New Zealand Conservative

From The Guardian: Why Soviet monuments should be protected Red Army monuments are a reminder of the astounding Soviet sacrifice during the war. You find them not only in the ex-communist bloc but in western Europe too – Berlin and Vienna being most prominent. Those two cities even feature quotations from Stalin, which remain in place without harassment. The degree of the Soviet sacrifice seems to be appreciated there. The Soviet army played a major role in saving this part of Europe from the realisation of Hitler’s master plan in the east, which proposed the colonisation, enslavement and eventual extermination of the Slavic population. [...] In some areas of the former USSR that are keen to shrug off Moscow’s influence, Russia’s role in the second world war is seen largely through the initial collaboration with Hitler. But it is the Soviet Union’s later actions and subsequent role in the defeat of the Nazis in Europe that should be dominant. Well, there you have it. Sovie...

It's heartening to see a real connection being made between Australia and Ukraine, after the horrific shooting down of passenger jet MH17 by Russian backed rebels a couple of months ago. From the Sydney Morning Herald : Prime Minister Tony Abbot is planning to visit Ukraine, according to the country's president. Mr Abbott phoned Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday, the president's press service reported. During the phone call Mr Abbott promised to send military equipment to Ukraine's army, the president said. A week ago Mr Abbott told parliament that Australia would send "non-lethal military assistance" to Ukraine such as military winter clothing, blankets and first-aid kits. According to the president's press office, Mr Abbott told Mr Poroshenko "Australia will consider the opportunity of enhancing military-technical cooperation and, as the first stage, will send the lot of military equipment and means of warming. ...

I am so disgusted and outraged and horrified by the sneaky invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and now what is escalating into a full scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, complete with threats of nuclear weapon use, that I will now be deleting any trolling comments to do with this subject. Any comments on the rightness or justness of the invasion by Russia will also be deleted. As will any comments on how the "evil fascists" of Ukraine had it coming, because those especially, just feed into the Russian propaganda machine. Anyway, now Russia is threatening Ukraine with nuclear strikes if Ukraine continues to resist the Russian invasion that can no longer be hidden. From The Interpreter : Ukrainian Defence Minister Says Russia Has Lost Hybrid War, Begun Invasion, And Threatened Nuclear Strikes 16:06 (GMT) Interfax-Ukraine reports that Valeriy Heletey, the Ukrainian defence minister, has written on his Facebook page that Russia has lost its "hybrid war" against U...

Troops of the Pskov Air Assault Division outside Belbek air field in Crimea Evidence of Russia's 76th Guards Air Assault Division in Southeast Ukraine 15:09 (GMT) A number of recent stories indicate that the 76th Guards Air Assault Division of Russian Airborne Troops from Pskov has been continuing to fight in Ukraine. A decree published on the Kremlin's website , a report of documents seized in battle by Ukrainian forces , and a report of a Pskov soldier's death have come together to help validate recurring reports of Russian military presence in southeastern Ukraine. The 76th Guards were first sighted in Crimea in March. As we reported at the time, they were first noticed missing from their barracks by Lev Shlosberg, a deputy from from the Yabloko party in the regional legislature, who protested against their deployment abroad to forcibly annex the Crimea and was denounced by the Pskov Region governor. Now the official Kremlin web site kremlin.ru h...

A 2S19 Msta , a 152mm howitzer with a maximum firing range of 29-36 kilometers From The Interpreter (Day 183 LiveBlog): This weapon was reportedly photographed near Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, headed toward Russian Donetsk (map), the location of the Izvarino border crossing. The separatists have never acquired this weapon, to our knowledge, so if this shows up in Ukraine it will be a clear indication that Russia sent it there. It will also be a significantly dangerous addition to the separatist arsenal. Also, something else of note that has been noticed with regards to how Russia operates: The pattern has always been that Russia escalates its interference in Ukraine at the same time that it elevates its diplomatic overtures. If the leaders of Russia and Ukraine are scheduled to meet on August 26th, it is likely going to be a very dangerous 7 days.

Source: Ukraine Liveblog Day 175: An Aid Mission For Eastern Ukraine Here we go. Ukraine is in the final stages of wiping out the pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk, and Russia wants to send in aid against the wishes of the Ukrainian Government and without the international community involved: (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday Russia is sending an aid convoy to eastern Ukraine despite urgent Western warnings against using humanitarian help as a pretext for an invasion. ... Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko came out in support of an aid mission but made clear it had to be an international effort under the aegis of the ICRC, involving the European Union as well as Russia. He won Obama's backing when they spoke by phone on Monday. The White House quoted Obama as saying that any Russian intervention without the Ukrainian government's agreement would be "unacceptable" and a violation of international law. Earlier, Kiev said it was in the ...

While our news media is focused on a small conflict in Palestine, a far more dangerous, expanding war is being fought between Russia and Ukraine: Staunton, July 27 – Having taken the measure of the West and found it wanting, Vladimir Putin has expanded his aggression from the military occupation of Crimea to the organization of irredentist insurgencies in eastern Ukraine to the shooting down of the Malaysian jetliner to the shelling of Ukrainian targets from the territory of the Russian Federation. All these steps are acts of war. But in response, Western leaders have done nothing Putin cannot live with. On the one hand, the sanctions regimes they have imposed or talked about have not hurt him. Instead, they have allowed him to deflect attention from his own failures at home. And if anything, they have contributed to his popularity there. ... If the West continues with economic sanctions being the only thing on the table and with those being leaky and incomplete at best as the ...

