Kiev – praag.org

Autonomy proposed for Russians in Ukraine

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic have proposed amendments to the Ukrainian constitution to vest individual districts in eastern Ukraine with vast autonomy, including authority to regulate cross-border cooperation and the use of the Russian language.

What are termed as districts with “a special status” would also be authorized to control law courts and prosecution services on their territory, those the district prosecution services would be parts of the Ukrainian national prosecution service.

The consent of the government bodies of “special status” districts would be necessary for the appointment and dismissal of the districts’ chief prosecutors, but other regulations on their prosecution services would be established by Ukrainian law.

The DPR and LPR also proposed a formal non-bloc status for Ukraine by “making an amendment to the Constitution of Ukraine, for instance supplementing Article17 or 18 with the following words: ‘Ukraine shall not be a member of any military bloc or alliance, maintain neutrality and refrain from participation in hostilities outside its territory,’ and/or bringing out a law of Ukraine to enshrine the non-bloc, neutral status for Ukraine.”

Such districts would be authorized to call local referendums and elections, draft and adopt their own budgets, and participate in drafting the Ukrainian budget in order to make sure that their interests are taken into account and to “guarantee their financial independence.”

“Special status” districts would be empowered to permit the use of Russian and other languages on their territory and to sign economic agreements with foreign states or individual regions of foreign states.

They would be authorized to set rates for local taxes and fees for local administrative services.

The DPR and LPR also proposed a constitutional amendment to prescribe that the Ukrainian government sign economic or cultural agreements with “special status” districts or associations of such districts and to help them step up cross-border cooperation.

Source: Interfax

Germany puts pressure on Kiev

The Financial Times has disclosed the first attempt by Germany to put pressure on Kiev to implement the Minsk 2.0 peace agreement for East Ukraine.

Germany, in a bid to remain neutral amid rising trans-Atlantic tensions, may have warned the Ukrainians that unless they fulfill the Minsk Memorandum, something the Ukrainians have no intention of doing, there may be renewed aggression.

Kiev has welcomed military training missions from Canada and the US to Ukraine adding to what might become a US -Russian proxy war.

Atlanticist neocons entertain maximalist ambitions and have shown but intransigence to the bloodshed.

It seems as though Germany will exert some pressure on Kiev to back down from further escalating the conflict that have cost thousands of lives and seen the rise of modern Nazis.

From the Financial Times:

Germany and key European partners are pressing Ukraine to speed up implementing the Minsk ceasefire agreement — for fear of giving Russia excuses for renewed aggression.

The warnings from Berlin, Paris and London come as EU officials led by Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, are due on Monday to start their first EU-Ukraine summit in Kiev since the Ukraine crisis broke out a year ago.

They coincide with renewed tensions between Russia and the US over Ukraine, with Washington and Moscow trading allegations of increased military involvement in conflict zones.

The latest European comments highlight EU desires to ease tensions with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, even at the cost of irritating Kiev.

EU diplomats readily admit the separatists violate the Minsk ceasefire far more often than Kiev. But they urge president Petro Poroshenko to stick to the accord and implement its political clauses.

The word among German diplomats is that Kiev needs to be “more co-operative”. Stefan Meister, of Berlin’s DGAP foreign policy think-tank, said: “German officials are talking to both sides, but especially to the Ukrainians because if they don’t do what’s necessary, the Russians will always have the possibility of renewing the conflict.”

In France, President François Hollande said during a visit by Mr Poroshenko last week: “The only line of conduct is the full implementation of the Minsk accord.”

In the UK, which has followed the US in taking a tougher line against Moscow, an official said Ukraine should fulfil its side of the Minsk deal and “not give Russia the space to criticise them”.

The latest Minsk accord, agreed in February under pressure from Germany and France, has reduced fighting and led to the withdrawal of some heavy weapons from front lines, though soldiers and civilians still die almost daily.

But Berlin is worried that Kiev is dragging its feet over other parts of the fragile deal, notably in trying to postpone political decentralisation until after local elections are staged in separatist-held territory.

