Wednesday, March 05, 2014

PUTIN PULLS BACK FROM BRINK OF WORLD WAR START

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.

EUROPEAN LAW OBSERVERS
http://www.europeanlawinstitute.eu/membership/institutional-observers/
ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE
http://www.osce.org/
NATO
http://www.nato.int/
EUROPEAN UNION
http://europa.eu/index_en.htm
http://europa.eu/about-eu/institutions-bodies/index_en.htm
http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/eu-presidents/index_en.htm
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
http://europa.eu/about-eu/institutions-bodies/european-commission/index_en.htm
EUROPEAN PARLIAMANT
http://europa.eu/about-eu/institutions-bodies/european-parliament/index_en.htm
http://europa.eu/about-eu/institutions-bodies/ecb/index_en.htm
http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/eu-elections-2014/index_en.htm

OTHER RUSSIA-UKRAINE NEWS I DONE
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 6:30AM WED MAR 05,14

THE EUROPEAN UNION LEADERS AND RUSSIA AND KERRY HAVE A MEETING IN FRANCE TODAY TO TRY TO SOLVE THE UKRAINE SITUATION.AND PUTIN GOT AN UPPER HAND ON THESE SO CALLED ECONOMIC SANCTIONS.AMERICA AND THE WEST WANT TO FREEZE ASSETS AND STUFF LIKE THAT.WELL PUTIN AGAIN GOT AHEAD OF THE WEST BY PASSING SANCTIONS IN THEIR GOVERNMENT ALREADY THAT WILL GO AGAINST ALL WESTERN COUNTRIES COMPANIES AND FREEZE THEIR ASSETS AND WHATEVER ELSE PUTIN WILL BE ABLE TO DO WITH THESE NEW RUSSIAN SANCTIONS ON AMERICAN-EUROPE COMPANIES.

I GUESS PUTIN DOES NOT WANNA ANNEX CRIMEA AS PART OF RUSSIA YET.BUT WE WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS WITH THESE KERRY-LAVROV TALKS IN FRANCE SHORTLY.


European Union Headquarters-beforenine.blogspot.com
Tower of Babel And EU Headquarters Comparison-biblelight.net
 The United Nations were the Future European Union World Dictator will probably seduce the world by his lies And will announce in this very spot in the future that a 7 year peace agreement has been reached by ISRAEL-ARABS and MANY to be literally signed on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem with all the World Leaders attending.Or like the Bible Says These Leaders will have a pomp and luxurious SIGNING.I Think all the Leaders involved in the future SIGNING will all come riding on WHITE HORSES saddled with ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN flags and Chariots on them SAYING.PEACE HAS BEEN FULFILLED ON THIS VERY DAY.ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS WILL BE LIVING SIDE BY SIDE IN PEACE AND SECURITY.
And the EUROPEAN UNION PRESIDENT will sign the 7 Year Guarentee of Israels security for peace in a luxurious CEREMONY ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT IN JERUSALEM. Followed by Benjamin Netanyahu-Abbas-The Arab League Leader and whoever else is involved in this 7 year peace agreement of DEATH AND HELL disquised as a JERUSALEM COVENANT.

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week:(7 YEARS) and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

THE RUSSIA - UKRAINE SITUATION AT 10:45AM WED MAR 05,14

THE EUROPEAN UNION WANTS TO GIVE UKRAINE 11 BILLION DOLLARS TO HELP THEM OUT.THE TALKS OVER IN FRANCE SAY THAT MONITORS SHOULD IMMEDIATELY BE SENT TO UKRAINE.HAGEL IN WASHINGTON SAID NATO WILL PROTECT POLAND AND ALL THE NATO COUNTRIES AROUND UKRAINE IF RUSSIA THREATENS OR ATTACKS THEM.NATO WILL GUARENTEE ALL THE OLD RUSSIAN EMPIRE STATES CURRENTLY IN NATO WITH AIR PROTECTION AND TROOPS IF NEED BE.BUT FOR NOW BY PLANES.IT SOUNDS LIKE HAGEL IS NOW SAYING AMERICA SHOULD NOT SIMPLIFY THEIR ARMIES.BUT SHOULD KEEP THE ARMY THE SAME AS IT IS NOW SO AMERICA CAN BE THE WORLD POLICEMAN LIKE THEY HAVE BEEN SINCE WORLD WAR 2.IT SEEMS HITLARY CLINTON IS ACCUSING PUTIN OF BEING A MODERN DAY HITLER LIKE HERSELF.HITLER ALSO SAID HE WANTED TO PROTECT ETHNIC GROUPS IN CERTAIN COUNTRIES BY WAR MONGERING OTHER COUNTRIES AND OCCUPYING THAT COUNTRIES LAND IN THE NAME OF PROTECTING ITS ETHNIC GROUPS.

