A British-based investigative team as named Russian soldiers likely to have been involved in the downing of Malaysian passenger jet MH17.
The Bellingcat online team published a 115-page report identifying members of the 2nd Battalion of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade as the perpetrators of the attack.
The passenger jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 people on board – most of whom were Dutch nationals.
(...) Since leaving office last November, this George W. Bush favorite — whose confrontation with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia led to a disastrous war in 2008 — has commandeered his uncle’s apartment in a tower on the Williamsburg waterfront, where he luxuriates in the neighborhood’s time-honored tradition of mysteriously sourced wealth. When not lingering in cafes, riding his bike across the bridge or spending stag evenings with friends on the Wythe Hotel rooftop, Mr. Saakashvili seizes on the Ukrainian conflict and his experience with Mr. Putin’s wrath as a lifeline back to political relevance.
“It’s the end of Putin,” Mr. Saakashvili, 46, said of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, the topic of discussion on Thursday as its president, Petro O. Poroshenko, met in Washington with President Obama and congressional leaders. Mr. Saakashvili called Mr. Putin’s actions “very, very similar” to those in Georgia. “I think he walked into trap.”
BUT Mr. Saakashvili, considerably plumper than when he was in power, argues that the conflict should also mark a reappraisal of his own reputation as a reckless leader whose peaceful Rose Revolution and commitment to reform were eclipsed by years of riding roughshod over opponents, bending the rule of law and provoking Mr. Putin into a war that resulted in the death, displacement and impoverishment of thousands of Georgians. “It should be revisited,” he said.
Mr. Saakashvili said that while he had a “normal life” in Brooklyn, he considered himself a big deal in Eastern Europe, pointing out that on a recent trip to Albania “they shut down traffic for us and our 20-car escort.”
Mr. Saakashvili’s personal rehabilitation project is complicated by his eroded popularity back home and charges filed against him by Georgian prosecutors of human rights violations and embezzlement of government funds. He shrugs off the prosecutors as politically motivated puppets of his nemesis, the billionaire and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. Some of Mr. Saakashvili’s critics agree that the charges say as much about the current Georgian government’s hunger for revenge as they do about him.
For now Mr. Saakashvili is writing a memoir, delivering “very well-paid” speeches, helping start up a Washington-based think tank and visiting old boosters like Senator John McCain and Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary of state. He said he was in the process of changing his tourist status here to a work visa and in the meantime is enjoying the bars and cafes of his adopted homeland. On his roof deck, with sweeping views of Manhattan, he has entertained David H. Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and is expecting Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, at the end of the month. Usually, a cousin mans the grill, along with the chef from Fabbrica, the neighboring Italian restaurant opposite a CVS. Like those chain drugstores, glassy high-rises and Eurocentric nightclubs, Mr. Saakashvili is evidence of Williamsburg’s steady transition to a playground for moneyed out-of-towners. (...)
There seems to be a “suicide” epidemic afflicting opponents of the current Ukrainian government – nine opposition politicians and two journalists have mysteriously died since the beginning of the year. Here is the timeline of terror that has opponents of the regime fearing for their lives:
January 26 – Nikolai Sergienko, former deputy chief of Ukrainian Railways and a supporter of Viktor Yanukoych’s Party of Regions, reportedly shot himself with a hunting rifle. The windows were all locked from inside, and no note was found.
January 29 – Aleksey Kolesnik, the former chairman of the Kharkov regional government and a prominent supporter of the now-banned Party of Regions, supposedly hung himself. There was no suicide note
February 24 – Stanislav Melnik, another former Party of Regions member of parliament, was found dead in his bathroom: he is said to have shot himself with a hunting rifle. We are told he left a suicide note of “apologies,” but what he was apologizing for has never been revealed, since the note has not been released.
February 25 – Sergey Valter, former Party of Regions activist and Mayor of Melitopol, was found hanged hours before his trial on charges of “abuse of office” was set to begin. Whoever was responsible neglected to leave a “suicide” note.
February 26 – Aleksandr Bordyuga, Valter’s lawyer and former deputy chief of Melitopol police, was found in his garage, dead, another “suicide.”
