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| Merkel seeks Tymoshenko's treatment In Germany. Tymoshenko's safety in Ukraine can not be guaranteed despite the extra security measures employed |
Moderate expectations
The
problem for the EU is that Yanukovych never gives up to the pressure -
be it from Moscow or from Brussels. An opposite - if the pressure is
applied he will act against his own interests and the interests of the
country protecting first of all his self-esteem. Even if black and white
approach is understandable at the parliamentary level, as politicians
care more about the impression they create and reelection and not always
are able to get to the the essence of the problem, at the executive and
diplomatic level should be employed more sophisticated approach.
It seems that a search for the mutual acceptable solution was exactly the reason of the Ukrainian prime-minister invitation for the European lawyers to take part in the Tymoshenko trial as well as the proposition that they can study all related to the case documents in order to evaluate them from the European point of view.
It seems that a search for the mutual acceptable solution was exactly the reason of the Ukrainian prime-minister invitation for the European lawyers to take part in the Tymoshenko trial as well as the proposition that they can study all related to the case documents in order to evaluate them from the European point of view.
In
this situation the EU's approach doesn't need to be too formal and
legalistic "monitoring panel', as proposed by the EU Parliament
Resolution on Ukraine. The EU's experts participation should be
proactive, suggesting solutions combined with the advices for the
reformation of the judiciary system in general. Tymoshenko case should
become a positive precedent of the cooperation of the EU and Ukraine in
the context of the approximation of the Ukrainian judiciary system to
the European standards.
Russia's Stake in Tymoshenko's case
Though
there are some pitfalls here. Some experts insist the Ukrainian
judiciary system is under the Russian unofficial control and Russia is
not interested that Ukraine resolves the Tymoshenko problem and gets
out of isolation. After Azarov's invitation for the European lawyers
prosecutors immediately tried to downplay Azarov's proposition.
Despite
all measures of security applied to Tymoshenko Yanukovych is unable to
control everything. There is a danger that if the cooperation with the
European judiciary experts will get a positive dynamic something can
happen to Tymoshenko. Tymoshenko case plays the same role in a potential
Ukrainian isolation as it was with Gongadze case, which led Kuchma's
Ukraine to isolation ten
years ago. Such developments must be excluded from the start and the
best way is to let Tymoshenko get treatment in Germany before the case
is resolved, otherwise consequences could be fatal for all involved.
Azarov's declarations on fight with the terrorism and acquisition of
four armored Mercedes for Yanukovych only prove the fact that Ukrainian
authorities does not able to fully guaranty Tymoshenko's security. Not to mention ritual explosions in the Tymoshenko's home
town last month and still unexplained aggression against her in the
jail. Tymoshenko should be warranted in absentia in order to exclude all possible provocations.
As strange as it is the ideologist of the first 'show case' against the Tymoshenko-Putin gas
contract was not Yanukovych, but the Orange Revolution President Victor
Yuschenko, who had his stake in the previous contract with Gazprom. The
trial against Tymosdhenko as he explains
was designed to make Russia to change devastating for Ukraine gas
contract, which leads Ukraine to economic failure and higher dependence
from Russia. Yanukovych implemented Yuschenko's scenario, but at some
point this scenario went out of control.
Putin,
who hates Tymoshenko for the Orange Revolution humiliation was glad to
see her imprisoned. In fact he provoked it. During the ceremony of
signing the contract Putin emphasized his special "gratitude to
Tymoshenko for taking personal responsibility for the contract". On
practice this meant Tymoshenko's omitting compulsory confirmation of the
deal by the Ukrainian Cabinet of ministers, what became the main
accusation in Tymoshenko's sentence, which along with her mentions also Putin and Medvedev.
The latter detail didn't excite Moscow, which in exchange for promise to review the contract suggested to initiate other cases against Tymoshenko, which not affect Russia's reputation. This was exactly what the prosecutors have done reviving old cases against Tymoshenko. As Azarov declared in Brussels: he suddenly realized that they "played by someone else script". Hopefully the awareness of this fact will help Ukrainian authorities to start their own game. Participation of the EU lawyers in the Tymoshenko trial will be only fair taking into account the EU's indirect stake in the signing of this contract and though its symbolical share of responsibility.
The latter detail didn't excite Moscow, which in exchange for promise to review the contract suggested to initiate other cases against Tymoshenko, which not affect Russia's reputation. This was exactly what the prosecutors have done reviving old cases against Tymoshenko. As Azarov declared in Brussels: he suddenly realized that they "played by someone else script". Hopefully the awareness of this fact will help Ukrainian authorities to start their own game. Participation of the EU lawyers in the Tymoshenko trial will be only fair taking into account the EU's indirect stake in the signing of this contract and though its symbolical share of responsibility.
