Chechen commander in Ukraine drawn into Russian intrigue

23 hours ago

By NICHOLAS WALLER

Source:Yahoo News

LYSYCHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — From a dimly lit room at his base in eastern Ukraine, the commander of a battalion of Chechens fighting Russia-backed rebels looked shaken as TV broadcast news of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov's slaying. Adam Osmayev hailed Nemtsov as a "true hero" both for condemning Russia's war against separatists in Chechnya and for decrying Russian intervention in the current conflict in Ukraine.

"Watch them try to tie Ukraine to this (murder) in some way," Osmayev added.

He was half-joking. But two weeks later, Kremlin-friendly Russian newspapers published reports based on unidentified sources in the security services that accused the Ukrainian government and also Osmayev himself of ordering the Feb. 27 murder of Nemtsov in central Moscow in an attempt to destabilize Russia.

Osmayev denies involvement and no evidence has been presented linking him to the hit on Nemtsov, who was a relentless critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Attempts to implicate the British-educated Chechen commander appear to be part of efforts aimed at deflecting attention from anyone close to Putin, including his security services and the powerful leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

Within days of Nemtsov's assassination, investigators arrested five Chechens, including a senior officer in Kadyrov's police force, and charged them with carrying out the killing. All five have denied the charges.

The arrests heralded a crisis in relations between the Kremlin and Kadyrov, who rules Chechnya like a personal fiefdom. With generous subsidies from Moscow, he has rebuilt the region after two separatist wars and has relied on his feared security forces to track down and kill foes. His men have steadily expanded their sway beyond Chechnya to control lucrative businesses in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia.

Leaders of federal law enforcement agencies have watched Kadyrov's growing power with dismay and have made no secret of their desire to curb him. Some observers speculated that the killing might have been ordered by Kadyrov's enemies in the federal government — an attempt to prompt Putin to fire or at least punish the Chechen leader.

If such a plan existed, it underestimated Putin's reliance on Kadyrov. The relative stability in Chechnya is seen as one of Putin's main achievements, and he sees the burly red-haired Chechen strongman as key to maintaining the status quo.

Putin quickly sent a signal that he intended to stand by Kadyrov by awarding him the Order of Honor for distinguished public service, a day after Kadyrov spoke out in defense of the arrested Chechens.

The arrests were a rare case in which federal law enforcement agents managed to nab a member of Kadyrov's security force, but the investigation then seemed to fizzle.

Russian media, citing investigators, have pointed to a possible link between the suspected triggerman, Zaur Dadaev, and his commander, Ruslan Geremeyev, a senior officer in the Chechen police force. But Geremeyev is in Chechnya and off limits to federal investigators.

Russian newspapers have floated a variety of theories about the killing that have muddied the waters — a possible attempt to defuse tensions with Kadyrov.

Some reports claimed that investigators believe Dadaev and his suspected accomplices could have acted on their own, even though most observers agree that a senior officer in Kadyrov's security force would not have acted without sanction from his superiors.

Dadaev, in turn, has rescinded his initial testimony, saying he was beaten and pressured to confess.

The reports pointing to Osmayev, a Kadyrov foe, were seen as part of these efforts to deflect attention.

"State-controlled media have put forward a theory that is politically satisfying for Russia's security forces, the Kremlin, Kadyrov and all of their rival groups — namely, that Chechen Adam Osmayev ordered Nemtsov's murder," political analyst Georgy Bovt wrote in a commentary published in The Moscow Times.

Osmayev, 33, has a troubled history with both Kadyrov and Putin.

After graduating from Wycliffe College, a prestigious private school in Britain, and attending the University of Buckingham, he returned to his native Chechnya shortly after the second war there ended in 2000. He worked alongside his father, who had been appointed the head of Chechnya's state oil company.

Chechnya at that time was led by Kadyrov's father. After his assassination in 2004, power passed to his son, Ramzan, and his relationship with the Osmayevs quickly deteriorated in a dispute over lucrative energy contracts. The Osmayevs fled to Ukraine.

In February 2012, Adam Osmayev was arrested at Russia's behest and charged with planning an assassination attempt against Putin. Ukraine at the time had a pro-Kremlin government. Osmayev spent three years in detention until being released in November 2014 by Ukraine's new Western-leaning government.

Shortly after his release, he joined a battalion formed by prominent Chechen commander Isa Munayev to fight against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. When Munayev was killed on Feb. 1, Osmayav took over the command.

His battalion includes several dozen Chechens, many with combat experience gained in the separatist wars in their homeland against Russian army troops. They regularly get calls from Ukrainian army units asking them to carry out reconnaissance missions or diversionary raids behind rebel lines.

Hundreds of Chechens also are fighting on the separatist side. They first joined the rebels last summer in the early stages of the conflict, and with their combat gear and professional demeanor they stood out among what was then a ragtag local force. Kadyrov has described pro-Russia Chechens fighting in Ukraine as volunteers, the same explanation the Kremlin provides for the Russians among the separatist forces.

