Civil war in Ukraine

[pmaitra]

Leaked German Government Study: Cutting Off Russian Gas Would Wreak Havoc on German Industry

A leak from the German Federal Energy Ministry contradicts EU Energy Commissioner Oettinger.

Wolf Richter [SOURCE]

This article originally appeared at Wolf Street.

Even for Germany – which is not nearly as dependent on Russian natural gas as Poland, Finland, Estonia, or Bulgaria – it's a dreadful scenario

One of the threats, or perhaps the threat, hanging over the EU due to the sanctions fiasco has been the possibility that Russia could shut down the pipelines and stop deliveries of natural gas to European countries. It would be a way to escalate the crisis and force a solution of one kind or another.

It would do enormous damage to the Russian economy. What are they going to do with the gas that gets pumped on a daily basis to Europe, and particularly to the largest consumer, Germany? Inhale it? Because there is no infrastructure in place to export that gas in those large quantities to other customers that are not part of the pipeline system. It would cut foreign exchange earnings and government receipts. It would devastate Russia's natural gas industry. And it would curtail any desire by other countries to ever rely on Russia's energy exports.

But it wouldn't be a big deal in Europe, said Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Energy, when the Commission released its gas "stress test" last Thursday that had ostensibly been designed to test what would happen if Russia stopped pumping gas to Europe for six months over the winter.

"For the very first time, we have a complete picture of the risks and possible solutions," Oettinger said. Sure, some countries, particularly Estonia and Bulgaria, would have problems, but"¦. "If we work together, show solidarity and implement the recommendations of this report, no household in the EU has to be left out in the cold this winter."

Apparently, like the infamous bank "stress tests" before it, this stress test had one purpose: generate soothing words that make people feel confident everything was under control, that they didn't have to worry, that they could just keep plugging.

In reality, even for Germany – which is not nearly as dependent on Russian natural gas as Poland, Finland, Estonia, or Bulgaria – it's a dreadful scenario. That's what emerged from a report by the German Federal Energy Ministry that was leaked to the Spiegel. The report, which even Parliament hadn't seen, became part of the risk analysis that the Federal Economy Ministry sent to the European Commission in late August – and to the very same Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Energy, Günther Oettinger. He has known about the facts at least since then. Nevertheless, as part of the Commission's gas "stress test," he continued spouting off his falsely soothing words.

The analysis examined what would happen in Germany if Russian gas supply were completely turned off for six months during the winter. It would reduce gas supply by 23 billion cubic meters, when typically Germany uses 51.2 billion cubic meters during that time. That's a 45% cut!

But only a small fraction could be compensated for from other sources:

• 2 billion cubic meters from additional LNG imports
• 0.75 billion cubic meters from additional imports from Norway
• 3.0 billion cubic meters through fuel switching at power plants, for example to oil, and by non-delivery to certain customers with cancelable contracts.

It would amount to less than 6 billion cubic meters, to compensate for a shortage of 23 billion cubic meters. After a short time, even though gas storage facilities are 96% full, the government would have to proclaim an energy emergency, which would give it the power to decide who gets gas and who doesn't.

Gas would be allocated in sequence based on a hierarchy of four groups, according to the report:

1. Protected customers (mostly households, but also gas-fired power plants that supply heat to customers)
2. Gas-fired power plants that are deemed indispensable for energy supply
3. Industry
4. Other gas-fired power plants

Group 1, so mostly households, use 26 billion cubic meters. Group 2, indispensable gas-fired power plants, use another 2.4 billion cubic meters. Combined, they'd use up 28.4 billion cubic meters, more than the available gas. The rest of the customers – industry and other gas-fired power plants – would get nothing. Theoretically.

But it gets complicated, the report found. This is the theoretical distribution. In reality, "it is technically difficult in a distribution network, to separate protected customers from non-protected customers." Hence, households that should be getting gas might well run out as their gas was used elsewhere.

Industry would lose much of its electricity as power plants that aren't deemed indispensable would have to shut down. Forget heating those manufacturing plants, or turning on the lights, or booting up the robots"¦. Production would plunge. Layoffs would soar. The supply chain would collapse. A cut in gas supply would generate enormous economic costs, the report said. And even the lucky ones who would get gas would have to deal with dizzying price spikes.