THE RUSSIA - UKRAINE SITUATION AT 12:20PM WED MAR 05,14

ITS REPORTED IN CRIMEA THAT RUSSIANS OR LEFT WING LUNATIC HATERS TRYED TO KIDNAP THE U.N ENVOY.I CAN BET RUSSIA IS GIVING THE EUOPEAN MONITORS THAT COME TO WATCH CRIMEA A LITTLE WARNING WHAT WILL BE HAPPENING TO THEM IF THEY WANT TO INTERFERE WITH ANYTHING TO DO IN CRIMEA OR RUSSIAS ARMIES.I'M SURE RUSSIA IS SAYING...SCOOT YOU USELESS EATERS.I GOT LAND TO OCCUPY AND MY ARMIES HAVE A JOB TO DO TO GET ALL THE FORMER RUSSIAN SATTILITES BACK IN MY PUTINS CONTROL AND BACK IN MY RUSSIAS EMPIRE.


05 Mar. 2014
NATO, EU Ambassadors hold joint informal talks on Ukraine


The North Atlantic Council (NAC) held a joint informal meeting with counterparts from the European Union’s Political and Security Committee (PSC) at ambassadorial level on Wednesday (5 March 2014) to discuss the situation in Ukraine.NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow co-chaired the meeting which was held at the EU Council’s Justus Lipsius building. The NATO and EU ambassadors discussed the latest developments in Ukraine and assessed their security implications.The discussions showed the convergence of views in both organisations in upholding Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, the need for a dialogue between Ukraine and Russia as well as de-escalating steps in view of a peaceful solution to the crisis in full respect of international law as laid down in bi-and multilateral commitments. Ambassadors had an exchange of views on the various dimensions of the crisis in Ukraine and the options for the response of the international community.NATO and the EU cooperate on issues of common interest and work side by side in crisis-management, capability development and political consultations.Separately, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen held talks with Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council which focused on the crisis in Ukraine and preparations for NATO’s Summit in Wales.

OSCE to send military monitors to Ukraine
Today @ 14:02-MAR 5,14-By EUOBSERVER


The OSCE is to send 35 unarmed military personnel to Ukraine to investigate reports of irregular Russian troop movements. The visit is to last from 5-12 March and start in Odessa. Eighteen OSCE states, including France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Turkey, the UK, and the US are to take part.

OSCE to send military personnel to Ukraine-MAR 5,14 10:15AM

VIENNA, 5 March 2014 –  Eighteen OSCE participating States decided to send 35 unarmed military personnel to Ukraine in response to its request.The matter was discussed at a joint meeting of the Permanent Council and the Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC) in Vienna on 4 March 2014.The visit is taking place under Chapter III of the Vienna Document 2011, which allows for voluntary hosting of visits to dispel concerns about unusual military activities. Ukraine has requested all OSCE participating States to send military representatives from 5 to 12 March 2014, starting in Odessa. This is the first time this mechanism has been activated.As of now, eighteen OSCE participating States have responded positively to the request sending up to two representatives each. Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.  One representative from the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre will also be participating. The military visit participants are on their way to Ukraine now.OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said: "It is my hope that this military visit will help to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine. By providing an objective assessment of the facts on the ground, the OSCE will be better placed to foster a political solution to the current crisis through dialogue."“Confidence-building and transparency are key elements of the OSCE approach to security, which seeks to foster openness and dialogue as the best way to resolve conflicts in our region," he added.The Vienna Document 2011 is one of the main confidence-building measures developed by the OSCE. Under this document, all participating States are required to share information on their military forces, equipment and defence planning. The Document also provides for inspections and evaluation visits that can be conducted on the territory of any participating State that has armed forces.
Note to editors: Chapter III of the Vienna Document 2011 (full text see at http://www.osce.org/fsc/86597)

VOLUNTARY HOSTING OF VISITS TO DISPEL CONCERNS ABOUT MILITARY ACTIVITIES

(18) In order to help to dispel concerns about military activities in the zone of application for CSBMs, participating States are encouraged to invite other participating States to take part in visits to areas on the territory of the host State in which there may be cause for such concerns. Such invitations will be without prejudice to any action taken under paragraphs (16) to (16.3).

