"Better let him have that one nation to appease him! Our hands are tied!"
Sounds familiar.
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Russian Admiral Orders Ukraine Ships to Surrender
A pro-Russian activist waves the Russian state, upper, and Russian Navy flags outside an entrance to the General Staff Headquarters of the Ukrainian Navy in Sevastopol, Ukraine, Monday, March 3, 2014. (AP Photo/Andrew Lubimov)
Military.com Mar 03, 2014 | by Richard Sisk
Russian forces backed up an ultimatum issued Monday to Ukrainian sailors in the Crimea to surrender and give up their ships or face attack, Ukrainian military spokesmen said.
The ultimatum with a deadline of early Tuesday morning followed a dramatic confrontation in which Ukrainian sailors at a Crimean base surrounded by Russian troops pledged their allegiance to Ukraine and rejected pleas to defect from renegade Ukrainian Rear Adm. Denis Berezovsky.
Four ships from Russia's Black Sea fleet were blocking the Ukrainian anti-submarine warship Ternopil and the command ship Slavutych from leaving dock in Crimea's Sevastopol harbor following the demand to defect from Crimean Regional Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov, a Moscow ally, the Associated Press reported.
There were no immediate reports of clashes between Ukrainians loyal to the new government in Kiev and Russian forces in Crimea. However, Aksyonov declared the creation of "Crimea's Naval Forces" and said that Berezovsky was the naval chief.
"The Republic will have its own Navy, which will be commanded by Rear Adm. Berezovsky," Aksyonov told reporters.
Aksyonov ordered Ukrainian sailors to "disregard any commands coming from Ukraine's new self-proclaimed authorities" and warned them not to take orders "for using arms until my personal instructions."
Ukrainian officials charged that Vice Admiral Aleksandr Vitko, commander of Russia's Black Sea fleet, went aboard one of the blockaded Ukrainian ships and ordered the crew to "swear allegiance to the new Crimean authorities, or surrender, or face an attack."
At Ukraine's naval command on Monday morning, officers lined up in the yard of their Sevastopol headquarters, where they were addressed first by Berezovsky and then by the newly-appointed Ukrainian naval commander, Serhiy Haiduk.
The officers broke into applause as Haiduk read them an order from Kiev removing Berezovsky from his position, and told them that Berezovsky was facing treason charges, the Guardian newspaper reported.
"I know my men will stay loyal to their oaths," Haiduk said before the address. "What Berezovsky has done is a matter for him alone. When he brought intruders in here, we did not offer armed resistance as would have been our right, in order to avoid any provocations the other side would like."
In Moscow, Russian officials dismissed reports of surrender demands and naval blockades as "complete nonsense," Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
The escalating tensions in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine followed the ouster last month of ouster of Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, who was backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin has since ordered massive military exercises on Ukraine's borders and Russian troops in the Crimea have moved out of their bases in what Ukraine's new government has charged is an occupation of the regional republic.
A senior U.S. administration official told CNN that Russian forces "have complete operational control of the Crimean Peninsula." The official said the U.S. estimates there are 6,000 Russian ground troops backed up by 15,000 sailors with the Black Sea fleet.
Secretary of State John Kerry was due to arrive Tuesday in Kiev in a show of support for the embattled new government. If Putin's provocations continue, Ukraine will "fight," Kerry said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation.
Kerry called Putin's actions "an incredible act of aggression against the sovereignty of Ukraine."
Also appearing on "Face the Nation," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said "this could be a very dangerous situation if this continues in a very provocative way. We have many options, like any nations do. We're trying to deal with the diplomatic focus."
Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk pleaded on Monday for help from the West and stressed that Crimea remained part of Ukraine.
"Any attempt of Russia to grab Crimea will have no success at all. Give us some time," Yatsenyuk said at a news conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.
-- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@monster.comLeave a comment:
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Sooo many conspiracy theories can be made out of all of this. What a conglomeration of clusterfucks!!!Leave a comment:
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my tin foil hat is perched just right
Putin, or a straw buyer for him, just shorted the shit out of those best positioned to fair the worst when SHTF. He rich.
With Sochi wrapped up, where are those crazy Cossacks? Which side of the issue do they fall on, oh political science minded ones?Leave a comment:
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"I think Putin is playing chess, and I think we're playing marbles. And I don't think it's even close," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers,...
