Why do think Italy subsidised Malta for over two decades via the financial protocols, għax aħna gustużi?

The last sentences should have read as follows:

“However the Russian army occupation will now taint the result of any ballot.

By invading Ukraine, for blatant domestic political purposes, Putin has needlessly and dangerously increased political, economic and military tensions in the region – indeed globally. Soft power projection is unfortunately not an approach favoured by ex-KGB personnel..”

I trust the ample video footage these past hours – showing Russian tanks, troop carriers, helicopter gunships and warships moving into Crimea and Ukrainian territorial waters – have dispelled any illusions of Russian non-interference.

As regards to ‘politicians held hostage’, were the McCarthy communist witch-hunts proof that Western democracy was as bad as Soviet communism? Hardly. Is the undue political pressure in western Ukraine, resulting from the handful of neo-nazi and islamist extremists, comparable to that exerted by the Russian army in Crimea? Of course not.

The majority in Crimea would probably have voted for secession, in a free vote. The provocative vote against the Russian language probably provides sufficient motivation to do so – even though this was an understandable gesture at a human level (as it was basically a knee-jerk FU directed at Putin and his unconditional support for a corrupt and ultimately murderous regime). However the Russian army occupation will now compromise any ballot.

By invading Ukraine, for blatant domestic political purposes, Putin, has dangerously raised the political and military stakes just for domestic politics.

RT is the equivalent of Kevin Ellul Bonici, down to the sarcasm and puerile style of language.

For an articulate, credible and professional news source giving all views including Russia’s, the best place is Ria Novosti.

Let me help clarify the real meaning of the words being bandied about by the English-language media.

“Spetsnaz”, in Russian terminology, can be anything from special forces to specialised troops, to rapid reaction forces, down to professional soldiers (which constitute an elite when the army consists of conscripts). So it doesn’t mean that Russia is sending its special forces into Ukraine.

“Troops pouring into” (read this in many news reports). Why not use the neutral term “deploying”? Yes, Russia has increased troop numbers in Ukraine, but it under the terms of a bilateral treaty with Ukraine, which still holds, it is allowed to station up to 25,000 troops in Crimea. At the moment it has less than 16,000.

“Heavily armed”. The BBC keeps using this to comment on footage of Russian troops. I see troops carrying standard-issue rifles. What constitutes a “heavily armed” soldier?

The words are skewing our judgement of the situation. Now if it were only you and me, it would be bad enough. But our political leaders too are getting their facts through these emotionally-charged news reports, and that’s a recipe for disaster.

One fact about Stepan Bandera and the whole Facists/neo-Nazis thing: he was given (posthumously, of course) the nation’s highest award by none other than Yanukovych himself. See why things are blurred over there? Then it was overruled by parliament, and in the end the honour was withdrawn. In Poland, you’ll find monuments to Bandera’s Polish victims. The very first law enacted by the new Ukrainian government was a ban on Russian as an official language. And this in a country where half the people speak Russian as their mother tongue. This is what Putin means when he speaks of “Nationalist Fascists”. The situation is not helped by the fact that news outlets have to translate a rapidly-evolving situation that’s being acted out in Russian and Ukrainian into English.

One thing I’ll say about Ukraine and Russia: at least their people are alive and active. In my country, the government is putting up a statue to a vile tyrant and the most evil man ever to rule Malta, and everyone is nodding in approval.

I enjoy RT. Makes me chuckle, as does CNN, Fox, CCTV, Al Jazeera, and BBC. Super One probably would also.

Baxxter, totally agree with your March, 3, 1:23 AM comment. Putin is probably the least authoritarian Russian President, excluding Gorbachev, over the last 70 years.

Fiat currency transfer is the least of the EU’s problem.

When money can be generated out of thin air by those in control, bankrupting or enriching a nation can be accomplished with ease so it is not a problem.

It is only a problem if these same ones in control want to make it a problem for their own nefarious reasons.

@ciccio Adolf Hitler was announced dead, equals to resignation. So, you can sleep peacefully, he is not acting Chancelor of Germany, although it seems there is another one in the making: Adolf Merkel

“Racial segregation? Hasn’t happened. Anti-Semitism? Hasn’t happened. Dictatorship? Hasn’t happened”

You’re kidding me, right? Today’s Russia is a hotbed of racism and anti-semitism. You will get beaten up by skinheads at the drop of a dime and there is little help that you will get from the authorities. Same thing if you’re gay, except that the anti-gay attitude has now been officially sanctioned by the state.

Putin’s Russia is steadily moving towards National Bolshevism, complete with the one prime ingredient for a typical right-wing regime – the cult of personality, and if you’re going to tell me that Putin doesn’t cultivate that – well…don’t expect me to take that seriously.

As for deposing a president by force, perhaps if the president hadn’t decided to unilaterally strong-arm anti-democratic resolutions into force in order to quell the widespread dissent, perhaps Maidan would not have happened the way it did. The fact is that the ethnic Russian Ukrainians are the minority, and this fact seems to have been conveniently forgotten all of a sudden.

Russia’s deployment of troops, for all that they may be welcomed in the ethnic Russian Crimea, still constitutes a unilateral military breach of a sovereign state. Hitler was welcomed with wreathes of flowers when he invaded Poland, but, well, let’s just leave it at that.