Russia says U.S. refused guarantees for Ukraine's Financial liabilities.

Russia says U.S. refused guarantees for Ukraine's Financial liabilities.(Reuters).

Russia has received an official refusal from the U.S. government to provide guarantees for Ukraine's liabilities, Russian news agencies reported on Saturday, citing Russia's Finance Ministry.

Russia and Ukraine are at loggerheads over a $3 billion Ukrainian Eurobond held by Russia and maturing on Dec. 20.

Russia has offered to restructure the debt in equal installments over the next three years if the West provides guarantees. But Ukraine has included it among the sovereign and sovereign-guaranteed bonds to be restructured in a deal with a group of its largest creditors.

"This week we received an official refusal from the U.S. government to provide guarantees on Ukraine's liabilities. In this regard, there is nothing left but for us to file a legal case against Ukraine if the debtor does not fulfill its liabilities fully on Dec. 20," RIA news agency cited the Finance Ministry as saying in a statement. Hmmmm........Yup a country with nearly 19 Trillion $ debt isn't the greatest choice for 'Financial guarantor'. Read the full story here.

Russian Ships & planes Carrying Soldiers Said To Be En Route To Sevastopol.

Russian Ships and planes Carrying Soldiers Said To Be En Route To Sevastopol. HT: ZeroHedge.

Those tracking the developments in the Ukraine, and specifically the Russian response to this weekend's coup, will be interested to note that according to the Russian flot.com website, the large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov, previously known for its participation in the Syrian naval arms build up, is expected to arrive in the Crimean port of Sevastopol carrying 200 armed soldiers, sent from the nearby Black Sea town of Temryuk.

From Flot.com:

Today at 12:00 from the Russian port of Temryuk should arrive in Sevastopol, the large landing ship "Nikolai Fil'chenkov" with 200 soldiers on board. This was reported today by the chairman of the Ukraine "Freedom" faction Oleg Tyagnibok citing sources in the Crimean.

"I can show you the text message" - said Tyahnibok and read: "Today at 12:00 is expected the arrival from the port of Temryuk in the Russian Federation in the city of Sevastopol large landing ship Nikolai Fil'chenkov from the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. It will bring about 200 armed soldiers from the 328th Marine battalion, who are based in Temryuk and 10 BTR-80."


He also noted that "on February 22-23, ... IL-76 flights airlifted from Kubinka (Moscow region) to Anapa, personnel from the 45th Airborne Special Forces unit and additional divisions were relocated via four Il-76 flights from Pskov to Anapa. And from Sochi to Anapa were transported six Mi-8 helicopsters"- said Tyahnibok.

This appears to not be an isolated move as the naval build up seems to be escalating.

In a concurrent release, Izvestia Kiev reported that out of Kubinka, four ships carrying special forces, are being relocated to Anapa. From there, in four hours, they will depart fo Sevastopol at a speed of 10-15 knots, citing "Izvestia in Ukraine" as a source.  According to the source, the redeployment is "qualitative, not quantitative" and that the Ukraine is following these developments.
It remains to be seen if the Ukraine, or its brand new NATO BFFs, will respond in kind.

Related: From Flot.com:

Matviyenko: Russia does not doubt that the Crimea is part of Ukraine .

Russia does not question the fact that the Crimea - part of Ukraine, but understands mood of the people of the peninsula.

This was stated by Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko. "No inflammatory action, especially at the state level, Russia is taken. We believe today the fact that Crimea is part of Ukraine," - she said.

"But the fact is the fact that now there are felt sentiments related to the fact that residents of Crimea nobody asked opinions about the decisions that are made in Kiev", - said the speaker of the Federation Council in the "Time and Us" on TV channel

"However, the Russian Federation can understand The mood of the people in the Crimea " - she stated.

Matvienko said that the Russians care about the processes unfolding in the Crimea. "Many people in the Crimea are of Russian roots or are citizens of Russia. Therein lies our Black Sea Fleet," - she said.

Head of the Federation Council also recalled that recently met with the chairman of the Supreme Council of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov.

According to her, during the meeting the head of the Crimean parliament confirmed the intention of our ability to defend the autonomy of Crimea

"He stressed that in the case of amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine Crimea require greater autonomy for themselves, as in the autonomous republic is home to over 60% Russian, and they care about how it will address issues of school and higher education, development, language and culture" - added Matvienko.

