Do EU countries not see that the current situation is, slowly but surely, contributing to the erosion of Western technological dominance in military affairs? That it is strengthening an increasingly aggressive geopolitical rival and deepening regional military imbalances?
In the long term, there will be costs.
The ambition to have more integration in EU countries’ military-industrial complexes - both on the demand and on the supply side - will remain hostage to national interests and fears, diminishing the prospect of the EU ever emerging as a powerful entity in international security affairs.Some Nato and EU nations bordering Russia will be increasingly driven to trust less those allies who sell weapons to Russia and to rely even more heavily on the US as a security guarantor.Meanwhile, if push comes to shove, Nato planners will find themselves facing a far more capable military rival.The law of holes says that if you are in a hole, you should stop digging.But do Paris and Berlin even realise they are digging a hole, both for themselves and their allies? The impact of the current crisis on their military exports, armament co-operation and technology transfer policy vis-a-vis Russia will give an answer to this question.Tomas Jermalavicius is a research fellow at The International Centre for Defence Studies (ICDS), a Tallinn-based think tank. Kaarel Kaas is editor-in-chief of Diplomaatia, an Estonian journal of international affairs published by ICDS
Poland urges Germany to buy less Russian gas
10.03.14 @ 18:09-MAR 11,14-EUOBSERVER-By Andrew Rettman
BRUSSELS - Polish leader Donald Tusk has said Germany should reduce its gas dependence on Russia for the sake of EU foreign policy.Speaking to press on Monday (10 March) at a military base in Siemirowice, on Poland’s Baltic Sea coast, he said: “In future, we will not be able to successfully resist against aggressive or expansionist steps by Russia if so many European countries will be dependent on [Russian] gas and will go even further down the road of dependence.”He singled out Germany ahead of a visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel to Poland on Wednesday.“German dependence on Russian gas could effectively limit European sovereignty,” Tusk said.“I will speak about this with Chancellor Merkel above all else, in what way Germany could correct its economic behaviour so that dependence on Russian gas does not paralyse Europe when it needs to act quickly and unambiguously,” he added.“It’s not just about Germany, but Germany is a good example of this phenomenon [growing dependence] in recent years.”Tusk spoke after EU leaders last week considered a broad range of sanctions - including on Russian gas and oil - in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.Russian state firm Gazprom has also threatened to stop deliveries to Ukraine, which transits Russian gas to Europe, over unpaid bills.According to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, Russia last year supplied 167 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Europe’s 270 bcm gas imports.Some EU countries - such as Bulgaria, Finland, and Lithuania - get all their gas from Russia, while Germany relies on Russia for about 40 percent of its supplies.It also buys large amounts of Russian oil and coal, but it is easier to switch oil and coal providers, unlike gas, which is delivered mainly by fixed pipelines.In a sign of Germany and Russia’s ever-closer energy relations, Merkel in 2011 turned on the taps at Nord Stream, a €7.4 billion pipeline to bring Russian gas directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea.The man who orchestrated the project, former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, now works for Gazprom and speaks out on Russia’s side.He told German daily Die Zeit on Monday that while Russia’s intervention in Crimea is illegal, Germany should not point fingers because it took part in Nato bombings of Serbia in 1999 without a UN mandate.He also blamed the EU for causing the crisis by giving Ukraine an either/or choice on free trade ties with the EU or Russia. “That was the EU’s first mistake, which led to the conflict between Kiev and Moscow,” he said.Meanwhile, the Ukraine crisis has already impacted EU-Russia energy ties.EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger told German daily Die Welt on Monday he has suspended talks with Russia on a legal conflict over the South Stream pipeline, a project to pump more gas from Russia to Europe under the Black Sea."I won't accelerate talks about pipelines such as South Stream for the time being, they will be delayed," he said.A spokeswoman for the EU foreign service noted the same day that EU institutions have begun “preparatory work” on potential visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials, which could trigger a Russian retaliation.Ukraine itself gets 90 percent of its gas imports from Russia.But the EU is working on new arrangements to pump up to 8 bcm a year of gas in a “reverse flow” from Germany, Poland, or Slovakia to Ukraine to cut Russian dependence to 60 percent.EU officials told EUobserver the reverse gas could start flowing in six months’ time.It would come from a mixture of sources in Europe’s integrated pipeline network. But in the long term, EU countries are increasingly looking to shale gas, from inside Europe and from the US, as an alternative to Russian imports.
