[DrCaleb]

PostFactum PostFactum:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Paper money, plastic cards - even the nylon lanyard on that medallion.

I'm calling bullshit that those items came from those cars.

In the internet folks make joke mems about this, for example:

[DrCaleb]

$1:

Ukraine alert as politician 'killed'
Ukraine's acting president has relaunched military operations against pro-Russian militants in the east after two men, one a local politician, were found "tortured to death".

Oleksandr Turchynov said the politician, named as Vladimir Rybak, was found near rebel-held Sloviansk.

"The terrorists who effectively took the whole Donetsk region hostage have now gone too far," he said.

The move came as US Vice-President Joe Biden was visiting Ukraine.

As he met Ukrainian leaders in Kiev, Mr Biden called on Russia to "stop talking and start acting" to defuse the Ukraine crisis.

The US and the West accuse Russia of using undercover military to back separatists in eastern Ukraine, where public buildings are occupied in at least nine cities and towns. Russia denies this.

Mr Biden warned Russia that further "provocative behaviour" would lead to "greater isolation" and urged Moscow to end its alleged support for pro-Russian militants.

In remarks to Ukrainian MPs, Mr Biden said the US stood with Ukraine's new leaders against "humiliating threats" - an apparent reference to Russia.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27118875

[BartSimpson]

I would think that President Turchynov would have embraced Putin's denials about the unmarked troops being Russian and then used the opportunity to slaughter the invaders. Now Turchynov has his hands tied unless he's willing to go to war with Russia.

Of course, Russia is already at war with Ukraine so why not?

[DrCaleb]

$1:

Ukraine: Pro-Russia insurgents hold U.S. journalist captive

Vice News reporter Simon Ostrovsky has not been seen since early Tuesday

Pro-Russian gunmen in eastern Ukraine admitted on Wednesday that they are holding an American journalist, saying he was suspected of unspecified "bad activities."

Simon Ostrovsky, a journalist for Vice News, has been covering the crisis in Ukraine for weeks and was reporting about groups of masked gunmen seizing government buildings in one eastern Ukrainian city after another.

Pro-Russia insurgents who have been occupying police stations and other public buildings in eastern Ukraine for more than a week are defying the accords that Russia and Ukraine signed last week, urging all parties in Ukraine to lay down the arms and vacate the public offices.

Members of the nationalist Right Sector movement have also been occupying two buildings in the capital, Kiev, for months, but authorities have said the priority is to get the gunmen in eastern Ukraine to vacate the buildings they hold.

Stella Khorosheva, a spokeswoman for the pro-Russian insurgents in the eastern city of Slovyansk, confirmed Wednesday that Ostrovsky was being held at the local branch of the Ukrainian security service that they seized more than a week ago.

"He's with us. He's fine," Khorosheva told The Associated Press. When asked why Ostrovsky was held captive, Khorosheva said he is "suspected of bad activities," which she refused to explain. She says the insurgents are holding Ostrovsky pending their own investigation.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-pr ... -1.2618775

[Zipperfish]

$1:

Khorosheva said he is "suspected of bad activities," which she refused to explain.

Sounds like the old Soviets we knew and loved. Shame to see the American right lined up four-square behind Putin.

[BartSimpson]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

$1:

Khorosheva said he is "suspected of bad activities," which she refused to explain.

Sounds like the old Soviets we knew and loved. Shame to see the American right lined up four-square behind Putin.

Really? Not all of us are in love with this guy. This Ukraine thing effectively erases any positive feelings I'd had about the guy previous to this.

[DrCaleb]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

$1:

Khorosheva said he is "suspected of bad activities," which she refused to explain.

Sounds like the old Soviets we knew and loved. Shame to see the American right lined up four-square behind Putin.

Really? Not all of us are in love with this guy. This Ukraine thing effectively erases any positive feelings I'd had about the guy previous to this.

Comrade Boris? I liked Boris. Vlad, not so much.

[BartSimpson]

Yeltsin was a pretty decent guy. He had a drinking problem and liked to chase the ladies, but when the chips were down he put it all on the line to save his country from dictatorship.

Putin, OTOH, is the dictator Yeltsin feared.

[ShepherdsDog]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

$1:

Khorosheva said he is "suspected of bad activities," which she refused to explain.

Sounds like the old Soviets we knew and loved. Shame to see the American right lined up four-square behind Putin.

A large part of why the TP and CM elements of the Republican right like Putin is that he was/is an openly practicing Christian, when being such was detrimental to your career in the old Soviet Union, especially state security. In Russia, he appeals to both the Slavic nationalists, who see Russia as Holy Russia and a strongman hearkening back to Stalin. His authoritarianism appeals to most Russians

[BRAH]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Yeltsin was a pretty decent guy. He had a drinking problem and liked to chase the ladies, but when the chips were down he put it all on the line to save his country from dictatorship.

