WarSclerotic

Ukraine PM warns country is ‘on brink of disaster’ | The Times of Israel.

Newly appointed leader issues ‘red alert’ over Russian invasion; NATO chief calls on Kremlin to halt military activity

By AFP March 2, 2014, 2:21 pm

Ukraine’s newly appointed Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk (Photo credit: Sergei Supinsky/AFP)

Kiev calls up troops as Crimea crisis threatens to spiral into war | The Times of Israel.

Ukraine orders all reserves to report; convoy of Russian troops seen heading for Simferopol ; US calls on Moscow to withdraw its forces

By AP and Times of Israel staff March 2, 2014, 10:54 am Updated: March 2, 2014, 12:00 pm

Troops in unmarked uniforms stand guard in Balaklava on the outskirts of Sevastopol, Ukraine, Saturday, March 1, 2014. An emblem on one of the vehicles and their number plates identify them as belonging to the Russian military. (Photo credit: Andrew Lubimov/AP)

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Ukraine’s security chief ordered a full call-up of reserve troops Sunday morning, as Russian troops took control of the Crimea peninsula and the bloodless clash threatened to explode into fighting.

Andriy Parubiy told reporters that the council had ordered the defense ministry to “call on all those that armed forces need at the moment across Ukraine,” adding that the mobilization was to “ensure the security and territorial integrity of Ukraine”.

Earlier in the day, a convoy of hundreds of Russian troops were spotted heading toward the regional capital of Simferopol.

Russian troops took over the strategic Black Sea peninsula on Saturday without firing a shot and the new government in Kiev has been powerless to react.

On the road from Sevastopol, the Crimean port where Russia maintains a naval base, to Simferopol on Sunday morning, AP journalists saw 12 military trucks carrying troops, a Tiger vehicle armed with a machine gun and also two ambulances.

Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, announced late Saturday that he had ordered Ukraine’s armed forces to be at full readiness because of the threat of “potential aggression.” He also said he had ordered stepped-up security at nuclear power plants, airports and other strategic infrastructure.

On Crimea, however, Ukrainian troops have offered no resistance.

Russian military forces operating in Crimea were reported to have taken weapons from two Ukrainian military posts, according to a Ukrainian Defense Ministry sources cited by the Interfax news agency. The Russian troops were said to have urged military personnel at the posts to side with the “legitimate” leaders of the Crimean Peninsula.

The new government came to power last week following months of pro-democracy protests against the now-fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, and his decision to turn Ukraine toward Russia, its longtime patron, instead of the European Union.

Ukraine’s population of 46 million is divided in loyalties between Russia and Europe, with much of western Ukraine advocating closer ties with the EU, while eastern and southern regions look to Russia for support. Crimea, a semi-autonomous region that Russia gave to Ukraine in the 1950s, is mainly Russian-speaking.

The Russian move into the Crimean peninsula Saturday led to international calls for Moscow to pull back its troops.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations asked an emergency session of the Security Council “to do everything possible now” to stop Russia’s “aggression” as its troops took over the strategic Crimea region.

But action by the UN’s most powerful body appears unlikely. As a permanent member, Russia has veto power and can block the council from adopting any resolution criticizing or sanctioning Moscow.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call to “urgently engage in direct dialogue with the authorities” in Kiev.

However, Putin threatened that if there is an escalation of violence against Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, Russia “will take necessary measures in [the] framework of international law,” Interfax reported.

Calling the situation in Ukraine “as dangerous as it is destabilizing,” US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power told the council, “It is time for the Russian military intervention in Ukraine to end.”

Power and other members of the council called for sending international monitors to Ukraine as soon as possible to observe the situation, and Power warned that “Russia’s provocative actions could easily push the situation beyond the breaking point.” She also mentioned work on an international mediation mission to send to Ukraine.

The Security Council met in emergency session for the second straight day on the rapidly developing events in Ukraine. It even met briefly in an open, televised session, despite objections from Russia, then resumed meeting behind closed doors.

Current council president, Luxembourg Ambassador Sylvie Lucas, said members stressed the importance of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the need to lower tensions, in addition to the need for international monitors.

