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I
think there might be trouble brewing after the Olympics
Russia
Threatens 'To Intervene' In Ukraine
7
February, 2014
A
senior Kremlin aide accused the United States on Thursday of arming
Ukrainian “rebels” and, urging the Kiev government to put down
what it called an attempted coup, warned it could intervene to
maintain the security of its ex-Soviet neighbour.
Sergei
Glazyev, an adviser to President Vladimir Putin with responsibility
for relations with Ukraine, told a newspaper that U.S. “interference”
breached the 1994 treaty under which Washington and Moscow jointly
guaranteed Ukraine’s security and sovereignty after Kiev gave up
its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal.
His
characteristically confrontational comments, on the eve of an
expected meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Viktor
Yanukovich at the opening of the Sochi Winter Olympics, could add to
tensions with Washington, and within Ukraine.
Asked
by Kommersant-Ukraine daily whether Russia might “actively
intervene” if the country’s crisis deepened, Glazyev recalled the
Budapest Memorandum of 1994: “Under the document, Russia and the
USA are guarantors of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
Ukraine and … are obliged to intervene when conflict situations of
this nature arise.
“And
what the Americans are getting up to now, unilaterally and crudely
interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs, is a clear breach of
that treaty. The agreement is for collective guarantees and
collective action.”
He
did not specify what action Russia might take.
Washington,
which has urged Yanukovich to share power with a unity government to
end a violent standoff in the streets, has accused Russia of
pressuring the leadership in Kiev to prevent Ukraine joining a trade
pact with the European Union.
Yanukovich
sparked the protests in November when he turned down the EU accord
and took financial aid instead from Moscow.
U.S.
“ARMS REBELS”
Glazyev,
who was prominent in a Kremlin campaign last year that threatened
economic sanctions against Ukraine if it took the EU deal, accused
U.S. agents of giving “$20 million a week” for arms and other
help to “the opposition and rebels” in Kiev.
“There
is information that within the grounds of the American embassy, there
is training for fighters, that they’re arming them,” Glazyev
said. The U.S. embassy declined comment.
The
Kremlin official suggested Yanukovich should use force if necessary
to put an end to a protest movement that Glazyev called “an attempt
at a coup d’etat, at the violent overthrow of authority” in which
public buildings had been occupied.
“The
authorities are not fulfilling their duty to defend the state,
negotiating with putschists as if they are law-abiding citizens,”
he said, accusing the West of “blackmailing” Yanukovich and
wealthy oligarchs by threatening to seize their extensive foreign
assets and blacklist them from travelling.
Asked
by the paper if Yanukovich should now use force to clear the
protesters, Glazyev said: “As for starting to use force, in a
situation where the authorities face an attempted coup d’etat, they
simply have no other course of action.
“Otherwise,
the country will be plunged into chaos.”
He
said Yanukovich had done all he could to avoid violence, in contrast
to the opposition, and accused leaders in the Ukrainian-speaking west
of the country of being “separatists”.
Russia,
he said, was concerned that the country should not split apart. But
he suggested that a form of federalism be introduced to give regions
substantial powers – including over their budgets and even over
international relations.
Citing
the example of Greenland, which enjoys substantial autonomy from
Denmark and unlike the Danish state is not part of the European
Union, he said western and eastern Ukraine could have different
economic relations with the EU and Russia.
“Today,
economic, cultural and human ties between the regions of eastern and
western Ukraine are less than the links between southeastern Ukraine
and Russia and between the western regions and the EU,” Glazyev
said, suggesting eastern regions might want to join a customs union
that Putin favours.
German
chancellor condemns comments by US state department official in
leaked conversation about Ukraine crisis
F-Bomb
Explodes: 'Alleged curse word leak exposes US tricks in Ukraine'
A
senior US State Department official has allegedly been caught giving
an unexpected message to the EU while discussing Ukrainian opposition
leaders' roles in the country's future government. The phone call was
taped and posted on YouTube
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