Category: zerohedge

The Eastern Ukrainians Are Revolting

It is hardly surprising, given the drastically divided nation, that when Vitali Klitschko's pro-European political party ventured to Kerch – a city of the eastern edge of Ukraine in the Crimea region – things did not go entirely according to plan… This is the region that Russia has stated it is willing to go to war over and is deep in the pro-Russia territory… headlines galore are coming out of Ukraine but all that matters now is the Russian response…

 

Especially after Tymoshenko's earlier comments:

  • *TYMOSHENKO URGES PROTESTERS TO STAY IN INDEPENDENCE SQUARE
  • *UKRAINIANS OBLIGED TO BRING YANUKOVYCH BACK TO KIEV: TYMOSHENKO
  • *TYMOSHENKO: UKRAINE MAY BRING CHANGES IN OTHER EX-SOVIET STATES
  • *TYMOSHENKO: UKRAINE WILL HELP OTHER COUNTRIES UNDER `DICTATORS'

 

 

A EuroMaidan meeting does not go quite as planned in the east/west of Ukraine…

 

As is clear from this map – the nation is desparately divided (Kerch is on the eastern corner of the Crimea peninsula at the bottom on the map)…

 

As Russia warned before…

"If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war,” the official said. “They will lose Crimea first [because] we will go in and protect [it], just as we did in Georgia.” In August 2008, Russian troops invaded Georgia after the Georgian military launched a surprise attack on the separatist region of South Ossetia in an effort to establish its dominance over the republic.

 

…

 

The brief conflict with Georgia pitted Russia indirectly against the US and Nato, which had earlier tried to put Georgia on a path to Nato membership. The Kremlin regards the Georgian conflict as the biggest stand-off between Russia and the west since the end of the Cold War and it has fed determination in Moscow to push back against what it believes to be western attempts to contain Russia.

 

…

 

The warning of a similar scenario comes because Ukraine’s civil conflict has fanned tension in Crimea. On the peninsula, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea where Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is stationed, ethnic Russians make up almost 60 per cent of the population, with Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars accounting for the rest.

 

…

 

Volodymyr Konstantinov, speaker of Crimea’s parliament, said on Thursday that the region might try to secede from Ukraine if the country split. “It is possible, if the country breaks apart,” he told the Russian news agency Interfax. “And everything is moving towards that.” Russian media also quoted him as saying Crimeans might turn to Russia for protection.

Some humor might help…

 

But it's pretty clear who they blame…


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1p9Futp Tyler Durden

As Facebook’s $19 Billion Whatsapp Purchase Crashes (And May Be Hacked), Its Competitor Is Exploding

Update: after 3 or so hours of downtime, Whatsapp is Backapp. For now.

It has been an inauspicious beginning for the most ridiculous internet purchase since the last dot com bubble – Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of Whatsapp. Several hours ago, Whatsapp left its 400+ million users (each of which cost Facebook almost $50) in the dark, after the service went offline and has yet to provide a reason for the crash.

The only status update released by Whatsapp was the following tweet:

One would think $19 billion buys some grammar lessons…

So while Facebook’s newly acquired subs are scrambling to figure out why they cant send a text message halfway around the world for free, and are considering using the iMessenger service, which would also achieve the same result, also for free, one well known hacking group, Anonymous, has implied it may be involved in the crash.

Needless to say, adding insult to corporate sellout inury for Whatsapp’s users would be a Snapchat like hacking which exposes millions of crotchshots for all to see. Which perhaps explains why while Whatsapp is scrambling to get back up, one clear winner has already emerged: Telegram (based in Berlin, Germany) is getting 100 new registrations…PER second!

At this pace, and assuming there are greater than Facebook fools out there, it will be worth over $1 trillion in mere months.

And now back to the regularly scheduled lessons in barriers to entry. And lack thereof.


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1hFJKQp Tyler Durden

As Facebook's $19 Billion Whatsapp Purchase Crashes (And May Be Hacked), Its Competitor Is Exploding

Update: after 3 or so hours of downtime, Whatsapp is Backapp. For now.

