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On Friday, diplomatic sources said that the UN Security Council would meet in an emergency session to vote on a Western-backed resolution denouncing the upcoming referendum in the Crimea. The meeting, which is set to begin at 11.00 EDT (08.00 PDT. 15.00 UTC. 19.00 MSK. 03.00 Sunday 16 March), was called at Washington’s request. Diplomats say that they expect Russia to veto the resolution.
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Pentagon spokesman Eileen Lainez told reporters The US Defence Department is preparing a shipment of 300,000 individually packaged meals to the Ukrainian military. Packaged in shelf-stable plastic and foil pouches, the DoD calls these rations “Meals Ready to Eat”… colloquially named MREs {the troops call them “Meals Rejected by Ethiopians”… culinary heaven, they ain’t: editor}… have been a staple of US troops in the field for decades. Frequently, the USA ships these MREs to civilians in disaster zones both in the USA and around the world. Lainez said the Pentagon was still weighing further assistance in response to Ukrainian requests for help, claiming that Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula and massed troops on the Ukrainian border.
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Today, Mayor Gennady Kernes of Kharkov reported that two people died and two were hurt in a clash between Kharkov residents and outsider Right Sector militants. An ITAR-TASS correspondent reported that 40-50 militants are in the Right Sector headquarters building. The police cordoned it off, and a special operation is underway. The mayor is talking with the militants. Earlier today, a local anti-Euromaidan patriot told an ITAR-TASS correspondent that clashes were underway between Kharkov residents and militants (reportedly from the Western Ukraine) on Rimarskaya Street (in downtown Kharkov). He said that Kharkov locals were resisting the militants, presumably from the Right Sector, who were shooting assault rifles at the locals. Reports also said that the militants threw stun grenades and Molotov cocktails from the windows of their headquarters.
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On Saturday, the Communications Ministry said that they intercepted an attempt to make a cyberattack on Russian television satellites from the Western Ukraine, saying, “People who make such decisions should think of the consequences”.
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Anatoly Dmitriev, head of the Kharkov Oblast MVDU, said that cops wrapped up an operation to arrest armed Right Sector militants, who started a firefight and seized hostages in Kharkov. They arrested about 30 people; the authorities will release the exact number later. Their identities are unknown, as they had no passports with them. Dmitriev said that cops would lift fingerprints from the guns found in the building. Now, the perps are in custody at a raion police station. Kharkov druzhinniki, who oppose the Right Sector militants, stood outside the building, to prevent anyone releasing the militants. A local said, “We fear that someone will release them”. Earlier, after Kharkov Mayor Kernes negotiated with the militants, they freed one of their three hostages. At the time, Kernes said, “As a result of negotiations, we freed one hostage. About 40 radicals remain in the building. Two people remain held hostage by the militants. One of the hostages is a policeman who went into the building to negotiate with them”.
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Republic of Crimea (RK) First Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliyev told Interfax that the results of the all-Crimea referendum on the republic’s status could be announced in the early morning hours of 17 March 17, saying, “I think that the final results would be ready that night, as soon as protocols with ‘wet’ stamps come to us”. He went on to describe the procedure for delivering documents with the referendum results from polling stations to Simferopol, noting, “First, protocols with ‘wet’ stamps should come from district to territorial election committees, which in turn will send the results to Simferopol via an electronic link, and, then, the protocols with ‘wet’ stamps should arrive in Simferopol”. Temirgaliyev told us that the RK authorities prepared reserve power sources for polling stations and election committees, if power supply disruptions occur.
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Mateusz Piskorski, the director of the European Geopolitical Analysis Centre (ECAG), said that international observers had begun their work in the Crimea. Piskorski is the mission coördinator. Thirty people make up the mission, from the European Democracy and Election Monitoring Institute (Brussels), members from Poland, Austria, France, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Italy, and Latvia, including deputies of the European Parliament, members of national parliaments, leading European international law experts, and recognised human rights activists. Piskorski said that the observers plan to visit all Crimean regions and study whether rules to prepare for and hold the referendum complied with local legislation and international standards for plebiscites, adding among the mission included people with rich experience of election monitoring in European and CIS countries. He said, “The mission arrived in Crimea at the invitation of the republic’s election commission”, adding that the mission would draw a conclusion based on the monitoring results.
