EU/US impose sanctions on Russian politician decorated by the Maltese government last December
Valentina Matvienko with Vladimir Putin
Last December, Valentina Matviyenko, a Russian politician, was on the Labour government’s honours list (the list is officially the president’s, as head of state, but it is always the government which makes the selection).
We wondered why. The government said that it was because Mrs Matviyenko worked hard on the relationship between Malta and Russia. Really? Mrs Matviyenko was ambassador to Malta around two decades ago, between 1991 and 1995.
So what has she been doing in between to warrant decoration by Malta, or more specially, what had she been doing in the preceding year or two to warrant decoration by the Labour Party?
Now Mrs Matviyenko, freshly decorated with a Gieh ir-Repubblika by Malta’s Labour government, is one of the politicians on whom sanctions have been imposed by the European Union and the United States, in view of Russia’s behaviour in the Crimean issue.
This means that her assets anywhere within the European Union and the United States must be frozen by the governments there, including the very government which decorated her last December.
Mrs Matviyenko has also been subjected to a travel ban, which means that she cannot enter the European Union or the United States – and yes, that means Malta, too.
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Hasn’t she somehow obtained an EU passport – through the good offices of her Labour admirers – yet?
A pity, as she could then have told Obama and Barroso – and the rest of the civilized world – what to do with their sanctions.
I have no idea what is, if any, the relationship between Mrs. Matviyenko and the PL. However, the US/EU sanctions list is just fodder for the masses.
It is nothing but a token action as if to ‘protest’ Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
This Ukrainian debacle has smelt of gross incompetence at best, and corruption at worst, on the part of the EU versus Russia. People just read the mainstream media (all controlled by Western moguls) and swallowed the ‘news’ hook, line and sinker.
And so have the the EU leaders apparently. I am a quasi regular listener of Net News (for what it’s worth), and at times I was utterly disgusted by the political mileage that the PN has tried to make of the situation in Ukraine.
Normally I enjoy hearing John Zammit’s editorials at the end of the news, but when it came to reporting/commenting on Ukraine, I started to ask myself if our PN is a fascist party in disguise.
And now for our very own brigadier promoted to the highest rank without security clearance and an offical ministry statement spouting nonsense and a pack of lies.
The secret service asking banks to provide info when he’d been appointed over four months ago.
And a government denoting EU law to be foreign interference. Where that leaves our military is anyone’s guess. I suppose who gives a damn.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/37048/top_security_clearance_given_four_years_after_promotion_due_to_eu_directive_
Meanwhile, seems like there is the beginning of another European War in Crimea.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26637296
And CNN’s breaking news is that:
“Ukraine’s military in Crimea authorized to use weapons “to preserve life of Ukrainian soldiers,” defense ministry says. ”
Hope Joseph Muscat is in contact with Valentina Matviyenko about this, asking her that Russia should uphold international law and keep its hands off Crimea.
It has to be seen what happens to the South route pipeline.
Italy could be in a rush to order a number of offshore regasifer/storage units as of this week.
Meantime works on the other pipeline, stretching from Azerbaijan , through Turkey and onto Puglia may be accelerated, completion brought forward to 2016.
Muscat challenged the leader of the opposition to provide a date for gas pipeline. As they say, one week is a long time in politics.
http://www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/Conference_Report_-_Azerbaijan_and_the_Southern_Gas_Corridor_-_FINAL_web_version.pdf
Muscat cannot remain isolated on a point of principle, or better, his inherent xenophobic populism. Malta has extensive territorial waters and the availability of EU funding to connect the island to the continent, thanks to his predecessor’s foresight.
Just look at this paragraph taken from the Q&A section at the end.
‘….Question from Veaceslav Pituscan:
It seems that the key answer to the current situation for the countries
remaining outside the TAP project is the interconnectors. Can you comment on the current situation and
future prospects to put this system in place so that gas from Italy or Greece can get to Moldova via the
interconnector, which we started to build now between Moldova and Romania?
Christian Burgsmüller:
Certainly, there is a European program called the European Connector Facility
that helped with the financing of those projects. It is probably the biggest European infrastructure
program on energy, and the goal is to have no energy islands in the European Union by the year 2015.
These are individual projects that get evaluated as they are submitted and then EU financing is made
available for them. But the big dates we have are 2014 for the completion of the internal European energy
market and 2015 for the elimination of the last energy island in the EU…..’
I think Muscat needs to be sat down and asked gently what it is he really wants to do. The scepticism to the strategy outlined above, evident last Friday could well be his downfall and our loss.
What a fine kettle of fish!
Let’s see if Joseph Muscat can throw Valentina Matviyenko a lifeline by offering her Maltese citizenship.
This Gieh ir-Repubblika business under Labour is tantamount to a curse on the recipients.
Most of them seem to end up in a very bad way soon after they receive the honour or not so soon.
I honestly think it should be scrapped for the recipients’ sake.
As the great Craig has stated:
“The great Vladimir Putin is the greatest leader since U.S President John F. Kennedy and he may achieve what Kennedy was trying to achieve. It is time the Livery of the City of London was decapitated! All denounce your Western tyrant leaders controlled by New Venice (Britain) and lets move this world out of the clutches of the evil merchants from hell.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDLwu4E35us
This is one splendid parade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CKJEpfawCI
They know pathos.
[Daphne – They celebrate victory over Nazi Germany, but they killed millions more of their own citizens than Hitler ever did. I suppose it’s the ‘taghna f’taghna’ mentality: if Russian rulers kill Russian citizens, that’s fine, but don’t let anybody else try it.]
Definitely, Putin makes it sound as if Stalin and his pogroms never existed and Von Ribbentrop didn’t offer Poland on a plate.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/18/yes-prime-minister-russia_n_4985067.html?utm_hp_ref=tw