Yesterday’s Geneva talks on the Ukraine ended with a joint statement of policy from the participating countries, which mostly included a litany of demands on the protesters in eastern Ukraine. The protesters, who weren’t invited to the talks, have rejected the demands out of hand.
The deal demanded that the protesters abandon all protest sites in return for amnesty for their “illegal” rallies against the interim government, and also called on militias supporting the protests to disarm.
As with the repeated Syria Civil War talks in Geneva, which likewise didn’t include many of the principal combatants, the assumption seems to have been that anyone not invited would just accept whatever terms were thrust upon them.
Western nations were likely believing their own hype in this case, as they have been claiming publicly that the protests were just Russian covert operations. The reality is something else entirely.
Far from stabilizing the situation, the Geneva “deal” now risks escalating violence there, as Ukraine’s interim government will no doubt take the position that it is on them to forcibly impose the terms of the deal on the protesters.
"Western nations were likely believing their own hype in this case, as they have been claiming publicly that the protests were just Russian covert operations. The reality is something else entirely."
While the West certainly has it's own agenda, how does Antiwar.com purport to know better without providing evidence? Based on the images coming out of East Ukraine these guys are fully kitted in military gear with advanced small arms, and that does seem like an organized and state-backed force, that equipment doesn't come cheap. Moreover, the tactic by Russia to destabilize its neighbors and foment discontent is a well repeated one by both West and East. Maybe this is not our fight, certainly, but that doesn't legitimize Russia's actions.
" Based on the images coming out of East Ukraine these guys are fully kitted in military gear with advanced small arms, and that does seem like an organized and state-backed force, that equipment doesn't come cheap.*
1) Army surplus clothing does actually come cheap and it is hardly surprising that army surplus shops exist in Ukraine as they do in practically every town in the whole of Europe.
2) Eastern Ukraine actually manufactures much of the military equipment used by Russia.
3) Your last two sentences presume without evidence that Russia is destabilizing its neighbours.
4) Most importantly, the burden of proof properly rests on those making accusations, you are actually asking antiwar.com to prove a negative – an intellectually dishonest little trick widely used by disinformation merchants.
The easterners have every reason to be pissed about austerity and selling of their public infrastructure. The insurgents seized several security installations which would have been well stocked with weapons. Implying that being well-armed means they are Russian is sophomoric. Russia may well be arming them, and I really wouldn't blame them since the US is almost certainly arming Kiev. Kiev's gambit will be to keep the conflict simmering if possible to receive US covert military aid, regardless of what Obama claims publicly, in order to justify pushing the election back and having the US support the continuation of their undemocratic regime. They will declare a state of emergency so that Yats gets to stay in power after he otherwise would have been repudiated because of his "kamikaze" politics. It's disgusting that they even tried the Jewish Pogrom misinformation in the East, and if I were from east Ukraine I'd be fighting for a federal state too, with or without Russian support.
The Geneva Deal is a Joke.
The protesters consider the Kiev government "illegal" since it came to power in exactly the same way that is now being called "terrorism" when done by pro-Russian Ukrainians, but Western MSM will continue to make a big noise about the protesters reneging on a deal that the protesters never agreed to in the first place.
Since the deal calls for the return of government buildings that have been illegally seized, I'm waiting for Yanukovych to go to Kiev and ask for his office back.
The negotiators must have seen this outcome when they issued the "deal". It was just a pantomime to cover the absence of any effective measures open to them.
To have launched the demands and the fake Jewish registration more or less simultaneously and to go into hysterics about it shows callous disregard for the fate of the various factions and sects in Ukraine who need very little prompting to descend into sectarian violence or outright civil war.
Pox Americana infects yet another region.
"Pox Americana".
Good one.
The “rulers of the world” fail to see the absurdity of their commands. This latest episode reminds me of how the power brokers “forgot” to invite Czechoslovakia to Munich in 1938.
That was something else entirely.
Don't forget: Whenever you mention "Munich", Madame Hillary collects another brownie point!
PLEASE THINK OF THE BROWNIE POINTS!
the world knows the truth when an elected by the people leader leaves because of a coup that has all the USA fingerprints on it .
The people of Crimea voted in a EU observed election by 23 countries and 123 elected MP's from Spain, France Italy Poland Germany all said it followed EU rules for a fair election.
Now the rest of Ukraine wants a vote and the USA refuses DEMOCRACY to happen again in Ukraine then time to kick the USA out of the meetings if you want peace.
The Kiev government, if you can even call them that, is not elected by anyone, not even their own kind, for that reason alone they are not in any legitimate position asking nor demanding anything from anyone, especially the Ukrainian people in eastern Ukraine. So, why people of Ukraine should give up their demand while it is their right to demand for becoming independent from a government that is not there. Any government without its people cannot be called "government" unless the government is for the people, without people voice and vote there is no government, so, people are first, and government are the entity of people not other way around. Only a dictatorial regimes as well as fascism can enforce their demand on the people and that's what is happening in Ukraine.
The Kiev coup dictatorship (non elected swill) has sent troops to attack Citizens loyal to the elected Government, and has the audacity to claim that the citizens who have NOT committed the treasonous act of overthrowing a democratic Government with the aid of foreign entities (the US and EU) are the TERORISTS!
Wonder if the US will ask Al-Qaeda for help? Al-Qaeda pops up in every country the US stick it's nose in.
"The reality is something else entirely". And? What is the reality?
The protests are not just Russian covert operations?