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The annexation of Crimea, the “Novorossiya” project, and the fight against the “Kyiv junta” are not supported in Russia alone. There are political forces around the world, both marginal and relatively respectable, which voice their support for the separatists in the Donbass. At times, activists themselves travel to the war zone as volunteers, but they mostly hold demonstrations in support of the separatist republics and pressure their governments to renounce their support for Ukraine and “stop the aggression against Russia.”

Perhaps we can try another once he's in Kiev... or Riga As previously noted here, thinking all at the table are negotiating in good-faith (when dealing with serially-dishonest former KGB agents who want to take things from you) is probably not a very good idea- when what we ought to be doing is arming the Ukrainians to the teeth and putting troops in Poland to exhibit (residual) NATO resolve. The Russians' completely ignoring the latest Minsk accord and continuing to slaughter Ukrainian citizens in the name of 'Novorossiya' without pause should be all the evidence any thinking person would need to...

A Russian public movement called "Novorossiya" (New Russia) provides help for the rebels in eastern Ukraine and is now on the EU sanctions list. Historically Novorossiya was a large swathe of southern and eastern Ukraine which became part of imperial Russia. Who supports Novorossiya? The movement has representatives in several large Russian cities and a network of collection points. Its supporters include conservative Orthodox Christians, nationalists and monarchists. Mr Strelkov is an outspoken critic of corruption in the rebel-held areas and says he personally monitors distribution of Novorossiya aid, to make sure it reaches the right people. Being subject to...

When we say Novorossiya we are not referring to that territory Russia annexed over two centuries ago from the Ottoman Empire; nor do we mean the less than one year old confederation proclaimed in East Ukraine by the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic. What we have in mind is a new Russia: an emerging, much stronger nation, or federation, callused by the pain inflicted from the United States and its EU-NATO toy-dog through economic sanctions; a wiser Russia... a deflowered maiden which resulted from Gorbachev's well-meaning, but naïve, détente-glasnost days of promise by America's deceiving Novus-Imperium. And the...

New 'Novorossiya' General Korsun Vows to Install Harsh Soviet-like System 23:31 (GMT) snip.. The new "United Army of Novorossiya" Gen. Korsun recently gave an interview to a local news site, news-portal.dn.ua from which we get a definite impression of a determined hardliner. snip Asked to be more specific on plans for the industrial rebirth of the Donbass, the general said exports would go to Russia. He said Novorossiya would be run as a socialist system. "Despite Western propaganda, there is nothing bad in socialism. Moreover, the most advertised Western countries are proud precisely of their social orientation. Sweden, Switzerland, and...

President Putin has called for talks to discuss "statehood" for eastern Ukraine, Russian media report. He said the issue needed to be discussed to ensure the interests of local people "are definitely upheld". His comments came after the EU gave Russian a one-week ultimatum to reverse course in Ukraine or face sanctions.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin began referring to portions of Ukraine by their Tsarist-era name, Novorossiya, Russia hands expressed alarm. Novorossiya, or “New Russia,” incorporates the area of Southern Ukraine from Donbass to the present day border with Moldova. Some suggested that Putin’s brazen invasion and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula was a prelude to a much more significant land grab. They noted that Putin could have designs on the entirety of Southern Ukraine, linking Russia to the portion of Moldova known as Transnistria, an area which has been under Russian occupation for years and is already a de...

DONETSK, May 14. /ITAR-TASS/. Oleg Tsarev will prepare a federal agreement for the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, according toa resolution of the coordinating council of the South-East association that was published on Tuesday. According to the document, Tsarev will lead a working group that will be tasked to word a draft agreement for a “unification of the self-proclaimed Luganks and Donetsk People’s Republics into a single entity - the Federal Republic of Novorossia.” Later on, the constitution of the new state and a mechanism for admitting new constituent entities into the would-be federation will be worked out.

Self-declared people’s provisional governments: In Eastern Ukraine, protests against the Turchynov-Yatsenyuk government have led to the declarations of “People’s Republics” with “provisional governments” in the oblasti of Donetsk, Lugansk, and Kharkov. The Kiev-appointed governors have effectively lost authority in these regions which are practically controlled entirely by the rebels. Kiev claims that the rebels are “agents of Moscow.” Moscow disavows any involvement. In truth, there are Russians who are involved in the Eastern Ukrainian unrest, but these are not “government agents” but rather Russian nationalists who seek to assist their “compatriots” from across the border.

A casual listener may have missed it, but many Ukraine-watchers raised their brow when Russian President Vladimir Putin used the weighty term "Novorossiya" or "New Russia" to refer to some regions in Ukraine on Thursday. "It's new Russia," Putin told the audience during his nearly four-hour long televised Q&A. "Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Odessa were not part of Ukraine in czarist times, they were transferred in 1920. Why? God knows."

