Conflict: News from Moscow's Near-Abroad

EU ‘quietly’ lifts ban on supplying Kiev with weapons and technology – Russia

RT,

2 August, 2014

The European Union has “quietly” agreed to lift restrictions supplying Kiev with military technology and equipment which can be used for the “repression” in the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"During a recent meeting of the Council of Europe in Brussels, leaders of EU member states agreed 'on the quiet' to remove restrictions on exports to Kiev of equipment that could be used for internal repression," the ministry said in a statement on its website. "Exports of military technologies and equipment were also allowed."

Moscow slammed the move as "contradicting the rules of military technologies and ammunition exports which have been earlier applied by the EU" and also "pierced" by double standards.

‘Situation atrocious’: Russian Red Cross says E. Ukraine faces humanitarian catastrophe

The EU approved its rules for controlling the export of weapons and ammunition on December 8, 2008. Criterion #3 calls on the EU member countries to stop issuing export licenses for military equipment and technologies that can provoke or prolong conflict.

A woman is seen outside a residential building destroyed in an artillery attack by the Ukrainian army on Lugansk.(RIA Novosti / Valeriy Melnikov)A woman is seen outside a residential building destroyed in an artillery attack by the Ukrainian army on Lugansk.(RIA Novosti / Valeriy Melnikov)

The decision to restart issuing licenses for special military equipment exports came despite the continuing “anti-terrorist operation” in eastern Ukraine, the ministry said.

“It is obvious why the EU is ignoring indisputable facts of shelling of Russian territory [in the southwest Russian region of Rostov] from the Ukrainian side: the perspective of feeling your own involvement in such actions creates certain discomfort in Brussels,” the statement said.

The ministry called upon its European counterparts “to follow logic,” not the "prodding" from Washington.

“The decision to limit the supply of ammunition and weaponry to Ukraine should have been introduced after the launch of the so-called ‘anti-terrorist operation’ in the Donbas and Lugansk Regions. It is not too late to restore the ban,” the ministry said.

Donbas, a historical, economic and cultural part of eastern Ukraine, includes the northern part of the Donetsk Region and the south of the Lugansk region.

The restrictions were introduced by the EU Council in February when Viktor Yanukovich was the country’s president and there was a severe confrontation between Maidan protesters and police.

“Then the EU decided that it was ‘wrong’ to supply ‘Yanukovich regime’ with weapons,” Moscow pointed out.

The restrictions were first introduced by the European Council in February 2014 when Viktor Yanukovich was the country’s president and there were violent clashes between Maidan protesters and police. “Then the EU decided that it was ‘wrong’ to supply ‘Yanukovich regime’ with weapons,” the ministry said.

Kiev’s so-called “anti-terrorist operation” in the eastern regions of Ukraine has intensified lately. The most recent crackdown was in the village of Gorlovka, in the Donetsk Region. It resulted in 31 civilians being killed there.

According to UN figures, at least 1,129 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 wounded in eastern Ukraine since the start of the operation in April. Also, 100,000 people have been forcibly displaced.

The UN report said that the cause of the rising death toll is intensified artillery shelling of civilian residential areas and so-called “collateral damage” in heavily-populated areas

 

Group of int’l experts leaves MH17 crash site in Donetsk region due to shelling

About 80 international specialists have arrived at the crash site, including eight members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, and experts from the Netherlands and Australia

ITAR-TASS,

2 August, 2014

VIENNA, August 02, /ITAR-TASS/. A group of international experts working at the MH17 crash site in the east Ukrainian Donetsk region left the area due to shelling on Saturday.

OSCE spokesperson Shiv Sharma said the situation had become dangerous for the experts and they had left the area.

He said, however, that only one group had left while all the others continued working at the scene. Sharma said that search had not been stopped but the situation was volatile and changing rapidly.

About 80 international specialists have arrived at the crash site, including eight members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, and experts from the Netherlands and Australia.

On July 31, at their meeting in Minsk, officials from Ukraine, the OSCE and Russia, and representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic agreed to cease fire within the humanitarian corridor used by OSCE monitors to access the crash site.

No incidents have been reported since Thursday when experts returned to the scene after a week-long break.

In the first several days after the accident, members of the local militias found fragments of more than 200 bodies at the crash site. All of them were taken to the Netherlands for identification.

Australian and Dutch experts are looking for the remains of the passengers and their personal belongings to be shipped to the Netherlands. This may take several weeks.

The expert mission consists of 332 members who are to be joined shortly by 68 Malaysian policemen. Up to 100 people will be working at the crash site daily but they will not be conducting the investigation or collecting evidence.

The plane en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region 60 km from the Russian border on July 17 and as many as 298 people aboard died.

This is a very old conflict, between Azerbaidjan and Armenia, that goes back to the twilight days of the Soviet Union.

I have little knowledge of this but have little problem imagining the role of the US in undermining stability. 

Moscow concerned about deteriorating situation in Karabakh region

ITAR-TASS,

2 August, 2014

MOSCOW, August 02 /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow on Saturday voiced concern about the latest flare-ups in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict area and urged the parties involved to refrain from using force and take steps towards stabilising the situation in the region.