With this move, self-destructive as it might be, Russia could lay waste to Germany's industrial power, at least for a while, and it would wreak havoc that would then ricochet around the world as German export orders would remain unfilled, and as imports would grind to a halt. The costs would simply be too large to contemplate. And that's why the report had been kept secret, and why even the German parliament hadn't seen it, and why Eurocrats had gone all out with their soothing words to mollify the population.

 

[pmaitra]

Russia Sanctions Become Political Nightmare for Merkel

Public support for the anti-Russian sanctions is slowly eroding in the EU due to lack of prominent developments in the Ukrainian crisis.

Sputnik - Russian News Agency [SOURCE]

Haunted by her disastrous Russia policy

MOSCOW, December 3 (Sputnik) — German chancellor Angela Merkel may have a hard time keeping Russia sanctions in place, as she is facing widespread public discontent, both within her nation and in the EU. The restrictive measures were introduced earlier this year and now their effects on the EU economy, and German in particular, are undermining trade. The EU is facing two possible options at this point, either a gradual revocation of the economic restrictions on Russia or a further tightening of the sanctions regime with the implementation of new restrictions, according to a report by Financial Times.

"Keeping sanctions in place is a challenge for German policy," says Gernot Erler, an MP of the opposition Social Democratic Party.

The current sanctions will expire one year after they have been imposed, meaning that without further escalation, the sanctions will begin to ease starting March 2015. There are only two possible scenarios for the outcome of the EU sanctions. The first being the case if Russian leader Vladimir Putin initiates yet another wave of military escalation in Eastern Ukraine. The other is if Putin explicitly shows his willingness to reach a negotiated solution, in which case the internal pressure in the EU to abolish the sanctions will be extremely high.

But what happens in case the tensions over the Ukrainian crisis remain at their current level, with neither side undertaking any major action in Eastern Ukraine?

A German ex-diplomat, quoted by FT, suggested that public opinion may change in favour of a more dovish approach. In his opinion, Germans are already asking why traditionally strong relations with Russia must be jeopardized. "They say, 'For God's sake let's forget about Crimea.'"‰" It will be "increasingly difficult domestically speaking for Angela Merkel," he concludes.

The Merkel-led cabinet has four main political objectives, which are: detente in Ukraine, the Kremlin's non-involvement in other nations' domestic affairs, strengthening the EU and retaining a domestic power base. All of these goals will be hard to pursue at once due to several reasons. Eastern Europe's high reliance on the now-cut economic ties with Russia are negatively affecting the living standards of many people. Businesses involved in Russia, like the Eastern Committee, are actively lobbying in favour of the sanctions' revocation. Adding to this, the Russian government-owned media company, RT, is launching a German-language website in 2015, to explain to the German public the Kremlin's stance on international issues, while Russian businesses are lobbying their interests in Germany and Europe as well.

At this point the Merkel-led government is in better position than at the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, as it has capitalized on the developments in Ukraine, winning over public opinion and consolidating the EU on its pro-Ukrainian stance. However, in a smoldering standoff with Russia time is on the latter's side, as in the absence of acts of explicit hostility, public opinion in Europe will slowly shift towards peace, with Crimea slowly being forgotten.

[HR][/HR]


Commentary:

My opinion is that Russia needs to keep supplying more weapons to the militia so that more territories can be liberated. That way, it will serve two purposes. Firstly, the Nazis will be cleaned up, or forced to relocate to the EU (the alleged land of "European values," whatever that means), and have as many Molotov cocktail parties they want, in EU. Secondly, EU will be forced to extend the sanctions on Russia, which will not only break the back of EU economy, but possibly bring about regime changes in certain members of the EU, while on the other hand, forcing Russia to re-orient herself towards the orient.

Looking at the larger scheme of things, the EU standards of living are simply unsustainable, and while in the colonial days, they were able to afford to exploit their colonies for resources, this time around, EU in general will have to scale back and come to terms with reality—which means, less driers and more clotheslines, less BMWs and more VolksWagens, and eventually, more people going back to tilling the land and growing food, instead of bothering about fancy cosmetics.

 

[jouni]

Fresh troops in Belgorod....

 

[pmaitra]

Kiev Refuses to Withdraw Heavy Weapons

Minsk agreement now at risk of imploding.