Political Contract - Political Trial
Tymoshenko's
prosecutors and Ukrainian authorities insist that Tymoshenko's case is
not politically motivated despite the common view that this is just an
attempt to get rid off the political opponent. The case is political
from the start as Tymoshenko has the 2009 gas deal was made under the
huge political pressure from the Russian side, which got proportions of
the so called "Gas War".
Cutting
the gas supply at the 6th of January Putin left to freeze the half of
the Europe during the abnormally cold winter, not to mention the
economic losses. Health and even life of a lot of people in the Eastern
Europe were endangered. Moreover this was not a spontaneous action
from the Russian side - this was a very well thought and thoroughly
prepared action meant to discredit Ukraine in the European's eyes and to
impose unsupportable conditions to Ukraine in such way bankrupting the
country economically and morally.
Russia
intended to prove that Ukraine is not a reliable partner and in such
way to break the resistance of those in Europe, who at that stage was
still was opposing to building of the Russian-German gas pipe-line
'Nord Stream' and advocating another joint venture - the South Stream
gas pipeline, which should bypass Ukraine depriving it from any
geopolitical and economic significance and making it more prone to
return under the Russian rule. Also during the signing the contract was clearly
articulated Russia's demand to overtake the Ukrainian pipeline, which
still has a strategical significance for the Ukrainian independence. Putin's agenda behind this contract was
merely political despite his attempts to present this deal as purely
economic and totally legal.
Man-made Force Majeure Condition
Signing the contract Tymoshenko first of all was rescuing the half of Europe and the Europeans. In such force majeure
situation (even if it was not natural, but a man-made disaster) ,
Tymoshenko didn't have much space for a maneuver in negotiations.
Putin's intransigence and malignity during negotiations were obvious for everybody and
deliberately emphasized. This force majeure condition justifies the
fact that Tymoshenko has cut some necessary and important in normal
situation bureaucratic procedures which is the main charge against her.
Tymoshenko was put in the situation of the radical choice: to unblock
the situation or to keep people in the EU freezing.
The
fact that Ukraine were loosing to Russia the information war put an
additional psychological pressure on Tymoshenko. Russia being well
prepared to the attack in advance has caught Ukraine totally unprepared
for such developments.
Besides the immense political pressure the negotiations
had an exhausting character lasting for 10 hour without any break, what
put enormous physical pressure on Tymoshenko. It seems that she had
overestimated her personal power resources. She is not a super-human as
she often tends to think. But did she had a choice?
Psychological pressure as negotiations tool
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| The negotiations process looks like a torturing for Merkel to the greatest satisfaction of Putin |
It is impossible to exclude and another kind of psychological pressure. Putin is known for intentional application
of a psychological pressure during negotiations. There is a high
probability that Tymoshenko also became an object of unaware to her
psychological pressure. The most well-known case is Angela Merkel's,
with Putin abusing her fear of dogs - the case described by the Foreign Policy Magazine:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a master of psychological diplomacy, has repeatedly attempted
to take advantage of Merkel's fear. In 2006, the then-president
perplexed German diplomats by presenting the chancellor with a small dog
as a gift and made a habit of having his black Labrador, Koni, sit in
on their meetings. Putin's successor, Dmitry Medvedev, has put a stop to the practice.
This
case just proves Putin's readiness for applying psychological pressure
during negotiations. The habit can be explained by his professional
training of the KGB agent including torturing and psychological
influencing techniques. Thus it would be a total neglect from Putin's
side not to use his expertise in these matter during the 2009 gas
negotiations when the stakes were extremely high.
The means: from vodka to psychotropic weapons
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| During Azarov's stay in Brussels Yanukovych in apparently altered state of mind was getting a reprogramming in Moscow |
The
means of pressure can differ from a banal vodka in combination with NLP
techniques to more sophisticated approaches meant to induce a victim in trance making it vulnerable to imposed will.
Recently Putin made public his plans for creation of the psychotropic weapons,
however the Russian scientists insist that Moscow already for a long
time possesses such kind of weapons, applicable on both individual basis
and mass scale, but Moscow does everything to keep them a secret.
The psychological technologies produced by Putin's laboratories allow to induce in trance and to impose his will not only to targeted individuals, but to entire nations. Greece is one of examples. Induced in deep trance by the chaos of devastating and well organised protests at the end of 2008 (Putin's vendetta for the Lisbon Treaty voted by the Greek parliament despite the previous promise of the prime-minister to organise a referendum on this matter in exchange for the generous sweat-heart deals with Gazprom) that triggered the Greece crisis, the country became vulnerable to massive tailor-made for Greeks anti-establishment and anti-European propaganda, what led to the rise of the ultra-left and ultra-right parties in the country and threatens with collapse not only Greece, but the entire EU.
