Some notes on the current situation in the Ukraine

This is just somewhere to put odd bits — arguments — that I find, that appear to be relevant. It will get updates.

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The West's hands are clearly not clean in this matter.

I thought at the time, when watching the news, when the protests against Yanukovitch were spreading, that the protesters appeared unusually organised. Compare them with the Iranians two (was it?) years ago, or the Turkish protesters last year. In both those cases, the crowds were mostly unable to defend themselves against the government forces, and the protests were only kept going by truly desperate sacrifices on the part of the people. In contrast, the Ukrainian protesters, though shot at by the government's special forces, were more than able to hold their own, and rapidly beat back the armed police. I remember thinking that something odd was going on, that there was more to this than met the eye. They were armed, organised, and very, very disciplined. More like a pre-planned coup than a protest, in fact.

Then there was the line-up of mothers who had lost their sons to the special forces. Moving, touching, but I noticed that each one carried a photograph in exactly the same kind of frame, of exactly the same size, and exactly the same shot angle and distance. Odd that.

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The Budapest memorandum was not ratified by Congress, therefore is not binding on the US. That probably means that Obama does not have authority to uyse military force to defend Ukraine against Russia (not nthat he would, anyway, but it gives him a legal "out").

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(From a comment on ZeroHedge.)
NATO bombed Serbia unilaterally, without permission from the Security Council, and "recognized" the "independence" of Kosovo (essentially a bandit regime). Serbia is a UN member, whose borders were guaranteed by the UN Charter...

So, NATO established the precedent.

Ukraine (EuroMaidan mob) and EU ministers signed an agreement too, and then made a Coup the next day. What about that agreement? (This point was made by Yanukovitch in his first speech on arriving in Russia.)

Future cabinet members were picked by foreign diplomats (not elected even in their own country) over unsecured phone conversation? A reference to the Victoria Nuland / Geoffrey Pyatt phone call.