As the world turns on Russia

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Life's a bitch, then you die!
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willie's always on my mind, willie's always on my mind

looks like I kicked that terrorist loving Dave to the curb (outta my way bitch)

And after I went to all that trouble to get our place remodeled. You fucking ingrate.

:homer:
 

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Tens of thousands of people in Ukraine have held rival pro-unity and pro-Russian rallies, as Moscow continues to strengthen its grip on Crimea.
Pro-Russia supporters beat up their opponents in Sevastopol, Crimea.
In the eastern city of Luhansk, pro-Russian activists seized regional offices forcing the governor to resign.
UK and German leaders telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge him to pull back from Crimea. The region is to vote to secede next week.



Addressing a huge crowd in Kiev to mark the 200th birth anniversary of national poet Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk pledged not to give a "single centimetre" of Ukrainian land to the Kremlin.
Ukraine's defence minister has said Kiev has no plans to send the army to Crimea.
In other developments on Sunday:

  • President Obama invites Mr Yatsenyuk to the White House, in what BBC correspondents say is a clear sign the new leader has support from Washington.
  • In the eastern city of Donetsk, pro-Russian protesters take down a Ukrainian flag near the regional government building, replacing it with a Russian flag.
  • In Kharkiv, also in the east, some 10,000 people reportedly march to support Ukraine's unity, chanting "No to war!" and "Ukraine, Kharkiv, Crimea!"
  • Russia's ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade behind bars, accuses Moscow of being complicit with Ukraine's ousted government in using deadly violence against protesters.
  • In Yevpatoriya, western Crimea, pro-Russian forces threaten to storm the command point of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile unit if the personnel there do not surrender their weapons, a representative of the base tells BBC News.
In Sevastopol, the violence erupted when pro-Russian groups attacked dozens of people guarding the Shevchenko rally.



The crowd threw missiles at a car as the activists tried to flee the scene, smashing windows. A BBC reporter in Sevastopol described the scenes as very ugly.
Some of the attackers were Russian Cossacks with whips.

The rally was attended by about 200 people.
A rival pro-Russian demonstration was also staged in the city - the base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
Moscow has been tightening its military grip on the Crimean peninsula.
Mr Putin has insisted he has the right to protect Russian interests and the rights of ethnic Russians there.
Mr Putin said "the steps taken by Crimea's legitimate authorities are based on international law".
However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told him on Sunday that she considered the 16 March referendum on whether to secede from Ukraine and join Russia illegal.
Unrest in Ukraine erupted in November, following former President Viktor Yanukovych's last-minute rejection of a landmark EU deal in favour of a bailout from Russia.
Mr Yanukovych was ousted last month, and a new government has been voted in by the Ukrainian parliament.
Presidential elections are scheduled for 25 May.



[h=2]At the scene[/h]
_51838382_011539176-1.jpg
Ben Brown BBC News, Sevastopol
It started peacefully. Ukrainians - many of them middle-aged women - waved flags and sang songs to celebrate the birth 200 years ago of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. They see him as the father of the Ukrainian language.
But by the end of the rally, pro-Russian demonstrators had turned up to gatecrash the celebrations. A line of young men and Cossacks with whips stood and glared at the rally menacingly - tension rose, and arguments broke out, both sides telling each other that Crimea is "our country".
Then it turned nasty, very nasty. The pro-Russians chased a group into a nearby car park. First, they set upon the driver of a white van, smashing his windscreen. He tried to drive through the mob to get away but crashed into another vehicle and was attacked again.
Another person was dragged into some bushes, kicked, beaten and lashed with a Cossack's whip.
We were threatened, too, by the pro-Russians and ran away before they set upon us as well. It was a terrifying moment, and a glimpse into the abyss that Crimea now teeters over.
 

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[h=2]Crisis timeline[/h]
  • 21 Nov 2013: President Viktor Yanukovych abandons deal on closer ties with EU in favour of closer co-operation with Russia
  • December 2013: Pro-EU protesters occupy Kiev city hall and Independence Square
  • 20 Feb: At least 88 people killed in 48 hours of bloodshed in Kiev
  • 21 Feb: President Yanukovych signs compromise deal with opposition leaders
  • 22 Feb: President Yanukovych flees Kiev. Parliament votes to remove him and sets elections for 25 May
  • 27-28 Feb: Pro-Russian gunmen seize key buildings in Crimean capital Simferopol
  • 1 March: Russian parliament approves President Vladimir Putin's request to use Russian forces in Ukraine
  • 6 March: Crimea's parliament asks to join Russia and sets referendum for 16 March
 

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I thought I might just go back to the Boston Bombings. Remember when Putin (Russia) warned the US about the older Tsarnaev. This article discusses the "reset button" and how relations with Russia were at that time. Yes connecting a dot:

[h=1]Boston bombing could have U.S.-Russia implications[/h]Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY 9:38 p.m. EDT April 19, 2013
[h=2]Russian President Vladimir Putin may use Boston tragedy to reset relations with U.S.[/h]
a04-g20-summit-19-4_3.jpg

President Obama participates in a bilateral meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin during the G20 Summit, June 18, 2012, in Los Cabos, Mexico. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster AP)
[h=3]Story Highlights[/h]
  • Countries' relationship has cooled over the last few years over policy disagreements
  • Obama spoke with Putin and "praised the close cooperation"
  • Countries at odds on a host of issues, ranging from the war in Syria to corruption in Moscow


