27 Mar, 2022 12:03

Donbass republic mulls attempt to join Russia

The head of the Lugansk People’s Republic has told journalists about plans to hold a referendum

The Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), one of the two breakaway Donbass territories recognized by Moscow as independent states in late February, is planning to hold a plebiscite on joining Russia “in the near future,” its leader has revealed.

There has been no indication that the Kremlin would accept such a demand. Last month, President Valdimir Putin recognised the independence of the LPR, but almost all of the word considers it to still be part of Ukraine.

Speaking to journalists on Sunday, Leonid Pasechnik said that he thought “in the near future a referendum will be held in the republic, where people will exercise their absolutely constitutional right, and give their opinion with respect to joining Russia.” The official added that he was “somehow sure that’s precisely the way it will be.”

Commenting on the possibility of such a vote in the LPR, Russian Senator Andrey Klishas said on Sunday that both Lugansk and Donetsk had the right to seek to join Russia unless such a move ran counter to their constitutions.

However, Leonid Kalashnikov, who chairs the Russian Duma’s committee on the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, has warned that “now is not the right moment” for holding a referendum in the republic. Kalashnikov argued that “you hardly need to bother with such questions when destiny is being determined on the frontline.”

Both the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the LPR declared independence in 2014 following a violent coup in Kiev. Both territories are predominantly Russian-speaking, and fears were growing at the time that nationalist elements in the new Ukrainian government would persecute ethnic minorities. Ukraine branded the two breakaway republics separatists and launched an ‘anti-terrorist operation,’ deploying its military to regain control, which resulted in a bloody war. The armed hostilities ended in February 2015 with the signing in the Belarusian capital of the so-called Minsk II peace agreement, brokered by Germany and France.

The accord demanded that both the Ukrainian military and separatists cease fire and put an end to clashes, which had turned the region into a conflict zone. The document also called for major administrative and political reform in Ukraine as well as autonomy and local elections for the Donbass republics. However, the implementation of the agreement was stalled, with the two sides blaming each other for the lack of progress.

In mid-February 2022, the DPR and LPR began reporting an uptick in Ukrainian artillery shelling – something which forced the Donbass republics to ask Russia for official recognition, as their respective leaderships claim. On February 21, Moscow recognized both republics as independent states, signing friendship treaties with Donetsk and Lugansk. However, parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions declared by the two republics as their own in their respective constitutions were still under Ukraine’s control.

On February 24, Putin launched a military offensive in Ukraine. The Russian head of state insisted that the neighboring state had to be “demilitarized and denazified,” claiming that far-right militias, which had permeated the Ukrainian government, were supposedly aiming to carry out a genocide of the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass. Ukraine and its allies dismissed Putin’s allegations as a mere pretext, accusing Moscow of waging “unprovoked” aggression against a sovereign state.

https://www.rt.com/russia/552790-donbass-republic-referendum-join-russia/

27 Mar, 2022 10:36

HomeWorld News

West accused of double standards on Ukraine

Qatar and Saudi Arabia have shamed the West for paying more attention to the war in Ukraine than to events in the Middle East

The US’ major non-NATO ally Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia, have shamed the West for paying disproportionately more attention to Ukraine than to conflicts in nations across the Middle East.

“The humanitarian suffering that we have seen in Ukraine … has been the suffering of a lot of countries in this region for years, and nothing happened,” Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said during roundtable talks at the annual Doha Forum on Saturday.

He reminded delegates of “the brutality against the Syrian people, or against the Palestinians, or against the Libyans, or against the Iraqis, or against the Afghans,” and said that, in his view, “we have never seen a global response to address those sufferings.”

The US and the EU have spearheaded the international campaign to back Ukraine during its ongoing conflict with Russia, which has included delivering weapons and other aid to the Kiev government and imposing draconian economic sanctions on Moscow.

The events in Ukraine should become “a wake-up call for everyone in the international community to look at our region and to address the issues … with the same level of commitment,” the FM insisted.

The Qatari stance was backed by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, who agreed that “the engagement of the global community … it’s quite different.”

“The trans-Atlantic unity right now, its commendable. But I think you have to have a much better conversation with the rest of the global community,” he added.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia are considered strategic allies of the West, with the US having recently awarded the former the status of “major non-NATO ally.” The two wealthy Gulf nations have so far maintained a neutral stance on the situation in Ukraine due to their ties with Russia.

Washington and Brussels are hoping Doha and Riyadh will boost their oil and gas production to reduce the West’s dependence on Russian energy.

In an interview with CNN earlier this week, however, Qatari Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said replacing Russian gas was “not practically possible.” He stated that Doha would not be imposing sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas sector as “energy should stay out of politics.”

Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine a month ago, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it had been planning to retake the two republics by force.

https://www.rt.com/news/552789-ukraine-qatar-saudi-arabia/

27 Mar, 2022 09:56

HomeRussia & FSU

Trump makes Biden Ukraine claim

“The five worst presidents” ever in US together couldn’t have done more damage than Biden has managed in just 15 months, former leader insists

Former US president Donald Trump has suggested that Joe Biden should have nothing to do with Ukraine, alluding to the controversial business dealings of the incumbent US president’s son in the ex-Soviet state.

Trump spoke in front of a huge GOP rally in Commerce, Georgia on Saturday, and insisted that “the invasion of Ukraine should never have happened,” while also blaming Biden, whom he slammed as a “sleepy son of a b****,” for being unable to prevent it.

