Da Kwa Making Threats To The Ukraine

[Hugo Böse]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8eb70...#axzz2nA6if2lB

US intensifies pressure on Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovich

The US has ratcheted up the pressure on Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich as pro-EU demonstrators intensified their stand-off against him and opposition leaders contemplated entering into negotiations to end the crisis.

The Obama administration said it might consider sanctions against the government and members of Congress said they could deny visas to Ukrainian officials or freeze their US assets if the violence against the protesters escalates.

Senator Chris Murphy, chairman of the Senate’s Europe subcommittee, said Mr Yanukovich should only be ousted via a vote because he was democratically elected. He added, though, that the president’s behaviour would be closely monitored

“His conduct over the last 24 hours is unacceptable, and if he continues to use bulldozers and batons to break up peaceful demonstrations, there could be consequences, real consequences, from the Congress,” he told Reuters.

Chuck Hagel, US defence secretary, called Pavlo Lebedyev, his counterpart in Ukraine, to warn him of the “potential damage of any involvement by the military in breaking up the demonstrations”, Carl Woog, a Pentagon spokesman, said.

Mr Yanukovich’s position looked increasingly precarious by the end of Wednesday after thousands of riot police failed to clear protest camps from Kiev’s Independence Square, prompting thousands more people to join the demonstration and defend the site.

Signs emerged that more of Ukraine’s influential oligarchs were siding with protesters. In a comment to the Financial Times, Victor Pinchuk, the country’s second richest man and son-in-law to former president Leonid Kuchma, praised the demonstrators.

“On Maidan [Independence square] last Saturday, I thought of my responsibility as a businessman and citizen: like in 2004 [during the Orange Revolution] to do what I can to help facilitate a peaceful and constructive solution,” Mr Pinchuk said.

“The most important is that Ukrainian civil society has shown its strength. Not that people opt for a particular political agreement. But that free citizens make up their mind and speak out. Nothing is more powerful. It gives me huge optimism for the future of our country.”

Andriy Yermolaev, director of the National Institute of Strategic Studies, which advises the president, said the government was unable to remove the protesters by force three weeks into the demonstration, and would have no choice but to reach a compromise with the opposition.

“We obviously have an issue with a vibrant grass roots civic society movement which is well organised, and has its own position . . . Their blocking of government buildings over the EU agreements have now become protests against the government and president himself,” he said.

“A compromise is needed with [the protesters] but this issue will not undo itself in the coming days,” Mr Yermolaev said.


Demonstrators first began gathering at Independence Square on November 21 after Mr Yanukovich suddenly announced that Ukraine no longer planned to sign a deal for further agreement with the EU, opting instead to build closer ties with Russia.

Since then the protests have slowly gathered momentum, peaking over the weekends, but with a consistent crowd of several thousand maintaining vigil at the camp during the week.

On Wednesday evening, demonstrators were bracing themselves for more police action overnight, repairing barricades that had been torn down in the early morning scuffles with police. They stacked up bags filled with snow and poured water over them, creating frozen walls of ice in the subzero temperatures.

In a statement, Mr Yanukovich urged the protesters calling for his removal from office not to “go down the road of confrontation and ultimatums”, and instead called for a compromise after meeting Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief.

Lady Ashton said Mr Yanukovich had assured her he would find a solution for the unrest “within 24 hours”.

However, opposition leaders said they distrusted Mr Yanukovich and would not proceed with negotiations without police first releasing all those demonstrators who had been arrested.

While police said they had released some of those arrested on Wednesday, opposition leaders estimated that at least a dozen remained behind bars.
“Round tables are a joke. Our demands must be first met and law enforcement officers kept outside Kiev. Until then there will be no discussions,” said Fatherland, the leading opposition party, on Twitter.

[Serbian]

Signs emerged that more of Ukraine’s influential oligarchs were siding with protesters. In a comment to the Financial Times, Victor Pinchuk, the country’s second richest man and son-in-law to former president Leonid Kuchma, praised the demonstrators.

“On Maidan [Independence square] last Saturday, I thought of my responsibility as a businessman and citizen: like in 2004 [during the Orange Revolution] to do what I can to help facilitate a peaceful and constructive solution,” Mr Pinchuk said.

“The most important is that Ukrainian civil society has shown its strength. Not that people opt for a particular political agreement. But that free citizens make up their mind and speak out. Nothing is more powerful. It gives me huge optimism for the future of our country.”

Ukraine is not Victor Pinchuk's country. He is a jew criminal who has no business in Ukrainian affairs.