Whatever the 'magic means' were
applied Tymoshenko's super-task in that situation was to save the Europe
from the cold and she didn't have another choice than to agree for the
devastating contract. The gas price stipulated in the contract is twice
higher than for European countries. At the same time Russia pays to
Ukraine only half of
the gas transit price what costs to Ukraine 3,5 billions per year. The
'pay or use' clause in the contract,
binding to draw contracted volumes from Gazprom, makes Ukraine to pay
for unused volumes of gas 300 % of penalty charges, what made for
2009-2010 4,2 billion dollars. In general ex-president Victor Yuschenko claims loss of 11-12 billion dollars per year due to the Tymoshenko-Putin deal, what is incompatible with the independence of Ukraine. Since the Nord
Stream pipeline was launched Ukraine has lost 15% of its revenues for
the gas transit to the EU.
The psychological technologies produced by Putin's laboratories allow to induce in trance and to impose his will not only to targeted individuals, but to entire nations. Greece is one of examples. Induced in deep trance by the chaos of devastating and well organised protests at the end of 2008 (Putin's vendetta for the Lisbon Treaty voted by the Greek parliament despite the previous promise of the prime-minister to organise a referendum on this matter in exchange for the generous sweat-heart deals with Gazprom) that triggered the Greece crisis, the country became vulnerable to massive tailor-made for Greeks anti-establishment and anti-European propaganda, what led to the rise of the ultra-left and ultra-right parties in the country and threatens with collapse not only Greece, but the entire EU.
 |
| The day of signing the contract: the fine-print of the deal between Kiev and Moscow has not been made public (BBC) |
Having
a stake in this matter the EU could
not only help to resolve the Tymoshenko's case, but without much effort
to play a role of a
mediator
between Ukraine and Russia in revision of the gas deal. Helping Ukraine
the EU is helping itself. If Ukraine is left in the cold of Russia's
embrace the EU it will get an authoritarian 'great power' neighbour
imposing old-fashion domination on Europe by 'futuristic means'.
Irina Severin is a journalist and political analyst, former diplomat.
Irina Severin is a journalist and political analyst, former diplomat.
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Putin targets foes with 'zombie' gun which attack victims' central nervous system
- Could be used against Russia's enemies and perhaps its own dissidents
|
Mind-bending
‘psychotronic’ guns that can effectively turn people into zombies have
been given the go-ahead by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The
futuristic weapons – which will attack the central nervous system of
their victims – are being developed by the country’s scientists.
They could be used against Russia’s enemies and, perhaps, its own dissidents by the end of the decade.
 |
Sources
in Moscow say Mr Putin has described the guns, which use
electromagnetic radiation like that found in microwave ovens, as
‘entirely new instruments for achieving political and strategic goals’.
Mr
Putin added: ‘Such high-tech weapons systems will be comparable in
effect to nuclear weapons, but will be more acceptable in terms of
political and military ideology.’
Plans
to introduce the super- weapons were announced quietly last week by
Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov, fulfilling a little-noticed
election campaign pledge by president-elect Putin.
Plans to introduce the super- weapons were announced quietly last week by Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov
Mr
Serdyukov said: ‘The development of weaponry based on new physics
principles – direct-energy weapons, geophysical weapons, wave-energy
weapons, genetic weapons, psychotronic weapons, and so on – is part of
the state arms procurement programme for 2011-2020.’
Specific
proposals on developing the weapons are due to be drawn up before
December by a new Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Research
into electromagnetic weapons has been secretly carried out in the US
and Russia since the Fifties. But now it appears Mr Putin has stolen a
march on the Americans. Precise details of the Russian gun have not been
revealed. However, previous research has shown that low-frequency waves
or beams can affect brain cells, alter psychological states and make it
possible to transmit suggestions and commands directly into someone’s
thought processes.
High
doses of microwaves can damage the functioning of internal organs,
control behaviour or even drive victims to suicide. Anatoly Tsyganok,
head of the Military Forecasting Centre in Moscow, said: ‘This is a
highly serious weapon.
‘When
it was used for dispersing a crowd and it was focused on a man, his
body temperature went up immediately as if he was thrown into a hot
frying pan. Still, we know very little about this weapon and even
special forces guys can hardly cope with it.’
The
long-term effects are not known, but two years ago a former major in
the Russian foreign intelligence agency, the GRU, died in Scotland after
making claims about such a weapons programme to MI6.
Sergei Serykh, 43, claimed he was a victim of weapons which he said were ‘many times more powerful than in the Matrix films’.
Mr
Serykh died after falling from a Glasgow tower block with his wife and
stepson in March 2010. While his death was assumed to be suicide, his
family fear there was foul play.
Last night the Ministry of Defence declined to comment.
