The main investigation department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has launched a pre-trial investigation in connection with the adoption by Crimean Supreme Council deputies of the decision to include the autonomy in Russia.
"The SBU's main investigation department has launched a pre-trial investigation under Part 3, Article 110 of the Criminal Code (encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine)," the SBU's press center

I think that we have come close to the collapse of the world order, which relies on the force of international treaties, multilateral and bilateral agreements. And the world today should first think about the fact that such situations can certainly be repeated in their territories if here, in Crimea, a barrier is not put to this lawlessness in terms of international law.

The resolution of the Supreme Council of Crimea to hold a referendum in the autonomous republic is illegal, Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko has said.
"The issue of a referendum is illegal, as the issues of changing the status of Crimea is not subject to review by local referendums – it is a matter for a nationwide referendum," he told journalists in Kyiv on Thursday.

WASHINGTON — In Moscow, especially in the not-so-good old days, the question almost always asked is kto vinovat: “Who is to blame?” The American capital now finds itself engaged in that very Russian exercise ever since President Vladimir V. Putin’s troops entered Ukraine.
Many on the right maintain that Moscow’s land grab is President Obama’s fault for pursuing a foreign policy of weakness. Some on the left contend that it is former President George W. Bush’s fault for invading Iraq and providing a precedent. And across the political spectrum there are accusations that it is the intelligence community’s fault for failing to anticipate that Russia would send troops to the Crimean Peninsula.
The who-lost-Ukraine debate eerily echoes the sorts of recriminations common during the Cold War, starting with the who-lost-China reproaches after Communists took power in Beijing in 1949, but this time fueled by 21st-century technology and flavored by 21st-century politics. On Twitter and cable television talk shows as well as in speeches, columns and congressional hearings, partisans have wasted little time trying to frame the crisis in Eastern Europe as an indictment of their political opponents.
As president, Mr. Obama naturally has absorbed most of the criticism, accused of being too soft not only in his dealings with Mr. Putin of Russia, but also with Syria, Iran and other rogue players on the world stage. The coincidental timing of his proposal to slash the Army to pre-World War II sizeonly gave additional ammunition to the hawks. And some made sure to put former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the cross hairs as well, recognizing her possible presidential campaign in 2016.
“This is the ultimate result of a feckless foreign policy,” Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said on the Senate floor, “The president has eroded American credibility in the world.”
Most provocative, perhaps, was Senator Lindsey Graham, who faces a Republican primary challenge from the rightin South Carolina. He traced the Ukrainian crisis to the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the envoy to Libya and three other Americans. “It started with Benghazi,” Mr. Graham said on Twitter. “When you kill Americans and nobody pays a price, you invite this type of aggression.” He added in another post: “Putin basically came to the conclusion after Benghazi, Syria, Egypt — everything Obama has been engaged in — he’s a weak indecisive leader.”
The White House fired back. “GOP criticism of Pres Obama jumped the shark today when they started saying Benghazi is one of the reasons for what is happening in Crimea,” Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser, wrote on Twitter.
The emerging critique has clearly gotten under the president’s skin as well. Without waiting to be asked, he rebutted the idea that Mr. Putin had gotten the upper hand. “I would also note just the way that some of this has been reported, that there’s a suggestion somehow that the Russian actions have been clever strategically,” Mr. Obama said Tuesday. “I actually think that this has not been a sign of strength but rather is a reflection that countries near Russia have deep concerns and suspicions about this kind of meddling.”