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said the new government in Kiev needs to get away from “radicals” and warned that “such actions they’re taking could lead to very difficult developments, which the Russian Federation is trying to avoid.”

Churkin also accused the West of interfering in the recent Kiev demonstrations that turned violent amid tensions over the decision by Ukraine’s now-fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, to turn Ukraine toward Russia, its longtime patron, instead of the European Union.

Russia has given refuge to Yanukovych, who fled a week ago.

Churkin said Russia was intervening at the request of pro-Russian authorities in the semi-autonomous Crimea, which is largely Russian-speaking and home to Russia’s Black Sea navy fleet.

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who called for Saturday’s meeting, told reporters afterward that “there is no justification for Russia’s military activities in the last 48 hours.”

Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson called the situation in Ukraine “very difficult and very dangerous” and said they were seeing “negative signs, serious signs, risks of escalation.”

Ukraine’s UN ambassador, Yuriy Sergeyev, asked the other four permanent Security Council members — the US, Britain, France and China — for help, adding that Russia had rejected Ukraine’s proposal to hold immediate bilateral consultations.

When asked later whether Ukraine is at war with Russia, Sergeyev said, “No. We are not at war. We are trying to avoid any clashes. We are being provoked.”

Ban, the UN chief, said earlier Saturday that he is “gravely concerned about the deterioration of the situation” in Ukraine and called for “full respect for and preservation of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the country.

Ban later spoke by telephone with Putin, and a statement from Ban’s office said, “It is crucial to restore calm and proceed to an immediate de-escalation of the situation.”

“Cool heads must prevail, and dialogue must be the only tool in ending this crisis,” Ban said.

Ban planned to meet Sunday in Geneva with his special envoy Robert Serry, the Netherlands’ first ambassador to Ukraine.

Ban on Friday asked Serry to go to Crimea as part of a fact-finding mission. However, after consulting with authorities in the region, Serry decided that a visit was not possible.

Lyall Grant said his understanding was that Serry couldn’t go because airspace above Crimea has been closed. Eliasson called the decision “purely logistical.”

AFP contributed to this report

U.S. pushing Israel to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists – CBS News.

Netanyahu to urge Obama to rule out Iranian enrichment | The Times of Israel.

Ahead of White House meeting Monday, PM said ready to accept Kerry’s peace framework, much more worried about Iran

By Times of Israel staff March 1, 2014, 4:38 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Barack Obama in the White House in March 2012 (photo credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash90)

As he heads to the United States this weekend for a meeting Monday at the White House with US President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ready in principle to agree to Secretary of State John Kerry’s framework proposals for extending peace talks with the Palestinians, but is far less sanguine about the US-led international negotiations with Iran over its rogue nuclear program, The Times of Israel has learned.

On the understanding that Kerry’s framework proposals constitute a non-binding basis for extending the talks beyond the current April deadline, and with the provision that both sides can express their reservations over some of its clauses, the prime minister will not have to be pressured into endorsing the document, sources close to the prime minister said.

Netanyahu remains concerned about the US-drafted security proposals — which he believes do not constitute an adequate means for confronting terrorism in the West Bank, Israel’s Channel 10 News reported Friday — and opposes any formal legitimization of Palestinian claims to Jerusalem, the sources made clear, however. His office also said Thursday that Netanyahu “does not intend to evacuate any settlement or uproot a single Israeli” under a permanent accord, since he insists that settlers on the far side of a two-state border must be given the choice of evacuating or staying on in a Palestinian state — a stance first reported by The Times of Israel in January.

While Jerusalem anticipates that Obama, at their talks on Monday, will want to focus heavily on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Netanyahu is anxious to emphasize his concerns over the content of a permanent nuclear accord with Iran, which is currently being negotiated between Tehran and the P5+1 world powers. Primarily, Israel’s Channel 10 news reported Friday, Netanyahu is adamant that Iran must be denied any ongoing capacity to enrich uranium, since he fears that, as it improves its enrichment technology, it would be able to speed rapidly from low-level enriched uranium to nuclear weapons-grade enrichment levels. Obama, by contrast, has said he can envisage Iran maintaining the capacity to carry out low-level enrichment, under a highly intrusive inspection and supervision regime.

