War in Ukraine

You may be right there, Bonny.

The 'money' sites like ZeroHedge are very interesting, about this, and other international matters, Lily.   

As is, Follow the....

Definitely so, Bonny. Especially the emergence of BRICS and some countries not willing to go with heavy sanctioning of Russia......

Where is Soros these days?

Still playing games with the market, Lily - his talons are as busy as ever. And it's amazing just how many sh*t-stirring organisations he has a wizened claw in:

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1237

ORGANIZATIONS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS AND HIS OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE

http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/17843-george-soros-s-giant-globalist-footprint-in-ukraine-s-turmoil

George Soros’ Giant Globalist Footprint in Ukraine’s Turmoil
Written by William F. Jasper


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George Soros’ Giant Globalist Footprint in Ukraine’s Turmoil
Billionaire investor/activist George Soros has a giant footprint in Ukraine. Similar to his operations in dozens of other nations, he has, over the past couple of decades, poured tens of millions of dollars into Ukrainian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), ostensibly to assist them in transforming their country into a more “open” and “democratic” society.

Many of the participants in Kiev’s “EuroMaidan” demonstrations were members of Soros-funded NGOs and/or were trained by the same NGOs in the many workshops and conferences sponsored by Soros’ International Renaissance Foundation (IRF), and his various Open Society institutes and foundations. The IRF, founded and funded by Soros, boasts that it has given “more than any other donor organization” to “democratic transformation” of Ukraine.

The International Renaissance Foundation’s Annual Report for 2012, the latest available, states that, “IRF provided UAH 63 million in funding to civil society organizations — more than any other donor organization working in this field in Ukraine.” The “UAH” reference used above refers to the Ukraine Hryvnia, Ukraine’s currency, which is worth about 0.11 $US, or 11 cents in U.S. currency. That translates into roughly $6.7 million that IRF provided to Ukrainian groups in 2012; not a huge sum, by comparison to many other political and social campaigns, but more than merely “significant.” In the cash-starved Ukraine, Soros’s dollars go a long way toward seducing and co-opting all legitimate political opposition into the Soros-approved “progressive” camp.

Well, he's certainly managed to 'transform' Ukraine, much as his chum Obama has 'transformed' America.

Thanks for that link, Bonny. What an incredibly long list of his organizations that are funded by his wonderful largesse.

Working Families Party: Created in 1998 to help push the Democratic Party toward the left, this front group for the Soros-funded ACORN functions as a political party that promotes ACORN-friendly candidates.

Obama benefited from ACORN.

ACORN was a political issue in the 2008 presidential election over allegations of voter registration fraud and conflict of interest. During the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary ACORN's national political action committee, ACORN Votes, endorsed Barack Obama.[71] Obama, with several other attorneys, had served as local counsel for ACORN in a 1995 voting rights lawsuit joined by the Justice Department and the League of Women Voters.[72][73] Obama's campaign hired an ACORN affiliate for $800,000 to conduct a get-out-the-vote effort during that primary,[74][75] but did not retain ACORN for the general presidential election

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Community_Organizations_for_Reform_Now

What a monster that man is.  

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/18/news/europe-farmers-russia/

LONDON (CNNMoney)
Vladimir Putin continues to unsettle Europe's economy.
The latest: Farmers in Europe will be paid to destroy or give away fruit and vegetables to stop prices from collapsing after Russia banned imports in retaliation for Western sanctions.

EU officials said Monday they were setting aside 125 million euros ($167 million) to compensate producers for not selling a range of perishable items, harvesting them before they ripen or leaving them to rot.
"This is a measure aimed at reducing the level of supply so the prices don't drop to crisis levels," said European Commission spokesman Roger Waite.

More at link.

Destroying food when there are millions dying of hunger? When there are food banks throughout Europe? Because of a bunch of Ukrainian neo-nazi trash? Because Obama and co got into a p*ssing contest with Russia and are currently losing?

It's utterly obscene.    

S'okay, Bonny. Let them eat cake.     

A fascinating report on the many calamities now overwhelming the madmen in Kiev - not least failing to grasp that bombing miners, and coal mines, wasn't a terribly good idea:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-19/ukraine%E2%80%99s-next-crisis-economic-disaster

It's amazing how much sense bizarre events start making when you can see the $$$$$$ behind it all.

