Saturday, April 19, 2014

Slow Saturday Special: I Speak Ukrainian

But I can not understand the translation by the Boston Globe:

"Pro-Russian militants defy Ukraine deal; But momentum of occupations appears to slow" by Andrew Higgins and Andrew E. Kramer | New York Times   April 19, 2014

My printed paper gave me the WaPo account.

KIEV — A US-backed deal to settle the crisis in eastern Ukraine fell flat Friday as pro-Russian militants vowed to stay in occupied government buildings, dashing hopes of a swift end to an insurgency that the authorities in Kiev portray as a Kremlin-orchestrated effort to put Ukraine’s industrial heartland under Russian control.

Like so many of their foreign policy moves lately, and I now see the NYT has crossed the rubicon and called them insurgents as opposed to militants in the progression of propaganda script.

But 

But. 

I'm stopping right now because I was told long ago that words like but, still, if, nonetheless, may, etc, you know, words that prolifically populate my paper, were BAD WORDS for a REPORT!

You may continue, readers:

the agreement, reached in Geneva on Thursday by diplomats from the European Union, Russia, Ukraine and the United States, appeared to arrest, at least temporarily, the momentum of separatist unrest in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east. Armed pro-Russian militants, who have seized buildings in at least 10 towns and cities since Feb. 6, paused their efforts to purge all central government authority from the populous Donetsk region.

It was clear that for the pact to have a chance of success, the Kremlin would have to pressure the militants to leave the buildings they had seized.

It has shown no inclination to do so, blaming the Ukrainian government for the turmoil and denying that Russia has any ties to the rebels.

True or not, when I read it I believe the Russians and not my government or media. Sorry. It's just been too many lies for far too long from both.

With militants vowing to ignore the agreement but halting what had been a daily expansion of territory under their control, officials in Kiev, the capital, voiced some hope that a settlement was still possible.

They were skeptical, however, about Russia’s willingness to push the separatists to disarm and vacate occupied buildings.

“If Russia is responsible before not just Ukraine but the world community, it should prove it,” said Andrii Deshchytsia, the acting Ukrainian foreign minister, who took part in the Geneva talks. 

The acting minister who was never voted in or anything. Just seized power in a U.S.-backed coup.

Western officials said the United States planned to reassure Eastern European NATO members conducting company-size ground-force exercises in Estonia and Poland. A company is about 150 troops.

We call them preparations for war, and the plans must already be in place. It's been a pleasure serving you, readers. I think we are done here.

The exercises would last a couple of weeks and would most likely be followed by other troop rotations in the region.

As the U.S. tries to deescalate, or so I am told! How does moving troops in help?

Doubts about the Kremlin’s readiness to push pro-Russian militants to surrender their guns have been strengthened by its insistence that it has no hand in or control over the separatist unrest, which Washington and Kiev believe is the result of a covert Russian operation involving, in some places, the direct action of special forces.

Of course, were it a covert American effort my propaganda pre$$ wouldn't report the American hand behind it -- which is why I find my Boston Globe smells like shit.

“I don’t know Russia’s intentions,” Deshchytsia said, noting that during the negotiations, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei V. Lavrov, had repeatedly asserted “that Russia was not involved.” He said Lavrov had been “cooperative and aggressive at the same time.”

Russia’s denials have stirred concerns that it went along with the agreement not to curb the turmoil in eastern Ukraine, but to blunt US and European calls for tougher sanctions that could severely damage Russia’s already sickly economy. Western sanctions have been limited to a travel ban and asset freeze on a few dozen individuals and a Russian bank.

Russia's sickly economy? It's doing a hell of a lot better than the banker-managed piece of $hit that is the AmeriKan empire. 

Oh, right, I need to remind myself it is the NYT I'm reading here.

Secretary of State John Kerry called Lavrov on Friday and urged Russia to ensure “full and immediate compliance” with the agreement, a senior State Department official said. Kerry, the official added, “made clear that the next few days would be a pivotal period for all sides to implement the statement’s provisions, particularly that all illegal armed groups must be disarmed and all illegally seized buildings must be returned to legitimate owners.”

Kerry also spoke with Ukraine’s prime minister and praised him for moving to carry out the deal, including by increasing transparency and guaranteeing amnesty for militants who disarm and leave occupied buildings.

