Russian tourists refuse from trips to USA and UK

The press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, Irina Tyurina, told reporters that the demand for summer educational programs abroad fell among Russian citizens as compared with the previous year due to the introduction of sanctions against Russia by the European Union. The falling demand is estimated between 20% and 50% vs. 2013. "The beginning of this week was marked with another extension of the "black list" of the European Union for Russia. The list now includes more than 60 people whose entry to the EU was denied. Officials with foreign diplomatic missions have repeatedly stated that common Russians, who are going to travel abroad, do not have to fear the sanctions, because all countries are interested in increasing the tourist flow from Russia, and no one wants to build any obstacles in issuing visas to Russian tourists. Yet, many Russians take the sanctions policy personally, and the segment of educational tourism has proved to be most vulnerable in this respect," stressed Tyurina. Tour operators say that many Russian parents decide to postpone sending their children abroad for language classes being concerned that they will be denied a visa. "Fortunately, there is no trend of massive claims for refunds for the previously purchased tours. However, the general demand for summer educational programs abroad noticeably subsided this year," said the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry. According to her, residents in Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk succumbed to panic more than others. In Moscow, people are still willing to travel abroad. The number of refusals for language programs for students up to 16 years in the U.S., UK, Canada and Australia is the largest. Nevertheless, according to Tyurina, the consulates of these countries issue visas to Russians without any difficulties. "Against such a background, language camps in Malta and Cyprus are doing better, which can be attributed to their relative cheapness compared, for example, to the UK," the press secretary said. Tyurina stressed out that "tour operators do not recall a similar situation with the demand for educational tours during the previous years. As a rule, any shocks in the economy for this type of tourism go more smoothly than, for example, in the sphere of beach or sightseeing holidays. "Studying abroad can be affordable to people with good incomes, and they are prone to crises to a lesser extent," concluded Tyurina. Meanwhile, hundreds of Russian citizens have lost their money because of failed trips to the UK due to visa registration problems. The managing company of UK visa centers in Russia was changed at the end of March. As a result, many tourists began to receive their passports back after the date of their previously scheduled departure. There were incidents, when delays in receiving passports made up 2.5-3 months. Such a situation has developed in all regions of Russia that have UK visa centers. The centers do not provide any confirmation for the date when applicants can collect their passports, and tourists can not prove that they received the documents after the previously set date. In this connection, insurance companies refuse to pay cancellation coverage, the Russian Union of Travel Industry said.

Russian tank 'Slingshot' vs. Israeli 'War Chariot'

Sometimes it seems that the creators of Russian military equipment were picking on a "potential enemy" deliberately, since the Soviet times. Just think about it - the name of an Israeli tank Merkava translates as "war chariot" and Russia's T-72B is known as "slingshot." What about the equipment for Russian special services? Handcuffs "Tenderness," shock baton "Caress-Super" baton "Argument," gas "Bird Cherry." Who comes up with all these names? Catalogues of Russian military equipment contain such items as digging tools "Vigor," stretcher "Inspiration," sabots "Mummy." Publications of the Russian defense industry mention a manual six-shot revolver "Gnome," naval torpedo "Raccoon," anti-tank mine "Tick," tactical free-falling bomb with a special warhead up to 40 kilotons "Natasha," silent automatic grenade launcher "Canary," aviation system of single indication "Narcissus," etc. Russian artillery systems do not bear threatening names, as they do in foreign countries. Russian names for such systems are more than just peaceful, they are flowery: "Carnation," "Acacia," "Tulip," "Hyacinth," "Peony," "Chrysanthemum" and so forth. The world's most powerful 30-barrel propelled flamethrower is called "Pinocchio." There are many other fascinating names: automatic mortar "Cornflower," company mortar "Tray," mortar "Sledge," system of active wired protection "Cactus," intercontinental ballistic missile "Good Boy," fire control system "Cabbage," artillery radar system "Zoo," container system for rocket control "Phantasmagoria," self-propelled gun "Capacitor." We can continue with coastal defense missile system "Ball," anti-tank missiles "Half-Breed," heavy tank support combat vehicle "Frame," grenades for grenade launcher "Foundling," grenade launcher "Shoes," radar artillery reconnaissance and fire control complex "Zoo." As it turns out, the fashion for specific names of arms, except for digital and abbreviated codes, began to be used around the world back in the 1950s and 1960s. The Americans were the first to invent intimidating names for their weapon systems. Apparently, the American trend forced Soviet military designers to invent ironic names to their creations. For example, formidable naval missile systems "Trident" or "Polaris" clearly inspired Russian engineers to name the world's most massive strategic nuclear submarine of Project 667A "Navaga." Navaga is small edible fish that tastes best when fried. Afterwards, the confused "probable and potential" enemy, apparently not to confuse their commanders and spies introduced the so-called "NATO classification" for Soviet submarines. "Navaga," for some reason, was called "Yankee." Today, even in Russian naval reference books, domestic nuclear submarines have NATO names. For example, our project 667BDRM submarine is called "Dolphin" or "Delta-4." Project 661 "Upas Tree" (aka "Goldfish") is simply "Papa" under NATO classification. The world's largest heavy strategic missile submarines of Project 941 "Akula" under NATO classification go as SSBN "Typhoon." Submarine of Project 971 "Pike-B" under NATO are known as "Akula." Project 949A "Antey" submarines under NATO classification are known as "Oscar-II." NATO renamed all Russian weapons to their own liking, the basic principle of which is impossible to understand. Apparently, the principle was as follows: "We can't understand your names, so you won't understand ours." Naval historian, writer and journalist Sergei Aprelev said: "Alas, history has not left the names of those outstanding and undoubtedly talented people, who had a keen sense of humor. It may well be that some of our weapons were named randomly, not even from the top. Here is a story. A Russian submarine recorded the noises of so-called "Quakers." The commander was instructed to describe those signals, so to speak, in his own words. The description eventually said: "They sound like steel balls jumping on an iron plate with a decreasing amplitude." It appears that the description was included in secret reports from a special group of scientists, who were studying the phenomenon ..."

Why doesn't Russia respond to Western sanctions?

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would not impose sanctions against the United States and the European Union. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry promised to take stepы in response to the sanctions that would painfully echo in Washington. Nevertheless, no such step has been taken yet. Why? Commenting on yet another portion of sanctions from the U.S. and the EU, Vladimir Putin said there was no need for Russia to respond with sanctions in return. At the end of April, when Washington and Brussels announced another round of sanctions to be introduced against several Russian citizens and companies, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow would not leave the move without a response: "We have never concealed the fact that there are possibilities for such a response, and the set of measures that could be taken is large enough." He stressed out that "the response would painfully echo in Washington." However, Russia does not seem to be in a hurry to hurt Washington. "Why do we need to respond stupidly to stupidity?" the head of the Department for Applied Political Science at the Financial University of the Government of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Simonov said. According to him, "Russia can respond indeed - Western companies work in Russia actively." "In fact, the dependence on Russia is quite strong, many are not even aware of this dependence. This includes the consumption of Russian products and investment in Russia," the expert said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. "The list of things, with which we can cause damage to Western companies is a very extensive one. The question is, why do we have to do it? If we introduce restrictions on the presence of foreign companies in Russia, then it will affect us as well. The Europeans, when they impose sanctions, must be aware of the fact that it will affect their own consumers. It is impossible to do anything else in the situation when Russian and European economies are so intertwined. Many in Europe are against these sanctions, because they are only possible at the expense of self-restraint," said Konstantin Simonov. Our position on Ukraine and the Crimea is clear and unambiguous. We do not believe that we violated international law and that we should be subject to sanctions. We will prove our rightness in a different way," the head of the Department for General Politics of the Higher School of Economics, Leonid Polyakov said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. "I think that we should not get involved in this game. It seems to me that those, who threaten us with sanctions and use them, will eventually come to their senses and realize that this is a pointless and counterproductive endeavour. I think this is what our position is based on, and it will ultimately give positive results," says the analyst.

