2-27-2015 Merkel warns against military answer to Ukraine crisis http://mwcnews.net/news/europe/49580-ukraine-crisis.html
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5-10-2018 Europe can no longer rely on the US for military protection, German leader Angela Merkel said on Thursday as the continent's leaders absorb the shock dealt by the Trump administration's decision to quit the Iran nuclear deal..... “The only solution that we have is unity,” said Mr. Macron.
https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/europe-must-no-longer-rely-on-us-for-protection-merkel-1.729306
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11-26-2018 In the intercepted recording one Russian sailor says that the attack was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin....In it one of the Russian sailors says Medvedev is “panicking,” adding, “We should assault them. We have to destroy them,” and “It seems that the President is in control of all of that shit.” The reference to Medvedev could either refer to Dmitry Medvedev, a Russian politician and close Putin ally, or more likely, Adm. Gennady Medvedev, the deputy head of the FSB Border Service. The operators discuss the arrival of 10 men with “incredible physical skills” within the hour, which corresponds to the arrival of Russian Special Operations, or Spetsnaz, troops who boarded and seized the Ukrainian ships. https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2018/11/ukraine-intercepted-communications-suggest-kremlin-organized-azov-sea-crisis/153034/
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11-29-2018
Merkel warned that there is “no military solution” to the conflict in the region. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/29/petro-poroshenko-requests-nato-vessels-sea-azov-ukraine-warns/
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12-2-2018 a top Estonian defense official told the Washington Examiner, forecasting a move that would mark a serious escalation of the simmering conflict between the two neighbors: “This is part of Ukraine that has economic problems and social problems because of the conflict anyway, and so by squeezing the access to this area of Ukraine, they are making the social or economic conditions even worse and possibly, possibly trying to create some kid of social upheaval there,” Permanent Secretary Kristjan Prikk, the top civilian in the NATO member’s Ministry of Defense, told the Washington Examiner.
Prikk visited Washington just days after Russia seized three Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait between the Black Sea and Azov. He said that incident entails a “very direct escalation” of the Ukraine crisis because it marks the first open clash between Russian and Ukrainian forces since the 2014 annexation of Crimea. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/fears-mount-putins-russia-poised-to-seize-more-of-ukraine
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12-2-2018 “It's part of the economic section of hybrid warfare,” Prikk said. That’s a reference to the Russian tactics, executed most dramatically in the invasion and annexation of Crimea by “elite troops in conjunction with an information warfare campaign and the deployment of loyal Russian proxies,” as RAND Corporation’s Christopher Chivvis told the House Armed Services Committee last year.
The annexation of the peninsula gave Russia control of both sides of the Kerch Strait, which forms the basis now of a claim of total sovereignty over the waters. The extension of the fighting into regions of eastern Ukraine that neighbor the district around Mariupol has heightened the likelihood that Russia would seek total control of the lands surrounding the Sea of Azov, Prikk said.
"The overwhelming majority in the city of Mariupol, for example, the most important port city for the sea of Azov, is overwhelmingly Russian speaking,” Prikk observed. “There are many important military equipment factories there, for in particular [the] navy, but some others as well. Mariupol has strategic significance both for Ukraine and as a target potentially for Russia.” https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/fears-mount-putins-russia-poised-to-seize-more-of-ukraine
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4-4-16 Squads of de-miners now face years of dangerous work as they spearhead Ukraine’s intensified mine-clearance programme, even while their fellow soldiers continue to plant the deadly devices elsewhere to defend their positions along the volatile contact line….