The case against Mr. Obama has been building for years. Critics accuse him of caving in to Russia by recalibrating plans for missile defense in Europe and focusing too much on trying to repair relations with Moscow. They point to Syria and the “red line” he warned President Bashar al-Assad not to cross by using chemical weapons as well as his failure to follow through with a planned retaliatory strike.
To White House officials, the weakness narrative rings hollow against a president who initially tripled troop levels in Afghanistan, escalated drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere, and ordered the strike that killed Osama bin Laden. Mr. Obama’s defenders note that Mr. Putin did not hesitate to go to war with Georgia when Mr. Bush was president.
But Mr. Bush has also not emerged from the current episode unscathed. Some liberals have said his invasion of Iraq made it hard for the United States to complain about Russia invading another country.
On her MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow said, “There is an awkwardness about the United States government trying to lead a response to international outrage to that violation when we’re only a couple of years out from our own near-decade of war in Iraq, which was a war that was, of course, also launched on a trumped-up false pretext.”
Chris Matthews, another MSNBC host, echoed that. “The same people who blew the bugles for us to invade that country, Iraq, are blowing the bugle because some other country, Russia, did something a little bit like it,” he said. “Well, the big difference is, need I say, the tens of thousands of bodies the Bush-Cheney crowd left in their trail.”
Mr. Bush’s defenders said it was ludicrous for liberals to keep trying to pin Mr. Obama’s own failures on his predecessor more than five years after he left office.
The debate played out on Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee. Representative Howard McKeon, the Republican chairman, said the Ukrainian showdown argued against Mr. Obama’s military cuts. “The president’s assumption that the tide of war is receding and that we can safely reduce American hard power in favor of soft power to assure our national security lies in stark contrast to reality,” he said.
Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top committee Democrat, rejected the argument: “Back in 2008, when we had a defense budget well over $700 billion and George W. Bush was president, Putin felt no limitation whatsoever on going into Georgia and essentially taking over two separate provinces.”
At a separate Senate hearing, Mr. McCain turned his fire on the nation’s intelligence agencies for not forecasting the Russian intervention. “The fact is, Mr. Secretary, it was not predicted by our intelligence, and that’s already well known,” he scolded Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, calling it “another massive failure.” Mr. Hagel countered that the United States had been “well aware of the threats.”
Some Republicans worried that their party was going too far. John Ullyot, a former Senate aide, said it was disingenuous to argue that weakness by Mr. Obama encouraged Russia. “Putin acts in his sphere when he feels the need to act, regardless of who’s in the White House,” Mr. Ullyot said.
Other Republicans were careful to modulate their criticism by not losing sight of Russia’s role. Speaking on CNN, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin shared the party’s assertion that Mr. Obama had “projected weakness” that “invites aggression.”
“But,” he added, “let’s be really clear who is to blame for this. Vladimir Putin is to blame for this.”
http://m.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/03/ukraine-is-this-how-the-war-on-terror-ends/284214/
Ukraine: Is This How the War on Terror Ends?
http://m.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/03/ukraine-is-this-how-the-war-on-terror-ends/284214/
Who is to blame? Obama is a 'weak, indecisive leader ...
Nuland is America’s top diplomatic official for Europe. Pyatt is the ambassador.