It has been an inauspicious beginning for the most ridiculous internet purchase since the last dot com bubble – Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of Whatsapp. Several hours ago, Whatsapp left its 400+ million users (each of which cost Facebook almost $50) in the dark, after the service went offline and has yet to provide a reason for the crash.

The only status update released by Whatsapp was the following tweet:

One would think $19 billion buys some grammar lessons…

So while Facebook’s newly acquired subs are scrambling to figure out why they cant send a text message halfway around the world for free, and are considering using the iMessenger service, which would also achieve the same result, also for free, one well known hacking group, Anonymous, has implied it may be involved in the crash.

Needless to say, adding insult to corporate sellout inury for Whatsapp’s users would be a Snapchat like hacking which exposes millions of crotchshots for all to see. Which perhaps explains why while Whatsapp is scrambling to get back up, one clear winner has already emerged: Telegram (based in Berlin, Germany) is getting 100 new registrations…PER second!

At this pace, and assuming there are greater than Facebook fools out there, it will be worth over $1 trillion in mere months.

And now back to the regularly scheduled lessons in barriers to entry. And lack thereof.


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1hFJKQp Tyler Durden

Smoking Cigars By A Mountain Of Napalm

Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog,

I need to caveat this missive and highlight that I am not a pessimistic person. I’ve traveled to so many places over the years– well over 100 countries. And I typically visit 30-40 each year.

So I’ve seen first hand the tremendous opportunity that exists in the world, and the incredible way that human beings innovate to overcome challenges.

But the reality is that the world is on fire right now. In some places, like Ukraine or Thailand, quite literally.

In many others (like Japan, China, and much of southern Europe), there are heaps of smoldering embers beneath a continent-wide funeral pyre.

And in the Land of the Free, it’s as if politicians and central bankers are smoking their back-room cigars at the foot of a mountain of napalm and thermite that grows ever-higher by the day.

If you step back and look at the big picture, there is cause for concern.

For one, the tiniest elite has achieved record wealth thanks to the endless money printing of central bankers. The richest 300 people in the world alone addded $524 billion to their fortunes in 2013, while billions of other people across the planet pay higher prices for food and fuel.

This gap between rich and poor has grown to its widest since the Great Depression… and I would argue in many ways since the feudal system.

Obviously this isn’t a tirade against wealth, but rather the massively disproportionate benefits realized by a tiny elite at the expense of everyone else. And it exists because there is no separation between Bank and State. As Henry Ford said,

“It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

Well, it’s happening. People might not fully understand how central banking works. But they know there is something very rotten in the system.

And they’re starting to realize that it doesn’t have anything to do with a single party, or an individual. Even in the Land of the Free, more voters than ever are disgusted by both parties and identify with neither.

This is fundamentally what’s happening in Ukraine. People understand the system is rotten to its core– that a band of criminals has taken control, and that ‘elections’ will only serve to put a new band of criminals in control.

It is precisely what will likely play out in southern Europe, where unemployment among the youth (i.e. those of revolutionary age) is astoundingly high. And potentially even in the Land of the Free.

It’s an uncomfortable and contentious notion, I know. But this rotten system is fundamentally the same in the developed west. The only difference is there is even more debt underpinning it.

Every living creature has a breaking point. It is in our instincts to rise up when threatened.

And rather than watching these kinds of events unfold on TV thinking, “That could never happen here,” I would suggest looking at the situation rationally, and historically. Many great civilizations before arrogantly assumed the same thing.

So the question to ask is, “Am I prepared if this kind of turmoil ever comes to my doorstep?”


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1dgJfVq Tyler Durden

World’s Most Notorious Drug-Lord – Billionaire Mexican Cartel Boss “El Chapo” – Captured

The world’s most notorious and powerful drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, has reportedly been captured in Mexico. The head of the Sinoloa Cartel – nicknamed Chapo or "shorty" – was caught last night, according to the AP, at a hotel resort in Mazatlan in a joint US-Mexico operation. Forbes ranked Guzman 67 out of 72 on their list of the World’s Most Powerful People. With revenues believed to exceed $3bn, his Sinaloa cartel is easily the most powerful in Mexico, responsible for an estimated 25% of all illegal drugs that enter the U.S. via Mexico. While this may appear good news (catching a big bad guy), Stratfor warns "this could spark a wave of violence throughout northwestern Mexico if internal shifts evolve into intra-cartel conflict."