Osmayev said he has few doubts that the perpetrators of Nemtsov's killing have ties to Kadyrov, but that the security services now need a convenient scapegoat whose guilt would be easily acceptable to the Russian general public.

"The fact the FSB is . trying to somehow implicate me in Nemtsov's murder is utterly ridiculous," Osmayev said, "but not hard to believe now that I am involved in the situation here in Ukraine."

___

Lynn Berry and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Crimean Tatars head for rally in outskirts of Simferopol

May 18, 2014
Interfax
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines


Part of Crimean Tatars plan to hold an unauthorized rally commemorating the victims of the deportation of their people in 1944 near a mosque in the outskirts of Simferopol.

Hundreds of people are heading for the rally carrying flags the family emblem of the dynasty of Crimean khans, an Interfax correspondent reports.

Earlier on Sunday flowers were brought to monuments to the victims of the deportation. People came there in small groups. There were no more than 100 people at a time at the memorial near the railway station in Simferopol.

For More Info:  http://rbth.com/news/2014/05/18/crimean_tatars_head_for_rally_in_outskirts_of_simferopol_36734.html.

Faster, larger, further: How the USSR combined the plane and the helicopter

April 28, 2014
Alexander Korolkov, special to RBTH
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines 


A highly versatile aircraft that requires only a flat space for landing and can transport cargo over long distances, the tiltrotor would appear to be made for Russia. Yet despite decades of development on various projects, the country still has no rival to the U.S. V-22 Osprey.
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines - http://rbth.com/defence/2014/04/28/faster_larger_further_how_the_ussr_combined_the_plane_and_the_helicop_36279.html?code=4b14ee83c2e50d0834f4f9d033ed1b23)

Russia promises a tough response to new U.S. sanctions

April 29, 2014
Igor Rozin, RBTH
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines 

The U.S. has announced new sanctions against a range of Russian companies and individuals with close Kremlin links in response to what it sees as Russia’s continued intervention in eastern Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned that Moscow will make a “painful” response to Washington’s decision.


The U.S. has imposed new sanctions against Russian companies and individuals in response to what it sees as Russia’s “continued illegal intervention in Ukraine and provocative acts that undermine Ukraine's democracy.”
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines - http://rbth.com/international/2014/04/29/russia_promises_a_tough_response_to_new_us_sanctions_36309.html?code=6282e19c93a9310cf046b7e531922c81)

Russia pushes BRICS nations to establish their own rating agency

April 29, 2014 
Alexei Lossan
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines 


Standard & Poor's has downgraded Russia’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating from BBB to BBB-. According to the Russian authorities, the major rating agencies are influenced by the United States, and an alternative BRICS-based rating agency should be established. China has already expressed its interest in the project.

Assistance from China

Russia is to propose to its BRICS partners the establishment of a single common credit rating agency that will compete with the Big Three – Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch. 

That was the conclusion reached by participants of a meeting chaired by Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, after Standard & Poor's downgraded Russia’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating from BBB to BBB-.

"First of all, the case in question is the involvement of our traditional partners, such as the BRICS nations and the Eurasian Economic Union,” Konstantin Korishchenko, Head of the Department of Stock Markets and Financial Engineering at the Russian Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration, who attended the meeting, told RBTH. 

“All the BRICS nations already have national rating structures, so it is primarily a matter of mutual recognition. Our foreign partners can help each other in terms of setting standards and oversight mechanisms, but most importantly in the mutual recognition of their ratings," said Korishchenko.
  
In particular, according to sources from the RBC-Daily newspaper, a new agency could be established based on a partnership between the Russian rating agency RusRating and the Chinese agency Dagong Global. 

The U.S. agency Egan-Jones Ratings, which has long dreamed of pushing back the Big Three, could help facilitate the process. Furthermore, Dagong Global has already held talks with RusRating in Beijing at a BRICS meeting: The company has proposed to start negotiations to establish a new international credit rating agency to be based in the BRICS nations.

According to Mikhail Kuzmin, an analyst at Investcafé, Dagong Global is represented today mainly domestically, although the agency does assign sovereign ratings to various countries. In turn, the U.S.’s Egan-Jones Ratings mainly assigns ratings to debt instruments including bond issues, bank loans, etc.
As noted by Vadim Vedernikov, Deputy Director of the Research and Risk Management Department at UFS IC, both agencies are known for their long-term activities on assigning ratings to corporate and sovereign issuers, as they operate in "hot" credit markets such as China and the United States. 

The project to set up a single common agency has already been called the Universal Credit Rating Group. 

"The ratings which the Universal Credit Rating Group could start assigning to Russian companies could gain a degree of recognition in foreign investment circles approaching that of the ratings which have been assigned by the American Three,” says Vedernikov.

