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.
Thanks for posting this. I have a new found respect for Putin which has completely replaced a previous unfounded idea that he was crazy. That repugnant exceptionalism ingrained in us since birth dies a very slow death.
It always seems the USA tends to smear things in their favor. When we look at both sides, I would tend to agree with Putin. I think the USA has lost a lot of respect from Russia…
This is not a US issue. No country in the world has recognized the Russian annexation of Crimea. There are good reasons for that which are not addressed here – nor should they be.
The Brock site is so an excellent forum for the issue of US CBT and FATCA. I hope its impact will not be diluted by political discussions far afield from that point.
@Sad4America Sorry but I strongly disagree. You cannot divorce from FATCA from geopolitics. FATCA and CBT, as discussed on this website numerous times, are a violation of human rights and international law. Obama and his thugs only get away with it because of his power internationally. Putin is highly relevant to our discussion because only he is strong enough to stand up to the bully.
As for your comment on Crimea, Kosovo also was only recognized by a few countries upon independence, but now is recognized by more than 100 countries. It takes time. Putin will win in the end.
Just a thought- but with all the sanctions against russian banks- will Russia now be willing to go along with FTACA/IGAs? if they are already not allowed to do transactions in dollars, then there isn’t really any traction there for US threats – is there?
@Sad4America
“No country in the world has recognized the annexation of Crimea.” What country in the world has stood up to FATCA or the clumsy attempt to disguise the IGA’s as a blatant act to impose US law upon every single country on earth?
The aspect that is relevant here, is the ongoing discussion of the imperialism that the US condemns of those it opposes while doing so itself. Many posts, regardless of the story content, have served that purpose. I don’t believe Brock exists just to inform people about tax and citizenship issues independent of the reasons that have made those issues the problems they are. It seems to me that before one makes a decision as to being coming compliant, retaining citizenship and the like, best to judge the US government by its actions not the ideologies that do not reflect those actions. The “exceptionalism” we have been brought up to believe in, has to be questioned.
A truly American attitude should be supportive of a free election where 82% of the electorate voted nearly 100% to rejoin Russia. Who are we to question that? Why should we not consider Putin’s words on our own, independent of our likely source of info (the Western press) or trust that ingrained idea that if the US opposes it we should as well?
This is in German, but the video is very interesting:
Krim crisis – why the americans want war
http://www.hotnewsblog.net/2014/03/krim-krise-warum-die-amerikaner-den.html#.Uy8Hpfl5PCs
@Polly, according to Ken Jebsen, Russia is trading oil in currencies other than dollars.
The Crimea is a symptom of historical power shifts. Would have Putin done this in 1994? Probably not because the US had greater influence. However 20 years on and the rise of the Far East, the US is losing the role of ‘world’s policeman.’ Increasingly the regional powers will be able to insulate themselves from US Financial Warfare once the dollar is dethroned from reserve currency status.
In future the situation will be when the US threatens to isolate a country from using dollars, the answer will be ‘so what.’
@Swisspinoy
And according to CNN, the russian bank Russya is banned from using dollars ( which was the threat for banks not joining FATCA). So what does this mean for Russia- that they will not be joining the FATCA program or that they will anyway?
In all honesty- I don’t really know what s going on over there. I don’t know if their elections were rigged or not. If the world wants to send UN troups over there, then they should have done so to monitor the voting. I honestly don’t know if the majority of Crimeans want to belong to Russia or not, or if their votes were manipulated by the russian troups sitting there and intimidating everybody.
But in Switzerland there is something called “direct democracy”. And there was just an election on an issue that came out 30000 votes over 50-50. So lets call the results: 49-51%. And lets imagine the 49% who lost went to the streets and began a fight. That would be killing democracy and the whole point of voting.
So I don’t really know what is going on in Egypt or Urkraine and whether their voting process was corrupt or not – but what if the party that lost by a smidgeon went up on the barricades and made a huge fuss? What if they started to throw molotov cocktails and demonstrate loudly. Does their screaming undo the vote? Thats not right either.
So we don’t know and I honestly don’t know who DOES know what the truth is? And I have the feeling things are being twisted around left and right to please (((whose ever))) economic interests.
An interesting read, if a bit rose coloured.
The ancient links between Russia and Crimea are at least shared with Ukraine since the divergence of those two peoples really was a product of the Tatar invasions of about 1000 years ago. Khersonese was of course a Greek colony (the Greeks were another people deported from Crimea by Stalin, along with Jews and Tatars). If historical links are all he needs to invade some territory, he may want to keep an eye on the “enclave” of Kaliningrad which of course was the capital city of East Prussia until 1945 (when it was known as Konigsberg) until millions of Germans were deported. Unilateral re-drawing of borders is a pretty slippery slope.
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-crippled-russian-bank-stroke-100000133.html?.tsrc=metrosnw
He may not take shirtless horseback rides across the steppes, or have a black belt in judo, but on Thursday, President Obama sent a message to Russian president Vladimir Putin about strength. Specifically, economic strength.
The message was this: Whenever I decide to, I can pick up a pen, and kill a significant financial institution in your country.
If account holders want to do any kind of business at all short of paying their utility bills and using Russian ATMs, they are going to need to go elsewhere, said experts.
“They’ve got to go to another bank,” said Lester M. Joseph, former principal deputy chief of the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering section. “That bank is pretty much a pariah.”
Currently the international investigations manager at Wells Fargo Bank, Joseph said when heard about the sanctions on Bank Rossiya, the first thing he did was check to see if it was a customer of his institution. “It is not, thankfully,” he said.