Ukraine forms new defense force, seeks Western help
By Alastair Macdonald and Andrew Osborn -MAR 11,14-Yahoonews
KIEV/SEVASTOPOL (Reuters) - Ukraine's interim leaders established a new National Guard on Tuesday and appealed to the United States and Britain for assistance against what they called Russian aggression in Crimea under a post-Cold War treaty.Blaming their ousted predecessors for the weakness of their own armed forces, acting ministers told parliament Ukraine had as few as 6,000 combat-ready infantry and that the air force was outnumbered nearly 100 to 1 by Moscow's superpower forces.There was no let-up in the war of words, with the pro-Russian regional parliament in Crimea approving a declaration of independence that will take effect if people on the Black Sea peninsula vote to unite with Russia in a referendum on Sunday.The national parliament in Kiev said it would dissolve the Crimean assembly if it did not cancel the plebiscite.Viktor Yanukovich, whose overthrow last month after protests triggered the gravest crisis in Europe since the Cold War, insisted from his refuge in Russia that he was still Ukraine's legitimate president and commander of its armed forces.Acting Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, who will visit the White House and United Nations Security Council this week, said a 1994 treaty under which Ukraine agreed to give up its Soviet nuclear weapons obliged Russia to remove troops from Crimea and also obliged Western powers to defend Ukraine's sovereignty.He said a failure to protect Ukraine would undermine efforts to persuade Iran or North Korea to forswear nuclear weapons as Kiev did 20 years ago. The terms of the Budapest Memorandum oblige Russia, Britain and the United States as guarantors to seek U.N. help for Ukraine if it faces attack by nuclear weapons.
DISARMAMENT PACT
Parliament passed a resolution calling on the United States and Britain, co-signatories with Russia of that treaty to "fulfill their obligations ... and take all possible diplomatic, political, economic and military measures urgently to end the aggression and preserve the independence, sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine".NATO powers - and the authorities in Kiev - have made clear they want to avoid a military escalation with Moscow, which has denied its troops are behind the takeover of Crimea 10 days ago by separatist forces - a denial ridiculed by other governments.The European Union and United States have been preparing sanctions against Russia, though with some reluctance, especially in Europe, which values commercial ties with Moscow.Direct diplomacy has stalled this week. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry turned down an invitation to Moscow until Russia modifies its stance. Ukrainian premier Yatsneniuk said he had been unable to reach either Russian President Vladimir Putin or Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for the past five days.Russia says the overthrow of Yanukovich was a coup backed by the West and that it has the right to defend the interests of the ethnic Russian majority in Crimea, a territory of two million that the Kremlin transferred from Russia to Ukraine at a time when the collapse of the Soviet state was unthinkable.
NATO AWACs surveillance planes were beginning flights over Poland and Romania to monitor events in Ukraine and the U.S. navy was preparing for exercises in the Black Sea with NATO allies Bulgaria and Romania over the next few days.Yatseniuk, who said he supported efforts to set up a "contact group" of major powers to resolve the crisis, accused Russia of seeking to undermine the world security system:"This is not a two-sided conflict. These are actions by the Russian Federation aimed at undermining the system of global security," he told parliament.
NATIONAL GUARD
Acting president Oleksander Turchinov said the National Security and Defence council had decided to raise a new National Guard among veterans. He accused Yanukovich of leaving the military in such a poor state that it had to be built "effectively from scratch".The acting defence minister said Ukraine had not been prepared for military confrontation with Russia. Having mobilized its forces, he said the country had only 6,000 combat-ready infantry out of a nominal infantry force of 41,000 -compared to over 200,000 Russian troops on its eastern borders.Turchinov warned against provoking Russian action, saying that would play into Moscow's hands. The National Guard, based on existing Interior Ministry forces, would "defend citizens from criminals and from internal or external aggression".A partial mobilization would begin of volunteers drawn from those with previous military experience, he said.Yatseniuk said the government was doing all it could to finance pay and equipment for the armed forces, but that Kiev needed help from Western guarantors of its security.Western powers have been careful to note that Ukraine, not being a member of NATO, has no automatic claim on the alliance to defend it. But Yatseniuk said the principles of its 1994 nuclear disarmament pact entitled it to expect assistance."What does the current military aggression of the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory mean?" he said."It means that a country which voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons, rejected nuclear status and received guarantees from the world's leading countries is left defenseless and alone in the face of a nuclear state that is armed to the teeth."I say this to our Western partners: if you do not provide guarantees, which were signed in the Budapest Memorandum, then explain how you will persuade Iran or North Korea to give up their status as nuclear states."(Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets, Pavel Polityuk, Richard Balmforth and Ron Popeski in Kiev; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Ron Popeski)
