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RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR Putin has told troops to return to their permanent bases after calling a snap drill to check their battle-readiness last week.
“The commander-in-chief President Vladimir Putin gave the order to the troops and units taking part in military exercises to return to their permanent bases,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies this morning.
Putin last Wednesday ordered snap combat readiness drills involving thousands of troops, in what was ostensibly a routine exercise.
The drill involved army, navy and airforce troops based in the central and western military districts, a vast territory that includes regions bordering Ukraine but also extending to the Arctic.
The drill did not include any regions beyond Russia’s borders such as Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea region which has become a flashpoint in the standoff between Moscow and Ukraine’s new authorities after the ousting of president Viktor Yanukovych.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had said that the drill would include military exercises “on Russia’s borders with other countries, including Ukraine”.
The drill, which was initially announced to finish on Monday, came shortly before Russian security forces began operating covertly in Crimea and Putin gained permission from senators for military intervention.
Kerry visit
Meanwhile, the United States has suspended military cooperation with Russia due to its military intervention in the country, as Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to visit Kiev later today.
“We have, in light of recent events in Ukraine, put on hold all military-to-military engagements between the United States and Russia,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement.
The suspension of the post-Cold War cooperation covers exercises, bilateral meetings, port visits and planning conferences, Kirby added.
The crisis now threatens to blow up into the biggest test for global diplomacy — and relations between Moscow and the West — since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Kirby stressed that the suspended system had been “developed over the past few years to increase transparency, build understanding, and reduce the risk of military miscalculation”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry [Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP/Press Association Images]
Both Washington and the European Union said they were looking at a range of sanctions against Russia for its threat to use force against an ex-Soviet neighbour for the first time since a brief 2008 conflict with Georgia.
The West’s warnings to Moscow came shortly after Ukrainian defence officials on the flashpoint Crimean peninsula said Russia had given its forces an ultimatum to surrender or face an all-out assault.
“The ultimatum is to recognise the new Crimean authorities, lay down our weapons and leave, or be ready for an assault,” regional Ukrainian defence ministry spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov told AFP in the Crimean capital Simferopol.
But a spokesman for the Russian Black Sea fleet based in Crimea told the Interfax news agency the claim was “complete nonsense”.
World markets plunged and oil prices spiked on fears of an all-out offensive that would pit nuclear-armed Russia against its Western-backed neighbour.
People listen to a political speech on a stage in Kiev’s Independence Square [AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti]
Kiev’s new Western-leaning leadership is due to receive a morale boost today when Kerry meets with the new Ukrainian leadership and parliament to “reaffirm the United States’ strong support for Ukrainian sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity”, the US State Department said.
The hastily arranged trip reveals growing alarm at the events in Ukraine.
NATO is also to hold an urgent meeting today at Poland’s request, after the neighbour of Ukraine raised concerns about its own security in light of the crisis.
The world’s richest nations have already threatened to strip Moscow of its coveted seat at the Group of Eight industrialised nations for menacing its ex-Soviet neighbour.
In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said ahead of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Madrid that the 28-nation bloc would “consider targeted measures” against Moscow.
A special European summit has been called for Thursday.
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Putin ordered them back to barracks after seeing how annoyed Gilmore was on the 6 1 news yesterday !!!
Anyone remember the protests in Greece a couple of years ago..:.. Those protestors wanted their Gov ousted too but I remember Merkel telling them that they were democratically elected and the people would have to wait for an election… When it suits I suppose
Hopefully Putin has noticed that the international community has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukrainian Crimea and blinked. The rouble fell to a record low yesterday, the Moscow Stock Market fell by 11 per cent, 60 billion dollars was wiped off the value of Russian companies, interest rates in ceased by one and a half per cent and capital is flying out of Russia to the West. This has all happened before any sanctions are imposed by the EU, the US or others.The oligarchs who surround and finance Putin will have noticed this and so will ordinary Russians struggling to make a living in a poor economy.
As gas prices went up and the lads were back to barracks to count the extra cash. :)
Good point David, but I don’t think the poor ordinary guy really matters. Russia communist or otherwise has never been good to its ordinary man. Ukraine looked west towards the EU and is now getting slapped for it. Please God it won’t escalate any further!
@ Pokey 2013: Contrary to what you will read in the media, In the past ten years wages for the ordinary worker in Russia have increased by over 100%. Ordinary people are buying homes, cars ,TV’s, going on holidays to southern Europe etc. Pubs and restaurants are full, and doing very good business. I must always smile when I read German tabloids telling their readers how bad everything is in Russia, and how happy they should be. Yet it is one of Germany’s largest and most important markets. If there are any problems you will have mass unemployment in Germany. It is also is rapidly diversifying its economy and so becoming less dependent on Gas and oil exports. I have lived for the past seven years in Russia, and after having lived in Holland ,Germany, Vietnam and Turkey, this is probably the most interesting country I have lived in , witnessing so much rapid change. Also great people. In some sense ,like the Irish.
Padraic, the undeniable increase in Russian living standards over the past decade is a direct result of a more open policy of increased international trade with Europe and others, something which Putin is now putting in jeopardy.
