Crimea

[bryant.coleman]

Well, Turkey ending up stuck between the Russians and the Kurds would be a fantastic outcome.

The Kurds control a vast stretch of land on the Syrian-Turkish border, but there is a large enclave on the North-West (Afrin) which is not connected with the main territory. They need to connect these two territories by conquering the Jarabulus-Manbij region, which is currently under the control of the ISIS. Two weeks of Russian air-strikes would do the job.

[Balthazar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hxw-1LeJ-o

 

[Nemo1024]

Tatar from Crimea Lenur Isljamov is one of the organisers of the blockade of Crimea. He organised an armed bandit group to this end. Turkish Ministry of Defence volunteered to provide armaments to this battalion.
Mayor of Sevastopol called this another stab in the back from Turkey, which once again shows its true colours:
http://regnum.ru/news/polit/2044652.html


And on to some good new. The official site for the construction of the bridge has been launched:

http://www.most.life/

[bryant.coleman]

Tatar from Crimea Lenur Isljamov is one of the organisers of the blockade of Crimea. He organised an armed bandit group to this end. Turkish Ministry of Defence volunteered to provide armaments to this battalion.

This is why I never trust these Crimean Tatars, although some of them claim that they are pro-Russian. In reality, there is a secret agenda among these people to merge Crimea with Turkey. None of them will talk about it in the open, since they are only around 12% of the population. However, once they become 30% or more, they will start terrorist activities inside Crimea.

[galdur]

Yes, they have their dreams...

[Nemo1024]

A bit old, but:

Erdogan Meets With Crimean Blockade Organizers: Naval Provocation Imminent?
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20151219/1032016827/erdogan-crimean-naval-blockade.html

Interestingly, only the Russian-language version of the QHA news story took the time to explain what was discussed. According to the article, the men spoke about the emerging "strategic partnership" between Turkey and Ukraine, prospects of a free trade area, questions surrounding the "civil blockade of Crimea," and "the formation of a military unit in the Kherson region," among other issues.

[Nemo1024]

A kind of auxiliary referendum - an energy one - has been conducted in Crimea. Before renewing a contract with Ukraine, Crimeans were asked, by Putin's request, whether they would want this contract continued. 93.1% of Crimeans responded no to continued delivery of electricity from Ukraine o Ukraine's conditions. The condition was that Ukraine specifies in the contract Crimea as Ukrainian territory.

http://www.tvc.ru/news/show/id/83929/?utm_source=news.yandex.ru&utm_content=RSS&utm_campaign=yandex

[xht]

Russia Plans Survey in Crimea on Ukraine Electricity Contract

MOSCOW — In an echo of the referendum in 2014 on whether to join Russia, residents of Crimea are being asked if they want to reaffirm their choice.

The catalyst this time is the power grid. The longstanding contract under which Ukraine supplied about 70 percent of the peninsula’s electricity expired on Thursday. Ukraine is willing to sign a new one, but only if the contract states explicitly that the Black Sea peninsula is part of Ukraine, the Russian minister of energy, Aleksandr Novak, said on state television.

Now President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has ordered a survey of Crimean residents asking if they want to accept such a contract — and if they want to reaffirm being part of Russia.

The contract demand could not be immediately confirmed by Ukraine. Ukrainian reports said that Ukrenergo, the state-run company that controls the grid, had declined to comment and that officials were unavailable.

In March 2014, Mr. Putin sent troops to seize Crimea from Ukraine and then hastily organized a referendum through which an overwhelming majority of the two million residents supported the idea of joining Russia.

But much of the infrastructure in Crimea is still dependent on Ukraine. Electricity supplies were curtailed in November after opponents of the Russian annexation, including members of the Tatar minority, blew up four pylons in Ukraine supplying power to Crimea. The damage was partially repaired, although new pylon problems caused failures on Thursday in Sevastopol.

The proposed public survey essentially will ask Crimeans whether to accept the Ukrainian wording in the new contract, and get a steady power supply, or to reject it and live with rolling power outages for months until Russia can establish an alternative source. The small survey was expected to be completed by Friday.

