'We will defend our airspace'

OTTAWA — Canada will not tolerate Russian intrusions into Canadian airspace, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday after it was disclosed that two Russian bombers were intercepted just outside the Canadian Arctic shortly before U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa this month.

"I have expressed at various times the deep concern our government has with increasingly aggressive Russian actions around the globe and Russian intrusions into our airspace," the prime minister said at a news conference in Saskatoon.

"This government has responded every time the Russians have done that. We will continue to respond; we will defend our airspace."

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Source: Montreal Gazette

Canada 'turns back Russia bomber'

Canadian air force jets intercepted a Russian bomber approaching Canadian air space the day before President Barack Obama visited Ottawa, officials say.
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Two fighter jets met the long-range Bear bomber over the Arctic last week, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said.

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Source: BBC

KGB killers enjoy life in Canada

They called themselves Chekists -- the sword and shield of the Soviet Union. They were proud of what they were. Some served as concentration camp guards. Others were executioners. Many were just clerks or cooks or those ordinary guys who mop up the mess after the torturers are done.
Over the years they had different names -- Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, SMERSH and, most notoriously, KGB. Yet their job description didn't change. They were killers. They murdered whomever their masters wanted dead. Their victims numbered in the many millions.

Click here to view complete aticle. Great piece by Prof. Lubomyr Luciuk

Source: Winnipeg Free Press

Svoboda in Odesa

A peaceful demonstration turns ugly when local thugs attack the people attending this event. What were the police doing? Were they assisting these thugs? Why were these thugs left to run around and have free rein on the innocent by standers? They must feel really BIG hitting on people out to express speech. Slava Banderi / Slava Ukraini!! Katasapam / moskalyam het!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CHQTS7GEvU&feature=subscription

Exposing Russia’s Incompetent Leadership

Writing in the Globe & Mail Aurel Braun, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Toronto and author of NATO-Russia Relations in the Twenty-First Century, calls upon the West to stop being fooled by Potemkin Russia’s incompetent leadership:

The authoritarian leadership structure, what the Russians call the “power vertical,” is not transparent or adaptive. Mr. Medvedev’s constitutional supremacy belies the reality that crucial decisions are, in fact, made by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his tightly controlled group of security men, the siloviki. Even the occasional impression of a diarchy is mistaken, for Mr. Medvedev lacks a true powerbase. His liberal-sounding statements and expressed desire for genuine democracy, rather than Mr. Putin’s hyphenated euphemisms for authoritarianism – “sovereign democracy” or “directed democracy” – may raise Western hopes but, so far, mean little in practice.

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Source: Globe and Mail

Putin jibe picked for Eurovision

Georgia has chosen an entry which takes a swipe at Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for May's Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

But disco-funk song We Don't Wanna Put In, a play on the politician's name, could fall foul of Eurovision's rule against political content in entries.

A contest spokesman told BBC News some lyrics are "sensitive", but any action would be deferred until next month.

Russia and Georgia went to war last year over the region of South Ossetia.

Relations between the two countries have been tense for several years.

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Source: BBC

Eight decades of struggle

The 80th anniversary of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), being marked one of these days, is unlikely to draw too much attention. What is being hotly debated in Ukraine is the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Amy), the OUN’s armed branch, Roman Shukhevych, who held various posts in the organization and even headed it, and Stepan Bandera, known as the OUN top leader. These subjects and personalities have their followers and adversaries. But the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists itself is outside the societal discourse. After all, this can have a logical explanation: the OUN has been a legally unrecognized entity for 80 years now.

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Source: The Day

Exposing Russia’s Naked Emperor, freezing in Cold War II

Ultimately it’s up to the Russians to decide to be friends. One day, someone in the Kremlin will have to confront a hard choice: Does an isolated and dysfunctional Russia want to modernize and join up with the West, look toward China, or continue its slow decline? Until then, Mr. Obama better stock up on aspirin and dampen his and our expectations about Russia.

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Source: Wall Street Journal

The end of Russia?

On its present course, Russia is doomed, claims the distinguished historian, Yury Afanasiev. Why did reform change nothing? Why has the wheel of history turned back to autocracy? 500 years of oppression are reaching a terrible climax. In this important, excoriating essay, he challenges his people to face the truth about their history.
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Source:open Democracy News Analysis

Living book on Hetman Mazepa

Here is a brief excerpt from the historical portrait of Mazepa, this time about his recognition in Rusia: “He had absolutely everything to satisfy his proudest, insatiable self-esteem. When it was chilly outside, he would make public appearance wearing a luxurious green velvet jacket lined with sable fur and with diamond-ornamented buttons — everyone knew that this was Tsar Peter I’s gift. He was a general of the Russian army, a Full Privy Councilor, and the holder of the highest orders of the time, which lifted him above all Russian generals. He was awarded the title “Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.” All of this is, in my opinion, weighty evidence of the respect Hetman Mazepa enjoyed in Russia at the time.

Source: The Day