CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY – UKRAINE SPECIAL REPORT 7 – FRIDAY MIDAFTERNOON, March 7

CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY

A free service of Jesus Christ is Lord Ministries

News selected and edited by Ray Mossholder

UKRAINE SPECIAL REPORT 7,

Friday midafternoon, March 7, 2014

RUSSIA TIGHTENS ITS GRIP ON CRIMEA

Russia has reportedly begun large-scale air defense drills as tensions with the West continue escalating over the fate of Crimea. Roughly 3,500 troops and more than 1,000 units of military hardware will be hosted for about a month in Kapustin Yar, some 280 miles east of the Ukrainian border. The exercise by Russia’s Western Military District, according to a report from RIA Novosti, will culminate with live-firing drills and deployment of air defense systems.

“It is for the first time that all air defense units from the district, including coastal defenses of the Northern Fleet, have gathered in one place,” district spokesman Col. Oleg Kochetkov said, adding that the drills were part of regular training cycles. “It is the largest-ever exercise held by air defense units of the Western Military District.”

Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed the report to Fox News based on the latest intelligence available to U.S. officials. The exercise comes as the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament said Friday that Crimea — an autonomous Ukrainian region with a majority ethnic Russian population — would become an equal part of Russia if the region votes to leave Ukraine in an upcoming referendum on March 16. Valentina Matvienko met with the head of the Crimean parliament to discuss the region’s possible accession to Russia.

President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Tuesday that Russia had no intention of annexing Crimea, while insisting that residents had the right to determine the region’s status — and thus possible independence — by popular vote. The referendum, however, will give Crimea residents only two options: to join Russia or to stay with Ukraine.

“If the decision is made (by referendum), then (Crimea) will become an absolutely equal subject of the Russian Federation,” said Matvienko. She emphasized the grievances of Russian-speaking residents in eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, which have been the Russian government’s primary justification for possible intervention in its neighbor.

Matvienko said the government welcomed the expedited referendum date, which was originally slated to coincide with nationwide elections on May 25. She dismissed that vote, saying there are “no conditions for honest, equal, transparent and open elections” in the country.

The Russian parliament has scrambled to introduce legislation that would simplify the procedure for Crimea to join Russia. According to current constitutional law, Russia can only annex foreign territory by an agreement “initiated … by the given foreign government.” Because Crimea is still legally Ukrainian territory, that would entail signing an agreement with new authorities in Kiev, who have condemned Russian moves in the region. New legislation would sidestep that requirement, according to members of parliament, who said a new bill could be passed as soon as next week.

If the new bill is passed, Crimea would be the first territory to officially join Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which broke away from the Caucasus nation of Georgia after a brief 2008 war with Russia, have been recognized as independent by Moscow, but there have been few serious moves to enable them to join Russia.

Pentagon officials announced Thursday that six U.S. F-15 fighter jets had arrived in Lithuania to bolster air patrols over the Baltics. A U.S. warship, USS Truxtun, is also now in the Black Sea to participate in long-planned exercises.

The fighter jets and 60 U.S. military personnel landed at Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania, adding to the four F-15s and 150 troops already there to do the air patrol mission. The additional fighters came from RAF Lakenheath. The Navy destroyer is participating in exercises with Romania and Bulgaria and is expected to be in the Black Sea for several days.

The U.S. and other Western nations have begun preparing sanctions against Russia for its recent move to send military troops into Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Also today Reuters reports, military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have been unable to enter the Crimea Peninsula for the second consecutive day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

JOURNALISTS BEATEN IN CRIMEA

CCTV footage has been released showing the moment a masked paramilitary holds a gun to the head of a Bulgarian journalist. The shocking scenes played out on the streets of Simferopol, near the parliament building, after a camera crew was told to stop filming by a group of masked and armed men.

According to eyewitness accounts, the crew were beaten at gunpoint and had their equipment loaded into a white van. The paramilitaries then turned their attention to two photographers on the opposite side of the street.

In an interview posted to the crimea.ua new site one of the journalists attacked stated; “We were sitting in a restaurant when masked gunmen entered the building opposite and began to take out television studio equipment. I quickly took a few photos on my phone, as they carried the equipment. One of the masked men approached me, put me on the ground, put a gun to my head and took my phone and my friend’s camera. Then they returned to the van, the vehicle had no licence plate, and they left.”

He added; “Here now, the military situation has no law. People who do this are clearly not subject to any laws.”

Journalists from the German newspaper Bild were also reportedly attacked this week in the same region.

