Ukraine’s acting government issues arrest warrant for Yanukovich
Who’s really in charge?
As Ukraine tries to move forward in rebuilding its government, acting leaders have called for the arrest of ousted President Viktor Yanukovich.
From the Associated Press via ABC News:
Ukraine’s acting government issued an arrest warrant Monday for President Viktor Yanukovych, accusing him of mass crimes against the protesters who stood up for months against his rule. Russia sharply questioned its authority, calling it an “armed mutiny.”
Yanukovych himself has reportedly fled to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, a pro-Russian area in Ukraine.
Calls are mounting in Ukraine to put Yanukovych on trial, after a tumultuous presidency in which he amassed powers, enriched his allies and family and cracked down on protesters. Anger boiled over last week after government snipers killed scores of protesters in the bloodiest violence in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history.
This news follows a chaotic weekend of developments that included the Ukrainian Parliament’s vote to remove Yanukovich from office, as well as hold new elections on May 25th.
Yanukovich has since fled the capital city, his definitive whereabouts still unknown. But before disappearing, he strongly rejected parliament’s recent actions.
From CNN:
In his [Yanukovich’s] last known public act, he delivered a televised speech Saturday from Kharkiv in which he rejected Parliament’s ouster and vowed to fight.
“I don’t plan to leave the country. I don’t plan to resign. I am the legitimate President,” he said Saturday in a televised broadcast.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s parliament named its speaker, Oleksander Turchinov, to serve as acting president.
Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev meanwhile contends that the new acting government in Ukraine is not legitimate, reports The Guardian.
(Featured image: CNN video)
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Comments
I had a look around this morning for news/ developments.
Ukraine is already off the front pages .
There was a meeting of the G20 finance ministers in Sydney & ominously for Ukraine there was no outpouring of pledges / support. It was led by the Australians who held a tight format with the focus on mechanisms for raising GDP an average of 2% as a necessity for global growth .
( btw Janet Yellen was denied entry to hotel & venue centre because she did not have ID . Thought you would find that amusing . )
In case the Ukraine police are as bad at names as some news readers, Weird Al should stay out of the Ukraine.
Genes – weird al has already hinted he might have a new song.soon.
Back to the $$$$$$£££££€€€€€¥¥¥¥. Britain foreign minister forced to beg MPs ( labour & Tory ) to back up his declaration Britain will be sending in aid . Looks like he will be backing down. No love for another European welfare parasite to arrive on their shores.
The natives are angry at many things including their towns being either the other lot or polishlithuanianestonianromanianlatviaVille. Watch that space .
An arrest warrant for the deposed leader… never a good sign.
Off the front pages?
It never was on the front page of the New York Post and the New York Daily News.
It still is one of the top stories on the network evening news.
In the Monday, February 24, 2014 New York Times it was the main (right hand column) front page story:
UKRAINE RUSHES
TO SHIFT POWER
AND MEND RIFTS
————
NEW LEADER SPEAKS OUT
————–
Parliament Acts – Party
and Army Abandon
Ousted President
There was also a two column story to the left:
As His Grip on Ukraine Failed
President Clung to Illusions.
The first story was continued on page 6 and the second on page 8. Page 6 also had a new story:
Fresh From Prison, a Former Prime Minister Returns to the Political stage (about Yulia V. Tymoshenko0
Page 7 was an advertosement and page 8, in addition to the continuation of the story from the front page (both front page stories were continued on the bottom of their respective pages) there was anotehr storyL
In Ukraine
Joy in Kiev
Confronts
Fury in East
——–
dueling Proetests in
s Pro-Russia City.
There was also coverage of Syria and Venezuala on page 4, and an Op-ed piece about Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal has tow front page stories, both two columns wide, one under the other, on the right side, continued on to pages A11 and A12 respectively,
West Rushes
To Aid Ukraine
———–
U.S., Europe Forge Massive Bailout
Obama Adviser Warns Against Breakup
Second story:
As President Flailed,
Allies Jumped Ship.
Additional stories on page A11:
Cool Welcome for Ex-Leader
Reversal in Kiev Dims
Putin’s Olympic Glory.
Page A12 also has:
Crimea Remains bastion of Russian Support.
and a map, and two sidebars:
5 Takeaways from the Ouster
and Tug of war (brief history highlights since 1991 or 2005)
And the third editorial is about Ukraine too.
He’s in Europe and reading next day’s headlines. There is no point having Ukraine in headlines because
1. The ability of Angela Merkel to purchase large Central European countries is limited;
2. The US has no clue and conservatives are heading for a major black eye if this country keeps paying attention (it will not). Conservatives are getting giddy proclaiming that the good guys are the ones downing Lenin statues. Really? Ukraine witnessed it all before when the Nazis invaded, and the people downing Lenins now are the grandchildren of collaborationists. For real, clear blood lines and all.
