The Russian government has reported an incident in which two Russian officials, a soldier and a member of the FSB security service, were killed breaking up an attempted incursion by what they described as a Ukrainian spy network operating in the Crimean Peninsula.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the Ukrainian government of being behind the plot, aiming to provoke a new conflict to distract the Ukrainian public from its myriad problems, adding that in breaking up the network they’d foiled potential terror attacks against critical infrastructure inside Crimea.
Crimea has a complicated history of ownership. Initially annexed into the Russian empire in 1783, after a brief period as an independent Khanate. With the formation of the Soviet Union, it became its own Soviet Socialist Republic until the end of World War 2, at which point it was downgraded to an Oblast, which was part of the Russian SSR.
In 1954 it was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR, again within the Soviet Union, where it remained until 1992, when Ukraine declared independence and Crimea because an autonomous region within Ukraine. In 2014, a revolution within Ukraine ousted the pro-Russian government, leading Crimea to secede from Ukraine and immediately seek and gain accession into the Russian Federation.
Crimea is considered extremely important to Russia as the city of Sevastopol is the home of their Black Sea Fleet, and indeed has been that fleet’s home since 1783. In the waning years of Crimea’s 22 years as part of independent Ukraine, Russia had considered moving the fleet to the port of Novorossiysk, but never did so. Ukraine does not recognize Russia’s ownership of Crimea, and treats it as a “military occupation,” though in practice the Russian troops in the peninsula are largely the same ones who were there with the fleet all along.
Ukraine denied the claims outright, not only insisting that they had nothing to do with the attempted incursions across the Ukraine/Crimea border, but insisting that such incidents didn’t happen at all. This is likely to fuel a new round of NATO predictions of an imminent Russian invasion of Eastern Europe, as indeed does any news about Russia being involved in anything in Eastern Europe.
Sabotage against the Crimean Peninsula would not be unheard of, as over the past year saboteurs twice knocked out electricity to large portions of the peninsula with attacks on pylons within Ukraine’s bordering Kherson Oblast. Ukrainian nationalist movements also prevented repairs for months on end by threatening repair crews, leaving the peninsula in darkness as Russia scrambles to get its own infrastructure in place. An undersea Russian cable run is expected to be finished by 2020, and Russia is also constructing a massive bridge to Crimea, which would give it a land connection not requiring travel through southeastern Ukraine. That bridge is to be done by the end of 2018.
Just like Vladimir Putin used the FSB to stage the Russian apartment bombings, a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 and injuring more than 1000 people and spreading a wave of fear across the country in 1999 to exploit and gain more power for himself and make a fearful country turn to him so now is Putin once again exploiting the Ukraine war he started by illegally annexing the sovereign Ukrainian territory of Crimea and waging an imperialist war of fascist aggression in Eastern Ukraine. Make no mistake, this is another one of Putin’s tricks to provoke an escalation of the Ukraine war and garner more support for himself close the so-called Russian “Parliamentary” elections. He’s done it before in Georgia 2008 and Ukraine 2014
Vladimir Putin wasn’t Russia’s President until 2000; it was his predecessor – Boris Yeltsin – who used the FSB to stage the Russian apartment bombings.
Second, Putin did NOT start any civil war in Ukraine, and Crimea voted to secede and REJOIN Russia in a legal referendum. What you fail to see, Crimea was part of Russia since the reign of Catherine the Great until Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev – a Ukrainian national – “gave” Crimea to Ukraine; and for 60 years, Crimeans tried returning their territory back to Russia .. They finally succeeded in 2014.
You’re mistaking Putin’s Russia for Obama’s US. Obama allowed Undersecretary of State Victoria “F the EU” Nudelman, aka Nuland and her fellow Trotskyites, aka Neocons, to orchestrate the illegal violent coup d’etat that ousted the legitimate govt of Viktor Yanukovych; and the southeastern regions of the country seceded and formed their own govts in response to the coup. The civil war that followed was initiated by the illegal Kiev Junta.
Save me the useless Kremlin propaganda Kremlin troll. Vladimir Putin became Prime Minister in 1999 but by that time Yeltsin had become affirm and in failing health so Putin held the REAL power and Putin needed a crises to broaden his scope of power and the staged apartment bombings and the terror that followed was made to order. Putin has used this trick quite a few time since them. He trying yet again to threaten Ukraine while he thinks the Worlds attention is diverted by the Olympic Games in Rio just like 2 year ago when he stole Crimea during the Sochi Winter Olympics.
