Libya, Syria And Now Ukraine - Color Revolution By Force

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Putin derides Ukraine's martial law as political trick

Yuras Karmanau and Nataliya Vasilyeva, Associated Press
4:03 am PST, Thursday, November 29, 2018


Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speak to soldiers during a visit to a military base in Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov, 28, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded blame after Russian border guards on Sunday opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels and eventually seized them and their crews. The incident put the two countries on war footing and raised international concern. (Mykola Lazarenko, Presidential Press Service via AP) Photo: Mykola Lazarenko, AP / Presidential Press Service
Photo: Mykola Lazarenko, AP
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speak to soldiers during a visit to a military base in Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov, 28, 2018. Russia and Ukraine traded blame after Russian border guards on ... more
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's president donned combat fatigues to implement martial law in much of the country on Wednesday, a move Russia denounced as a cynical political trick as both sides ratcheted up tensions after a weekend standoff in the Black Sea.

Each side blamed the other for the bellicose turn of events, with Ukraine saying Russia is preparing for a full-scale invasion and Moscow calling it a political stunt by an unpopular president facing tough elections.


In Sunday's confrontation, three Ukrainian naval vessels were heading from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov when they were blocked by the Russian coast guard near the Kerch Strait between Russia's mainland and the Crimean Peninsula it annexed from Ukraine. After many tense hours of maneuvering, the Russians opened fire and seized the Ukrainian vessels and crew.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko responded by ordering martial law in much of the country, a move that went into effect with parliamentary approval.

Poroshenko toured a military training center Wednesday in the Chernihiv region bordering Russia, one of the areas where martial law was imposed. Speaking to reporters as smoke billowed from a nearby shooting range, the camouflage-clad president pledged "not to allow the enemy to attack Ukraine" and announced a hike in salaries for servicemen.

Poroshenko initially sought to impose martial law for two months, a move that would have meant presidential elections scheduled for March would have to be scrapped due to election rules. Facing criticism in parliament, he halved the martial law time frame to a month, which would allow the election to go ahead as planned.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin bluntly accused his Ukrainian counterpart of provoking the naval incident in order to shore up his sagging popularity and sideline competitors ahead of the March election.

"The Black Sea incident certainly was a provocation organized by the sitting government, including the incumbent president ahead of the presidential vote in March," Putin said, alleging that Poroshenko wanted to "exacerbate the situation and create obstacles for his rivals."

Ukraine has insisted that its vessels were operating in line with international maritime rules, while Russia claimed they had failed to get permission to pass through a Russia-controlled area. A 2003 treaty between the two countries designated the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov as shared territorial waters, but Russia claimed the strait in its entirety after annexing Crimea in 2014 and has sought to assert greater control over the passage.

On Wednesday, Ukraine released what it said was the exact location where its ships were fired on by Russia, saying they were in international waters west of the Kerch Strait. Putin, meanwhile, insisted the Ukrainian vessels were in Russia's territorial waters and refused to communicate with the Russian coast guard or accept a Russian pilot to guide them through the narrow strait.

"What were the border guards supposed to do?" the Russian leader said Wednesday. "They fulfilled their duty to protect the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation. If they had done something differently, they should have been put on trial for that."

Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy on Ukraine, told reporters in Berlin that Washington sees no reason to doubt the information from Kiev that its vessels were operating in line with international maritime rules. "There's no conceivable justification that we can think of for the use of force in this scenario," he said.

Ukraine, which insists its seamen are prisoners of war, has asked the International Red Cross to arrange a visit to see them. It said six of the sailors were wounded by Russian fire, while Russia said three Ukrainian crewmen were slightly injured.

A court in Crimea's regional capital, Simferopol, has ordered all 24 Ukrainian crewmen to be held in custody for two months on charges of violating the Russian border pending trial. They face up to six years in prison if convicted.

The incident marked the first overt collision between Russian and Ukrainian militaries since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. It has fueled fears of a wider conflict and has drawn strong criticism of Russia by the U.S. and its allies.