“We express serious concern about the dramatic deterioration of the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict area, which has resulted in considerable casualties,” Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

“We regard the latest events as a serious violation of the ceasefire and the declared intentions to achieve a political settlement,” she said, adding that further escalation would be unacceptable.

Four Azerbaijani army servicemen were killed in overnight clashes, the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said, adding that Armenians had also sustained casualties but did not elaborate.

Defence Ministry spokesperson Vagif Dargyakhly denied media reports alleging that the Azerbaijani army was using guided missile systems against Armenian troops.

“Units of the country’s Armed Forces are taking adequate measures in response to ceasefire violations by the Armenian side. But they are using only large caliber firearms,” he said.

He confirmed that 12 Azerbaijani troops had been killed in the conflict area over the past four days and several had been wounded, but did not specify.

The spokesperson said the current situation in the region was relatively calm.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in July that his country was using political and economic factors to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict peacefully.

He stressed that Azerbaijan could solve the problem by force, but “we think the potential of negotiations has not been used up yet”.

“Using political, economic and military pressure we will try to get the issue solved peacefully. Our economic, political and military potential is quite strong and this factor will play a positive role at the talks,” the president said, adding that the conflict could not remain frozen.

Aliyev regretted the absence of progress in the resolution of the conflict despite the international mediators’ efforts. “We are of the opinion that the mediators dealing with this [Karabakh] issue are more interested in keeping the situation in its present state. Their main interest is in preserving stability and preventing a war in the region. We also want peace. But at the same time we want to see truth and justice restored and international law triumphing,” he said.

The president also believes that the conflict should be settled “cardinally”. “Half-solutions can only be an interim step. We should not forget the main goal. The people of Azerbaijan should return to the occupied territories,” he said.

He stressed that Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians could get a high status of autonomy within Azerbaijan. “We proposed this and this approach is based on the most positive experience the world and Europe have,” he added.

The Armenian president’s spokesperson Arman Sagatelyan said on Saturday that the conflict could not be resolved by force.

“Armenia is convinced that there can be no military solution to the Karabakh conflict,” he said. “The truce agreement signed in 1994 clearly states the parties’ legal obligations that must be respected. The Nagorno-Karabakh problem can only be resolved through peace negotiation,” Sagatelyan said.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began on February 22, 1988. On November 29, 1989 direct rule in Nagorno-Karabakh was ended and Azerbaijan regained control of the region. However later a joint session of the Armenian parliament and the top legislative body of Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.

On December 10, 1991, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh held a referendum, boycotted by local Azeris, which approved the creation of an independent state.

The struggle over Nagorno-Karabakh escalated after both Armenia and Azerbaijan obtained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. By the end of 1993, the conflict had caused thousands of casualties and created hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides. An unofficial ceasefire was reached on May 12, 1994.

As of August, 2008, the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group were attempting to negotiate a full settlement of the conflict. On August 2, 2008, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan travelled to Moscow for talks with Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russian president at the time. 

As a result, the three presidents signed an agreement that calls for talks on a political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Saakashvili is the puppet of the US who during the Beijing Olympics invaded South Ossetia. Moscow's intervention was turned by America into a “Russian invasion of Georgia”

Saakashvili was voted out of office and is facing charges of abuse of power in his country

Georgia: Saakashvili not to seek political asylum in foreign countries

On July 28, the Prosecutor General’s Office brought criminal charges against Saakashvili for power abuse

ITAR-TASS,

3 November, 2014

TBILISI, August 03 /ITAR-TASS/. Georgia’s former president, Mikhail Saakashvili, will not seek asylum in any country because there is no need for him to do that. In an interview with the Tbilisi-based Rustavi-2 television company, Saakashvili described the power abuse accusations against him as groundless. He hopes the Saturday ruling of the Tbiliisi city court on preliminary confinement, passed in absentia, will not restrict his ability of global travel.

“I have recently been to Albania. On July 30, I was in Budapest at the invitation of my friend Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. I am planning to visit some other countries soon,” Saakashvili who is currently staying in New York said. He added that Georgia and Russia were the only two countries which he could not visit for the moment.

“Saakashvili has been refusing to appear in court as a witness on many high-profile cases in recent months. Later, he even refused to be questioned on Skype. Under Georgian laws, prosecutors had the right to demand a measure of restriction for Saakashvili what the court did,” a spokesperson for the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office said.

On July 28, the Prosecutor General’s Office brought criminal charges against Saakashvili for power abuse. It said that on November 7, 2007 Mikhail Saakashvili, who was the president of Georgia at that time, issued a criminal order to policemen to crack down on demonstrators in capital Tbilisi. As a result, hundreds of peaceful civilians were beaten up. Georgian riot police burst into the territory of the Imedi television company, beating its staff and ordinary people.

After that, Georgia’s top officials, who followed Saakashvili’s orders, started seizing property from Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili.

Mikhail Saakashvili was the president of Georgia from January 2004 to November 17, 2013. Saakashvili left Georgia in mid-November 2013, two days before his presidential term officially expired. He has been living abroad since then.

See the US version of things HERE