NATO chief calls Putin’s Crimea visit ‘inappropriate,’ sees no sign of Russia troop withdrawal
Source: AP
TALLINN, Estonia The head of NATO on Friday urged Russia to step back from the brink and described President Vladimir Putins visit to recently annexed Crimea as inappropriate.
During a visit to Estonia like Ukraine a former Soviet republic Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said theres no visible evidence of Russian claims of a troop withdrawal from the border with Ukraine.
Weve seen such announcements also in the past, without any withdrawal of Russian troops so were very cautious, the Dane told reporters after a speech in the capital, Tallinn. I would be the first to welcome it if Russian troops were pulled out, if we see a clear and meaningful withdrawal, because it would contribute to de-escalate the crisis.
Asked about Putins first visit to Crimea since the region became part of Russia, Fogh Rasmussen noted that NATO doesnt recognize the annexation.
Read more: http://www.680news.com/2014/05/09/nato-chief-calls-putins-crimea-visit-inappropriate-sees-no-sign-of
Putin got points for announcing a troop withdrawal and then didn't withdraw them. What's Russian for "having your cake and eating it too"?
pinto
(106,886 posts)Iterate
(3,020 posts)9 May 2014 Last updated at 16:06 GMT
...
Soviet 'iron will'
In the Crimean port of Sevastopol, Mr Putin thanked the armed forces for their role in World War Two and hailed the incorporation of the peninsula into the Russian Federation.
He watched a fly-by of Russian aircraft and addressed seamen on naval vessels, as crowds gathered on cliffs overlooking the harbour.
He said: "I am sure that 2014 will go into the annals of our whole country as the year when the nations living here firmly decided to be together with Russia, affirming fidelity to the historical truth and the memory of our ancestors."
The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Sevastopol says Mr Putin was treated as a conquering hero as he walked through the main square and shook hands with Crimeans.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27344029
Nothing says 'peacemaker' like a parade and flyby on freshly annexed ground.
Your link is clipped.
http://www.680news.com/2014/05/09/nato-chief-calls-putins-crimea-visit-inappropriate-sees-no-sign-of-russia-troop-withdrawal/
Iterate
(3,020 posts)The Ukrainian government accuses Russia of being behind a number of pro-Russian uprisings in eastern provinces and the southern city of Odessa in a bid to secure a corridor along the strategic Black Sea coast to link it with Transdniester.
World Bulletin / News Desk
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has arrived in Moldova's breakaway pro-Russian region region Transdniester to celebrate the 69th anniversary of the fall of Nazi Germany.
Speaking in Tiraspol on Friday, he promised to secure the sovereignty of the self-declared republic, which is located close to the Ukrainian border.
"On the borders of Transdniester a genuine blockade is being set up," he said, noting that men aged 16 to 60 years old are being blocked from entering the nearby Ukrainian city of Odessa.
Recent pro-Russian uprisings in Odessa have been blamed on Russian militias based in Transdniester.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/135943/russian-deputy-pm-visits-breakaway-moldova-region
There's hardly a more provocative move that could have been made here. First of all, it's still technically Moldovan territory, though it has special legal status as an autonomous territory. There is no recognized sovereignty as a separate state. Second, about 1,200 Russian troops are permitted as 'peacekeepers'. Finally, it's been recognized as a flashpoint for 20 years, so all involved have previously tread lightly so as not to create an unnecessary incident.
But it just gets better because PM Dmitry Rogozin is blacklisted by both the EU and the US. In the flight from Crimea, the plane was denied use of Ukrainian airspace. So they flew over Bulgaria and Romania, evidently without permission.
May 9, 2014, Friday // 15:57
Bulgaria and Romania could send fighters after Russia's Deputy PM Rogozin while he was traveling to Transnistria via Bulgarian airspace, as he wrote on Twitter.
Dmitry Rogozin said he had been informed by the pilot that Bulgaria's air-control personnel had asked whether the "blacklisted passenger" was on board. "They were going to send up interceptors," Rogozin added.
...
Transnistria is a Russian-populated enclave in Moldova which is not recognized even by Moscow, but has sent requests to the Kremlin asking to join the Russian Federation.
Bulgaria's Defense Ministry has not commented on the issue, but its reaction seems to have been a routine, as fighter jets have been frequently scrambled in the past weeks in response to Russian reconnaissance flights near Bulgarian airspace over the Black Sea.
http://www.novinite.com/articles/160403/Bulgaria+and+Romania+%27Were+to+Send+Jets%27+after+Russia%27s+Deputy+PM
Transnistria has a 30% Russian minority.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)All the problems in the world and Putin just has to indulge in his New Russia fantasies while destabilizing the whole region
former9thward
(31,805 posts)In your world.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)Or was that just a knee-jerk Blame America First response?
former9thward
(31,805 posts)A U.S.-Moldovan trade agreement providing reciprocal most-favored-nation tariff treatment took effect in 1992. The same year, an Overseas Private Investment Corporation agreement was signed, encouraging U.S. private investment in Moldova through direct loans and loan guarantees. A bilateral investment treaty was signed in 1993. The United States granted Moldova generalized system of preferences status in 1995, and some Eximbank coverage became available the same year.