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On Saturday, Frank Creelman, a Deputy of the Belgian parliament, who arrived to watch the upcoming all-Crimea referendum, said that the situation in there is calm, saying, “The situation is quite normal and calm, there are many pro-Russian people amongst the residents, and many police are on the streets. Nevertheless, everything is very calm; it isn’t the way it’s being pictured abroad. Of course, I intend to watch the referendum not just in Simferopol but in smaller Crimean towns as well, to check the transparency of the referendum”.
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On Saturday, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media said that Russian TV reporters working in the Ukraine receive threats. It said that many reports reached them that “conditions are almost intolerable for work in the Ukraine, especially in Kiev. Indeed, armed militants prohibit Ukrainian and foreign TV companies and broadcasters from carrying out technical transfers of video materials filmed by Russian TV reporters under the threat of violence”. In addition, the ministry pointed up that militants make threats directly to employees of Russian media outlets as well.
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An all-Crimea referendum on the future status of the peninsula is due tomorrow, Sunday 16 March, so, the authorities aren’t allowing any campaigning today. An ad-hoc commission shall see to it that this ban is duly enforced. The all-Crimea referendum is due on Sunday from 08.00 to 20.00 local time (23.00 Saturday 15 March-11.00 PDT. 02.00-14.00 EDT. 06.00-18.00 UTC. 10.00-22.00 MSK. 17.00-05.00 Monday 17 March AEST). The smallest voter turnout to consider the referendum valid is 50 percent. International observers keep arriving in Crimea to watch the plebiscite.
Meanwhile, an international monitor from Finland, Johan Beckman, complained at Simferopol airport of pressure brought by militants upon him and his colleagues, and said that he’d received death threats. He noted, “It’s all threats and slander. I received a letter with death threats earlier today. The letter’s anonymous. The Western media are full of aggression against Russia. I can’t really make out the position of the West that the referendum is allegedly in breach of international law. I consider the all-Crimea referendum legitimate. The Crimeans have every right to decide their future. The USA and the EU are bending every effort to stop the referendum, and are threatening Russia with sanctions. That the EU is considering sanctions is absurd. They’ve been discussing them for possibly a month, so it’s only natural to assume that no EU country wants any sanctions applied. Attempts by Western politicians to stop or cancel the referendum are prompted by their desire to cut Russia’s influence”.
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Mikhail Malyshev, head of the committee for holding the all-Crimean referendum, said that reports circulating on allegedly already-filled-in ballots for the referendum are bogus, telling reporters, “All this is misleading information. Now, reports circulate that the ballots are allegedly white, but they’re not white, that they’ve allegedly already been ticked, and I assure you that no ticks exist”. He noted that the number of ballots is under strict control, saying, “The amount of ballots printed matches the number of Crimean residents, plus one per cent, so it’s 1,512,825. This is slightly less than we planned initially”.
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On Saturday, the Rump Rada “terminated” the powers of RK Supreme Soviet (VS RK). A total of 278 People’s Deputies, out of 296 registered for the meeting, voted for the relevant decree.
Editor:
There are 450 members of the Rada. That is, 154 members are MISSING. That means that the USA and its Western stooge allies are colluding in illegal and illegitimate pressure against parliamentarians, if not outright violence. It’d be much as if Mitch McConnell barred most of the Democratic members from the Senate and declared a majority (can you see why most Republicans support the junta? The junta’s doing what they’d love to do in the USA). The Party of Regions won 208 seats in the Rada in a legitimate election, today, there are only 119 Regions deputies, but 60 “unaffiliated members” suddenly appeared. The 32 KPU members stood firm against all fascist threats.
Do you see what I see? Firstly, note that 154 members are MIA… add the number of remnant Regions members and KPU deputies, it comes up to 151… that is, almost precisely the number of missing deputies. There are two new factions in the Rada with 72 deputies… WHICH NO ONE VOTED FOR, as they only appeared after the coup. As you can see, there’s a great deal of monkeyshines afoot. It’s clear what happened… the American-sponsored fascist pigs are barring loyal Regions and KPU deputies, scaring some deputies into agreement, and seating illegitimate members.