 

Via Forbes,

In 2011, Forbes writer Nathan Vardi reported on how the kingpin had surpassed Pablo Escobar to become the biggest ever. “Chapo has a vast criminal enterprise and he has become the leading drug trafficker of all time,” a senior U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official told Forbes. “He is the godfather of the drug world.”

 

Last February the city of Chicago branded him the first “Public Enemy No. 1″ since Al Capone.

 

…

 

Will another stint in prison really bring the end of El Chapo? It didn’t before. During his previous eight years in the clink Guzman continued to manage his cartel via cell phone, while enjoying access to booze, women and a home entertainment system. It was in January 2001, when facing extradition to the U.S., that he slipped into a laundry cart and was rolled out to freedom.

 

Via Stratfor,

The Mexican military and U.S. authorities captured a top leader of the Sinaloa Federation, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, in an unnamed hotel in Mazatlan, Sinaloa state, sometime during the night of Feb. 21. Guzman, who has long eluded authorities, faces several federal drug trafficking indictments and is on the Drug Enforcement Administration's most-wanted list. Reportedly, the hotel had been under surveillance for five weeks prior to the arrest, but Guzman had arrived in Mazatlan only days earlier, fleeing military operations in Culiacan.

 

El Chapo was partly responsible for the expansion of the Sinaloa Federation into the territories of rival Mexican transnational criminal organizations, commonly referred to as cartels. He also helped oversee the expansion of Sinaloa Federation operations beyond Mexico, most notably drug trafficking routes into Europe and Asia. Since December, however, the Sinaloa Federation has suffered from a series of substantial arrests, impacting the cartel wing led by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia. The cartel has also faced rising challenges in its areas of operations by regional crime networks as well as other transnational criminal organizations. The tempo and success of operations targeting top Sinaloa Federation leaders will severely hamper the cartel's ability to defend its operations in northwestern Mexico, possibly leading to substantial violence in several areas as rival criminal organizations seek to exploit the cartel's new vulnerabilities.

 

Like most of Mexico's major transnational criminal organizations, the Sinaloa Federation is led by a collection of crime bosses, each with their own network, operating under a common banner. In addition to Guzman, other notable top-tier leaders include Zambada and Juan Jose "El Azul" Esparragoza Moreno. These  leaders guide the Sinaloa Federation's overall strategy and activity throughout Mexico, as well as its transnational operations. With Guzman now in custody, the remaining top bosses, along with several less-prominent leaders, will look to maintain the Sinaloa Federation's control over Guzman's network. This could spark a wave of violence throughout northwestern Mexico if internal shifts evolve into intra-cartel conflict.

 

A more likely source of violence — one that could occur alongside an internal Sinaloa Federation feud — would be a push by the Sinaloa Federation's rivals for control over drug trafficking operations in current Sinaloa Federation territories, including Baja California, Sonora, Durango, Chihuahua, and Sinaloa states. Should Guzman's arrest effectively create opportunities for rivals to pursue territorial gains at the expense of the Sinaloa Federation, Stratfor would expect to see an increase in inter-cartel violence on some scale, as well as a military response to contain or even preempt possible violence, in any area of the aforementioned states.

The last image – from 1993 – of the drug lord… (doesn't look so tough?! 😉

 

and his gun…


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1grTwjJ Tyler Durden

World's Most Notorious Drug-Lord – Billionaire Mexican Cartel Boss "El Chapo" – Captured

The world’s most notorious and powerful drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, has reportedly been captured in Mexico. The head of the Sinoloa Cartel – nicknamed Chapo or "shorty" – was caught last night, according to the AP, at a hotel resort in Mazatlan in a joint US-Mexico operation. Forbes ranked Guzman 67 out of 72 on their list of the World’s Most Powerful People. With revenues believed to exceed $3bn, his Sinaloa cartel is easily the most powerful in Mexico, responsible for an estimated 25% of all illegal drugs that enter the U.S. via Mexico. While this may appear good news (catching a big bad guy), Stratfor warns "this could spark a wave of violence throughout northwestern Mexico if internal shifts evolve into intra-cartel conflict."

 

Via Forbes,

In 2011, Forbes writer Nathan Vardi reported on how the kingpin had surpassed Pablo Escobar to become the biggest ever. “Chapo has a vast criminal enterprise and he has become the leading drug trafficker of all time,” a senior U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official told Forbes. “He is the godfather of the drug world.”

 

Last February the city of Chicago branded him the first “Public Enemy No. 1″ since Al Capone.

 

…

 

Will another stint in prison really bring the end of El Chapo? It didn’t before. During his previous eight years in the clink Guzman continued to manage his cartel via cell phone, while enjoying access to booze, women and a home entertainment system. It was in January 2001, when facing extradition to the U.S., that he slipped into a laundry cart and was rolled out to freedom.

 

Via Stratfor,

The Mexican military and U.S. authorities captured a top leader of the Sinaloa Federation, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, in an unnamed hotel in Mazatlan, Sinaloa state, sometime during the night of Feb. 21. Guzman, who has long eluded authorities, faces several federal drug trafficking indictments and is on the Drug Enforcement Administration's most-wanted list. Reportedly, the hotel had been under surveillance for five weeks prior to the arrest, but Guzman had arrived in Mazatlan only days earlier, fleeing military operations in Culiacan.

 

El Chapo was partly responsible for the expansion of the Sinaloa Federation into the territories of rival Mexican transnational criminal organizations, commonly referred to as cartels. He also helped oversee the expansion of Sinaloa Federation operations beyond Mexico, most notably drug trafficking routes into Europe and Asia. Since December, however, the Sinaloa Federation has suffered from a series of substantial arrests, impacting the cartel wing led by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia. The cartel has also faced rising challenges in its areas of operations by regional crime networks as well as other transnational criminal organizations. The tempo and success of operations targeting top Sinaloa Federation leaders will severely hamper the cartel's ability to defend its operations in northwestern Mexico, possibly leading to substantial violence in several areas as rival criminal organizations seek to exploit the cartel's new vulnerabilities.

 

Like most of Mexico's major transnational criminal organizations, the Sinaloa Federation is led by a collection of crime bosses, each with their own network, operating under a common banner. In addition to Guzman, other notable top-tier leaders include Zambada and Juan Jose "El Azul" Esparragoza Moreno. These  leaders guide the Sinaloa Federation's overall strategy and activity throughout Mexico, as well as its transnational operations. With Guzman now in custody, the remaining top bosses, along with several less-prominent leaders, will look to maintain the Sinaloa Federation's control over Guzman's network. This could spark a wave of violence throughout northwestern Mexico if internal shifts evolve into intra-cartel conflict.

 

A more likely source of violence — one that could occur alongside an internal Sinaloa Federation feud — would be a push by the Sinaloa Federation's rivals for control over drug trafficking operations in current Sinaloa Federation territories, including Baja California, Sonora, Durango, Chihuahua, and Sinaloa states. Should Guzman's arrest effectively create opportunities for rivals to pursue territorial gains at the expense of the Sinaloa Federation, Stratfor would expect to see an increase in inter-cartel violence on some scale, as well as a military response to contain or even preempt possible violence, in any area of the aforementioned states.

The last image – from 1993 – of the drug lord… (doesn't look so tough?! 😉

 

and his gun…


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1grTwjJ Tyler Durden

Did Ukraine’s Ousted President Yanukovych Just Disappear?

Having already fled Kiev and his compound for the more hospitable eastern are of Ukraine, perhaps it was Tymoshenko’s comment that…

  • *UKRAINIANS OBLIGED TO BRING YANUKOVYCH BACK TO KIEV: TYMOSHENKO

…that was the final straw. Interfax is reporting that, for now, Customs have lost rack of the deposed leader…

  • *UKRAINE CUSTOMS SVC STOPPED DEPARTURE OF PRESIDENT’S PLANE: IFX
  • *UKRAINE CUSTOMS SVC SAYS YANUKOVYCH LEFT AIRPORT IN CAR: IFX
  • *YANUKOVYCH HASN’T SHOWN UP AT OTHER CHECKPOINT: CUSTOMS TO IFX

Cue – webcams at Moscow International…

This follows the earlier capture of another cabinet member trying to cross the border:

  • *UKRAINE EX-INT MIN CAUGHT TRYING TO FLEE BY BORDER SERVICE: IFX
  • *UKRAINE BORDER SERVICE SAYS CAUGHT MINISTER ZAKHARCHENKO: IFX


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1dgwfPr Tyler Durden

Did Ukraine's Ousted President Yanukovych Just Disappear?

Having already fled Kiev and his compound for the more hospitable eastern are of Ukraine, perhaps it was Tymoshenko’s comment that…

  • *UKRAINIANS OBLIGED TO BRING YANUKOVYCH BACK TO KIEV: TYMOSHENKO

…that was the final straw. Interfax is reporting that, for now, Customs have lost rack of the deposed leader…

  • *UKRAINE CUSTOMS SVC STOPPED DEPARTURE OF PRESIDENT’S PLANE: IFX
  • *UKRAINE CUSTOMS SVC SAYS YANUKOVYCH LEFT AIRPORT IN CAR: IFX
  • *YANUKOVYCH HASN’T SHOWN UP AT OTHER CHECKPOINT: CUSTOMS TO IFX

Cue – webcams at Moscow International…

This follows the earlier capture of another cabinet member trying to cross the border:

  • *UKRAINE EX-INT MIN CAUGHT TRYING TO FLEE BY BORDER SERVICE: IFX
  • *UKRAINE BORDER SERVICE SAYS CAUGHT MINISTER ZAKHARCHENKO: IFX


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1dgwfPr Tyler Durden

All Drugged Up: The Overmedication And Overschooling Of Today’s Youth

Submitted by Logan Allbright via the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada,

What are we going to do about those little monsters called children? They won’t be quiet, won’t sit still and won’t pay attention. They aren’t succeeding in school, and no matter how many drugs we pump into them, they don’t seem to get any better.

To the surprise of no one, a new study has just been released showing that the staggeringly popular prescription drug Adderall is not having any positive effects on children’s grades, and in fact may be causing more kids to drop out of school.

The finding should have been obvious, but don’t expect inattentive parents to stop buying the drug, and don’t expect greedy psychiatrists to stop handing them out like candy – for a hefty price.

The overmedication of our children is an increasingly troubling trend. We seem to think kids should behave like robots, always doing what they are told, when they are told, with no independence of thought or action. Any sign of resistance to indoctrination or disobedience of authority is diagnosed as some form of “disorder” and promptly treated with strong, dangerous drugs.

When I was in college, Adderall was the go-to drug for privileged rich kids trying to pull all-nighters for classes they had been too lazy to study for. It was a regular practice for students to announce “I’m going to see my shrink. Who needs what?” then return with a veritable pharmacological cornucopia of mood altering substances doled out by unethical or incompetent “doctors.”

The effects of these drugs were frightening. They transferred relatively normal undergraduates into hyperactive speed-freaks. And while the pills certainly kept students awake, concentration was the last thing they helped. I would be shocked if the presence of Adderall on campus improved a single grade, but it did cause alarming changes in behavior and personality, as well as apparently being quite addictive. And this is what they tell us we need to give young children.

If we want to know why children are failing in schools, the answer isn’t “lack of drugs” or even “psychological disorders.” Anyone who has ever been around a child should be able to predict the effects of cramming several dozen kids into a small, windowless room for six hours a day where they are made to sit still, pay attention and listen to the tedious droning of teachers pontificating on irrelevant subjects. This is not normal. This is not the way children are meant to be raised. In our desperate quest to compete with China and other Asian countries, we have come to believe that the secret to educational success is more rigidity, more control, and less freedom.

The problem is partially a cultural one, but it is also exacerbated by government attempts to meddle in education. No Child Left Behind, Head Start and Common Core Standards have all tried to impose top-down regulations on the way children are taught, as well as forcing them into failing public schools based on geography rather than the individual needs of students and parents.