For Ukraine this is critical because it does not want to hand over power to separatist leaders in the Donbas region, who are not recognised by the international community. EU diplomats say, however, that while local elections are indeed envisaged under Minsk, the accord does not insist that they take place before decentralisation.

Dmytro Kuleba, a senior Ukrainian foreign ministry official, dismissed charges of delaying tactics as “perfect hypocrisy”, saying Russia was encouraging this perception while continuing its aggression.

Kiev has, however, acted on another EU concern. Last week, lawmakers softened recent legislation banning Soviet and Nazi symbols. The planned law had raised fears in Russia of a campaign to remove monuments and rename streets dating from the Soviet era. Now such decisions are planned to be devolved to regional authorities.

But Russia is maintaining the pressure. The foreign ministry on Friday accused Kiev of having “no political will” to implement the Minsk agreement.

Meanwhile, Berlin is also pressing EU officials to be conciliatory with Moscow. Foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote this month to Mr Juncker urging the EU to ease “Russian concerns” over a deep free-trade agreement with Ukraine.

The planned deal helped trigger the initial crisis when it fuelled Russian fears of losing influence in Kiev. Implementation was postponed last year in the face of Russian resistance, with the hope of discussing the matter at trilateral talks between Moscow, Kiev and Brussels.

But Kiev is loath to involve Russia in what it sees as a bilateral accord — and Moscow has warned Ukraine against unilateral implementation. Mr Steinmeier has urged a start to the three-way talks, asking Mr Juncker to “use the considerable flexibility that the agreement offers”.

Will Kiev take down statue of Soviet general?

Rumors are swirling the man who liberated Kiev from the Germans may not be allowed to rest there any longer

There have been rumors in the Russian press about Ukraine’s alleged plans to dismantle the monument to Vatutin in central Kyiv, a stone’s throw from parliament.

According to the reports, Ukrainian authorities intend to cremate Vatutin’s remains, buried under the monument, unless his relatives collect them.

Kyiv, however, firmly denies the claims.

A Just Russia, a Russian political party seen as loyal to the Kremlin, ratcheted up tensions this week by stating that Vatutin’s daughter had requested that her father’s body be repatriated to Russia after authorities in Kyiv personally informed her of their plans.

Party leader Sergei Andrei Mironov was quick to throw his weight behind the reburial initiative.

“Our duty is to shield the grave and the monument from the danger they face today,” in the April 8 press release. “Reburying the general and transferring the monument to his homeland would be a correct and timely act.”

With relations between Russia and Ukraine at their lowest since the demise of the Soviet regime, Vatutin has become a polarizing figure.

The Russian general commanded Red Army operations in Ukraine during World War II.

Despite liberating Kyiv from Nazi German forces, he was attacked by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a partisan unit that fought both Nazi troops and the Red Army, and died of his wounds in April 1944.

The UPA was organized by supporters of controversial Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, branded a neo-Nazi by Russian state media.

Since Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted following mass protests in Kyiv, Russia has repeatedly accused the new Western-leaning government in Kyiv of being followers of Bandera, or “Banderovtsy.”

A Just Russia is no exception.

“General Vatutin died after being attacked by nationalists, Banderovtsy from the so-called Ukrainian Insurgent Army,” Mironov wrote in the press release. “Today, their heirs and successors are in power in Ukraine. And they don’t hide their hatred for heroes of the Great Patriotic War such as Nikolai Vatutin.”

Vatutin’s daughter, too, has only harsh words for the Ukrainian leadership.

Yelena Vatunina, who lives in Prague, confirms writing to Russian President Vladimir Putin last month to petition for her father’s reburial in Moscow.

She has yet to receive an answer.

“My father’s grave is located where they stirred all this trouble, near the Verkhovna Rada,” she told RFE/RL. “And who are they? They are all Banderovtsy. My father also died because of Banderovtsy.”

But she says her request was inspired solely by her distaste for Ukraine’s new government and denies being contacted by Ukrainian authorities about plans to dismantle the memorial.

“We don’t know anything yet,” she says.

