By Alessandra Prentice
SIMFEROPOL,
Ukraine, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Armed men seized the parliament in
Ukraine's Crimea region on Thursday and raised the Russian flag,
alarming Kiev's new rulers, who urged Moscow not to abuse its navy base
rights on the peninsula by moving troops around.
Crimea,
the only Ukrainian region with an ethnic Russian majority, is the last
big bastion of opposition to the new leadership in Kiev since
President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted at the weekend and provides a
base for Russia's Black Sea fleet.
"I am
appealing to the military leadership of the Russian Black Sea fleet,"
said Olexander Turchinov, Ukraine's acting president.
"Any
military movements, the more so if they are with weapons, beyond the
boundaries of this territory (the base) will be seen by us as military
aggression," he said, a day after 150,000 Russian troops near Ukraine
were put on high alert.
The Ukraine Foreign
Ministry also summoned Russia's acting ambassador in Kiev for immediate
consultations as the face-off between Moscow and the West over Ukraine
revived memories of the Cold War.
The United
States called on Moscow to avoid doing anything risky over Ukraine,
which has been in crisis since November, when Yanukovich abandoned a
proposed trade pact with the EU and turned instead towards Russia.
The
fresh turmoil in Crimea sent the Ukrainian hryvnia tumbling to a new
record low of 11 to the dollar on the Reuters dealing platform.
The International Monetary Fund said it would send a team to Kiev in the coming days.
Ukraine's
new finance minister, Oleksander Shlapak, said he hoped the IMF would
work on an aid package of at least $15 billion. Ukraine says it needs
$35 billion over the next two years to avoid bankruptcy.
The minister also said he expected the hryvnia to strengthen soon at around 10 to the dollar.
COALITION GOVERNMENT
Ukraine's
new rulers pressed ahead with efforts to restore stability to the
divided country, approving formation of a national coalition government
with former economy minister Arseny Yatseniuk as its proposed head.
Yatseniuk
told parliament that Yanukovich had driven the country to the brink of
collapse. He accused the deposed president of stripping state coffers
bare and said $70 billion had disappeared into offshore accounts.
"The state treasury has been robbed and is empty," he said.
Yanukovich
said on Thursday he was still president of Ukraine and warned its
"illegitimate" rulers that people in the southeastern and southern
regions would never accept mob rule.
In a
statement sent to Russian news agencies from an unknown location,
Yanukovich railed against the "extremists" who had stolen power in
Ukraine, threatened violence against himself and his closest aides and
passed "illegal" laws.
As the drama unfolded in
Crimea, there were mixed signals from Moscow, which put warplanes along
its western borders on combat alert. Earlier it said it would take
part in discussions on an IMF package for Ukraine.
The
fear of military escalation prompted expressions of concern from the
West, with NATO urging Russia not to do anything that would "escalate
tension or create misunderstanding".
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called the seizure of government buildings in Crimea a "very dangerous game".
"This
is a drastic step, and I'm warning those who did this and those who
allowed them to do this, because this is how regional conflicts begin,"
he told a news conference.
It was not
immediately known who was occupying the parliament and government
buildings in the regional capital Simferopol and they issued no
demands, but witnesses said they appeared to be ethnic Russian
separatists.
BARRICADES
Interfax
news agency quoted a witness as saying there were about 60 heavily
armed people inside. No one had been hurt when the buildings were
seized in the early hours by Russian speakers in uniforms that did not
carry identification markings.
"We were building
barricades in the night to protect parliament. Then this young Russian
guy came up with a pistol ... we all lay down, some more ran up, there
was some shooting and around 50 went in through the window," Leonid
Khazanov, an ethnic Russian, told Reuters.
"I asked them what they wanted, and they said 'To make our own decisions, not to have Kiev telling us what to do'."
There was also anger at the invasion of parliament.
Alexander
Vostruyev, 60, in a leather flat cap and white beard, said: "It's
disgrace that the flag if a foreign country is flying on our parliament
... It's like a man coming home to find his wife in bed with another
man."
About 100 police gathered in front of the
parliament, and a similar number of people carrying Russian flags later
marched up to the building chanting "Russia, Russia" and holding a
sign calling for a Crimean referendum.