“We have a president that has no idea what the hell he’s doing and has no idea even where he is. The fake news, they’re trying to say he’s acting brilliantly,” he said. But, according to Trump, this isn’t the case at all, because currently “Ukraine is being bombed to s**t!”

“Joe Biden should recuse himself from anything having to do with Ukraine because of how much money they're getting from Ukraine. They’ve taken in a fortune,” he said, referring to what he believes is alleged corrupt activity between the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and a Ukrainian gas company.

The younger Biden had joined the board of Burisma Holdings – one of Ukraine’s largest private natural gas producers – in 2014, soon after the Maidan protests in Kiev that ultimately installed a pro-Western government in the country. The violent coup was backed by the administration of former President Barack Obama, in which Biden senior held the position of vice president.

During the 2020 election campaign, Trump claimed that Biden had used his influence and his government position to get his son the job, with a reported salary of $83,000 per month, and later pressured then-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to fire a prosecutor, who had been investigating alleged violations at Burisma.

The elder Biden confirmed that he threatened to withhold a loan to Kiev in order to get a prosecutor sacked, but insisted that this was done to get rid of a corrupt official, in line with bipartisan US policy. His campaign denied all other claims.

Trump’s own attempts to persuade Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch a new, publicly announced probe into the Biden family’s dealings with Burisma resulted in ‘abuse of power’ and ‘obstruction of Congress’ charges against him, which eventually led to an impeachment.

“Ukraine would've never happened" if he was still the US president, Trump assured his crowd.

He mentioned Biden numerous times during the speech, saying that the Democrat’s stay in the White House has been “one train wreck after another.”

“The five worst presidents in American history” together “would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done in just 15 months,” the 75-year-old insisted. “In just over a year, he has managed to kill, literally kill, the American dream.”

“But do not lose hope, because, with the right leadership, America will be back, greater, stronger, and more powerful than ever before,” Trump promised, stopping short of announcing another run for office in 2024.

Unlike Biden, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was “smart” for using the military build-up near the Ukrainian border to put pressure on Washington during the negotiations for security guarantees, he said. However, he decried the Russian attack on its neighbor as a “big mistake.”

“That’s a hell of a way to negotiate, put 200,000 troops on the border. That was a big mistake, but it looked like a great negotiation. That didn’t work out too well for him,” the 45th US president said.

Trump also warned about the threat of a nuclear conflict as a result of tensions between Russia and the West over Moscow’s operation.

Russia put its nuclear weapons on high alert after launching its military operation in the neighboring country in late February, citing what it described as “aggressive statements” made by NATO, and harsh financial sanctions imposed by the West.

“We have the president of Russia mentioned the N-word… the nuclear word,” Trump said.“The nuclear word is a very dangerous, dangerous word and it’s being thrown around very cavalierly.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/552780-trump-claims-biden-is-comprised/

27 Mar, 2022 13:29

Australian PM explains refusal to meet China’s envoy

It would be a sign of “weakness” after Beijing’s suspension of minister-to-minister talks, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said

Scott Morrison declined to meet with China’s new ambassador to Australia earlier this month because it would have been a sign of “weakness” after Beijing suspended ministerial engagement, the prime minister has explained.

Earlier this week, local media reported that Morrison had recently declined a formal request for a meeting from China’s new envoy, Xiao Qian.

“So long as China continues to refuse to have dialogue with Australian ministers and the prime minister, I think that’s an entirely proportional response,” Morrison said as he explained his decision to journalists on Saturday.

“That would be a demonstration of weakness and I can assure you as prime minister that’s the last message I’d ever send to China,” he insisted.

With Beijing blocking minister-to-minister contacts, “Australians would see it as very inappropriate for me to engage in that dialogue with an ambassador,” the prime minister stated.

Xiao eventually ended up holding talks with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne. This did not result in any diplomatic breakthrough, but still became the most high-profile meeting between officials from the two Pacific rivals in almost two years.

During his meetings with private-sector representatives in recent weeks, the ambassador relayed a message to the Australian authorities from Chinese President Xi Jinping: “Australia has been treating China like the enemy. Australia has to decide whether it is China’s enemy or China’s friend.”

This will likely be a complicated decision for Canberra, considering the recent leak of a draft security deal between China and the Solomon Islands, which could well see Beijing establishing a naval base in the Oceania region. Morrison said the development was of “great concern across the Pacific family.”

Australia maintains strong influence in the Solomon Islands, providing it with financial aid and security. The Australian military and police are set to remain in the country until December 2023 after being deployed there in 2019 to help quell riots that were provoked by the local government’s decision to switch diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing.

Canberra also recently slammed Beijing for its “chilling silence” regarding the Russian military operation in Ukraine and its refusal to introduce any sort of sanctions against Moscow.

Meanwhile, China has been angered by Australia’s participation in the AUKUS deal with the US and the UK, which was announced last year and is aimed at arming Canberra with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

Relations between the two countries took a turn for the worse in 2020, deteriorating when Australia called for a global probe into the origins on Covid-19 and how it spread. Beijing, which had been vigorously rejecting attempts to pin the blame for the pandemic on it, responded by banning imports of some Australian products, including coal, barley and lobsters.

Australia is ruled by dolts who have a demented tyrannical complex

https://www.rt.com/news/552798-australia-china-ambassador-morrison/