@ Padriac O’Dwyer : Exactly. I’ve been to Russia a number of times and it’s nothing like it’s made out to be.
@ Avina why is Putin ‘putting it in jeopardy’ its the fecking USA and the EU that are sticking their noses yet again where they shouldn’t. How would the USA feel is Mexico starting having some civil war and Americans are in Mexico and Russia decided to send troops over and threating to put sanctions on USA if they set foot in Mexico. Get away with it will ya.
John Kerry is Russian to get there!
The US and the West is openly supporting neo nazis who are in prominent positions in the new government that has emerged in Ukraine. The democratically elected President of the Ukraine has asked Russia to intervene militarily and restore order. If talks fail, Russia might well indeed do this or they might just wait for the East of Ukraine to go autonomous.
And what do you call the gang in Moscow.
Yes, democratically elected but also democratically impeached in accordance with the Ukrainan constitution by a majority of 318 to 0 of Ukraine’s democratically elected parliamentarians.
The President of Ireland is also democratically elected but can be removed from office under article 12.10 of our constitution, akin to what has happened in Ukraine.
Avina
Parliament didn’t try to remove him until they were under theat from armed mobs after weeks of violence. They had no choice. If we don’t like our elected government do we follow proper procedures or just burn the streets and attack the police?
The parliamentarians all jumped ship to save their own neck from the mob. Strange how he didn’t have 318 against him until the mob overran the parliament.
Fair point Ancient, but the somewhat drastic action of removing the president was unlikely to happen until the ongoing crisis came to a head with the massacre of mostly unarmed protesters.
Did you hear the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK say that the removal of Yanukovych represented the will of the Ukrainian people and was carried out lawfully by their democratically elected parliament?
This man is the pre-existing Ukrainian government’s own representative, not some stooge of the west, and if events had happened as portrayed by some on here do you not think he would have been screaming blue murder about the illegal takeover of his country instead of defending what happened?
That’s the end to any solution to the civil war in Syria because of the fallout between the EU, America and Russia. The Ukraine has definitely found itself caught between a rock and a hard place. Putin can flex his muscles as much as he wants with impunity because the West can really do nothing substantial, only enforced economic sanctions and cut of diplomatic ties.
What about it. Syria is a training ground for Russian terrorists & Poo10 is too thick to realise it.
His name is Putin. Sick of your rubbish posts. Are you trying to be funny?
This is a democratic forum, not for Russian simpitsors.
simpitsors? You mean sympathisers yea? I sympathise with Russia on this one. They’ve got a neighbouring country that the EU and the USA seem so hell bent on gaining control of. If I was Putin I’d be getting the army out and telling the lot of them the fup off back to their own territories too. Tired of USA sticking it’s nose into every bloody bodies business and stirring up unrest so they can roll in and money grab all the oil while they’re at it.
John Kerry says the Rouble will tumble, unfortunately so is the Euro and the Dollar and the Pound. Germany and most Eastern European countires depend on Russian energy. Energy prices rose everywhere yesterday by up to 30% some bloody nose we are giving Putin. The British Govenerment Dossier on the BBC/Skynews this morning suggesting they NOT to do anything sanctions wise that upsets the London Stock Exchange really says it all. Then we have the new guy in Kiev last night announcing he is “delaying” the implimentation of the law downgrading the Russian language, which started the whole thing off. Russians should sit there until elections are held protecting these minoroities from the right-wing street gangs in Kiev. Then when Crimea says we want to secede just like Kosova from Serbia, there will be no moral dilema for the west at all, happy days.
The rouble has tumbled not because John Kerry says so but because it has. The Moscow Stock Exchange tumbled.Russian interest rates went up because capital is flying out of Russia. Europe is no longer as dependent on Russian gas than it was in the past because there are new sources of supply, large quantities of gas are held in storage, and demand is low because of the mild winter. But Russia depends on gas and oil sales for the vast majority of its export earnings. Russia cannot afford to cut off gas supplies to Western Europe.
Reading you comments is like watching Sky news. Keep spinning the same shite all day long.
He’s a big fan of Maggie Thatcher is David Giles, didn’t you know?
If they can’t sell the gas west they will turn east. China would take it off their hands at a good price. Russia is not alone.
For once, just once Golden, could you come up with a constructive point instead of an ad hominem attack?
@ Golden : If so , then also of Pol Pot. Maggie tried d her best to get them legitimized by the UN , until the Swedish government led a massive protest movement against her initiative . She was defeated needless to say.
Bes friend of Pinochet. Mass murderer and torturer. Great company to be in I must say.
@ fool Hunter : Russia cannot fulfill its obligations to energy hungry China at the moment because of lacking pipelines. A matter of time.
I know but had to be said. The amount of people on here advocating war or saying Russia would be annihilated. It amazes me how little they know about how the political elite work. I just wanted to remind them of China. Russia and China might not be up to America’s army standard but they are pretty much debt free. That counts for a lot in a world now run by money and gold, not jets and missiles.
In deception. You always hide a big move behind a small move. Ukraine is the small move.
The unelected Caroline Ashton from the f***ing EU talking about democracy?
Oh the irony.
