Russian Elections 2012: Trouble in Paradise?

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Apr 9, 2015 18:38:15 GMT -5 bimetalaupt said:

Apr 9, 2015 12:25:47 GMT -5 Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger said:

..... Bravo, Putin. Bravo.

Ukraine is bankrupt and needs $$$$$$ for retirees to support their Retirement system.   Looking like the EU does not want to pay for the retirement: does Russia?

I believe Putin envisions a different type of economic system emerging from the ashes of the EU/US dominated world. His delusions of grandeur drive his actions, and I feel sorry for the common Russian/European for what he is going to put those people through.

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Cease fire. Yes, that's what has been going on...

Fighting erupts in eastern Ukraine

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

In great news for Kiev...

Walled off: In non-rebel eastern Ukraine, frustrations with Kiev mount

...in nearby Kharkiv, an overwhelmingly Russian-speaking city of one-and-a-half million, mention of the wall is mostly greeted with snorts of irritation. The idea of splitting permanently and irrevocably from Russia wins virtually no acceptance. Many people here have family and friends in Russia, the local economy is heavily dependent on trade with Russia, and some say they just can't wrap their heads around the idea of a frontier being there in the first place.

"The Russian city of Belgorod is an hour's drive away; until recently there were almost no border formalities. It's a scene of my childhood; I love that place," says Yury Smirnov, a taxi driver. "Now the border inspections take hours, and it's humiliating. Belgorod might as well be on the moon."

The tension between Kharkiv and Kiev is all too obvious these days. While pro-Kiev patriots are visible – groups of activists tore down three prominent Soviet-era monuments under cover of night last week – most conversations with people quickly reveal varying degrees of anger and disillusionment with the new revolutionary government. Everybody here, on both sides of the barricades, agrees that they are horrified by what's happening in next door Donbass and do not want to see the war come to Kharkiv. But experts from both sides of the argument admit it will be an uphill slog for Kiev to win their hearts, in part because of the economic crisis that many here blame on a government they never voted for.

It's all good though, our leaders are working on a diplomatic solution. Yep, they are they tell us!

-Ukraine troops shelled by pro-Russian rebels near Mariupol
-Russian troops amassing in eastern Ukraine represent largest military presence along border since October

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

...... and here I thought the Russian troops were bringing flowers and chocolate.

One Ukrainian Serviceman Killed, Two Wounded Near Mariupol

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Both sides have reported major incursions over the last 24 hours. A major Ukrainian news source is reporting that Russians training 50,000-strong militant army in Donbas - Ukraine's presidential spokesman

While some people have continued to deny that Putin is taking pages from Hitler's playbook because things aren't playing out exactly like they did in WW2 - when does history ever EXACTLY repeat itself? The damage that appears to be on the way for the Eastern Hemisphere due to Putins actions will be just as destructive.

Stay

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

It's hard to say what is more laughable: Putin claiming that Russia isn't trying to annex part of Ukraine, or that Western politicians are still selling the story that there is a diplomatic solution.

Forget Tanks. Russia’s Ruble Is Conquering Eastern Ukraine

In Donetsk, the conflict zone’s biggest city, supermarkets have opened ruble-only checkout counters to serve the fighters in camouflage lining up along pensioners. Bus and tram tickets come with a conversion from Ukraine’s hryvnia to the Russian currency. Gas-station workers are paid in rubles because that’s what their rebel customers use to fuel their armored jeeps.

“There are no problems in shops, they all accept rubles,” said Natalya, 36, a hairdresser buying groceries for her parents, who declined to give her surname for fear of reprisals. “They don’t always have small change, but they can give you chewing gum or a cigarette lighter instead.”
The ruble’s creeping advance shows how the troubled regions are slipping further from the government’s grasp, even as a peace accord brokered by Germany, France and Russia calls for the nation of more than 40 million to remain whole. Separatist officials haven’t yet made their currency plans clear. The precedent in ex-Soviet countries from Georgia to Moldova shows that similar shifts can help entrench pro-Russian insurgents.

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

It's truly amazing...