An initial link to the Russian mainland was connected in December, but it supplies only a fraction of the electricity needed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/world/europe/russia-crimea-ukraine-energy.html?ref=world

[galdur]

Coca-Cola has apologized for not including Crimea, the Kaliningrad Region and the Kuril Islands as part of Russia on its Christmas advertising map. The US company quickly re-issued a new map which included the three Russian regions on it. ...

​The incident was also noticed by Ukrainian politicians, some of whom said Ukraine should boycott Cola-Cola products for including Crimea as the part of Russia.
Ukrainian MPs Mustafa Nayyem and Oleh Tyahnybok said Ukraine should ban the activity of Cola-Cola in the country.
"Authorities! Immediately ban the activities of this American company in Ukraine, which de-facto recognized Crimea belonging to Moscow," Tyahnybok wrote on his Facebook account.   


Read more: http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160105/1032723513/coca-cola-map-russia-crimea.html#ixzz3wOjB1H2K

Yeah, good luck with banning Coca Cola 

[zenitzz]

Coca-Cola has apologized for not including Crimea, the Kaliningrad Region and the Kuril Islands as part of Russia on its Christmas advertising map. The US company quickly re-issued a new map which included the three Russian regions on it. ...

​The incident was also noticed by Ukrainian politicians, some of whom said Ukraine should boycott Cola-Cola products for including Crimea as the part of Russia.
Ukrainian MPs Mustafa Nayyem and Oleh Tyahnybok said Ukraine should ban the activity of Cola-Cola in the country.
"Authorities! Immediately ban the activities of this American company in Ukraine, which de-facto recognized Crimea belonging to Moscow," Tyahnybok wrote on his Facebook account.   


Read more: http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160105/1032723513/coca-cola-map-russia-crimea.html#ixzz3wOjB1H2K

Yeah, good luck with banning Coca Cola 

Coca cola rots your teeth, makes you fat, gives you diabetes and it is addictive,Only Satan would spread such a drink!

[galdur]

Coca-Cola has apologized for not including Crimea, the Kaliningrad Region and the Kuril Islands as part of Russia on its Christmas advertising map. The US company quickly re-issued a new map which included the three Russian regions on it. ...

​The incident was also noticed by Ukrainian politicians, some of whom said Ukraine should boycott Cola-Cola products for including Crimea as the part of Russia.
Ukrainian MPs Mustafa Nayyem and Oleh Tyahnybok said Ukraine should ban the activity of Cola-Cola in the country.
"Authorities! Immediately ban the activities of this American company in Ukraine, which de-facto recognized Crimea belonging to Moscow," Tyahnybok wrote on his Facebook account.   


Read more: http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160105/1032723513/coca-cola-map-russia-crimea.html#ixzz3wOjB1H2K

Yeah, good luck with banning Coca Cola 

Coca cola rots your teeth, makes you fat, gives you diabetes and it is addictive,Only Satan would spread such a drink!

Yeah, it´s crap but it´s a very powerful business concern that in this case at least doesn´t feel that it needs to take orders from governments about its promotional material.

[Balthazar]

Coca-Cola has apologized for not including Crimea, the Kaliningrad Region and the Kuril Islands as part of Russia on its Christmas advertising map. The US company quickly re-issued a new map which included the three Russian regions on it. ...

​The incident was also noticed by Ukrainian politicians, some of whom said Ukraine should boycott Cola-Cola products for including Crimea as the part of Russia.
Ukrainian MPs Mustafa Nayyem and Oleh Tyahnybok said Ukraine should ban the activity of Cola-Cola in the country.
"Authorities! Immediately ban the activities of this American company in Ukraine, which de-facto recognized Crimea belonging to Moscow," Tyahnybok wrote on his Facebook account.   


Read more: http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160105/1032723513/coca-cola-map-russia-crimea.html#ixzz3wOjB1H2K

Yeah, good luck with banning Coca Cola 

Coca cola rots your teeth, makes you fat, gives you diabetes and it is addictive,Only Satan would spread such a drink!

Addictive? I doubt that, to me it's no more addictive than a chocolate or tea. I've stopped drinking coca-cola without any problem. I have even forgotten what it looks like.