Moscow urges crackdown in Ukraine on "extremists" in government.

Moscow urges crackdown in Ukraine on "extremists" in government. (RBTH).

Moscow on Monday urged the Ukrainians to bring back the situation in their country into "the legal framework" and "crack down on the extremists who are trying to get established in power."

"We earnestly call upon all those who are involved in the crisis in Ukraine to show the maximum sense of responsibility, to take action to prevent the further degradation of the situation, to bring it back into the legal framework, and to crack down on the extremists who are trying to get established in power," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

The ministry expressed "extreme anxiety" over current developments in Ukraine.

"In the last few days, the capital and some other cities in the country have been sites of armed clashes between young rioters and militants from ultra-right nationalist organizations and law enforcement units that were defending the security of civilians and national interests," it said.

"The militants have not been disarmed, refuse to leave the streets of the cities that they de facto control and to vacate administrative buildings, and continue acts of violence," the ministry said.

"The agreement of February 21 on the settlement of the crisis in Ukraine is not being complied with, though its signature was authenticated by the ministers of foreign affairs of Germany, Poland and France whereas the United States and the European Union, and other international structures have welcomed this document," the statement said.More here.

Ukraine turmoil LIVE UPDATES

After the 'party' comes the 'hangover' - Say hello to my Iskander .

After the 'party' comes the 'hangover' - Say hello to my Iskander . (RT).

As we’re now on the road (again) of regime change in Ukraine, that seems not such a lousy deal for only $5 billion - the amount volunteered by neo-con Nuland herself. Compare it to other lavish Bush-Obama continuum foreign adventures, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Syria. Yet expect major bumps ahead.

Most arguably progressive, as well as some rabidly right wing, Google generation denizens in Western Ukraine and in Kiev seem to entertain the notion that the country, under regime change, will be accepted as an EU member, they will get an EU passport, and will find a good job in Europe, just as Polish plumbers and Romanian restaurant managers did.

Well, not really. If only they could board an EasyJet and see with their own eyes what’s going on, job market-wise, in southern Europe or in London for that matter, now terrified of a horde of Eastern Europeans seizing English jobs.

As for the ultra-nationalists and frankly neo-fascists – totally anti-EU - the only thing they care about is to get rid of the Russian Bear’s embrace. And then what?

In the West’s ardor for ‘democracy’ it’s so easy to forget that Western Ukrainian fascists were aligned with Hitler against the USSR. It’s their descendants that have been in the forefront of the hardcore violence last week. And Right Sector still insists they will continue to ‘protest’. In this sense they may not be Washington’s preferred puppets; they are just momentarily useful patsies.

As for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko – now elevated in the West to the status of a blonde Mother Teresa – she has called the Maidan (Independence) Square protesters “liberators.” They may soon liberate themselves from her – after highly corrupt ‘Saint’ Yulia runs for president next May.

The Ukraine that works - in the east and south – is made up of historic Russian provinces, think Kharkov, the Black Sea, Crimea. The country’s GDP is roughly $157 billion. That’s one fifth of Turkey (which may become the new Pakistan). As it is, Ukraine holds no economic value whatsoever to the West (even less if it becomes the new Syria). The only ‘positive’ would be NATO’s warped strategic advance.

Anyone who believes a mired-in-crisis EU will buy Ukraine out of is economic mess could once again bid for Saddam’s WMDs on eBay. Or imagine the US Congress handing out $15 billion for Ukraine to smooth out its foreign debt, not to mention reducing the price of imported gas – just like Moscow did last December.

The multi-billion dollar question now is what Russian President Vladimir Putin will do. One must feel tempted to detect roars of laughter in the Kremlin corridors.

For starters, Putin will decide whether or not Moscow will buy $2 billion in Ukrainian eurobonds after there’s a new government in Kiev, as Gazeta.ru reported. Kiev will get absolutely nothing from Moscow until it’s clear the new regime will play ball, in the interests of holding the country together.

‘Saint’ Yulia, by the way, was originally thrown in jail because of a gas deal that was negotiated on Moscow’s high price terms.
Back to hard facts: Ukraine cannot survive without Russian gas, and the Ukrainian industry cannot survive without the Russian market. One can mix all shades of Orange, Tangerine, Campari or Tequila Sunrise revolution, and throw in the requisite IMF ‘structural adjustment’ correction – these facts are not going to change. And forget about the EU ‘buying Ukrainian’.