Someone say something?

In Washington on Friday, Susan E. Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser, denounced anti-Semitic fliers distributed in Donetsk, which instructed Jewish residents to “register,” as “utterly sickening” and said Obama had “expressed his disgust quite bluntly.”

“They have no place in the 21st century,” she said.

That has been proven to be a LYING FRAUD, folks, and government citing of false flag covert operations also has no place in the 21st century!  

C'mon, Rice, get with the times, you lying (I never forget Libya) b***.

US officials gave no firm timeline for when they expect militants to pull back but said it should be days, not weeks.

The world has been warned. US invasion coming up in days!

Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to Ukraine on Tuesday, which could be a moment to assess whether the agreement has yielded results.

Yup, Biden is going to size up the situation and then give the go-ahead.

Russia responded with fury Friday to remarks the day before by Obama, who said the deal offered a “glimmer of hope” but that the United States would take more punitive action if Russia did not abide by it.

They are not the only ones responding that way to the shit that comes out his mouth. 

--more--"

What I understood from the earlier piece I saw in my printed paper:

‘‘It [the Kiev government] is an illegal junta.... A few men said they wanted to see oligarchs arrested, salaries raised and corruption ended.’’

We $peak the $ame language!

"Pro-Russian militants in Ukraine ignore multinational accord" by William Booth and Anthony Faiola | The Washington Post   April 18, 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine — Pro-Russian militants, boasting that they did not take orders from diplomats in Washington or Moscow, refused to end their armed occupation of a dozen government buildings across eastern Ukraine on Friday, upending hopes for a quick end to the standoff.

The defiance came just hours after Russia, the European Union, Ukraine and the United States sought to de-escalate the conflict with an agreement signed in Geneva which urged restraint on all sides, and called on the pro-Russia activists to lay down their baseball bats and molotov cocktails and walk away from their barricades at the city halls and police stations.

That's all they have? And they drove back a Ukrainian division?

At a news conference Friday on the top floor of the regional government offices they stormed last weekend, Denis Pushilin, a leader of a group calling itself the Donetsk People’s Republic, said he and his men had no intention of abandoning their positions as long as the new government in Kiev still stood.

‘‘It is an illegal junta,’’ said Anatoliy Onischenko, another separatist leader, of the Kiev government. ‘‘They should leave their buildings first.’’

With young men in black balaclava masks over their faces standing behind him, Pushilin said that nobody from the pro-Russia groups in Ukraine were at the negotiating table in Geneva, and because they were not consulted, they had no obligation to do anything. 

I agree with them.

The Donetsk People’s Republic flag, sporting a Russian-style eagle, flew on top of the building. The protesters were camped in the offices and sprawled on the floors. Water came from fire hoses; the cafeteria was brimming with donated food, and someone had set up a makeshift infirmary.

Oh, shades of a POPULAR MOVEMENT and OCCUPY WALL STREET! No wonder the NYT ripped them above and the Globe made the substitution!

The central government appeared to take a conciliatory approach late Friday, when in a joint televised address, acting President Oleksander Turchinov and Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk called for national unity and urged people to refrain from violence over the Easter weekend.

Recognizing defeat, or just reloading for after Easter? 

Btw, any violence over the weekend? Western covert operations. Cui bono?

Both men said they would support constitutional change to decentralize power and allow for more local control, giving regional governments their pick of an official language — a central demand of Russian-speaking protesters in the east.

‘‘The Ukrainian government is prepared to conduct comprehensive constitutional reform which will strengthen the powers of the regions,’’ ‘‘We will strengthen the special status of the Russian language and protect this language,’’ Yatseniuk said.

Oh, no, once again I am PROVED RIGHT

So who you going to believe, readers? A distorting and obfuscating war-promoting liar or me?

One of the new government’s first acts in parliament after ousting former president Viktor Yanukovych in February was to deny regional governments the power to make Russian an official language. The legislation was later vetoed, but the damage had been done in the eyes of Russian speakers, who feared second-class citizenship in the new order.

In another sign that Kiev is searching for compromise that would calm pro-Russia activists, the Ukrainian presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko, who had been imprisoned by the Yanukovych government, made a surprise appearance Friday in Donetsk, vowing to negotiate with the break-away protesters.

