Russia demands Turkey take measures to capture militant who shot dead Russian pilot

Turkish media published an interview with the militant who shot dead a Russian pilot.

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. Russia demands that Turkey take measures to capture Turkish national Alparslan Celik, who shot dead the pilot in command of the crew of the Sukhoi Su-24 bomber downed by Turkey’s Air Force above Syria on November 24, 2015, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariya Zakharova said in a statement Wednesday.

"We are demanding that the Turkish authorities immediately take measures to catch Celik and his accomplices and bring them to criminal account for the murder of the Russian pilot as well as participation in hostilities on the side of illegal armed units on the territory of a foreign state," Zakharova said.

The Russian ministry spokeswoman’s speech was caused by an "exclusive" interview with Celik published on December 27 in the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, in which he openly admits that he directly took part in the murder of the Russian pilot and does not repent. The publication says the Turkish militant has fought in Syria for two years on the side of an illegal armed unit.

"The fact that a leading Turkish central newspaper actually provided the floor to a murderer and terrorist for boasting of the crime he committed and distribution of nationalistic ideology, which is full of hatred toward Russia and the Russian people, causes surprise and indignation," Zakharova said.

"It is indicative that no comments on the interview have been received from the Turkish authorities yet," the comment said.

"We demand that the Turkish leadership give an assessment to the actions and statements of their country’s national who confessed to committing an international crime, which is the murder of an Air Force pilot of a foreign state," the document said.

 
"It’s time to say what the position of official Ankara is regarding participation of Turkish nationals in hostilities on the side of extremist illegal armed formations on the territory of a neighboring state," it said. "Or will it prefer to turn a blind eye to that as well?".

Source: ITAR-TASS 31-12-2015

US 'Project Ukraine' Nearing Collapse, Threatening Obama’s Reputation

Despite the US and EU’s efforts, the Ukrainian "project" is in danger. If the Ukrainian government falls it will be a deep embarrassment for Washington, Brussels and the IMF which sacrificed relations with Russia to support it.

The political feuding in Ukraine poses a risk not only to the country’s future but also to US President Barack Obama’s reputation, journalists Alessandra Prentice and Pavel Polityuk wrote.

During his recent visit to Kiev, US Vice President Joe Biden said he spends more time speaking to Ukrainian officials than to his own wife. According to statements issued by Biden’s office, since 2014 the Vice President spoke by telephone 40 times with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and 16 times with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. This is in addition to four visits Biden made to Kiev and several meetings with Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk in Washington and Europe.

"But despite these efforts, divisions inside the ruling coalition are growing and many of the reforms are stalled. If the leaders fail, it will be a deep embarrassment for Washington, the EU, and the IMF, which sacrificed relations with Russia to support these people. […] The Obama administration, along with the EU, has invested deeply in making a success of Ukraine's Feb. 2014 revolution," the authors wrote.

According to them, despite the fact that in 2014 US officials and congressmen paid over 100 visits to Ukraine "the project is in danger".

"If that happens, it will be a squandered opportunity for Ukraine to break a 25-year cycle of chaos and corruption and would rob the Obama administration of a rare foreign policy success," the Reuters article read.

Initially, after the change in power, the news from Ukraine was positive. Senior US diplomat Victoria Nuland announced a list of reforms initiated by Kiev, saying that "Ukraine began to forge a new nation on its own terms."

That was a welcome bright spot for an administration that had suffered foreign policy setbacks in Libya, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. But in the past few months Ukraine's reform drive has stuttered. […] Many promises have either stalled in parliament or remained on paper only," the authors underscored.

In addition, conflicts have broken out between Poroshenko’s allies and Yatsenyuk’s supporters, with some official meetings turning into quarrels. For instance, during one meeting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov threw a glass of water at Odessa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili.

A high-profile Ukrainian official on condition of anonymity told Reuters that during the meeting between Biden and Poroshenko in Kiev the US Vice President warned that the current team has "a last chance to do something" and that the results are important for Washington.

Biden also said that the US’ patience was running out, the article noted. The authors underscored that 

Yatsenyuk’s resignation has also been considered. This would be a blow to US policy in Ukraine.

"Washington sees Yatsenyuk, a fluent English speaker, as the lynchpin of Ukraine's reform effort. According to a second source close to Poroshenko, Washington will work with any prime minister, as long as a reformist coalition keeps power," the article concluded.

Source: Sputnik News 30-12-2015

Russian ombudsman urges the West to reject double standards in Ukraine

According to Russian Foreign Ministry’s ombudsman, the situation with human rights has not improved in the past year

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Western politicians should reject double standards and stop doing nothing in the hope that "the Kiev authorities will start putting into practice their numerous pledges," Russian Foreign Ministry’s ombudsman told Russian News Service radio on Monday.

 "How many eloquent speeches have Western colleagues made at the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Council and other international formats, saying there should be no place for impunity," Konstantin Dolgov said.