(18.1) States invited to participate in such visits will include those which are understood to have concerns. At the time invitations are issued, the host State will communicate to all other participating States its intention to conduct the visit, indicating the reasons for the visit, the area to be visited, the States invited and the general arrangements to be adopted.

(18.2) Arrangements for such visits, including the number of the representatives from other participating States to be invited, will be at the discretion of the host State, which will bear the in-country costs. However, the host State should take appropriate account of the need to ensure the effectiveness of the visit, the maximum amount of openness and transparency  and the safety and security of the invited representatives. It should also take account, as far as practicable, of the wishes of visiting representatives as regards the itinerary of the visit. The host State and the States which provide visiting personnel may circulate joint or individual comments on the visit to all other participating States.

***

For more details about the activation of the Vienna Document 2011 provisions, see  http://www.osce.org/cpc/34427, pages 17-20.

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union (EU) and represents the interests of Europe as a whole. The European Commission's main roles are to set objectives and priorities for action, propose legislation to the European Parliament and to the EU Council of ministers, manage and implement EU policies and the budget, enforce European Law (jointly with the Court of Justice), and represent the EU outside Europe (negotiating trade agreements between the EU and other countries, etc.).EU policies in the area of justice are the responsibility of Vice-President Viviane Reding, who took office as the first EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship on 10 February 2010 . Ms. Reding set herself the goal of  developing a truly European area of justice based on mutual recognition and mutual trust and becoming the Guardian of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is now legally binding on the Union.The creation of the Directorate-General (DG) for Justice in July 2010 reflects the new opportunities of the Lisbon Treaty to improve the everyday lives of EU citizens by building an EU-wide area of justice. The aim of DG Justice is to offer practical solutions to cross-border problems so that citizens feel at ease about living, travelling and working in another Member State and trust that their rights are protected no matter where in the European Union they happen to be.The creation of the European Law Institute was promoted in the Commission’s 2010 Action Plan to implement the Stockholm Programme and the Commission believes that the Institute will make an important contribution to the EU’s wider goal of building a European area of freedom, security and justice. During her speech at the inauguration of the European Law Institute in Vienna on 17 November 2011, Ms. Reding stated that "The Institute will also bring added value to research on how EU law is implemented across the Union. It will engage in projects that will have concrete results for the daily lives of European citizens and legal practitioners."As Founding Institutional Observer of the European Law Institute, the European Commission is represented by the Directorate-General for Justice.

Barroso proposes €11bn to 'stabilise' Ukraine
Today @ 13:40-EUOBSERVER-By Andrew Rettman


BRUSSELS - European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso has proposed almost €11 billion in new money to help stabilise post-revolutionary Ukraine.With EU leaders at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday (6 March) to discuss his ideas, he said on Wednesday: “I think everybody knows what is at stake here: For the first time in many years, we in Europe feel a real threat to our stability, and even to peace on this continent.”He added: “Ladies and gentlemen, the situation in Ukraine is a test of our capability and resolve to stabilise our neighbourhood.”One billion euros of the new money is to come in the form of loans, paid from the EU budget, for Ukrainian macro-financial assistance.Another €1.4 billion will come as EU grants over the next seven years. The European Investment Bank is to contribute €3 billion over 2014 to 2016 and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to add €5 billion.In other measures, the commission will add a previous pledge of €610 million of macro-financial loans. It will also try to leverage €250 million of previously-earmarked Ukraine cash to raise over €3.5 billion in loans.Barroso noted the money will be conditional on reforms already set out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which include raising household gas prices.But in return, the IMF, the World Bank, EU member states, and other countries, such as Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the US are expected to top up the EU offer.

The EU's €11 billion is almost equal to a $15 billion bailout offered by Russia before the Ukraine uprising broke out, but the top-ups could see it climb much higher.Meanwhile, Barroso said the macro-financial aid and some €600 million of the new grants can be paid out “very fast … within a matter of weeks.”He also proposed that EU countries should immediately apply lower trade tariffs on Ukrainian imports, as envisaged in a future free trade agreement.He urged the Union to also get ready to pump gas to Ukraine in “reverse flows” through Soviet-era pipelines to reduce its dependency on Russian imports.The commission offer and the EU summit come after a popular revolution toppled Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych in February, prompting Russian forces to occupy Ukraine’s Crimea region.EU countries are expected to trigger an asset freeze and visa bans on Yanukovych, his two sons, and 15 other former regime members on Thursday morning.They have threatened to impose similar measures against Russia if it does not pull back troops in Ukraine, but an EU diplomats said it is “too early” to draft a list of Russian names at this stage.EU leaders on Thursday are also likely to call for international, but not EU, monitors in Crimea, after Germany, Italy, and the UK, spoke out against an EU mission at a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday.For its part, the Russian parliament is drafting a bill to let the Kremlin confiscate European companies’ assets if the EU goes ahead.The EU diplomat said the result of the summit will depend, to an extent, on the outcome of high-level talks between the French, Russian, and US foreign ministers in Paris on Wednesday.The contact added: “There is interdependence. If we are going to enter a real sanctions game, a pain game, then it is difficult to say which side will hurt more.”

UK leak indicates limits of EU action on Ukraine
04.03.14 @ 09:29-EUOBSERVER-By Andrew Rettman


BRUSSELS - A leaked British document indicates that Europe is less likely than the US to react forcefully to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.The leak took place in London on Monday (3 March), when a freelance photographer, Steve Back, got an image of a classified document being carried by a British official into a meeting of the country’s National Security Council.It said the UK backs EU-level "visa restrictions/travel bans" on Russian officials and supports "deployment of OSCE and/or UN (but not EU) monitors in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.”But it added that Britain does “not support, for now, trade sanctions … or [to] close London's financial centre to Russians."It also said the UK will “discourage any discussions (e.g. at Nato) of contingency military preparations."The information reflects an agreement by EU foreign ministers in Brussels the same day to threaten Russia with “targeted measures” if it does not end its occupation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.But it indicates that British PM David Cameron will not be willing to harm British trade or financial interests vis-a-vis Russia when EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the Ukraine crisis.It also indicates that Poland - which called for Nato talks on Tuesday, saying the crisis threatens Polish security - will not get much from the Nato meeting beyond nice words.The UK is one of the EU's top foreign policy powers. It has a special role on Ukraine because it signed - along with Russia, Ukraine, and the US - the so-called Budapest memorandum in 1994, which obliges it to protect Ukraine's territorial integrity.By contrast, the US on Monday already implemented a first tranche of sanctions against Russia.Its defence spokesman, John Kirby, noted that "there has been no change to our military posture in Europe or the Mediterranean.” But he said the US has “put on hold all military-to-military engagements between the United States and Russia … this includes exercises, bilateral meetings, port visits and planning conferences.”A US trade spokesman added: “We have suspended upcoming bilateral trade and investment engagement with the government of Russia.”

Neither the UK or the US have spoken out on the British leak.

A state department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said on Monday the EU and the US are working in “lockstep” on Ukraine and described the EU as “an important and vital partner.”She underlined the US prefers action to purely verbal diplomacy, however. “I would refute the notion that we are talk, talk, talk. We are very much walk, walk, walk,” she said.Meanwhile, the US and British ambassadors took the same line at a public meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Monday.The British UN ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, said Russia’s claim that ethnic Russians in Crimea are at risk “have simply been fabricated to justify Russian military action.”The US envoy, Samantha Power, accused Russia of “trying to convince the world community that up is down and black is white.”For his part, Ukraine’s Yuriy Sergeyev said Russia has deployed 16,000 troops in Crimea in the past week. He spoke partly in Russian to indicate the post-revolutionary authorities in Kiev are not Russophobes. “You call it a coup d'etat. We call it a revolution of dignity,” he told Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin.But Russia, which convened the UN meeting to put forward its view, did not back down.Churkin held up a letter from ousted Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych, who is in exile in Russia, urging “Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin … to use the armed forces of the Russian Federation for the restoration of the rule of law, peace, law and order.”The Russian ambassador noted “our task is not to return Yanukovuch to power.”But he said the only way to end the crisis is to revert to a 21 February accord, countersigned by France, Germany, and Poland, which says Yanukovuch should remain President of Ukraine until new elections in December.Correction: The original text said Poland called a Nato meeting on Wednesday. The meeting is on Tuesday. Sorry.