Alternative solutions
The other solution is to cooperate with ARC Ratings, the international consortium of agencies from Portugal, India, South Africa, Malaysia and Brazil.
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines - http://rbth.com/business/2014/04/29/russia_pushes_brics_nations_to_establish_their_own_rating_agency_36307.html?code=878965eda68282ffc73407b5665fdc42)

NATO Wants More Military Spending? More Than 990 Billion?

Apr 11, 2014
By: Ben Swann
Source: benswann.com


A lot of talk about the need for increased military spending by NATO countries in order to combat the threat of the Russians in Eastern Europe. What the media isn’t telling you… how much money NATO countries already spend on military compared to the Russians? Spoiler alert, it is a lot!

Read more: http://benswann.com/nato-wants-more-military-spending-more-than-990-billion/#ixzz30S7spux4

Putin threatens to make Ukraine pay ahead for gas

17 hours ago
By PETER LEONARD and LAURA MILLS
Source: Yahoo News

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Wednesday to start charging Ukraine in advance for vital natural gas supplies — a move that could sharply hurt his neighbor, which is already on the verge of bankruptcy.

It was just the latest way Moscow is putting pressure on Ukraine since its pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from power in February after months of street protests.

Meanwhile, NATO's top military commander in Europe told The Associated Press that countermoves to the Russian military threat against Ukraine could include sending American troops to alliance nations in Eastern Europe feeling at risk.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he wouldn't "write off involvement by any nation, to include the United States."

"Essentially what we are looking at is a package of land, air and maritime measures that would build assurance for our easternmost allies," he said.

Putin, who was chairing a meeting with government ministers in his suburban residence outside Moscow, Putin said asking for advance gas payments "corresponded with the contract" between Ukraine and Russia. Still, he suggested that the state energy giant Gazprom to refrain from such drastic measures until "additional consultations" between both sides.

Russia has already eliminated a gas discount it had given Ukraine, arguing that it was tied to a lease for Russia's Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea, a Ukrainian region that Russia annexed last month. And Ukraine has promised the International Monetary Fund that it will cut energy subsidies to residents in exchange for a bailout loan of up to $14 billion — so gas prices were set to rise 50 percent on May 1 even before the latest salvo from Putin.

Speaking in Kiev earlier, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said Ukraine will pay for March deliveries of gas from Russia only after it reaches an agreement on the price. He rejected the new, much higher price that Gazprom announced earlier and said Ukraine has not pumped in any gas from Russia so far this month.

Authorities in Kiev also warned Wednesday they are prepared to use force to clear several government buildings seized by pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the standoff in Luhansk and the two neighboring Russian-leaning regions of Donetsk and Kharkiv must be resolved within the next two days.

"I want to repeat that there are two options: political settlement through negotiations and the use of force," Avakov told reporters. "We are ready for both options."

As he spoke, anti-government protesters in Luhansk erected high barricades along a thoroughfare running in front of the security service premises.

All the cities affected by the uprisings are in Ukraine's industrial Russian-speaking heartland in the east, which has a large population of ethnic Russians and where economic and cultural ties to Russia are strong. Many residents are suspicious of government that took power in February.

In a sign of the public relations battle going on between the two nations, some Russian media — including state-run RIA Novosti — switched their description of those occupying the buildings from pro-Russian protesters to "supporters of federalization."

Protesters continued to occupy the headquarters of Ukraine's Security Service in the eastern city of Luhansk, with hundreds of supporters camped outside and shouting "Putin! Putin!" overnight.

The security agency had said the separatists inside the building, armed with explosives and other weapons, were threatening hostages inside. The hostages — 56 in all —were allowed to leave the building overnight, it said. Local police disputed that claim, however, saying there had been no hostages.

Serhiy Tyhipko, a Ukrainian lawmaker associated with Yanukovych's ousted government, urged the new authorities in Kiev not to storm the building in Luhansk but rather negotiate a peaceful resolution. He said the protesters wanted Ukraine to turn into a federal state with broad regional autonomy, not for their region to secede.

"The people are not bringing up the issue of breaking off from Ukraine and are not calling for the help of foreign countries," Tyhipko said on his Facebook page.

But turning Ukraine into a federation is Russia's key demand — one Ukraine's new government has refused to discuss, calling it a precursor to a breakup.

In the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, where protesters were still occupying another government building, regional governor Serhiy Taruta met with key activists to try to find a solution to the crisis.

The Donetsk activists sounded optimistic after the talks, with leading figure Denis Bulishin hailing the opportunity for dialogue but stopping short of talking about any tangible results.

Ukraine's government and the U.S. have accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest as a pretext for another Russian military incursion similar to last month's takeover of Crimea. Up to 40,000 Russian troops are massed along the Ukrainian border, according to NATO.

The Russian Foreign Ministry hit back at the West on Wednesday, calling for the U.S. to stop using international organizations as a means of "exacerbating tensions surrounding Ukraine."

"The daily activity of Russian troops on national territory does not threaten the security of the U.S. or other member states of the OSCE," it said. "Attempts to accuse Russia of a buildup of troops are unfounded."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday called on Moscow to ease tensions, saying it's "beyond any doubt, that the country that has contributed to this conflict — Russia — is responsible for the de-escalation."

