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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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01Mar14
Russian parliament approves use of troops in Crimea
President Vladimir Putin received permission from Russia's upper house of parliament Saturday to send troops to Crimea, responding to what he called a threat to Russian lives. The request was made and granted after what appeared to be a highly orchestrated series of assertions that were disputed by knowledgeable Ukrainians.
Oleksandr Turchynov, interim president of Ukraine, said, "We consider the behavior of the Russian Federation to be direct aggression against the sovereignty of Ukraine."
After approving the troop request, the Federation Council said it planned to ask Putin to consider recalling Russia's ambassador to the United States, to show displeasure over what it described as threats by President Obama over Ukraine.
The rapidly unfolding chain of events began Saturday morning after Crimean Prime Minister Serhiy Aksyonov asked Russia for help to ensure "peace and tranquility," saying that the government in Kiev was unable to keep order and citing the armed men in uniform who have been appearing on Crimean roads and installations.
Then the Russian Foreign Ministry asserted that "unidentified gunmen directed from Kiev" had tried to capture the Crimean Interior Ministry headquarters overnight.
"As a result of this treacherous provocation there were casualties," the ministry said in a statement. "With decisive action, the attempt by vigilante groups to seize the Interior Ministry building was averted. This confirms the desire of prominent political circles in Kiev to destabilize the peninsula. We encourage those who give such orders from Kiev to show restraint. We believe it is irresponsible to continue whipping up the already tense situation in the Crimea."
That account was disputed in Simferopol, the Crimean regional capital. Igor Aveytskiy, who was named by the Kiev government to serve as chief of Crimea's national police, said in an interview that "all was peaceful" at the building overnight.
The story line was different in Moscow.
There, a council of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, asked Putin to intervene.
"The deputies are calling on the president to take measures to stabilize the situation in Crimea," Duma chairman Sergei Naryshkin said, "and use all resources available to protect the Crimean population from lawlessness and violence."
Next came Valentina Matviyenko, chairman of the upper house, the Federation Council.
"Perhaps in this situation we could grant the Crimean government's request," she said, "and send a limited contingent there to provide security for the Black Sea Fleet and Russian citizens living in Crimea."
Then Putin made his request, and 30 minutes later a Federation Council committee approved it.
Ukraine's new prime minister, Arseniy Yatseniuk, called on Russia to refrain from provocation.
"We call on the government and authorities of Russia to recall their forces and to return them to their stations," Yatsenyuk said, according to the Interfax news agency. "Russian partners, stop provoking civil and military confrontation in Ukraine."
In a tweet, he also said that Russia is violating the terms of the agreement with Ukraine on its lease of the naval base at Sevastopol.
Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who helped negotiate a 1994 memorandum on Ukrainian territorial sovereignty, tweeted Saturday that there is "no doubt in my mind that Russia is violating its commitments." He also called the Russian move a violation of a 1997 treaty between Ukraine and Russia that includes the lease on the base, extended by both parties in 2010.
Earlier, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt tweeted: "Russian military intervention in Ukraine is clearly against international law and principles of European security."
Aksyonov, who became prime minister Thursday, belongs to the Russian Unity party in Crimea, which won about 4 percent of the vote in the last parliamentary election.
[Source: By Kathy Lally and William Booth, The Washington Post, Moscow, 01Mar14]
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