RUSSIA MAKING THE ILLEGAL “LEGAL”

The Russian government has proposed legislation that would grant citizenship to anyone who speaks fluent Russian and had once lived, or who had relatives who lived, on the territory of the Soviet Union. The draft law would apply to millions of people throughout Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as Ukraine, Moldova and other parts of Europe. So, amid the crisis in Crimea, where one Russian justification for military intervention has been to “protect” ethnic Russians, the timing should increase anxieties in presidential palaces across the region that Moscow is also using a soft weapon in its arsenal to rebuild its empire.

In theory, ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in formerly Soviet states have long had the right to acquire Russian passports, but the process in recent years has become more difficult and protracted. Applicants must move to Russia and live there for three years, while jumping through a ruthless sequence of bureaucratic hoops. Nevertheless, since independence, according to official Kyrgyz statistics cited by Radio Azattyk, about a tenth of Kyrgyzstan’s population has received Russian citizenship.

Now, too, the process won’t be without sacrifices. Under the proposed law, applicants would have to wave their existing citizenship. But as the bill is written, it does not require the new Russian citizens to immigrate.

There are some vague caveats about how much the applicant must use Russian as a first language. That might help assuage persistent xenophobic concerns in Russia about demographic trends not in ethnic Russians’ favor. And of course, this being Russian legislation, the process will unlikely work as well in practice as it looks on paper.

Russia has a history of using passports as weapons. It justified intervention in Abkhazia and South Ossetia as its responsibility to protect its citizens, many of whom had been granted Russian passports in the run-up to the 2008 war with Georgia.

So, in light of events in Crimea – where pro-Russia political groups have skyrocketed to power and troops widely believed to be under Russian control have surrounded military facilities – the timing could inspire some scary hypothetical scenarios for Central Asian leaders. If many of the ethnic Russians in northern Kazakhstan, for example, decided to suddenly take up Russian citizenship, what would stop Moscow from “protecting” them?

Editor’s note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of “The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television.” Follow her on Twitter@FridaGhitis

THE OLYMPICS WERE THE LAST REAL UNITING OF THE NATIONS

(CNN)-The clash between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the forces arrayed in support of Ukraine’s independence-minded leaders has crashed the vaunted “reset,” ending hopes that Moscow and the West would smooth relations and work hand-in-hand toward common objectives.

Nobody can predict with certainty how this conflict will end. But the world can already glean important lessons. Unfortunately, most of those lessons are cause for deep concern. Here are five clear messages from the crisis in Ukraine.

1.Nobody’s scared of America, but American and European values hold strong appeal.

Lest we forget, this all started over a move by the now-deposed Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, who broke his promise to sign a partnership agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow. Ukrainians were enraged, not just because they want more trade with Europe but because they have seen what Western standards can bring to a society.

They were fed up with corruption, authoritarianism and stagnation. They wanted their country to be free of Moscow’s interference, and many gave up their lives to fight for an ideal of stronger democratic institutions, rule of law and fair play.

As strong as the pull of these values is, their principal advocate, the U.S., has lost much of its ability to stare down its foes in support of those who want to institute democratic principles in their countries. We saw it when President Barack Obama declared — years ago — that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad must step down. We saw it when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pelted with tomatoes in Egypt. And we saw it in Ukraine, when Obama warned Putin to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity, only to see the Russians capture Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. America does not intimidate. Its loss of influence means strongmen and dictators have a freer hand.

2. You don’t mess with Putin without paying a price.

Even if Moscow were to relinquish all control of Ukrainian territory today, Putin has already achieved a main goal. He has sent a clear message to countries that were once part of the Soviet Union — and perhaps to the USSR’s former Eastern European satellites — that they cannot defy his wishes without paying a painful price. In that sense, Putin has won.

A top Putin aide warned last summer that Ukraine was risking “suicide” if it dared to defy Moscow. Now we know this was no bluff. Putin is serious about protecting Moscow’s sphere of influence. It’s not clear how closely he wants to control what are supposed to be independent countries.

3.If you are a vulnerable state, you may regret surrendering nuclear weapons.

This may be the most dangerous of all the lessons from this crisis. Ukraine had a sizable nuclear arsenal at the end of the Cold War, but it agreed to give it up in exchange for security guarantees. In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine committed itself to dismantling the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal. Russia, in exchange, vowed to respect Ukraine’s borders and its independence. Now, Russia has clearly violated those commitments. If Ukraine still had its atomic weapons, Moscow would have thought twice before seizing parts of Ukraine.

4. Don’t expect support from all international peace activists (unless the U.S. invades).

To liberal activists in Ukraine and Russia, the reaction from international peace movement must be a hard pill to swallow. Parts of Ukraine have been captured at the point of a gun by a regime that actively suppresses dissent. When liberal Russians protested, police arrested hundreds of anti-war demonstrators.

While Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory and its harsh crackdown on local protest have been criticized by some human rights activists, the reaction among some prominent “peace” activists has been astonishing. Several have mimicked Putin’s blame of the U.S. for the crisis. Instead of taking a clear stance in support of a country with invading military forces on its soil, some so-called anti-war groups have taken the opportunity to dust off their anti-American vitriol.

A favorite line of discussion is whether Washington has any right to criticize Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory after the U.S. invaded Iraq, a country that was ruled by one of the world’s most brutal, genocidal dictators. However misguided America’s Iraq invasion, even drawing the comparison is an insult to Ukrainians.

5. The use of brute force to resolve conflicts is not a thing of the past.

One day, if history moves in the direction we all wish, countries will solve their disputes through diplomacy and negotiation. Sadly, that day has not arrived. John Kerry has expressed dismay at Putin’s “19th-century” behavior, but power politics, forcible border expansion and brazen aggression have not been relegated to the history books; witness events in places like Syria, the Central African Republic and now in Ukraine.

Those are the first five lessons. But allow me to offer a bonus, a work in progress that could join as No. 6: When the stakes grow high enough, the U.S. and Europe may rise to the challenge.

Western nations seemed caught off-guard by Putin’s “incredible act of aggression,” as Kerry termed it. Some of Putin’s gains (see No. 2) may be irreversible. But the U.S. and Europe have been shaken up by events, and they may yet send a message of their own, helping Kiev’s government succeed and prosper as it sets out to chart a future of its own and limiting Putin’s ability to replicate his acts of intimidation.

Kerry’s visit to Kiev was a powerful moment. His unvarnished message to Putin if backed by action, was a respectable start. The U.S. would prefer to see this crisis resolved through negotiations, he declared, but if Russia chooses not to do so, Washington’s and its partners “will isolate Russia politically, diplomatically and economically.” Already the EU is offering Ukraine an aid package comparable to the one Putin used to lure it away. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is boosting ties with Poland and the Baltic States, and economic sanctions are under discussion.

If Putin wants another Cold War, he has one.

SANCTIONS DON’T SCARE RUSSIA

Moscow (CNN)– Your sanctions don’t scare us.

So said Russia’s parliament today as it gave its defiant support to Crimean lawmakers who want to see their region split from Ukraine and join Russia.

The lawmakers’ unanimous call for a vote on separation prompted howls of outrage Thursday in the United States and Europe — and the threat of sanctions, including asset freezes, visa bans and travel bans.

The delegation from the Crimean parliament, which said it would put the decision to a public vote on March 16, headed to Moscow on Friday and got a very different reaction. Valentina Matvienko, speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, told the Crimean delegation it would “support and welcome” any decision made by the Crimean people to become a part of Russia. “We have no rights to leave our people when there’s a threat to them. None of the sanctions will be able to change our attitude,” Matvienko said. The delegation was greeted with loud applause in the lower house, where the speaker described the decision to hold the referendum as “dictated by the willingness to protect human rights and lives.”

Ukrainian interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk condemned talk of a split amid the presence of thousands of Russian troops in Crimea. “I want to warn separatists and other traitors of the Ukrainian state who are trying to work against Ukraine, any of your decisions taken is unlawful, unconstitutional, and nobody in the civilized world is going to recognize the results of the so-called referendum of the so-called Crimean authorities,” he said Friday.

One man, speaking in Russian, said: “I’ve been ordered by the government of Crimea not to let anyone in.”

And in signs that the pro-Russian Crimean authorities are clamping down on dissent within the peninsula, at least two Ukrainian channels, 1+1 and Channel 5, have been blocked from broadcasting terrestrially. The head of 1+1told CNN that Russian state TV outlet Channel One is now broadcasting on its frequency.

President Barack Obama set out a potential solution to the crisis when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for an hour on Thursday, the White House said. The proposal includes direct talks between Kiev and Moscow, the withdrawal of Russian forces, international support for elections on May 25, and the presence of international monitors to “ensure that the rights of all Ukrainians are protected, including ethnic Russians,” Obama said. Putin has scoffed at all of these ideas.

As they seek to put the diplomatic squeeze on Russia, European Union nations said they’ll suspend some talks with Russia and have threatened travel bans, asset freezes and cancellation of a planned EU-Russia summit.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French public radio Friday that tougher measures are planned if Moscow doesn’t act to de-escalate the situation.

“And if another attempt is made, then we would enter into something completely different — that is to say serious consequences for the relations between Europe and Russia,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned against sanctions, saying in a statement that they would “inevitably boomerang” on the United States.

But there’s help on hand for the fledgling government in Kiev. A Ukraine’s new government and the EU have agreed to revive a trade deal and an aid package that could bring $15 million to Ukraine.

The International Monetary Fund is also ready to help, the head of the agency’s European section said. NATO is willing to help Ukraine’s military “modernize and strengthen,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Friday. Such aid is desperately needed.