…I missed that preview of the upcoming fun:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10608065/Ukraine-protests-The-split-behind-Kievs-battle-line.html
Per Debka, Russian forces transferred from securing Sochi to Ukrainian border:
http://warsclerotic.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/russian-units-transferred-from-securing-the-sochi-games-to-the-ukraine-border/
Sammy . My time zone is way almost a day ahead of you .in time & a world apart in perspective.
If you want to read your day old news , you can keep your day old news. But it ain’t news any longer.
Regarding the WSJ , Murdoch is nor stupid . It is slanted to the sensitivities of Americans . You will get a different take in WSJ Asia edition ( also 20 hours earlier) .
So it printed you guys a map? Hehe.
The New York Post also had news from Ukraine on Monday, February 24, 2014.
All of pages 8 and 9 is taken up by it, with the biggest headline (on page 8-9) being:
UKRAINE’S RAFT OF GRAFT
Lake of ex-prez’s vile files.
(He had claimed he lived in a modest house on a small plot of land on his estate, but there was big mansion, many other buildings, a zoo, a swimming pool and all sorts of one of a kind items. He and his sons had become billionaires. There was an attempt to burn papers, which showed how much he was spending, and also some evidence of bribery, but apparently they didn’t have enough time for that, and they dumped them in a lake, which doubles as the Kiev reservoir. The place was not looted {at least not by too many people} but people were allowed to see it till midday Sunday, by which point there was a line of cars backed up all 12 miles back to Kiev. Not all of this is in the New York Post. The New York Post got a lot of its information from the English language Kyiv Post – spelled that way.)
Page 8 also has:
WH to Vlad: Fools rush in.
And:
Hope, fear
& prayers
from NYC
The New York Daily News has a little less, with a story taking up 2.3 of page 13 of the Monday, february 24, 2014 New York Daily News:
NO WAY, VLAD
U.S. to Putin: Keep troops out of Ukraine.
Also in the Wall Street Journal yesterday was a story on page C1, starting in the middle of the right hand column with the headline:
Ukrain’s
Debt Lures
A Few Bold
Managers.
Ukraine’s 7.8% bomds due in 2022, had traded as low as 78 cents on the dollar last week but went up to 84 cents Friday (source: something called FactSet)
I will now post what is in Tuesday’s papers, and we’ll see if the story has completely disappeared from the front pages.
Newspaper headlines about Ukraine on Tuesday February 25, 2014:
The New York Times has it in the second column from the right on the front page. (the lead therefore being about Syria, and the second lead, on the left hand column on the front page, is about Venezuala.)
NEWS ANALYSIS
———–
Wary Stance
From Obama
————
Departure From Bush
in Ukraine Response.
(He’s not acting like George Bush at the time of the Orange Revolution in 2004 – Obama is sympathetic but not enthusiaistic about promotion of democracy and he got involved very late. Benjamin Rhodes , a deputy national security adviser, claims that is exactly the right thing to do. Rhodes, by the way, was also a person who thought, the on Sept 14, 2012 – it’s right there in the Benghazi e-mails – that they needed to correct the “disinformation” that the attack in Benghazi was premeditated!!)
Two pages on the inside, pages A11 and A12, are about Ukraine or Russia. Headlines:
Just Like His Power,
Ukrainian Ex-Leader
Vanishes Into Thin Air
We also have a map dividing Ukraine into Ukranian and Russian speaking areas. It’s clear that the division between western and eastern Ukraine is not that between what was part of Poland and part of the Soviet Union before 1939, but western Ukraine is considerably bigger..
The bottom of page A11 is taken up by a continuation of the front page story.
Page A12 has:
Amid Political Upheaval, Ukraine faces Dire Need for Economic Help.
The bottom story on page A12 is:
Wall of Riot Police Greets Demonstrators at Sentencing of Moscow Protesters.
There is also an editorial, and an op-ed piece by David Brooks in which he writes an imaginary Putin diary entry.
(Putin’ worldview – more accurate would be the view he wants others to have – is based on the idea that there’s a choice between either centralized control or terrorism and chaos. He’s going to evict westerners from Ukraine – he’ll offer more money – and while some politicians are good at organizing coalitions, he’s good at organizing corruption. In less deft hands what he does wouldn’t work, but he’s Putin.)
By the way, the Syria story in the New York Times is about Obama’s indecision. It seems like a new weapon or tactic has been developed: cyber warfare.
In 2011 he was presented with a plan to disable Syria’s ability to launch airstrikes and produce missiles but he turned it all down.
He’s indecisive about offensive cyberwarfare, which could also be used against Syria’s electric grid, or its leadership, even though billions have been spent developing it.
Not very Trumanesque, is it?
