Ukraina valde Ryssland före EU - stora protester som följd, länkar i inlägg2

If the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine fails to reinstate the constitution of 2004, Ukraine will lose its territorial integrity and national sovereignty, right-wing Svoboda parliamentary faction leader Oleh Tiahnybok has said.

"With regard to the constitutional reform, there are two options. Either 300 votes will go to law No. 4180 and the issue is removed, or we support the constitutional act put forward by the opposition. Otherwise, the loss of territorial integrity and national sovereignty, about which we have talked, will happen," Tiahnybok said at the evening session of the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday. Federalization of Ukraine was suggested by the Communist Party earlier.

The 2004 amendments weakened the power of the President of Ukraine; she/he lost the power to nominate the Prime Minister of Ukraine and this became the task of the parliament solely.[8] The President could only appoint the Minister of Defence and Foreign Minister.[8] The President also lost the right to dismiss members of the Cabinet of Ukraine but gained the right to dissolve parliament.[8] If no coalition in parliament could be formed to appoint a Prime Minister the President would have no choice but to call new parliamentary elections.[7]

The United States on Thursday was to press Ukraine to end its two-month crisis after Russia warned its economically struggling neighbour that it risked losing a $15 billion bailout deal from Moscow.

US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was due to arrive in Kiev for a two-day visit for talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition.---

Russia agreed a $15 billion bailout for economically struggling Ukraine after Yanukovych rejected the EU agreement.

Moscow has already transferred the first $3 billion tranche but warned on Wednesday Kiev risked losing the rest of the money.

Yanukovych is expected to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the opening of the Olympics in the palm-dotted Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday.

Ratcheting up the pressure, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Kommersant FM radio that Russia was awaiting the appointment of a new prime minister in Ukraine before releasing the $15-billion bailout package in full.

"Of course, it will take some time before the new Ukrainian head of government is able to explain to Moscow how much he intends to keep to the previously-declared course," Peskov said.

He also said Ukraine's gas debt -- estimated by Russian giant Gazprom this week at $3.3 billion (2.4 billion euros) -- was "growing very fast".---

"The political crisis continues," boxer-turned-politician Vitali Klitschko said in parliament on Wednesday as lawmakers failed to strike a deal on reducing presidential powers.

The opposition planned Thursday to picket the building of the Verkhovna Rada parliament where a new debate was expected.

---

The crisis has seen the Ukrainian hryvnia slump and one banker told AFP residents had begun to "panic" and were scrambling to move their savings into other currencies, while businesses have been exporting capital out of the country.

The hryvnia fell to 9.40 to the dollar during trading on the interbank market on Wednesday, from a rate of around 8.0 just last month.

"There is no political solution going forward so it's quite clear that the panic has started," said Dmytro Sologub, an economist at Raiffeisen Aval Bank.

Bulatov is one of several prominent activists said to have been abducted, and said his captors repeatedly asked him who was funding the protests. He said he had falsely confessed to having received $50,000 (36,800 euros) from a United States ambassador in an attempt to stop the torture.
"They cut my ear, I couldn't feel how much they cut off my ear. They took the piece of my ear and touched my face with it," he told reporters. "The only thing I wanted was for this to stop … I said whatever they wanted."

"On the last day they put me on my knees. They said, 'We are going to crucify you.' I was asking them to kill me because I was unable to stand this any more," he added "Some time later they came and put a bag on my head and took me somewhere. I was hoping my suffering was finished."
Bulatov flew to Lithuania for further medical treatment, and told news agency Reuters he would not return to Ukraine unless he received guarantees he would not be prosecuted.

To an important extent Ukraine has depended on Russian energy subsidies, debt forbearance, and labor market to help carry the social and economic burden of its independence. For over a decade (1992-2005) Ukraine received Russian gas supplies at a quarter to a third of the European market price, bought extra quantities and re-exported them abroad for additional revenues, saving and making billions of dollars each year. Ukraine’s industry and households relied on such discounts to survive in the long and arduous period of transition and socioeconomic dislocations. When president Yushchenko (2005-2009) began to sever ties with Russia and to pull Ukraine towards NATO, Russia began to reduce energy discounts but was still selling gas at 20%-30% below European prices.