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I also like how this was strategically done right after the Olympics too. lol.Leave a comment:
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Gaddamn! The markets might yank the plug on whatever Putin has planned, before he can do it.
Moscow (AFP) - Investors in Russia reacted with panic Monday to the potentially disastrous economic consequences of Russian military intervention in Ukraine, with Moscow stock markets crashing up to 12 percent and the ruble plunging to historic lows against the dollar and euro.
In an emergency move to limit the losses for the ruble amid what risks becoming at least Russia's worst economic crisis since 2009, Russia's central bank hiked its main interest rate by 150 basis points.
President Vladimir Putin on Saturday won approval from Russia's upper house of parliament to send troops into Ukraine due to the stand-off in Crimea following the ousting of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych.
But economists warned the move risks creating a litany of further troubles for the Russian economy, which is already battling chronically slow growth.
In comments that further rattled investors' nerves, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Putin that Moscow could lose the right to host the G8 this year in Sochi and could even be expelled from the group of top nations itself.
Military intervention would drain further resources from a Russian budget already stretched by costs like the Sochi Olympics, limit Russia's economic ties with the West and force Russian companies into huge write-offs in Ukraine.
"Sochi was already expensive. Military adventures and strained relations with the West can be much more expensive than that," said economist Holger Schmieding at Berenberg Bank in London.
"Russia cannot afford that in the long run," he added.
Kerry himself gave a bleak assessment of the consequences for Russia, saying Putin may be hit by "asset freezes on Russian business, American business may pull back, there may be a further tumble of the ruble."
- Black Monday -
The MICEX stock market in Moscow closed down 10.79 percent while the RTS bourse fell 12.01 percent. It was also a Black Monday of carnage on the stock markets for some Russian blue chip shares.
Stocks in Russian gas giant Gazprom -- which has a huge contract to export gas to Ukraine as well as banking interests in the country -- fell 13.89 percent. Russia's biggest lender Sberbank was down 14.91 percent.
The ruble has already been under major pressure in recent weeks due to investor nerves about emerging markets and Russia's flimsy medium-term growth prospects.
But the Ukraine crisis Monday pushed it to levels not seen even in Russia's 2009 financial crisis that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers and a brief war with Georgia.
The ruble slid to 50.22 rubles to the euro, from 49.58 on Friday. It fell to 36.44 rubles to the dollar from 36.28 on Friday.
The Bank Rossii (Bank of Russia) raised its main interest rate to 7.0 percent from 5.50 percent in a clear bid to support the ruble and stem an already alarming capital flight amid the tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
"The decision is aimed at averting the appearance of risks for inflation and financial stability linked to the increased volatility on financial markets," it said in a statement, adding the hike would take effect from 0700 GMT Monday.
Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach admitted the decision was linked to the "hysterical situation" surrounding the pressure on the ruble.
- 'Worse than after 2008 war' -
The economic consequences of intervention in Ukraine risk becoming a huge headache for Putin and have parallels with the 2008 war with Georgia over the region of South Ossetia, which fed into Russia's 2009 financial crisis.
However the magnitude of the Ukraine situation means a Russian economic crisis in 2014 could be even more serious.
"Unlike the five-day war in South Ossetia, we are concerned that the tensions in Ukraine will very likely last considerably longer, having a prolonged negative effect on Russia's economic environment," economist Natalya Orlova at Alfa Bank said in a note to clients.
She said that not even the current depreciation of the ruble would support Russian GDP while several Russian banks were hugely exposed to Ukraine.
Before 2009, Russia had enjoyed stellar average annual growth rates of seven percent under Putin's rule. But after expanding just 1.3 percent in 2013, economists now warn it risks being trapped in a cycle of low growth.
Russia's top business daily Vedomosti said the country now faced economic stagnation and businesses were already preparing for the worst.
"What is there to say?" it quoted an Russian economy official as saying. "It is clear this is only going to make the already complicated economic situation worse."Leave a comment:
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Putin will take the Crimea and possibly up to half of the Ukraine before this is all said and done.
Why not?
Its not like the US\UN are going to do anything about it besides use strong language in a "resolution".
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