Russia Threatens Complete "Crash for the Financial System of the U.S."

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Biotech stock has a worldwide monopoly on new cancer cure.
Buy it now for under $3 a share

The world is on the cusp of receiving a major cancer cure thanks to one tiny biotech company.

It has been supplying Pfizer, Bayer, Merck, Amgen, and other big companies with this new breakthrough liquid so those companies can transform it into new cancer fighting drugs.

Best part is this company's stock soared 300% in the last seven months alone, but it still trades under $3 a share.

I suggest you get all the details right now before the price bolts higher.

Russia Threatens Complete "Crash for the Financial System of the United States"

By Brittany Stepniak | Thursday, March 6th, 2014

Americans tend to get stuck in the egocentric mentality that we're the greatest nation in the world. Most of us never even consider the idea that another nation — or group of nations — could seriously threaten our coveted global position.

This is a major fallacy — one that's being put to the test as you read this.

If you've been paying attention to the ongoing Ukrainian debacle, you may already know that Russia and the U.S. are at odds with one another in regards to their stance on Ukraine.

Tuesday morning, dozens of articles trending around the web harped on a chilling component of the latest crisis.

Put Your Money Where Your Country Is

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According to a Kremlin aide, Putin is ready to reduce Russia's economic dependency on the U.S to zero should Obama and his administration impose previously proposed sanctions against Moscow.

Indeed, Russia threatened to completely abandon the U.S. dollar and start dumping debt.

The hostility between the two nations began when Russia moved troops into Crimea and America retaliated with threats to hit Russia with "economic sanctions."

All is Fair in Love and War

If Russia consequently decided to stop using our fiat currency as the Kremlin aide indicated, it'd be certainly be bad. But if other countries followed suit — no longer using our dollars to trade with one another and lending massive piles of them back to us at low interest rates — we'd be up a deep creek with no paddle in sight.

Kremlin economic aide Serge Glazyev told the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia could succeed in this egregious endeavor by creating its own payment system using its "wonderful trade and economic relations with our partners in the East and South."

Additionally, Russian banks and firms would absolutely not be returning any loans from American financial institutions.

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So the West is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Should the U.S. or Europe try to intervene, Russia has no qualms standing up to both... letting the economic pressures do all the convincing.

Considering that Russia is Europe's largest supplier of energy — many European nations get more than half of their natural gas from Russia — there's no way Europe could afford to risk that trade relationship by siding with the U.S. here.

Checkmate

So while those aforementioned sanctions are not likely to pan out, the heart of the matter remains disconcerting. This is a strong power play on Russia's behalf... one that could potentially shatter any illusion that America is "economically independent."

The Russian news agency reported Glazyev's response to what "could happen" if the U.S. deviates from Russia's desires and opts to punish the country with sanctions:

"We hold a decent amount of treasury bonds — more than $200 billion — and if the United States dares to freeze accounts of Russian businesses and citizens, we can no longer view America as a reliable partner," he said. "We will encourage everybody to dump US Treasury bonds, get rid of dollars as an unreliable currency and leave the US market."

"An attempt to announce sanctions would end in a crash for the financial system of the United States, which would cause the end of the domination of the United States in the global financial system."

How To Survive The Coming COLLAPSE Of
The U.S. Dollar In 2014...

If you're smart enough to see how the value of the U.S. dollar has declined over the years, you'll want to see this... because currency collapses happen fast.

For example, consider the Asian Currency Crisis in Thailand. The Thai currency, the baht, lost 23% of its value in just 25 days... and then lost another 41% of its value in the following six months.

Because of some shady "back-room deals," the U.S. dollar is set to collapse in 2014 — now is the time to prepare, or risk losing 50% of your wealth... practically overnight.

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Obviously, Glazyev is getting a little overzealous here, but there's no denying that Russia is capable of seriously damaging our current financial system. A complete crash might be hyperbole, but the big picture message should wave some red flags for financial leaders here in the U.S.

If you read my recent article about China's ploy to overthrow the U.S. dollar by manipulating the IMF and stockpiling gold, you understand the global dilemma here.

As if that weren't enough, China dumped nearly $50 billion of U.S. debt in December alone. And it's already in agreement with Russia (which is also threatening to dump our debt) on the Ukrainian front. This is not just a coincidence.

Our financial system is in jeopardy, and our opponents are playing smart.

If America doesn't get its shit together soon, we're all going to be in for a rude awakening. It won't hurt to hedge your bets and diversify against the dollar accordingly...

Farewell for now,

Brittany Stepniak

@AngelPubGirl on Twitter

Brittany Stepniak is the Project Manager and Editor for the Outsider Club. Her “big picture” insights have helped guide thousands of investors towards achieving and maintaining personal and financial liberties while pursuing their individual dreams in lieu of all the modern-day chaos. For more on Brittany, take a look at her editor's page.

Tiny Biotech Owns World's
Only Source Of
Rare Cancer-Curing Chemical

Early investors are looking to bank 300 times their money

This urgent video has live footage of the company in action...

[This Material] Could Cure Cancer. — Popular Science

Dear Reader,

http://www.angelnexus.com/o/web/56491?r=1

This is urgent. And every minute counts.

As you read this report, investors are getting rich from a tiny biotech start-up that is lighting the fuse under modern-day medicine.

At the center of it all is its main product, which is on a worldwide lockdown: "Blue Blood."

Highly rich Blue Blood Protein — which really is blue — is extracted from one of the rarest and most endangered animals on the face of this planet... a sea snail called a Limpet.

What makes this blood so unique and life-changing?

Well, it's a major component of over 100 vaccines and drugs currently going through clinical trials with the FDA. In other words, these drugs simply cannot work without Blue Blood... and there is nothing in the world that can replace it.

And here's the mind-blowing peculiarity in all of this...

Blue Blood is so vital to breakthrough vaccines and drugs today... one gram of it can sell for up to $900,000.

Talk about top dollar!

The biggest pharmaceutical companies around the world don't mind paying a fortune for it.

Why?

Well, because right now, "Several companies and institutions are developing Blue Blood based therapies for a wide variety of cancers," according to the National Cancer Institute.

If you're thinking of American giants like Pfizer, Merck, Amgen, and Biogen Idec... you wouldn't be off the mark.

England's GlaxoSmithKline, Germany's Bayer, Switzerland's Novartis, and Denmark's Novo Nordisk all need this Blue Blood too...

And the most exciting part of this opportunity for you is that they can only get this Blue Blood Protein from one little biotech company, which I'd like to tell you about today.

It owns exclusive rights and patents to extract and supply Blue Blood Protein to over a dozen big pharma companies... which gives this little gem a virtual monopoly in the biotech arena.

Over the last seven months, I've been shouting about and making the call on this little company — and it's up more than 300% since then.

Now, I'm predicting the stock could surge another 300% over the next 12 months based on events already shaping up. A deal with a company developing a breast cancer vaccine has already been signed.

I'd suggest you get in now to avoid missing out again on this life-changing opportunity.

Remember, it's trading below $3 right now. So there isn't much time to waste. You need to get in now to reap the biggest possible gains.

When you understand the operations of this tiny company... how it secures worldwide supplies of Blue Blood from a sea snail, not to mention its global influence... you'll realize why it's set to become the most important and innovative company this century.

That's the impression I got when one of my valuable inside sources alerted me about this tiny company a few months ago. And the company has been proving it every day since with its rising share price.

I can't reveal his name or identity here. All I can say is he's a major shareholder and close to this tiny company.

To vet every detail, I quickly hopped on a plane from Baltimore to visit this company's facilities and met with the top brass... the CEO and all the scientists working there.