Moldova is a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Partnership for Peace program.
All U.S.controlled organizations.
The U.S. has been trying to surround Russia since the end of the Cold War. Well it didn't really end for the U.S.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5357.htm
EmilyAnne
(2,769 posts)No free will? Simply puppets of America?
Because of some tiny trade agreements with the US?
52 million a year over 5 years?
Good lord.
The EU accounts for over half of their trade, followed by Ukraine and then Russia.
But, of course, Moldova couldn't possibly be acting in its own interests by seeking a stronger relationship with the EU, right?
Its all about serving the US.
Wine embargoes and constant threats to "turn off the gas" just don't seem to endear Russia to Moldova.
BTW, slightly off topic, but could you please find an American Sergei Magnitsky for me?
Thanks. Can't wait to hear back from you.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)which begs the question about the impoverished, humiliated condition the USSR left Moldova in.
I can't believe all these Putin/USSR apologists. I'm not a CTer but it makes you wonder if they're all Kremlin flunkies
former9thward
(31,805 posts)Yeah if "it makes you wonder" you are a CTer. You have gone straight back to the 1950s with a commie under every bed. Trying the best you can to revive either the Cold War or maybe better yet a Hot War to rid us of evil Russia.
Everything was "impoverished" in the old USSR. That is why it collapsed. BTW the Marshall Plan was needed to expand U.S. trade to a Europe that had been destroyed and could not significantly trade with anyone. It pulled the U.S. out of the recession it went into after WW II when Defense industries went down and millions of troops returned home.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)Like how the Obama admin and the world bent over backwards with the reset button and the Olympics etc to try to bring Russia into the world community, pretty much even ignoring the gov't is a dictatorship, only to have Russia take Crimea and start designs on the rest of Ukraine and apparently Moldova and other parts of "New Russia." (Because, no, I don't think the Maidan uprising was a CT by western powers. I think it was Ukrainians getting sick and tired of crooks running their country into the ground).
Like the condition of Moldova (and the rest of Soviet-controlled E. and C. Europe at the end of the USSR)
If you think the Marshall Plan was only inspired by cynical, greedy motives, that's fine. I would then simply encourage you to compare Western Europe with Soviet Europe by 1970 or 1980. Compare Prague to Vienna (which is East of Prague, did you know that?)
I don't want the Cold War back. I was glad about the reset button. I have Russian and Ethnic Russian Ukrainian friends. But Putin is a Stalin-style dictator who is crushing basic freedoms in Russia and now is going outside the border with his totalitarianism. Sucks, right?
former9thward
(31,805 posts)So we agree on that. 1) The Olympics had absolutely nothing with Obama. They were awarded to Russia in 2007 before Obama was around. 2) The U.S. has good relations with governments around the world that are actual dictatorships so that has nothing to do with it.
3) Crimea was stolen from Russia in 1954 by a Ukrainian born dictator named Khrushchev. The people wanted to join with Russia again and it was simple self determination. (see the NATO/U.S. sponsored Kosovo self determination election which was not authorized by the UN as a precedent). 4) Not sure what you mean by the comparison of W. Europe with E. Europe. I favor the capitalist system so I will happily compare those two areas all day long. 5) As far as crooks go, yes the old Ukraine leaders were crooks, the current leaders are also crooks and the future leaders will be crooks. Severe corruption is endemic in that part of the world. 6) Putin is not a dictator in the mold of Stalin. That is a insult to the victims of Stalin. Putin is an authoritarian. Guess what? So has been every Russian leader since the birth of Russia in the era of 1000 A.D. They do not favor western style democracy and never have. Only naive State Department bureaucrats who have never been to Russia or studied its history would think differently.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)As your premise that the US is controlling Moldova by giving them money and making treaties is laughable. Totally over the top is your statement on Crimea that "the people wanted to join with Russia again and it was simple self determination." My god, Orwell couldn't have written that better.
Okay, we're done here
former9thward
(31,805 posts)Well the other posters will see that. Yep, you are done.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)your statement on Crimea that "the people wanted to join with Russia again and it was simple self determination."
You're in Face On Mars territory...
tabasco
(22,974 posts)Is that agreement supposed to make the US look like a big baddie or something?
That's pretty funny.
former9thward
(31,805 posts)The poster I was replying to and you rushed to defend was implying Moldova is sitting out there all on its own. The U.S. controls these nations through aid, loans, treaties, and a myriad of international agreements. If Russia was doing that with Canada, Mexico or Caribbean nations the U.S. would be screaming bloody murder.
Response to uhnope (Original post)
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