The Russian gas company, Gazprom, has not received any payment from Ukraine in February, according to the company’s CEO, the Russian state news agency Itar-Tass, reported Friday. CEO Alexey Miller said Gazprom cannot give Ukraine gas for free, Itar-Tass reported.

SOCHI’S PARALYMPIC INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

Ukraine’s Paralympic team sent just one member to participate in the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in the Russian city of Sochi, said Dmitry Bulatov, Ukrainian minister of sports and youth. The decision to boycott the ceremonies, with the exception of a single flag bearer, was made unanimously by the team, he said. “This is how our team expresses protest against aggressors and occupants entering our land,” Bulatov said.

Official delegations from the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Canada and Poland earlier announced plans not to attend the Games. Athletes from those countries will still compete.

The peninsula was part of Russia until 1954, when it was transferred to Ukraine, which was then under the Soviet Union. Russia has a major naval base in the port city of Sevastopol.

REACTION OF THE MUSLIMS IN CRIMEA

Russian speakers make up about 60% of Crimea’s population, but around a quarter are Ukrainian and 12% are Crimean Tatar, a predominately Muslim minority. Neither of the latter two groups welcome a switch to Russian control.

CNN’s Diana Magnay met with Crimean Tatars in the town of Bakhchisaray amid fears for their safety that have reminded some of past oppression under the Soviet Union. Many spent years in exile — in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan or other Soviet republics — after the Soviet Union deported them for supposedly collaborating with Adolf Hitler. “It is not legal,” one elderly man said. “We are the original nation of Crimea. Our Khan state was here. Russia left us with no rights.

We don’t want to be with Russia, we want to be with Ukraine,” he said.

CNN’s Laura Smith-Spark wrote this report from London, and CNN’s Alla Eshchenko reported from Moscow. CNN’s Tim Schwarz in Kiev, Bharati Naik, Chelsea J. Carter, Jason Hanna and Ursin Caderas contributed to this report.

WHERE SIN ABOUNDS, GRACE DOES MUCH MORE ABOUND

Kiev, Ukraine —In the midst of ongoing turmoil that has enormous global significance, God is mightily at work in Ukraine, the nation’s acting president has said yesterday in an exclusive interview for Decision magazine. “Stories of God’s hand abound,” Oleksandr Turchynov, a devout evangelical, said during a private meeting with BGEA Vice President of Crusades Viktor Hamm. Born in a Soviet labor camp, Hamm has led 15 crusades in Ukraine between 1994 and 2006 as a BGEA associate evangelist.

Turchynov has declined requests from internationally prominent news organizations, but granted Decision magazine the interview that will appear in more detail in a special report on the Ukranian crisis in April’s edition. Hamm also has met with some of the nation’s top evangelical leaders this week while in Kiev to show BGEA’s support. Decision traveled with him to cover the story that has gripped the world. “Truth was on the side of those who stood for their rights, and (chose not to) be slaves, without rights and without voice,” acting president Turchynov said of the near-miraculous victory of thousands of unarmed protesters over the regime of now-deposed former president Viktor Yanukovych. “All events demonstrated the greatness of God,” Turchynov said. During three months of protests in which Yanukoych’s Berkut riot police beat and shot protesters, it appeared the many freedom fighters had little chance in a David vs. Goliath kind of confrontation. A fiery showdown ensued and hit its violent peak from February 18-20, when Berkut snipers shot down and killed protesters. Nearly 90 died in all. Yanukovych, who fled on or around February 21, is now charged with mass murder by authorities in his country.

Turchynov said only God could have delivered those who refused to be oppressed any longer. The acting president noted how, during the war-like events that took place during the confrontations at Maidan (the city square), huge clouds of smoke would drift toward the Berkut riot police and away from protestors, obstructing the view of the perpetrators. Turchynov said there was also a time when a grenade was thrown near him, but that only one fragment hit him on the cheek, causing no lasting injury. “I see God’s hand in every little detail that took place as unarmed people went out to defend their freedom and the independence of their country against a fully armed professional army, many times bigger in size,” Turchynov said. “Their faith was victorious. God granted them victory.” God’s grip on Ukraine has been strong for more than two decades. Hamm says it’s the most evangelical nation in Europe.

Turchynov asked BGEA’s supporters and believers worldwide to “pray for us so that peace would return and people would be able to live peacefully.” His hope for another victory, preferably without armed conflict with Russia, is based on a Biblical promise. “If God is with us,” Turchynov said, “who can stand against us?”

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

How would a Christian ever know whether their faith was weak or strong

unless it had been tried and tested?

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CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY – UKRAINE SPECIAL REPORT 7 – FRIDAY MIDAFTERNOON, March 7