Putin: Russia does not want to go back to language of Kalashnikov rifle

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia does not plan to impose restrictions on the use of the Internet. The restrictions, he added, may touch only the propaganda of suicide and pedophilia. "We do not have any limitations associated with the self-expression of a human being, related to the use of modern technologies for one's own development, or for development of one's own business," Putin said at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. "The restrictions have been introduced, but what are they about? They are about the prohibition of the propaganda of pedophilia, child pornography, and the propaganda of methods of suicide. Excuse me, but legal systems of other countries are full of such restrictions, and this applies to Europe and the United States," said Putin. Moreover, he said, such restrictions in those countries are much more stringent than in the Russian legislation. Equating some bloggers to mass media complies with global trends in this area, and Russia simply closes loopholes in the law in this case, Putin said. "This practice is used in European countries, in the UK and in Germany, the United States, and there is nothing unusual at this point. This is just a gap in our legislation that we are closing, and the application of these rules does not come contrary to world trends. Here, all is within the common trends," Putin said, answering questions at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. Russia has no plans to impose restrictions on the use of social networks, nor does it intend to criticize those who do it, Putin said. "First, we are not going to close anything. Secondly, we do not believe we have the right to criticize those who do it. In each case, there is a unique national aspect, and it is not up to us to judge what others do and how," the Russian president said, answering the question whether Russia could indeed ban Facebook, Twitter and their Russian analogues. "We plan to develop modern means of communication. And I hope that we will never return to the time when the primary means of communication was a Kalashnikov rifle," said the president of the Russian Federation. During the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Putin made it clear to all present that Russia was tired of the debate with NATO about the deployment of the missile defense system of the alliance in dangerous proximity to Russian strategic objects. "We are tired of this form of debate - there's no discussion," Putin said. The head of state pointed out that those, who committed a coup in Ukraine, do not want to talk to Russia. "Here are our thoughts. The next step is Ukraine in NATO. They never ask us about it, nor do they conduct a dialogue with us. As experience of the past two decades shows - there's no dialogue, they only say - "none of your business, it doesn't concern you," Putin said. According to him, the West can only assure Russia that the approach of NATO infrastructure to the Russian borders was not directed against Russia. "Tomorrow, Ukraine may join NATO, and in the next few days, elements of U.S. missile defense system may appear in Ukraine. No one ever talks to us on this subject," concluded the president. Vladimir Putin said that he had no idea about how the fate of Edward Snowden may evolve. He assured that the ex-CIA officer had not told anything to Russian security services. "I do not even know. He is a young guy, I don't know how he is going to live. I'm saying this without any jokes or irony. For the time being, he is here, but then what?" Putin said, answering questions at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. "We only gave him shelter and that's all. He is not our agent, he has not exposed any secrets to us. Bad guy, he could have shared something. We still gave him shelter, but he says nothing. He reveals his information through the channels that he knows, when he deems it necessary to publish something," said Putin. Putin added that if U.S. intelligence agencies had acted professionally, Edward Snowden would have been in prison a long time ago. "Why did they frighten the whole world? They frightened all countries. Snowden arrived at our transit zone, and then it turned out that nobody wanted to take him. If they hadn't scared anyone, he would have flown somewhere, and they would have caught him on the way to another country. He'd be steaming in prison for a long time," said Putin. Putin continued: "They frightened everyone, he stayed with us in the transit area, and what do we do? Russia is not the country that delivers human rights defenders." According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, what happened in the Ukraine was a coup that led to chaos and civil war. "Whatever you call it - a revolution, not a revolution - this is a coup, with the use of force and militants," Putin said. According to the president, one should be as accurate as possible when it comes to the institutions of emerging countries. "Otherwise, there will be chaos. And we can see it now in Ukraine," he said. "Why was it necessary to do all that, if Yanukovych agreed to everything?" Putin said. "One should have gone to the polls, and the people, whom they have in power now, would come to power, only legally. We, like idiots, would be paying 15 billion that we promised, keep low gas prices and continue to subsidize the economy of Ukraine further on," said the president. Putin said that Moscow was ready to work with the government formed after the presidential election in Ukraine. "We are still working with the people, who control the power today, but after the election, we will certainly work with the newly elected bodies," said the head of state, speaking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. Putin said Moscow would like to see peace in Ukraine. "We are interested in seeing peace, order and tranquility in our - I mean no irony here - brotherly country of Ukraine," said the president. Putin also said that Russia would respect the results of the presidential election in Ukraine. "We understand and see that the people in Ukraine want the country to come out of this protracted crisis. We also want, in the end, solace, and we will respect the choice of the Ukrainian people," said Putin.

Poroshenko Claims Ukraine Presidency

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian confectionery tycoon Petro Poroshenko has claimed outright victory in the country's presidential election. Mr Poroshenko, known as the "chocolate king", won more than 55% of the vote in the first round, exit polls suggest. His closest challenger, former Ukrainian prime minister and leader of the Batkivshchyna party Yulia Tymoshenko, conceded the election after exit polls showed her with 13% of the vote. Announcing he had won, the 48-year-old businessman promised to forge closer links with the EU and restore peace in restive eastern regions. Pro-Russian separatists severely disrupted voting there. Some 20 people have died in fighting in recent days. No polling stations were open in Donetsk city, and across the region only seven out of 12 district electoral commissions were operating. The Russian separatists are in control of large areas of the Donestk and Luhansk regions. Four hours before polls closed, at 16:00 (13:00 GMT), unofficial estimates put the turnout nationwide at 45%. Addressing supporters in Kiev, Mr Poroshenko said he would support a parliamentary election later this year. He also said he would never recognise Russia's "occupation of Crimea", annexed by Moscow in March. Asked about relations with Russia, he said the "sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Ukraine mattered most to him.

Ukrainians Vote In Key Presidential Election Despite Eastern Unrest

DONETSK, Ukraine -- Voters went to the polls across much of Ukraine on Sunday, despite a recent wave of deadly violence in the East and threats by pro-Russia separatists to prevent citizens from casting their ballots. The unrest has centered in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where separatists have claimed independence following a disputed referendum earlier this month -- and many there will not get to cast ballots. As of 3 p.m. (8 a.m. ET), some 528 polling sites out of 2,430 were open in the Donetsk region, the regional administration said. Local officials said there was 11.8% turnout at these polling stations. Outside the county's restive East, voting was progressing more normally. The Central Election Commission put voter turnout at nearly 38% as of 3 p.m. local time, not including the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine's official Ukrinform news agency reported. In the city of Donetsk, the regional capital where pro-Russia militias are concentrated, there are no open polling stations, local officials said earlier. A CNN team driving through the city Sunday morning was not able to see a single polling station in operation. However, there were signs some voters were trying to go to polling stations in areas west and south of the city. A large Russian separatist rally was held in a central Donetsk city square around lunchtime. The protesters, who chanted pro-Russia slogans as they were addressed by separatist leaders, were joined by a substantial number of militants on trucks, some firing guns into the air. On the back of some of the trucks were armed men who appeared to be Chechen. Two told a CNN team they were from the Chechen capital, Grozny, and one indicated that he was formerly a policemen in Chechnya and was in Donetsk to serve the Russian Federation. The men, who as Chechens are Russian citizens, said they were there as "volunteers." But if their accounts were true, their presence in Donetsk would appear to indicate some kind of acquiescence by the Russian government at the least. Increasing violence in the East has led the authorities in Kiev to accuse Russia, which they say is backing the armed separatists, of seeking to disrupt the vote. Russia denies having direct influence over the militants, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will respect the Ukrainians' choice. Amid heightened tensions, instances of intimidation in eastern Ukraine appear widespread. Residents of Ukraine's southeastern city of Mariupol saw new billboards on the streets Sunday urging them not to cast their ballots. The billboards were not at those locations the night before, residents said. Also in Mariupol, people talked on social media about being asked by local Russia supporters to boycott the election. The city is one of several where deadly clashes have erupted in recent weeks. The self-declared mayor of rebel stronghold Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, has said that anyone who tries to vote there will be arrested. An Italian journalist was killed Saturday near the flashpoint town, the Italian Foreign Ministry announced Sunday. The man, named as Andrea Rocchelli, was killed along with a Russian citizen, the ministry said. Reports suggested there had been mortar fire in the Slavyansk area. Candy tycoon favored to win Voters are choosing a successor to ousted pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych in a country torn apart by Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and bloody conflict with pro-Russia factions. The man considered the front-runner for the job is candy tycoon Petro Poroshenko, known as the "Chocolate King." A billionaire businessman, he is also a seasoned politician. Opinion polls indicate his closest rival in a field of around 20 is Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister and leader of the Batkivshchyna party. It's possible Poroshenko will win outright in the first round by getting more than 50% of the vote. If he fails to cross that hurdle, he'll face the runner-up in a runoff election. Besides the presidential race, candidates are also running in municipal elections in some cities. Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said he would cast his ballot in the capital, Kiev, on Sunday morning. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has deployed 900 observers for the election -- the largest such mission in its history. Amid the escalating tensions, claim and counterclaim have swirled. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov's spokeswoman, Natalia Stativko, told CNN that a claim on Avakov's website -- that the Electoral Commission's electronic vote counting system had been destroyed -- was fake. She said the website had been hacked. The Prosecutor General's Office said Saturday it was investigating 83 cases of alleged interference in the election process in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. On Sunday, an adviser to the official Donetsk governor, Sergey Taruta, said a group of 40 armed men encircled and entered the Hotel Victoria, where the governor's office is temporary located. The men were dressed alike and had automatic weapons, said the adviser, Vasyl Azbuzov. They were looking for the governor, who was voting in Mariupol at that time, but left after taking a list of the hotel's guests. Yatsenyuk: You can't intimidate us Whoever wins the presidency will face the challenge of reuniting a country that is deeply divided and in dire economic straits. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Saturday urged all Ukrainians to go to the polls, saying they would "prove to the whole world, and first of all to ourselves, that it is not possible to intimidate us, that we are going to decide ourselves how to rebuild our home and how to work in it." Voters will be choosing a president to lead a country "for whose freedom, prosperity, European future, the Ukrainians are paying the highest price -- the price of their own lives," he said. Despite the troubles in eastern Ukraine, he said, the vote would represent the "free and unobstructed choice" of the whole nation. "And I would like to assure those our compatriots in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, who will be prevented from coming to the polling stations by the war waged against Ukraine: The criminals don't have much time left to terrorize your land," he added. According to protesters speaking Saturday outside the headquarters of the self-declared "Donetsk People's Republic," as well as the body's Twitter account, Donetsk and Luhansk have united to form a new separatist republic called "Novorossiya." The government in Kiev, which launched an "anti-terrorist operation" against the separatists, has so far been unable to dislodge them from the towns and cities they hold. Putin on Friday told an economic forum in St. Petersburg that he would respect the will of Ukraine's voters in Sunday's election. But he reiterated Russia's assertion that according to Ukraine's Constitution, Yanukovych -- who was ousted in February following months of street protests -- remains the nation's legitimate president. Putin also questioned whether the election should be held now, given the violence in eastern Ukraine. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksey Meshkov said Friday that Russia would decide whether or not to recognize the Ukraine vote only after it takes place, according to state media. U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said that disruption of the Ukraine vote by Russia would bring further sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy.