There’s a whole secret debate: Would Russia, Iran or Syria itself retaliate? Is cyberwarfare like ordinary warfare, is it a covert tool that maybe should be used rarely, or should it be reserved for extradordinary circumstances against the most sophisticated, hard-to-reach targets?
Operationally, this would be done by the NSA. They are still debating: is this better than airstrikes because it is more humanitarian, or would it encourage other countries to do the same against the United States? That is, would we be breaking some taboo?
The Wall Street Journal’s main headline today (right hand column, front page) is about Ukraine:
Ukraine
Hunts
Ousted
Leader
New Government
Launches Probe
Into Yanukovych
The story is continued on page A6. On the top of page A6 is:
West Pushes to Rescue Ukraine’s Economy
European Union, U.S. Face Hurdles in Call for Swift Action to Avoid financial Collapse: “We Have to help Them Soon.”
Oh, look: page A7, MAduro is losing one of his allies, maybe.
There is also an Op-ed piece by Bret Stephens on page A11 (the one on other back side of the editorial page)
Ukraine vs. Homo Sovietcus (there’s very much corruption there)
The New York Post has a sory taking up the right side half of page 10:
Ex-Ukraine
chief on lam
Wanted for ‘mass killing’
The New York Daily News has a story on page 16:
Chick in Kiev
————–
Mistress shared palace with ousted prez
(They knew he was not living with his wife, one year older than him – he’s 63. They sometimes appeared together when campaigning, but she was living in Donestsk. But they didn’t know about 39-year old Lyubov Polezhay, who has a 12-year old daughter from another man)
“We also have a map dividing Ukraine into Ukranian and Russian speaking areas. It’s clear that the division between western and eastern Ukraine is not that between what was part of Poland and part of the Soviet Union before 1939, but western Ukraine is considerably bigger..”
Russia built Ukraine out of very different areas, though most of it was carved out of Poland in a series of partitions. The later additions are less russified and Kiev became an Ukrainian-speaking town over the last two decades because of the migration from the provinces. Anyhow, it’s Galicia (3 Western-most regions) that we need to watch out for.
“West Pushes to Rescue Ukraine’s Economy
European Union, U.S. Face Hurdles in Call for Swift Action to Avoid financial Collapse: “We Have to help Them Soon.””
[Sigh] I suspect Timoshenko needs to redecorate her palace.
Day old news? People don’t know all the day old news.
An interesting story in the New York Times on Monday was how ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and (Greater) Syria) had killed the emissary Ayman al-Zawahiri sent to Syria in an attempt to take control of al Qaeda there and get ISIS out of Syria in favor of regular al Qaeda.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/world/middleeast/jihadist-mediator-killed-in-suicide-attack-by-rival-extremists.html?_r=0
Of course, the New York times has got to call him a mediator.
Last month, in an audio recording, he said “Direct your car bombs at the infidels and do not busy yourself with fighting the mujahedeen and killing them.” but he was killed by a suicide bomber. Hw went by tghe non de guerre of Abu Khalid al-Suri.
Breaking news:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/world/europe/ukraine.html?hp
Infighting Hurts Ukraine Efforts to Form a New Government
(delayed until Thursday. They need an interim government, which is needed to formally request emergency economic assistance from the International Monetary Fund.)
Also: Yanukovych’s chief of staff, Andriy Klyuyev, was said by a spokesman (from whom?) to have resigned on Sunday and also to have shot in the leg.
Russia claims that the ousting of Yanukovych and other actions by the Ukrainian Parliament are illegal, and tat the plans for a new presidential election in May violate the agreement signed on Friday, which, however, they never endorsed in the first place.
Sammy –
The world really does not read the NYT . The WSJ is not anywhere they go to find out news . In fact a recent thread here discussed e growth of news amalgamation services. Again , by the time large entities like the NYT & WSJ get hold of an event & give it a pontificator to explain to the limitly interested – the action has moved on.
My original post overshot the statements by the usual suspects to go to the citizen response.. Read the comments for example in The Daily Mail or the more slightly upper class Telegraph . This Ukrainian stuff is getting 60 -80 entries , the bailout suggestions got 800+ & 90% negative.
The social impact is going to be in Europe . Britain really does not want more Eastern Europeans which the Eu will force on them. The Polish are unhappy that they may have to compete with Ukraine just when they have mastered the art of EU ripoff.
What is interesting is that Yellen is breaking the lifeline to the German banks .which has allowed the EU bailouts . The G20 Finance Ministers were assembled this weekend & Ukraine was not on the agenda because Australia was the chair & they are basic anti Europe .& pro Asia .
Ukraine is simply too big, too far east and its problems are both too distant and too entrenched for anyone in the West to lift a finger. (Not to say that we are obligated).