Vatican peace doves attacked by crow and seagull seconds after being released

[Seshmeister]

http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/26/vatica.../?ITO=facebook





Two white doves released by children alongside Pope Francis as a gesture of peace were almost immediately attacked by other birds.

As tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square looked on, a seagull and a large crow swept down on the doves as they were freed from a window of the Apostolic Palace.






One of the birds lost feathers as it broke free from the attack, but the other was repeatedly pecked by the crow. Their fate is unknown.

The doves had been released after Pope Francis appealed for peace in Ukraine following anti-government protests in which several people have died.

[Satan]

Oh you know I'm going to be blamed for this... especially the crow.

[Seshmeister]

I hope Ukrainians aren't too superstitious...

[katina]

I hope Ukrainians aren't too superstitious...

Sign of the Times?? My family and myself had paid a very high price for Ukraine....it´s seems that history is repeating itself.

[Seshmeister]

I wonder if this tactic of protesters attacking cops with weapons made from fireworks is going to catch on.

It's pretty spectacular to look at...some of the footage from the Ukraine looks like Armageddon...

[katina]

Holodomor

[Seshmeister]

You would think that would make everyone in the Ukraine want to join Europe rather than tie themselves to Russia.

I wonder though how much of Stalin's work ever made it into the history textbooks taught to people in the Ukraine.

[katina]

Everyone? Of course not.

[Nitro Express]

Ukrainians have a distrust of Russians for good reason. Joining the corrupt EU set up by bankers really is no improvement either. Iceland told the EU and it's bankers to fuck off and the Ukraine would be wise to do the same. The unicorns and rainbows jesuit pope can fuck himself as well. Nobody with a brain is going to buy his line of bullshit either. Like all protests it's wise to investigate beyond the surface to see who's really behind it and what the agenda really is.

[Seshmeister]

Everyone? Of course not.

Well that's the thing, I think I read somewhere that 40% of East Germans still vote communist despite the Stasi and everything else that was done to them over the years.

People have a great habit of thinking things used to be better when they were younger...

[Nitro Express]

Well that's the thing, I think I read somewhere that 40% of East Germans still vote communist despite the Stasi and everything else that was done to them over the years.

People have a great habit of thinking things used to be better when they were younger...

It's because their lives probably didn't improve that much after communism. Also, once you have a person programmed it's hard to un-program them. If you are lazy and uneducated, the capitalist system is pretty rough; especially, for someone who came out of the communist system where all you had to do was do what you were told to do. What ushers in communism is the exploitation of people who never could really make the capitalist system work for them. You need the disgruntled masses. Lennin called them useful idiots. The holy grail is to have happy slaves. Throw them some freebies. Enough to keep them pacified and skim the rest. Much like managing a rock star.

[ashstralia]

I wonder if this tactic of protesters attacking cops with weapons made from fireworks is going to catch on.

Happened in Redfern, Sydney 10 years ago. Not on such a grand scale though.

[Seshmeister]

Oof it's getting worse over there...

[Nickdfresh]

Well that's the thing, I think I read somewhere that 40% of East Germans still vote communist despite the Stasi and everything else that was done to them over the years.

People have a great habit of thinking things used to be better when they were younger...

My understanding is that a large proportion of the population in the Ukraine is of Russian decent and looks toward Russia culturally and even politically (a result of Stalin's "planter" policy and the exacerbation of the famine called the Holomdor in the 1920's). The traditional Ukrainians look more towards the West in general, and have strong ties to Poland....

[katina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...Putin-win.html

Ukraine protests: We're letting Putin win
Ukrainians are fighting and dying for the right to be European – but they have been betrayed by the failure of a weak and divided West to stand up to the Kremlin

As Kiev burns, Western policymakers are eating ashes. Our efforts to help Ukraine towards Europe, democracy and the rule of the law have failed spectacularly. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is celebrating not just sporting triumph in Sochi, but geopolitical victory in the affairs of his most important neighbour.

It is easy to overcomplicate the Ukraine story with historical, ethnic and geographical details. The country is often said to be split between east and west, between Russian- and Ukrainian-speakers, between those nostalgic for Soviet certainties and those who want a Western-style future. Ukraine’s business elite is divided too, between the cronies of president Viktor Yanukovych and those who resent his predatory ways. The opposition is a motley lot: imagine Nigel Farage, Ed Balls, football fans and the Women’s Institute huddling under a common banner.