Ukraine Voters Seek Leader To Save Nation

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainians voted on Sunday for a leader they hope will save their country from bankruptcy, dismemberment and civil war, but eastern cities were turned into ghost towns where armed separatist fighters kept polling stations shut. The election marks the culmination of a revolution that began in February when a pro-Russian president fled the country and spiraled into an existential crisis when Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by declaring Moscow's right to invade. The main candidates, including frontrunner Petro Poroshenko, a confectionery magnate, are promising closer ties with the West in defiance of Putin. "These are extremely important elections. We have to make sure Ukraine becomes a truly independent country, a powerful independent state that nobody will be able to push around," said pensioner Mihailo Belyk, 65, casting his ballot at a crowded polling station in a southeastern district of the capital Kiev. But in the Russian-speaking eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, where pro-Moscow fighters have proclaimed independent "people's republics", men with guns succeeded in blocking a vote that would imply their regions are still part of Ukraine. Nor was any vote held in Crimea, which Russia annexed in March. Ukrainian authorities said only about 20 percent of polling stations in the two restive eastern regions were working. Just 16 percent of the 3.3 million people in Donetsk region would have access to a place to vote. No polls were open in the regional capital, a city of a million, where streets were largely empty with people afraid to venture outdoors. Putin, who branded eastern Ukraine "New Russia" last month, has made more accommodating noises of late, saying on Saturday he would respect the Ukrainian people's will. He has announced the pullback of tens of thousands of troops massed on the frontier. But the absence of more than 15 percent of the electorate - both in the eastern regions and in Crimea - could give Moscow an excuse to raise doubts about the victor's legitimacy and continue applying pressure on Kiev. In Donetsk, scores of armed separatists gathered outside the sprawling and guarded residence of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man and owner of mines and factories across the Donbass coalfield, who has thrown his weight behind a united country. "We must guarantee the rights and security of people who live in the Donbass, who today are truly suffering from terrorists who want to turn the Donbass into Somalia," frontrunner Poroshenko said after voting in the capital. European election monitors have largely pulled out of the Donetsk region for their own safety, citing a campaign of "terror" by the pro-Russian separatists against Ukrainian electoral officials. Italy said an Italian journalist was killed on Saturday along with a Russian national near Slaviansk, the most heavily fortified rebel redoubt in the east, where the separatists have increasingly clashed with Ukrainian troops. TURNING POINT Ukrainians hope the election of a permanent new president can finally open up a path out of a crisis that has put the very future of their country in jeopardy. Not only is territory slipping out of its control, but the country is nearly bankrupt, its economy looted by decades of leadership rated among the most corrupt in the world. It still depends on Moscow for natural gas. Since pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich fled in February after more than 100 people were killed in demonstrations, Moscow has refused to recognize the interim leaders in Kiev, describing them as a fascist junta who threaten the safety of millions of Russian speakers. Ukrainians hope that Moscow would not so quickly dismiss an elected leader with a solid mandate. The United States and European Union also view the election as a decisive event in ending their worst confrontation with Moscow since the Cold War. Their response to Russian interference in Ukraine so far has been limited to freezing the assets of a few dozen Russian individuals and small firms. But they have threatened to take far more serious measures, even targeting whole sectors of Russian industry, if Moscow interferes with the vote. "VIOLATION OF MY RIGHTS" At a school in a Donetsk suburb, pensioner Grigory Nikitayich, 72, was unhappy about being denied the right to vote for Poroshenko. "I don't even know where I can vote. No one has said anything. What kind of polls are these? Things are bad." Even Ukrainian soldiers sent to assert the government's authority in the east said they had no place to vote. "Our superiors promised we would be able to vote here but it turns out that is not so. This is a violation of my rights, it's ridiculous - I am here to safeguard an election in which I cannot vote," said Ivan Satsuk, a soldier from the Kiev region sent to man a roadblock near the eastern port of Mariupol. Voting ends at 8 p.m. (1300 ET), when exit polls will indicate a result ahead of an official outcome on Monday. Polls make Poroshenko, known as the "chocolate king" because of his confectionery empire, the runaway favorite among the 21 candidates, though it is not clear whether he can win the 50 percent needed to avert a runoff vote on June 15. Poroshenko served in the cabinet both under Yanukovich and under a previous government led by Yanukovich's foes, giving him a reputation as a pragmatist capable of bridging Ukraine's divide between supporters and opponents of Moscow. He nevertheless was a strong backer of the street protests that toppled Yanukovich, acceptable to many in the "Maidan" movement of pro-European protesters who have kept their tented camp in the capital to keep pressure on the new leaders. He has urged voters to give him a quick victory, warning that new unrest might derail a second round. His closest, if distant, rival is Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister jailed under Yanukovich and released the day he fled. She remains a divisive figure to many, more closely linked than Poroshenko with the economic failures and graft that have blighted post-Soviet Ukraine. "It is time to hold a referendum on joining NATO to restore peace in Ukraine," said Tymoshenko after voting in her native city of Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine. Russia is fiercely opposed to Ukraine joining the Western military alliance. Poroshenko has said he would not join NATO. Interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said a new president would move Ukraine away from a "grey zone of lawlessness and dark forces ... into a place where it is easier to breathe". "Efforts by the Russian Federation and the terrorists it finances to derail the elections are doomed to failure. We will have a legitimate head of state," Yatseniuk said on Sunday. Moscow denies financing or training the separatists, denials that Western countries dismiss as absurd. Putin pledged on Saturday to "respect" the people's choice and work with Ukraine's new administration - a conciliatory move during an economic forum at which he had acknowledged that U.S. and EU sanctions over Ukraine were hurting the Russian economy. He played down talk of a return to Cold War with the West and dismissed the idea he was bent on restoring the former USSR, whose collapse he has in the past lamented. Washington and its EU allies are concerned that while Russia may accept the election result, it may use influence in eastern Ukraine to undermine the new president's authority and keep the country beholden to Moscow. Russian officials have questioned the value of holding the vote when the east is in "civil war".

Elusive Muscovite With Three Names Takes Control Of Ukraine Rebels

SLAVIANSK, Ukraine -- He is a man with three names, sought by Ukrainian intelligence as the top Russian operative in the separatist east. He moves through the streets in a black Mercedes, his face with pencil moustache hidden behind tinted windows, and his aim is to "destroy" Ukrainian forces that venture onto his territory. In a leaflet distributed this week in the rebel Donetsk region, "Colonel Igor Strelkov" assumed command of all rebel forces there and called for Russian army help to ward off what he calls the threat from the Kiev "junta" and from NATO. To Kiev and its Western allies, Strelkov is living proof that Moscow is behind the uprising in eastern Ukraine, despite its denials, and trying to replay the scenario that saw it seize the Crimea province in March. The separatists have said little about his identity. He is known to the fighters he commands as "Strelok" - "the Shooter". Kiev says he is actually an agent of Russia's GRU military intelligence. Residents of a Moscow suburb say he is a mild-mannered neighbor they have known for years as Igor Girkin. Whether Strelkov, Strelok or Girkin, he is now rarely glimpsed in public, driven behind tinted windows around the town of Slaviansk, which his men have turned into the heavily fortified redoubt of their insurrection. His leaflet, published on the website of separatist politician Pavel Gubarev on Monday, was issued in the name of "The Commander-in-Chief of the Donetsk People's Republic". He gave Ukrainian troops 48 hours to "pledge an oath of allegiance to the Donetsk People's Republic or leave its territory". Members of the National Guard and other Ukrainian forces would be detained or "destroyed on the spot". "Having in mind the emergency situation in the country, genocide of the Kiev junta against Donetsk's population and the threat of NATO intervention, I am asking the Russian Federation to provide military assistance to the DPR," the document said, referring to the Donetsk People's Republic by an acronym. Asked about his background, separatist spokeswoman Stella Khorosheva said Strelkov was an ethnic Russian and a veteran of the Soviet and Russian armies, but gave no other details of his origins or citizenship. "His aides do not know if he has any other names," she said. "He has rich military experience and holds the rank of colonel." He was not available to interview, she added. For a long time the only image the world had of Strelkov was a wanted-poster sketch issued by Ukraine's SBU security service. Then last month Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda issued a video of an interview with what appeared to be the same person with the same pencil moustache. In the video, Strelkov said he came from Crimea and that most of his fighters were veterans of the Russian or Ukrainian armies with battlefield experience. Their weapons were all seized from arsenals in Ukraine, he said. Moscow had "not given us a single gun, or a single bullet". The apparent acknowledgement of a Crimea link is important, because Kiev says the same Russian agents who seized that province - which Moscow annexed in March - are now behind the uprising in the east. Residents of a sleepy neighborhood in northern Moscow said they recognized their neighbor when they saw him on Russian television last month introducing himself as the leader of the militia in Slaviansk. The man they knew as Igor Girkin has lived most of his life in the nine-storey building on Shenkursk Way where his mother, two children and former wife also reside, neighbors said. Galina Ivanovna, who lives two floors below him, said she saw him last around six months ago. "He's always been very polite and very quiet, though I didn't know him well. He always wore a tie, would walk to work. Nothing about him was particularly outstanding," she said on the apartment landing. She declined to give her last name. Vladimir, 23, who lives on the second floor, said: "He is Girkin and he also has a second surname, Strelkov. My mother has known him for many years." No one answered the door at two apartments neighbors identified as belonging to his mother and ex-wife. Whoever he is, Strelkov/Girkin is an enthusiast of the hobby of dressing up in costume to re-enact historical battles, part of a paramilitary sub-culture in Russia. Bloggers on the Internet have unearthed photos of him at re-enactments, dressed in shining medieval armor and World War One-era uniforms. Yuri Pyatnitsky, head of a military re-enactment club known as the Markovtsy after a general killed in battle against the Bolsheviks in Russia's civil war, confirmed that Girkin/Strelkov was a member. He said Strelkov had some battlefield experience, although he would not say more about his background. Asked what he thought of Strelkov's decision to join the Ukrainian revolt, Pyatnitsky said: "I respect that. What else should I say about a man who takes a strong step? He wanted to do it, and he did it. He did right." Strelkov has been based in the main rebel redoubt Slaviansk since fighting flared in the east, leading the "green men" - armed fighters in uniforms without official insignia - who have turned the town of 130,000 people into a fortified bastion. Kiev says the green men are Russian-controlled agents; Moscow says they are "self defense" volunteers, and denies any of its spies or special forces are operating on the ground. The West says Moscow's denial, as in the case of Crimea in March, is nonsense. The European Union added Strelkov to its sanctions list on April 29, describing him as a staff member of Russia's GRU military intelligence. It said he also worked as a security aid for Sergei Aksyonov, the once-obscure head of the Crimean Greco-Roman wrestling club who declared himself leader of Crimea when armed men seized its regional headquarters in late February. Aksyonov is now the official leader of Crimea as a Russian region. But even on the EU's sanctions list, the full identity of Strelkov remains mysterious: when Brussels published the list with his name, it left his place and date of birth blank. To Kiev, Strelkov's tactics show that Moscow aims to repeat the Crimea operation: armed men seize government buildings, proclaim themselves in charge, declare independence and proclaim their own militia to be the official security forces. Ukraine's security service has released numerous recordings of what it says is Strelkov taking orders and advice from handlers in Moscow. Those recordings cannot be verified. Kiev blames him in particular for the death of a local pro-Ukrainian councilman in the town of Horlivka, whose body was found after he was led away from the town hall by rebels. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov described Strelkov as "a monster and a killer", wanted on charges including premeditated murder, sabotage and involvement in the seizure and week-long detention of foreign military observers two weeks ago. "Fate has decided that Girkin has become a target of our Anti-Terrorist Operation," he said. But for many in the Donetsk region, Strelkov's fledgling army is what stands between them and what they see as Ukrainian nationalists sent to subjugate a Russian-speaking population. Slaviansk itself has been sealed off to Ukrainian forces for more than a month and controlled by rebels. "The man is a hero whether he is a colonel or a corporal, he is leading our boys to victory," said Fyodor Dyalnoy, a 63-year-old pensioner. "So what if he came from Russia? If Russia could only send us more people like him." Mihkail Nikiforov, 28, a salesman said it was absurd to consider Strelkov a foreign agent, since Donetsk was rightfully part of Russia: "How can he be an agent on his own soil? It is clear this is Russia, as it should be." "I believe he is a good officer, he put some order in these troops and made an army out of them." Still, not everyone is happy to have the green men around, or their mysterious leader. Irina, 39, who declined to give her surname, said she wanted "them and all these armed people and this war out of this town." She added: "I don't care if he is a Russian or a Martian or whatever he is."