As those concerned with Ukraine waited skeptically for April 16 peace talks among Ukraine, Russia, the European Union and the United States in Geneva, Russian President Vladimir Putin heated up the conflict, suggesting that he will not stop until Ukraine is destroyed as a sovereign nation. He called Ukrainians and Russian one nation and threatened with a full-scale invasion of the Russian army. [....] An imperialistic mood was added by words the Kremlin’s chief propagandist, TV host Dmitry Kiseliov, who said he felt that Russia is being “suffocated by NATO,” and Putin’s joke that Russian won’t take Alaska back from...

What Ukrainians and the rest of the world see as Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin sees as Novorossiya, or New Russia. That Novorossiya is Ukrainian is a historical injustice, Putin said, in his hours-long live television question-and-answer session on April 17. “I will remind you, using the terminology of the czarist times, this is Novorossiya: Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Mykolayiv, Odesa were not part of Ukraine in czarist times. These are territories that were passed on to Ukraine in the 1920s by the Soviet government.” Putin said. “Why did they do it? God only knows.” [....] In his speech, Putin...

(GENEVA) — Top diplomats from the United States, European Union, Russia and Ukraine reached agreement Thursday on immediate steps to ease the crisis in Ukraine. The agreement, reached after seven hours of negotiation in Geneva, requires all sides to refrain from violence, intimidation or provocative actions. It calls for the disarming of all illegally armed groups and for control of buildings seized by pro-Russian separatists during the protests to be turned back over to authorities. It also gives amnesty to protesters who comply with the demands, except those found guilty of committing capital crimes. Monitors with the Organization of Security...

Despite calls for a peaceful dialogue in the document on Ukraine adopted in Geneva, the coup-imposed Ukrainian Foreign Minister said it will not affect the “anti-terrorist” operation in the East of the country and the troops will remain there. Soon after the Geneva document, adopted at a four-side meeting between Ukraine, the US, the EU and Russia, was published, Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchytsa said Kiev is not bound by its recommendations. According to Deshchytsa cited by RIA Novosti, “the troops in the East of the country are carrying out a special operation and can remain where they are.”

<p>Russia is “the only country in the world capable of turning the U.S.A. into radioactive dust.”</p> <p>That was the declaration made recently on a major Russian state TV channel by the popular anchorman Dmitry Kiselyov. The coarse tone in which he delivered this message was every bit as menacing as the actual words...</p>

Soldier Says Ukrainian Unit Switched to Pro-Russian Side, But Can't Be Confirmed SLOVYANSK, Ukraine—An armored column of military vehicles flying a Russian flag and carrying dozens of heavily armed fighters motored into this eastern Ukrainian city early Wednesday, a day after the Ukrainian army launched an operation to clear out pro-Russian separatists who had taken control of cities in the region. It wasn't immediately clear whether the men were Russian soldiers or local militants who had gotten their hands on military vehicles. A soldier on one of the vehicles said the unit was part of the 25th brigade of Ukraine's...

Seen several tweets of this over the last hour, and now this vid of the defection is posted on YouTube. The column had apparently been surrounded by several hundred pro-Russian civilians inside of Kramatorsk, with several older women linked arm-in-arm to prevent it's passing At about 8:50, you can see the commander arguing with someone on the phone..

-snip- The operation that the government said would confront pro-Russian militants in the east unraveled Wednesday with the entire contingent of 21 armored vehicles surrendering or retreating. -snip- One of the armored columns stopped when a crowd of people, many of whom were drinking or yelling taunts, gathered on the road before them. Later in the day its commander agreed to hand over the soldiers’ assault rifles to the very separatists they were sent to fight. Another column from the same unit, the 25th Dnipropetrovsk paratrooper brigade, surrendered not only its weapons but also the tracked and armored vehicles it...

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia emphasized on Thursday that the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament had authorized him to use military force if necessary in eastern Ukraine, and also stressed Russia's historical claim to the territory, repeatedly referring to it as "new Russia" and saying that only "God knows" why it became part of Ukraine. Speaking in a televised question-and-answer show, Mr. Putin also admitted for the first time that Russian armed forces had been deployed in Crimea, the disputed peninsula that Russia annexed last month immediately after a large majority of the population voted in...

As Mein Kampf makes clear, Hitler sought to unite all the people of German speech and culture into one state, or Reich, preferably by peaceful negotiation, otherwise by war and conquest... Today’s drift toward war with Russia seems like a replay of the past. Putin is a Russian nationalist, who believes in a strong Stalinist state. His goal is to reverse the events of 1989–the end of the Soviet state and dissolution of its enormous empire... ...to wield against the various weak states that were part of the U.S.S.R... All have ethnic Russian minorities, who speak the language, boast of...