With apologies to the great news video site, The Real News …
1. OSCE slams Ukraine ban on all Russian TV channels
“I repeat my call to the authorities not to initiate these repressive measures,” OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović said. “Banning programming without a legal basis is a form of censorship; national security concerns should not be used at the expense of media freedom.” …
More than half of Ukraine’s population speaks Russian regularly and one third say it’s their native tongue. In Crimea over 90 percent of the population uses Russian on an everyday basis.
The New York based Committee to Protect Journalists also attacked the move:
“We call on Ukrainian authorities to allow Russian television channels to broadcast in the country and to ensure that the citizens of Ukraine have a plurality of information sources available,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “Ukrainian people should be able to choose for themselves what information and opinion to access. Restricting access would escalate, not alleviate, the current tensions.”
For anyone familiar with the language policies of former President Victor Yushenko, none of the anti-Russian-language policies should come as a surprise. All so unnecessary, when the real enemy isn’t a language but the corrupt oligarchs who use cultural and linguistic issues to keep natural allies divided.
Always keep in mind that the following utopia is the ultimate ‘evil’ that your billions of U.S. tax dollars fight against:
We should belatedly begin work towards the common goal of an Alliance of Europe stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok, in which people and trade would flow freely. We should merge the soft power of Europe with hard power and resources of Russia, as prominent Europeans and Mr Putin have often proposed.
The writer, well-known academic Sergei Karaganov, also mentions what I’ve talked about before, the obvious though admittedly somewhat unusual solution to the Ukraine crisis:
The outline of a compromise is clear. A federal structure for Ukrainian institutions – and a switch to a parliamentary system in place of a presidential one – would enable the people of each region to make their own choices over language and cultural allegiance. Ownership and control of the gas transportation system should be shared between Ukraine and its neighbors. The country should be allowed to participate both in Russia’s customs union and the EU association deal.
3. Ukraine’s shadow on Central Asia & US involvement in the coup
An excellent piece on what the U.S.-instigated coup in Ukraine means for Russia in central Asia, but more intriguing are veteran Indian diplomat M K Bhadrakumar‘s comments on the evidence Russia has submitted to the UN Security Council about the coup:
Russia is increasingly left with no choice but to ‘declassify’ the privileged information in its possession regarding the western intelligence operation that forced the power grab in Kiev.
It is extraordinary that Russia has handed over to the UN Security Council the information with the request to hold an impartial international investigation. … it has become imperative to expose the US narrative to be sheer baloney.
Clearly, Poland and Lithuania would not have ventured into the operation to train extremists to overthrow Yanukovich without getting the green signal from Washington. …
This is deadly serious stuff because it casts President Barack Obama in an altogether new light as a ‘cold warrior’ himself, whereas the American official propaganda would have us believe that the president is a helpless statesman largely acting under domestic political compulsions.
What emerges on balance is that there is no way the US-Russia tattered ties can be mended during the remaining period of Obama’s presidency. Equally, there is no way Russia is going to let down its guard about the US intelligence activities in its ‘near abroad’.
4. China’s perspective: The West’s fiasco in Ukraine
The Ukrainian people do not get the democracy or prosperity the West promises. Instead, all they can see in their beloved country now is political confusion and economic depression.
The West itself also becomes a loser as the fiasco in Ukraine will surely erode its credibility.
For the rest of the world, once again, people see another great country torn apart because of a clumsy and selfish West that boasts too many lofty ideals but always comes up short of practical solutions.
But the world does not need to be too pessimistic. The game in Ukraine is far from over. The international community still has the opportunity to salvage the country by working together.
Major powers should set their animosity aside and start working for a compromise. The Ukrainians should abandon their political infighting and work to restore law and order in their country as soon as possible.
5. U.S. ‘media’ decides not to report ‘Maidan snipers hired by opposition’ story
Are they media or propaganda services? David Peterson writes:
Conspicuous by their silence are of course the establishment staples such as the New York Times and Washington Post, the network news channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, and over cable, Fox News, CNN (the one CNN item listed below derives from the website), MSNBC, and Bloomberg), and a litany of others. A stunning example not only of non-coverage of an important revelation (the truth of which requires verification, of course). But of suppression of an important revelation, plain and simple.
More about the story here.
6. Former head of Ukraine security service: Kiev snipers shot from building controlled by Maidan forces
Shots that killed both civilians and police officers were fired from the Philharmonic Hall building in Ukraine’s capital, former head of the Security Service of Ukraine Aleksandr Yakimenko told Russia 1 channel. The building was under full control of the opposition and particularly the so-called Commandant of Maidan self-defense Andrey Parubiy who after the coup was appointed as the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Yakimenko added.
7. Moscow requests EU probe into Maidan snipers
Russia … at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe meeting held in Stockholm has … suggested investigating the issue of unknown snipers shooting both protesters and the police indiscriminately – … the topic of the recently leaked phone conversation between the EU’s Catherine Ashton and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet …”