Vatunina is also unlikely to back proposals to transfer the entire monument, which she describes as an architectural “monster,” to Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukraine insists the monument will remain in place, together with Vatutin’s ashes.

Lawmaker Oleksandr Brygynets, the former head of the Kyiv City Council’s commission on culture, admits that feelings are mixed in Ukraine about Vatutin’s legacy.

But he says the general’s final resting place should still be in Ukraine, not Russia.

“I’m not in favor of people who symbolize Soviet rule being actively represented in the streets of Kyiv,” he says. “On the other hand, I strongly believe we need to preserve monuments to people who are part of Kyiv’s history, and Vatutin is unquestionably one of them.

Source: Radio Free Europe

US, UK and NATO up the infowar

Documents posted on the web reveal a high-level anti-Russian propaganda war being waged in south and eastern Ukraine by the US, the UK and NATO on behalf of the Kiev Government, using non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as agents.

According to the Drakula blog, the West is raising its game in its campaign against Russian President Vladimir Putin. While it is — on the one hand — pumping up the military volume by moving NATO and US hardware nearer to the Ukraine and Russian borders, it is also playing a hybrid war by pumping funds into an anti-Russian propaganda war.

NATO documents show that a “co-ordination meeting on StratCom training for Ukraine” was held in Riga, Latvia on February 19, 2015 as part of its “on-going capacity building programme”.

StratCom stands for Strategic Communication, which means dealing with the “inability of Ukrainian media to provide sufficient reach for the south/east of the country; vast reach of media originating from Russia; lack of strong Public Broadcaster; lack of success stories; [and] lack of trust of the population of the south/eastern regions in the central government”.

The NATO document reveals the Kiev Government has a “weak Public Affairs capacity” and sets out proposals to counter Russian influence and tackling what it describes as a lack of cross-government work and co-ordination as well as a lack of understanding of the importance of “national narrative”.

Further documents reveal a project run by the UK Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence worth $360,500 with the purpose of: “National reconciliation in Ukraine through effective communication for restoring public trust and empowering of the participatory democracy mechanisms using regional media coverage, counteraction to Russian information influence”.

It outlines a pro-Kiev propaganda battle using Ukrainian agencies including the Ukrainian Institute for International Politics (UIIP); the Analytical Center for Geopolitical Studies ‘Borysfen Intel’ (BI); and the Department of the civil-military cooperation, HQ of the armed forces.

The program involves “resuming the communication and community dialog in Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine using international experience shared by UIIP and BI foreign partners; informational support of national reconciliation ideas through broadcasting and media coverage of Eastern and Southern Ukraine regions by new alternative regional mass-media and Internet resources; and decreasing the Russian information influence in Ukraine, discredit of the Russian political and military leaders.”

The revelations will embarrass the US, NATO and UK who have been at pains to denounce Russia for promoting what they call a ‘hybrid war’ in Ukraine.

Source: Sputniknews

Witch hunt against Ukraine-born pianist over anti-Kiev posts

A Ukrainian-born pianist was barred from playing at Canada’s Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) for expressing views on the situation in Ukraine via Twitter, according to the soloist herself. The move led to a social media storm tagged #LetValentinaPlay.

The orchestra has officially announced its decision to drop pianist Valentina Lisitsa from its Rachmaninoff Concerto #2 program earlier this week. TSO President and CEO Jeff Melanson cited “ongoing accusations of deeply offensive language by Ukrainian media outlets,” adding that Lisitsa’s “provocative comments” had allegedly “overshadowed past performances.”

In the statement, Melanson seems to be referring to Lisitsa’s Twitter posts, in which she expresses her views on the situation in Ukraine.

Lisitsa turned to Facebook on Monday with a plea, asking her fans for support to “tell Toronto Symphony that music can’t be silenced.”

“Someone in the orchestra top management, likely after the pressure from a small but aggressive lobby claiming to represent Ukrainian community, has made a decision that I should not be allowed to play,” she wrote, referring to her TSO performances on Wednesday and Thursday. “I don’t even know who my accusers are, I am kept in the dark about it.”