Pavel Polityuk (Reuters) Anton Zverev [SOURCE]

Members of the Ukrainian armed forces ride military vehicles near Artemivsk, eastern Ukraine, February 22, 2015.

A fighter with the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic army looks at a destroyed Ukrainian army tank near the town of Debaltseve February 22, 2015.

(Reuters) - Ukraine's military said on Monday it could not start withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line in the east as required under a tenuous ceasefire because pro-Russian separatists who advanced last week were still attacking its positions.

A truce to end fighting that has killed more than 5,600 people appeared stillborn last week after rebels ignored it to capture the strategic town of Debaltseve in a punishing defeat for Kiev.

Nevertheless, the peace deal's European sponsors still hold out hope it can be salvaged, now that the Moscow-backed separatists have achieved that objective.

Kiev says it fears the rebels, backed by reinforcements of Russian troops, are planning to advance deeper into territory the Kremlin calls "New Russia". Moscow denies aiding the rebels.

Fighting has diminished since Kiev's forces abandoned Debaltseve in defeat last Wednesday, and there were hopeful signs for the truce over the weekend, with an overnight exchange of around 200 prisoners late on Saturday and an agreement on Sunday to begin pulling back artillery from the front.

But Kiev said on Monday that it still could not start the artillery withdrawal.

"Given that the positions of Ukrainian servicemen continue to be shelled, there can not yet be any talk of pulling back weapons," spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said in a televised briefing.

Anatoly Stelmakh, another military spokesman, said rebel forces had attacked the village of Shyrokyne overnight, along the coast on the road to Mariupol, a port of half a million that Kiev fears could be the next big rebel target.

"The fighters have not stopped their attempts to storm our positions in Shyrokyne, in the direction of Mariupol. At midnight the armed groups again attempted unsuccessfully to attack our soldiers. The battle lasted half an hour."

Rebel commander Eduard Basurin denied the fighters had launched any such attack, and said the situation was calm. "At the moment all is quiet, there is no shelling," he told Reuters.

In the biggest rebel stronghold Donetsk, occasional artillery fire could be heard through the night and on Monday morning, although it was not clear who was firing and it was far less intense than before the truce.

The separatist press service DAN reported two homes destroyed by shelling on the city's outskirts overnight.

Nearly a million people have been driven from their homes by the war between pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine and government forces. Last week's ceasefire was reached after the rebels abandoned a previous truce to launch their advance, arguing that previous battle lines had left their civilians vulnerable to government shelling.

"I hope, I just hope, in the truce. No one knows what will happen with the way the sides are behaving," said Donetsk resident Sergei, 52. "Now it's quiet, it's ok on the streets. You want such quiet. It was difficult to sleep before, not knowing whether you would wake up."

Kiev says the rebels are reinforcing near Mariupol for a possible assault on the port, the biggest city in the two rebellious provinces still in government hands. Defence analyst Dmytro Tymchuk, who has close ties to the military, said rebels had brought 350 fighters and 20 armoured vehicles including six tanks to the area.

Kiev also fears unrest could spread from the war zone to other parts of the mainly Russian-speaking east, where its troops are firmly in control and most residents are loyal but violent separatist demonstrations have occasionally flared in the past year.

Two people were killed on Sunday in Kharkiv, 200 km (140 miles) from the war zone, in a blast at a demonstration marking the anniversary of the deaths of 100 protesters a year ago in an uprising that toppled the country's pro-Moscow leader. Kiev said it had arrested four suspects who had received weapons and instructions in Russia.

[HR][/HR]

Commentary:

• This truce was a big advantage for the Kiev regime, because they got more than what they would have otherwise, considering the NovoRossiyan militia were in a militarily superior position.
• Further escalation would decimate whatever is left of Kiev forces.
• The Kremlin has tied down the militia from escalating the conflict because an escalation means a potential toppling of the chocolate seller and the installation of the Nazis. The Nazis, who are now part of the regime, would then end up in the centre of the regime.
• As much as the Kremlin might want the militia to not escalate, the militia might not want to lose momentum after a series of military victories.
• A massive influx of refugees and Ukrainian draft evaders into the Russian Federation is causing an economic strain on the Russian Federation, and thus, the chocolate seller is the better of the two evils, the other evil being the Nazis, because, if the Nazis get more power, even more refugees would flow into the Russian Federation.

