ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Vladimir Putin Video http://news.kremlin.ru/video/1723  March 04, 2014 - The President of Russia met with media representatives to answer a number of their questions, in particular with regard to the situation in Ukraine. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues, How shall we do this? This is what I’d like to suggest: let’s have a conversation, rather than an interview. Therefore, I would ask you to begin by stating all your questions, I will jot them down and try to answer them, and then we will have a more detailed discussion of the specifics that interest you most. Let’s begin. QUESTION: Mr President, I would like to ask (you took a lengthy pause, so we have quite a few questions by now) how you assess the events in Kiev? Do you think that the Government and the Acting President, who are currently in power in Kiev, are legitimate? Are you ready to communicate with them, and on what terms? Do you yourself think it possible now to return to the agreements...

By Israel Shamir  The stakes are high in the Ukraine: after the coup, as Crimea and Donbas asserted their right to self determination, American and Russian troops entered Ukrainian territory, both under cover. The American soldiers are “military advisors”, ostensibly members of Blackwater private army (renamed Academi); a few hundred of them patrol Kiev while others try to suppress the revolt in Donetsk. Officially, they were invited by the new West-installed regime. They are the spearhead of the US invasion attempting to prop up the regime and break down all resistance. They have already bloodied their hands in Donetsk. Besides, the Pentagon has doubled the number of US fighter jets on a NATO air patrol mission in the Baltics; the US air carrier entered the Black Sea, some US Marines reportedly landed in Lvov “as a part of pre-planned manoeuvres”. The Russian soldiers ostensibly belong to the Russian Fleet, legally stationed in Crimea. They were in Crimea before the coup, in accor...

By Felicity Arbuthnot - In a Presentation at European Parliament in Brussels on 29th January the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, likened Iraq's justice system to "processing animals in a slaughterhouse". She also accused Iraq's justice system of being "too deeply flawed to warrant even a limited use of the death penalty, let alone dozens of executions at a time." Torture, sexual abuse and the threat of rape and actual rape are frequently inflicted on detainees, regardless of their gender. In January this year 38 people were hanged in two days. Last October 42 prisoners were executed in two days, acts Pillay called "obscene and inhuman". Iraq now has the third highest execution rate on earth, according to Amnesty International. US, UK: selective condemnation of tyrants However, the US and UK are seemingly remarkably selective when it comes to tyrants who "kill their own people". Not only have they failed to ...

Referendum on union with Russia on 16 March will 'only ratify decision', as Duma works on bill to make it easier for territories to join Russia By Shaun Walker in Simferopol - " The Guardian " - The de facto authorities of Crimea have announced that they consider the territory to be part of Russia after a swift vote in the local parliament. The MPs said on Thursday morning that a referendum planned for 30 March – which was due to ask voters if they wanted more autonomy from Kiev – would now take place on 16 March, ask whether they wanted to join Russia, and only be a ratification of a decision that had already been taken. The parliament also appealed to Moscow to assist its decision to seek union with Russia. Russian MP Sergei Mironov said the Duma, Russia's parliament, could consider the appeal from Crimea as early as next week. The Duma has already begun work on a bill that would make it easier for new territories to join Russia, clearly penned with one eye on ...

By Mike Whitney “From the moment the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States has relentlessly pursued a strategy of encircling Russia, just as it has with other perceived enemies like China and Iran. It has brought 12 countries in central Europe, all of them formerly allied with Moscow, into the NATO alliance. US military power is now directly on Russia’s borders…This crisis is in part the result of a zero-sum calculation that has shaped US policy toward Moscow since the Cold War: Any loss for Russia is an American victory, and anything positive that happens to, for, or in Russia is bad for the United States. This is an approach that intensifies confrontation, rather than soothing it.” - Stephen Kinzer, “US a full partner in Ukraine debacle”, Boston Globe “We have removed all of our heavy weapons from the European part of Russia and put them behind the Urals” and “reduced our Armed Forces by 300,000. We have taken several other steps required by the Adapted Conventional Armed...