Led by the Party of Regions and leftist pro-Russia groups, protesters claimed that the preparations were unlawful in the absence of parliamentary approval for the exercise.
Considering that Crimea is predominantly populated with Russians, the idea of some leftist pro-Russian groups is preposterous, since the majority protests were not organised by parties, but formed upon hearing the news of what residents now call a "invasion of Crimea by NATO aggressors".
The situation has escalated to such an extent, that in order to secure the upcoming re-election, the ill defined illegal conditions of the proposed "exercise" have to be redefined through a media campaign .
Responding to the Feodosiya situation, a May 31 statement by NATO Headquarters in Brussels points out that Sea Breeze is not a NATO exercise, but rather a Ukrainian-U.S. exercise in which NATO countries participate; and that delivery of equipment is a bilateral U.S.-Ukrainian matter, in which NATO as such is not involved. While impeccably accurate for a Western audience, those distinctions will only sound like defensive casuistry to anti-NATO groups in Ukraine, where propaganda from Moscow and local misconception traditionally paints any Western forces with the broad black brush as "Natovtsy." For its part, official Kyiv correctly links the exercises with NATO and the goal to strengthen Ukraine's relations with the alliance. Meanwhile, the public approval rating of NATO in Ukraine is said to be steadily declining (Kyiv Post, May 18).
This situation underscores the urgent need for an information campaign about NATO for the Ukrainian public. However, driven by short-term electoral calculations, Orange leaders (with the notable exception of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Rukh party leader Borys Tarasyuk) have avoided addressing the public forthrightly on this unpopular issue. Without an early start to a public information campaign, the Orange leadership's goal for Ukraine to be invited into NATO by 2010 cannot be successful -- and might even become moot if Yushchenko is swayed into opting for a coalition government with the Party of Regions.
www.jamestown.org...
This development is just another ingredient from a recipe for a civil war, and this time its not Iraqis, not Afghans, this time its Crimean Russians.
I for one do not want another Cuban Missile Crisis, but unfortunately this is where Bush administration is leading us all.
Here's a recap of events.
Aggressive US expansion into Eurasia is forcing another cycle of unrest in the region.
Ukraine is another state that fell to the US sponsored coup d'état of so called "Color revolutions".
Some of the other states that fell include;
Serbia (the 2000 Bulldozer Revolution), Georgia (the 2003 Rose Revolution), Ukraine (the 2004 Orange Revolution), and (though more violent than the previous ones) Kyrgyzstan
en.wikipedia.org...
Chechnya is still a contested region torn by civil war, yet since 1992 their choice of color was green.
Iraq is the latest victim of the armed "democratisation", with Iran already in the cross hairs.
All of the states targeted for armed "Color Revolution Democratisation" share a statistical pattern, they all produce oil or lie in the path of major oil pipe lines.
globalresearch.ca
Some of the states which successfully defeated the overthrow attempts with out falling into civil war include Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Belorussia.
Only recently G. W. Bush renounced the president of Belorussia and labeled him as the "last dictator of Europe", broke diplomatic relationship and refused all Belorussian officials entry into US. Similar statements were made after failed coups in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
While mass media reports the final phase of "democratisation" such as demonstrations and social unrest, the preceding operational phases are never reported.
As documented, all Color Revolutions share identical pattern of ruling body elimination by corruption, intimidation or assassination, followed by active political agitation conducted by various newly formed "democratic" groups.
Cuba, Bay of Pigs, etc, the same old record.
Such groups consist of native exiles/dissidents and immigrants brought back into the country, and are openly sponsored by the White House with finances, logistics, equipment, military support, etc.
Do to support from another nation, activities of such pseudo-political groups are considered to be subversive, and are judged illegal and unlawful by all ruling governments.
Ever since the break up of the Soviet block, Crimea being overwhelmingly populated by Russians has made repeated attempts to join Russia or proclaimed its independence from Ukraine.
Crimea is a strategic geo-political hot spot, and has been contested for centuries. During the first Chechen-Russo war, Chechen separatists were engaged in negotiations with Israeli energy firms in order to strike a contract for a pipe line stretching from Baku and across the Black Sea to Turkey.
Do to Russian persistence and continuation of war, the plans for independent Chechen/Crimean - Turko/Israli pipeline were scraped in favor of Caspian Pipeline project.
The BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) Oil Pipeline was begun in 2002 after four years of intense international dispute. It cost some $3.6 billion, making it one of the most expensive oil projects ever. The main backer was BP, whose chairman Lord Browne is a close adviser to Britain’s Tony Blair. BP built it in a consortium including Unocal of the US and Turkish Petroleum Inc., and other partners.
globalresearch.ca
Tbilisi is the capital of Georgia, and just as with Ukraine, their mutual political/economic relationship with Russia was systematically sabotaged. One clear example of such sabotage is the continues Chechen separatist use of Georgian/Ukrainian based camps/bases.
To this day Chechen separatist regularly use the safe heaven of Georgian/Ukrainian based camps/bases for regrouping/rehabilitation against ongoing Russian protests.
Thus the ongoing Russian incursions into Ukrainian/Georgian air space. Do to complete lack of Georgian/Ukrainian cooperation in Russian "war on terror" and their refusal to expel Chechen separatists, Russian air force is regularly forced to conduct air strikes on Chechen encampments located well with in the borders of Georgia/Ukraine.
The list goes on.
mod edit to shorten links
[edit on 5-6-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]
