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Ukraine SITREP April 16, 10:50 EST (Ukrainian civil war day 2)

It is still a little early to call this day over, especially considering the time it takes for the information to seep out of the eastern Ukraine and make it to the Internet.  Furthermore, we have to be extremely cautious with the news not only because truth is the first casualty of war or because all the information sources have a vested interest in getting out the “right” information “correctly”

Ukraine SITREP April 15, 18:30 EST update 1 (Ukrainian civil war day 1)

The first day of what will become the Ukrainian Civil war has finished and since by tomorrow morning a lot can happen, I have decided to provide this intermediate SITREP update tonight rather than to wait for tomorrow.The short summary of the day is: absolute chaos and local violence.A couple of things stand out: The same source who reported that the CIA Director John Brennan visited Kiev on Sunday or

Personal announcement: there is good news, and there is bad news (and one idea)

Dear friends, Today, as people often say, I have some good news and some not so good news.The good news is that a number of kind people have reach out to me in different ways to help me assure the survivability of this blog.  The idea is to make the blog available in sufficient number of duplicates located in different places of the planet to prevent the “Axis of Kindness”

Ukraine SITREP April 15, 10:54 EST (a sharp turn for the worse)

The situation in the Ukraine has taken a very sharp turn for the worse. Two Presidential candidates from the eastern part of the country were assaulted yesterday by Ukie brownshirts.  Mikhail Dobkin got away with only paint and flour thrown at him, but reports say that his bodyguard were hurt.  Oleg Tsarev got severely beaten, however, and barely escaped the Right Sector lynch mob.  No doubt, this will not prevent

A chance for you to say “no, not in my name!”

After reading the open letter to President Putin signed by over 300 Germans, one of the readers of this blog decided to emulate their example and write his own open letter to President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov.  Unlike the German letter, this letter is much more simple and very much to the point.  This is its full text: Many citizens of western countries greatly respect your measured responses to

What do you see on this video? Russian secret agents?

According to Obama, the Kerry, Samantha Power, Jen Psaki and the rest of the US 1%ers, most members of the UN Security Council and according to the EU clowns at the OSCE or PACE, what you are seeing in this video is: “Russian agents creating chaos were there was none and spreading hatred”.According to the freaks of the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev, what you see are terrorists.According to me, what

Ukraine SITREP April 14, 13:00 EST

It appears that the next 24 hours will be absolutely crucial for the future of the Ukraine.  So far, these are the most important developments:The following cities have seen uprisings taking place over the week-end: Kharkov, Slaviansk, Krasnyi Liman, Kramatorsk, Lugansk, Enakievo, Gorlovka, Donetsk, Khartsyzk, Ilovaisk, Mariupol.  To get a feel for the spread, check out this map: Rebel cities in the eastern Ukraine The second big development is the

Excellent statement of Russia’s rep at the UNSC (dubbed in English) (UPDATED with transcript)

TRANSCRIPT: (thanks to “OP”!!) (After Ukrainian representative’s statement) Thank you, Ms. Chairman. Today many words, many statements were sounded but the first impression I would like to share with my colleagues is that they do not look at the watch. Now it is a half past nine p.m. and it means that it is about a half to four a.m. now in Ukraine. In a couple of hours, the morning

Personal announcement: I am backing up this blog on WordPress

Dear friends,After being urged to do so by a lot of you (thanks!), I have backed up this blog on WordPress.  You can now find the backup blog here: http://thesaker.wordpress.com/ For the time being, this is only a backup option so PLEASE continue to post your comments here and not on the backup blog. Also, I am, alas, limited to 13MB of blogger import on WordPress.  At least the newest

Ukraine mini-SITREP April 13, 12:40 EST

The situation on the ground is very confused, there are a lot of rumors and few verifiable facts.  Still, a few things are becoming obvious:1) So far the offensive of the neo-Fascists is lame, at best.  So far, no determined and sustained attack has occurred.  There was an exchange of gunfire with casualties and at least one fatality reported in Slaviansk, but that occurred on the outskirts of the city

Exclusive translation of the statement of Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia’s lower house of parliament

Today is a good day for me, following “FR”‘s translation of the Open Letter to Putin from German into English, I have just received the translation from Russian into English of what I consider a truly historical statement made by Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia’s lower house of parliament to the press corps (which, of course, never bothered translating a word of it) following the

Open letter to Putin (or the real face of the “other” West!)

We all know that the western corporate media lies, that western politicians lie, that a big segment of the population in the West has been zombified into terminal stupidity.  But there is another West which is very rarely mentioned, whose voice is systematically ignored, which is categorically opposed to what is being done in its name by the ruling plutocracy and which refuses to shut up and obey.  All of

Ukraine SITREP April 12, 18:06 EST (and some *very* cautious optimism)

No assault in eastern Ukraine after ultimatum deadline passed Iatseniuk mentioned the possibility of a referendum MVD and SBU offices in Donetsk seized by armed men Alpha anti-terrorist team refused to attack Cops (militia) also refused to attack Slaviansk:  city revolts, locals takeover building and built barricades Kramatorsk: gunfire reported around government buildings Police building seized Police SWAT teams have refused to “fire a single shot” against the people and

Excellent footage of the “Polite Armed Men in Green” during their operation in Crimea

What had to happen did happen.  One, or more, of the “Polite Armed Men in Green” (PAMG) did use his cellphone or GoPro to shoot footage of his unit’s operations in Crimea.  According to the intro, this unit is called “detachment 0900” which could be nonsense or true, it does not matter.  What is sure is that this denomination does not conform to the Russian official/public military unit classification which

Putin “This will take more than handing out pies at the Maidan, that’s all not enough to keep the Ukrainian economy from slipping into total chaos”

Official publication of the Kremlin’s press service: (red color added to the funniest parts by me, the Saker) Meeting with Security Council members April 11, 2014, 17:00 Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region Vladimir Putin held a briefing session with permanent members of the Security Council. Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office

Personal announcement: update on donations and new PO Box in the USA

Dear friends,I have a found a few minutes to sit down and update you about donations.So far, 80 people have made donations through PayPal.  Even though many of you have had problems due to all sorts of bugs and quirks of PayPal, the money always ended up getting to me.  I now also have as a policy to immediately transfer any money I get to my bank account, “just in

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