Because of their tight security, I had to fax my ID a week in advance. Why?

They operate out of a naval base on the West Coast. There are even armed guards at the gates.

No surprise there. This stuff is top-secret!

This company's technology is launching an entirely new era of human history.

It holds the key to freeing human beings from breast, prostate, lung, lymphoma, leukemia, and brain cancer...

It could free us from Alzheimer's, arthritis, and heart disease... from nursing homes and the indignities of old age.

And while this company has returned over 300% gains to investors in just the last seven months...

It's on the cusp of rapid advancements and is beginning to receive the kind of commercial backing and attention we like to see in a promising new technology...

In short, it's about to sign contracts with major pharmaceutical companies. And that could make the 300% gains so far look tiny by comparison.

Possibly the most exciting thing about this little company, though, is that it's also minting millionaires out of the everyday people who own its shares.

Today, without missing a beat, you need to get in on this mammoth profit saga that's about to explode.

I'll give you all the details over the next few minutes.

4x Your Money in 7 Months

I'm Nick Hodge, founder of the Outsider Club and managing editor of the highly-aggressive investment service Early Advantage.

Since early last year, I've been sounding the alarm on this little biotech company... while it was trading at just $0.50.

No other analyst covered this stock. Most people didn't pay attention.

And that was a BIG mistake!

Like anything else, they just can't believe breakthroughs of this magnitude until it's too late.

I don't want you to make the same mistake... and miss the next round of huge profits.

Because when the stock bolted for its first round of 300% gains, I made some everyday folks very happy and extremely rich. Some of them made hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They made FOUR TIMES their money in half a year.

For instance...

A fellow named Geoffrey M. wrote in to say, "I've made serious money with you on . Sold my long accumulated position (handsomely) when I was allowed to get into their private placement for 300,000 units. I'm a subscriber for life and strong disciple. Thanks!"

Joe A. chimed in, "Nick, I have made nice money with your recommendations and was able to get into private placement for 50,000 units (which includes 25,000 warrants at $1.35). Keep those recommendations coming."

And Brit H. told me, "Hi Nick, I decided to lock in some profits on and so it's the second triple-digit winner with you this year. I'm looking forward to the next. Not only for the profits, but also because these companies are promising and your research is well done."

But here's what's really exciting...

There's still time to get in at less than $3.00 a share. The only caveat: the window to get into this play is extremely tight.

Remember, it's already up 300%, and ink could be put to paper with a major pharmaceutical company any day.

This time around, I suggest you get in now or risk missing out.

Over the next few months, I'm forecasting a move to $5.00 — or more — as the company starts signing contracts with major pharmaceutical companies that simply can't get Blue Blood anywhere else.

Let's dive into the details....

The World's Only "Blue Blood" Supplier

Blue Blood is real blood that comes from an extremely rare wild sea snail. But here's the problem...

There are only 100,000 of these rare snails left in the ocean. They can only be found off the coast in California. And the numbers are fast depleting.

What's so special about this blood?

Blue Blood contains a complex protein molecule, and it's an indispensable ingredient in over 100 drugs and vaccines that pharmaceutical companies desperately want to bring to market.

In short, this protein activates your body's immune system and tells it to let the vaccine kill whatever bad cells need killing... something that has never been done before.

Let me show you how groundbreaking and historical all this is...

To understand how Blue Blood Protein works, you have to go back to the early days of vaccines 50 years ago.

You see, medical researchers would take something harmful like a virus, kill it, and then inject it into your body.

Your immune system would see the inactive virus and learn how to attack it in the future.

That's how we fought polio and rubella viruses for decades.

But What About Cancer?

The problem with cancer cells is they look like your body's own cells and trick your immune system to ignore them.

The body's immune system sees the cancer cells and says, "This is my own. I shouldn't attack or kill it."

And they keep growing into huge tumors until your body is no longer able to handle it.

In short, cancer cells are like stealth planes: "Invisible."

But attaching Blue Blood Protein to cancer cells is like attaching reflectors to a once-invisible stealth plane.

All of a sudden, your body's radar begins to see cancer cells as foreign objects and starts killing them.

In short, Blue Blood offers a solution that, according to Popular Science, "Could Cure Cancer."

Not only would that be a world-changing event that would bring relief to millions of people... it would also generate billions in revenue for this tiny biotech firm.

Over the next 12 months, we'll see a phenomenal opportunity to make money from what I call the Blue Blood revolution.

Right now, this tiny company is the only one in the world that can supply Blue Blood Protein to the market... at up to $900,000 per gram.

What's even more exciting from an investing standpoint is this supplier is so incredibly small, with enough space to run wild, that early shareholders are literally getting rich with a single stake.

Based on the numbers alone — the amount of Blue Blood these guys are producing now (I'll show you numbers in a bit) and the current market value of it — we're looking at a possible upside of an additional 300% - 500% in the next 12 months.

Remember, over the last 7 months alone, the stock has climbed 300%. At that rate, you could turn every $5,000 into $20,000 in quick time.

Just imagine the money you have right now and multiply by four or even five times...

Like I did when I suggested this company months ago, I am making the same call now to get in at under $3.00. Only this time around, the stock is heading for the stratosphere quickly...

Not Mentioned Anywhere

The question you're probably asking is: If this is so big, why haven't I heard of this before today?

The way it works in this business, you just can't win if you don't have an inner circle of contacts in various industries who share details of the next breakthrough or moneymaking trend before it makes headlines.

Of course, I do my due diligence to confirm the merits of each story.

But one of the main reasons my firm has become one of the largest newsletter publishers in the world is because of our connections.

Which brings me to the next point...

This is not something you'll likely hear about in the news anytime soon, regardless of how cutting-edge it is...

You bet we couldn't find this company mentioned anywhere in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, or any other mainstream financial publications.

Why?

Because the company is ridiculously small. And mutual funds and other large financial institutions are legally prohibited from investing in tiny companies — their charters just won't allow it.

You can also bet the major pharmaceutical companies in negotiations with this tiny biotech have barred it from using their names with a non-disclosure agreement. They don't want their competitors to know how utterly reliant on Blue Blood they actually are.

Sad thing is, most investors will never hear about this tiny biotech player. And if they do, it'll be too late.

Well, that's just too bad, because starting today, you'll be way ahead of the curve when you finally buy this stock for under $3 a share.

In fact, there are several reasons why this little company is a winner regardless of how you look at it.

Here's what I mean...

Companies with competitive advantages like Coca-Cola, Wrigley, Hershey, Apple, Wal-Mart, and Amazon jump right to the front.

Biotech firms like Amgen, which soared 10,421%, and Celgene, which climbed 20,838%, both had incredible moats made of countless patents.

Their huge profit margins, consistent growth, and dominance made investors very wealthy.

Well, this tiny biotech company I want you to own today is building its own legacy with several impenetrable moats... and will soon take its place among the most innovative companies in the world.

Here are the amazing facts propelling this tiny Blue Blood company forward towards greatness:

Moat #1:
Global Monopoly on Production
and Supply of Blue Blood Protein

Traditionally, drug companies sent divers into the ocean to search for Blue Blood Limpets. If they found some, they'd extract the blood. And then the Limpets would die.

But this operation added to the scarcity of Limpets and left only 100,000 in the waters off the coast of California.

This little biotech company has changed all that.

What did they do?

They patented a way to grow the same limpets... on land!

And they also patented a way to extract their Blue Blood... WITHOUT killing them.

This startling video explains it all.

No company in the world can provide any competition or steal this tiny biotech's proprietary methods of producing Blue Blood on a commercial scale.

It also means that any pharmaceutical company in the world that needs Blue Blood to make vaccines or drugs can only get it from this tiny biotech player.

