Russian Parliament Warns Europe’s Longstanding Peace in Jeopardy

[mick silver]

http://www.newsweek.com/russian-parliament-warns-europes-longstanding-peace-jeopardy-306751
Russian Parliament Warns Europe’s Longstanding Peace in JeopardyBy Felicity Capon (http://www.newsweek.com/user/16849) 2/13/15 at 2:00 PM
http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/headline/public/2015/02/13/minsk.jpg?itok=dB4wwG05 World

Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko (L), Russia's President Vladimir Putin (2nd L), Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (R), Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (C) and France's President Francois Hollande pose for a family photo during peace talks in Minsk, February 11, 2015. Grigory Dukor/R





Filed Under: World (http://www.newsweek.com/world), Russia (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/russia), Ukraine (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/ukraine), Ukraine Conflict (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/ukraine-conflict), Sweden (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/sweden), Duma (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/duma)
An extraordinary letter addressed to the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, among other recipients, reportedly sent from the Russian Parliament paints the war in Ukraine as a fight against Nazism and says Russia is ready to “mobilize all forces” to defend stability in Europe, provoking both ridicule and anger in Sweden, after surfacing there this week.
The sensational letter (http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/ryssland-skickade-brev-till-svenska-politiker_4327437.svd), signed by the State Duma chairman Sergey Naryshkin, a known hardliner with a close relationship to Putin, warns of a “fragmentation in Europe” and says that continuing sanctions, the crisis in Ukraine, and January’s terror attacks in Paris, jeopardise “the possibility of a peaceful life for over 800 million Europeans”.
The letter urges European parliamentarians to stop the crisis, and conjures imagery of both the Second World War and the Cold War. “We shall not allow the heirs of this criminal ideology [Nazism] to sow discord and alienation in the European family of nations. Such a split has already once in our common history resulted in death and misery, suffering and ruined fortunes, hunger and devastation,” reads a translation seen by Newsweek.


“The enormous responsibility for the future of our continent, imposed on members of parliament, leads us to mobilize all forces and means so Europe will henceforth remain a continent of stability and prosperity,” it continues, concluding: “We urge you, ladies and gentlemen, to realize what brink the world is on.”
The letter was addressed to all the national parliaments of Europe, the European Parliament, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe, although its contents has so far only been covered in the Swedish media, after the Russian Embassy there forwarded the letter on to Swedish politicians. It is dated January 23rd, although it has only surfaced this week, coinciding with an important foreign policy debate in Sweden.
Spokespeople for the European Parliament and the Council of Europe said they were not aware of the letter.
Several Swedish politicians have expressed their anger (http://www.thelocal.se/20150213/russian-pr-letter-sent-to-swedish-politicians) at the letter’s threatening tone, and some Swedes go as far to say that it constitutes a threat of war, albeit one couched in diplomatic language. In the same week that the terms of a ceasefire were hashed out in Minsk (http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/12/europe/ukraine-conflict/) over the crisis in Ukraine, Swedes are saying the letter is a way of warning Europe to leave Russia to take care of Ukraine.
Patrik Oksanen, political editor of Swedish daily newspaper Hudiksvalls Tidning, says the letter shows that “in indirect words, they are threatening World War Three in Europe. It is not a direct threat, but another instrument of the Russian propaganda.”
Yet Oksanen is concerned that pro-Russian propaganda is growing in Sweden, and is concerned that the slick Russian propaganda machine may be swaying politicians and ordinary people across Europe, particularly those who are more anti-establishment in mindset. “They are using their influence in both showing their strength that Sweden is weak and trying to influence the politicians and voters that Sweden should get off Russia’s back and not to start any trouble with them.”
Oscar Jonsson, PhD candidate at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, agrees. “Propaganda is seen as absolutely crucial to the Russian government both internally and externally. Russians are very good at playing their enemy.”
“This letter fits the Russian narrative very well that Europe is supplying arms to Ukraine to escalate the situation into war, thereby sowing fear amongst European politicians."
Anke Schmidt Felzmann, a research fellow of the Swedish Institute for Internal Affairs, interprets the letter as scaremongering, and says that even the rhetoric from the Russian foreign ministry has been getting progressively more hostile and unpleasant over the past eight to 10 months.
“They are telling Europeans that there will be a major war in Europe. This is deliberate posturing, and the people of Sweden should be worried by it. What does it mean for us? The message is clear: Russia will not back down and is ready to wage a prolonged war against “the West”, by all possible means.”
Relations between Sweden and Russia have been growing increasingly tense, particularly in the wake of last year’s hunt for a Russian submarine thought to be lurking in the Stockholm archipelago (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/24/sweden-calls-off-hunt-submarine-stockholm-archipelago).

