Full text of Putin’s speech on Crimea – PRAGUE POST | The Voice of Prague http://t.co/HYsvXIdc54 via @BowThemes
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) March 23, 2014
This was published in the Prague Post. It’s fascinating to get a non-U.S. perspective on this. Regardless of you think of the Putin’s position, it’s important to understand it. Whether you agree or disagree, Putin must be credited for explaining his position. Make sure you read the comments.
Of interest:
First, we had to help create conditions so that the residents of Crimea for the first time in history were able to peacefully express their free will regarding their own future. However, what do we hear from our colleagues in Western Europe and North America? They say we are violating norms of international law. Firstly, it’s a good thing that they at least remember that there exists such a thing as international law – better late than never.
Secondly, and most importantly – what exactly are we violating? True, the President of the Russian Federation received permission from the Upper House of Parliament to use the Armed Forces in Ukraine. However, strictly speaking, nobody has acted on this permission yet. Russia’s Armed Forces never entered Crimea; they were there already in line with an international agreement. True, we did enhance our forces there; however – this is something I would like everyone to hear and know – we did not exceed the personnel limit of our Armed Forces in Crimea, which is set at 25,000, because there was no need to do so.
Next. As it declared independence and decided to hold a referendum, the Supreme Council of Crimea referred to the United Nations Charter, which speaks of the right of nations to self-determination. Incidentally, I would like to remind you that when Ukraine seceded from the USSR it did exactly the same thing, almost word for word. Ukraine used this right, yet the residents of Crimea are denied it. Why is that?
Moreover, the Crimean authorities referred to the well-known Kosovo precedent – a precedent our western colleagues created with their own hands in a very similar situation, when they agreed that the unilateral separation of Kosovo from Serbia, exactly what Crimea is doing now, was legitimate and did not require any permission from the country’s central authorities. Pursuant to Article 2, Chapter 1 of the United Nations Charter, the UN International Court agreed with this approach and made the following comment in its ruling of July 22, 2010, and I quote: “No general prohibition may be inferred from the practice of the Security Council with regard to declarations of independence,” and “General international law contains no prohibition on declarations of independence.” Crystal clear, as they say.
I do not like to resort to quotes, but in this case, I cannot help it. Here is a quote from another official document: the Written Statement of the United States America of April 17, 2009, submitted to the same UN International Court in connection with the hearings on Kosovo. Again, I quote: “Declarations of independence may, and often do, violate domestic legislation. However, this does not make them violations of international law.” End of quote. They wrote this, disseminated it all over the world, had everyone agree and now they are outraged. Over what? The actions of Crimean people completely fit in with these instructions, as it were. For some reason, things that Kosovo Albanians (and we have full respect for them) were permitted to do, Russians, Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in Crimea are not allowed. Again, one wonders why.
We keep hearing from the United States and Western Europe that Kosovo is some special case. What makes it so special in the eyes of our colleagues? It turns out that it is the fact that the conflict in Kosovo resulted in so many human casualties. Is this a legal argument? The ruling of the International Court says nothing about this. This is not even double standards; this is amazing, primitive, blunt cynicism. One should not try so crudely to make everything suit their interests, calling the same thing white today and black tomorrow. According to this logic, we have to make sure every conflict leads to human losses.
As this particular post gets off track, it occurs to me that this is probably what PoliticalXPat meant with his comment on another post:
In order to keep to the purpose of IsaacBrockSociety.ca site as
and to endeavour not to turn off too many people who in desperation are looking for information as they learn of FATCA and US citizenship-based taxation and how it relates to them,
…what do others feel about having ONE IBS POST DEVOTED TO RANTS and where we can move comments with that contain rants that appear on other posts, so as not to turn people away, i.e. as replied to Duke of Devon:
That way, all would be served: those who want to rant and read rants separated from those who want to stay on track. I don’t know. I just want to find a solution without completely deleted things / censoring comments that may be offensive to some.
Calgary, that was a sarcastic satirical post I made. Oh well. We need some humor here too? Maybe you are too young to remember The Smothers Brothers? In my mind the point I was trying to make was Dick is Obama and Tommy is Harper.
