Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Ukraine- All Talk, No Shooting…So Far.

Putin held a press conference on Tuesday.  I have not watched it.  Watching either Putin or W make me want to hurl; W because he was so stupid and Putin because he is so smug.  I just want to slap his arrogant little face.  I read part of a translated transcript and the lies and bullshit just kept coming so I quit.  Apparently he said he saw no need for military force…yet. 


Mr Putin had told his Ukrainian counterpart he had “no chance of being re-elected”. Mr Yanukovich had no political future, Mr Putin added. Did he sympathise with him?  “A person who is head of state has certain rights and certain duties. The first duty is to implement the will of the people who elected him . . . You have to analyse if he did that.”

So far it appears Putin has done more to unite Ukraine than anyone else.  Ukrainians of Russian ethnicity, including my wife, are busy explaining to their relatives what the truth is as they only get the official state-approved version.  Mobile phones and internet are a great help but simply cannot reach everyone.

 Andriy Parubiy, national security chief, said the Kremlin had been disappointed in its hopes of exploiting the divide between the Ukrainian-speaking west and Mr Yanukovich’s heartland in the Russian speaking east. He said: “They thought they would be met here with flowers and that our armed forces would en masse switch to their side, but this did not happen.”
A western diplomat argued that the solidarity created through the Maidan protests among the anti-Yanukovich, pro-EU forces had now spread more widely. “Moscow has consolidated even Russian speaking Ukrainians against Russia.”

StopFake.org is a Ukrainian website in English as well as russian


The big news today is the leak of a phone call from the Estonian foreign Minister suggesting that the snipers were actually working for EuroMaidan politicians.  I had said a couple weeks ago that word had it the same bullets and MO killed police as protesters.  I would love to know which police were killed by the snipers as several young rookies with no experience were killed but how I don’t know.  I do not for a minute doubt the doctor who made the bullet call but do doubt the Estonian Foreign Minister’s conspiracy theory.  There were plans of snipers in the documents found in the offices of Yanukovych security people


This is an excellent essay about what it takes to have a real democracy.  You can read it and see how your own country measures up. There is no easy path to democracy

Your key to all the headlines around the world : http://www.kyivpost.com/hot/euromaidan/


6 comments:

  1. Here's hoping the "no shooting" continues.

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  2. Al, thanks for the feedback from 'inside' Ukraine. We need to get news from on the ground, news you are providing. I am amazed at the restraint of the Ukrainian people that has led to so little bloodshed. Hoping and praying for the nation to arise stronger.

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    1. Thanks, Diane and Brian. It is far more complicated than I can easily explain but I try to hit the highlights and keep people from worrying too much. Nobody seems to care what happens to the Ukrainian people so long as "America loses" or "Russia loses".

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    2. Politics is a human condition: there are those who lead and those who want to be led. Like religion it becomes a belief rather than a responsible exercise.
      the Ol'Buzzard

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  3. Are you not homesick for Canada about now. This situation looks like it's poised to go to hell in a handbasket, and I hate it that you're there.

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    1. Thanks, Snow but I think we are OK. Crimea is as good as gone. No one dares to do anything to give Russia and excuse to invade the rest of the country or we would be back to 1939 again. And Russia would face another Afghanistan as people would not stop fighting, especially western Ukraine. No one wants that. But Russia will be back. Next move will be the Baltic states.

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