An Iranian worker at the Uranium Conversion Facility at Isfahan, 410 kilometers, south of Tehran. The conversion facility in Isfahan reprocesses uranium ore concentrate, known as yellowcake, into uranium hexaflouride gas. The gas is then taken to Natanz and fed into the centrifuges for enrichment. (photo credit: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Netanyahu, who called the interim deal on Iran’s nuclear program, signed in Geneva in November and implemented in January, a “historic mistake,” is also concerned that the provisions of that deal did not prevent Iran from improving its enrichment centrifuges, and did not cover weaponization and missile development. If a permanent accord is to ensure that Iran never attain nuclear weapons, as the chief US negotiator Wendy Sherman said in Jerusalem last weekend, a permanent accord would have to cover those aspects, Netanyahu believes.

While the Israeli prime minister, who will address the annual AIPAC pro-Israel lobby’s annual Washington conference on Tuesday, is inclined to accept Kerry’s peace framework, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to resist it when he meets with Obama on March 17. Abbas’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Thursday that there was “no point” in extending the negotiations past April.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrives at the Elysee Palace in Paris on February 21, 2014. (photo credit: Alain Jocard/AFP)

At the end of two days of talks with Kerry in Paris late last month, Abbas was reportedly left fuming over Kerry’s framework proposals. The US secretary reportedly suggested Abbas form a Palestinian capital in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina, not all of East Jerusalem, as the Palestinians have demanded. Kerry also suggested that Israel keep 10 settlement blocs as part of any territorial exchange, according to Al Quds, the most widely read Palestinian daily, on Wednesday. The Jordan Valley would not be part of a future Palestinian state, Palestinian sources told the paper, nor would there be an international force stationed there. And Kerry reportedly demanded that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.

The report, which received no official confirmation, said Abbas exploded with rage over the US secretary’s proposals, and described them as “insanity.” The PA president threatened to “overturn tables” and to go back on the flexibility he had shown in order to facilitate the US-led peace efforts, according to Al Quds.

The paper suggested that Abbas’s subsequent invitation to meet Obama at the White House was a form of damage control on the part of the Americans.

A view of the Jordan Valley (photo credit: CC-BY heatkernel/Flickr/File)

The explosive nature of the meeting reported in the Palestinian daily, however, was far removed from the image projected by Abbas to the media in Paris, where he described American peace efforts as “extremely serious” and his talks with Kerry as ”constructive.”

Israel’s Channel 2 news reported last month that the PA has decided to reject Kerry’s proposals and instead launch a global diplomatic and legal assault on Israel. The PA, it said, was setting up teams to wage diplomatic war against Israel in “every conceivable” forum, including pushing for boycotts of Israel and seeking legal rulings against Israel via international courts in The Hague.

Unless Kerry significantly changed the formulation of his proposals, the report said, the Palestinians would reject his overtures, confident that much of the international community will consider them to be the injured party and hold Israel responsible for the failure of peace efforts. The Palestinians are furious that Kerry is offering them a state “with no borders, no capital, no [control over] border crossings… and without Jerusalem,” the TV report said, quoting Palestinian sources.

Ukraine’s PM: Russian intervention will mean war | The Times of Israel.

As Moscow’s forces take over Crimea, Kiev places its military on high alert and UN, EU officials call emergency meetings

By AP, AFP and Times of Israel staff March 1, 2014, 10:32 pm

Ukraine’s newly appointed Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk (Photo credit: Sergei Supinsky/AFP)

UN Security Council to hold urgent meeting on Ukraine crisis, Ynet News, March 1, 2014

(Breaking update: The Ladies Knitting Society of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota has also called an urgent meeting on the crisis to decide whether Russian tea biscuits should continue to be served at their meetings. Although Russia lacks veto power there, unlike at the Security Council, the results of their meeting not are anticipated to have significantly more impact on the Ukraine crisis than those of the Security Council. President Obama was not available for comment. However, off-record remarks by high White Officials appeared to support efforts to boycott Russian tea biscuits as among the higher of the costs he contemplates for Russia.  — DM)

Russian parliament authorizes Putin’s request to use military. Demonstrators clash as Russian troops descend on Crimea.