One of
them, Alexei, 30, said: "Crimea is autonomous. The government in Kiev
are fascists, and what they're doing is illegal ... We need to show our
support for the guys inside."
About 50
pro-Russia supporters from Sevastopol, where part of Russia's Black Sea
navy is based, lined up shoulder-to-shoulder facing police in front of
parliament in Simferopol.
Gennady Basov, their
leader, said: "We need to organize ourselves like this to maintain
order while this illegal and unconstitutional government operates in
Kiev.
Ukraine's new leaders have been voicing
alarm over signs of separatism in Crimea. Acting interior minister
Arsen Avakov said the attackers had automatic weapons and machine guns.
"Provocateurs are on the march. It is the time for cool heads," he said on Facebook.
The
regional prime minister said he had spoken to the people inside the
building by telephone, but they had not made any demands or said why
they were inside. They had promised to call him back but had not done
so, he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has
ignored calls by ethnic Russians in Crimea to reclaim the territory
handed to the Soviet Ukraine by Soviet Communist leader Nikita
Khrushchev in 1954.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck
Hagel said on Russia must be transparent about military exercises along
Ukraine's border and not take any steps that could be misinterpreted
or "lead to miscalculation during a delicate time".
But
Russia's foreign ministry said Moscow would defend the rights of its
compatriots. It expressed concern about "large-scale human rights
violations", attacks and vandalism in Crimea.
Crimea
is the only region of Ukraine where ethnic Russians are the majority,
though many ethnic Ukrainians in other eastern areas speak Russian as
their first language.
A respected Russian news organization reported
that President Viktor Yanukovych, who was driven out of Kiev by a
three-month protest movement, was staying in a Kremlin sanatorium just
outside Moscow.
"I have to ask Russia to ensure my personal safety
from extremists," Yanukovych said in a statement carried by Russian
news agencies on Thursday. He said he still considers himself president
and sees the new Ukrainian authorities as illegitimate.
Shortly
after, the same three Russian news agencies quoted an unnamed Russian
official saying that Yanukovych's request for protection "was satisfied
on the territory of Russia."
Oleksandr Turchynov, who stepped in
as acting president after Yanukovych's flight, condemned the takeover of
government buildings in Crimea as a "crime against the government of
Ukraine." He warned that any move by Russian troops off of their base in
Crimea "will be considered a military aggression."
"Unidentified
people with automatic weapons, explosives and grenades have taken over
the governmental buildings and the Parliament building in the autonomous
region of Crimea," he said. "I have given orders to the military to use
all methods necessary to protect the citizens, punish the criminals,
and to free the buildings."
In Kiev, lawmakers chose Arseniy
Yatsenyuk as the new prime minister. He will face the hugely complicated
task of restoring stability in a country that is not only deeply
divided politically but on the verge of financial collapse. The
39-year-old served as economy minister, foreign minister and
parliamentary speaker before Yanukovych took office in 2010, and is
widely viewed as a technocratic reformer who enjoys the support of the
U.S.
Shortly before the lawmakers chose him as the leader of the
new Cabinet, Yatsenyuk said Ukraine doesn't want a fight with Russia,
but insisted the country wouldn't accept the secession of the southern
Crimea region.
He said Crimea "has been and will be a part of Ukraine."
Yanukovych
fled after riot police attacked protesters in Kiev's central square,
killing more than 80 people, and European and Russian officials
intervened. He has not been seen publicly since Saturday, when he said
he remained the legitimately elected president — a position that has
been backed by Russia.
Russia's respected RBK news organization
reported Wednesday evening that Yanukovych was staying at the Barvikha
sanatorium, which is run by the presidential administration's property
department. The spokesman for this department, Viktor Khrekov, told The
Associated Press on Thursday that he has no information about this.
The
RBK report was impossible to confirm, but security at the Ukraina Hotel
was unusually heavy late Wednesday, with police watching from parked
vehicles outside and guards posted throughout the lobby. Some of
Yanukovych's allies, also reported to have been at the hotel, may have
still been there.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman also said he had no information about Yanukovych's reported arrival in Moscow.
