Pepe Escobar

Asia Times

13th May, 2014

Everything one needs to know about mediocre political elites allegedly representing the “values” of Western civilization has been laid bare by their reaction to the referendums in Donetsk and Lugansk. 

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German Minister Sigmar Gabriel: ‘European Union Will Rely on Russian Gas in Short Term

IBTimes

6th May, 2014

The European Union will have to rely on Russia for its energy needs in the short term, according to the German energy minister.

RT

12th May, 2014

The French government has said that it will go ahead with 1.2 billion euro ($1.6 billion) contract to supply Russia with two Mistral helicopter carriers because cancelling the deal would harm Paris more than Moscow.

Having fueled fire, it is now time to put it out

German Foreign Minister to visit Ukraine to start talks between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists

AkiPress

13th May, 2014

The German foreign minister is visiting Ukraine to start talks between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists following declarations of independence by two eastern regions.

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RT

11th May, 2014

About 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious US private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in the Ukrainian military operation against anti-government protesters in southeastern regions of the country, German media reports.

The Bild am Sonntag newspaper, citing a source in intelligence circles, wrote Sunday that Academi employees are involved in the Kiev military crackdown on pro-autonomy activists in near the town of Slavyansk, in the Donetsk region

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Turchinov said on his website: “Those who stand for self-rule do not understand that it would mean complete destruction of the economy, social programmes and life in general for the majority of the population in these regions.”

Quoted in Guardian, 10th May

RT

7th May, 2014

A failure to properly grasp US interests in Ukraine has made Obama susceptible to hawks seeking confrontation with Russia despite the greater geopolitical goals that Moscow and Washington share, former CIA and State Dept. employee Larry Johnson told RT.

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Guardian

8th May, 2014

The Russian president’s council for human rights proposes that the UN and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe should do everything possible to promote international negotiations with the aim of ending the violence in Ukraine. Chancellor Merkel and President Putin have apparently also discussed a similar initiative by phone. It is in everyone’s interest – in the rest of Europe as well as in the US, and not least in both Russia and Ukraine – that all sides should drop their pugnacious rhetoric and urgently support this proposal. Ukraine is becoming a failed state and the result could be all-out civil war – which indeed is already starting.
Charles Grant Director, Centre for European Reform
Jonathan Haslam Professor of the history of international relations, University of Cambridge
Geoffrey Hosking Emeritus professor of Russian history, University College London
Dame Caroline Humphrey Professor emerita and director of research, University of Cambridge
Catriona Kelly Professor of Russian, University of Oxford
Anatol Lieven Professor of war studies, Kings College London
Dominic Lieven Senior research fellow, Trinity College Cambridge
Robert Service Emeritus professor of Russian history, University of Oxford
Lord (Robert) Skidelsky House of Lords
Stephen White James Bryce professor of politics, University of Glasgow

“The United States, like the Europeans, have never voiced privately any concerns about this,” a French government official told AFP, asking not to be identified.

 

“And we are anyway used to such thundering declarations from her (Nuland). She’s a neo-con. And the fact that it comes from her is actually reassuring.”

One theory about US strategy in Ukraine is that it’s an attempt to draw Europe back into the US orbit. In that case, why is Nuland , whose views on Europe are famously forthright, still at large?

GMANews

9th May, 2014

WASHINGTON  – US officials voiced concern Thursday at the sale of French warships to Moscow as they mulled tougher sanctions on Russia for the political upheaval triggered by the Ukraine crisis.

The Local 

8th May, 2014

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed Vladimir Putin‘s “constructive tone” on Ukraine on Thursday, after the Russian president told rebels in the east of the country to halt plans for an independence vote.

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End of violence main condition for launching dialogue in Ukraine – President Putin

Voice of Russia

7th May, 2014

Russia demands that the current Kiev administration immediately halt all military operations in the southeastern regions of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. Russian President Vladimir Putin says the end of violence is an imperative condition for settling the Ukrainian crisis. “An imperative condition of the beginning of this dialogue is the end of any violence: the engagement of both the armed forces – which is absolutely unacceptable – and illegal armed units of radicalized elements,” Putin told a press conference.

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