___

John-Thor Dahlburg in Paris, Maria Danilova in Kiev, Laura Mills in Moscow and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.

 

Ukraine agrees to host NATO war games

April 1, 2014 
Source:Yahoo News

Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday approved a series of joint military exercises with NATO countries that would put US troops in direct proximity to Russian forces in the annexed Crimea peninsula.

"This is a good opportunity to develop our armed forces," acting defence minister Mykhailo Koval told Verkhovna Rada lawmakers ahead of the 235-0 vote.

The decision came as NATO foreign ministers gathered in Brussels for a two-day meeting dominated by concern over the recent buildup of Russian forces near Crimea that US officials estimate had at one point reached about 40,000 troops.

NATO has sought to reinforce its eastern frontier after Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula and amid concerns about Kremlin's emboldened foreign policy.

Russia on Monday reported pulling back a battalion of about 500 to 700 soldiers from the border region in a move that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called "a small sign that the situation is becoming less tense".

Ukraine is not a NATO member and its new Western-backed leaders have vowed not to push for closer relations with the Brussels-based military alliance -- a bloc that has been viewed with deep mistrust by Moscow since the Cold War.

But the ex-Soviet nation did form a "distinctive partnership" with the Alliance in 1997 and has been staging joint exercises with its state members ever since.

The exercises approved on Tuesday would see Ukraine conduct two sets of military exercises with the United States this summer -- Rapid Trident and Sea Breeze -- that have prompted disquiet in Russia in previous years.

Ukraine is planning two additional manoeuvres with NATO member Poland as well as joint ground operations with Moldova and Romania.

The Sea Breeze exercises have particularly irritated Moscow because they had on occasion been staged in Crimea -- the home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Those manoeuvres have in more recent years been moved to the Black Sea port of Odessa where Ukraine also has a naval base.

An explanatory note accompanying the Tuesday bill says that the naval section of Sea Breeze would this time be conducted over a 25-day span between July and October out of two Odessa ports and "along the waters of the Black Sea".

 

Land Key as Tatars discuss future plans

March 28,2014
Source: mail.com

SIMFEROPOL, Crimea (AP) — As armed pro-Russian forces spread out across Crimea, Mustafa Maushev joined his Tatar neighbors on a nightly vigil to keep intruders off their property.

Almost exactly 70 years ago, Tatars were expelled from their homeland as a result of one of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's merciless mass deportations of perceived enemies of the state. Decades later, as the Soviet Union was crumbling, many returned and slowly reclaimed their place.

Following a March referendum that ended with Crimea breaking away from Ukraine and being swallowed up by Russia, disquiet is stirring that the Tatars' hard-fought hold over their land could be lost once again.

On Saturday, 250 delegates are gathering in the southern Crimean town of Bakchysarai for a traditional Tatar Qurultay congress to decide whether to hold a referendum on yielding to absorption by Russia or clinging to their Ukrainian citizenship. The former choice might be easier, but few have any illusions.

"Russia is offering us all sorts of nice things. But we understand the essence of the Russian empire, because we are its victims," said Zevget Kutumerov, a Tatar with extensive experience of dealing with land issues. "If (Russian President Vladimir) Putin says a word, they'll pass any law tomorrow. That's what we're afraid of."

One of the Tatars' greatest problems is their legally tenuous control over the land on which they live.
Maushev, a neighborhood delegate to the kurultai, arrived penniless from Uzbekistan in 1989 and was forced to scrabble and find a home for himself.

Linking up with about 100 other homeless Tatars, he pitched a tent in a field on the outskirts of the Crimean capital, Simferopol. Each settler built a "vremyanka," or makeshift hut, which provided just enough shelter for squatters guarding the land overnight.

"About 30 or 40 people kept watch here at night so that nobody would trespass, nobody would come and break down the vremyankas," Maushev said. By the community's own estimates, Tatars on average own two-fifths as much land as ethnic Russians in Crimea. While Tatars account for only 12 percent of the peninsula's population, space still remains tight for younger generations raising large families.

 After a decade-long moratorium in which no group settlements were founded, Crimean Tatars organized thousands of land seizures in 2006, as the children of the first wave of migrants grew up, made families, and felt cramped in the old settlements.

"I was living in an apartment with my mother, grandmother, everyone — female warfare, every day," said Sedomed Setumerov, who lives about a kilometer down the road from Maushev in a newer settlement. Yet regardless of how the kurultai dictates Tatars should determine their fealty, whatever victories the community has scored in securing land may yet be lost. Many Tatars worry that Russian laws will limit their ability to press for the government to recognized their land ownership.

In Russia, heavy fines are levied on those who participate in unsanctioned protests, which often end within minutes as demonstrators are swept brutally away. Setumerov moved here in 2010, and now lives in a self-built house with his wife and his three young children. The vast field around them, empty but for the identical but crumbling vremyanki on equal plots of land, gives it the air of a ghost town.