The United Nations Security Council will be holding a closed door meeting for the second consecutive day to discuss the current situation in Ukraine.

The President of the Security Council said informal consultations among council members would begin at 2 pm (1900 GMT) Saturday. The council also held closed door consultations on Friday at the request of Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev who referred to “the deterioration of the situation” in the Crimean Peninsula which he said “threatens the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

Russia’s parliament approved a motion to use the country’s military in Ukraine after a request from President Vladimir Putin as protests in Russian-speaking cities turned violent Saturday, sparking fears of a wide-scale invasion.

The motion follows President Barack Obama’s warning Friday “there will be costs” if Russia intervenes militarily, sharply raising the stakes in the conflict over Ukraine’s future and evoking memories of Cold War brinkmanship.

“I’m submitting a request for using the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine pending the normalization of the socio-political situation in that country,” Putin said in his request sent to parliament.

Russia’s upper house also recommended that Moscow recalls its ambassador from Washington over Obama’s comments.

Ukraine had already accused Russia on Friday of a “military invasion and occupation” in the strategic peninsula of Crimea where Russia’s Black Sea fleet is based. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk called on Moscow “to recall their forces, and to return them to their stations,” according to the Interfax news agency. “Russian partners, stop provoking civil and military resistance in Ukraine.”

As a permanent member, Russia has veto power on any council resolution.

Ignoring Obama’s warning, Putin said the “extraordinary situation in Ukraine” was putting at risk the lives of Russian citizens and military personnel stationed at a naval base that Moscow has maintained in the Black Sea peninsula since the Soviet collapse.

Putin’s motion loosely refers to the “territory of Ukraine” rather than specifically to Crimea, raising the possibility that Moscow could use military force in other Russian-speaking provinces in eastern and southern Ukraine, where many oppose the new authorities in Kiev. Pro-Russian protests were reported in the eastern cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern port of Odessa.

In Saturday’s parliamentary session in Moscow, a deputy house speaker said Obama had insulted Russia and crossed a “red line,” and the upper house recommended the Russian ambassador in Washington be recalled. It will be up to Putin to decide whether that happens.

Earlier Saturday, dozens of people were hurt in clashes when pro-Russia activists stormed the regional government’s headquarters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and raised the Russian flag, local media said.

The UNIAN news agency said thousands of people had gathered outside the building during a protest against the country’s new leaders who ousted President Viktor Yanukovich a week ago.

The violence signaled that Ukraine’s new leaders could face a challenge in mainly Russian-speaking regions that oppose the largely pro-Western course charted by the newly installed government.

The leaders of Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula with an ethnic Russian majority that is home to a Russian naval base, say they have joined forces with Russian servicemen to exert control over key buildings.

Protests against the new authorities also took place on Saturday in other cities, including Odessa, Dnipro and Donetsk, Yanukovich’s home town and power base.

The Russian flag was raised over the regional government building in Donetsk by several thousand pro-Russia activists waving the Russian tricolour and chanting “Russia! Russia!, witnesses said.

Donetsk authorities issued an appeal for a referendum to be called on the future status of the region.

The crisis was sparked when Ukraine’s deposed president, Victor Yanukovych, ditched a deal for closer ties to the European Union and instead turned toward Moscow. Months of protests followed, culminating in security forces killing dozens of protesters and Yanukovych fleeing to Russia.

Ukraine’s population is divided in loyalties between Russia and Europe, with much of western Ukraine advocating closer ties with the European Union while eastern and southern regions look to Russia for support. Crimea, a semi-autonomous region of Ukraine, is mainly Russian-speaking.

In Crimea, the pro-Russian prime minister who took office after gunmen seized the regional Parliament claimed control of the military and police there and asked Putin for help in keeping peace, sharpening the discord between the two neighboring Slavic countries.

Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said the election of Sergei Aksyonov as prime minister of Crimea was invalid.

Ukrainian officials and some Western diplomats said that a Russian military intervention is already well underway after heavily armed gunmen in unmarked military uniforms seized control of local government buildings, airports and other strategic facilities in Crimea in recent days.

Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred jurisdiction from Russia, a move that was a mere formality when both Ukraine and Russia were part of the Soviet Union. The Soviet breakup in 1991 meant Crimea landed in an independent Ukraine.

Russians strike Ukraine army post in Crimea. Kiev fears Ukraine army putsch. US warships on standby.

Russian armored forces build up for Ukraine

As Moscow’s master plan for Ukraine continued to unfold, Russian forces Saturday, March 1, staged their first attack on a Ukraine military installation in Crimea, while completing their takeover of the region and its severance from Ukraine.

Interfax reported from a Ukrainian source that 20 soldiers had entered an anti-aircraft missile command post in western Crimea and that negotiations rather than a clash were under way.

Earlier Saturday, Crimea’s new pro-Moscow prime minister Serhiy Aksyonov asked President Vladimir Putin for help in “maintaining peace in the region,” saying he was in control of the region’s interior ministry, armed forces, fleet and border guards.

The invitation set the scene for Russian military intervention in Crimea at the request of its government. Moscow said the appeal would not go “unnoticed,” while the Russian foreign ministry declared itself “extremely concerned” by developments in Crimea – cynically echoing US President Barack Obama’s expression Friday of “deep concern” about Russian military movements inside Ukraine and his warning of “costs.”

The Crimean premier, appointed Thursday by parliament in Simferopol, later announced that a referendum would be held on March 30 to determine the peninsula’s status. Meanwhile, he said, Russian Black Sea fleet servicemen were guarding important buildings.

In Kiev, interim defense minister Igor Tenyukh, addressing the first new cabinet’s first meeting, accused Russia of an armed invasion of Ukraine and pouring an additional 6,000 troops into the peninsula. Western correspondents reported that Crimea is now cut off from the rest of Ukraine after “unidentified troops” in combat fatigues, armed with automatic rifles, machine guns or RPGs, seized control of Crimea’s sea and air ports and its main road network in the last 24 hours.
Interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk told the Kiev cabinet that Ukraine forces were on alert, but he would not be ”drawn into a military conflict by Russian provocations in the Crimea region.”

debkafile’s military sources report that this announcement was hollow.

The 160,000-strong Ukrainian army is no match for the Russian army’s operational capabilities and fire power, although it too is equipped with Russian weapons and trained in Russian military tactics.
But above all, it is far from certain that the new authorities in Kiev control the Ukraine army. No one knows where the loyalties of its officers lie, whether with the new pro-European regime or the absconding pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych.

This confronts the troubled country with a fresh peril, a possible army putsch to oust the interim regime set up by the Ukraine opposition in Kiev, and its replacement with a military government for containing continuing Russian expansion beyond the borders of Crimea. The former Independence Square protesters would have no answer to this.

Moscow, while insisting that its military actions were not an invasion but a legal bid to protect its interests, has also moved to offset any financial assistance the West may offer Kiev. Russia’s energy giant Gazprom bluntly warned Kiev that it had accumulated a “huge” debt of $1.5 billion for natural gas that needed to be urgently paid if the supply is to continue.

This is the exact amount of the loan guarantees the US and EU propose to offer the stony-broke Kiev authorities.
Along with US warnings to Moscow, a high alert was secretly declared Saturday by the US Mediterranean Sixth Fleet. Two US warships which had been deployed in the Black Sea to back up Russian security for the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi – the USS Taylor Frigate and the USS Mount Whitney Blue Ridge-class command ship – have moved over to the western side of the Black Sea opposite Crimea and facing the Russian navy base of Sevastopol.

The Mount Whitney is outfitted with sophisticated intelligence-gathering systems. Its current location  means that ongoing Russian military movements across central, southern and western Russia, around its borders with Ukraine and inside the Crimean peninsula, are being monitored and beamed to the White House and the Pentagon. Obama’s response is anyone’s guess. So far, the only hints thrown out are that Western leaders are planning a boycott of the G8 summit Putin plans to host in Sochi this summer, in protest against Russia’s takeover of Crimea.

Kremlin Prepares for Military Intervention – NYTimes.com.