Lisitsa said she took to Twitter to shed some light on the other side of the story, “the one you never see in the mainstream media – the plight of my people, the good and bad things that were happening in Ukraine.

Some of her work included translating Ukrainian-language websites and eyewitness accounts.

“I became really good in unmasking fakes published by Western media,” Lisitsa said.

Her statement also gives a brief summary on her actual views: “The worst thing that can happen to any country is fratricide war, people seeing each other, their neighbors as enemies to be eliminated …[a] Year later, we have the same rich people remaining in power, misery and poverty everywhere, dozens of thousands killed, over a million of refugees.”

After expressing her views, Lisitsa claimed to have received numerous death threats.

The last straw was the decision to drop her performance: “My haters didn’t stop there. Trying, in their own words, to teach me a lesson, they have now attempted to silence me as a musician.”

Lisitsa revealed that TSO offered to cover her entire fee for the canceled program, if she chose to stay silent about the reason behind the decision.

“They even threatened me against saying anything about the cause of the cancellation … If they do it once, they will do it again and again, until the musicians, artists are intimidated into voluntary censorship,” she wrote.

The reaction on Twitter was massive, with the hashtag #LetValentinaPlay surging in popularity and thousands of supporters speaking out.

International concert violinist and recording artist Hannah Woolmer tweeted: “To me, this IS a VITAL campaign pls can all my followers retweet if they agree that @TorontoSymphony should #letvalentinaplay.”

Seventy-two-year old Hana Ustohal wrote on Facebook: “What kind of monsters are in power of this country to make such an insane and sadistic decision to not allow you to play. I’ve cancelled my ticket for Wednesday concert.”

Twitter user Ike Hike warned that the TSO’s decision “looks bad,” adding: “Would you seek fame as silencing art for partisan politics and smear Canada? You should #letvalentinaplay.”

Lisitsa maintained on her Twitter account that she does not mix music with politics, and does not “preach” during performances. Her opponents, however, accused her of being a “Kremlin mouthpiece” and a “hate monger.”

Maria Kolos wrote on Facebook, supporting the TSO’s decision: “Thank you TSO for not tolerating this offensive Kremlin mouthpiece.” Mat Babyak also said: “Thank you for not giving a platform to a racist hate monger! Keep her out of Canada!”

Lisitsa has a substantial following on YouTube and Twitter. One of her most popular videos – Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ – has over 9 million views. Due to her successful online career, she is sometimes referred to as “the web’s favorite pianist.”

Her career was successfully launched through a YouTube channel, which now has received around 43 million visitors. Lisitsa now travels around the world performing classical pieces.

American diplomats receive Russian ‘gifts’

American diplomats, US Embassy consul for political affairs, Andrea Brouillet-Rodriguez and second secretary of the US Embassy, Christopher Grossman were presented with Russian “gifts”.

One of the presented photos, “Gorlovka Madonna,” is considered one of the symbols of war in Donbass. A young mother with a ten-month baby in her arms from Gorlovka was killed by the Ukrainian punishers.

The guests were also presented with the photo of brutally murdered Vadim Papura who died on May 2, 2014 in Odessa.

Andrea Brouillet-Rodriguez hastened to turn away when receiving the photos, her eyes barely had caught the sight of the images.

“The purpose of our present is ‘let’s be friends’. Let us recall the experience of our grandfathers, who together forged victory. A certain contribution to our victory over the Nazis was made by the Americans. It is better to combine our efforts today to win over the worst evil on the planet,” the Russian communist deputy, Bair Tsyrenov said.

He also reminded the American visitors about the approaching 70th anniversary of the Soviet Victory in the Great Patriotic war.

The communists expressed hope that the two countries entered into another confrontation can find common ground in the struggle for world peace, just as they did 70 years ago.

US waging a financial war for imperial ambitions

The United States is waging a finance war against Moscow in a bid to weaken Russia to a point of economic and social destruction, the Austrian Contra magazine said, adding that this campaign goes against the international law, WTO rules and bilateral agreements.

The United States has a wide array of instruments at its disposal. The Austrian magazine named assigning false credit ratings as a prime example.