 

[Gabriel92]

Fresh troops in Belgorod....

They seem young.... So Putin is sending his conscripts to get slaughtered for him in Ukraine ?
Poor them.... they should stay with their families,instead of going to ukraine and getting slaughtered for Putin

Russian Army in Ukraine: MSTA-S self-propelled howitzers spotted at Debaltseve - Russian Army, armament, Putin, Russia, Ukraine, Russian Aggression Against Ukraine, Evidence of Russian aggression in Ukraine, Russian Army in Ukraine (23.02.15 10:29) «

 

[pmaitra]

Why Was EU Surprised Putin Would React to Brussels Ukraine Encroachment?

Ukraine is a diverse country, parts of it closely connected to Russia. Of course it would react to EU designs to encite Kiev orient exclusively towards the west.

Peter Hitchens (Daily Mail) [SOURCE]

This article originally appeared in Daily Mail.

Fools rush in

I have not yet had time to read the entire report by the House of Lords EU sub-committee on Russia, which can be accessed here, but I do urge my readers to study it, especially the section beginning on page 53. 'the crisis in Ukraine and the EU's response'.

I suspect the whole thing has benefited by the presence on the sub-committee of Lord (Norman) Lamont, who knows a thing or two about the EU.

There is also quite an impressive list of witnesses, who might be expected to know what they were talking about, including Vaclav Klaus, former President of the Czech republic, and Sir Tony Brenton, former British ambassador in Moscow.

But it also has a pleasingly sober willingness to examine things that are generally ignored in the 'Putin is Hitler' hysteria which has engulfed so much of politics and the media.

In his evidence, Mr Klaus said some very interesting things (it is easily found by clicking on the red numbers opposite his name in the list of witnesses)

For example , after opening by saying : 'I am also no a prioristic advocate or defender of Russia or Mr Putin due to our communist experience. I am the last one to be motivated to speak positively about that country. However, our life with communism taught us something. Since then, I have always tried to oppose lies and manipulative propaganda, which I see in this case just now.'

He then says :'Moreover, in April in our commentary on the situation in Ukraine we stated that Ukraine was a heterogeneous, divided country, and that an attempt to forcefully and artificially change its geopolitical orientation would inevitably result in its break-up, if not its destruction. We considered the country too fragile and with too weak an internal coherence to try to make a sudden change. I am sorry to say that it developed according to our expectations. I am afraid that Ukraine was sort of misused. The West suddenly and unexpectedly offered Ukraine early EU affiliation.

'I am afraid that the West, especially western Europe, has accepted a very simplified interpretation of events in Ukraine. According to the West, the Ukraine crisis has been caused by external Russian aggression. The internal causes of the crisis have been ignored, and so are the evident ethnic, ideological and other divisions in Ukraine.

'The developments that have taken place since the spring of this year have proved that this approach cannot lead to a solution of the problem. It only deepens the division of the country, increases the tragic costs of its crisis and further destabilises the country. So I do not see that the politicians in Ukraine are looking for a political solution. They do not have any compromise proposals that they could offer to the people of eastern Ukraine to win their confidence. They rely on fighting, on repression and on unrealistic expectations of western economic and military aid.'

He then adds: ' I cannot see inside the heads of leading Russian politicians but I do not believe that Russia wanted or needed this to happen. My understanding is that Russia was dragged into it. Dragging Russia into the conflict is a way of making Ukraine a permanent hotspot of global tensions and creating permanent instability in a country that deserves, after decades of suffering under communism, a quiet and positive evolution.'

He says (Q.211) that he suspects that the EU had got into the habit of making vague future promises of EU membership to Ukraine.

But this answer , from a leading statesman of a formerly-Communist Central European state, who cannot conceivably be accused of being a Kremlin stooge or of desiring the return of the USSR, is absolutely gripping:

'I am afraid that just reading the misleading headlines in the media and watching CNN or BBC news is giving such a distorted picture of the situation. I am afraid that the knowledge is missing. I was shocked two weeks ago. There was a long interview with a 21 year-old Ukrainian student in Prague, a lady from western Ukraine. She was on the side of western Ukraine politically. A question was put to her: "What about the Crimea?" She was a 21 year-old student abroad, which means that she was a literate person. "I visited Crimea for the first time in my life last year, when I was 20, and I was absolutely shocked that no one understood my language. They supposed that I am from Moldova". For me it was eye-opening that there was such a problem. The eastern part of the country is really, really different, and the question is whether we can help.

