SBU detains Russian provocateur believed to have planned raid on parliament, cabinet buildings
Source: KyivPost
The Security Service of Ukraine said on March 31 that it had stopped a Russian man who investigators believe was planning to forcibly take over government buildings in Kyiv in an effort to destabilize the country.
Ukraine's security service, known by the acronym SBU, said in a statement on its website that it had detained Oleg Bakhtiyarov, a leader of the extremist Eurasian Youth Union of Russia, for allegedly planning to storm the country's parliament and Cabinet of Ministers buildings in Kyiv by force.
The Eurasian Youth Union, a Russian political organization and youth wing of the radical Eurasia Party, has been banned from Ukraine for carrying out acts of vandalism reported to be anti-Ukrainian.
The SBU said that Bakhtiyarov, working under the guise of a civil society activist in Kyiv, had recruited some 200 people to assist in storming the buildings and had stockpiled Molotov cocktails and various tools to carry out the provocation. He was also in possession of an undisclosed amount of cash.
Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/sbu-detains-russian-provocateur-believed-to-have-planned-raid-on-ukrainian-parliament-cabinet-341555.html
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)They are trying to spin it, and say that Russia was behind it. Cui bono?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/30/exclusive-photographs-expose-russian-trained-killers-in-kiev.html
The Right Sector admits to sniping, but nobody cares
When Fria Tider asked Skillt about rumors that the Ukrainian opposition itself may have been behind the shootings of protestors on the Maidan, he says that he is aware of them, but puts no stock in them. However, he said he has spoken to two people who sniped at the police on the Maidan Square during the riots. They used Saiga semi-automatic rifles equipped with telescopic sights, and were positioned on the third floor of the Trade Unions Building on Maidan Square, Skillt said. Their mission was to take out Berkuts snipers, he added.
He also told us that he recently ran into a man in an American uniform, carrying an American-made rifle. It was a bit odd, but it turned out he was Ukrainian, Skillt said. He had a modified, short-barrel M-16 with a telescopic sight. We said a quick hello.
http://www.friatider.se/swede-patrols-ukraines-streets-with-right-wing-paramilitaries
reACTIONary
(5,788 posts)The Peace Corp in Ukraine works in three areas: Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Community Development, and Youth Development. Peace Corp Ukraine Projects
Here is an interview with a returning Peace Corp volunteer who participated in teaching English: Q&A: Hillsboro graduate describes life during Ukraine crisis as a Peace Corps volunteer
Those working on Community Development Volunteers work primarily at non-governmental and charitable organizations (NGOs) but also at local municipalities, libraries, museums in partnership with local government bodies, businesses, and educational institutions. I did not find a list of specific NGOs, but here is a list of NGOs and projects sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy in the Ukraine: National Endowment for Democracy, Ukraine. I would imagine that there is some similarity and maybe even overlap.
So, what did you think he was up to?
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)"The Peace Corps is a perfect structure for the CIA. It provides a point of contact with the working class which is so necessary for information gathering. And, because of the Peace Corps structure, the CIA does not have to control it in order to use it successfully. The Peace Corps entered Latin America as the "person-to-person" of the Alliance for Progress. Working out of the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, the first head of the Peace Corps in Chile was Nathaniel Davis, promoted to Ambassador by the time of the September 1973 coup. Under the skillful guidance of Davis, many of the youthful volunteers headed straight for the poblaciones which housed the poorest sectors of the Chilean working class and unemployed. Fresh out of Swarthmore, Bennington and Berkeley, the volunteers invaded the poblaciones, lived with the people and came to know them -- politically and socially. They worked with them, observed their customs, their way of life, their traditions. And then they drew up work reports describing their experiences.
"It was not necessary to have many agents in the Peace Corps -- just in the right places and with access to all the information which was generated. Unknowingly, thousands of U.S. youths, most thinking that they were helping the Chileans, were instead gathering data for the now undercover Project Camelot.
"Those agents in the Peace Corps who were conscious of their role had several tasks. As they mingled with the people, they were identifying future leftist leaders as well as those right-wingers who in the future would work for U.S. interests. They were assessing consciousness, evaluating reactions to reforms. And they were selecting and training future agents. It was at this point that Michael Townley, Peace Corpsman in the sixties, was recruited to enter the Agency. Townley returned to Chile in 1970 as one of the agency's closest contacts with Patria y Libertad.
"Finally, the Peace Corps was used as a front to get paramilitary equipment into the country. Ellis Carrasco, who succeeded Davis as head of the Peace Corps, was himself accused of gun-running. Later, the U.S. Army donated and installed radio receivers in all Peace Corps regional offices to facilitate communications. These same receivers were used during the coup to facilitate coordination of the Junta's bloody activities." [5]
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peace_Corps
The Russians accused them in the past
"We deny them utterly," the official said.
The Peace Corps began sending volunteers to Russia in 1992, but the program was abruptly canceled in 2003 after Russian authorities refused to issue visas to volunteers, saying Russia was as developed as West European countries and those countries did not receive Peace Corps volunteers.
Patrushev, however, offered a new explanation in December for why the Peace Corps had been shut out, hinting that its volunteers in Russia had been surreptitiously gathering intelligence. The program's leadership denied the accusation at the time.
In the Duma, Patrushev also said the FSB has uncovered a "regime change" plan for Belarus that involves Western organizations and the Ukrainian activists who played a key role in that country's Orange Revolution last year.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/fsb-chief-ngos-a-cover-for-spying/223321.html
reACTIONary
(5,788 posts)That about sums it up.
As far as the other excerpt...
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)In an apparent violation of U.S. policy, Peace Corps volunteers and a Fulbright scholar were asked by a U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia "to basically spy" on Cubans and Venezuelans in the country, according to Peace Corps personnel and the Fulbright scholar involved.
Click here to read this article in Spanish. (Haz click aquí para leer este artículo en español.)
"I was told to provide the names, addresses and activities of any Venezuelan or Cuban doctors or field workers I come across during my time here," Fulbright scholar John Alexander van Schaick told ABCNews.com in an interview in La Paz.
Van Schaick's account matches that of Peace Corps members and staff who claim that last July their entire group of new volunteers was instructed by the same U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia to report on Cuban and Venezuelan nationals.
The State Department says any such request was "in error" and a violation of long-standing U.S. policy which prohibits the use of Peace Corps personnel or Fulbright scholars for intelligence purposes.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4262036
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)jakeXT
(10,575 posts)KIEV, Ukraine A member of Ukraines ultra-nationalist Right Sector party opened fire late Monday night in a city center cafe, wounding Deputy Mayor Bogdan Dubas and two members of the countrys national self defense units.
The attack occurred near Kievs Dniepr Hotel, the administrative headquarters of the Right Sector. The self defense units are an auxiliary security force made up of former Maidan fighters supported by the Ukranian government.
The gunman burst into the cafe and opened fire before barricading himself in one of the restaurants rooms. He later escaped to the Dniepr Hotel before being taken into custody by the police, acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in an official statement.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11334439