The fallout from the current crisis is becoming apparent in unexpected places. According to a report by Publishing Perspectives, sales of Russian books in the Ukraine have plummeted this year and the Ukrainian government is looking at passing legislation to curtail imports further:
Azbuka-Atticus, [a] Russian leading publisher, notes the share of Ukrainian sales for his company declined from 11% in 2012/2013 to 6% during the first half of the current year.
Now, the Ukrainian government is looking to make the situation even more challenging by imposing specific sanctions against foreign books and publishers.
According to Alexander Sich, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, planned sanctions, which will be in the form of quotas and licenses, will primarily affect Russian books, which currently account for about 80% of the Ukrainian book market.
The need for quotas is acute, says Sich as the majority of Russian books in the Ukrainian market are of lower quality and mostly aimed at “destabilizing the situation in Ukraine and pose a threat to national security.”
Read the entire article here
Our Russian Service's daily cartoon by Sergey Elkin. The mouse is incredulous at being offered "Poshekhonsky," a domestic cheese from Russia's Yaroslavl Oblast.
Here's an update from our news desk:
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says he sees a "high probability" that Russia will intervene militarily in eastern Ukraine "under the guise of a humanitarian operation."
Rasmussen told Reuters on August 11 that NATO sees no sign that Moscow is pulling back its forces from close to the Ukrainian border.
He said, "We see the Russians developing the narrative and the pretext for such an operation under the guise of a humanitarian operation and we see a military buildup that could be used to conduct such illegal military operations in Ukraine."
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces continued to shell the pro-Russian separatist bastion of Donetsk on August 11.
Kyiv’s forces claim they have cut Donetsk off from Luhansk, the other main separatist-held city in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow is calling for a cease-fire, saying it would allow Russian forces to deliver humanitarian aid.
(Reuters, UNIAN, Interfax)
This RT reporter seems to think the British press is on the verge of a U-turn regarding Russia. The "respected Peter Hitchens" is one of the people he cites to back up his argument:
"UK media approaching 'Mea Culpa' moment on Russia. My latest dispatch for @RT_com & one I hope you read http://t.co/yMVt2B90Cq
— Bryan MacDonald (@27KHV) August 11, 2014
Motto on #Russia'n billboard: "More sanctions - Stronger homeland". pic.twitter.com/oppnGgo6oH
— Ukraine Reporter (@StateOfUkraine) August 11, 2014
Bloomberg: #Ukraine urges mass evacuation as #army surrounds cities http://t.co/aMEcHhEC4P #Donetsk pic.twitter.com/RPyprBHZvF
— Kyiv Post (@KyivPost) August 11, 2014
About 100 inmates escaped #Donetsk prison after it got shelled. About 40 returned, rest on the loose #Ukraine
— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) August 11, 2014
According to this tweet, the Memorial NGO is considering including Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, among others, on its list of political prisoners:
"Мемориал" рассматривает включение в список политзаключенных Надежду Савченко, Олега Сенцова и Константина Янкаускаса http://t.co/H6IdcOltSj
— Николай Полозов (@Moscow_advokat) August 11, 2014
There's an interesting report in "The Telegraph" today by Tom Parfitt, who has been keeping company with pro-Kyiv paramilitaries and says Ukraine's use of such forces ought to send "a shiver down Europe's spine."
The Azov battalion has the most chilling reputation of all. Last week, it came to the fore as it mounted a bold attack on the rebel redoubt of Donetsk, striking deep into the suburbs of a city under siege.
In Marinka, on the western outskirts, the battalion was sent forward ahead of tanks and armoured vehicles of the Ukrainian army’s 51st Mechanised Brigade. A ferocious close-quarters fight ensued as they got caught in an ambush laid by well-trained separatists, who shot from 30 yards away. The Azov irregulars replied with a squall of fire, fending off the attack and seizing a rebel checkpoint.
Mr Grek, also known as “Balagan”, died in the battle and 14 others were wounded. Speaking after the ceremony Andriy Biletsky, the battalion’s commander, told the Telegraph the operation had been a “100% success”. “The battalion is a family and every death is painful to us but these were minimal losses,” he said. “Most important of all, we established a bridgehead for the attack on Donetsk. And when that comes we will be leading the way.”
The military achievement is hard to dispute. By securing Marinka the battalion “widened the front and tightened the circle”, around the rebels’ capital, as another fighter put it. While Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, prevaricates about sending an invasion force into Ukraine, the rebels he backs are losing ground fast.
But Kiev’s use of volunteer paramilitaries to stamp out the Russian-backed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics”, proclaimed in eastern Ukraine in March, should send a shiver down Europe’s spine. Recently formed battalions such as Donbas, Dnipro and Azov, with several thousand men under their command, are officially under the control of the interior ministry but their financing is murky, their training inadequate and their ideology often alarming.
The Azov men use the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel (Wolf’s Hook) symbol on their banner and members of the battalion are openly white supremacists, or anti-Semites.
“Personally, I’m a Nazi,” said “Phantom”, a 23-year-old former lawyer at the ceremony wearing camouflage and holding a Kalashnikov. “I don’t hate any other nationalities but I believe each nation should have its own country.” He added: “We have one idea: to liberate our land from terrorists.”
The Telegraph was invited to see some 300 Azov fighters pay respects to Mr Grek, their first comrade to die since the battalion was formed in May. An honour guard fired volleys into the air at the battalion’s headquarters on the edge of Urzuf, a small beach resort on Ukraine’s Azov Sea coast. Two more militiamen died on Sunday fighting north of Donetsk. Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president, called one of them a hero.
Read the entire article here