February 26 – Oleksandr Peklushenko, a former Party of Regions member of parliament and chairman of Zaporozhye Regional State Administration, was found dead in the street with a gun wound to his neck. Officially declared a “suicide.”
February 28 – Mikhail Chechetov, a professor of economics and engineering, former member of parliament from the Party of Regions, and former head of the privatization board, supposedly jumped from the seventeenth floor window of his Kiev apartment. Another “suicide”!
March 14 – Sergey Melnichuk, a prosecutor and Party of Regions loyalist, “fell” from the ninth floor window of an apartment building in Odessa. Or was he pushed?
April 15 – Oleg Kalashnikov, yet another prominent Party of Regions leader, died of a gunshot wound – the eighth since the beginning of the year.
Kalashnikov, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament and a very vocal and visible critic of the Kiev regime, was found shot to death in his home. This time, the authorities are having a hard time spinning it as a “suicide,” although they haven’t come right out and said it was murder. Kalashnikov had recently been campaigning for the right of Ukrainians to celebrate the victory of the Allies during World War II – a controversial topic in Ukraine, where sympathy for the Third Reich and its Ukrainian collaborators is rife among supporters of the current government. He had reportedly received numerous death threats because of his stand.
And as I write this, the news that two other prominent critics of the Kiev gang, both journalists, have been found dead is being reported. Historian and journalist Oles Buznya was gunned down by two marked gunmen while jogging near his home. He had recently resigned his position as editor of the newspaper Segodnya, stating that he would no longer put up with the censorship imposed by government pressure on his employers: he had also been forbidden to make any media appearances. Earlier this year, a group of Ukrainian “journalists” with the oxymoronic moniker of “Stop Censorship” demanded that Buznya be banned from making appearances in the media on the grounds that he was “an agent of the Kremlin.”
Buznya enraged Ukrainian ultra-nationalists by debunking the cult of poet Taras Shevchenko. Buznya, like Kalashnikov, was active in the antigovernment protests that have become more numerous in recent days as that war-torn country cracks down on political dissent and cuts pensions while prosecuting a vicious civil war against eastern “separatists.”
Within hours of Buznya’s murder – on either Tuesday or Thursday, accounts differ – journalist Serhiy Sukhobok was kiled in Kiev. The 50-year-old Sukhobok founded the news web sites ProUA and Okbom, and had been a business journalist in the Donbass. There are reports that his assailants have been found and arrested, but authorities aren’t releasing much information. (...)
I don't even know why they even bothered to apologize, more of a barely Freudian slip if you ask me. Except for the fact that 40% of Ukranian men that are drafted choose to leave their own country rather than fight their brethren to the East so the Ukranian people themselves are obviously not as pro US as the government we propped up.
Pretty much. It's likely the reaction of the Twittersphere et al. that made them do a double take. Huh, what?
And that matters how? Aside from it being fairly frequent, it's pretty customary when caught with one's pants down. See the Fox Paris gaffe, Williams, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.
I don't even know why they even bothered to apologize, more of a barely Freudian slip if you ask me. Except for the fact that 40% of Ukranian men that are drafted choose to leave their own country rather than fight their brethren to the East so the Ukranian people themselves are obviously not as pro US as the government we propped up.
And that matters how? Aside from it being fairly frequent, it's pretty customary when caught with one's pants down. See the Fox Paris gaffe, Williams, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.
Russia is the aggressor...if you think to Crimea, well it was gifted from Russia to Ukraine in 1954, when both countries belonged to the SSSR. If you think to foreign troops in the country you are right, but they are not only russian. USA are very involved in this mess...actually financing the so-called supporter of democracy, like these, making any kind of atrocities to east, russian-speaking Ukrainian civil population. I'm not a Putin supporter in any way, but here the situation is quite clear: USA want to expand their influence toward east, including Ukraine in the NATO. If in this process there will be a war...well...it's in Europe after all. Why the democracy-defender Ukrainians don't allow eastern populations to decide on their status with a referendum?
Spot on assessment, nice to hear a European point of view.
Great post. We agree that Russia is the primary aggressor. You have put forth much to consider and digest. I hold Ron Paul in high regard, but do not follow him as closely as I should. Likewise, the reminder about Crimea.