Secretary General of the Alliance Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
"It's for the Ukrainians to decide their future relationship with NATO," Rasmussen said at a press conference held following a meeting of theNATO-Russia Council on Wednesday.
At the same time, the alliance decided to intensify its partnership with Ukraine, and strengthen their cooperation to support democratic reforms, he said adding that NATO will step up its engagement with the Ukrainian civilian and military leadership.
In addition, the alliance intends to help build up the capacity of the Ukrainian military, including through more joint training and exercises. NATO will also do more to include Ukraine their multinational projects to develop capabilities, Rasmussen said.
The secretary general said this would add to the international efforts to support the people of Ukraine.
He said that he was to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk on Thursday.
Rasmussen also confirmed its decision made back in 2008 at the NATO Summit in Bucharest that Ukraine will become members of NATO, if Ukrainian so wish, and if they fulfill the necessary criteria.

Putin’s Ukraine Gambit Hurts Economy as Allies Lose Billions.
President Vladimir Putin’s brinkmanship in Ukraine has already cost some of his closest comrades billions of dollars. The other 144 million Russians may also pay a price.
Putin’s troop buildup in Crimea triggered the biggest stock selloff in five years on March 3. It also pulled the ruble to a record low, prompting the central bank to raise interest rates the most since 1998, when a cash-strapped government stumbled toward default. Longtime Putin ally Gennady Timchenkoand his partner Leonid Mikhelson lost a combined $3.2 billion of their wealth after their gas producer OAO Novatektumbled 18 percent.
“Russia will be the big loser of the crisis in Ukraine,” said Timothy Ash, chief emerging-market economist at Standard Bank GroupLtd. in London. “There’ll be a big hit to domestic and foreign confidence, less investment and likely increased outflows, likely losses for Russian banks with exposure in Ukraine, a weaker ruble and weaker growth and recovery.”
The tensest standoff with the West since the end of the Cold War is exposing the weakness of an economy rebuilt on the back of the energy industry. With oil and gas accounting for more than half of all exports and energy prices stagnant, the growth potential is all but exhausted, prompting officials in Moscow to sound the recession alarm even as the country’s main trading partners recover.
Troop Buildup
Russia needs a new, more diversified economic model to secure future expansion, Antonio Spilimbergo, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief in Moscow, said in a report last month. The $2 trillion economy decelerated for a fourth year in 2013 as consumer spending weakened and investment sagged along with demand for energy. Growth slowed to 1.3 percent last year, the least since a 2009 recession, from 3.4 percent in 2012.

Putin's Bluff...

Russia's Federation Council is preparing a bill that provides for the confiscation of property, assets and accounts of European and American companies, including private ones, should the United States decide to impose sanctions against Russia.
The author of the bill, the head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation, Andrei Klishas, said that the bill would empower the president and the government with such opportunities to protect Russia's sovereignty from attacks.
According to the official, legal experts currently study the issue to see to which extent such possible confiscation of assets and accounts of foreign companies, including public, private companies and individuals, complies with the Constitution of Russia.
Klishas also stressed out that the Russian authorities were confident such a move clearly met European standards. It is enough to recall the example of Cyprus, when confiscation was one of the conditions for the provision of assistance to the country from the European Union.
http://english.pravda.ru/news/russia/05-03-2014/127027-russia_sanctions-0/

Caught: Serbian Borko Ilincic, 33, is said to be a leader of the Pink Panthers gang
One of the leader of the infamous Pink Panthers gang of international jewel thieves has been arrested in Spain.
Borko Ilincic, a 33-year-old Serbian, was detained by officers from the National Police in the town of Alcala de Henares, just outside Madrid.
His hire car was stopped just after he left a hotel.
He now faces a life sentence in Dubai for a heist in a commercial centre in the Arab Emirate seven years ago, in which the Pink Panthers stole gems worth nearly �2.5million.
He is also wanted in dozens of other countries where the notorious gang have stolen jewellery worth over �116million, in more than 120 spectacular robberies.
Ilincic was travelling on a Bosnian passport using a false name when he was caught, the Spanish National Police said in a statement issued today.
The Pink Panthers, believed to be made-up of 200 ex-military personnel, mainly from the Balkan states, have been operating for at least 30 years.
In 1984, three machine gun-toting crooks stormed into the jewellery shop at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes on the Cote d'Azur and cleared its shelves of �39million worth of gems.
In May 2013 they were back at the same hotel during the city's famous film festival.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2557815/Police-arrest-alleged-leader-notorious-Pink-Panther-jewel-theft-gang-120-robberies-including-88m-Cannes-heist.html
Pink Panthers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Panthers

Ukrainian soldiers detain one of the "green men" unidentified soldiers. The guy is from Russian army, Yoshkar-Ola city. Name: Aleksei Medvedev. Invasion proved. Putin - liar.

The probability of Ukraine defaulting is minimal, as the country's currency reserves are still sufficient for the country's direct foreign obligations in 2014, and international financial donors are actively working on the issue of providing financial aid to the country, according to the strategic planning department of UniCredit Bank.
"Talk of imminent sovereign default resumed with renewed vigor, given the difficult situation in the country's state finances and foreign exchange reserves. Nevertheless, we consider the probability of such a development minimal," reads a statement sent to Interfax-Ukraine.
"The IMF, the EU and the United States are making serious statements about possible financial aid, which could greatly exceed the Russian anti-crisis package of December 2013," UniCredit Bank said.
According to the report, the country's domestic debt increased through placing government bonds, while payments to international institutions, particularly the IMF, facilitated the improvement of the foreign debt position.
The bank also calculated that the government in January attracted $200 million and UAH 3.7 billion on the domestic market. At the same time, the Cabinet in January repaid $220 million on foreign currency domestic bonds, $648 million on the IMF loan and UAH 2.78 billion on domestic bonds.
At the same time, according to UniCredit Bank, the government in February will have to repay UAH 544.9 million on domestic bonds, $200 million on foreign currency domestic bonds, and $366 million to the IMF.
In addition, according to the report, the program of the Ukrainian government could ensure that Ukraine quickly overcomes its economic crisis.