-Ukraine loses control of 28 towns, villages since truce as five soldiers killed overnight
-Pro-Russian rebels 'launch 12-hour attack' on Ukraine forces

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

It sure looks like,

NEW PUTIN INVASION COMING THIS SUMMER

The war in Ukraine may have faded largely from international headlines, but Vladimir Putin’s drip-drip invasion continues. In the last two weeks, forensic evidence, some of which has been reported by monitor organizations and senior Western diplomats, the rest corroborated by eyewitness photography and video,...

....

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Ah yes, the reason that the media has all but forgot about the Ukraine. Putin laughed at western sanctions, and he was right to.

Russia’s Richest Billionaire Says Impact of Sanctions Is Waning

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

....

Bloodshed on the frontline exposes hollowness of Ukraine peace deal

As fierce exchanges of artillery and mortar fire grip Shyrokyne, there are rising fears of a new offensive towards Mariupol. The daily clashes here make a mockery of the ceasefire agreement signed in Minsk in February.

“Shyrokyne is a strategic height,” said Yevgeny Adarenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman. “If we give it up completely there will be no point defending the settlements around it.”

The main building of the former holiday camp is held by fighters from the Donbas Battalion, a volunteer unit that was absorbed into Ukraine’s National Guard last year. Here, the war has settled into an artillery duel.

Russia ‘amassing artillery’ near border with eastern Ukraine, reports suggest

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Cease fire!!

Ukraine Fighting Flares as Government Warns of Rebel Offensive

The insurgents attacked the town of Maryinka near the city of Donetsk with as many as 1,000 personnel, more than 10 tanks and howitzers, the military said in a statement. The army repelled the separatists, who switched their focus to other nearby locations, spokesman Yevhen Sylkin said on Channel 5. The rebels said they were halting an assault by the army. The ruble extended losses, though Ukrainian assets advanced.

“Ukrainian commanders, alerting international partners, were forced to re-deploy artillery that had previously been pulled back,” the military said.

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

...

Will we let Ukraine die?

A Ukrainian military unit last week released footage from a drone showing a large new Russian military base in eastern Ukraine, equipped with T-72 tanks, barracks, communications equipment and even a parade ground. International observers reported “increased intensity” of fighting in the region, in violation of a cease-fire.

Russia meanwhile suspended gas deliveries to Ukraine, thwarting its attempt to stockpile supplies for next winter. In Washington, a committee of Ukrainian bond-holders, led by several U.S. hedge funds, resisted an International Monetary Fund-backed plan to reduce the government’s debt burden so that it can avoid a default..

..The figment of a strategy embraced by the United States and the European Union calls for the implementation of a peace plan, known as Minsk 2, that Russia accepted in February but has never respected. U.S. officials regularly agree with their Russian counterparts that the fighting should stop and agreements should be reached on implementing other parts of the deal; meanwhile, the estimated 9,000 Russian troops in eastern Ukraine — whose existence Moscow denies — continue to lay the groundwork for another major attack.

Analysts Pierre Vaux and Catherine Fitzpatrick of the Interpreter Web site have identified two new Russian bases near the front lines in recent months, including the one filmed by a drone. They are positioned so as to support an offensive against the government-held city of Mariupol, which is the strategic key to southeastern Ukraine. “The time for such an attack may be drawing nearer,” Vaux reported last week in an article for the Daily Beast. Similar warnings have been sounded by other experts, including an Atlantic Council mission led by former NATO commander Wesley Clark.....

...Ukraine’s situation is dire: Economic output has fallen by more than 15 percent in each of the past two quarters. The government has imposed drastic austerity measures, including a huge cut in the subsidy for gas and a big reduction in pensions. Unlike Greece, it has taken every painful austerity step required by the International Monetary Fund, even while fighting a war.

Yet the European Union, which has committed $222 billion to bailing out Greece, has offered Ukraine $5.5 billion. The United States, which provided $20 billion to save Mexico from default and $18 billion for reconstruction in Iraq, has approved $3 billion in loan guarantees for Ukraine.

The paltry sums have placed the Kiev government at the mercy of foreign creditors holding $19 billion of its private debt — including the Russian government, which holds a $3 billion eurobond. Outside of Moscow, the biggest bondholders are U.S. hedge funds, including bottom-feeder Franklin Templeton. To meet the IMF’s plan, the government must extract $15 billion in relief from them over four years. But Franklin Templeton and its partners have refused to accept a reduction in principal, despite prodding from the IMF and the U.S. Treasury.