Steel Workers Seize City In Eastern Ukraine From Separatists

MARIUPOL, Ukraine -- Thousands of steelworkers fanned out on Thursday through the city of Mariupol, establishing control over the streets and banishing the pro-Kremlin militants who until recently had seemed to be consolidating their grip on power, dealing a setback to Russia and possibly reversing the momentum in eastern Ukraine. By late Thursday, miners and steelworkers had deployed in at least five cities, including the regional capital, Donetsk. They had not, however, become the dominant force there that they were in Mariupol, the region’s second-largest city and the site last week of a bloody confrontation between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian militants. While it was still far too early to say the tide had turned in eastern Ukraine, the day’s events were a blow to separatists who recently seized control here and in a dozen or so other cities and who held a referendum on independence on Sunday. Backed by the Russian propaganda machine and by 40,000 Russian troops just over the border, their grip on power seemed to be tightening every day. But polls had indicated that a strong majority of eastern Ukrainians supported unity, though few were prepared to say so publicly in the face of armed pro-Russian militants. When President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia withdrew support for the separatists last week, calling for a delay in the referendum and for dialogue on Ukraine’s future, the political winds shifted, providing an opening that the country’s canny oligarchs could exploit. The workers who took to the streets on Thursday were among the hundreds of thousands in the east who are employed in metals and mining by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who only recently went beyond paying lip service to Ukrainian unity and on Wednesday issued a statement rejecting separatism. Critics say Mr. Akhmetov could have prevented much of the bloodshed in the east if he had taken a strong stance sooner. But his lieutenants say he decided to confront the separatists out of a deep belief that independence, or even quasi-autonomy, would be disastrous for eastern Ukraine. Mr. Akhmetov urged his employees, whose jobs were at risk, to take over the city. The workers, who were wearing only their protective clothing and hard hats, said they were “outside politics” and were just trying to establish order. Faced with waves of steelworkers joined by the police, the pro-Russian protesters melted away, along with signs of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and its representatives. Backhoes and dump trucks from the steelworkers’ factory dismantled the barricades that separatists had erected. Metinvest and DTEK, the metals and mining subsidiaries of Mr. Akhmetov’s company, System Capital Management, together employ 280,000 people in eastern Ukraine, forming an important and possibly decisive force in the region. They have a history of political activism stretching back to miner strikes that helped bring down the Soviet Union. In this conflict, they had not previously signaled their allegiance to one side or the other. It remains possible that the separatists could regroup and challenge the industrial workers, though few were to be found in and around Mariupol on Thursday, even in the public administration building they had been occupying. “We have to bring order to the city,” Aleksei Horlov, a steelworker, said of his motivation for joining one of the unpaid and voluntary patrols that were organized at Ilyich Iron and Steel Works. Groups of about six steelworkers accompanied two police officers on the patrols. “People organize themselves,” he said. “In times of troubles, that is how it works.” Workers from another mill, Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, took one side of the city, while the Ilyich factory took the other. Both groups were trying to persuade longshoremen to patrol the port, Mr. Horlov said. The two steel mills fly Ukrainian flags outside their headquarters, though like so much else in Ukraine, the lines of loyalty are muddled. At least a portion of the police in the city mutinied last Friday, leading to a shootout with the Ukrainian National Guard that killed at least seven people. The chief executive of Ilyich Steel Works, Yuri Zinchenko, is leading the steelworker patrols in the city. He said the company had remained on the sidelines as long as possible, while tacitly supporting unity with Ukraine by conveying to workers that a separatist victory would close export markets in Europe, devastating the factory and the town. Though the workers had differing views of the new government in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, on the whole they supported the patrols to restore order, employees and managers said. “Everybody can have their own opinion, but not at work,” Sergei Istratov, a shift boss at the factory, said. “At work, you have to do what the factory demands.” Yuri Ryzhenkov, the chief executive of Metinvest, which is ranked among the top five steel producers globally, said managers had been conveying to workers: “The most important thing you have is the steel mill. If you have the steel mill, you have jobs, salaries and stability for your families.” Once patrols began, he said, representatives of the Donetsk People’s Republic visited the Ilyich factory, demanding to know what was happening. “They were not very friendly at first,” Mr. Ryzhenkov said. But the patrols were welcomed in town, he said, and militants had little option but to acquiesce, at least in Mariupol. “The Donetsk People’s Republic understands if they attack unarmed local people, they will lose all support here,” he said. The effort is more than ad hoc. The coal and steel workers will soon have uniforms for the street patrols, Metinvest executives said, with patches identifying them as members of the “Volunteer People’s Patrol.” If the patrols are successful, they said, they will try the tactic in most major cities in the Donetsk region, though not in Slavyansk, a stronghold of pro-Russian militants where Metinvest and DTEK have no factories or mines. Ilyich Iron and Steel, a grimy scene of mid-20th-century industrial sprawl, is one of Ukraine’s most important factories, producing five million tons of slab steel a year. About 50,000 people work in the steel industry in Mariupol, a city of 460,000. So far, 18,000 steelworkers have signed up for the patrols, Metinvest executives say. “There’s no family in Mariupol that’s not connected to the steel industry,” Mr. Zinchenko said in an interview at his desk, which was decorated with a miniature Ukrainian flag. He said he had negotiated a truce with local representatives of the Donetsk People’s Republic, but not with the group’s leaders. Mr. Akhmetov’s statement detailed the daunting problems facing the regional economy — and his assets — if the Donetsk People’s Republic were to win its struggle with Kiev. “Nobody in the world will recognize it,” he said in a videotaped statement. “The structure of our economy is coal, industry, metallurgy, energy, machine works, chemicals and agriculture, and all the enterprises tied to these sectors. We will come under huge sanctions, we will not sell our products, cannot produce. This means the stopping of factories, this means unemployment, this means poverty.” Russia itself exports steel, so it has never been a significant market for the output of the Donetsk region. Residents welcomed the steelworker patrols for bringing an end to chaos and insecurity. They said masked men had robbed four grocery stores, a shop selling hunting rifles and a jewelry store, and that they had burned down a bank. The crowds of pro-Russian protesters who had jeered and cursed Ukrainian soldiers last week were nowhere to be seen. On the city’s central square Thursday afternoon, a pro-Russian rally drew a few dozen protesters, who were watched over by a group of steelworkers. The government in Kiev rebutted reports that the police chief had been found hanging and dead in the town. He had indeed been kidnapped by gunmen and was severely beaten, the Interior Ministry said, but he was eventually rescued. “There are a lot of idiots with guns in my city,” said Aleksey Rybinsev, 38, a computer programmer who added he welcomed the new patrols, though he feared they might develop into another informal militia group. “I haven’t seen a policeman all day. I didn’t see them, and I didn’t want to see them.”