Chears,
I do get all of that. I just want everyone served here at Isaac Brock. I don’t want anyone turned away — we all come with different thicknesses of skin — and some things just aren’t satirical to some people who are reaching for their life line. Just putting it out there to see what others think.
(Were I to be too young to remember the Smothers Brothers — they are sure of my time (or I of theirs) and I did appreciate their humour, not going through any of what we’re all sharing going through here.)
@ calgary411
I didn’t want to clutter anyones’s e-mail box by posting at the “Definitive” thread but I would like to point out to people that you can always place the icon of a particular thread’s URL that you want to keep a special eye on right out there on your computer’s desktop. That’s what I do. I keep updated that way instead of the subscribe way. Of course my desktop is a rainbow-color-coded mess of icons but it works for me. 🙂
Oh, since this thread is about Putin’s speech — I liked it — but I refuse to become enamoured by ANY politician, ANYwhere. I don’t look for any Great White, Black or Brown Hope. I reserve my hope for the masses — the hope they will awaken someday soon and realize they have the power and that they always have had it. I want a PEACEFUL restoration of people power, if at all possible. Gads, I’m sounding like a flower child and I’m actually a old cactus.
As another reminded me, the damage is already done and we’re always going to experience getting off track.
I understand that and likely so do all the rest of the hardy Brockers. My concern isn’t about any of us but for those new people who are searching and might leave before they get some very good help. I do wish I would also not have to think twice or more about who I refer to Isaac Brock, their sensibility (and, sadly, their judgment on my mental state for having done so). I, myself, will never give up on what Brock has become and what it has accomplished – it’s just those first impressions for some others that I fret about.
PS: Em, good idea about easily-accessible icons on the Desktop.
Sorry for my earlier off-track comment. I will try to make amends now with something on-topic and relevant:
One big question in my mind right now is whether Russia will go forward with the implementation of FATCA by July 1 of this year, i.e. will Russia willingly accept imposition of an American extraterritorial law on its own banks? I don’t have an answer to this question myself but I sure am curious to see the outcome. It seems hard to believe that Russia will say yes, but this is a strange world sometimes.
Here is a related article from Bloomberg today: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-24/russia-gets-ready-for-life-without-visa-and-mastercard#r=rss
Interesting how Ron Paul says US sanctions are an act of war but his son says they should be implemented without delay and that if he were president he wouldn’t let Putin get away with this: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/15/ron-paul-crimea-russia-sanctions-act-of-war
Somewhere else today I read that Obama said that he will do something more if Putin tries to do “more than annex Crimea” ie invade the Ukraine…what happened to the sanctions for annexing Crimea? Seems that he’s backing off now. He probably realizes that Europe is not backing him up on the sanctions. Visa and Mastercard reinstated operations a day after they stopped them.
Ron Paul is a non-interventionist with regards to Foreign Policy. His son, Rand, is a pragmatic interventionist. That is, intervene when it is clearly in America’s interests in doing so. That is the main point where he and his father split.
@FromTheWilderness
Thanks for the distinction between father and son Paul. Both are for abolishing the 16th amendment, either would please me well.
Zerohedge: First Russia Locks Up China With “Holy Grail” Gas Deal, Now Rosneft Prepares Mega-Deal With India
http://www.blacklistednews.com/First_Russia_Locks_Up_China_With_%22Holy_Grail%22_Gas_Deal%2C_Now_Rosneft_Prepares_Mega-Deal_With_India/33988/0/0/0/Y/M.html
The Ukrainian crisis could have impact on FATCA for not only Russia, but China and the other BRICS as well. Remember, FATCA is based on the arrogant assumption that the entire world is falling all over itself to hold US dollars and invest in the US financial markets.
A significant number of free market minded economists are convinced the days of the US dollar as the worlds reserve currency are numbered. The US sanctions against Russia will inevitably bring the Russians and Chinese (and other BRICs) closer with trade transactions between them being settled without US dollars.