Sketch lads give up playing soldiers here’s Kerry
A freak of a man is Kerry, Skull and Bones ambassador, Son of Frankenstein, a psychopathic pr!ck, evil to the core, have to be to get into Skull and Bones when the initiation into the society is your mock sacrifice to god knows what.
Golden, pity you can’t come up with some words like that for Assad or Putin. But you never will.
This is 1920′s ireland all over again. An emerging nation has a province with an ethnic majority which wants to be part of a neighbouring superpower. The then ethnic British got their way resulting in a civil war and bloody campaigns that continue to this day. Is Ukraine, Armenia,Russia and the ethnic Russians, history repeating itself?
@Alex Carroll, there are parallels between the Ukrainian situation now and the Irish situation. The Irish Government has supported the territorial integrity, unity and independence of the Ukraine. Is this position shared by all Irish political parties including Sinn Fein ?
Putin has ordered his troops back to barracks. Hopefully he has got the message. You don’t f**k with the might of the American military!
Back to barracks in Russia after war games. They’re still strolling around Crimea dodging the mighty invisible American bullets and missiles. The damage these are doing is huge…
Yes the invisible bombs and missiles scared them. Strange though that they were only told to go back to barracks after war games in Russia. They’re still strolling around Crimea.
There remains the risk of an escalation with Crimea being used as a bridge-head to invade mainland Ukraine. There are 10 UKrainian bases surrounded in Crimea.
Brian your just sparking a silly comment fuse there. Say that to the Vietnamese.
Will the EU give monetary assistance to the Ukraine like Russia, who was giving 16billion to help with their faltering economy? If the EU are serious about helping the Ukraine they should put their money where their mouth is. Words cost nothing!
The EU will probably match the US with a rescue package. The US promised 1 billion, if they arr lucky the EU will give 5 billion. The rest will be given by the IMF and the Ukraine will turn into a basket case.
Buying a country that sits on top of Russia’s oil lines. How convenient right?
Like I’m ‘sure’ it’s got everything to do with the compassion of the people of Ukraine and nothing to do with setting up military bases next to Russia and sitting on top of their oil lines.
They will be back in at lunchtime with a proper invasion force.
What they have been doing over the last couple of days is testing the water, and have seen that Ukraine hasn’t the strength to defend itself and that it will get no support, other than verbal, from the US, the UK or NATO.
The Chinese will take a different tack, calling in unpayable debt to force a reaction from the US, and then the party will start.
To give credit to John Kerry, his will be the first feet on the ground giving support to Ukraine, but many more will be needed to resist the Russian advance.
@Garry Coll, in fairness to William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, he was in Kiev on Sunday and Monday giving support to the Ukrainian Government. Other European ministers and EU officials have also been to Kiev in recent days.
Sorry David, missed that, too busy watching Donegal thump Monaghan.
But the point I made that real military support with battalions on the ground will be needed to turn Putin back is, I think, still valid.
William Hague also freely admitted that Russia has a legal right to have troops in Crimea.
Having servicemen present in their leased black sea naval bases is not the same as having armed units forcibly taking over Ukrainian airfields and other military facilities!
Force? Was there fighting? How many dead and injured?
The purpose of these military exercises was to intimidate the Ukraine and its neighbours and to impress the Russian people with the power of the Russian armed forces.But the Ukrainian armed forces in the Ukraine have not surrendered and both sides are reluctant to fire at each other. Thank goodness !
It won’t be long till Putin has troops in Donesk and Odessa, while the EU keep talking about banning imports of margarine.
Ex colonial powers like Russia do not have a moral or legal right to intervene miliarily to punish them for pursuing closer ties with the EU. Russian society is increasingly chauvinistic and nationalistic. Theee is absolutely no evidence Russians are being physically harmed by the new Ukrainian government.
Germany and the UK need to cop on to themselves after stories yesterday that they don’t want economic sanctions. Putin sees this as weakness and it only encourages him to demand more like HItler did after he was let take Austria and Czechoslovakia. I suggest they google “Appeasement”.
There are 200,000 UK citizens here. Imagine the UK invading to ‘protect’ them?
Eamon your post makes sense but for two glaring contradictions.. Western, including British and French, colonial powers have intervened as recently as last month in former colonies/possessions/zones of interest, so looking them to police another country for doing the same is contradictory and potentially hypocritical.
Also the allusion to Hitler, appeasement and Czechoslovakia is a little misapplied. The previous Ukrainian government was not some angelic and innocent regime, but the current government is fascist in nature and, as coming months will prove, also fascist in practice.
Trade unionists, socialists, liberal democrats, LGBTQ people as migrants have been under attack in the Western Ukraine throughout this whole carnival, as last week the senior Rabbi in Kiev advised Jewish residents of that city to leave asap. The support from the EU and the United States smacks of the ‘peace in our time’ appeasement of the ‘thirties.
Russian intervention may prove to be a total catastrophe or it may stymie a rising tide of very real fascism in Eastern Europe.
Neither I, nor others with a critical view of the whole affair are naive about Russia’s intentions or motives, but they appear to be a lot more straight-forward and honest than those of the EU, US and IMF.
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