NATO Chief On Putin's Reassurances: Don't Believe It

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said President Vladimir Putin’s assurances that Russia has no plans to intervene further in Ukraine can’t be believed, amid continued unrest in the run-up to the May 25 election. “After what we have seen in Ukraine, no one can trust the so-called guarantees given by Russia about sovereignty and integrity,” Rasmussen told reporters in Bucharest today at a briefing with Romanian President Traian Basescu. “We want Russia to respect its international obligations and stop trying to destabilize the situation.” NATO says Putin, who annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March, still has 40,000 troops on Ukraine’s border and hasn’t fulfilled a promise last week to pull them back. The U.S. and the U.K. vowed yesterday to punish Russia with industry-wide sanctions if the presidential election is undermined as the Kiev government’s forces moved to flush out separatists in the east. “If Russia or its proxies disrupt the elections,” the U.S. and its allies “will impose sectoral economic sanctions as a result,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in London yesterday after meeting his counterparts from Britain, Italy, France and Germany. Pro-Russian separatists “are literally sowing mayhem,” seeking to “speak for everyone through the barrel of a gun.” Russia’s benchmark Micex Index of stocks was down 0.1 percent at 3:15 p.m. in Moscow. It’s dropped 4.5 percent since the start of Putin’s intervention in Crimea on March 1. The ruble lost 0.2 percent to 34.8319 versus the dollar. Ukraine’s hryvnia, which has lost 31 percent against the U.S. currency in 2014, declined 1.1 percent today, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Navi Pillay, said today a report produced by her 34-strong monitoring team in Ukraine shows “an alarming deterioration in the human rights situation in the east of the country.” The monitors criticized “repeated acts of violence against peaceful participants of rallies, mainly those in support of Ukraine’s unity” as well as “targeted killings, torture and beatings, abductions, intimidation and some cases of sexual harassment –- mostly carried out by well-organized and well-armed anti-government groups in the east.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on its website the report wasn’t objective and used double standards. In eastern Ukraine, government troops eliminated two rebel bases near the towns of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said yesterday. “The anti-terrorist operation can stop after weapons are surrendered and hostages released,” Turchynov said in parliament in Kiev. “We’re conducting dialogue with those who’re prepared for conversation and cooperation. We’re working on changes to the constitution to expand powers to local self-government. At the same time, those who conduct war will receive an adequate answer.” Russian calls to include rebels in national unity talks that began May 14 were rejected by the government, and the meetings opened without separatist leaders’ participation. Even as the U.S. and the European Union threaten more sanctions after the May 25 election, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said it’s “ridiculous” to hold his country’s government responsible. While Lavrov said May 14 that Ukraine’s slide into a civil war is making legitimate voting impossible, Kerry appealed yesterday to separatists to take part in the ballot and engage in national dialogue as “the best way to de-escalate the situation.” Dozens of people have been killed and more than 100 kidnapped in eastern Ukraine since separatist unrest flared after Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The situation in the Donetsk region is worsening, with the sound of gunfire constant in Slovyansk and the surrounding district and public transport not functioning, the governor’s office said in a statement yesterday. Tensions have engulfed 15 towns and cities, according to the statement. Ukraine’s security service said today a group of rebels had been detained on the way to Slovyansk for organizing unrest in the southwestern port city of Odessa. The group acted on Russian orders, it said on its website. Ukrainian Social Policy Minister Lyudmyla Denisova said in parliament the government would no longer be able to provide welfare payments to residents in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where unofficial ballots last weekend backed a breakaway from Kiev, because of the security situation. Separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk have agreed to join forces to confront the central government. Rebels fighting for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said yesterday that they’ll “burn and wipe out” Ukrainian forces unless they withdraw from the region. “When Ukrainians kill Ukrainians, I believe it’s as close to civil war as you can get,” Lavrov told Bloomberg Television May 14. Even so, in the eastern port city of Mariupol, rebels and police agreed to end fighting under an agreement brokered by Metinvest Holding LLC, the company said on its website. Metinvest, controlled by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, runs iron and steel plants in Mariupol. The U.S. and the EU have already penalized 98 people and 20 companies over Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Should it interfere in the planned election, Russia will face punitive measures targeting entire industries, which may include energy, banking, defense and mining, according to a U.S. official who asked not to be identified following diplomatic protocol. The U.S. and its European allies agreed that industrywide sanctions would come next, the official said.

Ukraine Separatists Plan To Disrupt Presidential Poll

DONETSK, Ukraine -- Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are planning to disrupt the country’s presidential election scheduled for May 25, but Ukrainian officials maintain that the polls will be held. For the separatists, it was easy. Just nine gunmen marched Wednesday into Donetsk’s main election commission office and declared they were seizing it. With the exception of Ukrainian military barracks, separatist fighters are able to grab most buildings they want in Donetsk province. The police will not stop them; many apparently support the separatists. Others are waiting to see whether the separatists or the government in Kiev will prevail in the tug of war for Donetsk and its neighbor, Luhansk. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military is stretched thin. Luhansk separatist leader Valery Bolotov said on the eve of last weekend's secession referendum that people in east Ukraine do not want to participate in presidential elections. The Kiev government and Western powers have denounced the referendums on secession in Donetsk and Luhansk. Separatist leaders have insisted they will stop election voting from taking place in the east of the country. For Kiev, the presidential election is crucial. It will be the first since pro-Western protesters ousted the Moscow-backed government of Donetsk native Viktor Yanukovych, and it represents a chance to stop the fracturing of the country. Opinion polls indicate the interim government is unpopular across Ukraine. In one survey, more than half of respondents across the east said they thought it was an illegitimate administration. The gunmen who marched into the election commission office ordered all workers to leave, saying the election was illegal. Serhiy Taruta, the official regional governor, said Kiev is not losing control of Donetsk oblast, a province with 4.3 million people - 10 percent of Ukraine’s population - and much of its heavy industry. Taruta said most institutions, offices and factories across Donetsk are functioning normally and that plans to decentralize power will eventually help to weaken the separatist insurgency. Ukrainian officials insist the election will proceed, except in the flashpoint town of Slavyansk, a hundred kilometers north of Donetsk. That town is totally controlled by the separatists. There are plans for its residents to vote in the neighboring and larger town of Kramatorsk. But on Wednesday, separatists kidnapped the head of the local election commission there - the third election official from the town to be abducted this month. Election security is likely to pose an increasing challenge to the government. Foreign election advisers expressed alarm weeks ago, telling VOA that the government was not anticipating the problems and had not drawn up security plans for the polling stations or for local officials tasked with overseeing the voting. The advisers spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak to media. They are anxious also about the security of storage facilities for the ballot papers. Recent opinion surveys suggest 85 percent of Ukrainians will turn out to vote on May 25 in what the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine has described as "the most important election in the history of independent Ukraine.” But if the election fails in the east of the country, it may only aggravate the crisis.

Ukraine Crisis Echoes 1914, German Ex-Leader Schmidt Says

BERLIN, Germany -- The Ukraine crisis reverberating across Europe recalls 1914 before the outbreak of World War I as Russia, the U.S. and European governments risk sleepwalking into conflict, said former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. “I don’t want to encourage a third world war and especially not calls for more money for arms for NATO,” Schmidt, 95, was cited as saying in an interview with Germany’s best-selling Bild newspaper today. “But the danger that the situation intensifies as in 1914 is growing day by day.” Schmidt, who was German chancellor from 1974 to 1982, and fellow Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder, who held the post from 1998 to 2005, have warned against imposing sanctions on Russia and moves by the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to forge closer ties with Ukraine. The interventions by past chancellors highlight the dilemma in Germany over how to deal with Russia. Chancellor Angela Merkel, 59, a Christian Democrat who grew up in communist East Germany and rules with the SPD as junior partner, has taken a harder line in threatening to intensify EU sanctions if Ukraine’s May 25 elections are disrupted. SPD Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 58, has stressed the diplomatic initiative, visiting Kiev and Odessa this week in an attempt to broker talks between the government and separatists. Some SPD members, including Schroeder, favor a policy of greater engagement with Russia and hark back to SPD Chancellor Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik, which normalized Cold War ties with the East Bloc starting with the USSR. This policy under Brandt, who was chancellor from 1969 to 1974, was dubbed “Wandel durch Annaeherung” or change through rapprochement. A poll last week showed 70 percent of Germans have “no sympathy” for what Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine. The May 7-8 TNS Emnid poll in Focus magazine surveyed 1,009 people and didn’t give a margin of error. Schroeder, who once labelled Putin “a flawless democrat,” was appointed chairman of Nord Stream AG, which built and operates a natural gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany, within three months of leaving office. He was criticized last month for celebrating his 70th birthday with Putin in St. Petersburg, a meeting Schroeder said he used to lobby for Russian help to free OSCE monitors taken captive in Ukraine. The monitors were subsequently released. Schmidt was born a month after World War I ended in 1918. He served with the Nazi Wehrmacht in World War II on the eastern and western fronts and was taken prisoner by British forces in 1945. “Europe, the Americans and also Russia are behaving in the way that the author Christopher Clark, in his book that’s very much worth reading, describes the start of World War I: like sleepwalkers,” Schmidt said, according to Bild. Jan Techau, head of the Brussels office of the Carnegie Endowment, disputed Schmidt’s comparison with 1914. “We don’t have those kind of blind military alliances that drag countries into war, no country now calculates that war would be good thing as in 1914, and the U.S. has made it clear to both Ukraine and Moldova they it won’t get involved militarily,” Techau said in a telephone interview. “We are living in an age of nuclear deterrence, which means this can’t escalate like in 1914.” Schmidt also said that the European Commission, the EU’s executive, has been wrong to seek closer ties with Ukraine and with Georgia. “A reminder: Georgia is outside of Europe,” he said. “This is megalomania, we have no business being there.” In a March 26 interview with Die Zeit newspaper, Schmidt was quoted as saying that Russia’s actions in Crimea were “understandable” and the situation in Ukraine is “dangerous because the U.S. and Europe are getting so terribly worked up.” Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March, and Ukrainian officials blame their neighbor for fomenting the separatist movement that is roiling the country’s eastern regions.

