Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Looks like they're trying to halt the progression to all-out violence and conflict.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26289318

The timeline is interesting here...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26248275

Particularly what happened in October.

21 November: President Viktor Yanukovych's cabinet announces that they are abandoning an agreement that would strengthen trade ties with the EU, and will instead seek closer co-operation with Russia. Ukrainian MPs also reject a bill that would have allowed jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to leave the country. Protests begin that same night, with only several hundred present at first, but already comparisons with the Orange Revolution begin to be made.​

Pretty amazing stuff. This is happening in a European country, (well... eastern European, strictly speaking, I suppose), in 2014

 

Indeed! IIRC the Russkies shipped a load of Russian speaking people in there after WWII to boost their influence but maybe I'm thinking of someone else.

Maybe @yasik19 or similar knows more?

Of course, if the russkies cut the gas off from the Ukrainians we Europeans could help them by sharing some of ours which we get from..... OH!

 

Looks like he's 'legged it', AKA 'doing a Ceaușescu'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26299670

Ukrainian protesters have been able to enter the president's official and residential buildings in Kiev, after they were abandoned by police.

They have not gone into the offices themselves - stationing their own guards outside entrances. Police say they support the people.

President Viktor Yanukovych's aides say he is in Kharkhiv, close to Russia.

The opposition has called for elections before 25 May, not the end of December as envisaged in Friday's peace deal.​

 

It seems to be developing...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26299670

MPs have replace the parliamentary speaker and attorney general, appointed a new pro-opposition interior minister and voted to free jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Police appear to have abandoned their posts across the capital.​

 

And again...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26304842

Ukrainian MPs have voted to oust President Yanukovych and hold early presidential elections on 25 May.

The vote came barely an hour after Mr Yanukovych said in a televised address that he would not resign.

Protesters have walked unchallenged into the president's office and residential compounds.

Also on Saturday, prominent opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko walked free from prison in the eastern city of Kharkiv.

A BBC correspondent saw Tymoshenko driven away in a car after leaving hospital.

MPs had voted to pave the way for her release on Friday. She was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2011 for abuse of power.

Her supporters have always maintained this was simply Mr Yanukovych taking out his most prominent opponent, and her release has always been a key demand of the protest movement.​

At this rate they'll have a new government by this evening

 

its all a deadly game. vote new government in, money and corruption switches hands, and on and on and on. too bad people are not enlightened enough to look at history and put 1 and 1 together. what do they want? an american or canadian type of government? and that is progress? lol. the only place on earth that has good governance is a few scandinavian countries and that is because they are more socialist and dont have major ethnic or religious conflicts. when you are risking your LIFE, you might as well target the overall system, not just a government within your own country that wont change anything.

 

its like trying to solve a puzzle within an enigma. any gains are temporary at best.

 

When do the Olympics end?

 

Not soon enough for the russkies if they carry on at this pace. The only matter is what happens if the russkies cut off the gas supplies, that's what they threatened.

 

Tymeshenko's out it seems and someone said the pres WAS trying to leg it to Russia.

 

The point is, that's why we have democracy, isn't it... not because everyone agrees with each other but because they DON'T.

AFAIK, there are questions about the fairness of the last vote and, as you say, even IF everything was above board, a situation where the last vote gave this...



... isn't a good one, is it.

 

Succession of the Crimea and Karkiv, supported by Russia, are real possibilities. It will not happen right away, but as Ukraine moves towards EU. Will be justified by as Putin protecting ethnic Russian areas from oppression.

 

get a new hobby dude. what is it to you what the russkies or obama or anyone else does? lawl. does it make you feel important? does it make you feel like a political analyst? it is all emptiness in the end. lawl. play football manager or something instead. lawl. people want to have their cake and eat it too (they want a world free from problems but they retain a fetish of talking about problems that arise a a result of their support for an illogical system in which such problems inevitably arise). just saying. say it aint true. lawl.

 

so the president resigned? and a new one will come? everything will be good right? everything will change? lawl. there will still be massive equality. cant believe people would risk their LIVES to replace inequality with inequality. not saying its just ukraine... it is a world-wide problem with humans. post mobarak egypt is better right? gaddafi gone is party time for libyans? post war iraq? post taliban afghanistan? post ben ali tunisia? post ussr russia? surely romania is utopia after ceausescu died and india is luxury after thanks to gandhi...nelson mandela ensured that south africa rapes the world in all aspects and black people have never experienced poverty better than after apartheid... look at all these paradises! as i said, aside from some scandinavian countries all countries suck. even within those scandinavian countries there is still inequality but it is equal enough for the majority to live a decent life. but they are still tools for accepting any existing inequality when there is a clear alternative. the world is an illogical clown show yet people do not want to draw the curtains. i dont know how hard it is to study history, trends, and put 1 and 1 together! but apparently the human race is not capable of doing this.

 

To me, this(alongside the arab spring) is what EU foreign policy should look like. If the EU was the US wed already troops in there. But the situation with Janokowitsch resigning, the financial helps on the horizon for the almost bankrupt state, the Russians losing their influence, that Timoshenko is free and we have two days without dead people on the streets is in my view consequence of EUs soft power diplomacy. Ergo, it works.

Putin must be very angry to lose out to Angie&Co.

 

The resolution declaring Ukrainian as the only official language might not be wise.

 

Having Happy Hour a little too early, I see.

 

With it being this close to European borders that's probably right.

The thing that bothers me is if Tymoshenko is simply pencilled in as the next Ukrainian president as I suspect she's almost as corrupt, (note I say 'almost'), as the other guy.

Quite what Europe can do about it is another matter and, let's be honest, it's not like some European countries are without such stories, right Silvio?

 

What business is it of EU anyway to stick its nose in other countries affairs?