Posted on 08/29/2014 5:46:23 AM PDT by elhombrelibre
As Russia troops and tanks make an apparent bid to open the land route to annexed Crimea, discontent is growing in the motherland about the obvious but oft-denied war in Ukraine.
MOSCOW, Russia – Where U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have failed to make Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledge his ever-more-overt invasion of Ukraine and think about pulling back, Valentina Melnikova, the head of Russia’s famous Soldiers’ Mothers Committee, might just have a chance.
Early Thursday morning, Melnikova started getting phone calls from Russian army bosses. All of them, from the deputy defense minister to the paratrooper division commanders, wanted to meet with the great matriarch of the Russian military. She had accused the entire high command, along with Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin of invading Ukraine and of committing a crime against Russian citizens by sending Russian soldiers to "the bloody battlefields" without declaring the war, without signing legal papers with the servicemen, without letting Russian mothers know where exactly their drafted sons ended up dying.
The day before, Russian servicemen were fighting shoulder to shoulder with pro-Russian separatists in Novoazovsk, a strategic port city on the Russian border. By taking over Novoazovsk, the separatists cleared the way for more servicemen to pour into Ukraine. “According to our expert analyses,” said Melnikova – and few organizations have better information than hers – “ there are over 10,000 Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine today."
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
.....” No use losing any sleep over Russia’s steady re-annexation of Ukraine if our own elites can’t be bothered about Mexico’s steady re-annexation of the American Southwest”......
That’s how I see it...like calling the Kettle black sort of thing.
I'd like to know, What is the Ukrainian government doing to ensure that the newly arriving Russian "Dreamers" have access to free education and health care?
Thanks AdmSmith.
Not just what Putin ordered:
Kazakh Pres says Kazakhstan may leave EurasianUnion if interests infringed
Body bags. That’s what drove the paleoSoviet Red Army out of Afghanistan.
During the Nixon years, there were self-organized “soldiers’ union” cells within the Red Army, pushing for better conditions and pushing against the various internecine internal conflicts going on inside the USSR. A merc who grew up around here actually worked inside Soviet territory, along with a bunch of others, because the dictatorship couldn’t trust the troops to fire on citizens.
The war in Afghanistan happened to fit the longterm strategy of Soviet containment of China, and put them within a step of a year-round warm-water port at last. But the overriding reason was to put the Red Army to work shooting non-citizens and cutting off supply routes for the various independence movements starting up in the muzzie ‘stans that were then part of the USSR.
> Valentina Melnikova, the head of Russia’s famous Soldiers’ Mothers Committee... started getting phone calls from Russian army bosses... She had accused the entire high command, along with Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin of invading Ukraine and of committing a crime against Russian citizens by sending Russian soldiers to “the bloody battlefields” without declaring the war, without signing legal papers with the servicemen, without letting Russian mothers know where exactly their drafted sons ended up dying.
Thanks elhombrelibre.
/bingo
Anna Sazonova, a student of the People's Friendship University of Russia expressed concern over escalating nationalism in Ukraine and asked whether a similar scenario could unfold in Kazakhstan if Mr. Nazarbayev left his presidential post. “There are concerns over growing nationalist sentiments in Kazakhstan’s south. And the incumbent president Nursultan Nazarbayev seem to be the only deferring factor. Should we expect a Ukraine-like scenario if the President steps down? Has Russia got a strategy to deal with this possible scenario? And what are the prospects of Eurasian integration (and joining of the two countries together)?” she asked President Putin at the forum.
“Kazakhstan is ten-fold smaller than Russia in terms of population, but it is still a big country. And I am confident that a majority of its population supports development of close ties with Russia.
I don’t care what Obama thinks. I don’t care what Putin thinks either. I would like to think that any conservative American would oppose both of them and not think that the abuse of power by one of them negates the abuse of power by the other. Or to put it another way, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” Perhaps your parents shared that truism with you like mine did with me. Putin and Obama are both at best wrong head and at worst evil. If I cannot convince you that Putin’s a bad man, please don’t try to tell me Obama’s bad policies or wicked ways make Putin’s okay. I’m against both and neither of them fools me and neither is conservative.
When the USSR broke under its own weight — thank you Presidents Reagan and Bush — the Russians were glad to get out of those ‘stan SSRs at last, and everyone there who wasn’t transplanted Russian, Korean, etc etc, was glad to see them go. The only Russian interest in Kazakhstan is the space rocket launch facility.
The answer to the problem is lots of dead Russians and LPG from other sources for western Europe. Screw Putin and all who support him........screw Obama and all who support him.
I think Kazakhstan’s oil and gas is a significant factor.
You’re right.
Winter has always been Russia’s best weapon.
If that is the case then Putin better get this war over with quickly by hitting the Ukrain with the big hammer, smashing thier military and taking control of the region.
Before installing the sepertist as the new government and getting out.
Let the seperiotist handle all the domestic messyness for a few years, while Putin and Russia claim to take their hands off the sittuation.
(Thus leaving the west do do what it won’t do commit troops to restore pro-westerns to power)
In a few years after the sepertist have taken control of crimina and the Ukraine is still struggling wiht itself. Russia can move in to do the formal annexation of the Nation of Crimina. Easy and clean.
I guess you forget when, after the Soviet Union fell, we disarmed the Ukraine, telling them that we, the West, would spring to their defense if they were under attack.
It is interesting to note just how you feel about tyrants invading and taking foreign countries. I wish we could boot you out to Russia, you'd be far more at home there, and it would help make the US more "the land of the free" than with your presence.
In reality everybody knows that Ukraine was disarmed for a non-proliferation reasons no matter what was promised them.
Africa is in flames right now because they have supplied everyone who had sticks and stones with rifles, and guys who could only afford rifles got their tanks, APCs and aircraft dirt cheap.
Ukraine have sold a carrier to the Chinese for some freaking $20 million, given them carrier aircraft to learn technology and operation, and where do you think rogue regimes learnt a rocket science?
Now imagine if Ukraine had the nukes. Even Mexican cartels might could have couple by now.
Putin wants to name himself Tsar and will do it like Napoleon did, through conquest.
Ukraine could have been left with, say, 20 nukes, and an inspection program by an outside multi-country team, leaving no chance the weapons would go anywhere (except to a target if needed.) But, no, someone wanted Ukraine essentially defenseless, and that goes beyond nukes. This continued on into the recent past: Read up a little on Viktor Yanukovych...
Getting rid of the rest of Ukraine’s nukes WAS a good idea, but not backing up the assurances that went with that deal will almost certainly help lead to a significant nuclear war - hard to say where - in the next 50 years or less.
As for the rest:
A) You VASTLY underestimate the capability of countries or groups who are determined to be armed, to be armed, and heavily so. Try studying some history. Almost any time period will do.
B) Remove Ukraine from the equation, and the world’s “arms situation” would be essentially unchanged. It’s just like drugs - where there are buyers, there will be sellers, as well as those brewing up their own. Only in the nuclear arena can there be any real curtailment of proliferation, and even that is heading into the toilet.
C) The Chinese are perfectly capable of building their own carriers and carrier aircraft, and arguably would be better off (ie., more dangerous) on their own, even if it took a bit longer.
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