news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2014-03/04/c_133160333.htm
“Those troops have been deployed there long before the recent events. And they may legally stay there until 2042. So they pose no threat to Ukraine,” said Kozin, who is also a Russian Academy of Military Sciences professor.
All Russian troops deployed in Crimea were attached to the Black Sea Fleet, in accordance with agreements signed between Moscow and Kiev following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the expert said.
According to the agreements, Russia has a right to move its personnel between its coastal facilities, for example from Kerch to Sevastopol in Crimea.
Kozin said the legal status of Russian troops in Crimea had been restricted to protection and servicing of the Black Sea Fleet stationed in the peninsula, adding they could not occupy any facilities not belonging to the fleet’s infrastructure.
“Until recently, no frictions have ever appeared between Russian and Ukrainian military personnel. They used to hold joint drills and military parades, and participate in anti-terror operations,” Kozin said.
Yeh, hmmm. You should note xinhua net is the official press agency of Communist China, so no surprise in their, ahem, report.
The Russian navy stationed at the Black Sea in Crimea (on land
leased from Ukraine) was completely unfettered by anybody and remains unfettered but now Putin decided to send in troops from Russia proper, without insignia or identification, into Crimea, take over territory (basically all of Crimea) which did not belong to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, surround Ukrainian soldiers, confine them to barracks (the Ukrainian soldiers’ wives today tried to sneak food in their husbands’ barracks - they are prisoners), block the Ukrainian navy, prevent them from working, shoot live rounds in the air and threaten to shoot Ukrainian soldiers directly. How is this not an invasion? It’s liable to result in bloodshed what with the shenanigans these Russian military and toughs accompanying them are doing. And Russian state media has the nerve to say the Ukrainian armed forces are surrendering in droves and joining the Russians. It’s like Soviet
dezinformatsiya from the days of old, but the world isn’t buying it, though Russians who rely on Russian state news evidently are.
Lavrov should be bluntly confronted tomorrow by the West as ambassador Zorin was during the Cuban missile crisis about his lies about no missile in Cuba.
I believe the Ukrainian Navy stationed at the Black Sea basically came out and called Putin a liar yesterday officially for saying the masked men with machine guns, r.p.g.s, armoured vehicles surrounding them are just local self-defense units. How is Putin not lying? How is Russian foreign minister Lavrov not lying when he repeats Putin’s, ahem, explanation?
Putin is busing in people from Russia proper to places like Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine to tear down Ukrainian flags and raise Russian ones, completely destabilizing the situation. As I said yesterday, most Eastern Ukrainians realize they are part of Ukraine. Chants of “Russia, Russia” or “Putin, Putin” have never really been heard in Eastern Ukraine before until all these buses of people from Russia started arriving in Donetsk and Kharkiv and Odesa.
Of course Yanukovych was Putin’s man. Putin really doesn’t care how immoral the leader of a foreign neighboring country is, as long as he remains subservient to him.
It’s like some commentator said on TV today, Putin is a bully with thin skin, and these are the worst bullies in my opinion because they act on instinct and are easily insulted (which is why Putin doesn’t allow political comedy shows making fun of him on Russian TV). Putin may be a good tactician, but he is a terrible strategist and I am afraid that there is a real possibility of much bloodshed now, but God I hope not.