Truly, this is groundbreaking stuff.

But the story only gets juicier when you add this next moat around the company...

Moat #2:
Biggest Multi-Billion Dollar Client List...
The Who's Who of Big Pharma

Blue Blood drugs are already approved and in use in Europe and Asia.

But what about the U.S.?

The largest and most influential drug companies are now signing contracts to secure their reliable supply of Blue Blood ONLY from this little company.

In short, these big companies are poised to commercialize a variety of Blue Blood-based drugs to treat various diseases, like...

But that barely scratches the surface. Check out this question and answer from my private site visit:

Amgen is developing a therapy for systemic lupus that's in Phase 1

Biogen Idec has a multiple sclerosis therapy in Phase 4

GlaxoSmithKline owns a therapy for dermatitis in Phase 1

Neovacs' Crohn's disease vaccine is in Phase 2

Samsung Medical Center's prostate cancer vaccine is in Phase 2

National Cancer Institute's leukemia vaccine is in Phase 2

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is in Phase 1 with its prostate cancer vaccine

Stanford University's brain cancer vaccine is in Phase 1

Axon Neuroscience's Alzheimer's disease vaccine recently entered Phase 1

According to the Government's National Cancer Institute...

"Optimer Pharmaceuticals is at phase II clinical trials with a breast cancer vaccine, Celldex Therapeutics is in phase II clinical trials with a glioblastoma vaccine, and Biovest International is evaluating a vaccine for non-Hodgkin lymphoma in phase III trials."

And all of them are utterly dependent on Blue Blood.

Bottom line: If one of these companies — be it Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world by sales, or Novartis, the third largest in the world by sales — is to begin selling Blue Blood-based therapies and vaccines, a multi-billion dollar industry will emerge.

And this tiny company — the only one capable of providing a reliable source of Blue Blood product — will emerge a billion dollar company, passing its wealth on to you if you hurry and get in now at this ground floor price!

On the surface, it all sounds a lot like science fiction.

Call it what you will, but it's already making my readers rich and will do the same for you if you decide to ride this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity starting today.

Just how much money can this company make with a global monopoly on Blue Blood Protein?

Moat #3:
Huge Profit Potential and Financial Stability

It's no surprise rich drug companies are spending top dollar to secure their stash of the stuff.

As each drug goes through the three stages of clinical trials, every single one uses specific amounts of Blue Blood Protein.

For Phase 1 of clinical trials, each drug uses 3-5 grams of Blue Protein. With over 100 drugs, that's up to 500 grams of protein.

How about Phase 2?

It takes 50-100 grams of Blue Protein to get through that phase. That's a mind blowing 10,000 grams of protein.

How much money can this little company make at this point?

Blue Blood Protein costs about $35,000 per gram for lower grade.

Those 100 drugs will need 10,500 grams just to get approved by the FDA.

That totals over $367 million right there.

But keep in mind... if higher grade Blue Blood is required — at up to $900,000 per gram — the total quickly jumps to almost $1 billion.

And that's without even mentioning Phase 3 potential.

If you were to go beyond that, the numbers would be truly off the charts.

Just take a look at the company's revenue projections below:

That kind of revenue would make this tiny biotech stock — currently trading below $3.00 — an $18.00 stock.

An 800% increase in share price!

Now, I don't want you to think that all those 100 drugs will make it to the market.

Given the history of the FDA, many drugs don't see the light of day after Phase 1 and 2 trials. They just fail at the labs.

But here's what to keep in mind...

Even if just 10 of those drugs get approved for the market, the company will still rake in billions a year.

In fact, this company has publicly stated it can earn over $800 million in the next two to three years. That's nearly eight times its current value with a market cap around $100 million.

And over the long haul, it's securing royalties on the long-term sales of blockbuster drugs brought to the market that utilize the power of Blue Blood.

But it doesn't end there.

Moat #4:
Exclusive Groundbreaking Vaccines

Not only is the company supplying Blue Blood for other drugs... it's developing its own drugs as well.

Here's what I mean.

It just acquired the worldwide license and exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and sell vaccines to treat an infection known as Clostridium difficile (C. diff) from an agreement with a Canadian university.

According to professor Mario Monteiro, discoverer of the C. diff technology, "[This company's] vision has made it possible for our scientific discovery to migrate from the lab to the hands of industry. I'm confident that in time, this vaccine will prove to have saved many lives."

This is life-changing news because C. diff is a growing cause of mortality in hospitalized patients and causes more than 330,000 infections in the U.S. every year.

Heck, the cost of C. diff treatment in the U.S. and Europe is already estimated at more than $7 billion annually.

No doubt this tiny biotech company will eat away a huge chunk of this money.

And this is just the company's first proprietary drug. There could be more in the pipeline.

After all, it owns the world's only commercial supply of Blue Blood.

Which brings me to my next point...

Moat #5:
Blue Protein Cannot Be
Artificially Produced or Synthesized

No one else can artificially make Blue Blood.

As Popular Science puts it, "Blue Blood is too big and complicated to synthesize."

If no lab can artificially create a Blue Blood substitute, then researchers and scientists who create breakthrough therapies have no choice but to team up with the only supplier in world...

And that's our little trail-blazing biotech company.

Keep in mind, this isn't some wild speculation.

When I first recommended this company, it was trading at just $0.50 a share.

Over the last seven months, the stock bolted for a 300% gain, making some of my readers, who listened to my call, wealthy.

I am making the call again for you to get in today under three bucks a share.

Those who don't listen this time will miss out on the biggest biotech start-up in modern day history.

For good reason...

Why You Need to Jump on This
Opportunity Now at Under $3.00 a Share

The stock is garnering momentum and attention worldwide. It can only stay a secret for so long.

First off, this tiny company just got added to the S&P Dow Jones TSX Venture Select Index. Essentially, this is a list of 48 companies that are the "best in breed" and meet specific liquidity criteria.

Another thing: All throughout 2013, the company released peer-reviewed research and presented at medical conferences... so word is also getting out in the medical community.

What about new contracts?

It has signed an irrevocable, worldwide license to own the technology developed through a Collaborative Research Agreement between it and big pharma's Bayer...

It's also signed an agreement with a company in late-stage trials for a breast cancer vaccine. And there are other ones in the pipeline.

Let me also mention this quickly... and this is incredible.

I just got alerted that the California Fish & Wildlife Department is courting this tiny biotech company for its expertise and guidance on how to protect the 100,000 Limpets that remain in the wild...

This is like asking a heroin dealer to help regulate the heroin market.

No doubt this tiny company's goal will be to help influence the strictest regulations for the wild harvest of sea Limpets... effectively sealing its monopoly, since it's the only one that can birth them on land.

Which begs the question... How much money can you really make from a small investment in this sub-$3 stock by getting in now?

A 4,752% Return Could Be Possible

Considering the science-rocking discovery of Blue Blood Protein... this is a rare opportunity to take advantage of once-in-a-lifetime-type gains.

To be frank, I actually don't know how ridiculous the profits could get. Why?

This company's stock could surge 10-fold in the near future alone based on its influence in the biotech space.

It's simply so game-changing, examples of past scientific developments may be completely pointless.

However, for the sake of comparison, I'm going to show you what happens when truly world-changing scientific discoveries are made and how they create personal wealth.

One such discovery dates back to a runny nose...

In the mid-1980s, a man by the name of H. DuBose Montgomery got a fairly severe cold. As he tried to recover, he began to wonder why the medical world hadn't yet perfected a cure for this malady that affects 1 billion people every year.

It may not seem like much, but in truth, a legend was born...

Not only did Montgomery go on to co-found a company now known as Gilead Sciences, but his work in antiviral medicines transformed the world.

Gilead Sciences went on to perfect something known as small molecule antiviral therapeutics in 1992.

In short, these things have had a profound effect on everything from the common cold to HIV.

The rest is history — and it was unbelievably profitable for early-bird investors. Take a look:

The stock absolutely erupted from a measly $0.57 per share to nearly $28. That's a gain of 4,752%.

Just $200 into this company would have yielded $9,700.

Imagine if you put in more... $3,000 would have turned into nearly $150,000.

Even crazier, the share price is actually much higher these days.

All told, in the years since, the stock price has risen to $45.87 (a total gain of almost 8,000% — or 80x your money).

And this isn't the only company that's done something like this. In fact, it's actually one of the less profitable examples.

Check it out:

10,421%
Amgen brought Epogen and Neupogen to the market between 1989 and 1990, taking its revenue from $2.8 million to over $1 billion. Had you gotten in early, you could have been rewarded with a 10,421% gain — enough to roll $10,000 into a cool $1.04 million.

11,350%
Novo Nordisk specialized in diabetic care, and brought the drugs Novonorm and PrandiMet to the market, as well as the groundbreaking diabetic drug Victoza, which brought in $2.7 billion. Its stock returned a life-changing 11,350%.

29,258%
Biogen Idec blazed a trail by launching the first multiple sclerosis drug, Avonex, which achieved $1 billion in sales. No surprise the investors cashed in a staggering 29,258% gain, turning a small $2,000 into a whopping $585,160.

20,838%
Celgene has more than 300 clinical trials and is building a strong reputation for its intellectual property rights, including bringing miracle blockbuster drug Thalomid to the market. The stock has exploded 20,838% — enough to turn $5,000 into $1 million.

As you can see, we're talking anywhere from 50 times up to nearly 300 times your cash.

I told you this was once-in-a-lifetime-type stuff here. These things don't come around often. And I don't know of a single other person who's on top of this opportunity like I am right now...

None of those companies, like Amgen or Celgene, had the kind of advantages and monopoly this little biotech player enjoys today.

With everything panning in favor of this company right now, the stock is poised for historical highs, and investors — including you, if you hurry — could become rich from a one-time investment.

As you saw at the start of this presentation, some everyday folks are already cashing in on huge profits. Now, it's your turn.

I hope you jump on this opportunity before the door shuts on this $3.00-a-share deal.

If this sounds like something that interests you, then I'm ready to send you my free report on this situation: "Minting Millions from the Magic Molecule."

You'll also know the ticker symbol and up to what price to buy this little gem.

Best of all, I'd like to send you this report absolutely free of charge.

All I ask in return is that you take a risk-free trial membership to my research publication Early Advantage.

What exactly is Early Advantage... and how can it make you rich from groundbreaking investment research?

I Spend Millions on My Research

You already know the best way to make a lot of money is to get in the game early — before a company makes news with a major discovery in the mining sector or energy sector... the creation of some disruptive technology... or breakthroughs in agriculture or health.

It's the reason I meet with start-up CEOs in Silicon Valley... visit actual farmers... inspect mines in Alberta and Ontario... attend obscure conferences and trade shows... and conduct private one-on-one interviews.

All in the name of giving you the early advantage on any moneymaking or money-saving opportunity available, long before the rest of the market catches on.

That's what Early Advantage is all about.

I've been on the cutting edge for years, discovering major life-changing, moneymaking opportunities that other financial institutions don't cover.

For example...

Before 3D printing made the news, I told my readers about a company called Organovo that develops three-dimensional (3D) human tissue printing technology to create tissue on demand for research and surgical applications. Since then, the stock has surged over 570%.

Then there's Natcore Technology, a company with a number of patented technologies that any solar company can use to double the efficiency of current solar cells while cutting costs in half. I flew to New York to visit the company's facilities and was impressed with what I saw. In less than 3 months, my readers were able to secure a 128% gain.

Quite often, my investigations lead to companies that you may never hear or read about in mainstream news publications like the Wall Street Journal or Forbes...

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Russia Threatens to Drop The Dollar and Crash The U.S. Economy if Sanctions Are Imposed - Obama Signs Sanctions Anyway

06.Mar.2014 S.C.G.

Is Russia bluffing, or is the world as we know it about to change for ever?

On Tuesday Reuters reported that a Kremlin aid Sergei Glazyev had announced that if the U.S. were to impose sanctions on Russia Moscow may drop the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to pay off any loans to U.S. banks saying that Moscow could recommend that all holders of U.S. treasuries sell them if Washington freezes the U.S. accounts of Russian businesses and

individuals

Sergei Glazyev - Russia Will Crash U.S. Economy if Sanctions are Imposed

"We would find a way not just to reduce our dependency on the United States to zero but to emerge from those sanctions with great benefits for ourselves," said Glazyev.

"An attempt to announce sanctions would end in a crash for the financial system of the United States, which would cause the end of the domination of the United States in the global financial system"

That statement is startling by itself, but the true gravity of this situation is only evident when you consider it in context. China has taken Russia's side in the Ukraine conflict (they are after all allies) and China holds the lion's share of U.S. treasuries. If Russia puts out the call to drop the dollar China would have a choice: either hold on to those treasuries while the dollar slides (losing their shirt in the process) or join Russia and dump their holdings as well. It should be pretty obvious which way China would go.

The effects of a coordinated bond sell off by China and Russia would be earth shattering. This would be the financial equivalent of a nuclear bomb being dropped. It is no exaggeration to say that such a move would mark the end of an era.

You would think that this would prompt some serious reflection and that diplomats would be scrambling to resolve this peacefully, but instead today Obama signed a sanction order anyway and revoked the visas of a number of Russian officials. All of this supposedly in response to the violence in Kiev even though we now have leaked phone conversations that indicate that it was in fact the new coalition government in Ukraine that was responsible for the shootings and that the West knows this. Combine this with the fact that several U.S. officials met directly with known Neo-Nazi leaders prior to the coup in Ukraine and these sanctions are even more non-nonsensical.

Sources

Russia warns the U.S. that they will drop the dollar if sanctions are imposed, and says they will call for others to drop the dollar as well: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/03/04/ukraine-crisis-russia-us-idINDE...

In response the U.S. imposes sanctions and visa restrictions on Russian officials: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/06/us-visa-restrictions-offici...

China and Russia are in Agreement about the situation in Ukraine: http://news.sky.com/story/1219922/russia-and-china-in-agreement-over-ukr...

Russia warns it could crash the U.S. economy if sanctions are imposed: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/04/russia-warns-it-could-crash-u-s-ec...

Russia And China 'In Agreement' Over Ukraine

Russia is in "operational control" of Crimea as soldiers surround Ukrainian troops and seize a ferry port.

5:28pm UK, Monday 03 March 2014

Video: Andrew Wilson reports from Crimea

Enlarge

Alistair Bunkall looks at the military balance of power between Russia and Ukraine.

Video: Ukraine / Russia: The Military Match Up

Russia has said China is largely "in agreement" over Ukraine, after other world powers condemned Moscow for sending troops into the country.

Hundreds of Russian soldiers have surrounded a military base in Crimea, preventing Ukrainian soldiers from going in or out.

:: Click here for the latest story on developments in the Ukraine

The convoy blockading the site, near the Crimean capital Simferopol, includes at least 17 military vehicles.

Military personnel, believed to be Russian servicemen, walk near the territory of a Ukrainian military unit in the village of Perevalnoye outside Simferopol — Russian soldiers surround Ukrainian military units in Perevalnoye, Crimea

Russian troops are also reported to have taken control of a ferry terminal in the city of Kerch on the eastern tip of Crimea, which has a majority Russian-speaking population.