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — As Russian-backed armed forces effectively seized control of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula on Saturday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia requested —and received — authorization from the Russian Senate to use military force in Ukraine.

The actions signaled publicly for the first time the Kremlin’s readiness to intervene militarily in Ukraine, and it served as a blunt response to President Obama, who just hours earlier pointedly warned Russia to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Within hours after receiving Mr. Putin’srequest, Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, voted to approve it, after a debate that warned of the apocalyptic consequences of failing to stop a fascist threat from spreading to Russia’s borders. The lawmakers direct considerable fury at President Obama and others in the West they accused of fomenting the upheaval in Ukraine.

The vote was unanimous among the 90 members present for the debate, and it was clear that forces allied with Moscow were largely in control of the disputed peninsula.

The region’s two main airports were closed, with civilian flights canceled, and were guarded by heavily armed men in military uniforms. Similar forces surrounded the regional Parliament building and the rest of the government complex in downtown Simferopol, the Crimean capital, as well as numerous other strategic locations, including communication hubs and a main bus station.

At the entrance to Balaklva, site of Ukrainian customs and border post near Sevastopol, the road was blocked by a long column of military vehicles bearing Russian license plates. The column, comprising 10 troops trucks with 30 soldiers in each, two military ambulances and five armored vehicles, was not moving. Troops, wearing masks and carryoing automatic rifles, stoold on the road keeping people away.

Some 60 locals, all apparently ethnic Russians, were gathered in a nearby square waving Russian flags and shouting “Russia, Russia.”

Just a few hours earlier on Saturday, the newly installed, pro-Russia prime minister of Crimea had declared that he was in sole control of the military and the police in the peninsula and he appealed to Mr. Putin for help in safeguarding the region.

The prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, also said a public referendum on independence would be held on March 30.

On a day of frayed nerves and set-piece political appeals that recalled ethnic conflicts of past decades in the former Soviet bloc — from the Balkans to the Caucasus — pro-Russian forces were said to have taken control of a government building in Kharkiv, and a crowd in the center of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine and pulled down the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag and raised a Russian one.

On Friday, officials in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev had accused Russian armed forces of invading Crimea and violating Ukraine’s sovereign territory, and President Obama pointedly warned Russia against military intervention. On Saturday, officials in Kiev reiterated their objections but, for the moment, seemed otherwise powerless.

There was no immediate new comment from Washington, where officials seem to have very limited options in responding to Russian military intervention in Ukraine.

In his statement Saturday, Mr. Aksyonov, said, “Understanding my responsibility for the life and safety of citizens, I appeal to the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, for assistance in providing peace and tranquillity on the territory of the autonomous Republic of Crimea.”

“As chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea,” Mr. Aksyonov said, “I make the decision to temporarily put the armed units and groups of the Interior Ministry, the Security Service, the armed forces, the Emergency Situations Ministry, the fleet, the Tax Service, and the border guards under my direct control. All commanders shall follow only my orders and instructions”

He added, “I ask anyone who disagrees to leave the service.”

The Kremlin, in a statement released to Russian news services, said it “will not ignore” Mr. Aksyonov’s request for assistance.

And separately, in what appeared to reflect coordinated Russian responses after the Crimean appeals for help, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that unidentified gunmen “directed from Kiev” had tried to size control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs building in Simferopol.

The Foreign Ministry said that “vigilante groups” trying to seize the building had been repelled but that the attack “confirms the desire of prominent political circles in Kiev to destabilize the situation in the peninsula.” Local officials said an exchange of gunfire had occurred.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, there were signs of concern among business leaders over an effort by several European countries, including Austria and Switzerland, to freeze Mr. Yanukovych’s assets as well as those of his family members and other prominent associates.

Systems Capital Management Group, the company controlled by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, issued a statement saying that its operations were not affected by the freezing of assets. In its statement, the company said that it “operates in full compliance with the law and beyond politics” and that the freezing of assets “have not affected our operations in any way.”

Mr. Akhmetov is long known as a close ally of Mr. Yanukovych and his company’s statement suggested that he wanted to distance himself from the ex-president. On Friday, Mr. Yanukovych held a news conference at a shopping mall in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, where he insisted that he was still the legitimate president of Ukraine and planned to return.