“Russia’s fundamentals are the best in the world. Not a single (big) state has better fundamentals than Russia.

However, Fitch downgraded it to a 3B rating – just above junk level. The US has the worst fundamentals in the world. But the same rating agency has given it AAA, the best rating possible. It remains a mystery how the rating agency counts that,” the publication said.

The media outlet compared the US to a terrorist state that disregards general code of conduct and acts upon its whims and wishes, forcing other countries to participate. Moreover, Washington threatens any country that has chosen to act independently with war and sanctions.

The US monthly CounterPunch also called American and British imperial ambitions the real challenge to the world.

Any country resisting the American Empire, taking a stand against its hypocrisy, double standards, and complete lack of respect towards other countries and cultures, US monthly CounterPunch reported, suffers from these attacks.

The last year coup in Ukraine was openly supported by the West. US Senator John McCain along with EU representative Catherine Ashton traveled to Ukraine personally to show their support and urge on the protesters in Kiev.

The United States is a global hegemon with over 1,000 military bases and 11 navy battle carrier groups around the world and a military budget that exceeds budgets of all other industrialized nations combined.

The truth is that the challenge facing the world right now is how to deal with the United States and its imperial ambitions, rather than contain a fake Russian threat.

The Ukrainian crisis has once again shown that “we live in a world in which the West’s interests and rights are the only ones deemed legitimate”. The imperial hegemonic agenda of the United States and Britain is the root cause of the crises currently taking place in eastern Ukraine and the Middle East.

American and British hypocrisy knows no borders, the US monthly said. How the United States and Britain who played central roles in diminishing Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria into an abyss of carnage and savagery, could then make statements that Putin is a greater threat to Europe than the Islamic State?

France will not send military, arms to Kiev

France has no plans of sending military instructors or delivering equipment to Ukraine as opposed to Great Britain, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that Britain would send instructors to Ukraine to train the country’s military, Sputniknews reported.

“Great Britain has taken a hardline to the situation and is considering a number of measures that you have said [sending military instructors], which Prime Minister David Cameron announced. We have also taken a firm position, but are still pushing for the de-escalation of the conflict,” Fabius said on France Info radio station.

France is party to the Normandy format talks on Ukrainian reconciliation, which also includes Russia, Germany and Ukraine. The most recent Normandy-quartet meeting between foreign ministers took place in Paris on Tuesday.

Kiev authorities repeatedly asked foreign partners for lethal assistance. On Tuesday, Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko said that the United Arab Emirates had agreed to send weapons and military hardware to Ukraine.

A number of European states, including Germany, refused to arm Kiev. The United States, where according to a recent poll by Pew Research Center more than half of the respondents oppose sending weapons to Ukraine, is yet to make a decision on the matter.

German mom to sue Kiev over MH17

The mother of a victim killed in the Malaysian plane crash in eastern Ukraine has started legal proceedings to sue the Ukrainian authorities in the European Court of Human Rights, demanding about $1 million for pain and suffering.

The mother of “Olga L.”, a German citizen, submitted her case against Ukraine to the European Court of Human Rights last week. She is demanding €800,000 (roughly $1 million) for negligent homicide, reports the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

The woman insists that Ukrainian authorities should have shut the country’s airspace to civilian flights due to the heavy fighting between Kiev troops and militias in the country’s east.

She argues the Kiev government failed to do this because they didn’t want to lose out on overflight fees. According to Bild, around the time of the disaster about 700 flights were crossing Ukrainian territory daily, accruing several millions of euros in revenue a month.

The victim’s mother is being represented in court by Elmar Giemulla, a professor of aviation law. Giemulla is also acting for other German families of MH17 victims, who announced in September that they are also planning to sue Kiev in court.

“Each state is responsible for the security of its air space,” Giemulla said in September. “If it is not able to do so temporarily, it must close its air space. As that did not happen, Ukraine is liable for the damage.”

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was apparently shot down on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over eastern Ukraine on July 17. Four German citizens were among the 298 victims of the plane crash.