'I would suggest one thing in a negative sense: do not support the Maidan demonstrations in an unconditional way. That is the best recommendation that I would dare to give to anyone in western Europe and in Britain.'

The report itself, in the passage I named above, also shows quite clearly that the EU simply did not take seriously the Russian objections to the Association Agreement. Nor did it understand or take seriously Russia's very real fears about the possible cancellation of the treaty by which it retained fleet basing rights at Sevastopol.

There is, of course the general problem about so many people in the West assuming that Russia's supine, stunned posture under Yeltsin after 1991 was normal and likely to endure. A Russian witness, Fyodor Lukyanov, said the European Commission never showed any interest in discussing Russia's concerns over the planned agreement.

The Russians never even saw the planned text until the summer of 2013, and plainly assumed that a resolution was still a long way off, not least because the EU were still very hostile to Ukraine because of the continued imprisonment of Yulia Timoshenko.

Even so, there was alarm. Another Russian official witness, Dmitriy Poliyanskiy, said 'The detail in the annexes "clearly showed to [the Russians] that with such an agreement Ukraine would no longer be able to maintain the same level of relations" with Russia'.

And from August Russia began to fight against it, using 'coercive economic diplomacy'. Andrii Kuzmenko, Ukrainian Acting Ambassador to the UK, spoke of a "number of different 'wars'—a customs war, a gas war, a milk war, a meat war, cheese war, a chocolate war", which "the Russians started against Ukraine with the solemn purpose of pursuing us to postpone and then refuse European integration."

No doubt these Russian methods were unpleasant. But the point is that they were a reaction to an EU initiative. And by November 2013, Russian hostility to the agreement was so obvious and fierce that the EU were at last aware of it. Whether they understood its depth and power is another matter.

Paragraph 181 is worth quoting in full : 'Mr John Lough, Associate Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House (Britain's premier foreign affairs think tank), informed us that Russia "suddenly woke up" to the challenge, having believed the AA to be "a totally under-resourced and hopeless initiative that was being conducted by an organisation with so many divisions in it."266 Mr Lukyanov agreed that Russia was surprised that the signature was imminent, because the situation in Ukraine—"corruption, dysfunction" and the detention of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko—suggested that Ukraine was far from meeting the requisite conditions. However, when the issue of Tymoshenko's fate was "removed from the picture and the decision was made that it should be signed anyway", then "Russia woke up'.

There's some dispute about whether, at this stage, the EU was ready to listen Russia's concerns.

In any case, the putsch against Yanukovych followed soon afterwards. The report recounts 'By February, Sir Tony Brenton explained, the "Russians had decided that there was a great western plot against them, probably more American than EU, to displace them from their oldest and closest friend, Ukraine". 291 The trope of a western-fomented plot was one that recurred in Russian political thinking: in the words of Dr Alexander Libman, Associate of Eastern Europe and Eurasia Division, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, in the "eyes of the Russian leadership, Euromaidan is just one more step in the sequence of events, which were initiated by 'the West'".

This was greatly reinforced by moves in Kiev to de-privilege the Russian language, and to make NATO membership a Ukrainian national strategy.

But most pressing of all was the issue of Sevastopol,. Paragraph 193 relates:

'In particular, Moscow feared that the 2010 Kharkiv Agreements, which had extended the Russian Navy's lease of Sevastopol as a base for 25 years from 2017 until 2042, would be renounced. Professor Roy Allison has pointed out that even in 2010 "President Yanukovych's approval of this extension was virulently opposed by Ukrainian opposition politicians, suggesting that efforts may well be made to revise it in the future."

On 1 March 2014, three former Ukrainian Presidents, Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko, called on the new government to renounce the Kharkiv Agreements. Mr Lukyanov said that President Putin's "real motivation was national security and the risk that the new rule in Kiev would very quickly denounce" the agreements of 2010 that prolonged Russia's base in Crimea for 25 years.'