Megan McArdle has a great article addressing this hyper-competitive fear of failure. We are so obsessed with the idea of our children ticking all the boxes – a good GPA, a high SAT score, a college education, grad school, work, marriage, kids, death – that we are terrified to allow for any experimentation or risk. The amount of pressure the average child faces today is insane. And when they don’t prove equal to it, we cram them full of pharmaceuticals at a time in their lives when their primary concerns should be climbing trees, catching frogs, and learning who they are as individuals.

Childhood suicides are becoming a major problem, and while the media has been attempting to put the blame on “bullying” – a phenomenon that has been around as long as there have been kids – few of us stop to consider whether the high-stress environment of modern schools may be contributing to the effect. Not to worry though! We can always just hand out another round of anti-depressants. What could possibly be the harm in that?


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1e4auXq Tyler Durden

Yulia Tymoshenko (Ukraine’s “Iron Lady”) Freed, Vows To “Run For President”; Addresses Protesters – Live Feed

Yulia Tymoshenko was the heroine of the 2004 pro-Western Orange Revolution in Ukraine. But, as DPA notes, the two-time former prime minister was convicted in 2011 of abuse of power in connection with a gas deal with Russia (detailed below).

 

This morning she was freed from prison in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine after parliament voted for her release…

  • *TYMOSHENKO LEAVES HOSPITAL WHERE SHE WAS UNDER GUARD: WEBSITE
  • *UKRAINE’S TYMOSHENKO GOING TO KIEV SQUARE: IFX CITES YATSENYUK
  • *UKRAINE’S TYMOSHENKO SAYS SHE WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT: ITAR TASS

and is set to address the protesters in Independence Square… (full chronology below)

The US is pleased:

  • *U.S. PLEDGES TO WORK WITH RUSSIA FOR `DEMOCRATIC’ UKRAINE
  • *WHITE HOUSE WELCOMES TYMOSHENKO RELEASE IN UKRAINE

Russia’s not:

  • Lavrov phones Kerry, blames opposition for Ukraine violence
  • KERRY VOWS TO PUT PRESSURE ON UKRAINE OPPOSITION – RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
  • LAVROV TELLS KERRY UKRAINE OPPOSITION CANNOT HONOR AGREEMENT

And ex-ministers are fleeing…

  • *UKRAINE EX-INT MIN CAUGHT TRYING TO FLEE BY BORDER SERVICE: IFX
  • *UKRAINE BORDER SERVICE SAYS CAUGHT MINISTER ZAKHARCHENKO: IFX

 

Live Feed from the square:

 

  • *TYMOSHENKO URGES PROTESTERS TO STAY IN INDEPENDENCE SQUARE
  • *`NOW UKRAINE IS A FREE UKRAINE:’ OPPOSITION LEADER TYMOSHENKO

 

Asked by crowds gathered at the hospital where she was released about her further plans, Tymoshenko said, “I will run for president,” news agencies reported.

 

She said she will “make it so that no drop of blood that was spilled will be forgotten.”

Via Deutsche Presse-Agentur,

CHRONOLOGY: Tymoshenko vs Yanukovych

A timeline of the Tymoshenko case:

— March 2010: Tymoshenko resigns after a vote of no confidence in parliament. Deputies accuse her of abuse of power and signing an overpriced deal to buy natural gas from Russia.

— June 2011: She goes on trial in Kiev. Supporters and opponents brawl in the courtroom and on the streets.

— October 2011: The court sentences her to seven years in prison. There is international condemnation of the verdict. The European Union calls off a meeting with Tymoshenko arch-rival President Viktor Yanukovych.

— December 2011: Tymoshenko is moved to a women’s prison in Kharkiv, 450 kilometres east of Kiev.

— February 2012: The opposition leader, complaining of severe back pain, is examined by German and Canadian doctors. They diagnose a slipped disc.

— April 2012: Tymoshenko begins a hunger strike in protest at her treatment by the Kharkiv prison staff.

— May 2012: A planned meeting of European presidents in Yalta is called off after several make clear that they will not be attending because of the Tymoshenko issue.

