Vladimir Putin
It is an interesting and much under researched fact that all nations have 'national myths'. In times of war these become particularly important: they become almost 'rocks of unity' around which all set aside previous disputes and make them a single people determined to resist.
Today the world faces a deeply corrupt Russian state where state control of the media is almost total, where control of major financial and resource assets resides almost exclusively close 'friends' many of whom have have KGB or St Petersburg connections (or both) going some way back, where increasingly neo nationalism is encouraged by the State up to a form of cult worship of the new 'Great Leader', a state which is not concerned with any former international agreements it's predecessors may have the signed - the Budapest Memorandum, Helsinki Accords and even the United Nations founding charter are clearly regarded as non binding. A Russian state increasingly is hurtling back to it's past. So tell me: was the Cold War won?
Yesterday, April 23rd, an anonymous call was made to the Consulate General of Ukraine in Rostov-on-Don with an alarming claim that several train cars with the symbol "danger hazardous nuclear content" were seen going through the city train station in the direction of Crimea.
There is a battle coming in Ukraine and anyone that does not understand this either in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin or Kyiv now is too late already. Why is there a battle coming? Because A. either the Russian proxy army will advance or B. the Ukrainian forces will advance to regain the sovereign territory of Ukraine.
One of the worst things the Ukrainian government could do in resisting Russian aggression is to try to copy the a-moral methods the Russian regime utilizes. If Ukraine were to try that Ukraine could end up with a regime and a society just like Russia has. EMPR presents deep analysis for our english-speaking audience prepared by Russian citizen Elizaveta Pokrovskaya for kasparov.ru. Every word worth your attention.
Minsk II is no better than Minsk I. Ask anyone whether 'Minsk agreements' holds or it's main articles are in place and you will get a conversation along these lines:
Putin's tombstone set near Russian embassy in Kyiv Ukraine
What Russia's real objectives are in Ukraine? And how to stop Russian neo imperialism on Ukraine's bloodstained land?
At the opening of the inquiry into the murder (in 2006) of former FSB Officer 'Sasha' Litvinenko Mr Ben Emmerson QC, representing Mr Litvinenko's widow said the following: Alexander Litvinenko was murdered for trying to "expose the corruption" at the heart of Vladimir Putin's "mafia state"; he was "eliminated" because he had made an enemy of the "close knit group of criminals who surrounded and still surround Vladimir Putin and keep his corrupt regime in power".
The Trilateral Contact Group has started a meeting in Minsk to deal with the situation in Eastern Ukraine. Diplomats and officials from around the world are pinning theirs hope on positive results. However, as the saying goes, 'An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.' EMPR analyzes why the original Minsk agreement wasn’t worth the paper it was written on until now and what needs to be done to deescalate Russian agression against Ukraine.
In Sevastopol, someone has brushed out eyes of Vladimir Putin drawn on a huge graffiti on the wall of a house, krymr.com reports.