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`WASHINGTON — With authorities identifying two ethnic Chechen brothers as the suspects responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings, the hot-and-cold U.S.-Russian relationship is facing an unexpected twist.
Early in President Obama's first term, his administration proposed a "reset" in the historically complicated relationship with Russia, which resulted in a short warming of relations between the countries.
But over the last few years, the relationship has been soured by a series of policy disagreements — including differences over the ongoing civil strife in Syria where Russian President Vladimir Putin has opposed the ouster of Bashar Assad, while Obama says the Syrian president must go.
The White House won't give details of any coordination they've had with Russian officials since identifying Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as the suspects for Monday's blasts in Boston.
But on Friday evening, Obama spoke with Putin and "praised the close cooperation that the United States has received from Russia on counterterrorism, including in the wake of the Boston attack," according to a White House statement.
Even before the Chechen connection surfaced publicly on Friday, Putin condemned the explosions as a "disgusting" crime and offered to help the U.S. investigation in any way he could. On Friday, the suspects' father, who is living in Russia, told CNN that he had been questioned by Russian authorities before being released.
A U.S. law enforcement official, who was not authorized to comment on the investigation, said investigators have been drawn to the overseas travel records of the elder suspect, Tamerlan, who was killed in a firefight with police on Friday morning.
The travel records show that the 26-year-old man left John F. Kennedy International Airport on Jan. 12, 2012, for Sheremetyevo International Airport, near Moscow. The suspect returned to JFK on July 17, 2012, but the purpose of his visit is unclear, the official said. But authorities say they have found no formal links between the suspects and any terrorist groups.
Fiona Hill, a Russia analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said that Putin may angle to "reset the reset" and argue that Obama needs to be more concerned about the Chechen separatists, some of whom have made their way to fighting with Taliban in Afghanistan and the Syrian opposition.
After the 9/11 attacks on the United States, Putin — who at the time was waging a brutal counterinsurgency effort against separatists in the predominantly Muslim population of Chechnya in southern Russia — reached out to President Bush in the hopes of collaborating on intelligence efforts and winning the U.S. support for their fight in Chechnya.
"Where the U.S. wanted to talk about Afghanistan, he wanted to talk about Chechnya and have the U.S. turn a blind eye to the human-rights abuses there," Hill said.
The U.S. and Russia coordinated on national security matters in Afghanistan and central Asia in the aftermath of Sept. 11. But the U.S., while it has backed Russia's territorial integrity and supported its right to combat terrorism, has kept an arm's length from Russia's battles in Chechnya.
In recent years, Russia watchers say that cooperation on security matters has diminished as the USA and Russia increasingly find themselves at odds on a host of issues, ranging from the war in Syria to corruption in Moscow.
"There is increasingly a conviction (in Washington) that the Russians continually pick the wrong side, and that when and if it comes to cooperation on national security issues with the United States, we do not want to tip our hands to Moscow because of who they may share information with," said Matt Rojansky, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The other side is what does Russia have to offer the United States, that it is not offering in return."
Chechnya sought independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and subsequently separatist groups fought two bloody wars with the authorities in Moscow.
Militants have also made several high-profile terror attacks in Russia and the North Caucasus region over the years, but have never targeted the United States. In the most notable incident, they took over a school in Beslan in the North Ossetia region in 2004. When the siege ended, more than 330 people had died — half of them children.
Today, violence has been reduced dramatically in Chechnya, but it continues to simmer there and elsewhere in the North Caucasus region.
Russia is hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, near the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, hundreds of miles from Chechnya, and Russian officials remain concerned about security there, analysts say.
"They are keeping tabs on them, and they are pretty darned concerned about them blowing up the Sochi Winter Olympics," Hill said.
Obama and Putin's predecessor, Dmitry Medvedev, started off on the right foot.
In the first year of Obama's presidency, the two nations forged an agreement on nuclear arms treaty and administration officials was pleased with the Russian's backing tougher U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran.
But the relationship has chilled since Putin returned to power nearly a year ago.
Administration officials raised concerns that Putin was heavy-handed in squashing dissent among the middle-class opposition movement ahead of his inauguration last year, and they expressed displeasure with the prosecution of members of the punk band Pussy Riot, which was critical of Putin.
Putin also ruffled feathers in Washington by canceling long-standing projects in Russia run by the United States Agency for International Development.
In December, Putin retaliated against the U.S. Congress passing a law punishing Russian human rights violators by signing into law a measure prohibiting the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens.
But some experts say the Boston tragedy may provide an opportunity for another thawing.
"Certainly, in the past these situations have helped promote reconciliation between the U.S. and Russia," said Jeffrey Mankoff, a Russia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Potentially that could happen again."
 

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I personally believe that Putin advised this administration in advance about their move on Crimea. But that is just me.
 

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Also how did the NSA and all of our discerning and all vigilants intelligence forces not see this coming. Right
 

Life's a bitch, then you die!
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Putin has Europe by the short hairs. Germany is dependent on Russia’s energy and England is dependent economically.

The rest of Europe is irrelevant.
 

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