I think that is very probably the case. Here's a good line, too 'Sir Tony Brenton said that "the assumption that 'the Russians don't like this but they will probably live with it' was reasonably consistent with the Russia that we thought we had prior to the Maidan revolution."

Yes, 'the Russia we thought we had'. But that Russia had been, for many years, an illusion. President Putin's speech in Munich in February 2007 was a clear change of tone, for anyone who wanted to know. But it was ignored. In the end, we tested him by action, and found that , after all, he did bite, and his bite was worse than his bark, an unusual thing in modern politics. Now we complain about his teeth, but is that a rational attitude towards events?

[HR][/HR]

Commentary:

There are various things that can be concluded from the behaviour or the west, to a lesser extent the EU minus its appendage, the UK, and to a larger extent the UK and the US.

• Western intelligence is manipulated to reflect what the warmongers want to hear. The purpose of intelligence is to gather as much authentic information as possible, and analyse them, so that action can be planned around it. The aim of intelligence is not to create information so that it matches a pre-planned action.
• Western news media, by an large, publish articles and reports that they want people to believe. The purpose of media is to inform the readers what the facts are. The purpose of media is not to tell readers what their governments wished the facts were.
• The western media ensemble is so politically connected and manipulated, that it can no longer be considered independent or neutral. Neither can news from RT or Xinhua be considered neutral, but the saving grace is, they bring an balancing alternative to the glib and hackneyed reports emanating from the western media.

The contents of the report by the House of Lords EU sub-committee on Russia appears to be a welcome step towards seeing things as what they are, instead of pretending that the things are as one wishes them to be.

 

[pmaitra]

They seem young.... So Putin is sending his conscripts to get slaughtered for him in Ukraine ?
Poor them.... they should stay with their families,instead of going to ukraine and getting slaughtered for Putin

Firstly, the video was taken in Belgorod, well within the territory of the Russian Federation.

Secondly, assuming they will eventually go into Ukraine, of which we shall see no proof, they seem rather happy, and do not seem to be "tricked" like that idiotic article in this thread claims.

Thirdly, it might conform to "European values" for men to sit at home while innocent civilians get bombed on a daily basis in a brotherly country, but in some cultures, courage, bravery, and chivalry are qualities that men covet, over the opportunity to sit in front of the TV and eat pop-corn.

 

[Vlaad]

Speaking of foreign fighters...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioHB9Os56Cc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG0Y1lHpkJs


But aside from them, ill share a fact with good people of DFI about 'Yropean democracy and how "new" (readccupied, utterly defeated since 1999/2001) Serbia treats volunteer's.

Prime minister newly baked pro-EU formerly radical (pro Russia) Aleksandar (pu**ymouth how hes called in country) Vucic obliged to arrest anyone serving in NAF. I'm not surprised considering our active president is (guess tree times, YES YOU GOT IT) Michael D. Kirby, american ambassador.

Not to bore you guys with why it is, I do believe that people flat out know why: refer to Ukraine when someone dares to question official statement.

 

[jouni]

 

[pmaitra]

The answer is correct. Nyet.

There is a legal free movement of people across the borders.

Any law made after the coup d'état doesn't count.

 

[pmaitra]

Odessa massacre coordinator killed in Kharkov terrorist attack

February 23, 2015
IPolk (Internet Militia)
Translated by Kristina Rus

"No Condolences"

"Internet militia" reports: Kharkov explosion during Maidan anniversary march on February 22 killed the coordinator of Kharkov Maidan, who brought the football fans of "Metallist" to burn people in Odessa Trade Unions building on May 2, 2014.

[HR][/HR]
So, it might not have been a false flag attack. When the law of the land protects the criminals, people will take the law in their own hands.

What is your opinion @Cadian?

 

[pmaitra]

Semenchenko discharged from National Guard of Ukraine

2/23/2015

The National Guard announced Semenchenko was dischargedalready in November

The order was signed by the commander of the regiment to which the Donbass was subordinated.

The Ukrainian National Guard officially confirmed that Semen Semenchenko, the commander of the Donbass battalion with the rank of Major in the reserve, has been discharged from service.

