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Pro-Russian rally in Sevastopol
20:25 25/02/2014
SEVASTOPOL, February 25 (Howard
Amos, RIA Novosti) – “A Russian mayor for a Russian town,” chanted the lively
and irate crowd clogging the center of Sevastopol,
a warm water port on the Black Sea.
Except that Sevastopol is, in actual fact, in Ukraine.
Since the opposition,
much of whose ranks are occupied by unabashed Ukrainian nationalists, seized
power, calls for secession have been spreading across the sprawling nation’s
mainly Russian-speaking southern and eastern regions.
In Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, talk of
greater autonomy turned to action Monday evening, when a throng numbering
several thousand strong assembled outside the city hall.
Their first call was
to demand that an extraordinary town council meeting recognize a local
businessman with strong ties to Russia,
Alexei Chaliy, as the city’s new mayor.
As some hotheads in
the rabble threatened to storm the building, other waved Russian flags and
brushed aside objections that Chaliy’s Russian citizenship made him ineligible
for the job.
© RIA Novosti. Vasily
Batanov
Sevastopol businessman Alexei
Chaliy (r) who has a Russian citizenship was elected as the city's new mayor
Before long, the
announcement filtered through that Chaliy had been voted head of a new
coordination council, and within a few minutes, he appeared at a second floor
window to the cries of supporters.
In a move that
smoothed the process, the former mayoral incumbent Vladimir Yatsuba had earlier
tearfully announced his resignation, thereby paving the way for the
Russian town to get its Russian leader.
The day’s events
marked the first stages in the establishment of an anti-Kiev administration
amid tumultuous development that will cause headaches for the group of
politicians that have replaced the administration of ousted fugitive President
Viktor Yanukovych.
Similar expressions
of popular anger have taken place across southern and eastern Ukraine in recent days, but nowhere is
dissatisfaction with the new regime greater than in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula of two million people, which is the
country’s only region with a majority ethnic Russian population.
Chaliy’s election,
which has been widely covered by Kremlin-friendly media outlets in Russia, is
unprecedented. Sevastopol has not elected a
mayor by popular plebiscite since Kiev
deprived it of that right in 1992.
Following up on their
successful collective decision to install Chaliy as city head, the gathering in
Sevastopol
demanded that local security forces declare their allegiance to him and set up
roadblocks to seal off the city.
Speculation, often
feverish, has been rife that armed units are to be dispatched from western Ukraine to subjugate Crimea and bend them to Kiev’s will.
City police chief
Alexander Goncharov, who went to Monday’s meeting to answer questions, said
four roadblocks manned by armed officers would be set up around the city.
“If we receive
criminal orders from Kiev,
we will not carry them out,” he said, in what seemed like a qualified attempt
at fence-sitting as the situation becomes clearer.
One of the people in
the crowd, Fyodor, 26, a sailor from Sevastopol
who travels around the world on merchant ships, echoed a common hope that Moscow could get
involved.
“If there’s
repression of Russians in Crimea then Russia will be forced to respond,”
he said.
Alexandra, who
declined to give her surname, called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to
take direct action.
“Putin and the Black Sea fleet should come,” she said. “We are not
scared of bloodshed.”
Crimea’s ties with Russia go back
a long way.
Until Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev in 1954 transferred the territory to what was then the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Crimea was officially a part of Russia.
During Yanukovych’s
tenure, which began in early 2010, Ukraine
renewed Russia’s lease on
the naval base in Sevastopol until 2042,
cementing what was already a strong economic link between Moscow and the region.
Separatist sentiments
surfaced following the collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1991, and rumors have persisted ever since that the impulse is covertly
encouraged by the Kremlin.
On Sunday, there was
a wave of large pro-Russian rallies in Crimea.
Some estimates put the turnout in Sevastopol upward of 20,000, far larger than
the impromptu throng of the following day. Speakers variously condemned the new
government in Kiev
as fascist and openly called for secession.
“We will not submit
to the regime in Kiev,” Dmitry Sinichkin,
president of the local branch of motorcycle club the Night Wolves told the
crowd in Sevastopol.
The Night Wolves are
closely linked to Russia’s
political elite. Putin has visited the group in the city several times, on one
occasion in 2010 riding a three-wheeled Harley Davidson alongside the bikers.
After his speech,
Sinichkin told RIA Novosti that fresh bloodshed in Ukraine’s ongoing political crisis
was inevitable.
Rally-goers waved the
Russian red, white and blue tricolor and yelled the football fan-style chant of
“Ros-si-ya, Ros-si-ya, Ros-si-ya,” as they endorsed calls to create
self-defense squads with police cooperation and withhold taxes from Kiev.
© RIA Novosti. Vasily
Batanov
Participants of a
pro-Russian rally in Sevastopol
carrying "Stop Ukrainian nazism" posters
“Sevastopol is a
Russian town and will always be a Russian town … we will never surrender to
those fascists in Kiev,” said Anatoly, who was wearing a sweater bearing the
logo of the United Russia party that dominates the political landscape in
Ukraine’s eastern neighbor.
United Russia, he
said, had signed a cooperation agreement with the Sevastopol Russian Community,
a local society of which he was a member.
While Putin had as of
Tuesday refrained from making any public pronouncements on the unfolding
situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry was more forthright in describing the
acting government as gaining power through “dictatorial and sometimes terrorist
methods.”
In remarks that
hinted at possible future pressure from the Kremlin, Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev expressed particular concern about Russians living in Ukraine.
Indeed, fears are
rising that southern separatists will use the current crisis to provoke
Russians into lending their muscle and peel Crimea away from Ukraine.