That so-Called referendum in Crimea was taken after Russian SPETSNAZ invasion troops had secured all Stratigic government and communications buildings in Crimea. The “Little Green Men” without insignia was illegal and stage-managed from the Kremlin. The speed of the illegal takeover by Russia of the Sovereign Ukrainian territory of Crimea showed that this blatant agression was planned sometime in advance. The outcome of that so -called vote by Crimean’s was in the Kremlin’s favor as are all Russian elections held these days. It is VERY EASY to predict the outcome of any election held in Putin’s Russia now isn’t it?
The event was condemned by many world leaders as an illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory, in violation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, signed by Russia. It led to the other members of the then G8 suspending Russia from the group, then introducing the first round of sanctions against the country. The United Nations General Assembly also rejected the vote and annexation, adopting a non-binding resolution affirming the “territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders”.
http://www.un.org/press/en/2014/ga11493.doc.htm
The resolution also “underscores that the referendum [in Crimea], having no validity, cannot form the basis for any alteration of the status of [Crimea].”The resolution draws attention to the obligation of all States and international organizations not to recognize or to imply the recognition of Russia’s annexation. 100 nations voted in the General Assembly of the United Nations on March 27 2014 to condemn the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea and only 11 nations voted to support Russia which in itself speaks volumes of the illegality of this Russian agression. The 11 nations that voted to support Russia where of course the ‘Bad Actors’ of the world. North Korea, Syria, Belarus and ilk.
Propaganda? Like what you’re spewing?
Maybe “the speed of the illegal takeover by Russia” might have been accomplished because it was welcomed.
Of course all the condemnation, Un rejection and the like didn’t have anything to do with pressure from the US now did it? And surely we had nothing to do with the Russian friendly government being violently overthrown? Just Putin wanting to resurrect the old Soviet Union.
Crimea is legally the territory of Ukraine as it is recognized by the United Nations and the 100 nations that voted in the United Nations General Assembly on March 27 2014 as such and nothing will change that at all. The Baltic States were forcibly annexed into the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin in 1940 and at that time nobody imagined that they would regain their Freedom and sovereignty one day but they DID and so will Crimea be returned to Ukraine eventually. Its only a matter of time.
Well, at least you’ve finally found a hook other than the Helsinki Final Agreement to hang your argument on, Mr. Kenney.
But this hook suffers a fairly similar flaw as the old hook. To wit, the UN didn’t bother to ask the Crimeans which, if any, state they wanted to be affiliated with before presuming to make the decision for them.
I don’t have to find any “Hook” Kremlin troll. The law is the law, International law that is and Russia broke it when it illegally stole the sovereign territory of another UN member state like Ukraine which is why the UN General Assembly voted to condemn the Russisn aggression against Ukraine didn’t it? That Sham rederendum is also not recognized as legal or valid as the UN resolution indicates. All Russia has on its side is brute force…and countries like North Korea. Reassuring isn’t it?
Did Michael Kenney change his name? I think that was his name. Everything was Putin’s fault.
You know, you may be on to something.
Yeah, check out his ISP and let us know. We know you do that to identify people who post on these boards.
Are you saying your supervisor at the DNC got a letter from here about your persistent trolling?
It’s possible but you would have to ask Thomas if he’s reported me to my masters.
Who wrote this story? Jason Ditz? If so then where is the rest of the story and what about the perps, if the attempt was broken up.
It seems reasonable to ask that question and not just assume they somehow escaped. Which is possible but sort of unlikely? Crimea is certainly under Russia’s control.
Jason Ditz, you have to do this. There’s too much at stake for your reputation and the support you have been getting from those of us on your side. Don’t ignore this request Jason!
These types of attacks are part of the core curriculum for Regime Change 101. The news out of Syria in the months and years prior to the so called “civil war” began come to mind.
This article spends a huge amount of time on misdirection to avoid talking about how trained special forces, almost certainly trained by the US, and very, very likely to have been carrying NATO supplied weapons and ammunition just tried to attack into Russian territory and murdered Russian officials tasked with border security before they were stopped. And gawd only knows how much damage and death they would have caused if they hadn’t been stopped. There is no reason at all for the misdirection that tries to lead a reader to assume they’d just knock the power out again. Maybe Sevastapol was destined for the fate of Paris or Nice?
Imagine the reaction in America if Russian trained special forces carrying Russian weapons and gear had killed a couple of people on the Canadian border trying to get into the US to wreck mayhem and most likely kill people?
RTnews has the story there. I think Jason Ditz just used it for the basics of his story. Or whatever he does? I guess that antiwar.com doesn’t, or can’t post stories from RT? We’ll have to wait and see if Ditz and Thomas stay quiet on what’s going on?
What is it that you think I might stay quiet about?