Russia has also been a major source of remittances for the Ukrainian economy with 3.7 million Ukrainian citizens residing there in 2013, over 1 million of them illegal migrants,[1] with annual remittances in the billions of dollars, delivered not as official aid through government intermediaries, but straight to family budgets. Furthermore, Ukraine’s industries continue to rely on Russia for exports of a variety of industrial manufactures.

As his country’s economy and finances entered yet another crisis, President Yanukovitch has turned to both east and west. The most immediate and tangible response has come from Russia.

The initial $3 billion bail out from Russia was urgently needed to pay pensions and other social benefits, and government debt. Ukraine’s leadership has grumbled at the difficulty of securing a smaller, €600 million loan from EU and the multi-billion dollar package from the IMF. The latter has put forth familiar conditions – freezing pensions and other social benefits, laying off government workers, raising the energy prices for households and industry – a precursor to the sort of social and political explosion any leader would want to avoid. Apparently the IMF feels the people there can afford to tighten their belts even more.

Over the past few years, Ukraine’s leadership had turned to Russian and Chinese sources to provide over $20 billion in loans for the state and banking sector.

“Some people have doubts (about my abduction) because I didn’t have a beard while in captivity. But you see now that I have no beard and it’s been days since I shaved,” Bulatov said in Vilnius, adding that he would no shave for another eight days and then show himself to prove he could not grow a beard in the same amount of time.

Responding to a question about his reported crucifixion being a lie, Bulatov showed his hands to reporters.

A UKRAINIAN activist who left the country after he was abducted says his Russian-speaking captors cut off part of his ear and "crucified" him to force him to say he was an American spy.

"They nailed me to the wooden door, I was kneeling and after that they took sticks and started beating me," Dmytro Bulatov told reporters in a hospital in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, where he is receiving medical treatment.

He also alleged that the man behind his abduction is Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian multimillionaire businessman who heads Ukrainian Choice, a non-profit group he founded to torpedo a deal between Ukraine and the European Union last fall, and who admitted to the Kyiv Post in a recent interview that he had a “relationship of friendship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Bulatov’s captors questioned him about AutoMaidan’s motorcade visits to Mezhyhirya, President Viktor Yanukovych’s luxury estate outside Kyiv, as well as to the homes of other top officials.

“But they mainly they asked about going to Medvedchuk’s home,” he said. “The visit to Medvedchuk interested them much more than the visit to Mezhyhirya.”

"The video was first noted and tweeted out by the Russian government," Carmey said. "I think it says something about Russia's role."

Responding to a question about his reported crucifixion being a lie, Bulatov showed his hands to reporters.

"They nailed me to the wooden door, I was kneeling and after that they took sticks and started beating me," Dmytro Bulatov told reporters in a hospital in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, where he is receiving medical treatment.

It is hard to judge whether Nuland is as powerful in the events as she indicates, but in the tape she puts on a show of manipulating all the pieces while referring to people by her own set of diminutives; Pyatt himself keeps with their real names.

The UN role “would be great to help glue this thing, and the UN help glue it. And fuck the EU,” she says.

Nuland closes by saying that she had been promised the help of US vice president Joe Biden. He could place a call of encouragement (“an ‘attaboy’”) the following day in what appears to be members of the opposition.---

Meanwhile, Sergey Glazyev, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s chief adviser on his proposed Eurasian Union, today accused the US of giving “$20 million a week” in arms and other assistance to the Ukrainian opposition.

Det skulle vara intressant att ta del av Glazyevs eventuella bevis för sitt påstående om att 20 miljoner dollar i veckan levereras till oppositionen.

---the 35-year-old father of three who spoke slowly and complained of dizziness and blurred vision.

"When they beat me, I felt like (there was) melting metal, very, very hot metal, over my face, and I wanted everything to stop," Bulatov said.