In
a clear warning to Ukraine, Putin on Wednesday ordered massive military
exercises involving most of the military units in western Russia. On
Thursday, as part of the exercises, fighter jets were put on combat
alert and were patrolling the border, Russia's Defense Ministry said in a
statement. It didn't specify the areas where patrol missions were being
conducted. The military also announced measures to tighten security at
the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean peninsula in
southeastern Ukraine.
The military maneuvers prompted a sharp
rebuke from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who warned Russia that
any military intervention in Ukraine would be a "grave mistake."
The
Russian Foreign Ministry voiced concern Thursday about the
Russian-speaking population in Ukraine and vowed to protect their
interests. State-owned ITAR-Tass news agency quoted a statement read at a
session of the ministry's board on Thursday, saying that Russia "will
have a firm and uncompromising response to violations of the rights of
compatriots by foreign states."
Russia has accused Ukraine's
interim leaders of failing to control radicals who threaten the
Russia-speaking population in Ukraine's east and south, which includes
the Crimean Peninsula.
Witnesses said the gunmen in Simferopol,
the Crimean regional capital, wore unmarked camouflage uniforms and
carried rocket-propelled grenades, sniper rifles and other weapons. They
raised the Russian flag over the local parliament building.
The
men did not immediately voice any demands and threw a flash grenade in
response to a journalist's questions. They wore black and orange
ribbons, a Russian symbol of the victory in World War II, and put up a
sign reading "Crimea is Russia."
Maxim, a pro-Russian activist who
refused to give his last name, said he and other activists had camped
overnight outside the local parliament in Simferopol when 50-60 heavily
armed men wearing flak jackets and carrying rocket-propelled grenade
launchers and sniper rifles took over the building.
"Our activists
were sitting there all night calmly, building the barricades," he said.
"At 5 o'clock unknown men turned up and went to the building. They got
into the courtyard and put everyone on the ground.
"They were
asking who we were. When we said we stand for the Russian language and
Russia, they said: 'Don't be afraid. We're with you.' Then they began to
storm the building bringing down the doors," he said. "They didn't look
like volunteers or amateurs; they were professionals. This was clearly a
well-organized operation."
"Who are they?" he added. "Nobody knows."
A
convoy of seven armored personnel carriers was seen on a road near the
village of Ukromnoye, about 10 kilometers (some 6 miles) away from the
city of Simferopol. In Moscow, Russia's Foreign Ministry said that
Russia was abiding by an agreement with Ukraine that sharply restricts
troops movements, but acknowledged some unspecified troops movements,
claiming they didn't violate the deal, the Interfax news agency
reported.
In a statement, the local government said Crimean Prime
Minister Anatoly Mogilyev had tried to negotiate with the gunmen but was
told "they were not authorized to negotiate and present demands."
Ukraine's acting interior minister, Arsen Avakov, said on his Facebook page that police were sealing off the area.
"Measures
have been taken to counter extremist actions and not allow the
situation to escalate into an armed confrontation in the center of the
city," he said.
Phone calls to the Crimean legislature rang unanswered, and its website was down.
Meanwhile,
Ukraine's currency, the hryvnia, dropped further to a new record low of
11.25 to the U.S. dollar, a sign of the country's financial distress.
One
of the new government's first tasks will be to seek rescue loans from
the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The finance
ministry has pegged the country's needs at $35 billion dollars for this
year and next to pay salaries and debts and cover the large budget
deficit.
___
Associated Press writers Maria Danilova and Nataliya Vasilyeva and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.As
Russian and Western diplomats work towards a political solution for the
crisis caused by the Russian intervention into Crimea, we'll speak with
our next guest about just why Russia decided to seize control of the
peninsula region.We're now joined by our guest, Aleksandr Buzgalin. Aleksandr is a professor of political economy at Moscow State University.Thank you so much for joining us, Aleks.ALEKSANDR
BUZGALIN, PROF. POLITICAL ECONOMICS, MOSCOW STATE UNIV.: Thank you for
the opportunity to have this interview and to tell important things, I
hope, for you.DESVARIEUX: So, Aleksandr, can you just
start off by talking about how Crimea became a part of the Ukraine in
1954, as well as the history of the region and the relationship with
Russia?BUZGALIN: So it's a long history. First of all, I
want to remind that during many hundreds of years, many decades, Ukraine
was part of Russian Empire, and it was really not bad relation between
Ukrainians and Russians, and it was difficult to say where there is a
border, because Kiev, the modern capital of Ukraine, was one of the most
important and cultural centers of our country, and Gogol and Shevchenko
and other writers, painters, actors, were part of our common culture.