Turkey gives US Navy ship authorization to cross Bosphorus.
http://m.digitaljournal.com/news/politics/turkey-gives-us-navy-ship-authorization-to-cross-bosphorus/article/374516
A mere day after Turkish F-16s were scrambled to intercept a Russian surveillance plane near its air space, Turkey has given a US warship permission to cross its Bosphorus Strait into the Black Sea.
Turkey's Hurriyet Daily Newssays its sources have not given the name of the US warship. They have however said it is not the nuclear powered aircraft carrier U.S.S.George H.W. Bushas has been suggested.The 1936 ...
As reported here yesterdayTurkey -- a member of the NATO military alliance -- had scrambled eight of its F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighters to intercept a Russian surveillance plane which was flying along its Black Sea frontier.
This latest deployment of at least one US Navy ship into the Black Sea comes amidst fears that the standoff between the western power bloc and the Russian Federation over the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula could become more militarized and therefore more dangerous.
This writer pointed out last Septemberbefore the present crisis in the Crimea that Russian warships were crossing the strait very frequently throughout 2013.

Don't stop Putin as he makes mistakes in Crimea.
http://m.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2014/Mar-04/249137-dont-stop-putin-as-he-makes-mistakes-in-crimea.ashx
Napoleon is said to have cautioned during an 1805 battle: “When the enemy is making a false movement, we must take good care not to interrupt him.” The citation is also sometimes rendered as “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
Vladimir Putin made a mistake invading Crimea, escalating a crisis for Russia that has been brewing for many months. It might have been beneficial if U.S. President Barack Obama dissuaded him from this error. But Putin’s move into Crimea seems to spring from a deeper misjudgment about the reversibility of the process that led to the breakup of Soviet Union in 1991. The further Russia wades into this revanchist strategy, the worse its troubles will become.
The Russian leader’s nostalgia for the past was on display at the Sochi Olympics. As David Remnick wrote last week in The New Yorker, Putin regards the fall of the Soviet Union as a “tragic error,” and the Olympics celebrated his vision that a strong Russia is back. That attitude led Putin to what Secretary of State John Kerry Sunday described as a “brazen act of aggression” and a “violation of [Russia’s] international obligations.”
Kerry called on Putin to “undo this act of aggression.” The Russian leader would save himself immense grief by following Kerry’s advice, but that seems unlikely. His mistake in Sevastopol may lead to others elsewhere, though hopefully Putin will avoid reckless actions. But the more Putin seeks to assert Russia’s strength, the more he will actually underline its weakness.
Perhaps inevitably, given Washington’s political monomania, the big subject over the weekend wasn’t Putin’s criminal attack on Crimea, but whether Obama had encouraged it by being insufficiently muscular. There are many criticisms to be made of Obama’s foreign policy, especially in Syria, but the notion that Putin’s attack is somehow America’s fault is perverse.
For two months, Washington has prodded the European Union to take the crisis more seriously. I’m told U.S. intelligence showed Putin was impatient with pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych and wanted him to crack down more on protesters in Maidan Square. Putin’s distaste for Yanukovych has been obvious since the Ukrainian leader fled the capital a week ago.
What Putin misunderstands most is that the center of gravity for the former Soviet Union has shifted West. Former Soviet satellites such as Poland and the Czech Republic are prosperous members of the EU. The nations that made up what was once Yugoslavia have survived their bloody breakup, and most have emerged as strong democracies. Ukraine was set to join this movement toward the European Union last November when Yanukovych suddenly suspended trade and financial talks with the EU and accepted what amounted to a $15 billion bribe from Putin to stay in Russia’s camp. To the tens of thousands of courageous Ukrainians who braved the cold and police brutality to protest, Yanukovych’s submission to Moscow looked like an attempt to reverse history.
The opportunity for Putin is almost precisely opposite his atavistic vision of restoration. It is only by moving West, toward Europe, that Russia itself can reverse its demographic and political trap. Year by year, the Russian political system becomes more of a corrupt Oriental despotism – with Moscow closer to Almaty than Berlin. The alternative is for Ukraine to encourage Russia to move with it toward the West.
As former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski explained in a 2008 book, “If Ukraine moves to the West, first to the EU, eventually maybe to NATO, the probability that Russia will move toward Europe is far greater. ... Russians will eventually say, ‘Our future will be safest, our control over the Far East territories will be most assured ... if there is a kind of Atlantic community that stretches from Lisbon to Vladivostok.’”
Putin’s Russia may well make more mistakes: We may see a cascading chain of error that brings Russian troops deeper into Ukraine and sets the stage for civil war. Those are the kind of miscalculations that lead to catastrophic consequences, and Obama would be wise to deter Russian aggression without specifying too clearly what the U.S. ladder of escalation might be.
But Americans and Europeans should agree that this is a story about Putin’s violation of the international order. I’d be happy if we could interrupt Russia’s mistakes, but so far, Putin insists on doing the wrong thing.

