Russian parliament approves troop deployment in Ukraine

[evilnel]

Russia's upper house of parliament has approved President Putin's request for Russian forces to be used in Ukraine.

He had asked that Russian forces be used "until the normalisation of the political situation in the country".

Russia's Black Sea Fleet is based in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, where many ethnic Russians live.
Kiev has reacted

Comments

[bnmc2005]

I wonder what to make of the article in the New York Times about how Russia is bringing over 'protest tourists'?

DONETSK, Ukraine - Around the south and east of Ukraine, in vital cities in the country’s industrial heartland, ethnic Russians have staged demonstrations and stormed buildings demanding a wider invasion of their country by Moscow.

But some of the people here calling for Russian intervention are themselves Russian - “protest tourists” from across the border.

They have included passport-carrying Russians, like Aleksey Khudyakov, a pro-Kremlin Muscovite who said he traveled here “to watch and maybe to give some advice.” In Kharkiv, another Russian scaled a government building to dramatically plant his country’s flag - offering at least the image that President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces were being invited in.

It is clear that in this part of Ukraine, many ethnic Russians distrust the fledgling government, and some would indeed welcome Russian troops. But the events unfolding in major Ukrainian cities in recent days appear to match a pattern played by the Kremlin in Crimea, where pro-Moscow forces paving the way for Russia to seize control were neither altogether spontaneous, nor entirely local.

(cont. at link)

[mareen]

I wouldn't be surprised. I was already wondering about that exact thing...

[evilnel]

Oh yeah, evidently in Eastern Ukraine there were so many Russians taking taxis that the drivers just started giving change in Rubles, lol.

Also here's a picture of a "Ukrainian" protesting in favor of Russia. He's wearing a Ukrainian flag to denote that he's supposedly Ukrainian and plants a Russian flag. His facebook page, however, says that he's from Moscow.



There's also this meme going around:



Ha.

[moonshaz]

LOL!