But the real picture is much simpler. Most Ukrainians want their country to be part of Europe. Russia, the former imperial master, forbids this. It wants Ukraine to be part of its new Eurasian Economic Union – a counterweight to the European Union, albeit one run by crooks and spooks in Moscow, rather than eurocrats in Brussels.

Without Vladimir Putin, Ukraine would be at peace today. It was Russia which forced Ukraine to shun the economic agreement offered by the EU in October, launching a crippling trade war against Ukrainian exports. It was Russia which offered cheap gas and soft loans as the Ukrainian economy tottered. It was Russia which installed hundreds of “advisers” in key Ukrainian public bodies and ministries, including the SBU secret police, to ensure that they toe the Moscow line. Without Russia’s silent putsch, Ukrainians would have not have needed to build barricades in the streets in protest at the regime’s misrule. Even then, without the continued and escalating Russian pressure on Mr Yanukovych, the conflict could have been defused.

Kremlin meddling in Ukraine is not new. It has systematically breached an agreement made in Budapest in 1994 under which Ukraine gave up its Soviet nuclear weapons in return for a promise that Russia would never submit it to economic coercion or other aggression. It has repeatedly cut gas supplies to Ukraine, and fostered a culture of murky energy-trading intermediaries whose money poisons Ukrainian politics. Russia maintains a naval base, complete with spooks and special forces, in Sevastopol in Crimea. That region is home to a resentful population of ethnic Russians who wonder why this balmy peninsular was handed over to Ukraine in Soviet days. They are in constant friction with the Crimean Tartars, deported en masse from their ancestral homeland in 1944 in an exceptional act of Stalinist savagery.

But Russia’s interference in Ukraine has intensified in recent months, just as Western efforts have floundered. European policymakers still cling to the notion that talks with Russia can bring a mutually beneficial solution to Ukraine’s agony. That is a false hope. The Kremlin does not like win-win solutions. It likes outcomes in which it wins, and its detestable Western rivals lose, preferably humiliatingly – this, for Mr Putin, is a matter of personal prestige. In short, though the EU finds the whole notion of geopolitics old-fashioned and unappealing, geopolitics is happening on its doorstep. And it is losing.

America is out of the game, too. The Obama administration has neglected its European allies since the day it took office. Its senior official dealing with Ukraine, Toria Nuland, is admirably energetic – and blunt (she recently declared “F--- the EU” in a phone call to her ambassador in Kiev, bugged and then leaked by Russian intelligence). But she lacks the clout to make the wheels of policy turn in Washington. Without Moscow’s interference, the EU and United States could marshal their modest resources to make a difference. Faced with Russia in all its implacable fury, both are outgunned. The fallout from Edward Snowden’s leaks of secret material from the National Security Agency has corroded and weakened the transatlantic alliance: fury with American snooping in countries such as Germany has paralysed what should be vital discussions on security.

Now all the likely outcomes are bad. Perhaps the authorities will decide that they cannot crush the protesters and will draw back, meaning months of tension, jitters and uncertainty. Even then, Ukraine’s territorial integrity has been shattered, perhaps fatally. In the west, government buildings have been set ablaze. The region – the old Austro-Hungarian Galicia – was the site of a decade-long insurrection post-war against Soviet rule. If pro-Moscow authorities in Kiev try to crack down there, civil war looms. That involves not just human suffering (and quite possibly large numbers of refugees) but also economic dislocation and grave risks of outsiders being drawn in. What happens if someone – a real or invented band of nationalist guerrillas, say – attacks one of the east-west oil or gas pipelines?

Equally worrying is Crimea – site of the Charge of the Light Brigade 160 years ago – which could now be the flashpoint for another conflict with Russia, with far more devastating effects. The region is on the verge of declaring independence from Kiev (a move likely to prompt Russian intervention to protect the separatist statelet).

If the crackdown continues, and succeeds, we will see a dreadful roll-back of the gains of the past 10 years. The newly passed repressive laws will be used in full, not just against public protest but against independent media, civil society, and other institutions. We may see the reintroduction of a visa regime for visitors from Western countries. All kinds of foreign-related and foreign-sponsored activity will be impeded or banned. Ukraine will become another Belarus.

Once the country is at the Kremlin’s mercy, Mr Putin can extort a heavy price. He is known to disparage the very notion of Ukraine’s statehood, in public and in private. He could demand that it join a Russian-led security alliance. Russia’s military integration with Belarus is already proving a headache for Nato, which is struggling to work out how it can defend Europe’s north-eastern flank with its slender remaining resources. If the regime in Kiev proceeds with military and security integration with Russia, Central Europe will experience what the Baltic states have felt for several years: the icy sensation of a hard security threat.