U.S. President Donald Trump, in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, said he might cancel a sit-down with Putin during the G20 summit in Argentina over the Russian action. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting is on and that Russia has not received "any other information from our U.S. counterparts."

Amid the tensions, the Russian military announced Wednesday that it would beef up its forces in Crimea with another batch of the long-range S-400 air defense missile systems to Crimea.

The showdown came amid the long-simmering conflict between the two countries, in which Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and supported separatists in Ukraine's east with clandestine dispatches of troops and weapons. That fighting has killed at least 10,000 people since 2014 but eased somewhat with a 2015 truce.

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Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/artic ... 427068.php

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Russia Weaponizes Its Coast Guard

The recent standoff between Ukraine and Russia in the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov has put the often-ignored Russian coast guard into the spotlight. Expletive-laden videos in Russian show a coast guard cutter ramming a Ukrainian tug, probably incurring damage in the process.

The Russian coast guard is an element of the border guard. In an administrative reorganization in 2003, the previously independent border guard was swallowed by the FSB. The FSB succeeded the KGB as a crucial element in internal intelligence, security and control for the Russian state.

However, the border guard has a long and illustrious history in Russia, where Border Guard Day is celebrated on May 28. The Russian coast guard is therefore both a law enforcement and a quasi-intelligence organization, although its roots and identity are in maritime law enforcement. The Kerch incident perhaps is a significant gatepost marking the evolution of the Coast Guard after 15 years of control by the FSB.

The level of working integration between the coast guard and the FSB structure above it remains uncertain, although the Kerch incident suggests a high level of control. In addition, air support for this operation likely came from military units, demonstrating further operational coordination between FSB and the military.

These aspects of the Kerch incident are interesting for both the potential future uses of the Russian Coast Guard for aggressive gray zone operations, and for questions about the United States and NATO countries’ engagements with the Russian coast guard.

The Kerch Strait operation reflects a new use of the Russian coast guard, more akin to Chinese or Iranian use of paramilitary and constabulary maritime forces and “lawfare.” As recently described by my colleague Conor Kennedy, China has been using its coast guard and maritime militia with great effectiveness to assert presence, conduct harassment and sabotage, escort and provide a pretext for defensive military action, and gather intelligence.

While harassment of U.S. Navy warships by Iranian small boats that are military lies firmly within mil-mil guidelines, using constabulary forces changes the dynamics of the use of force. Similar to Chinese use of nonmilitary coast guard and maritime militia to accomplish strategic objectives while maintaining “plausible deniability” and avoiding escalatory dynamics, Moscow may have deliberately chosen to use the Russian Coast Guard to act in the Kerch Strait.

The use of the Russian Federation Navy to close the strait would have been more likely to escalate because it would have been a military-on-military clash. In contrast, using the Russian coast guard made it a law enforcement issue rather than a military-sanctioned act of war. Russia is adept at using legal channels to pursue violations of justice. It now appears willing to use its coast guard for this purpose.

Onshore, the situation in eastern Ukraine has been stuck in a rut. Perhaps the escalation in the Sea of Azov was seen by the Russians as a means to break the impasse, using the flimsy legal cover provided by the coast guard. No similar terrestrial options exist, as the Russians have exhausted their plausible deniability for operations by police, volunteers and undercover “little green men.”

While Russian seizure of the Azov coast was anticipated, it was not expected to use its coast guard. Utilizing the Russian coast guard in this way opens a new range of options for Moscow, in the Sea of Azov and beyond.

Above — the Russian coast guard Project 97P vessel Volga. Photo via Wikipedia. At top — a Russian tug rams a Ukrainian navy boat as a Russian coast guard vessel stands by on Nov. 25, 2018. Ukrainian ministry of defense photo

Additional motivation to launch a coast guard operation, rather than using Russian navy ships, may come from the recent accident involving Russia’s PD-50 floating dry dock in Severodvinsk. The carry-on effects of losing that dry dock must be rippling through operational plans for the Black Sea Fleet. If the PD-50 accident is hastening the “green water” evolution of the Russian navy, a growing role and closer coordination with the coast guard is a logical step.