Interesting comment, quote:

In case you get your news from the main stream media today, all the reports of retreating rebels and victorious Ukrainian Army units is just so much crap. These news stories all over media are designed to hide another set of disasters for Kiev's assualt troops. Over the last 48 hours, some terrible defeats have been inflicted on Kiev's Junta Army. It's not clear yet, but the rebels, for the first time, launched major offensives against Kiev's battlions. One defeat involved the 30th Brigade, the families of which have been attacking Kiev military offices demanding to know what happened to their sons and family members. In Karkov a train with freezer cars holding dead bodies of Ukie troops is sitting on a siding, Kiev does not know what to do with it

No, other reports most definitely don't agree with, Kiev says. It's a bit like peering at maps of the Battle of Kursk, while trying to remember how to read place-names in cyrillic, but Our Gallant Allies are getting a hammering from the rebels.



I think that was formerly a Kiev tank-turret. Which rather serves them right for bombing, shelling and dropping white phospherous on civilians.

Wow! Let Karma rule........that will be the fairest thing of all.

I sincerely hope the maniacs that escalated this, and have caused the deaths of so many innocent people, get every single bit of what they deserve, Lily.

I have NO doubt that, without outside meddling, Merkel, Putin and Ukraine could have reached an amicable settlement. There might have been a few street brawls, but that would have been it.

It's as though someone is playing divide and conquer.  

And now we've got Americans getting themselves killed fighting on the Kiev side:

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/american-donbas-battalion-member-dies-in-fierce-fighting-near-donetsk-city-361285.html

American Donbas Battalion member dies in fierce fighting near Donetsk (UPDATES)



An American has reportedly become the first foreign casualty on the Ukrainian side of the military conflict against Russian mercenaries and Kremlin-backed forces in eastern Ukraine.

Identified only under his nom de guerre of "Franko", he reportedly died from heavy artillery fire while trying to free the town of Ilovaisk in Donetsk Oblast on Aug. 19 while serving in the volunteer Donbas Battalion, Liviy Bereg photographer Maks Levin stated on Facebook, citing another photographer, Maks Dondiuk, who has embedded himself in various Ukrainian service units.



More at link.

That's a pro-Kiev news site, hence all the mutterings about 'Russian mercenaries', when a US one has just gotten himself killed. As he is apparently in his 60's, I cannot help suspecting he's a Blackwater employee checking on where the money's being spent.

Could be...  

You'll pardon me if I don't shed too many tears for American mercenaries killed in civil wars their own government has fomented, despite said civil wars being thousands of miles from American shores.

I will be upset and angry over the dozens of civilian deaths in eastern Ukraine this week; I will be angry and upset over the nearly half a million refugees this unnecessary civil war has created.

Oh, and as the US is so concerned over missing journalists, they might show some interest in this one:

The mother of Russian photojournalist, Andrey Stenin, missing in war-torn eastern Ukraine, has addressed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to help find her son.

Vera Stenina told RT that she addressed the ICRC “because they are looking for missing relatives. And I had hopes that I will be helped there.”

“They said that they’ll try to look for him,” the woman told RT, adding that the Red Cross showed “understanding” of her problem.

An experienced war photographer, Stenin, who works for the Rossiya Segodnya news agency (formerly RIA Novosti), disappeared on August 5 as he was covering the Ukrainian army’s campaign against the anti-Kiev rebels in the country’s southeastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Despite over two weeks having passed since his disappearance, the journalist’s whereabouts still remain unknown.

He's being held by Obama's chums in Kiev.



Andrey Stenin (Image by RIA Novosti)

I wonder what that structure was before it was given the hope'n'change treatment. A park? Someone's garden or living room?

It's like someone was not getting enough kicks from video games and wanted to make it real.......

I know, I really can't feel any sympathy for him, Lily. He deliberately put himself in danger - the dead civilians didn't. And why no outrage about an American fighting for a foreign government? It's either acceptable or it isn't.

I think that soldiers of fortune are probably nothing new here, Bonny....

http://rt.com/news/182088-kiev-delay-humanitarian-aid/

Moscow has accused Kiev of deliberately holding up the delivery of Russian humanitarian aid to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, according to a new statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The ministry says Russia has ordered the convoy to proceed, without waiting for further permission.

The first set of trucks carrying humanitarian aid has left the Isvarino check-point and has started moving along the territory of Ukraine towards Lugansk, a RIA Novosti correspondent on the ground reports.

The Russian customs officers have started to get the second set of trucks, consisting of 34 vehicles, ready to cross the border, according to local customs officials.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is not escorting the convoy.

“That’s because of the problems with security,” Galina Balzamova of the ICRC told RT. “Lugansk was shelled all night long. We believe we did not get sufficient guarantees of safety from all the parties to the conflict to start escorting the convoy.”


More at link.

Good for Moscow. If Obama can send small armies into Syria unasked, then Moscow can deliver humanitarian aid on its own doorstep.
Frankly, it's about time the MSM started showing exactly what Kiev has been doing to civilians in eastern Ukraine. It's every bit as bad as Israel and Gaza.

