20:43
28.3.2014
Barring any breaking news, that ends our blogging for March 28.
20:42
28.3.2014
City authorities have carried out an inspection tour of Kyiv's bomb shelters as lawmakers accused Russia of fomenting trouble in the Ukrainian capital after having annexed the Black Sea region of Crimea.
20:26
28.3.2014
From the agencies, via our news desk:
Ukrainian presidential candidate and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko reacted to a statement from former President Viktor Yanukovych about the need to hold a referendum on the status of every region in Ukraine. Tymoshenko said late Friday that if the statement from earlier in the day did indeed come from Yanukovych it is evidence he has become an "instrument of the fight against Ukraine, against the Ukrainian people." Tymoshenko said Yanukovych would be held "criminally responsible" for his calls for separatism, deployment of troops into Ukraine, toppling the legitimate government and other offenses. In the statement, Yanukovych called for the referendum and also called the current authorities in Ukraine unconstitutional and said the situation amounts to "anarchy." He also asked the Party of Regions to remove him as honorary chairman and to cancel his membership in the party. (ITAR-TASS, Reuters)
19:13
28.3.2014
19:10
28.3.2014
18:34
28.3.2014
18:31
28.3.2014
From the agencies, via our news desk:
U.S. President Barack Obama has called on Russia to withdraw its troops from the area of the Ukrainian border and to become a "responsible international citizen." Obama was speaking in an interview with CBS News Friday before leaving Rome. He said Russian troops massing along the border with Ukraine "under the guise of military exercises" should be moved back. Obama again encouraged Russia to open a dialogue with the new government in Ukraine to deescalate the tensions that have been developing since former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from power at the end of February and pro-Russian forces entered Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Obama also said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin has been acting in part from a "deeply held grievance about what he considers the loss of the Soviet Union." (CBS News, Reuters)
18:07
28.3.2014
Daisy Sindelar looks at the self-organized security patrols being organized by Crimean Tatars in the Crimean capital, Simferopol.
Here's a video (in Russian) of the patrols in action:
Here's a video (in Russian) of the patrols in action:
18:01
28.3.2014
In this week's "Power Vertical Podcast," Brian Whitmore and his guests discuss whether the "collective Putin" model has given way to good old-fashioned autocracy in Russia.
17:51
28.3.2014