Troops Approved!

From the BBC:

"Russian parliament approves troop deployment in Ukraine"

Russia's upper house of parliament has approved President Putin's request for Russian forces to be used in Ukraine. He had asked that Russian forces be used "until the normalisation of the political situation in the country" Russia's Black Sea Fleet is based in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, where many ethnic Russians live. Kiev has reacted angrily to days of military movements in Crimea, accusing Moscow of trying to provoke the new government into an armed conflict. Interim President Olexander Turchynov has called an emergency session of his security chiefs. Russia's Vladimir Putin submitted the request for troops "in connection with the extraordinary situation in Ukraine and the threat to the lives of Russian citizens", the Kremlin said.  The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says it is potentially significant that the request was for deployment in Ukraine as a whole, and not specifically for flash-points such as Crimea. The upper house went into a special session almost immediately after Mr Putin made the request, in what seems to have been a carefully co-ordinated series of events during the day Earlier, the lower house of parliament had urged the president to take whatever measures were necessary to "stabilise" the situation in Crimea. During the upper house debate, one legislator accused US President Barack Obama of crossing "a red line" with his comments that there would be costs if Russia intervened militarily in Ukraine. The upper house has recommended that the Russian ambassador the US should be recalled, although the decision lies with Mr Putin. The request follow days of military activity in Crimea during which unidentified armed men moved in to take over the regional parliament, state television and telecommunications hubs.

Soldiers from Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which is based in Crimea, are reported to be guarding some administrative buildings and military bases. Amid the closure of airspace over Crimea's regional capital Simferopol on Friday evening, there were unconfirmed reports that Russian planes were flying in thousands of troops.  Ukrainian Defence Minister Ihor Tenyukh said on Saturday there are now an extra 6,000 Russian troops in Crimea, alongside an additional 30 armoured vehicles.   Under the agreement governing the presence of the fleet in Crimea, the Russians must co-ordinate all troop movements outside the fleet's base with the Ukrainian authorities beforehand. The newly-elected pro-Moscow leader of Crimea, Sergiy Aksyonov, earlier said he had appealed to Mr Putin for help to ensure peace on the peninsula - a request which the Kremlin said it would "not leave unnoticed". Events in Crimea have angered the new interim government in Kiev - which does not recognise the province's new leadership - and has alarmed Western leaders. President Turchynov accused Russia of trying to provoke Kiev into "armed conflict", but said they would not react. US President Barack Obama said on Friday that "any violation of Ukraine sovereignty... would be deeply destabilising".

He warned of the "costs" of any Russian intervention in the Ukraine and commended the interim government in Kiev for its "restraint". Meanwhile, big pro-Russian rallies are being held in several Ukrainian cities outside Crimea.

• In Donetsk, Mr Yanukovych's traditional stronghold, demonstrators from a crowd of some 7,000 tried unsuccessfully to occupy the regional administration building, raising a Russian tricolour on a nearby flag-post

• In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, scuffles broke out when protesters with Russian flags tried to occupy the regional administration building

• In Mariupol, in the south-east, hundreds of protesters carrying Russian flags gathered outside the city council in eastern and southern Ukraine.

^ Come on Russia don't do anything stupid and start a war in the Ukraine. The EU, the US and the rest of the world would be forced to help the Ukraine and then we would all be in a real mess. Learn from your own history of invading neighboring countries. It may work out in Russian interests for a while, but then in the end Russia looses (ie the Cold War.) What Russia is doing (ie they say they are only protecting ethnic Russians living in the Ukraine) must have been learned from Nazi Germany because they (the Nazis) "only" wanted to help the ethnic Germans in Austria, Czechoslovakia and then Poland and we all know how that war ended for Germany. If ethnic Russians want the protection of Russia then they should move back to the Russian Federation. No one is topping them (on any side.) ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26400035