"And we are asking the question - where is this remarkable verbally aligned approach in respect to Ukraine?" he asked. "Political will is needed. It is necessary to understand that these double standards definitely undermine the concept of human rights," he went on. "And of course they cast a shadow on the image of the West, Western countries, in particular the European Union, in this respect," said the ministry’s commissioner for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

The situation with human rights

According to Dolgov, the situation with human rights has not improved in the past year. The "sniper case" on Maidan (when snipers were shooting at protesters and police in Kiev during riots in February 2014), a massacre in Odessa (when people burned alive in the Trade Unions House), the shooting of civilians in Mariupol, as mass burials in Donbass have remained unpunished, he said.

Dolgov said there was no progress as to human rights and supremacy of law in Ukraine. "Where is a coherent reaction from the West? We didn’t see it at the start of the year, we don’t see it at the end of the year," he said.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Zvezda television that official statements of EU politicians as concerns relations with Russia because of Ukraine were now increasingly often at variance with their point of view voiced out of public view.

The southern Ukrainian city of Odessa saw riots on May 2, during which soccer fans from other cities, as well as Right Sector militants and so-called "Maidan self-defense" representatives from Kiev organized a march along city streets. Clashes with federalization supporters occurred during the march.

Radicals set ablaze the Trade Unions House, where their opponents hid, and a tent camp where activists were collecting signatures for a referendum on Ukraine’s federalization and for the status of a state language for Russian. The attackers did not let anyone leave the burning Trade Unions House building.

At least 48 people died and 247 were injured in the clashes and the fire in the Trade Unions House. Another 48 people were listed as missing. Some Ukrainian politicians asserted that the death toll reached 116 but that the Kiev authorities concealed the facts. Investigators have so far failed to name those guilty of the crime.

In Mariupol in the Donetsk Region, Ukrainian law enforcers opened fire from armored vehicles on participants of a rally held in honor of Victory Day on May 9 who gathered near the building of the local Interior Ministry department and who were trying to prevent its storm. Nine people died and 42 were injured.

Southeastern militias recently found a few mass graves at sites where Ukrainian troops had been stationed. It was reported on September 23 that militiamen found unidentified burial sites in the vicinity of the villages of Kommunar and Nizhnyaya Krynka in the Donetsk Region. After examination of one of the graves, forensic experts concluded that people buried there had been killed by shots to the head at close range.

Source: ITAR-TASS 29-12-2015

Lavrov: Most EU politicians think confrontation with Russia because of Ukraine is mistake

"They all say: let everyone calm down a little bit, the Minsk Agreements should be implemented, and then we will return to routine cooperation, strategic partnership," the foreign minister said

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Official statements of EU politicians on relations with Russia in the framework of Ukrainian crisis more and more often diverge opinions they voice on the sidelines, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Zvezda TV channel broadcast on Monday.

"Sometimes there is a contradiction between what they say on the podium and what they tell you tete-a-tete, when no one else hears them," Lavrov noted. "Individually, the majority of European Union’s members tell me that it is a mistake to seek confrontation with Russia because of Ukraine which ended up being a victim of EU’s policy which tried to make it choose," he added.

"They all say: let everyone calm down a little bit, the Minsk Agreements should be implemented, and then we will return to routine cooperation, strategic partnership," the foreign minister said. "However, when they gather together and speak from the podium, they cannot repeat it," Lavrov noted.

Source: ITAR-TASS 28-12-2015

Wishful Thinking: Ukraine OKs 'Unrealistic' Budget to Avoid Bankruptcy

Ukraine's "unrealistic" budget for 2016 is very unlikely to help Kiev avoid bankruptcy, according to the German newspaper Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten.

Ukraine has adopted an "unrealistic" budget for next year with a deficit totaling 3.7 percent of its GDP. The Ukrainian government hopes that the measure will help it to avoid bankruptcy, the German newspaper Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten reported.

The newspaper said that by approving the budget, Kiev has formally met the International Monetary Fund's condition for handing over the next tranche to Ukraine.

However, the money is unlikely to improve the situation in the country, because, as a rule, it usually lands in the pockets of corrupt officials, according to Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten. 

The newspaper went on to say that against the background of the catastrophic situation in the Ukrainian economy, it will be impossible to implement the budget, which, however, may allow Kiev to avoid bankruptcy and at least formally meet a condition of the IMF to provide Ukraine with the next credit tranche, worth 1.7 billion dollars.

Years of mismanagement and corruption as well as the conflict in the country's east have put Ukraine on the brink of bankruptcy, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten said.

Earlier this year, Kiev received almost 10 billion dollars from the IMF and other international investors. The goal was to improve the financial situation in the country, but little has changed since then and the level of corruption shows no sign of decreasing, the newspaper said.

In Ukraine, such loans are typically managed by regional networks, the economic model of which stipulates the delivery of foreign money to their own financial channels, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten concluded.

 
Source: Sputnik News 27-12-2015