Ukraine's defence ministry said two Russian fighter jets violated the country's air space in the Black Sea on Sunday night and that it had scrambled an interceptor aircraft to prevent the "provocative actions".

And reports claimed pro-Russian protesters had occupied a floor of the regional government building in Donetsk. The 11-storey building has been flying the Russian flag for the last three days.

People watch a Russian Navy ship enter the Crimean port city of Sevastopol — A Russian navy ship enters the port of Sevastopol

Ukrainian prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk has insisted his country "will never give up Crimea to anyone" and urged Russian forces to withdraw.

Mr Yatseniuk said: "I was and am a supporter of a diplomatic solution to the crisis, as a conflict would destroy the foundations for stability in the whole region."

In an interview with Sky News, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the crisis is likely to take some time to resolve.

He said: "I think we probably are looking at a long period of very active diplomacy and looking for solutions to this since there is no sign of a change in the Russian position on this.

"It's impossible to be optimistic at the moment. We're not in any position to be optimistic about the security situation and what is happening in the Crimea."

The crisis has had a huge knock-on effect on global stock markets, with Moscow's stock exchange plunging as much as 10% on Monday morning.

Russia's central bank raised its rate to 7% from 5.5% as the ruble hit an historic low against the dollar and the euro.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov discussed Ukraine by telephone with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Monday, and claimed they had "broadly coinciding points of view" on the situation there, according to a ministry statement.

Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva later, Mr Lavrov said Russian troops were necessary in Ukraine "until the normalisation of the political situation" and dismissed threats of sanctions and boycotts.

He added: "We call for a responsible approach, to put aside geopolitical calculations, and above all to put the interests of the Ukrainian people first."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: "China has always upheld the principles of diplomacy and the fundamental norms of international relations.

"At the same time we also take into consideration the history and the current complexities of the Ukrainian issue."

As the tense stand-off continues, the other seven nations of the G8 urged Moscow to hold talks with Kiev.

"We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States and the President of the European Council and President of the European Commission, join together today to condemn the Russian Federation's clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," they said in a statement.

"We have decided for the time being to suspend our participation in activities associated with the preparation of the scheduled G8 Summit in Sochi in June."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who is in Kiev for talks on the crisis, said Russia has taken operational control of Crimea.

He described Russia's intervention in Ukraine as the biggest crisis in Europe in the 21st century.

Still image taken from video shows Ukrainian navy chief Berezovsky swearing allegiance to the pro-Russian regional leaders of Crimea in Sevastopol — Rear Admiral Berezovsky announces his defection before TV cameras

At a news conference with Mr Yatseniuk, Mr Hague said: "If this situation cannot resolve itself, if Russia cannot be persuaded to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, there will have to be other consequences and other costs."

Mr Hague added: "The UK is not discussion military action, our concentration is on diplomatic and economic pressure."

Prime Minister David Cameron will later chair a meeting of the National Security Council on the "British and international response to the grave situation in Ukraine", where he will press for a European summit on the crisis.

European foreign ministers are holding an emergency meeting on Ukraine in Brussels to table a joint response to the military incursion.

Mr Yatseniuk heads a pro-Western government that took power in the former Soviet republic when its Moscow-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted last week.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Kiev on Tuesday to show "strong support for Ukrainian sovereignty".

Meanwhile, Ukraine launched a treason case against its new navy chief after he switched allegiance to the pro-Russian Crimea region.

Rear Admiral Denis Berezovsky was appointed head of Ukraine's navy on Saturday.

But a day later he appeared before cameras, alongside the pro-Russian prime minister of Crimea's regional parliament, saying he had ordered Ukrainian naval forces there to disregard orders from "self-proclaimed" authorities in Kiev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday won parliament's authorisation to use force in Ukraine.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

Ukraine crisis: March 4 as it happened

Barack Obama says Vladimir Putin's rationale for his incursion into Crimea was not "fooling anybody" and that Russian "meddling" in Ukraine would isolate Moscow

Ukrainian court finds illegal the appointment of Sergey Aksyonov PM of Crimea

4 March 2014 | 22:22 | FOCUS News Agency

http://www.focus-fen.net/news/2014/03/04/329021/ukrainian-court-finds-illegal-the-appointment-of-sergey-aksyonov-pm-of-crimea.html

Picture: AFP

Kiev.

Kiev District Administrative Court answered the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and found illegal the appointment of Sergey Aksyonov PM of Crimea and the organization of a referendum in the self-governing republic, UNIAN reported.

This decision repeals the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea on the adoption of a vote of no-confidence by the Council of Ministers of Crimea.

By Barney Henderson, and Arron Merat

11:30PM GMT 04 Mar 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10669670/Ukraine-Russia-crisis-live.html

14981 Comments

Full coverage of today's events

• Obama: Putin is 'not fooling anybody' • Putin: there has been 'unconstitutional takeover' in Ukraine • Germany: 'no solution in sight to Ukraine crisis' • Russia warns US of response if sanctions imposed • No overnight assault but Crimea remains tense • Russia states Viktor Yanukovych asked for military help

Latest

01.30 We're going to leave it there for the night, please check our Ukraine page for the latest.

01.10 The White House is also briefing that Obama won't attend the G8 summit unless the situation is reversed. (Worth remembering that it isn't until June and who knows where we'll be by then).

<noframe>Twitter: ian bremmer - US announces will not participate in G8 meeting in Sochi. Putin doesn't care.</noframe>

00.40 Obama spoke to Angela Merkel tonight about the situation in Ukraine and the possibility of Germany acting as a mediator. We're also starting to get some detail of the so-called "off ramp" the diplomatic offer that would allow Putin to de-escalate without losing face. It would basically involve Russian troops pulling back to their bases in Crimea, bringing their numbers below 11,000, and international monitors to assuage Russian concerns that its nationals would face persecution, according to White House officials.

00.20 My Russian isn't up to much but Buzzfeed reports that this video shows a cheerful Russian soldier laughing about having no insignia on his uniform before finally admitting which military he's from.

23.50 Obama has been maintaining the appearance of normalcy despite the crisis in Ukraine. Today, he went to a primary school in Washington, an unlikely venue for foreign policy announcements, to talk about the budget. Tomorrow he's headed to Connecticut to talk about the minimum wage and then to Boston for a political fundraiser.

Supporters will say the level-headed president is refusing to allow Putin to derail his agenda but critics would argue it looks like the leader of the free world isn't paying attention.

23.40 Robert Gates, Obama's former defence secretary, caused serious headaches for the White House earlier this year with his tell-all book trashing the president's national security advisers.

But he's come to his former boss's defence on Ukraine, saying that Republican critics are trying to "egg him on" into provocative military gestures that would only inflame the situation. He told the Washington Post:

I’d even be cautious about sending warships into the Black Sea. It’s a threatening gesture, but if you’re not prepared to do something about it, it’s an empty gesture.

23.12 The Kremlin has posted a full transcript of Putin's earlier press conference in Russia.

A lot of is pretty technical and I'm sure much has been lost in translation. But here's the key paragraphs on why Russia sees its incursion as justified.

What can serve as a reason to use the Armed Forces? Such a measure would certainly be the very last resort.

First, the issue legitimacy. As you may know, we have a direct appeal from the incumbent and, as I said, legitimate President of Ukraine, Mr Yanukovych, asking us to use the Armed Forces to protect the lives, freedom and health of the citizens of Ukraine.