I, too am not a Putin supporter, but I must respect him and his capabilities. I do not for a minute believe that Putin wants the good people of Eastern Ukraine to live more freely. He want's the petroleum reserves underneath the territory and is simply exploiting the desires of the residents to further that goal.
You make a point about democracy, that slipped by me as it pertains to a solution in Ukraine. One cornerstone of freedom and democracy is honest, self determination that leads to a balanced, peaceful existence and coexistence with one's neighbors. . You made me think, thank you. I will reassess my understanding of the USA's role in this and get back to you.
Russia is the aggressor...if you think to Crimea, well it was gifted from Russia to Ukraine in 1954, when both countries belonged to the SSSR. If you think to foreign troops in the country you are right, but they are not only russian. USA are very involved in this mess...actually financing the so-called supporter of democracy, like these, making any kind of atrocities to east, russian-speaking Ukrainian civil population. I'm not a Putin supporter in any way, but here the situation is quite clear: USA want to expand their influence toward east, including Ukraine in the NATO. If in this process there will be a war...well...it's in Europe after all. Why the democracy-defender Ukrainians don't allow eastern populations to decide on their status with a referendum?
Great post. We agree that Russia is the primary aggressor. You have put forth much to consider and digest. I hold Ron Paul in high regard, but do not follow him as closely as I should. Likewise, the reminder about Crimea.
I, too am not a Putin supporter, but I must respect him and his capabilities. I do not for a minute believe that Putin wants the good people of Eastern Ukraine to live more freely. He want's the petroleum reserves underneath the territory and is simply exploiting the desires of the residents to further that goal.
You make a point about democracy, that slipped by me as it pertains to a solution in Ukraine. One cornerstone of freedom and democracy is honest, self determination that leads to a balanced, peaceful existence and coexistence with one's neighbors. . You made me think, thank you. I will reassess my understanding of the USA's role in this and get back to you.
Russia is the aggressor in my view. Russia does not want peace, it wants Ukraine.
Let's also not forget that Ukraine owes Russia a lot of money (billions) for natural gas purchases. Russia does have a right to collect it.
There are few choices on the table and none of them good.
It seems that the choices are to either arm Ukraine in order to defend themselves and give them money to pay Russia what they owe or tell them to surrender to Russia and be absorbed, once again.
We can tell Russia to leave Ukraine alone, but can we tell Ukraine to get over it and surrender in the name of keeping peace in the world ?
Russia is the aggressor...if you think to Crimea, well it was gifted from Russia to Ukraine in 1954, when both countries belonged to the SSSR. If you think to foreign troops in the country you are right, but they are not only russian. USA are very involved in this mess...actually financing the so-called supporter of democracy, like these, making any kind of atrocities to east, russian-speaking Ukrainian civil population. I'm not a Putin supporter in any way, but here the situation is quite clear: USA want to expand their influence toward east, including Ukraine in the NATO. If in this process there will be a war...well...it's in Europe after all. Why the democracy-defender Ukrainians don't allow eastern populations to decide on their status with a referendum?
Let's just crystallize this whole thing, how would we feel if Russia were sending arms to a hostile country so close to our borders to assist in their conflict with us? Let's jes say for shits and giggles....Cuba or something like that.
Ukraine is hostile to who ? Russia is the aggressor in my view. Russia does not want peace, it wants Ukraine.
Let's also not forget that Ukraine owes Russia a lot of money (billions) for natural gas purchases. Russia does have a right to collect it.
There are few choices on the table and none of them good.
It seems that the choices are to either arm Ukraine in order to defend themselves and give them money to pay Russia what they owe or tell them to surrender to Russia and be absorbed, once again.
We somebody can tell Russia to leave Ukraine alone, but who can tell Ukraine to get over it and surrender in the name of keeping peace in the world ?
The US has no standing in this as it does not consider its own borders worth defending ...
Let's just crystallize this whole thing, how would we feel if Russia were sending arms to a hostile country so close to our borders to assist in their conflict with us? Let's jes say for shits and giggles....Cuba or something like that.
I guess so angry to be ready to start a nuclear war...maybe to start it actually if you are not as clever as JFK...
Let's just crystallize this whole thing, how would we feel if Russia were sending arms to a hostile country so close to our borders to assist in their conflict with us? Let's jes say for shits and giggles....Cuba or something like that.