I wonder why. No, not really. It's just that it seems like it's irony time over here. It's either that or serious madness. POLAND spent $4.7 billion on 48 American-built F-16 fighters, but in the event of a conflict with Russia, the safest place for the warplanes would be on a German airfield, quips a defence analyst. Threadbare Soviet-era air defences would be unable to protect Poland against an attack. With neighbouring Ukraine in turmoil, Warsaw is more acutely aware of its vulnerability than at any moment since the end of the cold war... A similar sense of pressure for rapid results is guiding Poland’s multi-year 140 billion zloty ($46 billion) military modernisation programme, one of the largest investments in new military kit by any European NATO member. The original plan called for a tender on supplying about 30 attack helicopters to begin only in 2018. But replacing Poland’s ageing Soviet-era Mi-24 “Hind” helicopters has now been pushed forward to 2016; pos...

I wonder how this will be covered up? No, its not us. It's those other people in that parallel dimension that are firing missiles, making them look like they are coming from Russia. We would never do that. Or, it's the Ukrainian military somehow making it look like missiles are coming from Russia by sending their secret agents over here. Or something like that. WASHINGTON—The U.S. believes Russia is firing artillery across its border at Ukrainian military positions, the State Department said on Thursday, an assertion that Moscow is playing a more direct role in the Ukrainian conflict. The latest accusations show U.S. officials raising pressure on Moscow and more closely examining Russian activities near the rebel-held portions of eastern Ukraine since the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which Washington blames on pro-Russian separatist fighters. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf also said the U.S. has evidence that Russia intends to deliver powerful r...

... but whatever the case, it was Ukraine's fault the passenger plane was shot down. In an interview with Reuters, Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the Vostok Battalion, acknowledged for the first time since the airliner was brought down in eastern Ukraine on Thursday that the rebels did possess the BUK missile system and said it could have been sent back subsequently to remove proof of its presence. ... "I knew that a BUK came from Luhansk. At the time I was told that a BUK from Luhansk was coming under the flag of the LNR," he said, referring to the Luhansk People’s Republic, the main rebel group operating in Luhansk, one of two rebel provinces along with Donetsk, the province where the crash took place. "That BUK I know about. I heard about it. I think they sent it back. Because I found out about it at exactly the moment that I found out that this tragedy had taken place. They probably sent it back in order to remove proof of its presence," Khodak...

The Economist's Eastern Approaches Blog asks, Where is Radek ? Radek being the Polish Foreign Minister, Radosław Sikorski , who has effectively been sidelined as a voice for Ukraine by the release of tapes of a private conversation from earlier this year where he said that the alliance with the US was basically useless for Poland. Yet, he has always been the most direct and clear headed about what is actually going on with Ukraine and Russia and the whole situation. AT THE start of the Ukraine crisis Poland’s foreign minister, Radek Sikorski (pictured), was a central figure in formulating a European response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. Yet as the crisis in Poland’s neighbouring country is escalating Mr Sikorski seems to have been sidelined from Europe’s diplomatic efforts. Mr Sikorski travelled to Kiev earlier this week to meet with top Ukrainian officials. His solitary journey was a marked contrast to his trip to the Ukrainian capital in February, when he was acc...

Why Putin Let MH17 Get Shot Down ~ The Daily Beast Russia has been escalating its war in Ukraine for weeks. The urgency to win turned to recklessness. President Putin has been recklessly escalating the crisis in eastern Ukraine since he was embarrassed and outmaneuvered by the Ukrainian president three weeks ago. Allowing a passenger jet to be shot down is the act of an increasingly desperate man. The Kremlin ordered tanks, heavy weapons and Russian fighters to pour over the border stoking up the crisis until tragedy struck. We should have seen it coming; on Wednesday morning the front page of Foreign Policy magazine had a headline that should have sent shockwaves through the geopolitical landscape: Russia Is Firing Missiles At Ukraine . The story followed several Russian citizens posting videos to social media which they said show GRAD rockets being fired from Russian territory toward Ukraine. By triangulating the different camera angles , my team at The Interpreter ...

Looks like the pro-Russian rebels in the east of Ukraine have made a huge blunder: A social media page that Ukrainian media frequently attribute to Igor Girkin, a Russian citizen who describes himself as a rebel military leader in Donetsk, appeared to claim responsibility for the downed plane shortly after it went missing . “We have just shot down an AN-26 plane in the Torez region, it is lying somewhere near the Progress mine,” read a post at 5:50 p.m. Moscow time on the social media site VKontakte. “We have warned emphatically: Do not fly in ‘our sky.’” The post then offered “video confirmation” of the crash. The post was removed Thursday evening, shortly after reports confirmed that the crashed aircraft was a commercial airliner. The initial post suggested that pro-Russian rebels mistook the aircraft for a Ukrainian military transport plane. Earlier this week, an AN-26 was brought down over the Luhansk region. Two crew members were reported killed. ... The Ukraine Secur...