They have lived for three years without running water or electricity, using a generator that has enough gusto for a few lamps and a television but not for a washing machine. They are waiting for the government to recognize them as the owners of the land, which will allow them to use electricity and water from the public grid.

Setumerov acknowledges the wait may be long — especially now that Russia has annexed Crimea — but says it's worth it. "I'd still rather live in a vremyanka," he said. "At least it's quiet and the air is fresh."

Crimea's Tartars condemn annexation,seek autonomy

March 24,2014
Source: Mail.com

BAKCHYSARAI, Crimea (AP) — Leaders of Crimea's Tatar minority gathered Saturday to condemn Russia's annexation of the peninsula and appealed to international bodies for recognition as an autonomous group.

Tatars, an ethnically Turkic and mainly Muslim group that was subjected to mass deportation from their native Crimea by Soviet leader Josef Stalin in 1944, gathered to forge a collective response to Russia's absorption of their native region.

Decisions on whether to accept Russian citizenship and possible participation in a Moscow-loyal government were deferred as the community further contemplates its options. But the forum of about 250 delegates underscored difficulties Russia will face in integrating a community that resisted annexation and largely boycotted the March 16 referendum to join Russia.

According to the most recent Ukrainian national census, carried out in 2001, the 245,000-strong Tatar community accounted for 12 percent of Crimea's population. But anecdotal evidence of higher birth rates and a continued return of Tatars from exile in Central Asia suggest those figures may have grown markedly since then.

The Kremlin decision to annex this strategic Black Sea region, which has a large Russian majority, was backed by rhetoric of national self-determination, as Moscow argued that pro-Russian Crimeans had the right to break away from Ukraine.

"Recently, all decisions (by Russia) have been based on the presupposed right of every nation to self-determination," said Refat Chubarov, the leader of the Crimean Tatar governing body. "One must now conclude that the Crimean Tatar people also have that right."

Chubarov also appealed to the international community to recognize the Crimean Tatars as a "national territorial autonomy," but fell short of demanding a referendum on independence or allegiance to Ukraine.
Yet the vociferous tone of the delegates who spoke demonstrated the lingering rage within the Tatar community. "Russia turned us out three times," Aishe Setmetova, an elderly woman in a knit sweater, bellowed from the stage. "They think of us as worthless objects. I do not believe in Russia."

Crimea's Tatars began to return to their native peninsula in the late 1980s with the breakup of the Soviet Union. The population is growing fast compared to the ageing Russian population and presents the Kremlin with a long-term problem of integration.

Russia and the local Crimean government have assured Tatars that their rights will be fully respected on the peninsula. Tatar is to be elevated to one of the three state languages and the community has been given loose assurances it will be guaranteed a prominent political status.

But Tatars, who ruled the peninsula from the 15th century until the Russian Empire took it over in the 18th century, remain deeply skeptical of Moscow's intentions. "We, as the native people of this land, shouldn't collaborate with an occupying power," congress delegate Ilver Ametov said.

"Ukraine, too, wasn't our home, but at least it was a democracy," he said. "There's a story we have about the dog who ran to Moscow because things were better over there, but ran back to Ukraine because at least here he's allowed to bark."

Putin puts troops in western Russia on alert in drill

February 26, 2014
By Steve Gutterman
Source: Yahoo News

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin ordered an urgent drill to test the combat readiness of his armed forces across western Russia on Wednesday, flexing Moscow's military muscle amid tension with the West over Ukraine.

Russia said the exercises were not linked to events in Ukraine, where the ouster of a president who turned his back on the European Union and sought closer ties with Moscow has raised worries in the West over possibility of military intervention.

Putin has ordered several such surprise drills in different Russian regions since he returned to the presidency in 2012, saying the military must be kept on its toes, but the crisis in the neighboring nation gave them added geopolitical resonance.

"In accordance with an order from the president of the Russian Federation, forces of the Western Military District were put on alert at 1400 (0500 ET) today," the Interfax news agency quoted Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying.

Shoigu said the training drills were not linked to events in Ukraine, and Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov said they had been previously planned. He said they would involve about 150,000 military personnel.

The western district encompasses most of western Russia and borders Ukraine, which lies between NATO nations and Russia.

Forces must "be ready to bomb unfamiliar testing grounds" as part of the drill, Shoigu told a Defence Ministry meeting.

Putin has made no public comment on Ukraine since President Viktor Yanukovich was driven from power over the weekend. His ouster came after months of political turmoil that began when he spurned deals with the European Union and sought to improve ties with Russia.

The United States and European nations have warned Russia against military intervention in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that Putin has called a "brother nation" and wants to be part of a Eurasian Union he is building in the region.

Russian officials have said Moscow will not interfere in Ukraine, while accusing the West of doing so. Interfax cited the speaker of the upper parliament house, Valentina Matviyenko, as saying on Wednesday it would not use force.

But Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that Russia's interests and its citizens in Ukraine were under threat, language reminiscent of statements justifying Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008, when he was president.

Shoigu said the drill would be conducted in two stages, ending on March 3, and also involved the command centers of Russia's Air and Space Defence forces, paratroops and long-range aviation as well as some troops in central Russia.

In the two-day first stage, military units would be brought to "the highest degree of combat readiness" and would be deployed to testing areas on land and sea, Interfax quoted Shoigu as saying.

The second stage would include tactical exercises and involve warships from the Northern and Baltic Fleets, he said, and some warplanes would move to combat airfields.

Descriptions of the exercises did not mention the Black Sea Fleet, which is based in Sevastopol in Crimea. Tension over Ukraine's turmoil is high because of the fleet's presence and the region's large ethnic Russian population.

In separate comments, Shoigu said Russia was "carefully watching what is happening in Crimea" and was taking unspecified measures to ensure the security of the facilities and arsenals of the Black Sea Fleet, state-run RIA reported.

Shoigu said the drill would also test the counter-terrorism measures in place at military units. Russian officials have referred to some of the Ukrainian opposition forces whose protests pushed Yanukovich from power as "terrorists".

(Writing by Steve Gutterman and Thomas Grove, editing by Larry King)

Disputes over arms for Syria cloud U.S.-Russian peace drive

14 hours ago
By Alissa de Carbonnel | Reuters 
Source: Yahoo News

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Disputes between Russia and the West over arming warring sides in Syria on Tuesday dimmed prospects for peace talks that were also clouded by disarray among President Bashar al-Assad's political foes.

As Western nations debate what action, if any, they should take on Syria, Assad's main allies - Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah group - have been closing ranks behind him.

Russia, which has protected Assad diplomatically since the Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011, said it would deliver an advanced S-300 air defense system to Damascus despite U.S., French and Israeli objections, arguing that it would help deter "hotheads" intent on intervention in the conflict.

Moscow also accused the European Union of "throwing fuel on the fire" and "undermining" the chances of holding a peace conference at Geneva by letting an arms embargo on Syria expire.

France and Britain, the EU's strongest military powers and most ardent advocates of scrapping the embargo, said they had not yet decided to arm Syrian rebels, but wanted to put Assad under pressure to negotiate.

"Our focus in the coming weeks is the Geneva conference," said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. "What this is doing is sending that signal loud and clear to the regime and ... being very clear about the flexibility that we have if it refuses to negotiate."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Western powers were putting the very idea of a conference at risk while his deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, defended Moscow's missile shipment.

"We think this delivery is a stabilizing factor and that such steps in many ways restrain some hotheads," he said.

The S-300s can intercept manned aircraft and guided missiles and their delivery could improve Assad's chances of retaining power. Western nations criticize such arms deliveries in much the same terms as Moscow assails weapons supplies to rebels.

Israel's defense minister said the air defense missiles had not yet left Russia, but hinted at military action if they were delivered: "I hope they will not leave, and if, God forbid, they reach Syria, we will know what to do," Moshe Yaalon said.

Despite their differences, the United States and Russia are trying to convene an international conference next month to end a 26-month-old conflict that has killed more than 80,000 people and threatens to ignite wider Middle Eastern confrontations.

But the opposing sides remain far apart on whether Assad should play any role in any political transition - and the main Western-backed opposition has not even said if it will attend.

Diplomats in Geneva said a meeting could be held at the U.N. there on June 15-16 just before the U.S., Russian and EU leaders meet at a Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland on June 17.

"CHASE THEM TO HELL"

Fighting in Syria has intensified on several fronts in recent weeks and is spilling dangerously into Lebanon, whose Hezbollah guerrillas now openly fight alongside Assad's forces.

In a weekend speech, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised victory for his Iranian-backed group, saying the battle in Syria was vital for its primary struggle against Israel.

On the ever more volatile Lebanese-Syrian border, gunmen killed three Lebanese soldiers at a checkpoint in the Bekaa Valley before fleeing toward Syria, Lebanese officials said.

Hours earlier a rocket fired into the mainly Shi'ite town of Hermel in the Bekaa killed a woman and wounded two people.

A Syrian rebel leader threatened reprisals against Hezbollah unless the Arab League and the United Nations acted within 24 hours to halt the militant group's intervention in Syria.

"We will chase them all the way to hell if a decision is not taken to stop Hezbollah's attack on Syrian land," Brigadier-General Salem Idris told Al-Arabiya television channel.

Idris, a defector from Assad's military, is a favored channel for Western aid to rebels, although his control over diverse armed factions is thought to be limited.

Violence in Syria is gradually spreading to Lebanon, raising fears for the fate of a small nation that lost anywhere between 100,000 and 150,000 dead in its own 1975-90 civil war.

Syria's civil war has divided Lebanon, with most Lebanese Shi'ites supporting Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is rooted in Shi'ite Islam. Many Lebanese Sunnis back the mostly Sunni Syrian rebels, putting the Lebanese army under extra pressure to keep a lid on sectarian tensions.

