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I must say that I'm getting tired of the "Politican as the (Heath Ledger) Joker" meme.
And NO! I'm not imgining the Cesar Romero Joker when I'm talking about this either. I'm talking about the history of a character whch has been part of popular culture for over 70 yrs.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia signed a decree late Monday night formally recognizing Ukraine’s Crimea region as a “sovereign and independent state,” defying the United States and Europe just hours after they imposed their first financial sanctions since the crisis began and laying the groundwork for possible annexation.
(from NY Times, sorry I can't access the article to leave the link)
Putin and Aksyonov will sign an Agreement on affiliation of Crimea with the Russian Federation on Tuesday, March 18, 2014. The Federation Council and the State Duma of Russia will adopt all the documents therefor till the end of this week.
28 NATO Member States consider the so-called referendum held on 16 March in Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea to be both illegal and illegitimate. The referendum violated the Ukrainian Constitution and international law, and Allies do not recognise its results.
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_108030.htm
March 17, 2014
Ottawa, Ontario
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement announcing further economic sanctions and additional travel bans against Ukrainian and Russian officials:
“Today, our Government is announcing additional sanctions that will serve to further isolate Russia from the international community.
“Targeted sanctions through regulations under the Special Economic Measures Act build on sanctions already in place, and are being imposed against senior Russian officials as well as additional Ukrainian officials. The individuals targeted are responsible for undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and for facilitating Russian military action against Ukraine.
“The travel bans will serve to restrict senior Ukrainian and Russian officials responsible for the crisis from travelling to Canada.
“These measures demonstrate that Canada will not stand by while Russia violates Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, and that Russia’s actions will have consequences.
“In the days ahead we will continue to work with our G-7 partners and other allies on measures to further pressure Russia to de-escalate by withdrawing its troops to their bases.”
The Prime Minister's Office - Communications
Ukraine will conduct decentralization - Yatseniuk
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said reforms aimed at the decentralization of the country's administration will be conducted in the country and all changes will be outlined in the new edition of the Ukrainian Constitution.
"Regarding the expansion of the powers of the regions. We have introduced a special position of deputy prime minister in the government, whose main task will be the decentralization of the administration. This large-scale reform will be conducted while preserving the unity of Ukraine, which will give the regions, cities, and districts broad powers and funding needed for the development of the regions," he said in his address to the residents of the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine.
"This will primarily affect healthcare and the housing and utilities sector. Municipal police will be created. Local specifics will be taken into account in issues relating to education, culture, history, and its heroes," Yatseniuk said.
"The parliamentary and presidential form of governance, to which we have returned, will make it possible to take into account the interests of all regions, instead of forcing the will of one region against other regions. Next year, you will elect mayors and local councils with broader powers, and these councils will form executive committees, which will run the regions instead of people appointed from Kyiv," he said.
"All changes associated with the decentralization of the administration will be reflected in the new Constitution. We should write the Constitution together," Yatseniuk said.
Interfax-Ukraine
Trying to find a link to it ....there was a protest in Israel of Russia's actions
And the killing of Ukrainians begins...
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...57009636_n.jpg
Vladislav Seleznyov - Vichnaya Pamyat, Slava Heroyam!
Tuesday, Mar. 18 2014, 12:36 PM EDT
A Ukrainian serviceman was killed at a Ukrainian base that came under attack in Crimea’s main town Simferopol, a military spokesman said, as Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said the conflict had entered a military phase and accused Russia of commiting a “war crime.”
“The conflict is moving from a political one to a military one because of Russian soldiers,” he told a meeting at Ukraine’s defence ministry. “Today, Russian soldiers began shooting at Ukrainian servicemen and this is a war crime without any expiry under a statute of limitations.”
A second man, a captain, was injured.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle17540826/
This is terrible R.I.P. young soldier sad to say this most likely is the beginning of the end for many Ukrainians he was the first and unfortunately won't be the last to die at the hands of "RUssia"
The Black Sea peninsula is on the brink as clashes between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian forces threaten to erupt into wider violence. Several hundred Crimean "self-defence" militia have stormed the Ukrainian navy's headquarters in Sevastapol, the strategically important port city where Russia's Black Sea fleet is also based.
Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk has ordered the first deputy prime minister and the defence minister to fly to Crimea to "resolve the situation" in peninsula, now under the control of Russian forces.
Ostap Semerak, a senior minister, told a meeting of the cabinet that Vitaly Yarema and Mr Tenyukh would be charged with "ensuring the conflict does not become military in nature".
