Donetsk, Kharkov, Lugansk - way to Russia.

[galdur]

Anyway; the refugee business has been only partly exploited so far. As crude oil stays low huge opportunities are created in Nigeria, Lybia, Algeria and other African places. A million Nigerians arriving in Europe this year? What a beautiful picture. A third of young Algerians want to go to Europe. ISIS will drive Libyans over the Mediterranean. Seems very promising.

[galdur]

JAN 27, 2016 @ 02:58 PM 682 VIEWS

Russia Sanction Relief 'Will Be Massive'

European investors are waiting for the day, hopefully sometime in July, when Brussels axes sanctions on Russia.

“I don’t think lifting sanctions changes things in the short term for the Russian economy, but for investor sentiment it will be absolutely massive,” says Martin Charmoy, managing director of Prosperity Capital Management, a $2 billion investment company whose entire fortune hangs in Russia. “I know that there are funds that will not invest there so long as there are sanctions in place. They don’t want to be sanctioned for investing in a country that faces sanctions. When that risk no longer exists, Russia investors will be rewarded.”

BNP Paribas was sentenced to five years probation by a U.S. judge in April in connection with a $8.9 billion settlement resolving claims that it violated sanctions against Sudan, Cuba and Iran. A U.S. court in Manhattan ordered the French bank to forfeit $8.83 billion and pay a $140 million in fines for violating sanctions.

No one wants to be BNP. When the iron curtain of Western sanctions lift, investment firms will tip toe back in steadily.

Global investors, especially those in Europe that have close business ties to Moscow and St. Petersburg, have watched Russian stock prices remain cheap. The Market Vectors Russia (RSX) exchange traded fund trades at seven times earnings, the cheapest of the big four emerging economies.

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Secretary of State John Kerry was leaning a tad more towards Moscow than Kyiv. And in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has a lot on her plate. Mediating the bitter divorce between Ukraine and Russia and who gets to keep what piece of real estate (as in Crimea and the Donbass) are being trumped by the migrant crisis. Merkel is looking for a solution in Ukraine and her counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, is struggling to convince his parliament that Donbass should be allowed to vote. For Kyiv, giving Donbass autonomy is one step closer to watching it go the way of Crimea, which seceded from Ukraine in March 2014. The U.S. and European Union say Russia annexed Crimea by force.

“There have been clear signs of a ‘pacification’ process recently,” Simon Quijano-Evans, chief emerging markets strategist at Commerzbank told Bloomberg this week. “It does look as though all sides are starting to push more markedly for resolutions to the current geopolitical mess.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2016/01/27/russia-sanction-relief-will-be-massive/#b3f799f38e7b

[Nemo1024]

This is bad!

MYSTERIOUS VIRUS KILLS 20 UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS, SEPARATISTS BLAME U.S. LAB
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/mysterious-virus-kills-20-ukrainian-soldiers-separatists-blame-u-s-lab_012016

20 Dead, 200 Hospitalized After Reports US Lab "Leaks" Deadly Virus In Ukraine
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-25/20-dead-200-hospitalized-after-reports-us-lab-leaks-deadly-virus-ukraine

Amid the so-called "ceasefire" in Ukraine, yet ongoing shelling in many regions, the Donbass news agency reports that more than 20 Ukrainian solders have died and over 200 soldiers are hospitalized after an apparent leak of a deadly virus called "California Flu" from a US lab near the city of Kharkov.

...

More than 20 Ukrainian soldiers have died and over 200 soldiers are hospitalized in a short period of time because of new and deadly virus, which is immune to all medicines. Donetsk People's Republic intelligence has reported that Californian Flu is leaked from the same place where research of this virus has been carried out.

The laboratory is located near the city of Kharkov and its base for US military experts.


Information from threatening epidemic is announced by Vice-Commander of Donetsk Army, Eduard Basurin.

...

Leak of deadly virus in Ukrainian side was published first time on 12.1.2016:

    "According to the medical personnel of the AFU units (Ukrainian troops) there were recorded mass diseases among the Ukrainian military personnel in the field. Physicians recorded the unknown virus as a result of which the infected get the high fever which cannot be subdues by any medicines, and in two days there comes the fatal outcome. Thus far from the virus there have died more than twenty servicemen, what is carefully shielded by the commandment of the AFU from the publicity", said Basurin in daily MoD situation report.

And the day before yesterday, a village West for Donetsk was shelled by Ukros.


A find from the zerohedge thread:

Max Steel
Max Steel's picture

For the record

http://ukraine.usembassy.gov/dtro/btrp.html

Biological Threat Reduction Program

This project was initiated in 2005 when Senator Lugar and Senator Obama witness the signing of the Agreement between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the U.S. Department of Defense. Since that time, the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service and Academy of Agrarian Sciences were added as executive agents to the Agreement.

The three pillars of the Biological Threat Reduction Program in Ukraine are:

Enhanced disease surveillance
Consolidation of Especially Dangerous Pathogens into state-of-the art Bio-Safety Level III facilities (one BSL-III lab for human pathogens and one BSL-III lab for animal pathogens)
Cooperative Biological Research Projects

As of January 2013, the U.S. Government has upgraded Ministry of Health and Veterinary laboratories in Lviv, Odesa, Uzhgorod, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Simferopol, Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk, and Luhansk.

Upgraded Veterinary Lab in Lviv
New Veterinary Training Lab in Kyiv, Ukraine
New Diagnostic Lab at Zakarpattya Oblast SES, Uzhgorod, Ukraine
New Diagnostic Laboratory in Ternopil, Ukraine

This technical assistance project is registered with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

IdiotsOutWalkin...
IdiotsOutWalkingAbout's picture

Black & Veatch, as lab contractor, category    
    Defense Systems,
    Federal,
    Military Construction,
    Threat Reduction

  has at least one of these lab projects you may cross reference on their website.

http://bv.com/Projects/usdtra-bsl3-laboratory-ukraine

“Completing the construction effort under budget definitely exceeded our expectations,” said Doug Gorsline, DTRA BTRP Ukraine Project Manager.

Bradley Karn, DTRA BTRP Program Manager, added, “More important was the quality of the effort. Black & Veatch was able to renovate a decades-old facility into a state-of-the-art diagnostics laboratory that will become the nexus of Ukraine’s biosurveillance network.” (Note: My bolding, the part I especially love)

The BSL-3 laboratory was specifically designed and constructed to support work with especially dangerous pathogens that can be naturally occurring or introduced through a bioterrorism attack. It serves as a central location for research, consolidation and training on the proper handling of dangerous pathogens. The lab also provides the Ukrainian Ministry of Health a safe environment to confirm diagnosis of suspected dangerous pathogens, enhancing public health while deterring bioterrorism.

As integrating contractor, Black & Veatch is responsible to DTRA and the Ministry of Health for the full rollout of the BTRP in Ukraine. Black & Veatch is ensuring the mission’s success by training Ukrainian personnel in molecular diagnostics, biosafety, operations and maintenance, and laboratory management techniques. This training, along with three years of gradually decreasing sustainment and transition support, will provide Ukrainian scientists with the necessary resources to manage the BSL-3 laboratory and the Ukrainian biosurveillance system going forward.

[bitsmichel]

Where I live the scumbags in charge joined other NATO nutbags in those ridiculous sanctions. Then when the Russians made the counter-move costing us probably $100 million or more in exports, those idiots tell us that there´s no discount for international law. I just hope that they haven´t damaged trade with Russians permanently.

It´s amazing, we´ve always had great relations with the Russians and the Soviets and they throw it all away overnight to follow crazies that don´t give a flyin eff about us.

Where do you live? I always thought you were Russian 

[bryant.coleman]

Where do you live? I always thought you were Russian  

Lesson no.1: Not everyone having a dislike for the NATO and Obama is from Russia. Despite what your mainstream media claims, ordinary people in countries such as China and India hate the NATO more than anything else.

If I am not wrong, galdur is from Iceland. Nemo1024 is probably from Norway, and Balthazar is from Germany. I am from Singapore (part-Indian, part-Chinese, part-Scottish). I don't think there are any posters from Russian Federation active here. Most of them post only in the Russian language subsection within this forum.

[galdur]

Where do you live? I always thought you were Russian  

Lesson no.1: Not everyone having a dislike for the NATO and Obama is from Russia. Despite what your mainstream media claims, ordinary people in countries such as China and India hate the NATO more than anything else.

If I am not wrong, galdur is from Iceland. Nemo1024 is probably from Norway, and Balthazar is from Germany. I am from Singapore (part-Indian, part-Chinese, part-Scottish). I don't think there are any posters from Russian Federation active here. Most of them post only in the Russian language subsection within this forum.

Well, I usually spot the Russians pretty quickly. Their language is distinctive in that it lacks definite and indefinite articles and this tends to reflect in their English.

[Balthazar]

Their language is distinctive in that it lacks definite and indefinite articles

This is not quite right, since definite/indefinite articles do exist in russian language. It's quite interesting to know that, though they're not aware about the existence of either definite or indefinite article, a vast majority of native speakers uses them constantly.

[galdur]

Their language is distinctive in that it lacks definite and indefinite articles

This is not quite right, since definite/indefinite articles do exist in russian language. It's quite interesting to know that articles are used by a vast majority of native speakers, despite the fact that they're generally not aware of their true nature.

Maybe some people don´t use them very much. I don´t know, I´m not a linguist, it´s just something I spot.    Not that it´s something I specifically look for, I don´t care per se where people are from.

[galdur]

Anyway, if people think I´m Russian that okay with me, think I´m American no problem. I´ve never pretended to be either. 

[Balthazar]

Maybe some people don´t use them very much.

Simplest examples are И, Ѥ, Ѩ and TЪ/TO/TA articles from the ancient slavic language.

Some of these are still exist in modern russian language, but only in a "glued" form.

Ancient slavic / modern russian

дoбpъ и члoвѣкъ → дoбpый чeлoвeк
дoбpo ѥ дѣлo → дoбpoe дeлo
дoбpa ѩ cecтpa → дoбpaя cecтpa

Others are frequently used in a colloquial speech.

B кинo пoйдeшь?
B кинo-тo пoйдeшь?

Both questions are usually translated as "Are you going to the cinema?", but there is a little difference. The second question assumes that conversation is about particular movie theater, which was discussed earlier.

</offtopic>

[galdur]

Where I am most people don´t suddenly turn into enemies of Iraq or Russia or Lybia or Syria or whatever just because the government is in league with some foreign crazies. It is some kind of a mafia organization, you´re a member and you follow, no matter what. Or else I guess. If you´re not with us you´re with the enemy, you remember that line.

[Nemo1024]

Ukrainian military started tonight after 21:00 a massive artillery bombardment of Donetsk suburbs, including Petrovskij residential quarters:

http://tvzvezda.ru/news/vstrane_i_mire/content/201602120053-gief.htm

[af_newbie]

247crypto, could you please add a small summary at those links. I don't speak russian, but i do find the links intresting enough to know what is going on.

Local citizens of "Eastern Ukraine" blocks military send from Kiev government.
They are ready for secession from neo nazi maniacs in Kiev.

Odessa region talk about referendum for "federalization".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIfDAhS55EQ

http://rt.com/news/thousands-gather-eastern-ukraine-252/

http://rt.com/files/news/22/ba/c0/00/map.jpg

http://voiceofrussia.com/us/2014_03_14/Western-Coverage-of-Ukraine-Beset-by-Shoddy-Standards-6770/

Ukraine made a mistake by allowing ethnic Russians to stay in Ukraine after 1991.   They should have done what Estonia and other Baltic countries did,
force Russians to speak the new official language, force their kids to learn the official language or have a choice to leave the country.  Instead they allowed
to 'carry on business' as 'smaller Russia'.  Most presidents of Ukraine spoke better Russian than Ukrainian.  They were native Russians.

Now, they will have to give large portions of their country back to Russia.

Tragedy is that many Russians and Ukrainians would have to be re-settled.  Not to mention destroyed infrastructure and lost lives on both sides.

Russification done by Soviets was well done.  I think it will be better for the Eastern provinces to join Russia and stop this war.  In the end, what difference does it make what passport you hold?  You'll still be speaking Russian and live where you were born.

[Balthazar]

af_newbie
I'm sorry, but where did you find this nonsense?  

Russification done by Soviets was well done.

There was no russification, but there is a policy of forced ukrainization of russians, tatars, armenians, hungarians, romanians and even greeks by the soviet and ukrainian governments, which was ongoing since 1918.

Russians to stay in Ukraine after 1991.

These regions were parts of Russian SFSR, which were ceded to newly formed Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1918. People didn't come from Mars, they were living there for centuries.

force Russians to speak the new official language

So you are talking about ethnocide and ethnic cleansing, right? Should we also expel french speaking people from Quebec as well? This is exactly what is being made by orders of the current ukrainian "government".

They should have done what Estonia and other Baltic countries did

Believe me, Estonia and Latvia both will eventually respond for their crimes against humanity.

[Balthazar]

Some old news:

https://en.eadaily.com/news/2015/09/03/ruble-becomes-single-currency-in-donetsk-peoples-republic

Ruble becomes single currency in Donetsk People’s Republic

Russian ruble has been approved as the single currency in territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The announcement on it was published on the website of the Finance Ministry on September 3.

“Ruble is the only compulsory currency and the prices, tariffs and the budgetary payments have been re-calculated on the basis of the single currency,” DPR Finance Minister Yekaterina Matyushchenko said. At present, she said, ruble accounts for 92% of the DPR budget, while hryvnia accounts for only 8%.

EADaily reported earlier that DPR shifted to a floating rate of the Russian ruble (RUR) on September 3. For the time being, the exchange rate is as follows: 1UAH/3RUR. Earlier, a hryvnia cost 2 rubles. The multi-currency zone in the territory of the DPR was introduced to counteract the blockade announced by Kiev and to stabilize the economic situation. DPR Head Alexander Zakharchenko said the ruble rate was a “cohesive measure necessary to fill the financial market amid transition to the multi-currency system.”


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-15/the-central-bank-with-no-currency-no-interest-rates-but-atms

The Central Bank With No Currency, No Interest Rates, But ATMs

The Republican Central Bank has a governor, a couple of thousand employees and a glass-and-steel headquarters. It also has a bunker in its basement.

Here’s what the nascent, self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine is missing: a financial system. Absent from the central bankers’ toolkit are a currency and interest rates.

Set up 11 months ago, the fledgling institution is the first building block by pro-Russian rebels to manage the economy in the vacuum created by the war to break away from Ukraine. Dependent on almost $40 million a month from their patrons in Moscow just to pay pensions and on a circuitous transfer system via another Russian construct in northern Georgia, the Donetsk officials say they’re making progress.

“We are proud that our bank is working, that we made a processing center,” chairwoman Irina Nikitina, 47, a former chief executive officer at a local bank. She spoke in her office at a building the rebels took over from Ukraine’s Eximbank. “We built the system, we want to improve it.”

Back at the offices of the Republican Central Bank, Nikitina oversees about 2,000 employees, roughly equal to about three-quarters of the European Central Bank’s work force in Frankfurt.

The Donetsk entity acts more like a monopoly commercial bank as the aspiring policy makers learn the ropes. Her deputy, Yury Dmitrenko, said they mostly surf the Internet to learn about central banking mechanisms, using Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and European examples.

[Nemo1024]

Ukraine made a mistake by allowing ethnic Russians to stay in Ukraine after 1991.  

Soviet leadership made a mistake of creating Ukraine after 1917 and performing forced "Ukranisation" of the Russian population on those lands...

PS: Ah, I see Balthazar addressed this already:

af_newbie
I'm sorry, but where did you find this nonsense? 

Russification done by Soviets was well done.

There was no russification, but there is a policy of forced ukrainization of russians, tatars, armenians, hungarians, romanians and even greeks by the soviet and ukrainian governments, which was ongoing since 1918.

Russians to stay in Ukraine after 1991.

These regions were parts of Russian SFSR, which were ceded to newly formed Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1918. People didn't come from Mars, they were living there for centuries.

force Russians to speak the new official language

So you are talking about ethnocide and ethnic cleansing, right? Should we also expel french speaking people from Quebec as well? This is exactly what is being made by orders of the current ukrainian "government".

They should have done what Estonia and other Baltic countries did

Believe me, Estonia and Latvia both will eventually respond for their crimes against humanity.

[Nemo1024]

Ukraine made a mistake by allowing ethnic Russians to stay in Ukraine after 1991.  

Soviet leadership made a mistake of creating Ukraine after 1917 and performing forced "Ukranisation" of the Russian population on those lands...

You mean Ukrainian republic under USSR.  Ukraine first gained independence in 1991.

What other option they had?  Wipe the native populations all together?

The "native population" you are referring to are Russians/Rusins. I meant what I wrote - "Ukraine" as an artificial construct, promoted from the end of 1800s by various powers - Poland, Austria, Soviets.

[bryant.coleman]

Really?  I thought Ukrainians had their own language and culture.

Western Ukrainians and Eastern Ukrainians are different groups of people. The language which is known as "Ukrainian" right now, is a Galician dialect native to Western Ukraine. On the other hand, the native language of the Eastern Ukraine is Russian. They don't want to learn Galician, which is more similar to Polish than their own native language.

[Nemo1024]

Ukraine made a mistake by allowing ethnic Russians to stay in Ukraine after 1991.  

Soviet leadership made a mistake of creating Ukraine after 1917 and performing forced "Ukranisation" of the Russian population on those lands...

You mean Ukrainian republic under USSR.  Ukraine first gained independence in 1991.

What other option they had?  Wipe the native populations all together?

The highlighted statement above was not sounding true to me, so I gave it some thought. My conclusion: "Ukraine" is and was never an independent construct.

In a way, Ukraine was more independent within USSR, with the influential Ukrainian party apparatus, setting the tone of the overall politics of the Union; the soft Ukranisation of the Malorossian and Novorossian population that ended up in the Ukrainian SSR; and the mighty industrialisation of that part of the country.

Ukraine, by the time it got "independent" had the most powerful industrial sector, which over the last 2 decades got systematically destroyed, culminating in the final destruction of Yuzhmash last year and Antonov this year.

When you say "Ukraine first gained independence in 1991", what really happened is that the driving centre of the project for Ukranisation of Malorossia shifted to the new interested parties - this time in USA and Canada. Agenda changed a little and became more aggressive - echoing the ethnocidal and genocidal practice of the Austrian Empire during WWI and its concentration camps for the Russians/Rusins from Malorossia.

The strategy is still "divide and conquer". Those who don't want to get divided get destroyed - the burning of people in Odessa, shooting of people in Crimea, the wholesale murder of cities by artillery in Donbass.

Finally, English are very fond of translating regional names, so why not call "Ukraine" for what it is: "Borderlandia". A few centuries ago, Russian word "Ukraina" denoted the border lands not only West for Moskovia, but also to the East - Urals were also denoted as Ukraina. "Ukrainian" was not denoting a nationality, but a profession - a border guard.


Bryant, the short history of Ukrainian "language" - in reality a local dialect, to which a partially latinised alphabet was adapted, an then enforced by the Austrians - is quite interesting. I'll have a publication on that later.

The funny thing is: if Ukrainian is a language, then transferring this attitude to Norway, one must admit that Bergensian, Trondheimian, Stavangerian are all different languages, which have nothing to do with Norwegian.

[galdur]

Nemo, your Crimea article is in a Facebook group covering the sanctions, with a thousand members, which is a lot where I reside.