In particular, these funds will be used to support the energy system of Ukraine.
The report notes that the aid will be provided to Ukraine to compensate for Kyiv's loss of subsidies for the purchase of energy.
In addition, financial support will be aimed at improving the skills of staff of the National Bank of Ukraine, the Finance Ministry and observers during the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for May 25.
with reference to unnamed representatives from the U.S.

G7 leaders to boycott G8 Summit in Sochi.

In a demonstration of support for Ukraine’s fledgling government and a new swipe at Russia, Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kiev on Tuesday with an offer of $1 billion in an American loan guarantee and pledges of technical assistance.

Amazing how he looked so entirely different, but more amazing how stupid he was to drive with what we call 'limo-tinted' windows that cops will always bust you for. Idiot should have also studied the law and had his story straight if he ever got pulled over. Ironic how somebody smart enough to embezzle 21 Million was dumb enough to have a 'bust me' sign on his truck with illegal tints, along with not having a straight story for cops when he was pulled over. Idiot.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A former Georgia bank director who left a suicide note and vanished while under suspicion he embezzled $21 million has been captured 18 months after he disappeared.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Aubrey Lee Price, 47, during a traffic stop on Interstate 95 near Brunswick, Georgia, on Tuesday after noticing the windows of his Dodge pickup appeared to be tinted too darkly to comply with state law, Glynn County Sheriff E. Neal Jump said.

Price disappeared soon before his indictment in Georgia on one count of bank fraud in July 2012 and left behind a written confession and a note for family and friends saying he planned to kill himself, authorities said.

When he was discovered earlier this week, he had several identification cards in his truck and failed to say which one correctly identified him, Jump said.

"The gentleman's story just didn't add up,"the sheriff said.

Price was charged with giving false information and taken to jail, where he told authorities his correct name, Jump said.

At a federal court hearing on Thursday, a U.S. magistrate judge ordered Price to remain in police custody until a detention hearing set for Monday in Savannah, court records showed.

A U.S. marshal told the judge that Price said he was homeless and lived as a migrant worker, accepting cash for odd jobs, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The bank fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Price previously controlled an investment group that put $10 million into Montgomery Bank&Trust, a small bank in Ailey, Georgia, according to the federal indictment.

After being named a bank director, he"fraudulently obtained over $21 million of MB&T funds, which he then misappropriated, embezzled and lost in speculative trading and other investing,"the indictment said.

In an effort to hide the fraud, Price provided bank officials with fabricated account statements, the indictment said. Regulators later shut down the bank's two branches.

He was indicted in New York last year on securities and wire fraud charges connected to the scheme.

Before his arrest on Tuesday, Price was last seen boarding a ferry in Key West, Florida, in June 2012. Investigators at the time speculated that he either committed suicide or fled to Venezuela.

The FBI had put him on the agency's"Most Wanted"list and continued to search for him.

Price's wife believed he was dead, her attorney said on Thursday. She asked a Florida judge to declare her husband deceased last year for estate planning purposes and now will seek to have the declaration set aside, lawyer John Holt said.

Rebeka Price does not know where her husband spent the last 18 months, Holt said.

"She's been completely in the dark,"the lawyer said.