3 minutes ago Mike Giglio of Buzzfeed writes: I’m in the center of Simferopol and didn’t hear any explosion, for what it’s worth. No one else around here seems to have noticed either
http://live.reuters.com/Event/World_News
Members of Putin’s rights council say no grounds for Ukraine invasion
Majority of advisory body urge Moscow not to invade Ukraine Some Russian liberals concerned at prospect of war against “brother nation”
By Steve Gutterman
MOSCOW, March 2 (Reuters) - Members of President Vladimir Putin’s human rights council urged him on Sunday not to invade Ukraine, saying threats faced by Russians there were far from severe enough to warrant sending in troops. (Full Story)
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Loyal to Ukraine, Tatars lie low as Russia seizes Crimea
By Alissa de Carbonnel
BAKHCHISARAY, Ukraine, March 2 (Reuters) - Only five days ago, Tatars of Ukraine’s Crimea came out in their thousands, chanting Allahu Akbar in a show of loyalty to the new authorities in Kiev and opposition to separatist demands by the region’s Russian ethnic majority.
(snip)
More on the reported explosions:
Miller MENA in the center of Simferopol now. No explosions. Ppl on street said it was one guy with firework or sound grenade.
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) March 2, 2014
Not heard the two reported explosions in Simferopol. @ukrpravda_news and @rykov both saying it was stun grenades. Quiet in the center
— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 2, 2014
Earlier, many Russian troops were surrounding Ukrainian military bases that refused to surrender. Stating the obvious, unless something has changed, if the Russian troops are storming these bases, it is unlikely that two sound grenades would be enough to do the trick.
Merkel to the Rescue....Heroine coming...Putin Agrees to meet!
Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted a proposal by Chancellor Angela Merkel to set up a “contact group” aimed at facilitating dialogue in the Ukraine crisis, the German government said on Sunday.
“President Putin accepted the German chancellor’s proposal to immediately establish a mission of enquiry as well as a contact group, possibly under the direction of the the United Nations Security Council or OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), to open a political dialogue,” German government spokesman Georg Streiter said in a statement.
Merkel raised the idea in a phone conversation late Sunday in which she accused Putin of breaking international law with the “unacceptable Russian intervention in Crimea.”
A Kremlin statement said Putin defended Russia’s action against “ultranationalist forces” in Ukraine and insisted measures taken so far were “fully adequate,” the Associated Press reported.
It said Putin directed Merkel’s attention to the “unrelenting threat of violence” to Russian citizens and the Russian-speaking population.
However, it didn’t mention specifically Merkel’s proposal, but highlighted the need to continue “consultations in both a bilateral ... and multilateral format with the aim of cooperating to normalize the socio-political station in Ukraine.”
Merkel told Putin the intervention was a violation of a 1994 Budapest memorandum on security assurances in which Russia committed itself to respecting the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine in its existing borders, as well as the 1997 treaty on the Russian Black Sea fleet, based in Crimea, Agence France-Presse reported.
The memorandum was signed by Britain, Ukraine, Russia and the United States.
The statement said Merkel called on Putin to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity.