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."

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

 

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."