Russian troops have entered the small Ukrainian town of Sloviansk and, acting in the same manner as they had in the Crimea, occupied the city:
The city administration of Slovyansk has been captured by an army reconnaissance group of up to 30 people, who came to the city following a forced march. The soldiers’ uniforms and shoes were extremely dirty. These soldiers acted as a coherent military unit, they were armed with machine guns with grenade launchers of the kind not used by Ukrainian police. This must mean that these weapons couldn’t have been captured by them somewhere in Ukraine and had to be brought in from someplace else. (Translation is mine, the original is here plus photos.)
Putin is being very kind to Obama and orders the soldiers not to wear the insignia of the Russian army. This allows everybody to pretend that there has been no invasion, no Russian troops are present on Ukrainian territory, everything is peachy, and there is no issue to be addressed. “But if the people of the Donbass region want to vote to become part of Russia, then why shouldn’t they?” we will soon hear.
The mayor of Sloviansk is, of course, a former Communist Party apparatchik and is joyfully welcoming the invasion. It only makes sense for her to want to live in a country ruled by a KGB officer. At the link, you can see the photo of this nasty animal.
Putin, in the meanwhile, is still very kind to Obama and doesn’t call what is happening “a Cold War.”
The whole thing is getting beyond pathetic. And please don’t ask me what should be done now. After Putin was allowed to annex the Crimea just because he felt like it, it’s a little bit too late to ask this question. All we can do is get our heads out of our asses and simply accept that the USSR is back and the Cold War is back. naming the problem is the very first step towards solving it.
Clarissa's Blog 
At which point will Ukrainian army do anything, if ever? In some posts I’ve seen “we are the Western Ukrainians, who will stay Western, because we are from the other side of the river.” What about people on the second, closer to Russia side?
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What army? It was dismantled gradually since 1991 because of the insistence from the West. Two years ago, Yanukovich dismantled it pretty much completely. I believe, on orders from Putin.
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This is what western europeans (or western politicians in general) want, the dissolution of nationalism in favor of supranational non-ethnic based political aglomerations.
Obama (and the EU) won’t do anything because they basically approve of dismantling nation states.
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Cliff, suppose you are right… But why are the Western leaders so tolerant to the increase of the part of the world outside of this globalization they indeed favor? Do you think they are so bent on this dismantling of national states, for purely philosophical reasons, that they would support it wherever and by whomever it is done? What benefits will extended Russian Empire offer the West if West is interested in globalization?
My bet is on them just being impotent. But then I suppose that’s how those processes develop in democratic countries… Remember the WWII. Hitler was allowed to take over several countries which were related to Germans (Austria) or had significant German minority (Czechoslovakia). When he invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war, but actually did not do much in the beginning. I suspect if Hitler did not attack France, this “strange war” could actually last for years…
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“Do you think they are so bent on this dismantling of national states, for purely philosophical reasons, that they would support it wherever and by whomever it is done? ”
They don’t necessarily approve of what Putin’s doing, but they have so dismantled the language of nationalism that it can’t be used to justify preserving the territorial integrity of any country and there aren’t many other real reasons for Ukraine as a separate country to exist. The idea of a country having a particular national culture worth preserving within its national borders is bird language to Obama and the EU.
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Very interesting comment about Obama and the EU not understanding the need to preserve a national culture. I think there’s definitely something here. I need to think about this some more.
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This is a very interesting discussion. There is a possibility that both things are true: they don’t mind the USSR being reborn because they are inept and can’t find anything better as a model so they look to mythologized past being reestablished.
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Reblogged this on Oyia Brown.
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