This is what Kerry, Ashton, Cameron, Rubio, McCain, Cruz, Harper, Herbst, and Nuland call “democracy”. I call it bullshit… there’s no other name for it.
BMD
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The Ministry of Communications and Mass Media detected the source of interference in the work of a Russian television satellite, saying that Russian electronic monitoring detected the exact location of the source in the Ukraine, noting that an attempt to use radio-electronic warfare against a Russian relay satellite was a violation of the International Telecommunication Union charter of 22 December 1992.
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On Saturday, Mayor Gennady Kernes of Kharkov said that cops seized firearms and ammunition from a group of militants arrested early on Saturday after clashes in Kharkov the night before that claimed two lives and left five people injured. He told reporters, “We seized three sawed-off shotguns, three hunting guns, one combat rifle, and two pistols adjusted for combat cartridges from them. This is what the MVDU told me. They found quite a bit of ammunition for the weapons they had”. The radicals arrived in Kharkov from Poltava, barricaded themselves in Right Sector’s local headquarters and opened fire, but later surrendered to police with Kernes’ mediation. Those wounded in the firefight included one policeman. Kernes said, “Today, I believe that we need joint efforts to put an end to the riots and fatalities that are taking place”.
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Interfax-Ukraine reported with reference to the Kharkov police that a blast tore through the Karazin Kharkov National University at 14.50 local time (05.50 PDT. 08.50 EDT. 12.50 UTC. 16.50 MSK. 23.50 AEST) this Saturday. Police sources say that it injured a teacher and two Chemistry faculty students.
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID) said that Russia received many requests from Ukrainian civilians to protect them from radicals, especially, Right Sector militants. The MID promised to consider these requests.
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On Saturday, Russia vetoed a Western-backed resolution condemning the Crimea referendum at a UN Security Council emergency vote, but China abstained. The draft resolution, which stated that Sunday’s referendum would be invalid, got 13 votes in the 15-member Council. However, when permanent member Russia exercised its veto, it became moot. China often backs Russia at the council, especially on Syria-related votes, and Western diplomats saw its abstention as the best possible outcome from Saturday’s vote. When the Security Council ruled on a similar international crisis, between Russia and Georgia in 2008, Beijing abstained. Washington called Saturday’s emergency meeting and the USA drafted the resolution in very measured terms so that Beijing could accept it. The resolution declared that the all-Crimea referendum “no validity and can’t form the basis for any alteration of the status of the Crimea”.
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On Saturday, according to a Russian officer with the peacekeeping contingent in the region, Ukrainian border guards at the border between the Ukraine and Transdniestria aren’t letting Russian men with RF passports cross the border in either direction. Transdniestria is a region in Moldova, which declared its independence in early 1990s, but only Russia recognises it as sovereign. About 30 percent of Transdniestria’s residents are ethnic Moldavians, about 30 percent are Russian, and about 30 percent are Ukrainian. The Ukrainians are also blockading supplies to Russian peacekeepers in Transdniestria. They halted two trains with food, fuel, and other supplies for Russian peacekeepers at a checkpoint in Kuchurgany since 22 February. A source in the headquarters of the Russian peacekeepers in Transdniestria confirmed this information.
15 March 2014
Voice of Russia World Service
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_15/US-sending-ready-meals-to-Ukrainian-military-1168/
http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_03_15/Russia-vetoes-UN-resolution-on-Crimea-1188/
Voices from Russia 
15 March 2014. The KPU Website is Down… Fascist Hackers May be to Blame
Tags: Communist Party of the Ukraine, fascism, hacker attack, internet, KPU, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Soviet Union, Ukraine, United States, USA
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As of 13.00 EDT, the KPU official website is down. Fascist hackers have tried to attack Russian media, government, and other websites, so, that isn’t a surprise. Reflect on this… the USA giggles at such shit. All its talk of democracy is utter hokum and no sane person should believe it. Anglo-Saxon Amerikantsy toddlers only believe in “might makes right” and “winning is the only thing”. You invite trouble if you forget that. Keep the KPUniki in your thoughts and prayers… they’re on the cross.
BMD