In an interview with the Kiev Post Zeljko Lezaja, a landmine expert with the International Committee of the Red Cross, said: “Mines don’t recognise ceasefires, they don’t recognise friends or enemies. It costs some $3 to produce a mine but about $1,000 to clear one.”…Victim-activated booby-traps have been used throughout the conflict zone despite being outlawed by the 1997 treaty, which came into effect in 1999. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/apr/04/ukraine-attempt-defuse-landmines-as-more-are-planted
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4-3-2018 And the situation is so dire that even if the war were to stop tomorrow, it would take up to 40 years to make the region safe again, according to the Defense Ministry’s top minesweeping officer, Colonel Maksym Komisarov. https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/de-mining-donbas-will-take-40-years-ukraines-military-says.html
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6-5-2014 “If Russia's provocations continue, it's clear from our discussions here that the G7 nations are ready to impose additional costs on Russia," Mr. Obama said.
Mr. Putin will meet the French, German and British leaders on the sidelines of the D-Day anniversary ceremony in France, but it appears unlikely that he will see Mr. Obama. Asked at an event in St. Petersburg how he felt about being excluded from the G8 for the first time since joining the club in 1997, Mr. Putin was typically pointed, barely breaking stride to speak to Kremlin reporters as he left a meeting. "I would like to wish them bon appetit," he said, before walking away swiftly….
Mr. Putin will however be welcome at this year's G20 summit in Brisbane, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said. While Mr. Abbott shares serious concerns over Russia's role in Ukraine, he said there was no indication Mr. Putin would not be invited to the summit in November. "The G20 is an economic meeting whereas the G7 or G8 has tended to have a very strong security component," Mr. Abbott said from France ahead of Friday's 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-06/g7-leaders-meet-without-russia-condemn-ukraine-actions/5504346
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-Foreign ministers Lavrov of Russia, Steinmeier of Germany, Fabius of France and Klimkin of Ukraine arrive for a picture opportunity ahead of their meeting at Villa Borsig in Berlin Thomson Reuters
9-12-2015 BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after meeting his Russian, Ukrainian and French counterparts in Berlin on Saturday that "significant progress" had been made towards a resolution of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow….The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France are due to meet in Paris in early October to discuss efforts to resolve the Ukrainian conflict. https://www.businessinsider.com/r-germany-says-significant-progress-made-at-ukraine-meeting-2015-9
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6-11-2018 BERLIN (AP) - The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany met in Berlin on Monday for talks on bringing an end to the fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The focus of the meeting was implementing an unfulfilled peace accord reached in the Belarus capital of Minsk in 2015 and the possibility of bringing United Nations peacekeepers to the region where an armed conflict has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014. https://www.fox30jax.com/news/peace-talks-between-russia-ukraine-get-underway-in-berlin/767525037
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11-27-18 Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said France and Germany have offered to mediate between the two countries — albeit within the framework of the so-called Normandy Format, which has seen government officials from France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia meeting occasionally for the past four years to oversee the implementation of the Minsk cease-fire treaty between Ukraine and the Russian-supported separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-offers-to-mediate-between-russia-and-ukraine/a-46467952
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10-12-2015 "Putin is blatantly exploiting the Soviet nostalgia," opposition politician Boris Nemtsov said a year before his still-unsolved assassination in February.
But how similar is the Russia of today to the Communist regime that ruled from 1922 until the Soviet Union "dissolved" in 1991? NBC News spells out the main similarities between Putin's Russia and the U.S.S.R...Some things have changed: In Soviet times the KGB was the operative arm of the Communist Party, which ran the country. Now United Russia Party is run by KGB veterans. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/back-u-s-s-r-how-todays-russia-soviet-era-n453536 (And other parties/viewpoints are hardly welcome; etc., etc., etc.--we know the drill).
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4-18-2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QpCg7GRD00
-Nemtsov
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If the US & EU wanted to deter Putin, there would be a long list of automatic sanctions & other punitive actions against his oligarchs based on non-compliance & any act of aggression. Not slow, ad hoc, inconsistent pressure he can absorb.
- The west continues to show no learning curve re Russia in last 4 3/4 years. Absolutely none. No pre-package sanctions for next Russian violation of int’l laws or treaties. No blanket visa bans. No port closures or airline bans. Nothing showing resolve. Lame condemnations is all. https://twitter.com/kasparov63/status/1067184254382206981........................
