Ukraine and Russia event discussion

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/russian-authorities-raid-ikea-office

c/p pls

[spoiler]

Russian authorities have raided an office of the Swedish furniture company Ikea just outside Moscow, hours after the European Union and US stepped up their trade sanctions against Russia.

On Friday, the furniture retailer confirmed that Russia’s Investigative Committee â€" its equivalent of the US FBI â€" had conducted a search of its premises in Khimki, to the northwest of Moscow, in connection with a legal case over land.

“Ikea Russia is co-operating with the investigative committee,� the company said, adding that the raid was on an office belonging to Ikea Mos, its shopping centre company.

However, on Friday, analysts questioned whether the timing of the move indicated a political motivation.

“The Swedish government has been one of the leading opponents of Russian policy towards Ukraine, and a supporter of sanctions,� said Timothy Ash, head of emerging markets research at Standard Bank. “I wonder if this fits into the same kind of action that other Western companies have seen in Russia [for example] with various Western fast food outlets suffering greater regulatory oversight all of a sudden.�

Ikea has had problems in Russia before. In 2010, it fired two senior executives based in the country for ignoring bribery by a subcontractor. The controversy sparked a rare public comment from Ingvar Kamprad, the company’s octogenarian founder, who admitted that Ikea had “wandered off course�.

Russia has become one of Ikea’s biggest markets and the Swedish company now operates 14 stores, with plans to open five or six more. Revenues from the country reached Rbs76.4bn ($2bn) in 2012-13 and Ikea’s Russian head said earlier this year that the group planned to invest â,¬2bn in its operations by 2020.

Earlier this week, Peter Agnefjäll, Ikea’s chief executive, said the company was in Russia for the “very long term� despite the impact of sanctions and the fallout over Russia’s creeping invasion of Ukraine.

Since the Ukrainian conflict began, Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister, has been one of the most vocal European critics of Russia’s actions. However, on Friday, he declined to comment on the raid on Ikea.

Russian media outlets suggested that it was in connection with a land dispute dating back to the construction of Ikea’s Khimki store in 2007. A group of collective farmers had challenged Ikea’s right to the land used but, in the most recent round of arbitration, a Moscow court sided with Ikea.

[/spoiler]

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://news.yahoo.com/russias-lavrov-lauds-africa-pillar-world-order-190135282.html

is this guy seriously bragging about a relationship with robert mugabe

LOL

those sanctions must have hit harder than i thought:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140916/moscow-warns-against-panic-ruble-plunges-historic-lows

good thing putin has reliable friends like mugabe, kim jong, the castro bros. and hugo chavez's lackey to back him up

[Kalahari Inkantation]

as for pathetic happenings on the ukrainian side,

http://online.wsj.com/articles/poroshenko-says-eu-agreement-to-be-ratified-next-week-1410519009

Ukraine agreed Friday to delay a key part of a trade deal with Europe that the Kremlin had staunchly opposed, even as the U.S. and European Union ramped up sanctions intended to back Russia down.

Seriously?

And just like what happened last time,

http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-outrage-over-delay-eu-trade-deal-230148845.html

three oblasts and 3,000+ lives in the hole and the cycle begins anew

[spoiler]

thankfully it's only a tiny (albeit extremely significant) fraction of the agreement whose implementation was """delayed"""

[...] the reciprocal lowering of Ukrainian tariffs on European goods will be delayed until the end of 2015

every other aspect of the agreement was ratified by both ukraine and the eu today, including the eu's lowering of tariffs on ukrainian goods

[...] and the EU will continue its relaxed trade rules on goods coming from Ukraine, as agreed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/16/ukraine-eu-association-agreement_n_5827958.html

so that's a plus i guess

though we all know to expect another shitfit from russia once that 16 months is up (that is, if the ukrainian government itself doesn't elect to indefinitely delay it out of fear)[/spoiler]

[Kalahari Inkantation]

also til that the hryvnia is more valuable than the ruble

[spoiler][/spoiler]

though unsurprisingly devaluing at a far higher rate

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://www.inquisitr.com/1475733/world-war-3-russias-nuclear-weapons-threat-has-ukraine-discussing-restoring-nukes/

might not be a terrible idea, honestly

none of this would ever have happened had ukraine retained its nukes

2bad nobody is going to allow them to develop new ones ever lol

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://www.euronews.com/2014/09/16/watch-angry-mob-in-ukraine-throw-mp-in-rubbish-bin/

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcEEiDYQue8[/youtube]

is ukraine even a real place

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29220885

say hello to the world's latest de facto independent russian puppet state, novorossiya

novorossiya gets to join the ranks of such successful bastions of human development as transnistria, south ossetia, and abkhazia

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stressed that the legislation giving the special status to parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions for three-years [...]

oh joy, i can't imagine what'll happen once those three years are up

Many rebels are demanding full independence and speak of creating a new state called "Novorossiya", something Russian President Vladimir Putin has also mentioned in speeches.

honestly at this point granting it full independence and cutting all ties with it while leaving russia to sink dillions into propping it up might be for the best

not only was donbas a post-industrial rustbucket, it's now a war-torn post-industrial shithole, may as well give the """rebels""" what they want and cut the losses

[Kalahari Inkantation]

[spoiler][pdf]http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/MRW14623.pdf[/pdf][/spoiler]

Sec. 4. Sanctions relating to the defense and energy sectors of the Russian
Federation.
Sec. 5. Sanctions on Russian and other foreign financial institutions.
Sec. 6. Codification of executive orders addressing the crisis in Ukraine.
Sec. 7. Major non-NATO ally status for Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova.
Sec. 8. Increased military assistance for the Government of Ukraine.
Sec. 9. Expanded nonmilitary assistance for Ukraine.
Sec. 10. Expanded broadcasting in countries of the former Soviet Union.

yessss

[Kalahari Inkantation]

aaand yet another ukrainian mp getting creamed

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH-C9jtsvcM[/youtube]

[Daddy]

aaand yet another ukrainian mp getting creamed

Young Ukrainian MP gets creamed in every hole.

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28949582

sigh

i think i'm going to not read the news today

more of this

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/30/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-funerals-idUSKBN0GU0B020140830

and more still

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29249642?bbc-team-under-attack-in-southern-russia

They had gone to investigate reports of Russian servicemen being killed near the border with Ukraine.

The team's cameraman was beaten up and the camera smashed during the attack. The recorded material left in the car had been deleted, the team found after returning from the police station.

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://news.yahoo.com/kremlin-protect-russian-cyberspace-unpredictable-west-110619987.html

rofl the absolutely shallow word pool through which putin phrases his autocratic domestic policymaking

translation: prepare for more censorship, can't have you seeing those stories about dead soldiers now

[Kalahari Inkantation]

though we all know to expect another shitfit from russia once that 16 months is up

http://www.euractiv.com/sections/europes-east/russia-demands-changes-ukraine-eu-trade-deal-308556

not even two days in and the whining has already begun

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/19/ukraine-poland-lithuania-form-joint-military-unit

yes

my god YES

russia's aggression has fostered the resurrection of the polish-lithuanian commonwealth

all we need is belarus now

[Kalahari Inkantation]

http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/third-russian-humanitarian-convoy-crosses-ukrainian-border

remember the sudden explosion in vigor the """rebels""" miraculously experienced after the last two """humanitarian convoys"""

oh joy