Tag: ukraine

The Bear apparently cannot change its… pelt, I guess.

Well, this is appalling.

https://twitter.com/BrianFaughnan/status/572511443070930944

Both that the Putin regime thinks that it can get away with this, and that the Putin regime will probably be correct, at least in the short term. Sure, why not? Blame the assassination of one of the few remaining opposition leaders on a country that you’re planning to invade anyway. Who’s around to stop you, these days?

You know, I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen this movie before.

It’s time to stand up a bit more for our allies and clients, Barack Obama.

Operating from the Chromebook, so I only *believe* that Ted Cruz here is calling for us to arm the Ukranians and the Kurds:

…but if Ted Cruz didn’t, he really should have. This is getting ridiculous: and, the Democratic party’s fond memories to the contrary, abandoning South Vietnam to the forces of evil was not a good idea. Certainly it’s not something to emulate now…

A lot of people worrying about Central Europe right now.

I’ve had my, ah, difference of opinions with Anne Applebaum, but she sounds damned worried here:

Over and over again — throughout the entirety of my adult life, or so it feels — I have been shown Polish photographs from the beautiful summer of 1939: The children playing in the sunshine, the fashionable women on Krakow streets. I have even seen a picture of a family wedding that took place in June 1939, in the garden of a Polish country house I now own. All of these pictures convey a sense of doom, for we know what happened next.September 1939 brought invasion from both east and west, occupation, chaos, destruction, genocide. Most of the people who attended that June wedding were soon dead or in exile. None of them ever returned to the house.

In retrospect, all of them now look naive. Instead of celebrating weddings, they should have dropped everything, mobilized, prepared for total war while it was still possible. And now I have to ask: Should Ukrainians, in the summer of 2014, do the same? Should central Europeans join them?

Continue reading A lot of people worrying about Central Europe right now.

Tweet of the Day, The Photographer Should Get An Award For This.

Because the more you look at it, the more impressive it gets.

That is Art, with a capital A.

Russian-backed Ukrainian proxies claim #MH17 was a setup.

The scary part of this? The assumption that this line of nonsense might work on somebody.

A top pro-Russia rebel commander in eastern Ukraine has given a bizarre version of events surrounding the Malaysian jetliner crash — suggesting many of the victims may have died days before the plane took off.

The pro-rebel website Russkaya Vesna on Friday quoted Igor Girkin as saying he was told by people at the crash site that “a significant number of the bodies weren’t fresh,” adding that he was told they were drained of blood and reeked of decomposition.

I wait with baited breath to be told by a Russian cat’s-paw that the whole thing was orchestrated by the Jews. That’s how this stuff usually ends, of course.

Moe Lane

Pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine start trying to register Jews. #некултурны

I wonder how George W Bush would have responded, if this had been tried while he was President…

Jews in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk where pro-Russian militants have taken over government buildings were told they have to “register” with the Ukrainians who are trying to make the city become part of Russia, according to Israeli media.

Jews emerging from a synagogue say they were handed leaflets that ordered the city’s Jews to provide a list of property they own and pay a registration fee “or else have their citizenship revoked, face deportation and see their assets confiscated,” reported Ynet News, Israel’s largest news website.

…HAHAHA! Who am I kidding?  They wouldn’t have dared. Continue reading Pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine start trying to register Jews. #некултурны

If Harry Reid *does* cave on the IMF provisions, why?

Here’s the basic background: they’re trying to pass a bill to aid Ukraine and maybe give President Obama more sanction tools against Russia.  The hitch? Democrats not letting a crisis go to waste:

…House GOP leaders said they will not support language in the legislation that would ratify quota reforms to the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF provision, they said, would weaken the voting power of the United States within the organization by boosting the voting share of emerging nations, including Russia.

Continue reading If Harry Reid *does* cave on the IMF provisions, why?

Quote of the Day, This Is The Basic Problem About #Ukraine edition.

Ben Domenech:

As for the situation in Crimea itself: while the 1994 Budapest Memorandum does not require that the United States enter into this current conflict, as it is not a formal treaty, it does make the situation for the Obama administration a great deal more complicated than, say, the 2008 situation in Georgia. The Ukrainian situation has a nuclear subtext which matters in the broader context: because Ukraine had to surrender its nuclear arsenal as part of the 1994 agreement, U.S. inaction now sends a signal that nations ought to maintain their nuclear arsenal as opposed to trusting the Americans to defend their legitimacy.

Problematical.

Moe Lane

PS: Elections have consequences.

John Kerry talks a lot, says very little about #Ukraine.

Oh, brother.

Bob Schieffer: The President spoke to Vladimir Putin we are told for 90 minutes yesterday. The White House is describing it as the toughest phone call of his presidency. DO you think it had any impact?

What John Kerry said: Continue reading John Kerry talks a lot, says very little about #Ukraine.

And the setup of a Russian client state in Crimea continues apace.

Told you this would happen. Meet the new boss, taking orders from the old bosses:

The newly installed, pro-Russia prime minister of Crimea declared on Saturday that he had sole control over the military and the police in the disputed peninsula and he appealed to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for help in safeguarding the region.

[snip]

In his statement Saturday, the Crimean prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, said, “Understanding my responsibility for the life and safety of citizens, I appeal to the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, for assistance in providing peace and tranquillity on the territory of the autonomous Republic of Crimea.”

Continue reading And the setup of a Russian client state in Crimea continues apace.