Last time Europe faced a security problem of this magnitude was in the Yugoslav wars in the Nineties. For years the West failed to grasp the problem. It is in a far worse state now. The countries that have tried hardest to help Ukraine, such as Poland and Sweden, feel frustrated and exhausted. In the rest of Europe, the appetite for confrontation with the Kremlin, the real instigator of the crackdown, has never been lower. The danger now is that, in despair, the West seeks to broker a solution to the Ukrainian problem through a deal with Russia. That will infuriate and disillusion the protesters, stoking extremism and violence. It is hard to imagine a more dangerous message to send to the Kremlin: create chaos in your former empire and the West will then let you dictate the terms of settlement.

Instead, the West should be flexing its muscles. Two policies stand out. One is to bolster the countries that may be next in the Kremlin’s firing line. Georgia and Moldova are both worried that their move towards Europe will incur the same pressure and interference now being experienced by Ukraine. We should support them, and the most exposed countries that are already in Western clubs, such as the small Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Second, the Achilles’ heel of both the Yanukovych regime and his Kremlin backers is money. However much they steal, they cannot dispose of it at home. They need our banks, our real-estate market, our stock exchanges and our secretive company law to hide and launder their assets. They use our law firms and auditors to make it look legal. This happens in Vienna, New York – and London. It is to our lasting shame that we have been accomplices in this. We should unleash our money-laundering and anti-bribery laws. We should freeze assets and impose visa bans on those involved in looting and repression on our doorstep.

Ukrainians are fighting and dying for the right to be European. Theirs is not a naive belief in the EU’s virtues, but a profound belief that liberty, legality and decency are better than crony capitalism and the neo-Soviet bombast of the Putin Kremlin. They believe in our values more than we do ourselves. Why are we letting them down?

[ELVIS]

Like all protests it's wise to investigate beyond the surface to see who's really behind it and what the agenda really is.

You mean like George Soros of the fake Left preparing a “Lybian scenario” for Ukraine ??

[ELVIS]

America is out of the game, too.

That's bullshit...

[ELVIS]

It's pretty spectacular to look at...

Especially when you know it's staged...

[katina]

That's bullshit...

That is the only sentence of the article that I don´t agree with.

[katina]

Government Snipers Shooting protesters in Kiev

[katina]

Oof it's getting worse over there...

Really worse

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-violence.html

[Seshmeister]

I always wonder about the psychology of soldiers or police who are happy to stand there shooting unarmed people especially their own neighbors and countrymen.

[BITEYOASS]

With the exception of South Korea, the rest of the world better forget about the USA taking part in an armed intervention anytime soon. Because we're up to our necks in debt thanks to cowboy McDumbfuck and his teabagging shitheads in congress (who use to be known as the GOP before the recent name change), the road system is all fucked up, and the general public is going to say "HELL NO!" when asked (or should I say conned) to take part in another war.

[ELVIS]

They've been brainwashed into thinking ordinary people are the enemy...

[Satan]

They've been brainwashed into thinking ordinary people are the enemy...

Yes.... the BCE and the Religious Reich have been doing that for 30 + years now.

Blame it on the queers, blame it on the Mexicans, blame it on the unemployed, blame it on the Muslims, etc.

[ELVIS]

Blame it on the progressive left...

[Satan]

Blame it on the progressive left...

Yeah, they get blamed for all sorts of shit too. Even though they have only slightly more political power than the others I mentioned.

At this point I think they are down to 2 senators (one of whom doesn't even call himself a Demoncrat) and maybe a handful in the House. And they haven't had the White House since 1980.

[ELVIS]

Fell out of love with Bill, eh ??

[Satan]

I'm the Devil, not Monica Lewinsky. I was NEVER "in love" with Bill.

[ELVIS]

Hmmm...

[Nickdfresh]

You mean like George Soros of the fake Left preparing a “Lybian scenario” for Ukraine ??

Spell much?

What "fake Libyan scenario"? People sick of having their daughters and sons raped by a cunt?

[Satan]

[ELVIS]

What "fake Libyan scenario"?

I didn't say it was fake...

If it were fake, Gaddafi would still be alive...