What is our biggest concern? We see the rampage of reactionary forces, nationalist and anti-Semitic forces going on in certain parts of Ukraine, including Kiev. I am sure you, members of the media, saw how one of the governors was chained and handcuffed to something and they poured water over him, in the cold of winter. After that, by the way, he was locked up in a cellar and tortured. What is all this about? Is this democracy? Is this some manifestation of democracy? He was actually only recently appointed to this position, in December, I believe. Even if we accept that they are all corrupt there, he had barely had time to steal anything.

22.42 Caitlin Hayden, the White House's national security spokeswoman, confirms the US was made aware that Russia was planning today's missile test

<noframe>Twitter: ABC Foreign Desk - Nat'l Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden: "Russia provided advance notification of this launch to the United States."</noframe>

22.20 The US is talking about imposing sanctions on Russia within days but there's real anxiety in Washington about whether the Europeans can be rallied to the cause. The photographed Number 10 document, indicating British reluctance to cut Russia out of London's financial markets, is one source of concern. Another is whether Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, can be relied upon given how dependent it is on Russia for its natural gas supplies.

Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said yesterday that the US should wait until it has its European allies lined up before imposing sanctions.

The most important thing is for us – the United States – to make sure that we don’t go off without the European community. We have to work with them. Their interests are really paramount if we are going to do sanctions of some kind. We have to have them on board with us.

21.45 Having spent the day in Ukraine, John Kerry has now touched down in Paris.

<noframe>Twitter: Andrea Mitchell - .<a href="http://www.twitter.com/JohnKerry" target="_blank">@JohnKerry</a> arriving now Paris brought Ukraine's foreign minister with him to talks and will try to engineer meeting with Russian FM</noframe>

He's got Andrii Deshchytsia onboard his plane for talks in France with other European ministers.

21.29 Obama: Russia is not being strategic. A clip from the president's address today.

21.28 Our correspondent Roland Oliphant reports from a military stand off at Belbek air base in Crimea

20.26 More than 1,000 demonstrators with Ukrainian flags took to the streets of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Tuesday, for the first time outnumbering pro-Moscow youths who have seized its government building, which flies the Russian flag, Reuters reports.

President Vladimir Putin's declaration on Saturday that Russia had the right to invade Ukraine was accompanied by pro-Russian demonstrations across Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking south and east.

But in the four days since, the tide of opinion in eastern cities appears to be turning back towards Kiev.

Bearing placards with slogans such as: "I am Russian. I don't need protection," the protesters marched near the occupied regional government building, staying far enough away to avoid clashing with the pro-Russian youths still inside.

19.52 Russia said it had successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, with tensions high over its seizure of control in the Crimea and its threat to send more forces to its neighbour Ukraine, according to a Reuters report.

The Strategic Rocket Forces launched an RS-12M Topol missile from the southerly Astrakhan region and the dummy warhead hit its target at a proving ground in Kazakhstan, Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Yegorov told state-run news agency RIA.

The Pentagon has told Luis Martinez of ABC News that the United States had been notified of the test, which was planned ahead of the recent and current unrest in Ukraine.

19.44 A UN envoy is en route to Crimea to assess the situation in the region, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky has said amid a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.

The UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson has asked Robert Serry "to travel to Crimea to take stock and evaluate the situation there," Nesirky said.

18.06 Baroness Ashton held "useful" talks in Madrid today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"We had a useful discussion which lasted over an hour," a European diplomatic source quoted the EU foreign policy chief as saying after the meeting held in the Russian ambassador's residence in Madrid.

17.52 The Russia Today host who criticised Kremlin (see below) has been sent to Crimea, Josie Ensor reports:

Russia Today management told Channel 4 that Miss Martin had been "misled by American mainstream media".

However, in Russia Today's official statement released on Tuesday afternoon it said: "Contrary to the popular opinion, RT doesn’t beat its journalists into submission, and they are free to express their own opinions, not just in private but on the air. This is the case with Abby’s commentary on the Ukraine.

"We respect her views, and the views of all our journalists, presenters and program hosts, and there will be absolutely no reprimands made against Ms. Martin.

"In her comment Ms. Martin also noted that she does not possess a deep knowledge of reality of the situation in Crimea. As such we’ll be sending her to Crimea to give her an opportunity to make up her own mind from the epicentre of the story."

_{A Russian soldier watches Ukrainian servicemen at Belbek airport in the
Crimea region}

16.57 Barack Obama has also been speaking at a school in Washington. He said Russian "meddling" pushes nations away from Moscow and that Vladimir Putin's rationale for his incursion into Crimea was not "fooling anybody":

There is a strong belief that Russia's action is violating international law. President Putin seems to have a different set of lawyers making a different set of interpretations. I don't think that's fooling anybody.

_{Secretary of State John Kerry places roses on the Shrine of the Fallen
in Kiev}

16.26 John Kerry is talking in Kiev:

The US reaffirms its commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty. The United States reaffirms its commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. According to international law, we condemn the Russian Federation's act of aggression. There is nothing strong in what Russia is doing.

These brave Ukrainians took to the streets to stand against tyranny and demand democracy, but instead they were met with snipers and picked off one after another.

The Russian government would have you believe that Russian actions are legitimate.

The larger point is that diplomacy, not force, can solve disputes like this in the 21st century.

The United States would prefer to see this de-escalate. [But if Russia does not continue this path, the US ] will isolate Russia poilitically, diplomatically and economically.

This is the 21st century and we should not see nations step back to the 19th or 20th century.

_{Ukrainians warm themselves next to a fire at Kiev's Independence Square}

15.56 Ukrainian and Russian governments have begun high-level contacts on the crisis in Ukraine, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk has said.

15.05 A Russia Today presenter has apparently gone massively off message. In a report on the Kremlin-funded Russia Today television station, Abby Martin said she "wanted to say something from my heart about the ongoing political crisis in Ukraine and Russia's military occupation of Crimea".

Just because I work here, for RT, doesn't mean I don't have editorial independence and I can't stress enough how strongly I am against any military intervention in sovereign nations' affairs.

What Russia did is wrong.

14.55 David Cameron, speaking in Coventry, said:

On the issue of Ukraine and our attitude towards Russia, we should be very clear about this; Britain is working with our allies and partners, with America, with France and Germany, the leaders of which I spoke to yesterday through the European Union to make sure we take a very clear and strong approach in two vital respects.

First of all, to say to the people of Ukraine we back your ability to choose your own future.

You should be able to choose the path you take and you'll have the support of countries like Britain, France and Germany, the EU and America in doing so and we'll obviously be working through the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and other organisations to give Ukraine and the people of Ukraine the chance to choose that future.

We'll also be sending a very clear message, and are sending a very clear message, to the Government in Russia that what has happened is unacceptable.

_{A child plays near Russian soldiers as they guard the gate of a
Ukrainian infantry base in Perevalne}

14.45 Russian navy ships are blocking both ends of the Kerch Strait, Ukraine border guards have said - Reuters.

14.42 Channel 4's Lindsey Hilsum tweets:

<noframe>Twitter: Lindsey Hilsum - Suddenly masked paramilitaries turned up at <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23Belbek" target="_blank">#Belbek</a> airforce base <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23Crimea" target="_blank">#Crimea</a>. Said they were from <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23Sevastopol" target="_blank">#Sevastopol</a> <a href="http://t.co/FOtg4fLPUN" target="_blank">http://t.co/FOtg4fLPUN</a></noframe>

14.38 The Kremlin has released a full transcript of Vladimir Putin's press conference.

14.25 Dr Liam Fox, Britain's former defence secretary, has told the BBC that the intervention in Ukraine was the latest example of a "thuggish pattern of behaviour" by Russia:

Much of this crisis was made in the Kremlin and there are those there who have never really got over the idea of the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Their insistence on having what they call 'the near abroad', in other words those countries that they demand to have control over, is anachronistic and destabilising.