That leaves Ukraine facing the possibility of default as soon as the end of this month, and no later than September, when a $500 million bond falls due. Anders Aslund, an expert on the Ukrainian economy at the Atlantic Council, thinks Ukraine needs $10 billion in additional financing to survive the next two years.

All Russia has to do is push a bit harder as all this debt matures, and Europe is looking at another default. Might not be part of the union, but their bonds sure are.

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

One would think after confirming the Islamic State is on his doorstep that Putin would see how stealing pages from Hitlers book is backfiring on him.... Ah delusions of grandeur...

-In Eastern Ukraine, Rumors of Escalating Conflict Abound
-The ‘ceasefire’ in eastern Ukraine is unravelling fast
-At least 5 soldiers killed in eastern Ukraine

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Just in time for currency portion of the Asian financial crisis...

-Russia, NATO Drills Fan Tensions as Europe on Edge, Group Says
-Ukraine vows to use ‘entire arsenal’ against pro-Russia rebels
-Tensions flare in eastern Ukraine as Kiev ‘repels tank assault’

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

But there were no munitions in the supplies from Russia.. It's also telling of the deterioration when the OSCE reports escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine. The OSCE have been saying things are relatively calm while other Ukrainian and Russian sources have been saying things are escalating - truth always surfaces.

Demonstrating the escalation, European volunteers fighting in Eastern Ukraine.

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Civilians killed as fighting flares in eastern Ukraine while, Germany says situation in eastern Ukraine 'explosive'.....

I think this is all filed under the, "no shit captain obvious" heading.

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

You would think now that Putin is pouring more money he doesn't have into the WAR that things would have calmed down in the Ukraine. Well that's what he wants everyone to think anyway...

-Russia's foreign legion: Hundreds of fighters join pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine
-Russia plans second big military base near Ukrainian border
-Masked men storm Kharkiv city hall in eastern Ukraine
-Strong' Russian presence in eastern Ukraine: NATO chief
-Ukraine crisis: Humanitarian workers flee from east of the country

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

It's a ceasefire I tell ya! It is! It is!

UK commits to long-term troop deployment in Baltic states as Nato checks Russian aggression

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Just when you thought Putin couldn't get any more crazy, he finally admits to Russian military 'tasks' in separatist-held eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine Defaults on $3 Billion Bond to Russia, and Men, arms, still pour into east Ukraine from Russia: U.N.... Of course these new men and arms could be in response to the fact that the "refugee crisis" is about to start getting real bad for the Balkans and Russia.

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Hackers shut down power grid in Ukraine

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Still to this day, Ceasefire violations continue in conflict zone in eastern Ukraine... Militants violate truce 36 times in eastern Ukraine overnight  

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

This war is going global! Bravo, Putin! Bravo!

-49th so-called Russian aid convoy ready to depart for eastern Ukraine
-Video shows Russian-backed separatists shelling checkpoint in eastern Ukraine
-PUTIN CALLS FOR SNAP MILITARY DRILL ON EAST UKRAINE BORDERS
-Mine Kills Civilians as Fighting Heats up in Eastern Ukraine
-IMF warns Ukraine it will halt $40bn bailout unless corruption stops

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

But, but, but....

-Germany Says Ukraine Peace Plan Far From Fulfilled One Year On
-Russia's Medvedev: We Are in ‘a New Cold War

A cold war...

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Unreal... Well, not really.

-Observers: Fighting Flares In Eastern Ukraine, Residents In ‘Dire’ Situation
-Russian-separatist forces attack Ukrainian forces 69 times in last day

East Ukraine violence surges

Violence in eastern Ukraine is intensifying and Russian-backed rebels have moved heavy weaponry back to the front line, international monitors are warning

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Hobble, hobble.....

Ukraine to seize Crimea?

Vladimir Gorbulin, adviser to the President of Ukraine, warned Russia of a possible war. As he said, if Kiev does not manage to return the Crimea and Donbass by means of negotiation, it will be time to deploy army. By his estimation, war can be started in two or three years.

Russia Sues Ukraine in London Court Over $3 Billion Default

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Fuel to the fire?

Ukraine Nationalists Attack Russian Banks on Uprising Anniversary