A preliminary report into the disaster delivered by Dutch investigators on September 9 said that the MH17 crash was a result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects striking the Boeing from the outside.

However, in November the Dutch government refused to reveal details of a secret pact between members of the Joint Investigation Team (the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and Ukraine) examining the downed Flight MH17. If the participants, including Ukraine, do not want information to be released, it will be kept secret.

Western countries have repeatedly tried to blame Russia without any evidence to back up their claims.

Russia has meanwhile expressed surprise with the lack of new evidence presented in the report. Moscow suggested the UN should appoint a special representative to monitor the investigation into the shooting-down of flight MH17.

Moscow made radar surveillance data of the incident public which show the involvement of Kiev in downing the Malaysian plane.

Hard-core Nazis in power in Kiev

“Their children will hole up in basements!” screeched Ukrainian “President” Poroshenko, the oligarch and “Chocolate King.” “This is how we will win this war!”

He was talking about the children of the people of East Ukraine, whose cities are being bombed from the air by the US-supported Ukrainian military.

Thousands have been killed, mostly civilians: Ukraine’s war on its own people has displaced nearly a million people. Many have fled to neighboring Russia, while a little under half a million are classified as internally displaced refugees.

The Ukrainian military, which claims to be fighting “terrorists,” is using cluster bombs – weapons that are banned in the civilized world, but freely used by Ukraine’s military, which includes the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.

Formally inducted into Ukraine’s US-backed military machine, the Azov Battalion was organized by openly neo-Nazi groups, and has been such a success that their deputy commander, Vadim Troyan, has been appointed the city of Kiev’s chief of police.

Troyan is a member of the “Patriot[s] of Ukraine” uniting openly neo-Nazi Ukrainian organizations.

Before Troyan’s elevation to the top law enforcement position in the country’s capital, he and his fellow neo-Nazis were quite well-known to the police in Kharkiv, where they regularly beat up their political opponents as well as foreign students, migrants, and homosexuals.

And if you’re a reporter covering the conflict in Ukraine, and you have any interaction with the Ukrainian government – specifically the Ukrainian intelligence service known as the SBU – be advised that you will be dealing with Yuri Michalchyshyn, formerly the chief ideologist of the neo-fascist Svoboda party, who has been appointed head of the SBU’s “Department of Propaganda.”

Michalchyhyn is a real piece of work: as the former head of the “Joseph Goebbels Political Research Center,” he isn’t shy about his advocacy of National Socialism.

Among his political activities: organizing a torchlight parade replete with Nazi symbolism. Michalhyhyn considers the Holocaust “a bright episode in European civilization.”

Yet there has been almost zero coverage of this in the Western media, which is content to echo the US State Department’s line about how Democracy is marching onward in Kiev as Ukraine “chooses Europe” over the East.

The ugly reality is that the Ukrainian “revolution” was nothing of the sort: it was a coup rather than a revolution, and its leadership, rather than being aspiring democrats who want to be members in good standing of the West, are in fact a collection of thieving oligarchs, like Poroshenko, neo-Nazi thugs, and the usual opportunists who hang around every Western-backed “color revolution” looking for the main chance.

Standing behind them are the Western intelligence agencies who ginned up this phony “revolution,” and are now homing in on the Russians, hoping to provoke a full-scale invasion of Ukraine so as to justify their plans for a revival of the cold war.

As for the future of Ukraine: it is being set up for a full-scale fascist takeover with campaign posters featuring impaling a Jewish oligarch on a Ukrainian trident.

The selling of the Ukrainian “revolution” as a “democratic” uprising that established a “pro-Western” liberal government in Kiev has got to be one of the public relations triumphs of the century. The masters of spin who pulled this off have managed to turn black into white – but the truth is slowly emerging.

Source: Justin Raimondo/Antiwar

White Widow reportedly killed in Ukraine

The ‘White Widow’, a British female terrorist suspect who allegedly fought alongside ISIS terrorists in Syria and was sought internationally has reportedly been shot dead in Ukraine. The news was reported by Russia’s Regnum news agency.