The Western Orangeade gang – from masters to servants – may still bet on civil war, Syria-style. Anarchy looms – provoked by the neo-fascists. It’s up to Ukrainians to reject it. A sound solution would a referendum. Get the people to choose a confederation, a partition (there will be blood) or keeping the status quo.

Here’s a very possible scenario. Eastern and southern Ukraine become part of Russia again; Moscow would arguably accept it.

Western Ukraine is plundered, disaster capitalism-style, by the Western corporate-financial mafia – while nobody gets a single EU passport. As for NATO, they get their bases, ‘annexing’ Ukraine, but also get myriads of hyper-accurate Russian Iskander missiles locked in their new abode. So much for Washington’s ‘strategic advance’.

US losing game to Russia in Ukraine: Analyst.

US losing game to Russia in Ukraine: Analyst. (pressTv).

The United States is losing the game to Russia in Ukraine due to its miscalculated attempts at ousting the government in Kiev, an analyst writes in a column for the Press TV website.

“The problem with Washington’s plot to overthrow the elected government of Ukraine and install its minions is twofold,” Paul Craig Roberts wrote in a column on Sunday.

That “the chosen US puppets” have lost control of the protests to Nazism-linked armed radical elements is one of the problems, he said, adding that the other is the fact that “Russia regards an EU/NATO takeover of Ukraine as a strategic threat to Russian independence.”

“If the democratically elected Ukraine government is overthrown, the eastern and southern parts would rejoin Russia,” wrote Roberts.

He added that Western banks and corporations will then loot the western part and Russian missiles will target the NATO bases in Ukraine.

“It would be a defeat for Washington and their gullible Ukrainian dupes to see half of the country return to Russia,” the analyst wrote.

Roberts said Washington has ignored the fact that Ukraine’s “financially viable part” is dominated by the Russian culture.

He noted that Washington may have to “provoke a great power confrontation” in a last-ditch attempt to save face.

Ukraine has been rocked by anti-government protests since Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the EU on November 29, 2013, in favor of closer ties with Russia.

Ukraine’s newly-elected parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Turchyno announced on Sunday that lawmakers must form a national unity government in the Eastern European country by Tuesday.

President Viktor Yanukovych has reportedly departed from Kiev, but his whereabouts and legitimacy are still unclear.

Yanukovych said on Saturday that he had been forced to leave Kiev because of “vandalism, crime and a coup.”

“I don’t plan to leave the country. I don’t plan to resign. I am the legitimate president,” he stressed.Hmmm....."May you live in interesting times.....This might be a 'country too far'"

Obama Official Warns Russia on Military Action in Ukraine.

Obama Official Warns Russia on Military Action in Ukraine.(RN).

A senior US official on Sunday warned Moscow not to send troops into Ukraine amid the political crisis gripping Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbor, saying such a move would constitute a “grave mistake.”

“It’s not in the interests of Ukrainian or of Russia or of Europe or the United States to see the country split. It’s in nobody’s interest to see violence returned and the situation escalate,” White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press."

Rice’s comments followed a report by the Financial Times last week quoting an unidentified senior Russian official as saying that Moscow could intervene to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s Crimea territory, home to a Russian naval base.

“If Ukraine breaks apart, it will trigger a war. They will lose Crimea first [because] we will go in and protect [it], just as we did in Georgia,” the official was quoted as saying in a reference to Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

Rice said in Sunday’s interview that the situation in Ukraine “is not about the US and Russia” and that closer Ukrainian ties with Europe would not come at the expense of the country’s historical links with Russia.

“There is not an inherent contradiction … between a Ukraine that has longstanding historic and cultural ties to Russia and a modern Ukraine that wants to integrate more closely with Europe,” she said.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday abandoned his lavish estate in the wake of bloody street clashes between security forces and anti-government protesters last week that evaporated his authority in the capital Kiev and broad swathes of the country.

Ukrainian lawmakers impeached Yanukovych on Saturday, though he remained defiant in a statement issued the same day from a location in his political stronghold in the east of the country, describing attempts to unseat him as a coup.

Rice said that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with a message delivered by his American counterpart, Barack Obama, in a phone call between the two leaders Friday.
“The president’s message was, look, we have a shared interest in a Ukraine that remains unified, whole, independent and is able to exercise the will of its people freely,” she said.