And for us, Ukraine was part of our civilization, and for majority of
Ukrainians, it was the same. So this is important.Of course it was oppression, but it was oppression of everybody but tsar elite and the Russian brutal capital in past.After
collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became independent. And it was
also important basis for conflict, because it was mainly conflict of
Ukrainian pro-Western oligarchs and Russian or Ukrainian pro-Russian
oligarchs, who were real exploiters Ukrainian people and Ukrainian
nature, both, and it is difficult to say who was better, who was worse.
Both worse.This Crimea, another story. Crimea was part of
Russia before it was part of Tartar and so on. It was long history then
in 18th century. It was part of Russian Empire. And only 50 years ago,
it became part of Ukraine artificially because Khrushchev, general
secretary of Communist Party, decided to make this present to Ukrainian
first secretary of Communist Party. Absolute majority of
Crimea people are Russian-speaking people, and a few are Ukrainians, and
Ukrainian language was artificial for this territory. I was many times
in this region. All my holidays I spended there. I delivered lectures in
Sevastopol, federal of Moscow State University. It's absolutely Russian
territory, not because of occupation attempts, but because of the
reality.Also, it was agreement between Russia and Ukraine
that in Sevastopol, the very important base for Navy, for military
troops, for airplanes, and so on will be common base of Russian and
Ukrainian fleet and Ukrainian and Russian troops, Ukrainian and Russian
airplanes, military airplanes, and so on. It was mutual control with
some conflicts, but typically it was the same people who were officers
in Soviet Union in past, with the same traditions, with the same
historical symbols, with the same victories, defeats, and so on.Also,
Crimea was part of absolutely heroic struggle against fascist
occupation, and defense of Sevastopol was extremely brutal and extremely
heroic. And this is part of the history of mankind, not only of our
countries, because it was real fight against fascism, German fascism,
Romanian, Italian troops, and so on, fascist troops during Second World
War. It's important prehistory. And now it's not really
intervention of Russian troops. Already it was Russian Navy and Russian
troops and Russian military airplanes and so on, because it was
agreement between Russia and Ukraine before.The problem is
that some military forces decided to participate in support of peace
and absence of battles in Crimea. This is question mark, because
according to agreement, it was necessary to do--the police was--or
militsiya of Ukraine was responsible for the peaceful situation in this
region, as in all regions of Ukraine. But when emissaries
from a new transitional government, if I can say so, came to Crimea, and
they came with support of Ukrainian nationalists, some of them with
fascist slogans and fascist symbols, it was like attack of occupants
from the point of view of majority of population in Crimea, and military
forces became more peaceful forces than the forces who occupied
territory of Ukraine. It's very contradictory. And I'm sure that
referendum will say no to modern Ukrainian government and they tell: we
want to have independence.And really I don't know why,
after collapse of Soviet Union, Ukraine said, we want to be independent,
and it was okay until everybody said it's not occupation or something
like this. Now if Crimea want to be independent, it's their business.Of
course, I'm very afraid that it will be real intervention of troops by
the NATO or Russian or both NATO and Russian troops. It can be
provocation for war. We have now nearly 100th anniversary of World
War I. And why this war took place? Why former friends, Germans and
French people, who were in one cultural Europe, started to kill each
other and 10 million peoples were killed? For what? It was the same
democratic country--Germany was democratic bourgeois country; France was
democratic bourgeois country. And then terrible battle for nothing,
because of imperialistic conditions.Now, of course, there
is problem of geopolitical ambitions of Putin and other officials of
Russia. And I am not supporter of such ambitions at all.DESVARIEUX:
I'm so glad you mentioned Putin, because I want to speak to why Putin
decided to move with such urgency to intervene in Crimea. Why do you
think?BUZGALIN: First of all, I am not Putin, and very
often I cannot understand his logic. So it's not question to me. It's
question to Putin. And he made some explanations, gave some explanations
in his interviews. I do not want to repeat them. But I do give you
advice. I do advise you to translate his interviews and to then think,
is it true or not; but not to ignore his interview.I think
it is both attempts to show that Russia is big state which plays a big
role in international world politics. And this is one of the ambitions
of Putin and Russian bureaucracy in general. But there is also another
aspect, because after such speech of Putin and decision of our
parliament, it became much more peaceful situation in Crimea than
before. And now these nationalists, Ukrainian nationalists, are afraid
to come to Crimea and to say, go out to people who came on the basis of
voting in the Square.In Crimea it was the same like in
Kiev. It was Maidan in Crimea. And people came to the squares and said,
we do not want to have the government which was established in Kiev.