The National Guard press service announced that the citizen Semenchenko entered service on August 11, 2014, in the reserve of military unit number 3027 of the Northern operational-territorial district of the National Guard, and received the command of the Donbass battalion.

However, by the order of the unit commander from November 24 of last year, Semenchenko was released from further service due to his election to the Verkhovna Rada.

Thus the National Guard had addressed the numerous media claims that Semenchenko serves in the National Guard reserve.

There were reports on Facebook that Semenchenko submitted a resignation from the Donbass command position, since he could not be a Rada deputy and a commander of a military formation at the same time.

However, Semenchenko and his press secretary leter said that the information was false, and that the Donbass Facebook page was hacked.

J.Hawk's Comment: The guy just can't take a hint, can he? This could potentially end up very badly for him, because if he had been discharged already in November"¦what is he doing on facebook claiming that he is the battalion commander and participating in its operations? That is a punishable offense in most countries.

So the "coordinating HQ" and "parallel GenStaff" ideas have been very convincingly shut down by the National Guard and the MVD. Yarosh seems to have gotten the message, and likewise Azov's Biletsky knows how the game is being played. There will be no new Maidans. What there will be is a campaign of repression and possibly even terror against the civilian population of junta-controlled Ukraine, in which the "volunteer battalions" are likely to play a key role. This regime knows perfectly well what mistakes Yanukovych made, and it will not make the same mistakes. Especially since even if blood runs in the streets, it's unlikely that the West will do anything to intervene. One of the major advantages of being a "pro-Western" regime is that it gives you a veritable license to kill your own citizens.

 

[jouni]

The purges affected not only those who openly opposed Stalin, but ordinary people too. During Stalin's rule of the country over 20 million people were sent to labor camps, where nearly half of them died.

Stalin's Purges – Russiapedia Of Russian origin

When it comes to killing your own people, Ukrainians are merely amateurs...

 

[pmaitra]

[eng cc subs] Ruins of Donetsk airport are going to be dismantled to retrieve corpses of UAF troops

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfUsnvInTSs

 

[pmaitra]

[eng cc subs] Media expert A. Shariy "puzzled" about SSU info about arrest of "Kharkov partizans"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEkopbYzryo

Lesson for the Kiev thugs: If you lie, you will have to lie further, to cover up your lies, and it goes on, till all falls apart.

 

[jouni]

Putinin Venäjän uusi doktriini | Suomen Sotilas

Interesting story at Finnish Soldier -magazine about the rise of Russia during Putins time. Too long to post here, but with translator worth the read.


@Ray, you got perspective this might interest you. It is written by General Laaneots former Chief of staff of Estonian Army, who has studied in Russia and is a former Red Army Colonel.
@Razor, @sgarg you are young and full of steam, I would like to hear your opinion about this.

 

[pmaitra]

Putinin Venäjän uusi doktriini | Suomen Sotilas

Interesting story at Finnish Soldier -magazine about the rise of Russia during Putins time. Too long to post here, but with translator worth the read.

This one sums it up.

From an article entitled "Ten Good Reasons to Hate Putin."

Maybe I'll post the article in full later.

BTW, "Putinin Venäjän uusi doktriini" looks like "Putin bhaijaan, uski doctrine."

 

[jouni]

This one sums it up.

From an article entitled "Ten Good Reasons to Hate Putin."

Maybe I'll post the article in full later.

BTW, "Putinin Venäjän uusi doktriini" looks like "Putin bhaijaan, uski doctrine."

You can read it too, if you do not have ADHD period ongoing.

 

[pmaitra]

You can read it too, if you do not have ADHD period ongoing.

I have my gibberish deflector turned on.

@jouni, I read up to this part:

Order of the day rose up in Europe for decades of peace taanneen international defense organization, NATO's dissolution. Fortunately, this was not done.

Then stopped.

Thank you for wasting my precious half a minute.

 

[Gabriel92]

This one sums it up.

From an article entitled "Ten Good Reasons to Hate Putin."

Maybe I'll post the article in full later.

BTW, "Putinin Venäjän uusi doktriini" looks like "Putin bhaijaan, uski doctrine."

The rise of oil price was the reason behind "Russia's economic revival". Putin had hardly anything to do with it. The Russian's could have had a monkey with no eyes as president and still the economy would have grown and the rest. Slava Rassiy !!