In a telephone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed the United States’ “strong support” for the Ukrainian parliament’s decision to transfer presidential duties to speaker Oleksander Turchinov, the State Department said in a statement.

Kerry also “underscored the United States’ expectation that Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and democratic freedom of choice will be respected by all states,” the State Department said.
Lavrov told Kerry, meanwhile, that the Ukrainian opposition has “effectively seized power,” refuses to lay down arms and “continues to place its stake on violence,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Lavrov emphasized to his US counterpart that an agreement signed Friday between Yanukovych and Ukrainian opposition leaders calling for early presidential elections and constitutional reforms must be enforced, noting that the United States welcomed the deal at the time.Hmmm.....Obama even might send his lawyers, Putin must be scared stiff...Meanwhile i can't imagine that Putin will give up his black sea harbor just like that.....Anyone interested in a bridge?

"Civil War" preparing? Eastern Ukraine rises against Kiev LIVE UPDATES.

"Civil War" preparing? Eastern Ukraine rises against Kiev LIVE UPDATES via Russia Today.

A gathering of local MPs from the Euro-skeptic east and south of Ukraine has gathered in the city of Kharkov to form a joint response to the developing collapse of the national government.

Saturday, February 22

12:27 GMT:

“The decisions taken here are positive and concrete. What is important is that everything voiced here was implemented in the interests of the Ukrainian people and the entire Ukraine. What Ukraine needs now is common sense and a survival instinct,” said Evgeny Savchenko, Governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, commenting on the Kharkov gathering.

12:25 GMT:

The gathering in Kharkov was attended by about 3,000 representatives of local governments, according to the governor of the Kharkov region, Mikhail Dobkin, one of the key sponsors of the event.
Russia sent several officials in the capacity of observers to the gathering, including Aleksey Pushkov, the head of the Russian parliamentary commission on foreign affairs, Mikhail Markelov, Pushkov’s counterpart in the Council of Federation, the upper chamber of the parliament, and several governors from regions in western Russia.

12:14 GMT:

“The territorial integrity of Ukraine is at risk,” the gathering stated in the resolution.
It added that instability in Ukraine is highly dangerous and may cause unpredictable consequences, considering that the country hosts five nuclear power plants with 15 reactors in total, which some extremists have threatened to attack.

12:08 GMT:

The resent decisions of the national parliament were taken in conditions “of terror, threats of violence and death,” the resolution says. The gathering says the legislative acts may have been passed involuntarily and are neither legitimate nor lawful.

12:08 GMT:

The opposition has broken the agreement with the government signed on Friday, the resolution says.
“Armed gangs have not given over their weapons, they continue taking over governmental buildings, killing citizens and officers of the law,” it says.

11:56 GMT:

The Kharkov public gathering has announced a number of measures local authorities should take in response to the developments in Kiev. They should take full responsibility for all decision in respective regions, with no regard to authorities in Kiev until the constitutional order in Ukraine is restored, a resolution of the gathering says.

The military commanders should take measures to protect arms depots and prevent their take-over and looting by radical opposition activists.

Meanwhile citizens are encouraged to form local militias to protect public order. Local authorities are to fund and support those militias.

Related:

Ukraine's Southeast seeks to restore constitutional order, thousands gather in Kharkov

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S&P says Ukraine "likely to default".

S and P says Ukraine "likely to default"(RT).

S and P has cut Ukraine's rating one notch deeper into junk status, as the political instability grows and the number of dead has climbed to 80. It says the government has little chance to service its debt and further help from Russia is uncertain.

Standard and Poors' reduced Ukraine’s rating from CCC to CCC-plus with a negative outlook.

"Ukraine will default in the absence of significantly favourable changes in circumstances," which it doesn't anticipate, the Financial Times cites S&P.

“The clashes between protesters and security forces that began on Feb. 18 lead us to conclude that a conciliatory end to the political stand-off is now out of reach,” the agency said.

Further aid from Russia is also now a big question, as the Ukraine leadership has become more uncertain than ever, the agency added.

“We believe that the Russian government's support for Ukraine is tied to the current leadership and its political orientation away from the EU and toward Russia. As a result of the intensifying political turmoil in Ukraine, we consider that continued Russian support up to the committed $15 billion is increasingly uncertain.”

“Should Russian financial support fall short of Russia's commitments, we expect the government of Ukraine to default on its foreign currency obligations,” the report added.Read the full story here, more here.