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[mick silver]

Ukraine truce unravels as rebels advance into government-held town
Anton Zverev


NIKISHINE, Ukraine (Reuters) - Pro-Russian rebels fought their way into an encircled government bastion and were battling street-to-street on Tuesday, all but dashing hopes that a European-brokered peace deal would end months of conflict.
Two days after a truce went into effect, an agreement reached at all-night talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk last week was unravelling rapidly, with both sides refusing to begin pulling back heavy guns on Tuesday as required.
The failed ceasefire has left thousands of Ukrainian troops surrounded, their fate uncertain. The rebels said they had captured hundreds of them and would not let the rest escape unless they surrender. Ukraine said some of its troops had been taken prisoner but denied the number captured was that high.
The Moscow-backed rebels say the ceasefire does not apply at all to the main battle front at the town of Debaltseve, astride a railway hub where they have continued an all-out assault.
The fighting meant both sides spurned a deadline on Tuesday to being withdrawing heavy guns from the frontline. Kiev says it cannot pull guns back as long as the rebels show no sign of halting their advance.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ukrainian-armed-forces-ride-multiple-rocket-launcher-system-photo-093040854.html)Ukrainian armed forces ride on a multiple rocket launcher system near Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine Fe …

Reuters journalists near the snowbound frontline said artillery rounds rocked Debaltseve every five seconds and black smoke rose skywards as Grad rockets pounded the town.
"Eighty percent of Debaltseve is already ours," said Eduard Basurin, a rebel leader. "A cleanup of the town is under way."
He later said negotiations were under way for 5,000 Ukrainian troops trapped in the town to surrender. "Hundreds" had been captured and would eventually be released to their families.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the rebel assault on the town a cynical attack on the Minsk agreement.Kiev's military denied the town, which had a peacetime population of 25,000 and is now a bombed-out wasteland, had fallen, but acknowledged losing control of some of it. Some Ukrainian soldiers had been captured, it said, but not hundreds.
Kiev and NATO say the rebel military operation to take Debaltseve is being carried out with the assistance of tanks, artillery and soldiers from Russia's army. Moscow denies that it has sent its forces to participate in battle for territory that President Vladimir Putin has referred to as "New Russia".
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ukrainian-armed-forces-position-near-debaltseve-photo-093040915.html)Ukrainian armed forces take their position near Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine February 16, 2015. REUT …

Washington said it was "gravely concerned" by the fighting at Debaltseve and was monitoring reports of a new column of Russian military equipment heading to the area.
The United States has been considering sending weapons to aid Kiev, although the State Department said on Tuesday getting into a proxy war with Russia was not in the interests of Ukraine or the world.
EU foreign policy chief Francesca Mogherini said Tuesday's battles were "not encouraging" but she had not abandoned hope for the ceasefire.
"As long as there is a signed deal to which the parties still refer as something that needs to be implemented, I will not say that there is a failure," she said.
HOPES LOW
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/members-separatist-self-proclaimed-donetsk-peoples-republic-army-photo-124056269.html)Members of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic army collect parts of a dest …

Hopes that the deal reached last Thursday would end a conflict that has killed more than 5,000 people were always low after a rebel advance in January ended an earlier truce.
But Western countries appear to have been taken by surprise that the rebels refused even to pay lip service to the ceasefire at Debaltseve, adding to concerns the separatists and Putin want to cement rebel gains before allowing any peace to take hold.
Russia has already annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, and Western countries believe Putin's goal is to establish a "frozen conflict" in eastern Ukraine, gaining permanent leverage over a country of 45 million people seeking integration with Europe.
Military trucks and tanks came and went in the largely destroyed village of Nikishine as the rebels pounded nearby Debaltseve with rockets, heavy artillery and mortar bombs.
"We'll take Debaltseve. It will all be ours. Our homeland will remain our homeland," said a rebel tank operator who gave his name only as Bass, his nom de guerre.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/members-ukrainian-armed-forces-ride-military-vehicle-near-photo-130311561.html)Members of the Ukrainian armed forces ride on a military vehicle near Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine Fe …