Ukrainian Jews split on support for Russian invasion

While some in Crimea feel safer with Kremlin-backed forces keeping the peace, many Jews are rejecting Putin’s anti-Semitism narrative

March 5, 2014, 2:31 am 0-The Times of Israel
JTA — Shortly after Russian soldiers occupied the Crimean city of Sevastopol last week, Leah Cyrlikova took her two children out for an afternoon stroll in a city park.When they passed a group of soldiers, they stopped to have a friendly chat and pose with them for photos.While many Ukrainian Jews have strongly condemned the Russian military incursion into Crimea, others see the intervention as restoring order in the wake of a violent revolution that overthrew the pro-Russian government of President Viktor Yanukovych.
“I feel safer with them around,” said Cyrlikova, a Jewish Ukrainian who has lived in Sevastopol for five years. “These are crazy times, and now I know that if something bad happens, they will stop it.”Divisions within the Ukrainian Jewish community have deepened in the wake of the Russian movement last week into the Crimean Peninsula, where approximately 10,000 Jews live amid an ethnic Russian majority.Many Ukrainian Jews took part in the opposition movement centered in Kiev’s Maidan, or Independence Square. Jews participated despite the fact that the protests included far-right activists and some political figures who have been known to espouse anti-Semitic views. But support for the revolution is hardly unanimous among the country’s Jews.Rabbi Misha Kapustin, whose Reform synagogue in the Crimean capital of Simferopol was recently vandalized with swastikas, acknowledged that some Jews support Russian involvement in the crisis.“In this area there is considerable support for the Russian invasion, and the local [Crimean Jewish] community is very assimilated here,” Kapustin told JTA. “You should take into account the effect of Russian propaganda: the television they watch, what papers they read.”But he stressed that he felt his country was being invaded by foreigners.“How would a Brit feel if another nation invaded London? That’s how I feel as a citizen of Ukraine,” Kapustin said. “The city is occupied by Russians, who seem to have decided to take over the Crimea. If this were the case, I would leave the country because I want to live in democratic Ukraine.”Residents of Crimea are at present able to move around freely at all hours, Kapustin said. They are also free to leave the peninsula for other parts of Ukraine. Kapustin asked his wife, Marina, to leave for Israel until the situation stabilizes. She refused.“I stayed to remain with my community, but I wasn’t very happy my family also stayed,” Kapustin said. “I would rather see them as far away from the action as possible, but I respect Marina’s choice.”The United States has condemned Russian “aggression” in Ukraine and threatened to impose economic sanctions in response. Major news agencies, as well as American and Ukrainian officials, have reported a massive mobilization of Russian troops in Crimea. But speaking at a news conference near Moscow on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that his troops had occupied Crimea, while reserving the right to act militarily to protect Ukrainian citizens from an “orgy” of radical nationalists and anti-Semites.“We have seen the work of neo-Nazis in Ukraine,” Putin said. “They and anti-Semites are rampant in Ukraine today.”Putin seemed to be referencing the prominent role in the Kiev protests of Svoboda, a xenophobic political party whose members have referred to Jews as “kikes.” Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok has described his movement as the “worst fear of the Jewish-Russian mafia.”On Monday, Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, appointed Svoboda politician Sidor Kizin governor of the Zhytomyr district, pending elections scheduled for May. At the same time, Jewish businessman Igor Kolomoisky was appointed governor of the Dnipropetrovsk district.The protest movement erupted in November because of the Yanukovych government’s prioritizing of ties with Moscow over relations with the European Union. But the revolution has exposed deep divisions between the country’s mostly Ukrainian-speaking west and the more Russian-oriented east and south.“The Maidan Revolution was a dangerous thing,” said Boruch Gorin, a prominent Lubavitch rabbi in Moscow who was born in the predominantly Russian-speaking city of Odessa in southern Ukraine. “The decision to abandon democracy as a tool for change and adopt violence is always frightening, especially to minorities.”Gorin, however, acknowledged that the protest movement was larger than just nationalist diehards and included both Jewish and non-Jewish liberals, as well as ordinary Ukrainians angered by rampant corruption and poor economic policies.Amid the months of unrest leading up to Yanukovych’s ouster, unknown assailants staged two violent attacks on Jews in Kiev. On Jan. 17, an Orthodox Jew was stabbed after leaving a synagogue. The week before, another Orthodox Jew was beaten outside his home. Both men are expected to recover fully.
On Feb. 23, the day after Yanukovych’s ouster, a synagogue was firebombed in southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia. It sustained only minor damage.Last week, unidentified individuals drew swastikas and wrote “Death to the Jews” on the front door of Kapustin’s Simferopol synagogue in Crimea.Some leaders of Ukrainian Jewry, including a Kiev-based Ukrainian chief rabbi, Yaakov Dov Bleich, suggest that at least some of these incidents may have been provocations by pro-Russian forces seeking to justify Russian involvement in the crisis.At a press conference in New York on Monday, Bleich called on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine. He drew a parallel between Russian actions in Crimea and the false pretenses Adolf Hitler used to justify his invasions and annexations of other countries in the 1930s.But others say the threat of anti-Semitic violence is real and that Russian protection is vital for Ukrainian Jews. Baruch Fichman, founder and president of the Ukrainian League Against Anti-Semitism, based in the western Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi, said Ukrainian neo-Nazis are feeling emboldened by the revolution’s success and are more dangerous now.“The threat of Russian intervention is a good thing because it will cause the neo-Nazis to rethink their attacks on Jews,” Fichman said. “Russian intervention in other places in Ukraine would be a positive thing for the safety of the Jewish population.”Putin’s suggestions notwithstanding, Gorin says Russia’s mobilization in Ukraine is not motivated by its concern for Jews but by the new Ukrainian government’s scrapping of a law recognizing Russian as an official language. Russian intervention, he said, was an error that would mainly serve to reignite Ukrainian nationalist fervor.“All said and done,” Gorin said, “Jews and non-Jews in Ukraine perceive Russian military intervention as a bigger threat than any revolutionary government.”