The sanctions against Russia could very well be the tipping point for the reign of the US dollar. And once the dollar begins to lose its status as the world’s reserve currency, the world will not care so much about having access to the US financial system. The US will then have to do everything possible to attract foreign investment to include abandoning its current arrogant minded policies such as FATCA which by nature only serve to scare away foreign investment.
The recent expulsion of Americans from banks in Europe is the canary in the coal mine for what will soon become a huge contraction of foreign investment from America’s banks. Just wait until the US makes its first press release bragging about punishing a foreign financial firm with – 30% for the purpose of intimidating others into toeing the line.
The shift away from the dollar isn’t going to happen overnight. But the stuck-on-stupid arrogance of the US is definitely going to speed things up.
@garbo999:
The FATCA IGA negotiations with Russia are being tracked at this thread:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2014/01/07/why-russias-oligarchy-supports-fatca/#comments
Prior to the Crimea incident, there were at least these key factors to consider:
1) The Russian Finance Ministry has been publicly in favor of an IGA and the Foreign Ministry has been against it.
2) The Russians are requiring reciprocity, which the US negotiators cannot agree to.
Add in the cold war mentality that has resurfaced with Crimea and the probability of an IGA has fallen even further.
Well, apparently, Russia is still ecstatic about FATCA.
http://en.ria.ru/business/20140326/188774382/Moscow-Washington-Will-Not-Postpone-FATCA-Agreement–Russian.html
@noone: or maybe Siluanov is just trying to put a brave face on things in an effort to deflect Russian bankers’ fear & anger and to give the government time to formulate a more detailed response.
Anyway, the basic problem remains: Russia has demanded genuine reciprocity, and we all know the U.S. government can’t provide it. The Crimean situation makes it even more difficult: in Russia’s eyes, because Crimea is now part of Russia and subject to Russian tax laws, genuine reciprocity means obtaining information about Crimeans’ bank accounts in the U.S., but I really doubt the U.S. would be willing to send Russia that information even if the IRS could collect it in the first place.
@noone: Even if the US signed a FATCA IGA granting reciprocity to Russia, it could be questioned whether the US would actually pass tax and bank account information to Russia. You might wish to listen Robert Stack’s testimony to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations at 52:45 to 56:00:
http://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/treaties-02-26-2014
…perhaps Russia would like to kick the US tires?
…when we’re dealing with a US entity, it is a much higher standard?
Robert Stack — The suffering expats myth guy. He is either clueless or a pathological liar.
@Eric, I thought Germany and France also demanded full reciprocity. And that it was the main issue especially with Germany. Yet they both still signed an IGA without too much fuss.
They are all pretty bad negotiators. They only should have agreed to send data when both countries have laws that allow it. It should have been written black on white.
That’s why I think Australia’s approach of first trying to pass local laws to allow the transfer of data (or should I say the discrimination against a class of their citizen) makes sense. Once they have that, they can require the same from the US as a condition to sign the IGA.
I still don’t understand why nobody tried to challenge these threats of sanctions at the international level. It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t like things that don’t make sense…
And why did the OECD agree that it was OK for the US not to share data? That also does not make sense.
Bank Rossiya closes its US correspondent accounts & shifts to ruble-only operations
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_28/Russian-bank-hit-by-US-sanctions-to-operate-only-on-domestic-market-to-protect-clients-8270/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sanctions-hit-bank-rossiya-shifts-164420942.html
They have a statement about it on their home page, in Russian:
http://web.abr.ru/
The simple fact is that a) Obama is being hypocritical with his accusations of Russia annexing Crimea, when he himself is annexing every single financial institution and taxation entity of every other country in the world and b) Duke of Devon, I do reserve the right to venomously hate Obama with every single cell in my body. He has declared financial war on every single one of us here with his signing off on FATCA.
As far as I’m concerned, he is nothing but avaricious SCUM. There is no difference between Russia and FATCA. There are many more ways of declaring war than by military force and many people do not realize that when Obama signed FATCA into law, he declared financial war on each and every country in the entire world. As far as I am concerned, I’m rooting for Putin to put a stop to Obama.
Now excuse me, I’m going to go back to digging a 50 foot deep bomb shelter in the back yard.