Assad's government, whose forces have been staging fierce offensives on rebel strongholds around Damascus and the border town of Qusair, has named representatives for the peace talks Washington and Moscow hope to convene in Geneva in June.

But opposition political factions, not to mention the rebel combatants over whom they wield scant control, remain riven by internal divisions even after six days of talks in Istanbul.

The 60-member Syrian National Coalition has failed to agree to include more liberals in its ranks to the dismay of Western and some Arab backers keen to reduce the influence of Islamists.

The disarray raises questions about the opposition's ability to agree any sort of inclusive transitional government and could strengthen Assad's hand before any peace talks.

Western and Arab envoys sought to break the opposition deadlock which could even scupper the U.S.-Russian initiative.

"Effectively, without an opposition overhaul there will not be a Geneva," a frustrated regional official in Istanbul said.

U.S. chides Russia over missiles as peace plans suffer

10 hrs ago
By Erika Solomon | Reuters 
Source: Yahoo News

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States chided Russia for sending missiles to the Syrian government as plans for a peace conferencepromoted by Washington and Moscow were hit by diplomatic rifts over its scope and purpose.

Sectarian bloodshed in neighboring Iraq during Friday prayers, a hacking attack on a Western newspaper by sympathizers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and defiant comments by a rebel commander filmed eating a slain soldier's flesh were all reminders of how the two-year-old civil war is metastising.

But the divisions among world powers that have prevented a coordinated resolution were also again on display, just 10 days after Russia and the United States agreed to bury differences and push for an urgent international conference to end the war.

The most senior U.S. military officer, General Martin Dempsey, described Russia's recent delivery of anti-ship missiles to Assad as "ill-timed and very unfortunate" and risked prolonging a war which has already killed more than 80,000 Syrians and which the U.N. said had driven 1.5 million abroad.

While not responding directly to U.S. assertions that it had sent Yakhont missiles, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said Russia would honor contracts to supply Syria, which has been a customer for Moscow's weaponry since the Cold War.

"It's at the very least an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering," Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

With a range of 300 km (200 miles), the Yakhont could prove a threat to warships in the Mediterranean, should, for example, Western powers abandon their deep reserve and intervene to offer air support to the rebels, as they did in Libya two years ago.

No date has yet been agreed for the international meeting, which appears to face growing obstacles. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met Putin in Russia on Friday and said the conference should take place as soon as possible.

But highlighting the diplomatic conundrum it poses, France spelled out explicitly on Friday that it would oppose any meeting if Assad's regional ally Iran were invited - contrary to the Russian position that Tehran should be part of a solution.

ESCALATION

The rebels and key Arab and Western backers will meet in Amman on Wednesday to discuss how to approach a conference. But it is also far from clear that Assad's opponents can forge a united front or agree to meet the president's representatives.

After months of diplomatic stalemate, Washington and Moscow have been pushed to convene the conference by the rising death toll and atrocities, signs of escalation across Syria's frontiers and suspicions that chemical arms may have been used.

Three weeks ago, Israeli air strikes near Damascus that were said to target Iranian weapons heading for Lebanon drove home the risk of the Syrian conflict spreading further afield. As much was true of bombings last week across the border in Turkey.

On Friday, dozens of Iraqis were killed in bombings which fuelled fears that the increasingly sectarian war in Syria, where Sunni Islamists are a part of the rebellion and Assad's Alawite minority is backed by Shi'ite Iran, could plunge Iraq back into its own bloody civil conflict between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.

Two bombs exploded outside a Sunni mosque in the city of Baquba as worshippers left Friday prayers, killing at least 43 people in one of the deadliest attacks of recent months.

Several other bombings claimed lives around the country - with 19 killed near a commercial complex in the west of Baghdad. Attacks on Sunni and Shi'ite mosques, security forces and tribal leaders have mounted since troops from the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government raided a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk a month ago.

London's Financial Times became the latest Western media outlet to be targeted by online activists who support Assad.

Stories on the FT's website had their headlines replaced by "Hacked By Syrian Electronic Army" and messages on its Twitter feed read: "Do you want to know the reality of the Syrian 'Rebels?'" followed by a link to a video that purports to show members of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front rebel group executing blindfolded and kneeling Syrian soldiers.

The video could not be independently verified.

Following another of many Internet videos that have caused concern over deepening communal hatreds, a rebel commander who was filmed apparently cutting out and biting into the heart or other organ of a dead solder made a statement on Friday.

"I am ready to be held accountable for my actions, on condition that Bashar and his shabbiha (militias) are tried for crimes they committed against our women and children," the man known as Abu Sakkar said in a new video posting.

"I send this message to the world: if the bloodshed in Syria does not stop, every Syrian will become Abu Sakkar."

Asked by the unseen interviewer why he mutilated the body, he said the soldier's phone contained video clips of him raping women, burning bodies and cutting off the limbs of captives.