Putin talks tough but pulls back from brink of war

While sending a message of de-escalation, Russian president accuses the West of promoting an ‘unconstitutional coup’

MOSCOW (AP) — Stepping back from the brink of war, Vladimir Putin talked tough but cooled tensions in the Ukraine crisis Tuesday, saying Russia has no intention “to fight the Ukrainian people” but reserves the right to use force.As the Russian president held court in his personal residence, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Kiev’s fledgling government and urged Putin to stand down.“It is not appropriate to invade a country, and at the end of a barrel of a gun dictate what you are trying to achieve,” Kerry said. “That is not 21st-century, G-8, major nation behavior.”Although nerves remained on edge in the Crimean Peninsula, with Russian troops firing warning shots to ward off Ukrainian soldiers, global markets jumped higher on tentative signals that the Kremlin was not seeking to escalate the conflict. Kerry brought moral support and a $1 billion aid package to a Ukraine fighting to fend off bankruptcy.Lounging in an arm-chair before Russian tricolor flags, Putin made his first public comments since the Ukrainian president fled a week and a half ago. It was a signature Putin performance, filled with earthy language, macho swagger and sarcastic jibes, accusing the West of promoting an “unconstitutional coup” in Ukraine. At one point he compared the US role to an experiment with “lab rats.”But the overall message appeared to be one of de-escalation. “It seems to me (Ukraine) is gradually stabilizing,” Putin said. “We have no enemies in Ukraine. Ukraine is a friendly state.”Still, he tempered those comments by warning that Russia was willing to use “all means at our disposal” to protect ethnic Russians in the country.Significantly, Russia agreed to a NATO request to hold a special meeting to discuss Ukraine on Wednesday in Brussels, opening up a possible diplomatic channel in a conflict that still holds monumental hazards and uncertainties. At the same time, the US and 14 other nations formed a military observer mission to monitor the tense Crimea region, and the team was headed there in 24 hours.While the threat of military confrontation retreated somewhat, both sides ramped up economic feuding. Russia hit its nearly broke neighbor with a termination of discounts on natural gas, while the US announced a $1 billion aid package in energy subsidies to Ukraine.“We are going to do our best. We are going to try very hard,” Kerry said upon arriving in Kiev. “We hope Russia will respect the election that you are going to have.”Kerry also made a pointed distinction between the Ukrainian government and Putin’s.“The contrast really could not be clearer: determined Ukrainians demonstrating strength through unity, and the Russian government out of excuses, hiding its hand behind falsehoods, intimidation and provocations. In the hearts of Ukrainians and the eyes of the world, there is nothing strong about what Russia is doing.”The penalties proposed against Russia, he added, are “not something we are seeking to do. It is something Russia is pushing us to do.”World markets, which slumped the previous day, clawed back a large chunk of their losses on signs that Russia was backpedaling. Gold, the Japanese yen and US treasuries — all seen as safe havens — returned some of their gains. Russia’s RTS index, which fell 12 percent on Monday, rose 6.2 percent Tuesday. In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 1.4 percent.“Confidence in equity markets has been restored as the standoff between Ukraine and Russia is no longer on red alert,” said David Madden, market analyst at IG.Russia took over the strategic Crimean Peninsula on Saturday, placing its troops around its ferry, military bases and border posts. Two Ukrainian warships remained anchored in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, blocked from leaving by Russian ships.“Those unknown people without insignia who have seized administrative buildings and airports … what we are seeing is a kind of velvet invasion,” said Russian military analyst Alexander Golts.The territory’s enduring volatility was put in stark relief Tuesday morning: Russian troops, who had taken control of the Belbek air base, fired warning shots into the air as some 300 Ukrainian soldiers, who previously manned the airfield, demanded their jobs back.As the Ukrainians marched unarmed toward the base, about a dozen Russian soldiers told them not to approach, then fired several shots into the air and said they would shoot the Ukrainians if they continued toward them.