The impact doesn’t stop there, Joseph explained. His next step, which is ongoing, is to see if any banks that Wells Fargo has relationships with are also doing business with Bank Rossiya, and to make sure that none of those banks are routing transactions from the Russian bank through Wells Fargo’s system. “If a transaction from that bank is coming from another bank, we would have to block it,” he said.
Here’s Putin’s answer to that: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2586314/Putin-laughs-face-Western-sanctions-asking-5-000-salary-transferred-Russian-bank-singled-punishment.html
The US has always been the master of “doublespeak”. Calling things white in one instance and black in the next.
@SwissPinoy, trading oil in non-USD? Isn’t that what got Libya invaded? Did Gaddafi want gold for their oil? Or at least that is what Zero Hedge said (have to take some of their stuff with large quantities of salt).
I don’t know. The US would have a tough time if vast swaths of the population had cash flow issues but Russians are not Americans when it comes to “sucking it up”.
Here, Harper is falling in line and being a good little red haired step-child in terms of following the US line on Crimea, but one has to wonder how much is genuine and how much is self-preservation when gauging how the “rest of the world’ back US foreign policy.
And I agree with you. It’s all subtly intertwined. FATCA is no less a politic tool than sanctions or the NSA or invasions. Forcing everyone to tie in to the US financial system is not done for the benefit of the world economy but to give the US leverage in its power struggles. And I am certain that the leaders of our countries discuss this in confidence but play dumb with the populations. What else can they do?
Just watch what happens when the first non-US bank gets punished with a 30% withholding on all US payments.
What do you think will happen to foreign investment in US Treasuries? Who is going to invest in Treasuries at the risk of getting a 30% haircut for having a US person or two slipping through the cracks?
FATCA will lead to foreign divestiture in US Treasuries. Watch this space.
@Tim
Why post that gingoistic rubbish? Maybe you don’t know that if Obama doesn’t back off YOU and I will not have access to any bank or financial accounts because Putin will bring them all down with cyber attacks. Get it? Obama totally full of it. Putin will win this power struggle. When, not if, there is a major cyber attack on Wall St, the American people will revolt in the streets and there will be a run on the banks such as never seen in history and the people will put the blame squarely where it belongs, on Obama (and Harper his little poodle with its legs spread). I can’t wait to see how Putin rubs Obama’s face in his own excrement. If we can’t live with full equal rights as humans then no one in America or Canada should in my opinion. Bring down this evil system.
U.S. and EU call on Ukrainian neo-Nazis to ditch swastika
http://www.blacklistednews.com/U.S._and_EU_call_on_Ukrainian_neo-Nazis_to_ditch_swastika/33931/0/38/38/Y/M.html
Crimea Crisis could trigger run on Your Bank!
http://xrepublic.tv/node/8088
If I choose to embrace Vladimir Putin and Russian expansionism based on the theory that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, then perhaps I should also endorse the Taliban? They are definitely opposed to America. 😉
Seriously, someone living in Canada could fantasize about escaping American and Canadian tyranny by emigrating to Russia, but IMO that would be the perfect example of “Jumping from the frying pan into the fire”, unless you love corruption (e.g. bribe the doctor who’s going to perform your surgery, bribe the policeman who stops you to give you a ticket, etc. etc. etc.). I wasn’t raised that way, so it would be a tough transition for me.
Russia sanctions 13 Canadians:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/03/24/russia-slaps-entry-ban-on-13-canadian-lawmakers-officials-in-retaliation-for-ukraine-sanctions/
• Andrew Scheer, Commons Speaker
• Peter Van Loan, government House leader
• Ted Opitz, Conservative MP
• James Bezan, Conservative MP
• Dean Allison, Conservative MP
• Irwin Cotler, Liberal MP
• Chrystia Freeland, Liberal MP
• Paul Dewar, NDP MP
• Wayne Wouters, clerk of the privy council
• Jean-François Tremblay, deputy secretary to the cabinet
• Christine Hogan, assistant secretary to the cabinet
• Sen. Raynell Andreychuk, Conservative senator from Saskatchewan
• Paul Grod, national president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress
Why do Ukrainian Canadians get their “own” Congress. Where is are equivalent to Paul Grod.
FWIW, I’m with Sad4America on this.
IBS is the anti-CBT, anti-FATCA, USP support site; keeping it focused on that is the best way to have a big, inviting tent for people of all political leanings.
My 2 cents.
Moderators. Can you not put a stop to the anti Pres. Obama hate posts.
garbo…..is that the best you can do, equating Russia with the Taliban?
Russia is not my enemy, nor is post Nazi Germany
Anyway, who cares what the Taliban does really, it’s not our business. They’ve never attacked us here in N America so I don’t care. That area of the world is populate with “people” somewhere lost in the evolution stage (if you believe in evolution that is) and it isn’t for self righteous arrogant morally superior Canada to interfere in their affairs as they didn’t interfere in our affairs throughout history. Americans and Canadians love play armchair General as if they are God or something this game http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/Whitehill/risk/game.jpg
and when you watch the news you see daily indignation, expressed by the talking heads, that other countries don’t want to live like we think they should. This attitude is enough to make any thinking person want to get off this sick continent.
Duke of Devon
Maybe you are on the wrong thread? We hate Obama here. We do not consider ourselves Americans anymore. We are Canadians. Don’t fret, we hate Harper too. We are equal opportunity haters ;-)) but they hated us first. It goes something like this: