Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich (L) gives a wink to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during a signing ceremony after a meeting of the Russian-Ukrainian Interstate Commission at the Kremlin in Moscow, December 17, 2013. Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
Anna Nemtsova, Daily Beast: Putin’s Secret Ukraine Plan ‘Leaked’
Publication of a leaked secret planning document raises questions about when and how Russia’s president might have planned the takeover of eastern Ukraine.
MOSCOW — Two weeks ago the editors of Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper famous in Russia for its investigative journalism, received an email from a Kremlin insider with a Word document attached. The email said that the document contained instructions on how to break Ukraine apart, and that the Kremlin had received that document from billionaire Konstantin Malofeyev in early February, well before Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych fled to Russia to escape the revolutionary fury of protesters in Kiev’s Maidan Square.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed all along that Russia’s sympathy and support for rebels in eastern Ukraine was the result of attacks by the Ukrainian factions that came to power after Yanukovych abandoned the ship of state exactly a year ago this week.
WNU Editor: I just finished reading the Novaya Gazeta article on this story .... and I am underwhelmed. Summarizing .... someone wrote a memo to Putin's office (the author has denied writing the memo) .... and this memo was in turn leaked to Novaya Gazeta. The memo outlines Russian strategy to absorb the Russian portion of Ukraine .... preferably through a referendum process .... but it also explored other methods and tactics that could be deployed. As I said .... I am underwhelmed. I am sure that somewhere in the bowels of the Kremlin there are political and war scenarios on what to do if Ukraine should become politically unstable .... and these scenrios have probably been around for years .... but the key question that needs to be asked is .... are one of these scenarios in play right now, or is the Kremlin doing everything on "the fly". In my opinion .... for what it is worth .... Putin is improvising as best as he, and he is implementing the Rahm Emanuel philosophy to the full .... "you never let a serious crisis go to waste". And if that is the plan .... he is doing it masterfully.
More News On The Leak Of A Kremlin Memo Outlining A Plan To Annex Eastern Ukraine
Kremlin saw plan to annex Crimea before Yanukovich fell: newspaper -- Reuters
Early Memo Urged Moscow to Annex Crimea, Report Says -- New York Times
Russia's roadmap for annexing eastern Ukraine 'leaked from Vladimir Putin's office' -- The Independent
Kremlin 'considered plan to split Ukraine before president’s overthrow' -- The Telegraph
Report: Kremlin Was Eying Ukraine Prior to Yanukovych Ouster -- VOA
Top Secret Briefing Advising Putin on Break-Up of Ukraine Leaked -- Newsweek
“The most interesting part about the document was the motivation of the Kremlin-insider source,” Nemtsova says.
ReplyDelete“Novaya Gazeta’s deputy editor has known the source for many years
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As soon as you read the words "information from sources" without a name,you might as well stop reading .