It's not our government. We don't like them. We have our will. We people
of Crimea want to have our power. But please don't come to us. We don't
respect you. We don't think that you are elected. Don't. Why--.DESVARIEUX: And that's why they're going to have a vote at the end of March, is that right? There is a referendum vote.BUZGALIN:
[They] want to make referendum, and I think it will be more or less
democratic, as all voting in the situation of semi-revolution. You know,
now it's--in Ukraine, their power is based on the view of the squares,
and this is initiative not of majority of Ukrainians, but this is
initiatives of those people who came to Maidan, who came to squares in
Crimea, in Kharkiv, in Donbass, in other regions, in western regions of
Ukraine.From my point of view, it's necessary to respect
this opinion, but not to think that this is the only opinion of
Ukrainian people. There are different stratas, different interests, very
deep social-economic contradictions between oligarchs, pro-Western
oligarchs and pro-Russian oligarchs they're behind.By the
way, new emissaries of new Kiev for eastern regions are huge oligarchs,
owners of the biggest capitals in Ukraine. So it's not alternative to
Yanukovych or anybody else--the same bureaucratic oligarch capitalism,
which will organize the same bureaucratic manipulation, or even worse
than it was before.People were tired from Yanukovych, and I
understand very well that it is necessary and it was necessary to make
democratic revolution. But what was happened in Ukraine, unfortunately,
is not real democratic revolution on the basis of the--on the backs of
the ordinary people who wanted to change bureaucratic, corrupted power,
came to the power another--representatives of another oligarchical
groups, another geopolitical forces who want to manipulate with Ukraine.
And also--this is extremely important; I want to stress.
Their real force, which helped to receive power for modern Ukraine in
government, this is force of Ukrainian nationalists. And they directly
use symbols and slogans of troops in Ukraine which supported fascism,
German fascism, for terrible actions against peaceful population,
against Jews, first of all, against Belarus people, against Ukrainian
and Russian people who did not support fascism or who did not want to
collaborate with fascist Germany. It was anti-red, by the way, struggle,
anticommunist struggle. And now in some regions of Ukraine, regional
authorities said that Communist Party must be forbidden because this is
pro-Russian party.The law which restricted using of
fascist symbols now is not actual. Now they said you can use any symbols
of fascism; it doesn't matter; no problems.So I don't like Russian nationalism. I hate it. But I also hate Ukrainian nationalism or any nationalism.A
very important aspect (I'm sorry, Jessica; I want to stress this also),
this is position of United States and some European commentators--I
mean, not position of North Americans, ordinary people and democratic
people in the United States, but position of government and some
mainstream mass media. It is only one way of reflection of the events,
no very deep analysis of contradictions, no analysis of social-economic
backgrounds, even class contradictions, which did exist in the Ukraine
and which are very important.That's why I want to give
more complex, more contradictory reflection of the situation. We do not
have good solutions. We have choice between bad and very bad solution.
This is the case, unfortunately.DESVARIEUX: Alright. Aleksandr Buzgalin, professor at Moscow State University. In
part two I'd like to pivot back to Russia and just talk about some of
the internal politics at play. So please stay tuned for part two.Thank you so much for joining us, Aleksandr.BUZGALIN: Thank you.DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