— June 2012: The Euro 2012 football tournament begins in Poland and Ukraine. Some European Union politicians decline to attend games in Ukraine.

— July 2012: The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg rules that Ukraine violated the rights of a jailed Tymoshenko ally, former interior minister Yuri Lutsenko, and orders Ukraine to pay damages.

— August 2012: The same European Court hears Tymoshenko’s complaint about her detention and prison conditions.

— January 2013: Tymoshenko is named a suspect in the long-dormant 1996 contract murder case of Ukrainian politician and businessman Yvhen Scherban.

— February 2013: EU leaders give Yanukovych a May deadline to show “tangible progress” on democratic reforms.

— April 2013: Yanukoych pardons Lutsenko, but says it is too early to consider pardoning Timoshenko.

— April 2013: The European Court of Human Rights rules that Tymoshenko’s pre-trial detention was unlawful but rejects her claim that she is being denied adequate health care.

— November 2013: Draft legislation that would have allowed Tymoshenko to leave Ukraine for treatment in Germany fails to get enough votes in parliament. EU politicans had made her release a key demand for an association agreement with Ukraine.

— November 2013 – February 2014 – Yanukovych scraps EU association agreement and takes up closer relations with Russia, triggering massive anti-government demonstrations triggered. In recent violence related to the conflict, at least 77 people – mainly opposition supporters – were killed.

— February 22, 2014: Ukraine’s parliament votes for Tymoshenko’s immediate release. Several hours later, Tymoshenko leaves the prison hospital where she was being treated for back problems headed for Kiev.

++++++++++++++

 

CHRONOLOGY: The conflict in Ukraine

Anti-government protests have racked Ukraine since President Viktor Yanukovych decided to put a planned association agreement with the EU on ice.

A chronology follows:

November 21-24, 2013: Kiev puts a planned association agreement with the EU on ice after the failure in parliament of a series of bills that would have allowed jailed former permier Yulia Tymoshenko to get medical treatment abroad. EU politicians had made her release a key demand for the association agreement.

November 24, 2013 Thousands of people demonstrate on Independence Square in Kiev. The opposition demands Yanukovych’s resignation.

December 22, 2013: At one of largest protests in years, half a million people im Kiev call for early elections. An initial meeting between Yanukovych and opposition leader Vitali Klitschko is unsuccessful.

January 17-22, 2014: New legislation curbs the right to demonstrate. 200 people are injured as demonstrators attempt to storm parliament. Klitschko warns of the danger of a civil war. Three people are killed in clashes between demonstrators and police.

January 25-30: Opposition leaders reject Yanukovych’s invitation to join the government. The government and the opposition agree on an amnesty for all demonstrators.

January 28-29: Prime Minister Mykola Azarov tenders his resignation. A day later, Russian President Vladimir Putin puts a planned 15-billion-dollar loan to Ukraine on hold.

February 4-5: EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton holds crisis talks with the government and the opposition in Ukraine.

February 19-21: At least 77 people are killed in several days of clashes between demonstrators and security forces. EU foreign ministers in Brussels agree on economic sanctions.

February 21: The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland broker an agreement between the Ukrainian government and the opposition calling for an interim government, a return to the 2004 constitution and early elections by December. Demonstrators on Independence Square continue to call for Yanukovych’s ouster. February 22: Yanukovych’s heads to Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine. Parliament in Kiev votes for the release of jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the impeachment of Yanukovych. In a televised address, the president refuses to step down. Tymoshenko leaves the prison hospital in Kharkiv where she was being treated for back problems and heads for Kiev.

 

Her release, however, hardly guarantees any stability:

As Martin Armstrong warns:

I believe the nation will survive divided for there is far too much resentment to simply put this all behind and walk forward. Divide Ukraine along the historical language faultline and there is a chance to calm things down. Otherwise, this will flare up and take others with it.

 

My position is consistent – ALL governments are only a necessary evil. They should never be allowed to have such power over the people for it will also be abused to sustain that same power. It does not matter what form of government – they are all the same.


    



via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1p8M1o9 Tyler Durden