[katina]

This handout picture taken and released by the Batkivshyna press service on Feb. 22, 2014 shows Ukraine's jailed pro-Western opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko leaving the hospital in Kharkiv. Tymoshenko walked free on Feb. 22 moments after parliament voted to oust the country's embattled President Viktor Yanukovych and set new elections for May. The latest developments in the ex-Soviet nation's three-month political crisis came after protesters took control of Kiev's charred city centre and seized Yanukovych's lavish residence on a day of dramatic twists and turns. Tymoshenko -- a fiery 53-year-old co-leader of the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution whose freedom has been sought strongly by both Washington and the European Union -- waved to hundreds of supporters chanting "free Yulia!" AFP PHOTO/ BATKIVSHCHYNA PARTY PRESS-SERVICE / INNA PETRIKOVA
© AFP

[Nickdfresh]

I didn't say it was fake...

If it were fake, Gaddafi would still be alive...

Maybe. But he was a demented asshole through and through and deserved what he got...

[ELVIS]

Is that what you saw on TV ??

[ELVIS]

Press TV

My memory of Col. Muammar Gaddafi was that of a Libyan revolutionary and socialist politician who does not beat around the bush, telling it straight to your face and of course such attitude can be perceived by some as dictatorial.



If I look around Africa Continent, the closest to Col. Gaddafi is late Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana who identified that African Continent is partially free politically and most definitely not economically and that Africans need to “emancipate itself from mental slavery and that none but ourselves can free our mind” (Pan-African).

Some of my readers may wonder why the comparison of Gaddafi and Nkrumah? It was what they stood for and not who they are and by that I mean they stood for the unity of Africa as a continent through economic empowerment such as increased trades between countries in the continent as well as political and technological cooperation.

Gaddafi focused on key areas that can help prolong average life span of Libyans such as good road network; good healthcare facilities, better housing so that Libyans will not sleep rough, and he eliminated poverty focusing on those Libyans who are unable to work due to disability or ill health.

Gaddafi’s effort to stabilise Libya by bringing all different tribes together and also working with poverty-stricken West African nations did not gain popularity in the West (news blackout) because it was distorting their (West) plan for Africa and Middle East, hence incitement of tribal unrest and counter coup in Libya in the past.

They (West) use their propaganda machine (Western Media) to turn Gaddafi into Mr. Jekyll and Hyde (man with two faces) in the eyes of his neighbours as well as around the world portraying him (Gaddafi) as a tyrant/dictator/terrorist hated by his own people and the world over.

In their “War against Terrorism,” they finally succeeded to get behind Gaddafi’s skin particularly after 9/11 because he started working with them behind the scenes hence made him more enemies than friends within the Arab community because he allowed them (West) access to Libya and its facilities (marking the beginning of his downfall).

However, the financial and technical cooperation enjoyed by many West African countries under the regime of Gaddafi must be acknowledged, - countries such as Sierra Leone, Guinea-Conakry, Chad, Niger, Mali, Senegal, and Burkina Faso - because it shows the other side of Gaddafi that the world did not see.

The West also enjoyed financial support from him and his family and without a doubt it was a subject on the lips of many European and West African leaders, either they like it or not, and there were individuals who had benefited from different educational funds he supported around the world.

I was fortunate to know Libyans from Benghazi and Tripoli who acknowledged that the regime of Gaddafi gave them the chance to be true Libyans because they had peace and were able to move freely as a citizen without fear - unlike now after his demise.

The awakening that gripped Tunisia and Egypt was to the West’s detriment but perfect timing to incite regime change in Libya, because they already had their agents on the ground in Libya, making it easy for them to hijack the awakening and turning it into regime change in Libya.

The people of Benghazi under the supervision of the West seemed to be ideal to start the revolution for regime change; after all they had an old score to settle with Gaddafi even though majority from that part of the nation could vouch for political, economic and social peace enjoyed under Gaddafi and even Gaddafi had a home in Benghazi.

Some Western countries feared that allowing Gaddafi to continue as Libyan leader meant they had a lot to lose and one of such fears was over their financial indebtedness to Gaddafi, his family and people of Libya because repaying this money could deal a bigger blow to their own economy.

Also, deposing him would leave a power vacuum considering the volatile tribal division in Libya and an opportunity for them to have a say in Libya’s oil distribution network, which would in turn help sustain their businesses and economy through the period of Western economic crunch.

Like the situation with Mali, France took the lead and of course there was more than just political undertone for former French president’s involvement in Libya, some of which came out in French press while others did not make it to the print (News blackout?).

It was obvious that Gaddafi had made many enemies in the Middle East, hence not much support came from that direction to help bring political solution, and of course Gaddafi had himself to blame because becoming Mr. Jekyll and Hyde for the West always end in regret.

In the heat of it all, even Libya’s strong ally, Russia, could not do much to resuscitate his government because by this time there had been promises and counter promises made to Gaddafi’s aides who were breaking ranks more than he anticipated and Western media were splashing news of defection daily, hence his regime was doomed.

Gaddafi losing grip on power was a combination of many factors, amongst which was his close ties forged with West during Iraq war when he allowed Libya to be used strategically against al-Qaeda, and by conniving with the West he carved enemies for himself within the Arab community, hence West collaborating to oust him seemed imminent because he lacked popular support.

The Western media news blackout on turn of events during the Libya revolution and news propaganda about atrocities purported to have been committed by Gaddafi’s supporters did not favour him, hence common conversation in public places around the world was that he must go.

Africa may not have a voice, but comparing news heard from mainstream Western media and online news from Press TV and others like it, it was obvious that the continent is well aware of the Western double standard, hence factual reporting by Press TV during Libya revolution form one of the reasons for a Western coup against the network.

Africa and the Middle East have been creating awareness in the mind of their younger generations that there is double standard in news reporting by the Western media, and one of the ways to identify existence of such double standard is for this younger audience to compare online reporting with mainstream Western media before forming opinion.

The Western leaders censor Western media to only report news they want the world to hear and Western media knows how to put it across nations of the earth fancifully and convincingly with no regards for psychological damage to listeners, and those networks that did not join the bandwagon suffered a witch hunt.

Gaddafi was a victim of such Western news propaganda and spreading lies is a continuous process of reporting by Western media and most recent is the reporting by a Western media showing a picture of mass killings to have been carried out by Syrian soldiers, but it was later proved to be untrue because picture from previous reporting were used.

People from Africa and the Middle East are more aware now that accusation made by the West against activities of leaders or nations may be untrue, hence they now use news comparison for verification before forming opinion.

The Western media have lost its popularity amongst many individuals from Africa and the Middle East, because it has become apparent that Western media through its satellite channels has been feeding them with propaganda and lies, hence they are switching from mainstream satellite stations onto the Internet for latest news and update.

Press TV’s true news reporting have placed the network on the wrong side of Western leaders, and witch hunting against the news network is a further conviction that the Western leaders through media have been feeding the people of the world with propaganda far too long.

It is ironic to see that Gaddafi, who was a dictator/tyrant hated by his people, could lend money to Western nations and yet they did not refuse to accept the money neither did they decline to use Libya as a base to torture individuals accused of terrorism.

Muammar Gaddafi is dead. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is incarcerated, hence another news blackout on the real truth behind why the West sped up regime change in Libya using military force and under the disguise of the United Nation Security Council.

The West claimed that Libya is now a free nation with peace and stability after Gaddafi’s death, but there is no stable unity government that includes all tribes in Libya and moreover the United State suffers its first casualty in Libya in 2012.

Libya has been politically volatile since the awakening and while Western media only touch on it after the death of the US diplomat, Press TV never stops reporting.

[katina]

Ukrainians get their first glimpse inside the luxury compound of the former Ukrainian leader's presidential compound, that had been hidden from the country for years.

[FORD]

by John Batchelor
February 25, 2014
Threat of anti-Semitic violence should cause international alarm


President Viktor Yanukovich’s sudden, surprise departure from Kiev is the beginning of a long ordeal for Ukrainians. It’s also the start of a major threat to the several hundred thousand Ukrainian Jews.

Anti-Semitic violence in Ukraine may come as a surprise to an American audience accustomed to optimistic portrayals of the swiftly changing events in U.S. media. The last weeks have been dominated by talk of vigils for democracy, for the EU, for Western ways, played out for the cameras in the bonfire-lit Independence Square.

The Russian media, by contrast, have devoted time, since autumn, to explicating the virulent history of the ultranationalist neo-Nazi parties from western Ukraine that rally under the black and red flag of the grandfather of Ukrainian fascist parties, the 85-year-old Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Its flag can be seen in pictures of the parliament building surrounded by masked and helmeted protesters.