[Hugo Böse]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ed110...#axzz2nXRGYrW6

Brussels suspends Ukraine trade pact talks indefinitely

Brussels has indefinitely suspended talks with Ukraine over a landmark trade pact after a senior EU negotiator accused Kiev of not being seriously committed to signing a deal.

The move came as hundreds of thousands of pro-EU protesters continued to demonstrate against President Viktor Yanukovich’s decision last month not to join an association agreement with the EU after pressure from Moscow.


Štefan Füle, the EU’s commissioner for the bloc’s neighbourhood policy, said on Sunday that since a senior delegation from Ukraine travelled to Brussels last week promising to eventually sign an agreement, Kiev had failed to move the negotiation process forward.

The words and deeds of Mr Yanukovich and Ukraine’s government regarding the pact were “further and further apart” and their arguments had “no grounds in reality”, Mr Füle said in a tweet from his official account.

European Commission officials leading negotiations with Kiev are increasingly frustrated with Mr Yanukovich and privately admit that they are unsure whether a deal can ever be achieved.

Mr Yanukovich last month opted not to join the pact, which would have brought the former Soviet satellite state closer to the EU, following political pressure from Russia. However, last week following mass pro-EU protests in Kiev, the Ukrainian president vowed to kick-start the process again in an attempt to end the biggest anti-government rallies since the Orange Revolution in 2004.

“With this guy you can never tell,” said an EU official. “He says one thing in your face and as soon as you turn your back he says something completely different . . . it’s impossible to work like this.”

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday are set to discuss ways to unblock the talks, but an EU diplomat said that it would be very tough to do so soon.

The ministers will also meet Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, and are expected to highlight Europe’s frustration with Moscow’s meddling in the EU-Ukraine negotiations.

Addressing some 10,000 pro-presidential protestors attending a rally in downtown Kiev at the weekend, Mykola Azarov, Mr Yanukovich’s prime minister, said Ukraine did not plan on joining a Moscow-led Customs Union, which is being pushed by Russia as an alternative for Kiev to the EU agreements. But he did say the government was finalising negotiations with Russia on a new strategic partnership agreement. He provided few specific details on the agreement, which government sources said could be signed as early as Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s opposition leaders on Sunday called for the arrest of Mr Yanukovich’s national security chief Andriy Klyuyev, as evidence piled up over the weekend that the influential oligarch had ordered a brutal riot police crackdown on hundreds of pro-EU peaceful protesters two weeks ago.

The development follows Mr Yanukovich’s decision this weekend to suspend the authority of a handful of lower level officials whose testimony to prosecutors in the past few days had reportedly pointed to Mr Klyuyev as organising the November 30 crackdown.

The events posed a serious challenge for Mr Yanukovich as a 25th day of pro-EU protests gained momentum on Sunday, mustering crowds estimated by local news reports at some 200,000. Pro-government demonstrators were reported to be about 20,000.

“Why is it critical now to arrest Mr Klyuyev? Because this person heads the National Security and Defence Council apparatus, giving him the authority to co-ordinate all law enforcement structures,” Anatoly Hrytsenko, a former defence minister allied with the opposition and protests, said in a statement.

“This [Mr Klyuyev] is the person that planned – and through the interior ministry special divisions – realised the . . . beating of students and other attacks”, said Mr Hrytsenko. He cited leaked testimony given to prosecutors by Oleksander Popov, the head of Kiev’s city administration, and a handful of senior law enforcement officials whose authority was suspended by Mr Yanukovich this weekend.

It was not immediately clear if authorities had questioned or planned to detain Mr Klyuyev, an oligarch long loyal to Mr Yanukovich. Mr Klyuyev’s brother Serhiy, a lawmaker, earlier this year revealed that he was an owner of the luxurious and heavily guarded Mezhyhyria estate north of Kiev where Mr Yanukovich resides.

As smaller crowds of pro-presidential supporters gathered near Ukraine’s parliament, the masses of pro-EU protesters on Kiev’s main square held firm to their demands, calling for Mr Yanukovich to resign.

Signalling that they were ready for a protracted stand-off, protesters this weekend pitched dozens of new tents along Kiev’s main street, Khreshchatyk, increasing their presence in a downtown area paralysed in past weeks by the stand-off.

The protesters were on Sunday backed by US Senator John McCain, who visited Kiev, weighing in on what has escalated into the most intense geopolitical tussle between Moscow and the west in years.

Addressing the crowds, Mr McCain said: “We are here speaking on behalf of the American people in solidarity with you.

“Your destiny lies in Europe. Ukraine will make Europe better and Europe will make Ukraine better. America stands with you,” he added as the crowd chanted: “Thank you . . . thank you.”Does that asshole ever rest?