On March 10 2014 18:13 Ghanburighan wrote: More evidence that Germany is moving towards taking a harder line:
I may remember incorrectly, but wasn't there something like that during the last presidential elections in the USA where the USA forbid international observers to "question their elections"!? So why exactly don't we believe in true and free elections on Crimea?
Germany is quite important in all this, but I think that Leyen or Steinmeier are "just there" for some "nice" quotes. Merkel will have to do the important parts!
I don't know what you have heard but the OSCE observes US elections: Source.
"Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott further fueled the controversy on Tuesday when he sent a letter to the OSCE warning the organization that its representatives “are not authorized by Texas law to enter a polling place” and that it “may be a criminal offense for OSCE’s representatives to maintain a presence within 100 feet of a polling place's entrance.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) also weighed in, tweeting “No UN monitors/inspectors will be part of any TX election process; I commend @Txsecofstate for swift action to clarify issue.”"
I may remember incorrectly, but wasn't there something like that during the last presidential elections in the USA where the USA forbid international observers to "question their elections"!? So why exactly don't we believe in true and free elections on Crimea?
Germany is quite important in all this, but I think that Leyen or Steinmeier are "just there" for some "nice" quotes. Merkel will have to do the important parts!
I don't know what you have heard but the OSCE observes US elections: Source.
"Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott further fueled the controversy on Tuesday when he sent a letter to the OSCE warning the organization that its representatives “are not authorized by Texas law to enter a polling place” and that it “may be a criminal offense for OSCE’s representatives to maintain a presence within 100 feet of a polling place's entrance.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) also weighed in, tweeting “No UN monitors/inspectors will be part of any TX election process; I commend @Txsecofstate for swift action to clarify issue.”"
I may remember incorrectly, but wasn't there something like that during the last presidential elections in the USA where the USA forbid international observers to "question their elections"!? So why exactly don't we believe in true and free elections on Crimea?
Germany is quite important in all this, but I think that Leyen or Steinmeier are "just there" for some "nice" quotes. Merkel will have to do the important parts!
I don't know what you have heard but the OSCE observes US elections: Source.
"Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott further fueled the controversy on Tuesday when he sent a letter to the OSCE warning the organization that its representatives “are not authorized by Texas law to enter a polling place” and that it “may be a criminal offense for OSCE’s representatives to maintain a presence within 100 feet of a polling place's entrance.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) also weighed in, tweeting “No UN monitors/inspectors will be part of any TX election process; I commend @Txsecofstate for swift action to clarify issue.”"
Keep in mind that they did allow it - but only after enough pressure. He probably reffered to that.
Basically google OSCE & Texas.
Nah your post can't really cover for his, since he stated presidential elections, and yours is for Texas state elections. The whole incident is skewed, because it is not the U.S. Federal government that was against the OSCE’s representative but the Texas state government. Quite a difference between the authority of the two.
BREAKING: Interfax reports that Russian forces opened fire:
KIEV (Reuters) - Russian troops opened fire with automatic rifles during a takeover on Monday of a Ukrainian naval post in Crimea, Interfax news agency quoted a Ukrainian officer as saying.
The unnamed officer from the motor vehicle battalion of the Ukrainian navy said Russian troops broke in to the base near the inland town of Bakhchisaray some time after 2 p.m., took mobile phones from the Ukrainians and began trying to remove vehicles. None of the Ukrainian troops was hurt and the base commander was trying to negotiate an end to the action.
Further details were not immediately available. Russian forces who have taken control of a number of military installations across the Black Sea peninsula have not so far exchanged fire in anger with Ukrainian troops. Source.
Our media reported fire too. Russian soldiers fired in Bakchysarai but Ukrainians did not respond. Then Russians backed off and continued their blockade.
On March 11 2014 00:27 Ghanburighan wrote: This is entirely new to me. The Missile Defence system is apparently going up in Poland and Romania soon:
Poland and USA initially agreed to cooperate during Bush presidency but it was abandoned after Obama was elected. Americans said something like they have some new better plan but most likely they just thought it's a stupid idea and the talks stopped.
On March 11 2014 00:37 Sent. wrote: Our media reported fire too. Russian soldiers fired in Bakchysarai but Ukrainians did not respond. Then Russians backed off and continued their blockade.
On March 11 2014 00:27 Ghanburighan wrote: This is entirely new to me. The Missile Defence system is apparently going up in Poland and Romania soon:
Poland and USA initially agreed to cooperate during Bush presidency but it was abandoned after Obama was elected. Americans said something like they have some new better plan but most likely they just thought it's a stupid idea and the talks stopped.
Well, apparently the did not. It's just that it has not been covered by the media.
On other news, this sounds like hubris:
Crimea invites OSCE observers for referendum on joining Russia - RIA Source.
A good example of russian news coverage of the events in Ukraine.
Here Russian NTV reports that a journalist was beat up by Euromaidan activists for making reports about Berkut and being pro-governmental activist (was part of the group who collected warm clothes for pro-governmental forces).
And this is the video of the journalist himself. It shows that he was interviewing one of the local leaders of "self-defence" units who was giving him a tour on Mariinsky park to show how pro-governmental activists are doing. When they walked into the camp some kind of suspicios acitivity was going on (and part of the video was cut off probably to hide it). The car suddenly drove off, activists blamed that it belonged to Euromadanians (who somehow were allowed into secured Mariinsky park), and then someone asked who the hell was the journalist and why he was filming everything. And then he got beat up.
This page does not really look like a news source it would trust. If out of all the linked articles on the bottom of the list not a single one does not look like a sensationalist conspiracy theory, one should probably not take that site to serious.
Maybe you would trust this site http://openukraine.org/en/about/partners . For me it's clear Russia fears the expansion of NATO into Ukraine on the long run. I don't know if this is common knowledge but the soviet union has been given garanties by the western allies in the 2+4 treaty of the German re-union that NATO will stop expanding at the German border. This was mentioned lately in a German talk show with Egon Bahr the founder of Germany's new eastern policy in the 70s. Sure you can argue legally that the soviet union does not exist anymore so all treaties with it are not binding. Well as we know NATO expanded into Poland and the Baltic States and is now planning to build a missile defense system there to prevent terrorist attacks from muslim countries (it says). I don't believe this. What Russia is doing in crimea is against international law but countries like the U.S. or Russia only care about this law when it suits them. For example see Grenada intervention by the U.S. in 1983.
EPT