Putin, OTOH, is the dictator Yeltsin feared.

That was a scary time for the World and Crimson Tide's plot was based on it.

[Winnipegger]

Ukraine crisis: city hall in southeast cleared of pro-Russia protesters

$1:

Police have cleared the city hall in a southeastern Ukrainian city of the pro-Russia protesters who had been occupying it for over a week, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said Thursday as government forces appeared to be resuming operations in the east. Local police officials and protesters, however, presented quite another picture of what happened in the city of Mariupol.
...
Avakov wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday that the Mariupol city hall "has been freed to resume work," but did not describe the action.
However, Yulia Lasazan, a spokeswoman for Mariupol's police department, told The Associated Press that about 30 masked men armed with baseball bats stormed the building in the early hours on Thursday and started beating the protesters. It was not clear why the protesters, some of whom were believed to be armed, did not offer resistance but called the police instead.

Five people were taken to a hospital, Lasazan said.

Lasazan said the police were controlling the perimeter and were negotiating with the remaining protesters to leave the building.

Ukraine crisis: Putin threatens Kyiv after military operation kills 2

$1:

Russian President Vladimir Putin decried what he described as a "punitive operation."
...
Putin threatened Kyiv with unspecified consequences. "If the Kyiv government is using the army against its own people this is clearly a grave crime," Putin said.
...
The Ukrainian government and many in the West worry that Russia is seeking a pretext for a military intervention in eastern Ukraine. Putin insists he has the right to intervene to protect ethnic Russians, who make up a sizable minority in Ukraine's east. Russia has tens of thousands of troops arrayed along its side of Ukraine's eastern border.

[Winnipegger]

RT.COM is a Russian news website, but English language. A couple of today's headlines:
"Russia 'forced' to launch military drills near border in response to Ukraine op - Moscow"
"US troops arrive in Poland for drills amid rising tensions over Ukraine"

This reminds me of the Cuban missile crisis. That was before I was born, but not much.

[Jabberwalker]

Winnipegger Winnipegger:

RT.COM is a Russian news website, but English language. A couple of today's headlines:
"Russia 'forced' to launch military drills near border in response to Ukraine op - Moscow"
"US troops arrive in Poland for drills amid rising tensions over Ukraine"

This reminds me of the Cuban missile crisis. That was before I was born, but not much.

I was in kindergarten but my older siblings were being taught to get under their school desks in case of nuclear attack. No one is even mentioning the "n" word this time around. As I recall from my NBCD training, your best bet is to put a white sheet over your head, walk directly to the grave yard and wait.

[Winnipegger]

Let's see. My house is less than 4km from Portage and Main. I talked to a Canadian military officer at career day in high school, spring 1978. She claimed the Russians probably had 3 aimed at Winnipeg: one at the airport / air force base, one at Simington Yard, and one right downtown. The one at Simington yard would sever the CN east/west main rail line, the CP main line passes so close that it would be severed as well, rail lines to the US for both railways would also be severed. The Trans-Canada Highway enters the city there, and the cloverleaf intersection between the Trans-Canada and Perimeter Highways are all so close they would all be destroyed or buried in rubble. But from my perspective, the downtown bomb would probably be aimed at Portage and Main. My house is less than 4km. That lieutenant claimed they would probably be roughly 1MT each. The largest Russian warheads today are 900kT. That puts my house within the range of "Light damage to civilian buildings", meaning "Railway cars thrown from tracks and crushed". All windows will be shattered, and the roof probably ripped off. Yea, the military calls that "Light". It's well within the range of "Conflagration", so a firestorm. My house has stucco on all sides, with real plaster/lathe walls, so don't know how that would affect me. I'm barely outside the range of "Total dose for acute radiation syndrome", so if I escape into the basement I should avoid being fried from heat and killed by radiation, but will get radiation sickness and eventually cancer. Or multiple cars could be thrown against my house causing it to collapse on me. If I'm outdoors or near the kitchen window instead of the basement, then expect third degree burns.

[DrCaleb]

$1:

Ukraine gives Russia 48 hours to explain exercises

Ukraine has asked Moscow, under European OSCE security arrangements, to explain and give details of its military exercises near the border within 48 hours, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

In a statement in response to remarks by the Russian defense minister earlier in the day announcing exercises linked to tension in Ukraine, the ministry said Russia was trying to influence Kiev's efforts to fight militants in the east.

It said that under the Vienna Document of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) it was entitled to an account of the goals and other details of the exercises within 48 hours of its request - namely noon GMT on Saturday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/ ... NY20140424