The new government in Kiev has said that Mr. Yanukovych and other top officials are now wanted on charges of mass murder in connection with the deaths of more than 80 people in clashes between antigovernment protesters and the authorities late last month.

Mr. Akhmetov’s company said it “remains committed to the common principles of corporate ethics, business transparency and responsibility to our partner and the society and, in particular, does not carry out any joint business activity with Viktor Yanukovych and his family.”

Although American officials did not directly confirm athat Russian troops were being deployed to Crimea in violation of the two countries’ agreements there, Mr. Obama,

in his statement on Friday, cited “reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine,” and said, “Any violation of Ukrainian sovereignty would be deeply destabilizing.”

“There will be costs,” Mr. Obama said in a hastily arranged statement from the White House.

Putin asks parliament to use military in Ukraine | The Times of Israel.

( The wages of fecklessness.  So much for Obama’s “warning”… –  JW )

Russian president moves to formalize troop deployment as Kiev says Moscow is amassing forces in its east

By AP and AFP March 1, 2014, 4:49 pm

Troops in unmarked uniforms stand guard in Balaklava on the outskirts of Sevastopol, Ukraine, Saturday, March 1, 2014. An emblem on one of the vehicles and their number plates identify them as belonging to the Russian military. (Photo credit: Andrew Lubimov/AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin asked parliament Saturday for permission to use the country’s military in Ukraine, moving to formalize what Ukrainian officials described as an ongoing deployment of Russian troops in the strategic region of Crimea.

Putin’s motion loosely refers to the “territory of Ukraine” rather than specifically to Crimea, raising the possibility that Moscow could use military force in other Russian-speaking provinces in eastern and southern Ukraine where many oppose the new authorities in Kiev.

US President Barack Obama warned Moscow on Friday “there will be costs” if Russia intervenes militarily.

“I’m submitting a request for using the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine pending the normalization of the socio-political situation in that country,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.

He said the move is needed to protect ethnic Russians and the personnel of a Russian military base in Ukraine’s strategic region of Crimea. Putin sent the request to the Russian legislature’s upper house, which has to approve the motion, according to the constitution. The rubber-stamp parliament is certain to approve it in a vote expected Saturday.

Obama called on Russia to respect the independence and territory of Ukraine and not try to take advantage of its neighbor, which is undergoing political upheaval.

“Any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing,” Obama said in a statement delivered from the White House. Such action by Russia would not serve the interests of the Ukrainian people, Russia or Europe, Obama said, and would represent a “profound interference” in matters he said must be decided by the Ukrainian people.

Ukraine accused Russia on Saturday of sending thousands of extra troops into Crimea, with Defense Minister Igor Tenyukh telling the Ukrainian government’s first cabinet session that Russia’s armed forces had sent in 30 armored personnel carriers and 6,000 additional troops into Crimea in a bid to help local pro-Kremlin militia gain broader independence from the new pro-EU leaders in Kiev.

Tenyukh accused Russia of starting to send in these reinforcements on Friday “without warning or Ukraine’s permission.”

The defense chief spoke as dozens of pro-Russian armed men in full combat gear patrolled outside the seat of power in Crimea’s capital Simferopol, a day after similar gunmen seized control over airports and government buildings in the territory.

Iran, Poland to boost research cooperation, Trend, March 1, 2014

(With her entry into the international arms trade and increasing commercial and other areas of cooperation, Iran is becoming more “open for business” daily. Can the sanctions — which did not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons capabilities — be renewed if and when the P5+1 talks fail? If they can, will they have any effect on Iran’s development of nukes? — DM)

Iran and Poland have signed an agreement to boost cooperation in the field of research, IRIB reported on March 1.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski signed the agreement in Tehran.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Zarif said Iran is ready to expand economic ties with Poland, especially in food, medicine, and petrochemical industries.

Grounds are prepared for the presence of Polish companies in the Iranian market, Zarif added.

A comprehensive plan is being developed by the two sides to boost cooperation in educational, cultural, and scientific fields, he noted.