JUNE MEETING?

A Western diplomat at the United Nations in New York said the target date for the peace conference was June 10-15, but it depended on the readiness of the Syrian parties. An alternative plan would be to hold an international conference and then have the Syrians meet at a later date when they are prepared.

The Russian arms transfer could intensify a push by some U.S. lawmakers for the United States to deepen its role in Syria, particularly after President Barack Obama's government acknowledged preliminary intelligence that Assad's forces likely used chemical weapons - something Obama has called a "red line".

"We can watch from the sidelines as the scales are tipped in Assad's favor, or protect U.S. national interests by supporting the armed opposition striving to build a new Syrian future," said Senate foreign relations committee chairman Robert Menendez.

But many U.S. officials fear Western weapons could fall into the wrong hands. Obama said Thursday he would consider both diplomatic and military options to pressure Assad, but insisted U.S. action alone would not be enough to resolve the conflict.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Israeli gas, Iranian Missles, and the Russian Price Tag

Aug 17, 2012
by Rotem Sella
Source: Gatestone Institute

In the on-going debate over an Israeli attack on Iran, attention has largely focused over the last few weeks on Israel and America, for good reason. But what about Russia?

A very senior person in the Israeli gas industry tells me: "The Russians have been poking around here for a while. Everyone knows about the Russian interest in controlling the European energy market. Do they want to buy from us, or delay our efforts? I don't know. But they are here."

In early July, the Israeli energy and infrastructure news website "Thastiot" claimed that during Vladimir Putin's much publicized visit to Israel, Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to form a junior company to Gazprom – the Russian oil and gas giant—which would help develop Israel's biggest gas field, the recently discovered reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, the so-called "Levyatan" (Leviathan) reserves.

"Eventually Israeli gas will be exported to the far east," Ohad Marani, CEO of IDLC energy which is already drilling the Myra, said to me. For him, the question is purely economic. "In the Far East we will see three times what we see in Europe. While we won't be able to keep the whole margin, it's surely better than any European option, which would involve an expensive pipe."

The senior industry veteran with whom I spoke is not quite sure. Yes, the Far East has unlimited demand ("The Japanese are lessening their reliance on nuclear, and the Chinese can never have enough") but the European market remains relevant and we have this massive amount of gas already discovered or to be discovered. The US geological survey (USGC) estimates that gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean amount to 345 trillion cubic feet while Russian gas reserves in Siberia are estimated at 643 tcf.

Big business! With lots of Russians having come and gone to Israel on this question, one wonders about the relationship between the gas deal and Russian involvement on the Iran question.

The same week Putin visited Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Eurasia monitor published that:

"the government agency that oversees Russia's arms exports and imports… confirmed that Iran is suing Russia for damages to the tune of some $4 billion in the Court of Arbitration in Geneva for cancelling in 2010 a contract to sell five divisions of the S-300 long-range antiaircraft missile system worth an estimated $800 million to $1 billion."

By some estimates the worth of the Levayatan gas-field might be 15 billion dollars say Gilad Alper, the gas industry analyst at the Excellence Investment house. It trades today at a price of 3 billion dollars.

Another way to look at it: Levayatan contains 473 billion cubic meters of gas. Gazprom exported 150 billion cubic meters of Gas to Europe in 2011, at a price of 384$ per thousand cubic meters – revenue of 57.6 billion dollar—this year Gazprom raised the price to 415$, an 8% increase that will generate another 4.6 billion dollar of revenue to Gazprom. What would be the cost of keeping Israeli competition neutralized? Would it be worth the cancellation of an 800 million dollar deal? Could Russian action over the missile sale and Israeli gas reserves indicate that they have come to terms with the Israeli point of view?

Prominent Americans like David Petraeus have been saying non-stop that Israel does not have the capability to destroy Iranian Nuclear capacities, and surely not Iran's ambition to go nuclear. But if Israel can indeed delay the project while in the meantime having taken out of the picture one of Iran's most important allies, then things might look very different from the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Everyone knows that Russia intends to play the 'spoiler' in the International arena. But this spoiler frequently has a price tag.

Russia slams Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:44:29 GMT

Russia has expressed concern over Israel's repeated violations of the Lebanese airspace and sovereignty in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions.

In a statement on Thursday, Deputy Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yakovenko said that Israel's non-abidance by the UN Resolution 1701 is manifested in its continued violation of the Lebanese airspace and the refusal to withdraw from al-Ghajar town.

He added that the Security Council will be looking into a report prepared by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about the implementation of Resolution 1701 and the conflict in the Middle East.

Yakovenko also noted that Israel's settlement activities in Palestine are a serious obstacle to the Mideast peace process.

Israeli fighter jets invade Lebanese airspace almost on a daily basis and break sound barriers over several villages in southern parts of the country. The violations come amid heightened concern in Lebanon over recent Israeli threats and provocations against the country.

The UN considers the Israeli violation of Lebanese airspace to be against Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the Israeli offensive against Lebanon in 2006.