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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
This is such an important item that's it's all over the MSM. (not)

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh of course, in small letters.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Yes, the WashPost video (on the video page no where NEAR the front page) shows up after...

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A few short months after Putin cornered the US state department into a disastrous foreign relations dead end with the false flag Syrian escalation which achieved none of the predetermined nat-gas-to-Europe pipeline ambitions, instead alienating the US from both staunch allies Saudi Arabia and Israel, the Russian president has just managed to inflict yet more pain on US foreign policy this time by infuriating (even more) a core US ally in Europe - Angela Merkel.

Just two days after the phone recording of Victoria Nuland emerged in which she not only made it explicitly clear it was the US who was the puppetmaster behind the Ukranian opposition with the traditional CIA tactics as was expected all along, but also explained just how the US feels toward the EU with the now infamous "Fuck the EU" comment, Angela Merkel called the obscene remark "absolutely unacceptable."

... The biggest loser here, however, continues to be the Ukraine, whose people are facing a cold winter without assurances they will have Russian nat gas, and a government that is a chess piece in an ongoing power play between Europe and Russia, now that the CIA has taken a back seat.

... just like Greece has become a money "tolling" intermediary for the ECB and German banks, in which Europe pretends to bail out the crushed country when in reality it is just funding debt payments to its own banks, so the Ukraine has now become an intermediary, in which loan payments from Russia go to pay... Russia's Gazprom. And in the process Russia pulls the Ukraine from the European sphere of influence and back into that of the New Normal USSR.

Game, set, match Putin. Again.

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The recording was uploaded on YouTube on February 4 by an anonymous user named "Maidan Puppets," and had been viewed more than 11,000 times as of Thursday. The name of the user appears to be a reference to Maidan Square in Kiev, where protestors have fought the government and Russian accusations that the protestors are puppets of the West. The call also was posted on the Kyiv Post, a leading Ukrainian newspaper.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Apparently they used a smart phone in audio mode. Since audio is not encrypted (but everything else is) that phone use is potentially a fireable offense.

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So, back on-topic:

The Ukraine is in deep debt because it owes megabucks to Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled natural gas producer. The Ukraine is paying very high prices for nat-gas, higher than any other importing nation and far higher than Germany. http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-11-16/opinions/ukraine-and
-russia-battle-over-gas-prices-3201138690/ But this disastrous price setting contract was negotiated -not by any Russian-lover but by Yulia Tymoshenko, former opposition Prime Minister of the Ukraine and current cause celebre of the rioting opposition.

If I had to discern a pattern in there, I might say that Russia punished the Ukrainian opposition by jacking up gas prices. That predictably destabilized the economy, and caused the opposition government to fall. Once a pro-Russian was in place (Yanukovych), Russia relaxed its debt-and-gas-price hold on the Ukrainian economy. The idea was (I think) that the new prices would improve the economy in time for Yanukovych to win re-election in 2015.

Seeing the trend, smarting from the Syria debacle, and understanding that Russia deployed its Syria-bound heavy warships from a leased Ukrainian port on the Black Sea, the United States decided put the Ukraine on the front burner and bring down the current Yanukovych government post-haste.

Hubby says that I'm seeing patterns that don't exist. Still, it makes an interesting story which ties all of the events together.

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Eastern Europe braced for a violent 'spring of discontent'

Riots and street battles are set to spread through Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic states as inflation, unemployment and racism fuel tension, reports Jason Burke

Eastern Europe is heading for a violent "spring of discontent", according to experts in the region who fear that the global economic downturn is generating a dangerous popular backlash on the streets.

Hit increasingly hard by the financial crisis, countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic states face deep political destabilisation and social strife, as well as an increase in racial tension.

Last week protesters were tear-gassed as they threw rocks at police outside parliament in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, in a protest against an austerity package including tax rises and benefit cuts.

In Sofia, Bulgaria, 150 people were arrested and at least 30 injured in widespread violence. More than 100 were detained after street battles between security forces and demonstrators in the Latvian capital, Riga.

According to the most recent estimates, the economies of some eastern European countries, after posting double-digit growth for nearly a decade, will contract by up to 5% this year, with inflation peaking at more than 13%. Many fear Romania, which joined the European Union with Bulgaria in 2007, may be the next to suffer major breakdowns in public order.

"In a few months there will be people in the streets, that much is certain," said Luca Niculescu, a media executive in Bucharest. "Every day we hear about another factory shutting or moving overseas. There is a new government that has not shown itself too effective. We have got used to very high growth rates. It's an explosive cocktail."

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Think the E.U. Is Great for Eastern Europe? This Country Could Change Your Mind

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