Further entrenching the Kiev-Crimea standoff, the Crimean regional prime minister has announced that he will not allow the Ukrainian defence minister and deputy prime minister into the region, to which they have been dispatched on an urgent mission as Russian and pro-Russian forces begin to seize Ukrainian military facilities.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...-_2856253b.jpg
A Ukrainian naval officer, right, passes unidentified armed men as he leaves the naval headquarters of Sevastopol. Three Russian s were flying at an entrance to Ukraine's naval headquarters in the Crimean port of Sevastopol as pro-Russian forces took control of at least part of the base without armed resistance.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...isis-live.html
19 March 2014
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the evacuation plan of Ukrainian citizens from the Crimean peninsula to mainland Ukraine in the course of today’s session. Ostap Semerak, minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, announced that during the news briefing after the session, UNIAN reports.
“Today, we approved an appropriate plan of actions. The decision was approved by the government and the National Security Council of Ukraine. The plan provides to order all levels of the central executive branch to start preliminary stage of the plan and fulfil tasks outlined for today,” the minister noted.
He also expressed his hopes that this process will not be threatening. However, Ukrainian government has to prepare to “the appropriate reaction for possible migration waves”.
http://euromaidanpr.wordpress.com/20...s-from-crimea/
SEVASTOPOL, Crimea — Bowing to the reality of the Russian military occupation of Crimea a day after Russia announced it was annexing the disputed peninsula, the Ukrainian government said on Wednesday that it had drawn up plans to evacuate all of its military personnel and their families and was prepared to relocate as many as 25,000 of them to mainland Ukraine.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and sailors have been trapped on military bases and other installations here for more than two weeks, surrounded by heavily armed Russian military forces and loosely organized local militia.
While the provisional government in Kiev has insisted that Russia’s annexation of Crimea is illegal and has appealed to international supporters for help, the evacuation announcement by the head of the national security council, Andriy Parubiy, effectively amounted to a surrender of Crimea, at least from a military standpoint.
http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/...ticleLarge.jpg
Ukrainian sailors left the country’s naval headquarters in Sevastopol on Wednesday after Russian forces seized the facility.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/wo...=65402782&_r=1
People protest against russian invasion - "Stop the creation of a new totalitarian empire" - In front of the US Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, on March 19, 2014
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...29191370_n.png
(Yesterday) Russian and pro-Russian forces took over Ukrainian navy headquarters and another military base in Crimea, encountering little resistance but taking the naval commander hostage.
Tensions rose as Crimean authorities turned back a ministerial delegation sent from Kiev, Russia, the US and Europe engaged in verbal sparring and an American warship began military exercises in the Black Sea.
The government in Ukraine demanded the release of the naval commander and a number of pro-Ukraine activists previously detained in Crimea, warning of 'adequate' consequences if authorities did not comply. it said it would be holding military exercises with the US and UK - a move clearly aimed to scare Moscow off any further seizures of territory in Ukraine's restive east. Withdrawal from the Russian-led CIS union - an umbrella group of former Soviet states - and visa restrictions on Russians wanting to travel to Ukraine were also announced.
This morning (Thursday), as EU leaders prepared to meet in Brussels to discuss the bloc's response to Russian actions in Crimea, the hostages were released by authorities in the Black Sea peninsula. Admiral Sergei Haiduk and the civilians reportedly left the Sevastopol naval base accompanied by Russian special forces, apparently on the orders of the Russian defence minister.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...isis-live.html
Ukraine to seek from UN recognition of Crimea as demilitarized zone
The National Security and Defense of Ukraine (NSDC) has instructed the government of the country to ask the UN to recognize Crimea as a demilitarized zone, NSDC Secretary Andriy Parubiy has said.
"The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has been instructed to appeal urgently to the United Nations asking it to recognize the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea a demilitarized zone and take comprehensive measures so that the troops of the Russian Federation should leave the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as well as to prepare an agreement to relocate military units and detachments of the Ukrainian army from the occupied territory of Crimea and redeploy them in mainland Ukraine," he said at a briefing on Wednesday after a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council.
Interfax-Ukraine
Another Ukrainian soldier was killed Tuesday
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...o_2858179c.jpg
The Ukrainian soldier killed on Tuesday during a raid by pro-Russian forces on an Ukrainian military base in Simferopol has been named in Ukrainian and Russian media as Sergei Viktorovich Kokurin, a 36-year-old father of one. A native Crimean reportedly of ethnic Russian descent, he leaves behind his pregnant wife and four-year-old son.
Mar 20, 2014 11:57 AM ET
U.S. President Barack Obama levelled new sanctions against senior Russian officials on Thursday as Russia all but cemented its plans to annex Crimea.
Obama announced his new sanctions, contained in an executive order, days after an initial wave of sanctions which the U.S. government called the most comprehensive since the Cold War. The new sanctions again target senior Russia officials, but also take on wealthy organizations and individuals that support the Russian government.
Obama also called on Russia to scale back its military presence on the Ukrainian border and to respect Ukraine's new interim government.
“The Ukrainians shouldn’t have to choose between the West and Russia,” Obama said at a news conference on the White House lawn. “We want the Ukrainian people to determine their own destiny.”
Russia also faces further sanctions from the European Union, which is set to meet in Brussels later Thursday.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/crimea-...ssia-1.2579734