There are indications that patience with the lying maniacs in Kiev is wearing thin:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-21/council-foreign-relations-ukraine-crisis-west%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%93-not-putin%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%93-fault

The thoughts of some very influential people - it's about time this slaughter of innocents was stopped.


U.S. and European leaders blundered in attempting to turn Ukraine into a Western stronghold on Russia’s border. Now that the consequences have been laid bare, it would be an even greater mistake to continue this misbegotten policy.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-22/russian-humanitarian-convoy-enters-ukraine-without-authorization-ukraine-considers-m

Update: the farce is complete, although at least this time it didn't take Ukraine several hours to fabricate then unfabricate its plot line, because literally minutes after it accused Russia of invading, Ukraine's foreign minister said the convoy was "allowed" to avoid provocations. He added that the rebel militants are using mortars on the convoy route and that it had taken all necessary steps to ensure cargo safety but that Russia wouldn't discuss security for the convoy. Nonetheless it still accused Russia's convoy of breaking international law and said that convoy would go to separatists, not civilians, and called on its "international partners" (we suppose it means the CIA here, which apparently is feeding it this ridiculous script) to condemn the Russian convoy.

From Bloomberg:

UKRAINE SAYS ALLOWED RUSSIAN CONVOY IN TO AVOID PROVOCATIONS
NALYVAYCHENKO SAYS WILL GO TO SEPARATISTS, NOT CIVILIANS: IFX
UKRAINE SAYS RUSSIA WOULDN’T DISCUSS SECURITY FOR CONVOY
UKRAINE SAYS IT TOOK ALL NECESSARY STEPS TO ENSURE CARGO SAFETY
UKRAINE SAYS RUSSIAN CONVOY IS BREAKING INTERNATIONAL LAW
UKRAINE HAS CONCERNS OVER CONTENTS OF UNCHECKED RUSSIAN TRUCKS
Finally:

UKRAINE WILL NOT USE ANY FORCE AGAINST RUSSIAN AID CONVOY, WISHES TO AVOID "PROVOCATIONS" - UKRAINIAN STATE SECURITY CHIEF NALIVAYCHENKO

Translation: it will accuse "rebels" of a direct attack on the Russian convoy when it happens, blaming Russia for trying to stage an attack so Russia has a provocation pretext to really invade, as opposed to the fake "invasion" Ukraine accused Russia of just moments ago.

In other words, the "MH17 scenario" is now in play, with the question not so much if and who "provokes" the Russian convoy in the coming days, but how Russia will react to it. It appears that contrary to expectations, today will be another trading session in which the main catalyst will be not Jackson Hole but Ukraine once again, as algos react, in an already illiquid market, with extended momentum to each and every contradictory headline.

Finally, with a scenario evolving in such a farcical and chaotic fashion, one wonders if John Kerry somehow managed to sail his sailboat into Kiev and is currently giving the Ukraine government the play by play.



Here we go again. Precisely a week after the fabricated headlines last Friday that Ukraine had blown up Russian military vehicles in Ukraine territory, "news" which promptly was forgotten when Russia denied and Ukraine couldn't produce any proof of said attack, now it is time for the real "humanitarian" convoy to become the topic du jour, and so it did a few hours ago when some 90 trucks from the convoy were said to have entered Ukraine territory, a move which Ukraine promptly denounced as a direct invasion.



More at link.

Doubtless Kerry, McCain and co will be shrieking for WAR before the day is out.

Warm welcome: Locals in rebel-held eastern Ukraine applaud the first of the lorries in the convoy

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2731681/This-direct-invasion-Russian-aid-convoy-crosses-Lugansk-Ukraine-insists-military-vehicles-cynical-guise-Red-Cross.html#ixzz3B7cPF1gB
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Must be the first time anyone's ever 'invaded' with water, babyfood, generators and blankets.

If Moscow did decide to invade (though why on earth they would want that failed state I do not know) they would be in Kiev by nightfall. The conscripts, neo-nazis and mercenaries are only good at killing civilians.

My friends, this was taken from Sky News:

http://news.sky.com/story/1322777/russia-trucks-enter-ukraine-in-direct-invasion

Some good news, for once- the aid convoy has reached Lugansk safely.



GrahamWPhillips @GrahamWP_UK
Follow
The first traffic jam in 'war' #Lugansk. And the Russian humanitarian aid is now here! #aidconvoy #Ukrainecrisis
12:16 PM - 22 Aug 2014

Fingers and toes crossed, the aid can swiftly be distributed.

The Chocolate King is a lunatic. That convoy has been searched by the media, the Red Cross, Ukrainian officials, everyone - it's AID.

It seems the aid has been safely delivered to Lugansk, and the convoy is on its way back to Russia. So much for the 'invasion'.