Observers from the OSCE security group, delegated to monitor the ceasefire under last week's agreement, have been kept out of Debaltseve by the rebels.
"A MORAL THING"
A new call for peace by Germany, whose Chancellor Angela Merkel was the driving force behind the peace deal after marathon diplomacy last week, fell on deaf ears.
"We do not have the right (to stop fighting for Debaltseve). It's even a moral thing. It's internal territory," said Denis Pushilin, a senior separatist figure. The goal would be "destroying the enemy's fighting positions".
Ukraine's military reiterated in Kiev that its forces could not pull back their big guns while the rebels were shooting. "In the last 24 hours there has been firing so there is no ceasefire and so there is no precondition for a pull-back of heavy weapons," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said. Rebel official Pushilin said the separatists would not pull back their guns unless Kiev did.
"We will not do anything unilaterally. That would make our soldiers targets," he told Reuters in Donetsk, the main city in the east and seat of one of two self-proclaimed rebel "people's republics".
The head of the other rebel republic, Luhansk, said some weapons were pulled back there. This could not be independently confirmed.
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets, Alessandra Prentice and Richard Balmforth in Kiev, Polina Devitt in Moscow and Madeline Chambers in Berlin; Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Peter Graff)


Unrest, Conflicts & War
Politics & Government
Ukraine
President Vladimir Putin
Debaltseve
Kiev

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[mick silver]

U.S. Edges Closer to a Dangerous Proxy War with Putin
As calls increase for the United States to begin supplying the government of Ukraine with lethal weapons to fight Russia-backed separatists in the country’s east, the relationship between Russia and the West – particularly the U.S. – is beginning to look like a new Cold War.
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Ukraine Tensions Hit Boiling Point as Obama Confronts Putin (http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-tensions-hit-boiling-point-111500889.html) The Fiscal Times
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How Russia could escape rising American pressure on Ukraine (http://news.yahoo.com/russia-could-escape-rising-american-pressure-ukraine-222937809.html) Christian Science Monitor







A report in USA Today on Thursday about a 2008 Pentagon study concluding that Russian President Vladimir Putin suffers from some form of autism (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/04/putin-aspergers-syndrome-study-pentagon/22855927/) provided a sort of confirmation that the ties between the U.S. and Russia have deteriorated.
Related: Ash Carter – Americans Are Disgusted with Government Waste (http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/02/05/Ashton-Carter-Americans-Are-Disgusted-Government-Waste)
Peace talks meant to bring an end to the Ukraine conflict are at a critical stage right now, and despite President Obama’s promises to the contrary, his administration has been far from the most transparent in history. It regularly denies Freedom of Information Act requests from the media. So the idea that a Pentagon report finding that the Russian president is the victim of what doctors identify as a developmental disorder of the brain would be delivered to a major media outlet at this particular moment simply by chance may be difficult for some to swallow.
Of course, even if this was a calculated release meant to embarrass Putin, it pales in comparison to some of the claims being floated in Russian media about the U.S. The largest Russian daily newspaper, just last month, all but accused the U.S. of orchestrating the massacre of the staff of the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
None of this, of course, should obscure the reality of what is happening on the ground in Ukraine. More than 5,000 people have died there in the past year, with many hundreds of thousands displaced. And despite Russian denials, the idea that the tanks, rocket launchers, and other heavy weaponry used by the rebels in Ukraine didn’t come from Moscow is nearly impossible to believe given the absence of any other potential sources.
The rebels are Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proxy in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian government is the (currently) less-well-supplied proxy of the West. The proxy war, a defining characteristic of the first Cold War, appears to be exactly what is developing in Ukraine.
Related: What Putin Fears Most for Russia and Ukraine (http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2015/02/04/What-Putin-Fears-Most-Russia-and-Ukraine)
(To be fair, some would argue that the new cold war has been going on for some time, with the West lining up against Russia in small-scale conflicts in Armenia and Georgia in the 1980s, and more recently in the Syrian Civil War.)
Should the Obama administration abandon its current policy of providing only non-lethal aid and start delivering weaponry – something Ashton Carter, the administration’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, appeared to endorse in his nomination hearings this week – arguments that the Ukraine conflict is anything other than a proxy war would be practically indefensible.
It’s clearly something influential lawmakers want. Senator John McCain, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee has been calling for the provision of weapons to Ukraine for months, and in December, Congress approved new sanctions on Russia and the provision of lethal weapons – something the administration has not acted on yet.
Supporting Ukraine with weaponry may well be the right thing to do. Some of the issues in play ought to be beyond dispute. For example, Ukraine, until Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula and began supporting rebels in Eastern Ukraine, had an internationally recognized border. Russia violated it, and the international community has a responsibility to respond forcefully.
Related: Putin Risks It All on Korean Nukes and Cheap Vodka (http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/02/04/Putin-Risks-It-All-Korean-Nukes-and-Cheap-Vodka)
But anybody who isn’t scared at the prospect ought to go back to history class. Proxy wars are complicated, unpredictable, and messy. Think Korea. Think Vietnam.
In a proxy war, even victory can be fleeting. The U.S. essentially won its proxy war with Russia in Afghanistan in the 1990s. The only downside, of course, was that in doing so we empowered, and armed, the people who wound up making up the core of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
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