Ukraine Appeals to NATO for Help After Russia Approves Force

Ukraine appealed for assistance from NATO on Saturday, asking it to use all possible measures to ensure its territorial integrity and protect its people.

The call came hours after the Federation Council approved the deployment of military forces in Ukraine, in response to what Moscow claims is the threat being leveled against its servicemen and Russian citizens in the southern Crimea Peninsula.

Authorities in Ukraine have sounded the alarm over what they are calling an unwarranted act of aggression.

In addition to asking for NATO's protection, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrei Deshchitsa urged the trans-Atlantic military alliance to aid it in securing nuclear facilities based in Ukraine, local news agency UNN reported.

The North Atlantic Council, NATO's main governing body, was to hold an extraordinary meeting on Sunday to discuss events in Ukraine, the military bloc's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Twitter.

Russia has adopted increasingly combative rhetoric on Ukraine ever since an opposition movement in the country last week toppled President Viktor Yanukovych after weeks of sometimes violent protests.

Moscow accuses the West of backing the Ukrainian uprising, which it says has been directed by violent and politically extremist radicals.

On Saturday, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin expressed the hope that the international community would apply pressure on Kiev to normalize the situation.

In addition to acting as home to Russia's strategically valuable Black Sea Fleet base, Crimea also has a substantial ethnic Russian community.

Politicians in Moscow have urged their government to act firmly on behalf of Russians in Crimea, many of who have apparently expressed a preference for the region to be annexed by their eastern neighbor.

Deshchitsa said a settlement for the situation in Crimea should be peaceful.

"We must not allow the use of force and provocations," he said.

Source:The Moscow Times
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Violent protest will not help Venezuela

We deplore the wave of violence from minority and extremist sections of Venezuela's opposition, that left three dead, 60 injured and saw physical assaults on government institutions, including shots and Molotov cocktails attacks on the state TV channel and a state governor's residency (Jailed López tells his allies to keep fighting, 22 February). This followed a recently launched campaign by Venezuela's extreme right for La Salida (the ousting) of the government of President Maduro before his constitutional mandate ends in 2019. La Salida is led by extremist politicians Leopoldo López and María Corina Machado, who were both implicated in the 2002 coup in Venezuela. This is not the first time that the sections of the opposition have sought to oust the elected government by unconstitutional means, having lost at the ballot box.

We believe that while people in Venezuela have the right to protest – and that the Venezuelan constitution guarantees these and other democratic rights – this must be done peacefully. There is no justification for violent opposition to the elected government in Venezuela. We strongly support the statement of the Union of South American Nations that violence to seek to overthrow the elected, constitutional government is unacceptable. We join them in both condemning the wave of violence and in supporting calls for dialogue and peace.
Grahame Morris MP Chair, Labour Friends of Venezuela, Colin Burgon Chair, Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, Ken Livingstone, Tariq Ali, Billy Hayes CWU, Peter Hain MP, Professor Doreen Massey, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Sandra White MSP (SNP), Ken Loach, Professor Julia Buxton, John Pilger journalist & filmmaker
Bruce Kent peace campaigner
Dave Anderson MP Labour
Michael Connarty MP Labour
Richard Gott writer & journalist
Andy De La Tour actor
Paul Flynn MP Labour
Roger Godsiff MP Labour
Ian Lavery MP Labour
Elfyn Llwyd MP Plaid Cymru
John McDonnell MP Labour
Chris Williamson MP Labour
Mike Wood MP Labour
Baroness Gibson APPG on Latin America
Murad Qureshi London Assembly Member, Labour
Professor Julia Buxton academic & consultant
Dr Francisco Dominguez Head of Centre for Brazilian and Latin American Studies, Middlesex University
Tim Potter Barrister & Haldane Society

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