Ukraine: Another US mission gone wrong

The hawks in the US government this time led by Victoria Nuland decided that the former arch enemy has to be put into place and all efforts to re-establish the Soviet Union in another form have to be prevented. For that much money was invested to support and push anti-Russian forces in Georgia and Ukraine and to bring them into power giving them the impression that the West would support them and their inclusion into NATO was possible and even wanted. As in Georgia previously this mission went totally wrong as well. After the rebels dislodged the elected government and installed a right-wing nationalist one in Kiev that was immediately recognized by the US and European Union it turned out that the people in Ukraine themselves refused to follow suit. While they might not have been too happy with the previous elected government the history of their struggle against German fascism during the Second World War that was fought against Ukrainian fascists as well is still quite vivid in their collective memory and prevents them now from being lenient towards right nationalist Ukrainian forces. First consequences from ultra-nationalists in power have been that the use of Russian language has been discouraged which has enraged the Russian speaking local population in East Ukraine. For the last couple of weeks they have staged a civil disobedience movement in the Eastern regions by storming the local government buildings and bringing the Ukrainian state to a virtual collapse. Armed with weapons the origin of which may also be the money sent by Miss Victoria they have started a civil war demanding a referendum on Eastern Ukraine about the status of the region: should it secede and become part of Russia or should it be given the status of an autonomous region within Ukraine. As the puppet regime in Ukraine tries to contain this pro-Russian insurgency convulsing its eastern region, a perhaps more significant struggle for the country hinges on what happens beneath the ground here in a placid woodland in the far west, on the border with Slovakia from where the Russian gas pipeline supplies at least one third of European Union's requirement worth $20 billion dollars every year after a 4400 km long route from Siberia, frustrated Western adventurers are trying to make a misadventure as they believe, Ukraine has a chance to stabilize its unity by breaking its dependence on Gazprom, a Russian state-controlled gas company. In a bid to achieve this objective Ukraine has for many months been trying hard to push a plan for reverse-flow provisioning of gas from Europe via Slovakia to Ukraine, which naturally Russia will certainly not allow the US and EU-backed financial exploiters. An agreement has been inked last week between Slovak and Ukrainian pipeline operators for temporary reverse-flow deliveries of gas from Europe at a lesser price than Russian gas, while the fact remains that EU themselves are importing worth $20 billion gas from Russia every year. So once the IMF manipulators get their Octopus jaw set on Ukraine then the cost of living in Ukraine will push them into a Greece- or Spain- like situation looking towards an already collapsing European Union's financial system. The new government in Kiev has trouble to deal with the situation and is going berserk. In several towns and cities including latest in Odessa massacres have been committed against the local population by Kiev-related troops. Speaking at a news conference, Mr. Yatsenyuk cast aspersion on the police, suggesting that if they had done their jobs instead of concentrating on soliciting bribes at an outdoor market, influence of "these terrorist organizations would have been failed." There were dozens of casualties resulting from a well-prepared and organized action against people, against Ukraine and against Odessa, Mr. Yatsenyuk said, speaking at the news conference on Sunday morning, western and Ukrainian news media reported. He continued to denounce Russia's claim that Ukraine was not seeking a compromise with its Russian-speakers. "The process of dialogue had begun, only it was derailed by the sound of shooting from automatic rifles of Russian production," he alleged. Mr. Yatsenyuk said the violence showed that Russia wanted to kindle unrest in Odessa, as it had in eastern Ukrainian cities. Odessa is a major port at the black sea coast between the Crimean Peninsula that acceded to Russia in March and the separatist enclave of Transnistria - Another break-away region that wants to join Russia-and Moldova on Ukraine's western border. President Vladimir V. Putin, in a speech last month, hinted at a claim to an entire arc of Russian-speaking regions in the east and the south of Ukraine by calling these provinces of steppe and Black Sea coastline Novorossiya, or New Russia, as they were known after Catherine the Great's conquest of the region in the 18th century. Russia has said it does not intend to invade Ukraine and has withdrawn its troops from the border region after the end of military exercise. The new government in Kiev has trouble to deal with the situation and is going berserk. In several towns and cities including latest in Odessa attacks have been committed against the local population by Kiev-related troops. Instead of pressurizing Kiev to stop violence the US dominated IMF has announced 17billion dollar aid to Ukraine during the next two years thus trying to bolster the anti-Russian coup government. Again the IMF is true to its image of being an instrument of the US and the West in extending their influence in regions far from home. Pakistan has had the same experience and we are on our way into direct ownership of our facilities of World Bank, another financial instrument of the West for their influence and interference. In Ukraine the need of the hour is talks between Kiev and the Eastern regions of the country. In Pakistan it is to rethink our alignment with the West that has been harming our economy, our political system and our national fabric. The world is changing and it is changing fast. After only thirty five years the position of the US as the sole world power is coming to an end; already China is said to have overtaken the US as the largest economy. A more diversified power structure is in the making and Russia and China are surly decisive players in this regard. New alliances are coming into existence; one of the most powerful seems to be the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Pakistan should understand the writing on the wall: the future in our region belongs to regional powers. Let's not miss the train. God bless Pakistan.

Russians firmly believe in Russia's great future

Recent opinion polls show that Russians believe in their country, in its great future, and this faith has been growing lately. This trend is largely based on the successes of foreign policy of recent times. Naturally, the reunion with the Crimea has played the biggest role at this point. But Russia should not rest on laurels, analysts say. Thus, as shown by relatively recent VTsIOM (All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center) survey, 54 percent of Russians believe that the Russian Federation has great future. In 2003, this point of view was shared by 40 percent of surveyed Russians. Every fifth respondent believes that Russia is already one of the countries that holds a dominant position in the world (in 2003, the share was only 12 percent). Generally, almost all opinions of sociologists cited in the press are reduced to one general belief: the position of the Russians on this particular issue essentially depends on military and political achievements of the country on the global arena. The aforesaid survey produced such results as a result of the events in the Crimea. In a completely different poll, 88 percent of respondents said that they approved Russia's reunion with the Crimea; only seven percent were against. Thirty-four percent of the polled said that the decision to bring the Crimea back to Russia made them feel proud for their country. Thirty-one percent said that it was the triumph of justice. Only three percent felt disapproval; one percent of the polled said that they felt protest and indignation. Seven percent of those surveyed said that they had no special feelings about the Crimea news. "First, we need to understand what our people see as a great power, - the head of the Institute of Sociology of the RAS, Doctor of Social Sciences Mikhail Chernysh, said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. - I am convinced that respondents, when they answer this question, mean different things. That is, for some, a great power is a projection of military force, for others - an opportunity to show influence on other countries, for someone else - a great power is an economic power ... Great power is a multifaceted concept, and one should have a complete idea of ​​what question exactly respondents were answering to be able to work with this concept." In general, there are several possible definitions of a great power in the Russian society. A great power can be the power that has incredible economic or military power, strong leadership, or consolidated power, in which the solidarity of people is especially strong. Here is another variant: a great power is a power of a vast territory that takes over more and more territories. This also may be included in the concept and definition of a great power, so there are a lot of nuances here. But, as sociologist Mikhail Chernysh believes, the people could react, when answering this question, no matter how they understood the notion of great power and what they might mean by this term. The reactions to most recent events can be especially strong, when Russia demonstrated its ability to be independent, to run independent policy and firmly assert its interests in the international context. The Russians, who participated in this poll, could have that in mind, the sociologist added. Snowden's case, Syria, the Crimea, the events in Ukraine - in all of that, Russia was, in fact, the only country that was capable of resisting pressure from the United States. In short, such an independent and tough stance impresses people. As a result, people believe that Russia can be an independent and strong country. That is not far from reality at all. But what should a state do, if its people consider it a great power? "Although there is one administration of the country, one must understand that it presents different interests, departments and directions, - says Mikhail Chernysh. - I think that the main conclusion, which the state should make, is to make the revision of available resources, and take a lot of effort to develop weak spheres of life in Russia. That is, one should distinguish a certain set of vulnerable positions of Russia, where we still lag behind other countries, and achieve success there, just like we did on the international arena." "First, the pursuit of great power is associated with a change in our attitude to international agreements and treaties that Russia signed under President Medvedev, when we gave away large marine water areas in the Barents Sea and more. Russia was a giver, not a taker, so to speak, - professor, sociologist, director of the Institute of Social Technologies Vladimir Sokolov, said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. - The mentality of the Russian people is its statehood, unlike the Western mentality, in which individualism stands above any statehood and any collectivism. In Russia, people have it under their skin. Whether it's good or bad is a different question, but this is what we have from our ancestors. So when the state becomes stronger as one, it strengthens people's faith - they believe that the country will be stronger and less dependent on other countries. Ninety-six percent of the Russian population support the reunion with the Crimea, but only two or three percent of the population will feel the benefit of the historic move. All others may face deficiencies due to the fact that, after all, there is a fairly serious attack taking place against Russia. Yet, it is the mentality of the people as the most important value orientation that identifies these figures." Noteworthy, China, which is rapidly moving towards the status of the world's biggest economy, does not sign any humanitarian and financial international documents. China counts only on its own strength and its own possibilities. This is a peculiarity of the Chinese - they have a completely different mentality. Russia has long been connected with Europe and America through a multitude of international agreements. But at the same time, we still remember the relatively calm position of the USSR that did not suffer much from global economic and political crises, because it was isolated. This is what Russia is returning to, but, of course, on a new stage, when Russia recognizes only the things that are beneficial for the country

Russian FM Lavrov: Western media resort to outright lies

Foreign Minister of Uganda, Sam Kutesa, arrived in Russia to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on strengthening economic ties between the two countries and building international cooperation. Uganda is one of the most important trade partners of Russia in East Africa; the two countries have many joint projects. During the meeting, a memorandum of cooperation between Russia and Uganda was signed. During the press conference dedicated to the event, Sergei Lavrov noted that the positions of the two countries were largely similar not only in the economic sphere, but also in the issues related to estimating international problems. He stressed out that Russia and Uganda valued international law, identity of people, etc. Russian Foreign Minister thanked his counterpart for the support of Russia, especially in the issues related to inadmissibility of justification and revival of Nazism and fascism. Russia and Uganda are interested in a speedy resolution of conflicts in the Central African Republic, Mali, South Sudan, Congo and other countries. Russia and Uganda believe that every country should try to solve their problems independently, albeit with the support of the international community. Kutesa said that his country was ready to cooperate with Russia fully. He hopes that the memorandum will be a framework document for future joint projects between Russia and Uganda, especially in the construction industry, science and investment. At the press conference, Sergei Lavrov said that during the information war for Ukraine, the media outlets that protect the interests of the interim Ukrainian government often resort to outright lies. It goes about Lavrov's statements regarding the referendum on the east of the country, as well as his attitude to the People's Republic of Donetsk. In particular, it has recently been reported that Russian FM Sergei Lavrov called the supporters of Ukraine's federalization terrorists. Russian Foreign Minister said that Russia respects the decision of the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In addition, he said that Russia hopes for a peaceful resolution of the political crisis in Ukraine, which is impossible without a national dialogue in this country. At the same time, he said, there was no new international meeting being planned on the Ukrainian crisis. Lavrov stressed that the next meeting should not repeat the experience of the Geneva meeting. One needs to ask representatives of the Donetsk's Republic take part in the new meeting, should it take place, the Minister said. According to Lavrov, without direct dialogue between the conflict parties in Ukraine, any agreements will be useless. Nevertheless, he believes that the interim government in Kiev has not recognized the need for such a dialogue. Lavrov also stressed that the next round of negotiations should take place simultaneously with the organization of investigation of bloody tragedies in Mariupol, Odessa and other settlements of Ukraine. Noteworthy, two more people have died at hospitals in Odessa from injuries that they received during violent clashes in the city on May 2nd. Thus, the official death toll from the Odessa massacre has climbed to 48. As of the morning of May 12, 43 victims of the tragic events remain at hospitals in Odessa, two of them - in serious condition.