The Ukrainian troops vowed to hold whatever ground they had left on the Belbek base.“We are worried, but we will not give up our base,” said Capt. Nikolai Syomko, an air force radio electrician holding an AK-47.
Amid the tensions, the Russian military test-fired a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile. Fired from a launch pad in southern Russia, it hit a designated target on a range leased by Russia from Kazakhstan.The new Ukrainian leadership in Kiev, which Putin does not recognize, has accused Moscow of a military invasion in Crimea, which the Russian leader denied.Ukraine’s prime minister expressed hope that a negotiated solution could be found. Arseniy Yatsenyuk told a news conference that both governments were gradually beginning to talk again.“We hope that Russia will understand its responsibility in destabilizing the security situation in Europe, that Russia will realize that Ukraine is an independent state and that Russian troops will leave the territory of Ukraine,” he said.In his hour-long meeting with reporters, Putin said Russia had no intention of annexing Crimea, while insisting its residents have the right to determine the region’s status in a referendum later this month. Tensions “have been settled,” he declared.He said massive military maneuvers Russia has conducted involving 150,000 troops near Ukraine’s border were previously planned and unrelated to the current situation in Ukraine. Russia announced that Putin had ordered the troops back to their bases.
Putin hammered away at his message that the West was to blame for Ukraine’s turmoil, saying its actions were driving Ukraine into anarchy. He warned that any sanctions the United States and European Union place on Russia will backfire.American threats of punitive measures are “failure to enforce its will and its vision of the right and wrong side of history,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said — a swipe at President Barack Obama’s statement a day earlier that Russia was “on the wrong side of history.”In Washington, Obama shot back. Moves to punish Putin put the US on “the side of history that, I think, more and more people around the world deeply believe in, the principle that a sovereign people, an independent people, are able to make their own decisions about their own lives.”“And, you know, Mr. Putin can throw a lot of words out there, but the facts on the ground indicate that right now he is not abiding by that principle,” Obama said.The EU was to hold an emergency summit Thursday on whether to impose sanctions.Moscow has insisted that the Russian military deployment in Crimea has remained within the limits set by a bilateral agreement concerning Russia’s Black Sea Fleet military base there. At the United Nations, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, said Russia was entitled to deploy up to 25,000 troops in Crimea under that agreement.
Putin also asserted that Ukraine’s 22,000-strong force in Crimea had dissolved and its arsenals had fallen under the control of the local government. He didn’t explain if that meant the Ukrainian soldiers had just left their posts or if they had switched allegiance from Kiev to the local pro-Russian government.Putin accused the West of using fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision in November to ditch a pact with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia to fan the protests that drove him from power and plunged Ukraine into turmoil.“I have told them a thousand times ‘Why are you splitting the country?’” he said.While he said he still considers Yanukovych to be Ukraine’s legitimate president, he acknowledged that the fallen leader has no political future — and said Russia gave him shelter only to save his life. Ukraine’s new government wants to put Yanukovych on trial for the deaths of over 80 people during protests last month in Kiev.Putin had withering words for Yanukovych, with whom he has never been close.Asked if he harbors any sympathy for the fugitive president, Putin replied that he has “quite opposite feelings.”

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