"They forced me to speak in front of the camera and they made me say everything they wanted; that I am an American spy...that America gives money for the Maidan (protest) and that I was hired by Americans in order to create disorder against our government.

Bulatov said he was kidnapped in Kiev on January 22 and was taken away to an unknown location lying on the floor of what he thought was a minivan with a bag on his face, before being held in a room and tortured.

"I believe that those could be people from the Russian special services," he said, adding that his assailants were clearly "professionals".

Bulatov also said he believed that prominent Ukrainian politician and businessman Viktor Medvedchuk "had something to do with this" as this anti-Europe advocate was often the topic of the interrogations.

Images of his bloodied face sparked international outrage, with the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton saying she was "appalled by the obvious signs of prolonged torture".

The Interior Ministry said investigators had tried to interrogate Bulatov three times, but hadn’t gotten any significant details about his kidnapping, after earlier suggesting it may all be a hoax. “Such behavior makes us think that he doesn’t want to cooperate with the police.”

A Lithuanian doctor attending Thursday’s news conference detailed far more substantial injuries. He said that part of Mr.Bulatov’s right ear was missing, that he had a deep wound on his left check and “multiple bruises on his back and arms.”

The doctor did not directly confirm crucifixion claims by Mr. Bulatov but said that both of his hands had wounds, though X-rays had shown no broken bones. Mr. Bulatov lifted his hands to show small holes on each side of both hands.

Similarly, EU officials said they would not comment on a "leaked alleged" call posted on the same anti-opposition website featuring a senior aide to EU diplomacy chief Catherine Ashton complaining about U.S. criticism that the EU was being "too soft" in its approach to imposing sanctions on Yanukovich.---

Kiev needs funds, though is loath to admit it. The central bank announced late on Thursday it was restricting purchases of foreign exchange to try to stabilize its banks and a currency that has fallen 10 percent in three months.---

Kremlin aide Glazyev accused Nuland of "blackmail" by privately warning wealthy, mostly Russian-speaking oligarchs who back Yanukovich that they risked their foreign assets being seized if they did not hand power to the opposition.

U.S. officials did not respond directly to Glazyev's remarks, which included an allegation U.S. agents were giving "$20 million a week" to "the opposition and rebels" and that "within the grounds of the American embassy, there is training for fighters" being armed by Washington.

He was asked by Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper whether Russia might "actively intervene".

Recalling the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, which removed Soviet nuclear weapons from Ukraine, Glazyev said: "Under the document, Russia and the USA are guarantors of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and ... are obliged to intervene when conflict situations of this nature arise."

Asked by the paper if Yanukovich should now use force to clear the protesters, Glazyev said: "As for starting to use force, in a situation where the authorities face an attempted coup d'etat, they simply have no other course of action."

Russia, he said, was concerned that the country should not split apart. But he suggested that a form of federalism be introduced to give regions substantial powers - to the extent eastern regions might be linked to a customs union with Russia while western Ukraine might have a trade pact with Europe.

In Ukraine's ongoing and increasingly bloody political standoff, a group of predominantly young men known as "titushki" are roaming the streets. Wearing balaclavas and Adidas striped pants, they wield baseball bats and other bludgeons, using them to intimidate and attacking demonstrators. And reportedly, they are on the Ukrainian government's payroll, committing violence either alongside or under the watchful gaze of the notorious special police unit, the Berkut ("Golden Eagle").---

The upper echelons of the state have denied a connection to the titushki. But, according to media reports, these men are not only paid by authorities, they're also highly organised. "Many of the low-level titushki are just criminals and scumbags picked up off the street," says Mykola, a former Interior Ministry police officer, who would only be identified by his first name. "But some are more scary people, sportsmen and former members of special law enforcement units. There is a hierarchy."
Anton, a member of the AutoMaidan patrol that drive in convoys around the perimeter of Kiev's protests to protect the encampment from titushki attacks, says the thugs represent a government up against the wall and lashing out.
"This is our government's solution to the threat of sanctions from the U.S. and Europe if there is further violence by the state," he says. "They must find some other way to scare people, to hurt people."