U.S. Department of Defense Efforts to Find MH 370

Seahawk assisting in the attempt to locate Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, courtesy of the U.S.N.

The U.S. Department of Defense has allocated resources from two destroyers and VP-46 Patrol Squadron scanning the seas using P-3 aircraft.

Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System. “Navy Expands Search Effort for Missing Airliner.” March 18, 2014. http://www.dvidshub.net/video/323208/navy-expands-search-effort-missing-airliner#.Uyimc4W3utY

U.S. Department of Defense. “Navy Assists Search Search for Malaysian Airliner.” March 18, 2014. http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2014/0314_flight370/

March 18, 2014: Ukrainian PM Yatsenyuk Announces that Russia-Ukraine conflict has Reached Military Stage

And the crisis escalates…

Euromaidan PR

Speaking at the Ministry of Defense, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announces that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia has reached a military stage. Yatsenyuk stated that the Russians opened fire on Ukraine’s military personnel in Crimea and called to immediately convene a meeting of defense ministers of Ukraine, US, UK and Russia, as per Budapest Memorandum.

Ukrainian: http://www.unian.net/politics/897926-yatsenyuk-zayavil-chto-konflikt-s-rf-pereshel-v-voennuyu-stadiyu-i-prosit-sobrat-komissiyu.html

View original post

Russian soldiers in Crimea stole Norwegians’ equipment

Loss of media equipment and body armor…

Euromaidan PR

Monday, March 17, 2014, 23:36

On the road from Crimea to the mainland of Ukraine, Russian soldiers seized equipment and accused the camera crew of the largest Norwegian media corporation, NRK, of spying. Telekritika reports this with reference to NRK’s site. The incident occurred on Tuesday, March 11, when journalists were returning from Crimea by car and passed a checkpoint controlled by unknown masked people.

“The people who are at these checkpoints are Russian soldiers, but without any markings. They do everything they want. Russians deny that it is their security forces. However, the checkpoints are fully occupied by armored personnel carriers, many soldiers and trucks,” said an NRK journalist in a story about the victims.

View original post 248 more words

Putin 3.0

The third evolution of Putin’s policy.

In Moscow's Shadows

A man alone

I don’t, alas, have time to give it a proper consideration, but my initial response from watching Putin’s Crimea speech is that this is another of those watershed moments. To me, we are seeing in foreign as well as domestic politics, a new Putin, let’s call him Putin 3.0, an idea I first developed in the most recent Power Vertical podcast. Putin 1.0, in his first terms in office, was characterised by assertive, sometimes ruthless, but essentially pragmatic policy. Putin was no fan of the West and its ideals, but nor did he regard himself as being at odds with it in any fundamental way, only when it tried to impede his own ambitions. Putin 2.0, after the “castling”, his return to office and the unexpected rise of the “non-system opposition”, was increasingly interested in foreign policy precisely as a way of assuaging or diverting…

View original post 350 more words

BBC on Arab Spring

New Libyan Army, courtesy of the BBC.

The BBC has a network page dedicated to the Arab Spring revolts across the Middle East and North Africa. It is a great overview of the rapid changes in states, on a country by country basis, including Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Tunisia. It is truly a great synopsis.

BBC. “Special Report: Arab Uprisings.” December 2013. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-12813859

CFR on Russian Expansionism

Crimea Referendum, courtesy of the CFR

CFR put out an article on the current situation in the Crimea. Author Stewart Patrick concluded that, “It would be wiser for the West to shift the terms of the debate away from the legal merits of Russian conduct, and to focus instead on the illegitimacy of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s clear aspirations to expand its territory.” A great piece written on strategic geopolitical action!

Stewart M. Patrick. “Crimea: Stop Citing International Law and Start Condemning Russian Expansionism.” CFR. March 17, 2014. http://blogs.cfr.org/patrick/2014/03/17/crimea-stop-citing-international-law-and-start-condemning-russian-expansionism/

INVASION OF CRIMEA – March 17, 2014 – SUMMARY

“The Ukrainian authorities finally announced partial mobilization.”

Voices of Ukraine

Source: Dmitry Tymchuk, Information Resistance

Information Resistance

17.03.2014
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

Brothers and sisters, here is the summary for March 17, 2014 (for summary from the previous day, see Summary of March 16.

The main alarming uncertainty of this day is the fate of the Ukrainian military in Crimea. They are being presented with ultimatums and coerced into betrayal, but they keep standing firm. But their future is unknown, which is particularly frightening.

According to our data, the General Staff is preparing backup plans for evacuating these military bases (they must be available in any case). But we haven’t yet heard a clear statement on this issue from the Ukrainian command.

More bad news:

1. The Kremlin is pretending to be a village idiot, once again denouncing all and any participation in recent events – and instead, handing out advice titled “How to Save Ukraine.”…

View original post 792 more words