Posted on 03/04/2014 10:35:42 AM PST by Army Air Corps
President Putin claimed on Tuesday that "well prepared" and organized protesters in Kiev who brought down the Yanukovych regime were "trained in Poland and Lithuania".
In his first in-depth comments since the Russian parliament gave the green light for military action in Ukraine on Saturday, Vladimir Putin told a press conference in Moscow, "look how well they were prepared."
"They underwent preparation in bases in Lithuanian and Polish border areas, and [of course] in Ukraine itself. Their instructors were ready for a lengthy time, you saw how they were prepared, like special forces, they were even divided up into squads," Putin told journalists.
On Saturday, the vice-president of the Russian Federation Council claimed that "gunmen who took over power in Kiev were trained in Poland and Lithuania".
The Polish defence ministry categorically denied the accusations on Tuesday.
A confident looking Russian president said today that, "there can be only one assessment of what happened in Kiev, in Ukraine in general. This was an anti-constitutional coup and the armed seizure of power. No one argues with this," he said.
Putin said Russia reserved the right to use all options in Ukraine to protect compatriots living in "terror" but that Moscow would use force only as a last resort.
"As for bringing in forces. For now there is no such need but such a possibility exists," he said. "What could serve as a reason to use military force? It would naturally be the last resort, absolutely the last."
There are more Communist on the Rada, than "new nazi's".
http://www.opendemocracy.net/anton-shekhovtsov/mob-rule-must-not-be-way-forward-for-ukraine-Pravy-Sektor-Right-Wing-Nationalism
But he does about Gdansk.
I am no spy but I guarantee Russian trrops are massing along the borders of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Putin has to protect those poor ethnic Russians right?
Poland will not be invaded by the south, but along her coast line.
What is in the Ukraine and specifically Crimea that the Russians want. Is it resources? Is it fast access to the Black Sea? Why did they go so fast for Crimea?
The Black Sea Fleet’s base is on Crimea at Sevastopol. Also, it’s the only part of Ukraine where more citizens describe themselves as Russians than as Ukrainians. It’s accessible by sea and it’s almost an island so a Russian position there would be defensible. And they fought to defend Sevastopol in two wars, so there’s an emotional appeal. All in all, it’s a little like their Florida.
Putin is so confident that he can even telegraph his future order of moves — Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania. He will back off and let the US press declare the glories of Obama/Kerry as geopolitical chess masters. But look for more action before 2016. It’s important for Putin to complete a good portion of his plans while the current regime is in power in the US. Enough, so that the next president will enter after the balance has shifted far enough that there remain no options to stop the continuing piecemeal reconquest of the USSR territories.
Thanks!
Ping.
The world would be better off if Putin, and the subhumans who support him, would be euthanized.
Poland better declare Martial Law and Mobilize......or wait....no .....Odumbi will protect them.
He “hsd their back”, dontcha know! That and a quarter will buy you squat.
Didn’t Hitler claim Austria was hosting agitators, and used that as an excuse to move in? I know he used protecting ethnic Germans as an excuse to annex the Sudetenland, just as Pooty-Poot is using “protecting ethnic Russians”
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You would have thought someone in the media would have taken one history course.
OH wait, using the H word (Hitler) or the other N word (Nazi) is only for Republicans.
And we have a Secretary of State who thinks that this is all just about the Crimean Peninsula.
NATO has had an Article 4 meeting at Poland’s request. There haven’t been many Article 4 meetings in the history of NATO.
Ping.
Ping.
Thanks for the ping to this. They didn’t look that well trained and organized from the videos I saw. I also saw huge numbers of people in the streets who were willing to risk being beaten or shot and they didn’t panic and stampede out of there. Maybe I didn’t get the whole picture but I don’t trust Putin’s word for nuthin’.
I thought you would appreciate this story (it is from a Polish news source). Poland also asked for and got an Article 4 meeting with NATO.
Ping.
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