[galdur]

I think after the Russians have flushed all the terror vermin out of Syria back to Turkey and Saudi-Arabia where they belong, the Syrians will rename Tartus as Putingrad, even make it a Russian enclave similar to Kaliningrad. Maybe Coca-Cola will apologize in 2018 for missing it 

[Balthazar]

I think after the Russians have flushed all the terror vermin out of Syria back to Turkey and Saudi-Arabia where they belong, the Syrians will rename Tartus as Putingrad, even make it a Russian enclave similar to Kaliningrad. Maybe Coca-Cola will apologize in 2018 for missing it  

Russian Arab Republic?

[Nemo1024]

An article with a fragment of interview with Sergej Aksjonov, head of the Crimean Republic:
http://www.dni.ru/polit/2016/1/9/325062.html

In it he details the state of Crimean tourist attraction after many years under Ukraine. Ukraine never invested anything into tourism on Crimea [I can attest to it as I spent several summers in Crimea, while it was under Ukraine, and the state there was is if you returned to the 80s.] Everything was destroyed. Whatever could be stolen, was stolen. The state of the tourist objects was as if "Mamaj ran over them" [This Russian phrasologism harks back to the 300 years of occupation of Russia by Tatar-Mogol Hordes] - that is in complete desolation.

He said that 180 objects have so far been nationalised.

Crimea is currently actively prepares for the upcoming summer high season.

[Nemo1024]

Ukrainian tycoon who sued Russia embezzled accounts of 1 mln Crimea residents - Menyailo

http://tass.ru/en/politics/848516

On January 6, the court in the Hague started reviewing the claim of Kolomoisky and the Belbek Airport company against Russia

SEVASTOPOL, January 8. /TASS/. Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky has appropriated the bank accounts of more than 1 million residents of Crimea, said Sergey Menyailo, the governor of Sevastopol, a city and naval base in Crimea. The Court of Arbitration in the Hague is now reviewing Kolomoisky’s claim on protecting his property.

"Kolomoisky filed a lawsuit with the Hague court seeking the return of the infrastructure of Belbek Airport owned by him. However, he modestly forgot to mention that, while leaving the Crimea, his Privatbank took along the bank accounts of more than one million people the Russian authorities were returning to peninsula residents. In the Middle Ages Kolomoisky would have probably had his hands cut off for that, and in our humane days he is even trying to be in litigation (with Russia). Well, let him have legal proceedings!," the governor’s spokesman Kirill Moskalenko quotes Menyailo as saying.

...

Maybe the Hague court should review how he got his hands on the Belbek Airport in the first place...

[Nemo1024]

Poroshenko has announced a "road map" for annexation of Crimea by Ukraine - during the next two weeks they plan to start some court initiatives:
https://rns.online/economy/Ukraina-i-ee-kompanii-v-techenie-2-nedel-podadut-iski-dlya-zaschiti-svoih-interesov-v-Krimu-2016-01-24

Meanwhile in Crimea, they plan to resurrect The Yalta Film Studio, which was left in complete desolation after 2 decades of Ukrainian occupations. This will cost Russian budget about $80 million (according to Nikita Mihalkov's estimates):
http://www.natali.ua/culture/events/50260/

About Yalta Film Studio (in Russian)

A footnote: since 22nd of December of 2015, Yalta Film Studio (founded in 1917, recreated in 1922, though film "The Defence of Sevastopol" was filmed there already in 1911) is in the sanctions list of the USA. Presumably because it is now reconstructed and its goal to to combat the cultural isolation of Crimeans, which they experienced under Ukraine.

[Vika NSFW]

The incident was also noticed by

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1218579.msg13439775#msg13439775

[galdur]

Within the next two weeks, Ukraine will submit lawsuits to international courts in connection with the annexation of Crimea by Russia, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

I wonder how that will go. There´s probably an inconvenient precedent in Kosovo.

[bryant.coleman]

I wonder how that will go. There´s probably an inconvenient precedent in Kosovo.

The Serbian claim to Kosovo is much stronger than the Ukrainian claims to Crimea. Kosovo has been historic Serbian homeland since time immemorial.  The Muslims became a majority there only during the late 19th century. On the other hand, Crimea always had an ethnic Russian majority. The proportion of ethnic Ukrainians never exceeded 20% of the total population.