‘‘I want myself to understand their demands, what they expect, whose interests they represent,’’ she said. ‘‘I hope these negotiations will serve a constructive role and that we can find a way to restore harmony between the west and east of Ukraine.’’

The Ukraine prime minister said Friday that parliament was ready to pass a bill that would grant amnesty to protesters who vacate occupied buildings and put down their weapons.

But he said his government did not harbor ‘‘unreasonable’’ expectations that the stalemate would quickly end.

‘‘Russia had no other choice but to sign the statement and condemn extremism,’’ he said. ‘‘Having signed this statement, Russia effectively asked these ‘peaceful protesters’ with Kalashnikov assault rifles and air-defense missile systems to immediately disarm and surrender their weapons.’’

On Thursday, Ukrainian forces engaged pro-Russian separatists in what appeared to be the most intense battle yet in restive eastern Ukraine, killing three militants and wounding 13 after what the Interior Ministry described as a siege of a military base.

RelatedUkraine Coverage is Upside Down

It is not clear exactly what the pro-Russia militants want.

I think they have made it quite clear over the last few days; what that distortion shows you is this current round of protests is unapproved of from on high and not controlled opposition like the Kiev coup plotters supported by CIA and the mouthpiece AmeriKan media and propaganda pre$$.

Some leaders said they would like to see ousted president Yanukovych, who is from the Donetsk region, returned to power; others called him a coward and a traitor. A few men said they wanted to see oligarchs arrested, salaries raised and corruption ended.

That's where my print copy ended the piece.

Many of the activists wanted Ukrainian troops to leave the region. 

That clear enough for you, WaPo?

It wasn’t even certain that they wanted to become part of Russia; some said they just wanted Russia’s protection from a government in Kiev that they view with hostility and suspicion.

I can certainly understand why they would feel that way.

Outside of Donetsk, in the gritty industrial city of Gorlovka, protesters kept vigil at a makeshift barricade of tires, pallets and concertina wire outside the city police station, whose windows were smashed in a confrontation this week.

‘‘Why would we leave? Who told us to leave?’’ said one of the leaders of the men, Alexander, a shop owner who declined to give his last name.

‘‘Nobody in Geneva who signed this agreement gives a damn about us. They’re interested in gas deals, in coal, in drilling. They don’t care about us,’’ Alexander said. ‘‘We’re not just poor. We’re completely poor, and nobody cares what poor people think.’’

That was made pretty clear, yeah.

As he talked, an old man stood patiently at his elbow. ‘‘What do you want, father?’’ Alexander asked. ‘‘Are you hungry?’’ When the elderly man nodded yes, Alexander said, ‘‘see?’’

And it will be getting worse with the IMF deal now in place.

At the Gorlovka city hall nearby, the pro-Russia protesters who massed there Thursday had vanished, but they left behind a mystery. 

I'm tired of ma$$ media mysteries.

One of the city council deputies, Vladimir Rybak, who opposes the pro-Russia separatists and wants Ukraine to remain undivided, came back to work to take down the Donetsk People’s Republic flag and replace it with the Ukraine banner.

Asked to address the gathering, he was jostled by the crowd, and then, according to his wife Elena and a video posted on a local news Web site, a man in camouflage and a black mask chased Rybak down the street. He was caught, hustled into a car and has not been heard from since. The crowd shouted, ‘‘Throw him in the trunk!’’ 

I no longer believe staged and scripted propaganda pieces cited by the intelligence operation that is a newspaper. Sorry. We have just seen too many instances of fake video, reused videos, and outright frauds that we simply no longer believe a lying, war-mongering pre$$. Sorry.

‘‘He was kidnapped,’’ said his wife. ‘‘I am very scared, because previously he was a policeman, and it would have taken a lot to force him into a vehicle.’’

Asked who would have taken her husband, Elena Rybak said: ‘‘I don’t know. There’s a lot of Russians around. There are others. There are lots of people who would want to get rid of him.’’ 

Is that going to be the Sunday focus and lead tomorrow?

--more--"

Maybe you understand the shell game of Globe censorship, folks. I do not.

Update: Just wondering how we are going to get our guys down from the space station if we are at war with Russia.