ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Video - 03-1-2014 During an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council Saturday both the Russian and U.S. ambassadors to the international organization delivered statements on Russia's decision to send troops into the Crimea region of Ukraine. Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin went first, delivering an extended statement defending Russia's actions despite warnings from President Barack Obama to respect Ukraine's sovereignty. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power followed Churkin, issuing a strong rebuke of Russia's actions. "It is time for the Russian intervention in Ukraine to end," Powers said. "Russian actions in Ukraine are violating the sovereignty of Ukraine and threaten international peace and security." She called for the "immediate deployment" of UN and OSCE observers in the region. Previously, Ukrainian Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev told the council, "We call on the Security Council now to do everythin...

By Moon Of Alabama - The U.S. and EU sponsored coup against the elected government and president of the Ukraine had several strategic implications and aims. One of them is the Black Sea base of the Russian Navy which is used to supply and defend Syria. A takeover of the government in Kiev was necessary but not sufficient to neutralize the base as a strategic Russian asset. To do that a takeover of the local government of the Crimea and all its powers would also have to take place. The Crimea is historically Russian and most of it inhabitants are Russians. There is also a rather small minority of Tatars of Muslim heritage. There seem to have been plans in place to use that minority to help with a takeover of the Crimean government by the "western" sponsored coup-government in Kiev. In mid December 2013(!) the Turkish website Aydinlik Daily reported : According to news appearing in the French, Ukrainian and Russian press, Turkish Intelligence has a finger in the ongoing pro-EU...

By Tony Ortega - " Raw Story " - President Obama spoke to Russia’s President Putin today for about 90 minutes, and told him that he’s violating international law with Russian troops leaving their bases in Crimea to seize control of the Ukraine territory. Both sides put out descriptions of the lengthy discussion. First, here’s the White House’s explanation of how the call went… President Obama spoke for 90 minutes this afternoon with President Putin of Russia about the situation in Ukraine. President Obama expressed his deep concern over Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, which is a breach of international law, including Russia’s obligations under the UN Charter, and of its 1997 military basing agreement with Ukraine, and which is inconsistent with the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and the Helsinki Final Act. The United States condemns Russia’s military intervention into Ukrainian territory. The United States calls on Russia to ...

By F. William Engdahl - " 21st Century Wire " - The events in Ukraine since November 2013 are so astonishing as almost to defy belief. An legitimately-elected (said by all international monitors) Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovich, has been driven from office, forced to flee as a war criminal after more than three months of violent protest and terrorist killings by so-called opposition. His “crime” according to protest leaders was that he rejected an EU offer of a vaguely-defined associate EU membership that offered little to Ukraine in favor of a concrete deal with Russia that gave immediate €15 billion debt relief and a huge reduction in Russian gas import prices. Washington at that point went into high gear and the result today is catastrophe. A secretive neo-nazi military organization reported linked to NATO played a decisive role in targeted sniper attacks and violence that led to the collapse of the elected government. But the West is not finished with destroying Uk...

After what Moscow regards as the western-backed takeover of Kiev, the Kremlin's choreography has been impressive By Luke Harding - " The Guardian" - Days after the end of Vladimir Putin's Sochi Olympics, the borders of Europe are shifting. Or, more accurately, military forces suspected of acting on Moscow's orders are creating a new cartographic reality on the ground. Overnight, alleged undercover Russian special forces seized control of Simferopol airport, in the administrative capital of Crimea. The move comes less than 24 hours after a similar squad of shadowy, well-armed, Russian-speaking gunmen seized Simferopol's parliament building and administrative complex. If anyone was in doubt what this meant, the gunmen left a clue. They raised a Russian flag above the parliament building. Ukraine 's interior minister, Arsen Avakov, described the operations in Crimea in apocalyptic terms . What was unfolding in the south was "an armed invasion and occup...

By RTE - " RTE " - - Russian aircraft carrying nearly 2,000 suspected troops have landed at a military air base near the regional capital of the Crimean peninsula, a top Ukrainian official said accusing Moscow of an "armed invasion". "Thirteen Russian aircraft landed at the airport of Gvardeyskoye (near Simferopol) with 150 people in each one," Sergiy Kunitsyn, the Ukrainian president's special representative in Crimea, told the local ATR television channel. He said the air space had been closed. It was not immediately clear if Russia had the right to use the base or send additional troops there under its agreements with Ukraine. Kiev's main airport has said flights to the Crimean capital of Simferopol have been cancelled as tensions escalate on the peninsula. A spokeswoman who did not give her name said flights for this evening and tomorrow morning had been cancelled because "the situation in Simferopol does not allow them to a...

Gunmen storm Crimea's regional administrative complex in Simferopol and hoist Russian flag above parliament building By Harriet Salem in Simferopol, Shaun Walker in Kiev, and Luke Harding - " The Guardian" - Fears of a major regional conflict in Crimea pitting Russia against the west have intensified after unknown pro-Russian gunmen seized the government and parliament building in a well co-ordinated military operation. According to witnesses, the men dressed in fatigues stormed Crimea's regional administrative complex in Simferopol at 5am on Thursday. They hoisted a Russian flag above the parliament building. About 120 men were holed up inside, armed with heavy weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles, witnesses said. They threw a flash grenade in response to a journalist's questions. Phonecalls to region's legislature rang unanswered, and its website was down. It was unclear if the men were members of a pro-Russian self-defence militia ...