We have to make very clear at all times that sovereign nations have to be able to exercise their self-determination free from hindrance and interference.

_{A coffin with the body of Volodymyr Topiy, 59, who was found burned in
the house of trade unions during recent clashes, is carried along a street
during his funeral in Kiev's Independence Square}

13.45 Reuters reports that an official travelling with John Kerry in Kiev said:

We want to very visibly embrace Ukraine. Part of that is through an IMF package, part of it will be through bilateral assistance but in conjunction with our partners to try to support Ukraine.

13.44 The Turkish Air Force scrambled eight F-16 fighter jets on Monday after a Russian surveillance plane flew parallel along its Black Sea coast, the military has said.

_{US Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Kiev}

13.34 A good piece from Patrick Donahue and Tino Andresen at Bloomberg on the complex relationship between Germany and Russia - and Merkel and Putin:

While Merkel and Putin have clashed over topics from civil liberties and gas imports to art looted by the Soviets at the end of World War II, they have a shared history.

A Lutheran pastor’s daughter who faced discrimination at her East German school due to her father’s religion, Merkel learned Russian so diligently that she won prizes and a trip to Moscow. Putin is a fluent German speaker who served as a KGB officer in the East German city of Dresden during the Cold War.

13.03 We have put together some graphics and maps to help explain what is at stake in Ukraine:

12.38 In the House of Commons, William Hague has praised Ukraine's interim government for refusing to rise to Russia's ''deliberate provocation'':

I commend the Ukrainian authorities for refusing to rise to provocation and I urged them yesterday when I was in Kiev to maintain that posture through all circumstances and at all times. And I believe they will be determined to do so.

This continues to be a serious risk, particularly that deliberate provocation could give rise to a dangerous incident.

12.32 US officials say the White House will announce $1 billion in energy aid to Ukraine, AFP reports.

12.25 John Kerry's plane has landed in Kiev.

12.18 Roland Oliphant reports from the Belbek airforce base that the standoff is now over. Ukrainian troops have retreated.

_{Russian troops order Ukrainian troops back at Belbek airforce base}

13.06 Here's footage of the Russian soldiers firing warning shots as Ukrainians approach on Belbek airport, demanding their jobs back.

11.50 Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is also speaking - he states that Moscow's move in Crimea was correct and that forces had seized arms and explosives.

_{Unarmed Ukrainian troops confront soldiers under Russian command
occupying the Belbek airbase in Crimea}

11.12 Vladimir Putin still speaking. He claims that sanctions will backfire on the West and denies that Russian forces had surrounded Ukraine bases in Crimea. He added that deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych had no political future but asserted he was legally still head of state. "I think that he has no political future. And I told him this," Mr Putin said,

11.10 Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe will go to the Crimea region where Russian forces have taken control, Ukraine's top security official, Andriy Paruby, has said, adding that the situation in Crimea was complicated but stable.

_{Vladimir Putin speaks on TV}

10.40 Vladimir Putin is speaking, claiming there has been an "unconstitutional takeover" in Ukraine. Putin says that Yanukovich fulfilled all conditions of the February 21 agreement with the opposition and that he effectively gave up all power.

There can only be one assessment of what happened in Kiev and Ukraine as a whole - this was an anti-constitutional takeover and armed seizure of power.

The acting president is not legitimate. The legitimate president is Yanukovich.

Ukraine is not our closest neighbour but is our brother. Ukrainian troops and Russian troops will not be on different sides of the barricade, they will be on the same side of the barricade.

[There is no need to use force in Crimea or send troops to Ukraine] but Russia will do so as a last resort. Russia reserves the right to use all means to protect citizens in Ukraine.

Market turmoil is a tactical, temporary decision by investors... Russia is ready to host the G8 but [if Western leaders do not want to attend] they don't need to.

_{Russian and Ukrainian troops face off at Belbek airbase in Crimea}

10.33 Telegraph correspondent, Roland Oliphant, reports from Crimea:

The most intense conflict yet in the Russian takeover of Crimea is currently underwayat the Belbek airforce base. It was occupied by Russian forces some days ago, but this morning the Ukrainian garrison commander led his men back to the base unarmed and demanded access to their weapons.

The Russians responded by firing in the air, which led to the ongoing stand-off. A Ukrainian officer, who did not want to be named, told me that if the Ukrainina forces had arrived armed, there is "no doubt" the Russians would have shot them all.

10.24 John Kerry, US secretary of state, is on his way to Kiev to give support to its new leaders. He stopped off in New York to visit his new granddaughter, who was born Monday morning:

_{Secretary of State John Kerry boards his plane at Andrews Air Force Base
en route to Ukraine}

10.21 Russia's Gazprom announces it is to end gas price discount for Ukraine from April

10.03 Ukraine prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, is to meet EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday. Herman Van Rompuy, EU president, tweeted:

<noframe>Twitter: Herman Van Rompuy - EU HoSG will discuss situation in <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23Ukraine" target="_blank">#Ukraine</a> with PM Yatsenyuk in Brussels Thursday prior to extraordinary summit <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23euco" target="_blank">#euco</a> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/Yatsenyuk_AP" target="_blank">@Yatsenyuk_AP</a></noframe>

09.51 Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, says there is "no solution in sight" to the Ukraine crisis after a "difficult" meeting in Geneva with Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov:

I had a difficult, long and very serious talk but it wasn't enough to say that a solution is in sight.

I can't run up a flag to say that we are on the way to finding a solution and that Ukraine and Russia are about to start talking.

_{Russian military armoured personnel carriers (APC) drive on the road
from Sevastopol to Simferopol}

09.45 What are the potential ramifications of the Ukraine crisis for the UK economy:

Much has changed in the past decade in financial relations between Britain and Russia – and not just for Chelsea FC, whose on–pitch success has been funded by owner Roman Abramovich.

His fellow oligarchs have fuelled the London property market, with Knight Frank data showing that Russians were the biggest foreign buyers of £1m–plus homes in the capital last year, spending more than £500m on some estimates. Their regular rows have also kept the UK legal profession in pocket.

09.34 Vladimir Putin is due to give his first comments on the Ukraine crisis in a press conference this morning.

_{Ukrainian service men wait in a column at Belbek airport}

09.28 Fears of an assault by Russian forces on Ukrainian military bases surrounded in Crimea did not materialise overnight. Vladyslav Seleznyov, the defence ministry spokesman for Crimea, told AFP:

The night was quiet... No more declarations have been made by the Russian side.

09.20 Telegraph video of Vladimir Putin inspecting troops in western Russia yesterday:

09.12 Ukraine's parliament ratified an agreement on Tuesday to accept a 610 million euro loan from the European Union, agreed in February 2013 but never ratified under deposed pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich.

09.01 A Kremlin aide has said that Russia could reduce to zero its economic dependency on the United States. Sergei Glazyev, Kremlin economic aide said:

We would find a way not just to reduce our dependency on the United States to zero but to emerge from those sanctions with great benefits for ourselves.

An attempt to announce sanctions would end in a crash for the financial system of the United States, which would cause the end of the domination of the United States in the global financial system.

09.00 London (GMT), 11.00 Kiev (EET), 13.00 Moscow (MSK), 01.00 Washington (PST) Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the Ukraine crisis

China Declares War

China's Stealth Ploy to Sabotage the Dollar

By Brittany Stepniak 2014-02-20

http://www.outsiderclub.com/china-declares-war-chinese-to-sabotage-us-dollar-with-gold-and-IMF/811

If the Federal Reserve doesn't single-handedly murder the U.S. dollar, China will. And it's going to do it with the dollar's antithesis...