Bringing the Russian coast guard into play may provide additional operational flexibility depth, in addition to range.

As it has tested different tactics in Syria and Ukraine, Russia could be evaluating the use of the Russian coast guard for action elsewhere. Where else might Russia deploy its coast guard in aggressive ways? On conceivable option would be against Norway in Svalbard, a demilitarized island group under Norwegian sovereignty adjacent to important Barents Sea fisheries.

With a substantial Russian population on Svalbard, there has been increasing speculation that Russia may launch gray zone operations there. However, the Norwegian and Russian navies and coast guards have a fairly effective working relationship and Russia could be far less confident in the outcome.

Despite the loss of a frigate, Norway’s confidence and modern naval and air capabilities vis-à-vis Russia are far beyond Ukraine’s. Moreover, the strategic calculus for Moscow in Svalbard is far riskier.

Coast guards are one of the last remaining effective areas of cooperation among NATO countries and Russia. The coast guards of the United States, Canada and Norway all engage with their Russian counterparts on soft security issues including fisheries enforcement, oil spill response and search and rescue operations.report this ad

Bilaterally, U.S. and Russian coast guards cooperate on fisheries enforcement in the Bering Sea and North Pacific across the shared maritime border. Therefore the Kerch incident will pose a challenging question about further cooperation between coast guards. One avenue of response may be to limit engagement by NATO countries’ coast guards with the Russian coast guard.

Moscow’s bold new deployment of the Russian coast guard this week puts further pressure on the strategy of isolation the United States and its allies are pursuing against Russia. It is also a troubling sign of future directions for Russian unconventional operations, and an indication of closer ties between the RCG and Russian Federation Navy.

The recordings released by the Ukrainian General Staff, which in fact might be intercepted Russian coast guard communications, include comments that Adm. Gennady Medvedev, head of the border guard, is “panicking” and “the president is in control of all that.” Medvedev may be apprehensive about his suddenly expanding role in the Russian constellation of aggression.

The views presented here are the author’s own, and do not represent the views of the U.S. Navy or the U.S. Naval War College, where the author is an instructor.

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155th Armored Brigade Combat Team Kuwait Deployment
https://warisboring.com/russia-is-weapo ... ast-guard/

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settle down Rory

you know I am not a Nazi ...but thanks for playing


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu9ShccG_SU

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fine by me post all you want I have never told you not to post something...never accused you of posting propaganda ......you are free to post any little link you want grandpa....you called me a Nazi I can call you grandpa ...right?


Nazi references and it's not even noon yet

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Nazi propaganda and it's not even noon yet

please change that it is not my quote...I do not appreciate you falsifying my post....RORY ...


BUT THAT'S HOW YOU ROLL ISN'T IT GRANDPA?

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Manafort lied about business and Ukraine dealings, Mueller’s investigators believe
Getty Images
Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, exits the federal courthouse in Washington in February.
Paul Manafort’s alleged misstatements to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators include comments about his personal business dealings and about his contacts with a former associate in Ukraine, say people familiar with the matter.

Those statements — among those described by Mueller as “lies” and Manafort as “truthful information” in a court filing Monday — are what led the special counsel this week to take the unusual step of ending the former Trump campaign chairman’s plea agreement 2½ months after it was reached, the people said.

The content of those statements don’t appear to be central to the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election that Mueller is investigating. It is unclear if prosecutors plan to accuse Manafort of additional lies. But Mueller’s move to end the cooperation deal reflects more broadly a combative relationship that has developed between Manafort and Mueller’s investigators, as well as the special counsel’s conclusion that Manafort fell short of his cooperation agreement, court filings show.

In interviews with Mueller’s team, Manafort allegedly made inaccurate statements about his communications with Konstantin Kilimnik, said the people familiar with the matter. Kilimnik, who Mueller charged earlier this year along with Manafort with trying to influence the testimony of two witnesses against Manafort, had worked for Manafort’s lobbying firm in Ukraine. Manafort also allegedly misrepresented information about payments he received related to his lobbying work, the people familiar with the matter said.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/manaf ... 2018-11-28

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