Samantha Lewthwaite, 30, was allegedly gunned down two weeks ago. However, no independent confirmation was available.

Lewthwaite recently fought alongside one of Kiev’s most infamous squads – the Aidar battalion, which was condemned by Amnesty International for its unmatched cruelty in eastern Ukraine.

It was said to be “involved in widespread abuses, including abductions, unlawful detention, ill-treatment, theft, extortion, and possible executions.”

She was reportedly a sniper for the group. Her killer was also a sniper – allegedly one who travelled from Russia to fight near Lugansk.

The White Widow was deemed one of Britain’s and the world’s most wanted terrorists.

She left the country in 2009 before links to atrocities in Africa began to pop up.

A photo of fake South African passport of Samantha Lewthwaite released by Kenyan police in December 2011.

Prior to that, she had been married first to the Jamaican-born British suicide bomber, Germaine Lindsay. Her second marriage was to a British-born Muslim extremist, who was reportedly killed in a shoot-out between two splinter groups within Al-Shabab.

She was also a mother of four.

In Africa she fought with the fearsome Al-Shabab terrorist group in Somalia, who were implicated in Kenya’s Westgate shopping mall massacre of September 2013. It turned out she was actually the mastermind behind the operation.

Witnesses reported a white female among the assailants. 67 people died at the as a result of her Westgate plan.

She used a fake passport to escape Kenya to her supposedly native South Africa. That was the last anyone has heard of her until now, when she was apparently spotted in Ukraine.

‘Western intelligence services are trying to exploit MH17 tragedy’

Western special services know who shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine and the reasons behind the move but prefer to manipulate this information and take advantage of the tragedy, retired Lt. Gen. Nikolai Pushkarev, formerly of the Russian Armed Forces’ Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) told RIA Novosti.

“The Western intelligence and the Americans are very well aware of all the details: who shot [flight MH17] down, why and what for, but manipulate this information and this incident for their own benefit.

This provocation was organized to lay [the blame] on Russia and force it into sending troops to Ukraine, officially, but the Russian government did not succumb to this provocation,” Pushkarev said in an interview.

Pushkarev added that the United States is interested in a “direct military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”

Pushkarev also stated that investigating the real reasons behind the catastrophe is not the responsibility of the Main Intelligence Directorate.

“The Federal Security Service and the Foreign Intelligence Service are responsible for investigating this case, because they have the needed experts in these structures, this is their prerogative,” he explained.

On July 17, a Malaysia Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk, killing all 298 people on board. According to a preliminary report issued by the Dutch Safety Board early in September, the plane likely broke up in mid-air as a result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from the outside.

Kiev accused independence supporters in eastern Ukraine of shooting the plane down, but has not provided any evidence to back this claim.

The local militia leaders have said that they do not have weapons capable of shooting down a plane flying at 32,000 feet.

Meanwhile Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Wednesday that a thorough, independent investigation of the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is needed before any decision on where those responsible should face trial, Reuters reported.

The aircraft crashed in eastern Ukraine in July with the loss of all 298 people aboard. “What we now have to do is through the independent safety boards to exactly understand what happened and the public prosecutors have to work on the prosecution which follows from this,” Rutte said.

Rutte was visiting Kuala Lumpur to meet his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak. The Dutch PM flew from Amsterdam on Flight MH19, re-named from MH17.

The removal of fragments of the Malaysian Boeing which crashed on the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) might begin on Friday, a source from the DPR Ministry for Emergency Situations told TASS.

“The removal of the plane fragments will approximately begin on Friday,” the source said.

An unnamed source from the DPR transport ministry has confirmed the report. “We have been coordinating the necessary documents and the order in which the fragments will be removed. If things work out right, the first batch of the Boeing fragments will be sent to the Netherlands,” the source said.

Kiev pondering a nuclear option against Russia

Kiev wants to restart its nuclear weapons program if it doesn’t get enough support from the West.

“If we cannot protect Ukraine today, if the world doesn’t help us, we will have to go back to the development of nuclear weapons, which will protect us from Russia,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Valery Geletey said in an interview with Ukrainian TV, also claiming that NATO members have already started supplying Kiev with other weapons.

