Anthony Faiola has written a nice piece for "The Washington Post" on the "Orwellian nightmare" that pro-Ukrainians are now living through in Donetsk:
Khutor and Nika move briskly on the sidewalk, but not fast enough to draw attention. They have tried to memorize the “wrong streets” — the ones where they know the pro-Russian rebels who seized this city now regularly stand guard in camouflage, AK-47s poised. But sometimes the two of them get it wrong. Like now.
A muscular dirty-blond bearing a studied look of intimidation and an arm patch with the banner of the so-called New Russia clutches his weapon firmly as they pass. Khutor, 42, and Nika, 33, lower their heads. They cease talking. In a place where even a trip to the supermarket has become a ritual of stress, the couple tighten their grips on their bags of groceries, as if pointing them out. See? Just ran out for some milk and bread. Thanks now. Got to go.
In this metropolis that had a prewar population of almost a million, but where the city center now feels like an Orwellian ghost town of propaganda posters and armed patrols, perhaps no one feels more alone than those who still harbor pro-Ukrainian sentiments. Since the separatists took total control here, human rights and Ukrainian activists say, an untold number of loyalists have been extorted, abducted, tortured and, allegedly, executed. Many have left in search of sanctuaries farther west. But a small number of them — like Khutor and Nika — are riding out the storm.
Read the entire article here
Here's another update from our news desk:
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko says he will present a broad plan of reforms later today that would allow Kyiv to apply for membership of the European Union in six years.
Speaking to the country's judiciary, Poroshenko said the plan, "Strategy-2020," included some 60 social and economic reforms and programs.
Poroshenko signed a key trade and economic relations portion of an Association Agreement with the EU in Brussels on June 27. It provides for the creation of a Deep and Comprehensive Free-Trade Area (DCFTA) and closer economic integration.
Ukraine's parliament ratified the agreement on September 16.
However, the implementation of the trade part of the agreement has been delayed until January 2016 to appease Russia, which says the pact will hurt its markets.
(Reuters, ITAR-TASS)
Paul Roderick Gregory has been writing with some urgency for Forbes on the ramifications of the Ukraine crisis in terms of world peace, suggesting that it poses a far greater threat than IS:
Whereas Poroshenko’s “blankets do not win wars” line gained the most attention, his chilling parallel with the Cuban Missile Crisis largely escaped notice:
“Without any doubt, the international system of checks and balances has been effectively ruined (by Russia’s actions). The world has been plunged into the worst security crisis since the U.S. (Cuban missile) standoff of 1962.”
By this stark comparison, Poroshenko made clear that Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions, his clear intent to restore a Russian empire, and hishatred of NATO provide the tinderbox for reigniting events similar to October 1962 when U.S. and Soviet forces faced each other “eyeball-to-eyeball.” We could be weeks or months away from another such standoff with Russia, not in the Caribbean, but in a small state on the Baltic Sea.
Are the world’s two largest nuclear powers moving towards a missile-crisis-like confrontation because Russia is achieving or failing to achieve its objectives in Southeast Ukraine? Are Europe and the U.S. really hoping that a peace deal entered into by a weakened Ukraine will end Putin’s empire-restoration dream? Or would only effective Ukrainian resistance that denies Putin hisNovorossiya head off such a catastrophe? Merkel and Obama regrettably seem to be pushing Ukraine towards an unfavorable peace that gives Putin a permanently destabilized Ukraine blocked from the European Union and NATO. And the only price he has had to pay is sanctions, which he expects to be lifted after a decent time has passed.
Read the entire article here
More nationalist porn (it gets creepy around 2:22) https://t.co/WOcW2A3CAN
— Andrew Roth (@ARothNYT) September 25, 2014
29% of Russians support anti-war protests - Levada. http://t.co/Y7rls6zx5i
— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) September 25, 2014
Even in its aftermath, the war in Ukraine is a total mess. Nice @AndrewKramerNYT piece on murky prisoner swaps: http://t.co/ZYaOmLSpaY
— Joshua Yaffa (@yaffaesque) September 25, 2014
Thick black smoke still rising over Donetsk airport. Probably diesel oil burning. It's been going on for a few days now.
— Paul Gypteau (@paulgypteau) September 25, 2014
'Recently we asked people who the most intelligent person is, and the answer was... also Putin', state pollster sighs http://t.co/7TrB0MvNCw
— Maria Antonova (@mashant) September 25, 2014
Owen Matthews has been writing for "Newsweek" on the role gas and Gazprom could play in Russia-EU relations this coming winter. He argues that any prolonged stoppage of gas supplies to European Union countries may damage Russia as much as it does the EU:
The strange truth of the Gazprom bogeyman is that both producer and buyer are locked in a relationship of mutual dependence. An all-out gas war between Europe and Russia would be the economic equivalent, says the Western diplomat "of the old Mad thinking" – Mad being the Cold War Acronym for the Mutually Assured Destruction that would follow a nuclear strike. Brussels is betting that Putin may be dangerous – but not suicidal.
Read the entire article here
Finland president @niinisto and Estonian president @IlvesToomas spoke about concern for minority groups inside Russia http://t.co/XIcDVdlH3z
— James Miller (@MillerMENA) September 24, 2014