Crimea ready to live without water only to be with Russia

The Crimea, due to acute shortage of water (after the peninsula was cut from the North Crimean Canal) lost the harvest of rice. The territory, with which Russia reunited as a result of the referendum held amid the Ukrainian crisis, faces serious problems with irrigation of both fields and private gardens. While Kiev continues to set forth new conditions to the Crimea for resuming exports from the Dnieper, the Russian Federation urgently consider projects to supply the Crimea with water. Kiev closed the floodgates of the North Crimean Canal, which supplied the whole of the Crimea with water, on April 26. A week later, it was reported that 40 kilometers far from the Crimea, a dam was being built in the canal to block the water from the Dnieper to the territory of the peninsula. Thus, Ukraine has left the breakaway republic without fresh water almost in the midst of the most important season for agriculture, not to mention summer tourism. In an exclusive interview with Pravda.Ru, the mayor of the capital of the Crimea, the city of Simferopol, Viktor Ageyev, said that the shortage of water in the Crimea was always a problem. "Imagine that many people in the Crimea could use water for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening for 30 years. This was common practice in residential areas, in apartment buildings. In private houses, people have not seen water in their houses for more than 50 years. During all these decades, local residents had to go to water tank trucks with buckets. We have set ourselves a goal to relieve people of this problem. At first, together with the Council of Ministers of the Crimea, we built an extra reservoir, a pumping station and a water line on one of the waterworks. This allowed to supply water for half of the day to the south-west of Simferopol. The people took a breath of relief when, after 30 years, they could no longer live on a water supply schedule. Today, we are finishing works to supply water to another group of privately-owned buildings, where people have not seen water in their backyards for decades." However, according to the head of the Crimean capital, even as a result of the work that has been done already, it is impossible to live without the North Crimean Canal, because "there was always a threat of the shortage of snow and rain water in reservoirs." The current Ukrainian authorities said that they could cut the Crimea from water supplies even before the Crimeans voted to reunite with Russia on March 16. As a matter of fact, Kiev set forth such a threat almost immediately when it became clear that the Crimeans were going to separate from Ukraine. Today, when the threats materialized, and Crimean officials have to urgently seek solutions to new problems, the Kiev authorities start to set forth their conditions. It was reported, with reference to a member of the State Council of the Crimea Edip Gafarov, that Kiev was ready to resume the supply of water to the Crimea if the latter repayed the debt of 200 thousand dollars for the supplied water and returned the equipment that was used in the Crimean water system (which is quite worn out). The Russian side already has several projects for solving the problem of fresh water in the Crimea. It goes about the construction of a water reservoir in the steppe part of the Crimea through artesian wells. It is also possible to build a water pipeline from Russia's Kuban region. However, the second option is impossible without the construction of the bridge, which would connect with the Crimea with Russian land borders. The chairman of the State Duma Committee on Natural Resources, Environment and Ecology, Vladimir Kashin, told Pravda.Ru: "An interdepartmental committee was established to deal not only with the assessment of the situation, but also with the development of activities that need to be urgently implemented to solve two main problems: uninterrupted supply of quality drinking water to the Crimea, - says Vladimir Kashin. - The second problem is related to irrigation water to prevent an environmental disaster and disruption of the beautiful ecosystem of the Crimean peninsula. In the 1950s, the Crimea was a scorched steppe." The next step is to fill natural water reservoirs and build additional ones, especially in the foothills, where it is possible to collect water in certain periods of time. And, of course, on the peninsula, one needs to introduce new technologies and drip irrigation. In the meantime, residents of the Crimea and its capital will have to go through a difficult period of water shortage. "The Crimeans are ready for it, - a Senator of the Federation Council, member of the Supreme Council of the Crimea, Sergey Tsekov told Pravda.Ru. - Of course, it will be a difficult period, especially for agriculture. With regard to drinking water, we will not have any particular problems at this point. We have large reserves of water in natural reservoirs, we have large reserves of underground water too. In the past, we used wells in rural areas, and now we will have new opportunities to drill new wells, so we believe that for us this problem is surmountable. It forces us to mobilize to search for more water. As they say, every cloud has a silver lining. Consequences of the reunification with Russia were easy to foresee, but, of course, it is most important, what we are today with Russia, that there will be peace and harmony on our land. I'm sure that we will solve these and many other problems. Most of all, I'm sure that Crimea will become a budget-forming region of the Russian Federation."

Will Russia die without Twitter?

Blocking Twitter in Russia is inevitable. This is what an especially exalted part of the Russian general public concluded after the statements from deputy head of the Federal Service for Information Control (Roskomnadzor), Maxim Ksenzov. The official particularly stated that the administration of Twitter creates conditions to terminate the work of the company in Russia. Making far-reaching conclusions from official statements - this is a widely spread tradition, not only in Russia. Ksenzov said in an interview that there was "a strong feeling that Twitter was a global tool for promoting political information." "In cooperation with us, they use their audience as a tool to achieve objectives. Consistently refusing to fulfill our requirements, they deliberately create the conditions, in which blocking this resource in our country becomes almost inevitable," said Ksenzov. The deputy head of Roskomnadzor explained that Twitter works on https:// protocol, which does not allow technical systems to identify encrypted traffic. "Blocking one single illegal tweet automatically leaves all of its audience without access to the resource," he stressed. "There is always a limit to disruptive interactions, for which the state can not nothing else, but protect the interests of the society. It just so happens that by refusing to fulfill legal requirements of government agencies, corporations set up their users," said Ksenzov. He noted that both Facebook and YouTube periodically remove illegal content on demand of Roskomnadzor. "Twitter, in most cases, strongly refuses to remove illegal information, there is a lot of extremist content circulating on this network," he said. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev did not leave an opportunity of blocking Twitter in Russia without attention either. "As an active user of social networks, I believe that everyone must comply with the Russian legislation - both the networks and their users," wrote the Prime Minister on his page on Facebook. "But certain officials, responsible for the development of the industry, need to turn their brains on sometimes, not to give any interviews announcing the closing of social networks," Medvedev added. It is understood that "blocking Twitter is inevitable" and "the government is moving on the path of North Korea" - these are emotional reactions to the statements from deputy head of Roskomnadzor. In fact, though, what Maxim Ksenzov said, was not exclusively a Russian problem. In late March, access to Twitter was blocked in Turkey, due to "attacks against the government." However, two weeks later, the country's Constitutional Court declared the decision was illegal. The European Union, by the way, predictably criticized the decision of the Turkish authorities. However, European countries have their claims to Twitter every now and then as well. In France, three years ago, the authorities were very unhappy about the distribution of anti-Semitic messages on the network. The UK was concerned about calls for pogroms. Noteworthy, in many Muslim countries, Twitter is banned. The social network is blocked in China as well, along with most other popular Western social networks. Instead, the Chinese develop their own services, quite successfully. And yet - how shall one balance out the interests of the state and the users? Pravda.Ru asked this question to the head of "Internet and Law" project, Doctor of Law, Anton Sergo. Roscomnadzor solves its problem as a federal body of our country. As for Twitter, this is a foreign company that is not present on the territory of Russia legally, although this service in Russia is available," he said. "In some cases, Twitter has to take certain steps in cases of clear violations of the Russian legislation. This is one way. Another option is to search for ways of cooperation between Russian executive power agencies and similar supervising agencies in the United States. Such instructions should be transmitted through diplomatic channels. Regulations from U.S. authorities for Twitter will be mandatory," says Anton Sergo. An expert with the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society, Stanislav Apetyan, suggested that the remarks from deputy head of Roskomnadzor was aimed to encourage representatives of Western Internet platforms for a dialogue. "It is an open secret that many Western companies simply ignore requirements of Russian law enforcement bodies and regulatory authorities. I assume and hope that the harsh statements from the authorities were made in order to encourage foreign companies to cooperation," he said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. Stanislav Apetyan believes that if the cooperation is not established, the government will be forced to block services. According to him, after Twitter was unblocked in Turkey, the company was more willing to make ​​concessions to local authorities. "In general, from my perspective, blocking foreign sites and complete blocking of such services, is detrimental to the development of the Russian Internet and Russian communications. But one can understand the Russian authorities as well. When this or that company deliberately ignores requirements of the Russian law, it can not but cause irritation," said Stanislav Apetyan.

Ukrainian Special Forces Headed To Odessa After Deadly Clashes

ODESSA, Ukraine -- A top Ukrainian minister said on Monday that a new special forces unit was drafted into southern Odessa after police failed to bat down days of deadly violence involving pro-Russian separatists that killed dozens of people. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Monday that a new special forces unit had been drafted in Odessa, the southwestern port town, following recent violence between pro-Russian separatists and police that left dozens dead. The clashes in Odessa marked the deadliest since February when Ukraine’s president fled to Russia and militants began to occupy government buildings in the restive eastern region. “The police in Odessa acted outrageously, possibly in a criminal fashion,” Avakov wrote on his Facebook page. “The ‘honor of the uniform’ will offer no cover.” Fresh violence broke out Sunday after hundreds of people gathered outside the headquarters calling for the release of those arrested Friday, the BBC reports. They broke windows and forced open the headquarters’ gates while yelling, “Odessa is Russian city, one for all and all for one,” CNN reports. In response, Ukraine released 67 people who had been detained. “Based on the decision taken by Odessa’s regional prosecutor’s office and due to the demands of the protesters, 67 people previously detained for participating in mass disturbances on May 2nd in Odessa were released Sunday,” the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s website read. As Ukraine’s military began an operation to reclaim the eastern cities occupied by pro-Russia forces on Friday, gunfire broke out in the streets of Odessa, the Associated Press reports. The use of Molotov cocktails also caused a union building to catch fire, killing at least 31 people, most of whom were believed to be pro-Russian activists. Although separatists released eight military observers on Saturday, officials in Ukraine warned that the situation in the country’s east was spinning out of control. “What is happening in the east is not a short-term action,” said Vasyl Krutov, head of the Ukrainian government’s antiterrorist center. “This is essentially a war.” The former U.S. ambassador to Moscow made a similar warning Friday, saying the situation could lead to a full-fledged invasion by Russian troops. “The last 24 hours was a major escalation,” Michael McFaul told TIME. “This is real. This is war.” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk suggested Russia was to blame for the outbreak of violence during remarks in Odessa on Sunday, but he said local police were being investigated for their inability to maintain order on Friday. “This is not a tragedy only for Odessa,” Yatsenyuk said. “This is a tragedy for all Ukraine.”