In the same briefing Geletey mentioned that arms were starting to come in from the NATO alliance. It could add to the fragility of a recent truce.

Slovakia, to some extent the Czech Republic, and Hungary, are said to be worried about these latest remarks.

The American political establishment wants to use Kiev as a spearhead against Russia, and the Atlanticist alliance has not condemned this statement.

Meanwhile Finland will not give up the construction of a nuclear power plant (NPP) in conjunction with Rosatom (Russia’s Federal Agency for Nuclear Power) because of sanctions; there are no differences in the Finnish government over the matter, Finland Prime Minister Alexander Strubb told Radio Suomi in an interview, ItarTASS has reported.

Strubb also emphasized that cooperation between Finland’s power company Fennovoima and Rosatom “will not shake Finland’s reputation”. He said the project for the construction of the NPP is significant to such an extent that “it should not be mixed with politics”.

The Rusatom Overseas Company (a subsidiary of Rosatom) and Fennovoima signed a contracts for the construction of a Hanhikivi-1 NPP at the end of December 2013. A license for building it had been obtained by Fennovoima way back in summer 2010. During the obtaining of the license, the Russian company had not been mentioned as a supplier of reactor. Therefore the Finnish side considered it necessary for the parliament to approve the construction once again a decision to refer the project to the members of parliament is to be made by the government. Besides, simultaneously, Finland’s Ministry of Employment and the Economy and the Radiological Safety Centre are now busy estimating environmental and nuclear safety of the project.

Fennovoima expects that Finnish authorities, upon studying the new elements that appeared in the project, will reaffirm that it fully meets the country’s interests.

West’s new sanctions subverts peace process in Ukraine

The West’s new package of sanctions against Russia looks “somewhat strange,” since this move actually subverts the peace process in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

“As for sanctions that were imposed today, or yesterday, it all looks somewhat strange – even on this background of the use of (sanction) mechanisms,” Putin told journalists.

“Some time ago, I had a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and after it I proposed a plan how to solve this conflict peacefully and our positions coincided to a greater extent,” Putin said, adding that his plan had been used as a basis for peace agreements “committed to paper at a Contact Group meeting in Minsk.”

“And I would like to mention it with satisfaction that the process has moved off the starting block,” with combat operations stopped and the offensive by the East Ukraine’s militia suspended, he said. Apart from that, “you have to give the Ukrainian president his dues, the Ukrainian army has made corresponding steps under the agreements: they have withdrawn artillery and multiple launch rocket systems off populated areas to a distance that makes it impossible to fire on these settlement.”

“A peace process has begun, first contacts have been launched and I think this process has yielded a possibility to begin a political settlement, at least provisionally,” Putin said. “It has brought some positive air into the situation, which showed on Ukraine’s southeastern regions.”

Bearing this in mind, Putin said he did not see what had triggered further sanctions from the European Union. “I can’t understand what these next sanction steps are about,” he said.

“I’ve said it many a time that our Western partners first drove the situation into an anti-constitutional coup and then supported the punitive operation in the Southeast and now that the situation has switched over to the track of peace settlement someone is taking steps aimed at breaking the peace process up,” Putin said.

“What is this done for?” he asked.

The EU and US imposed a new batch of sanctions on Russia for Ukrainian developments from Friday despite the fact that the parties to the intra-Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire during OSCE-mediated talks on September 5, and that the truce took effect the same day.

The new sanctions the European Union and the United States decided against Russia, target the country’s largest banks, energy and defense companies, as well as individuals.

Building on earlier measures, the sanctions target Russian access to capital markets, ban the sale of dual use equipment to nearly a dozen Russian companies, and add dozens of people to the list of those facing travel and financial restrictions. The new initiative follows on a change of tactics made in July, switching from targeted sanctions against individuals and businesses to measures against entire sectors of the Russian economy.

The EU made their announcement first, stating Friday that sanctions targeting Russia’s finance, energy and defense sectors had come into force.