Some experts have
raised the possibility of a scenario in which the peninsula becomes trapped in
a frozen conflict and becomes wholly dependent on Russia,
as has happened in other former Soviet nations such as Georgia, which lost control over the regions ofAbkhazia and South Ossetia, in large part
because of Moscow’s
involvement.
“It’s easy to imagine
that the Crimea calls a referendum and gets special status within the Ukraine,” said Masha Lipman, an analyst with the
Carnegie Center
in Moscow. “The
natural next step would be to secede … and that could turn Ukraine into an
unrecognized state like Abkhazia.”
Not all in Crimea back secession, however.
The local ethnic
Tartar community, a mainly Muslim population that numbers about 250,000 people,
has been vocal in support of the incoming government in Kiev. That adds a potentially explosive
strand to the region’s ethnic mix of Russians and Ukrainians.
How the new regime in
Kiev will act
is also hard to predict.
Interim President
Oleksandr Turchynov warned Tuesday that he recognized that separatism was
a “serious threat” and said he would liaise with security forces on how to
resolve the issue.
In statements that
can only have served to sow alarm, leaders from the nationalist Svoboda party,
which played a central role in the opposition’s ascent to power, reportedly
said Monday that Russia was
dispatching extra naval forces to Crimea.
In Sevastopol, Viktor Neganov, an advisor to
acting Interior Minister, told RIA Novosti that the new government was for now
trying to settle the situation without the use of force.
But Neganov warned
that what Chaliy is doing in the city amounts to a local coup.
“If he stays, he will
go to jail as a traitor to the state,” he said.
Leave a comment
·
ruypenalvaI hope Russia can do
soon the job
00:58,
26/02/2014
I hope Russia can do asap the job of seize Crimea and free russians citizens from the european
nazi-fascism. Crimea and Sevastopol should
return to Russia.
o
zoran.jelinicno
03:49,
26/02/2014
enemies wish that
Crimea join Russia, than they get rest of Ukraine without any dificulties, 1%
to Russia 99% to nacis, NO all Ukraine go home to Rusian world, fight can last
100 years but East will be united again, President Putin have strength and
wisdom to break this threat to the survival of the Slavic people
·
zoran.jelinicdefend the homeland
02:03,
26/02/2014
after 20 years of
indoctrination, propaganda story about Europe and democracy, it come into
people subconscious and not react to the death threat, it seems that this is
happening in Russia itself,
This is a historic moment, Russia is ATTACKED, it should respond immediately
with all available resources, what Ukraine what non-interference, that is
Russian land, Ukrainians and Russians are one people, (the western part of
Ukraine only lost it culture, the last 20 years systematically poisoned with
western poison) for centuries people give lifes for that land it can’t be
non-interference or lack of interest, the Nazis should once and for all time
defeated and not with negotiations (didn’t with negotiations came to power) but
with armed force at full strength, they should be driven out from Russian Ukraine,
it is big mistake to speak with West about Ukraine, it is Russian home and West
should be kicked out from there after these what they organize there, they will
never speak with Russia about Scotland, why do we speak about our land with
them?
with the attacker is not negotiating, Alexander Nevsky defeated them then,
again there are here
o
R.Deus-von
HomeyerRE:Defend the homeland
18:21,
26/02/2014
@zoran.jelnic
Dera Zoran,
the ancuient Romans used to say;"UBI BENE ,IBI PATRIA!" "Where I
have a good life,there is MY homeland!"
That is what the Ukrainians are thinking.They want to join the EU,because they
WANT to be able to move to Germany,UK;FRance
or Italy
and make MORE money than they earn in UKRAINA.
The problem is,they do not comprehend WHAT PRICE they have to pay for
this"freedom of movement"
They will be forced by the IMF and European Central Bank (which is in
Frankfurt/Main) to take huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge loans and PLENTY of conditions will
be attacehed to them.
·
bielecThe agenda is strictly
economic
05:29,
26/02/2014
Ukraine is wanted by the
West to deliver, with pipelines, oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf and Baku region to Europe.
Western investors and bankers will profit from it, not the Ukrainian people.
Such pipelines would put out of business Russian projects, such as the South
and the North Stream, and this would have serious implications on Russian
economy and the standard of living of all Russians.
At present time, oil and gas from Persian Gulf
cannot compete with Russian supplies. Transportation with tankers is much more
expensive than transportation with pipelines and this reflects on the final
prices on European markets.
In addition, Russia, as a
supplier of energy resources to Europe, has some leverage on European politics
which, in recent years, has become dangerously close to the aggressive and
arrogant violations of international law by the U.S.
and Israel.
This is why Europe is so involved in opening alternative sources of energy
resources, mainly from the Persian Gulf (Qatar,
Saudi Arabia).
This is why former Yugoslavia
was attacked and partitioned, this is why color revolutions targeted countries
and regions along these planned pipelines, this is why other oil-rich countries
in the Region were targeted.
Just like Syria, Ukraine is
needed to run these new pipelines. Crimea is
the only place where they can be blocked. Russia
simply cannot afford having its cities and its infrastructure in Crimea fall into the hands of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis. This
is why the current developments in Ukraine are so dangerous. We are
looking at a possibility of a global military conflict that will swallow the
new and self-appointed authorities of Ukraine before the conflict
escalates internationally. Perhaps justice is coming faster to the Ukrainian
traitors than to President Yanukovich. Tymoshenko knows why she wants to temporarily
park herself in Germany.
The only people who will lose are the ordinary Ukrainians who have blindly
followed the foreign agents and criminal neo-Nazis.
·
cheruskGo Russia ... till the Atlantic
14:58,
26/02/2014
Many West-europeans
are looking forward to being liberated.