Ukrainian Troops Intensify Fight Against Separatists

ODESSA, Ukraine -- Ukrainian troops are battling a pro-Russia militia occupying an eastern city in an apparent escalation of a security sweep to bring the region back under government control. Gunfire and multiple explosions could be heard Monday in Slavyansk, a city of 125,000 people that has become the focus of the armed anti-government insurgency. The Interfax news agency cited Interior Minister Arsen Avakov as saying that pro-Russia forces were deploying large-caliber weapons and mortars. In the beleagured city of Odessa, pro-Russian demonstrators stormed police headquarters on Sunday and won the release of 67 people detained after deadly riots there. It was Odessa's latest clash between pro-Russian separatists and supporters of the Ukrainian government in the port city, where more than 40 people died in the riots and subsequent fire in a trade union building on Friday. Earlier Sunday, Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk visited Odessa and accused Russia of engineering violence that left dozens of people dead in recent days. Yatsenyuk also blamed government security forces for failing to prevent the bloodshed, calling the deaths a "tragedy of all of Ukraine." But he offered no words of compromise to Russia, accusing it of a "well-prepared and organized action against people, against Ukraine, and against Odessa." Odessa Police Chief Petr Lutsyuk was fired Saturday. Yatsenyuk said investigators will determine the cause of the breakdown in police and security forces that allowed the unrest to become so deadly. But he also promised that prosecutors will bring to justice all Russian-backed organizers and instigators. Yatsenyuk's visit came one day after pro-Russia militants released seven European military observers as the Ukraine government pressed ahead with a military offensive to take back control of cities from the militancy. Military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were held for more than a week on what militants said were charges of spying. The OSCE, a diplomatic group, said its members were grabbed as bargaining chips. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the release was a step in the right direction. But he pressed Russia to stop backing separatists and to help oust them from government buildings seized in about a dozen cities and towns. Vyacheslav Ponomarev, self-declared "people's mayor' of the town of Sloviansk outside Odessa, says he holds an unspecified number of other captives. The prisoners are believed to include Ukrainian journalists, activists and politicians. President Obama has threatened to impose more financial sanctions on Moscow if it does not stop assisting the militancy, but Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Saturday that Obama has failed to take strong enough action to alter the situation. "President Obama talks tough about Vladimir Putin. But his actions have not gone far enough to change Putin's calculation that the benefits of his aggression outweigh the costs," Rubio said. Senate Republicans have introduced a bill that would increase sanctions and provide Ukraine with defensive military assistance, something Obama has refused to do. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said Ukrainian forces were continuing to gain on rebels and had seized control of a TV tower in Kramatorsk, near the rebel stronghold of Slovyansk. "We are not stopping," Avakov said Saturday. It was Avakov who fired Lutsyu hours after the chief issued a statement calling for calm in the city of 1 million. Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said the Odessa deaths were evidence that the government in Kiev, which came to power following the toppling of the pro-Russia president after months of protests, encourages nationalist extremists. "Their arms are up to their elbows in blood," Russian news agencies quoted Dmitry Peskov as saying. Putin spoke by telephone Sunday night with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the latest in a series of discussions they have had about Ukraine. The Kremlin said they agreed on the importance of the role to be played by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and said Swiss President Didier Burkhalter, whose country currently chairs the OSCE, would visit Moscow on Wednesday. Odessa is the major city between the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in March, and the Moldovan separatist region of Trans-Dniester where Russia has a military peacekeeping contingent. Concerns are mounting that Russia ultimately aims to take control of a huge swath of Ukraine from Trans-Dniester to the east. The fate of those killed in the trade union building has already become a rallying cause for resistance to the authorities by pro-Russians in the east. In a position eagerly promoted by the Kremlin, critics of the government have blamed those deaths on radical ultranationalists abetted by the government. Pro-unity activists have argued, meanwhile, that their rally came under assault, including from attackers bearing firearms, leading to the deadly blaze.

Heavy Clashes Reported As Ukrainian Forces Tackle Pro-Russian Separatists

SLAVYANSK, Ukraine -- Ukrainian security forces battled pro-Russian militants in the eastern flashpoint city of Slavyansk on Monday as Kiev tackled the gunmen who have overrun the region. Military gains were evident on the main highway into Slavyansk, a rebel stronghold, as government forces moved in. A CNN team on the ground saw a substantial number of militants bolster their defensive positions and checkpoints inside the city. One civilian car was hit in the fighting, its exterior damaged by bullet holes. At a local hospital, the CNN team saw several people injured from the heavy clashes. One woman had been shot in the head, probably in a crossfire, and two pro-Russian militants were also brought in. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said four people were killed and nearly 30 injured in the city. It quoted local residents as saying the attackers had shot at residential buildings and set them on fire. Militants blamed Ukrainian forces for the civilian casualties. In a separate statement, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said a military helicopter was shot down "during a combat mission and patrolling in the area" of Slavyansk on Monday, but the pilots survived after it crashed into a river. They were later rescued. Ukraine's embattled new leaders have launched their most intensive effort yet to dislodge pro-Russian separatists who have reportedly seized government buildings in nearly a dozen cities and towns. Kiev authorities describe the separatists as "terrorists." But the rebels say they are defending Russian-speaking areas of the east against Ukrainian "fascists" trying to root out Russian influence in the country. Riot-hit Odessa The uprisings began when President Viktor Yanukovych, a supporter of closer ties with Moscow, was toppled by demonstrations led by pro-Western figures in February, namely in Kiev, the capital. Violence soon erupted in the east and south of the country, escalating dramatically last week. On Sunday, pro-Russian sympathizers smashed their way into a police station in the Black Sea port city of Odessa, demanding their detained comrades be released. In another victory for a violent crowd in east Ukraine and yet another humiliation for state authorities, police didn't try to stop them. Instead, they offered the crowd a deal, releasing 67 alleged enemies of the state if the furious crowd went home. Sunday's storming of the Odessa police station -- just two days after more than 40 people were killed in a street battle and deadly blaze in the city -- was one more example of how Ukraine's new Western-backed leaders are struggling to maintain law and order in the south and east of the country. It also raises questions about the ability of the army and police to confront an uprising that Kiev says is backed by Moscow -- an accusation the Kremlin denies. The men released Sunday had been detained over the weekend after bloody clashes between supporters and opponents of Russia in Odessa on Friday, which ended in the deadly blaze. Forty-six people were killed in the bloodshed -- the deadliest since Yanukovych was ousted. Video posted on YouTube appeared to show supporters of Kiev's government throwing Molotov cocktails at the building where pro-Russian separatists had reportedly taken up positions. The footage, which CNN could not independently confirm, showed people sitting on ledges trying to escape the fire and thick smoke. In an attempt to reassert Kiev's authority, Ukrainian interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk went to Odessa to appeal for unity while accusing Russia of provoking the clashes. Ukraine's Cabinet said it would offer financial assistance to the victims' families. "This is the wake-up call for the entire country, for reconciliation. We need to realize that Russians want to eliminate our country," Yatsenyuk said. His message is a tough sell in a city where so many now believe people who speak Russian are being killed and arrested by forces loyal to the Ukrainian government. Military action Ukraine's government reported some progress over the weekend in its military campaign. Officials said security forces had regained control of a TV tower in Kramatorsk, some 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Slavyansk. Residents in Kramatorsk reported hearing gunfire and a CNN team on the outskirts of Kramatorsk saw troop carriers moving toward the city center Saturday. Amateur video posted online -- the authenticity of which could not be confirmed by CNN -- showed burned buses, plumes of smoke and residents calmly observing it all. Saturday actually featured a rare bright spot in the volatility: the release of seven international military observers and five Ukrainians from the Defense Ministry who had been held hostage for eight days in Slavyansk. However, in another challenge to Kiev, separatist leader Valeriy Bolotov in Luhansk declared a state of emergency and announced the formation of a "South-East" army for the entire region. In a video statement aired on local stations, Bolotov introduced a curfew, a ban on political parties and his expectation that local law enforcement officials will take an oath of allegiance to the people of Luhansk. In Donetsk, separatists say they are preparing their own referendum on May 11 to ask residents whether they want sovereignty from Ukraine -- an echo of events that led to Moscow wresting Crimea from Kiev. Denis Pushilin, the self-declared chairman of the Donetsk People's Republic, told CNN the question on the ballot paper would read: "Do you support the act of state sovereignty of the Donetsk Republic?" to which voters can respond with "Yes" or "No." He said enough ballot papers had already been printed to hold the vote. Tensions with Russia Separatists -- many of them of Russian descent -- say they believe the government in Kiev is illegitimate because it formed after what they call the illegal ousting of Yanukovych in February. Officials in Kiev accuse Moscow of meddling by supporting the separatists. NATO has estimated that up to 40,000 Russian troops are now near the border with Ukraine, which has made Kiev's government and neighboring nations wary of invasion. A senior U.S. official told CNN on Monday that the latest intelligence still showed 40,000 to 50,000 Russian troops on the border. "There has been no major change in force disposition or readiness and no indications of preparations for an invasion," the official said, adding that the U.S. continues to assess the situation. The troops are so close to the border, an invasion could happen with little or no warning, the official said. Russia and the West squared off diplomatically over the fate of Ukraine when Moscow annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March after a hastily called referendum and Yanukovych's ouster. He was pushed from office after months of protests by people upset that he had turned away from Europe in favor of Moscow. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned Monday there could be fresh sanctions on Russia if Ukraine's presidential elections do not take place on May 25. Russia has condemned Kiev's military action in the volatile east. Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, said Russia's government had received thousands of calls since Friday from people in southeastern Ukraine. The callers described the situation as "horrendous" and pleaded for Russia's involvement. "Most of the people literally demand active help from Russia," he said. The government in Kiev is bracing for further unrest in the run-up to May 9, a national holiday to commemorate the end of the second world war. Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov told local TV that checkpoints had been set up around the capital in case of possible "provocations."