2014 Ukrainian Maidan Revolt: News, Views, Photos & Videos

The main problem is the hundreds of individual opposition groups that the Canadian government and gas suppliers face whenever the idea of an Alberta pipeline is brought up. All this environmental concern and opposition is seriously getting quite petulant and highly oblivious to the potential economic gains, jobs opened, and regional security. Someday Alberta's oil and gas will be extracted, no question, and they will be transported to international customers, regardless of whether these people protest or not.

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Ukraine launches new offensive to rid east of rebel 'parasites'

Daily Telegraph - Ukrainian forces launched a new offensive against pro-Russian rebels in the east of the country on Tuesday after President Petro Poroshenko ended a ceasefire and promised to purge the region of “dirt and parasites”.
Both sides in the conflict reported clashes in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions bordering Russia.
“After the President's speech, the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation) went into action,” said Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkovsky. “We opened artillery fire, carried out air strikes at the strategic points of the terrorists and places where they are concentrated.”
In a televised announcement early this morning, Mr Poroshenko said he had given orders “to attack and liberate our land” from “terrorists, insurgents and marauders”.
Writing on his Facebook page, he added that, “we must be united, because we are fighting to free our land from dirt and parasites.”
Speaking to diplomats in Moscow, Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, said he and “European colleagues” had failed to persuade Mr Poroshenko that “the road to a reliable, strong, long-lasting peace does not lie through war.”
Mr Putin said Russia would “energetically defend the right of ethnic Russians, our compatriots abroad, using the entire arsenal of available means”, including “the right to self-defence”.
The Russian president added that “anti-constitutional overthrows and interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states” in Europe must be avoided – a comment that will bait Ukraine’s government after the Russian annexation of Crimea.
The renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine came amid intense negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany over a peace plan proposed by Kiev.
However, diplomacy appeared to have taken a back seat as fighting was reported in the towns of Donetsk, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk.
Oleksandr Turchynov, the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, told a morning session: “The separatists’ leaders have demonstrated their unwillingness and inability to control the actions of the terrorist units and marauding gangs under their control. Our armed forces are attacking the terrorists' bases and strongholds.”
Moscow reacted sharply to news of the attacks, saying it “regretted” the escalation, which, it claimed “did not occur without outside influence, despite the position of leading EU member states.” “We once again urge (partners) to stop using Ukraine as a bargaining chip in geopolitical games,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry also said that Ukraine “would have to answer” for civilian deaths in the east, including four people killed in a minibus taxi in Kramatorsk overnight. “We demand that Ukrainian forces stop shelling peaceful towns and villages and return to a real rather than a sham ceasefire in order to save lives,” it added.
Mr Poroshenko earlier blamed pro-Russian rebels for ignoring the ceasefire he announced on June 20th, and continuing attacks on Ukrainian positions.
Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister of France, said that France and Germany would continue to lead efforts to de-escalate the crisis.

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How Bulgaria fell victim to the tug of war over Ukraine

Under pressure from the West, Bulgaria halted construction of the Russia-backed South Stream gas pipeline – which played a role in the Bulgarian president's decision this weekend to dissolve the government.
By Kit Gillet, Correspondent JULY 2, 2014


SOFIA, BULGARIA — Ripples from the West's conflict with Russia over the fate of Ukraine are washing ashore in Bulgaria.

In the EU's poorest country, the government's plans to build part of the South Stream pipeline – a much needed job-creator – have been snared in the East-West geopolitical struggle. And the debate over the pipeline within Bulgaria, in combination with several other crises, played a role in the collapse of Bulgaria's ruling government.

Early last month, Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski announced that he was halting construction of the $45 billion South Stream gas pipeline through the country, under threat of punishment from the EU.

The Russian-backed pipeline – intended to run under the Black Sea and through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and Austria – would, when completed, supply gas to Europe. Bulgaria could expect billions of dollars in investments and thousands of new jobs from the pipeline, as well as guaranteeing its own energy needs.

But South Stream is also a political football in the fight between Russia and the West over Ukraine. Russia intends the pipeline, one of several linking to Europe, to bypass Ukraine entirely. That would give Russia a greater ability to control gas flow into Europe and to cut off supplies to one customer without impacting others, a tool that could have proven useful in the winter of 2008/09 when Russia halted exports to Ukraine, resulting in disruption for other European customers.

Fearing such leverage, both Washington and Brussels have brought pressure to bear against South Stream.

The EU has raised questions about the legality of how the contracts for the Bulgarian section were awarded, and whether the project violated European regulations. The regulations require different companies to be in control of production, transportation, and the supply of natural gas.

And the US is leaning on Bulgaria over doing business with Stroytransgaz, whose owner is on an American sanctions list issued following Russia's annexation of Crimea.

“We are deeply concerned with Bulgaria’s recent decision to award the contract for the construction of the South Stream pipeline to Stroytransgaz,” wrote Marcie B. Ries, the American ambassador to Bulgaria, in a statement last month. “We advise Bulgarian businesses to avoid working with entities sanctioned by the United States."

“This project had red flags all over it from the start,” says Ruslan Stefanov, director of the Economic Program at the Center for the Study of Democracy in Sofia.

Snowballing

Yet in many ways, this setback was only the start of the problem for the government.

After Mr. Oresharski announced the suspension of the pipeline construction, members of Bulgaria's opposition, as well as government ministers, came out publicly saying that he didn’t have the power to unilaterally block the project. Stung by this opposition, the already weakened prime minister had to reiterate his order.

Even then, Gazprom, the Russian partner, has said that it is continuing work on its part of the pipeline under the belief that the project is in line with regulations.

Last week the Bulgarian government sent a letter to the EU Commission saying it did not believe the pipeline violated any European regulations, but it could take months to clear up the uncertainty. And from next month an interim government will be in charge until new elections are held on Oct. 5.

“This project is pretty much frozen,” says Daniel Smilov, a political analyst with Centre for Liberal Strategies. “Nothing will happen on it until at least after the election, and even then it will rely on positive signals from Brussels.”

Grim times for Bulgaria

The South Stream debate comes at an extraordinarily bad time for Bulgaria's government. It has also had to deal with flooding in the east of the country that left a dozen dead.

To cap it off, two of Bulgaria's leading banks have suffered runs in the last two weeks, after customers received emails and text messages warning them to withdraw their funds before it was too late. On Friday, long lines formed outside banks in the Bulgarian capital and in other cities.

The conjunction of events led Bulgaria’s president, Rosen Plevneliev, to announce Sunday that he would be dissolving his country’s parliament in early August and appointing a caretaker government ahead of new elections.

However, that doesn’t seem to be enough to convince many in Bulgaria. Fresh lines formed at banks on Monday, albeit smaller ones.

“Normal Bulgarians long ago lost trust in all of our politicians,” says one Bulgarian in downtown Sofia who asked not to be named. “History is repeating itself from the crisis in the 1990s [when 14 banks went bankrupt]. Dodgy deals, banks collapsing, high unemployment, and also a feeling that the government is not giving us all of the information."

"I just feel numb about this situation,” he says.

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