In her Sunday appearance to discuss the crisis on “Meet the Press,” National Security Adviser Susan Rice was not asked about the fears of the Jews of Ukraine. Nor has the White House mentioned Jews or anti-Semitism during the several remarks directed at Moscow advising Russian President Vladimir Putin not to intervene in the Ukrainian chaos.

Ukrainian Jews, on the other hand, are speaking out loudly now that Kiev is descending into anarchy.

A grave threat

The transition agreement toward elections that was brokered on Friday between European Union ministers and Yanukovich was immediately broken by the Ukrainian fascists, according to my sources. Yanukovich then fled the capital, and law and order in the streets left with him. So did the safety of Ukraine’s Jews.

Rabbis in Kiev and across Ukraine spoke out, warning their congregations to stay off the streets and remain in their homes. The Jewish Agency in Jerusalem has moved swiftly to offer aid to elderly Jews living in greater Kiev. Food-delivery men are braving gunshots and Molotov cocktails to help them. Reports from Kiev say the police have been replaced by roving bands of undetermined loyalty.

Jewish organizations worldwide and the state of Israel regard the appeals from Ukraine as grave and immediate.

The fresh report of the firebombing of a new synagogue in Zaporizhia, 250 miles southeast of Kiev, increased the alarm in Israel and accelerated planning for all contingencies, including evacuations.
The Kremlin will act to protect the millions of Ukrainians and Russian citizens who are at risk from the fascists and anarchists in general.

In the coming days, either Yanukovich will choose to stay in Ukraine and contest the coup in Kiev or he will abdicate and pass the mess into the hands of the EU and Russia. Early indications from Moscow point to the likelihood that Yanukovich is unreliable.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was on the telephone to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to sort out the failure of the EU to live up to the promises it made to Yanukovich and Moscow. Berlin insists that a solution for the disorder in Kiev not only includes a legitimate leadership with police power but also involves finding up to $27 billion to keep Ukraine solvent in its obligations.

My sources point to a calm, adamant, confident Kremlin that will act to protect the millions of Ukrainians and Russian citizens who are at risk from the fascists and anarchists in general. The Jews are part of the population that Moscow will move to protect. My sources indicate that Russia will move to reinforce the military installations in Crimea and then prepare adequate means to help other regions where Russian citizens are concentrated, like Odessa.

As for the U.S., it finds itself in a position of supporting chaos in Kiev with Rice’s unfocused remark that “the United States is on the side of the Ukrainian people.”


The view from Moscow

I wrote recently of the Kremlin’s opinion that Barack Obama’s administration has interfered in Ukrainian affairs. My sources have told me that the Kremlin holds that Rice has been in contact with the investor George Soros, who has used his wealth and influence openly to unsettle affairs in Ukraine at least since the Orange Revolution of 2005. The Kremlin maintains that the Obama administration has led the protesters to understand that Washington supports their demands to join with the EU and not with the Russian Federation.

Moscow waited for the end of the Sochi Games before it moved to straighten out the mess in Kiev. Moscow conceded to all the demands by the EU and U.S. and lent its authority to the agreement that Yanukovich signed before the fascist gangs destroyed the resolution. Now the country is fragmented, lawless, beggared, fear-racked.

Moscow, I am told, understands that the most difficult challenge will be dealing with the fascist parties like those under the red and black flag as well as Oleh Tyahnyok’s Svoboda (Freedom Party). The remaining protest parties are not nearly so worrisome, as the western Ukraine voters will be overwhelmed in any election by the Russian-linked eastern Ukraine, which represents 55 to 60 percent of the population. Moscow’s choice, Yanukovich, won a closely monitored and EU-approved election in 2010. The easy assumption is that Moscow’s choice will win again in the early elections now called for.

What is not known is how Moscow can resolve the crisis while corralling the fascist bands that have overrun Kiev, wrecked the elected government and now threaten to repeat some of the darkest crimes of the last century.

John Batchelor is a novelist and host of a national radio news show based in New York City.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera America's editorial policy.

[Seshmeister]

Press TV

My memory of Col. Muammar Gaddafi was that of a Libyan revolutionary and socialist politician who does not beat around the bush, telling it straight to your face and of course such attitude can be perceived by some as dictatorial.

Just to clarify you are now citing Iranian State controlled TV as being accurate when it says Gaddafi was a good guy?

Are you fucking nuts?

Yes I would perceive someone who ruled over a country for over 30 years without a sign fucking free election who tortured, raped and murdered thousands.

The only interesting thing about your post is the extent of the crazy shit coming out of the Iranian government propaganda department.