Poland stuck in the middle ~ The Global Think Tank What worries the Poles is that if stability in Ukraine returns under terms suitable to the Kremlin, it may only be a matter of time before it is business as usual with Russia. That would give Russia the space to make another move. A Collective Psychosis Is Taking Hold of Ukraine ~ The New Republic A collective psychosis, born of machismo and paranoia and fuelled by rumour, is taking hold. The latest story gaining traction in the capital is that thousands of Russians—solitary males of military age—have begun to appear in Kyiv, renting rooms and just waiting. “Let them come,” says Maksym, my wiry and intense landlord. “I’ve got body armour and I’m cleaning all my guns.”

Soviet weapons stockpiles remain in Ukraine, where they are secured by Ukrainian armed forces. Slovyansk, where some of the deadliest clashes of the crisis have occurred, is also the location of a stockpile of some five million Soviet-era small arms , according to the British Royal United Services Institute. “The multiple seizures of government buildings in eastern Ukraine, not just in Slavyansk but also in Konstantinovka in Donetsk Oblast are aimed to make it impossible for Ukrainian forces to fully control the territory and, in effect, to cut it off from its strategic stockpile of light arms,” researchers at the institute found. Related link: Why is Ukraine's Army So Appallingly Bad?

Russian security forces blocking the way for Crimean Tatars crossing a checkpoint between Crimea and Kherson. Since the annexation by Russia recently, all is not rosy in Crimea: Thousands of Crimean Tatars on Saturday responded to news that their spiritual leader had been banned from the peninsula by blocking several highways in a tense standoff with riot police — the first sign that the Muslim ethnic group's discontent with Russian authorities may lead to turmoil. On Saturday, Crimean authorities promised to dish out criminal charges to the group, which numbered about five thousand, according to the BBC Russian service. The group broke through border posts near the city of Armyansk and crossed the border into the buffer zone between Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula to meet Mustafa Dzhemilev, former head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, the ethnic group's representative body. The group blocked several highways near Simferopol, Bakhchysarai, Stary Krym, Yevpatoriya and...

Britain and America pledged to spearhead a worldwide hunt for “tens of billions” stolen from Ukraine by its former president and his cronies on Tuesday at a London summit called to beef-up the country’s anti-corruption efforts. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said an order to freeze £23 million of suspect funds as part of a Serious Fraud Office investigation was a demonstration to the people of Ukraine that foreign governments “stand behind” Kiev as it attempts to recover looted funds. The Crown Prosecution Service and National Crime Agency has already sent officials to Ukraine following the flight of Viktor Yanukovych, the former president who left the country bankrupt and divided between pro-Revolutionaries and Russian sympathisers. Oleh Makhnitskyi, Ukraine’s general prosecutor, said his country has already identified some £1.8 billion of stolen assets and expects to find tens of billions taken by an “organised criminal group” headed by former president Viktor Yanukovych. He ...

There's been a bit of debate in the blogosphere about whether or not what Russia is up to in Ukraine is justified or not. The debates I've been involved in have been mostly at KiwiBlog in the General Debates there. It's been too hard to post here for me, as I think the media have been doing a good job of keeping track of what is going on, and this is an emotional subject for me. Emotional because I have read a lot of what happened to Poland with regards to Russian propaganda ahead of the Teheran and Yalta agreements that basically gave large chunks of Poland to the Soviet Union without much protest or effort on behalf of Poland's supposed allies who just thought it was better to placate Russia, than do what was right. Coupled with the lies back then about who was really responsible for the Katyn Massacres (the allies and the Soviets pinned it on the Nazis, even though the Poles were adamant that it was the Russians, but no one was listening to them at that point)....

Two Russian tankmen are sitting in a Parisian café, drinking coffee, and eating croissants. Several columns of Russian tanks are parked outside. A stream of troops is passing by, headed westward. One tankman says to the other, “There is one thing I do regret: that we lost the information war over Ukraine.” The above joke is quoted in one of the New Republic's latest articles, The U.S. Is Being Routed by Russia in the Information War Over Ukraine The author says: How can the U.S. be expected to win the hearts and minds of a people capable of a joke like that? Yeah, I can relate to that.

From the Wall Street Journal, an ancient gold exhibit from Crimea that has travelled to Europe, now may not be returned to it's mueseum given that Crimea is no longer part of Ukraine. Here's some background: The Scythians were nomads who inhabited much of modern-day Russia and Ukraine from about 600 B.C. to 300 A.D. They fought off their enemies from horseback with bows and arrows and interred their nobility in elaborate tombs, where they buried horses, gold and other treasured items alongside the dead. Higher-ranking Scythian warriors often had elaborate tattoos, according to Greek historian Herodotus, who described the Scythians as barbaric warriors at times prone to indulge in marijuana. Alexander Blok wrote about them in 1918, months after the October Revolution, in his famous poem "The Scythians." Frustrated by Russia's dragging involvement in World War I, Blok lashed out at Europe. He presented the Scythians as a savage eastern streak lingering in Russi...