It's going to do it with gold.

In case you haven't noticed, gold prices are soaring in lieu of bearish bank reports, jumping over some key resistance levels including "the psychologically important $1300 an ounce level."

Meanwhile, China quietly took the globe's #1 spot as top gold consumer this week. Moreover, the stockpile of gold presently in China is still less than half of that in India (previously the world's biggest gold consumer)... so there's plenty more room for serious growth in the months to follow.

Despite gold's lackluster results in 2013, Chinese demand never waned. In fact, demand for gold bars, coins, and jewelry skyrocketed to historic levels.

China was stocking up on gold, unfazed and probably ecstatic about the 28% price dip, while America was busy getting caught up in the stock market bull run.

That's exactly how China wanted it.

Flawless Execution

China imported at least 1,066 metric tons of the metal compared to India's 975 metric tons in 2013, according to new data from the World Gold Council. (A metric ton is equal to 2,204.6 pounds.)

As rumors of a global currency war heat up, China undoubtedly has the upper hand here. And it's making sure to put its money where its mouth is...

James Rickards, author of Currency Wars, recently interviewed with Epoch Times regarding gold and how China's using the yellow metal to advance its own currency-situation and the IMF to overthrow the U.S. dollar in the process.

In the interview, Mr. Rickards said he had recently met with the head of precious metals operations at the largest gold refinery in the world. And when Rickards met that man, he was very tired... he'd been racing the clock to satisfy gold demand all year long — working 24 hours a day to produce gold.

The fruits of his triple shifts are about 20 tons a week. Half of that — roughly 500 tons a year — goes directly to China. Factor in the gold China's receiving from other refineries, and we're talking about a sizable golden fortune.

Additionally, 2013 saw the largest jump in jewelry demand. From bars to bands, gold is perhaps the most prized possession. Ladies and gentlemen, gold hasn't been this hot since its historic rally of 2011...

We've scarcely begun the new year, and gold's already up a solid 10%. Its ugly sister, silver, proudly boasts an attractive 12% gain.

You'll Never Be On The Inside!

So join Outsider Club today for FREE. You'll learn how to take control of your finances, manage your own investments, and beat "the system" on your own terms. Become a member today, and get our latest free report: "The 5 Best Ways to Buy Gold."

Who Cares about the Yuan?

Although I haven't been keeping an acute eye on the yuan or renminbi, I do know it hit an 11-week-low in greater trading volatility today. I also know China's going to be A-Okay in the long run because it's stocking up on precious metals (a.k.a. the only currency that'll ever win a true currency war).

In the midst of a looming correction in the world's second-largest economy, China's doing what anyone in their right mind would do: stockpiling gold (and tons of real estate).

But China's not just taking whatever cheap gold it can get its hands on. No, it's upped its standards and given the London gold market the boot. Instead of the previous 99 percent pure gold 400-ounce bar, the new standard demands a 99.99 percent pure kilogram bar.

This seems insignificant, but it's smart. It ensures more consumers get what they want (better quality, less weight), and it's better for smuggling since the 400-ounce bars weigh about 10 kilos (25 pounds) while the new bars are just one kilogram (2.2 pounds)... not to mention they're as pure as they come.

A consequence of this seemingly subtle change is that the Shanghai Gold Exchange is on its way to taking center-stage on the world's gold trading market, replacing London.

Do they see something the rest of the world is missing?

To be blunt, yes. They are past the speculating phase. Indeed, they are actively expecting today's crumbling fiat currency system to come crashing down.

And they won't take it lying down... that's why they're pro-actively preparing for the Fourth Turning — a complete reformation of our international monetary system. And they are all too keenly aware that it will be those with the most gold who will yield the most power when that day comes.

In the meantime, the U.S. will likely keep using inflated fiat currency to pay its Chinese debt in cheaper dollars. When we inflate, gold goes up. That's why China bought so much last year when gold suffered major losses — to help hedge all the cheap money we'll be paying them with, and make up for it in their gold reserves.

In hopes of sidestepping that whole process and avoiding all our worthless cash piles, China's up to something else very interesting...

Mr. Rickards explains:

What China wants is the SDR [Special Drawing Right, a type of money for governments], because it's not the dollar. It's issued by the IMF [International Monetary Fund], and China is simultaneously lobbying for more votes in the IMF.

China is trying to use its willingness to lend money to the IMF to purchase SDR notes from the IMF to give the IMF money to bail out Europe. It's trying to use that as a lever to get more votes. If it has more votes, it would be comfortable using the SDR as a reserve currency, because its use would be regulated by the membership and that would make China the second largest member after the United States.

The United States is opposing it, but Christine Lagarde [Head of the IMF], is pushing very hard to increase the Chinese role. It's a complicated global game.

If you said to me, does China want to get rid of the dollar as the global reserve currency, the answer is yes. But most people think it's that they want the yuan. They don't. It's the SDR.

So don't buy into the herd mentality that China's yuan will soon be the new global reserve currency. China's smarter than that. And we should be too.

They weren't ever planning on using the yuan to leverage power; they're planning on using all that gold...

Farewell for now,

Brittany Stepniak

@AngelPubGirl on Twitter

*Follow Outsider Club on Facebook and Twitter.

Collapse Imminent: Got Silver?
How investing in "Economic Energy" (read: silver and gold) will help you prevail in the war for your wealth. Indeed, despite what the silver bears tell you, silver prices are in for a major rebound...

The Crisis No One Sees Coming
Everyone wants to talk about shale, about U.S. energy independence, about oil exports... but there's a problem: We don't have as much oil as everyone thinks. In fact, we're actually closer to an energy crisis than we are to energy independence.

URGENT: This is an "Earthquake for Gold Deniers"
Everything you need to know about the state of the world, 2014.

The clash in Crimea is the fruit of western expansion

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/05/clash-crimea-western-expansion-ukraine-fascists

The external struggle to dominate Ukraine has put fascists in power and brought the country to the brink of conflict

The Guardian, Wednesday 5 March 2014 20.30 GMT

Troops under Russian command fire weapons into the air in Ukraine

Troops under Russian command fire weapons into the air in Lubimovka, Ukraine. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Diplomatic pronouncements are renowned for hypocrisy and double standards. But western denunciations of Russian intervention in Crimea have reached new depths of self parody. The so far bloodless incursion is an "incredible act of aggression", US secretary of state John Kerry declared. In the 21st century you just don't invade countries on a "completely trumped-up pretext", he insisted, as US allies agreed that it had been an unacceptable breach of international law, for which there will be "costs".

That the states which launched the greatest act of unprovoked aggression in modern history on a trumped-up pretext – against Iraq, in an illegal war now estimated to have killed 500,000, along with the invasion of Afghanistan, bloody regime change in Libya, and the killing of thousands in drone attacks on Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, all without UN authorisation – should make such claims is beyond absurdity.

It's not just that western aggression and lawless killing is on another scale entirely from anything Russia appears to have contemplated, let alone carried out – removing any credible basis for the US and its allies to rail against Russian transgressions. But the western powers have also played a central role in creating the Ukraine crisis in the first place.

The US and European powers openly sponsored the protests to oust the corrupt but elected Viktor Yanukovych government, which were triggered by controversy over an all-or-nothing EU agreement which would have excluded economic association with Russia.

In her notorious "fuck the EU" phone call leaked last month, the US official Victoria Nuland can be heard laying down the shape of a post-Yanukovych government – much of which was then turned into reality when he was overthrown after the escalation of violence a couple of weeks later.

The president had by then lost political authority, but his overnight impeachment was certainly constitutionally dubious. In his place a government of oligarchs, neoliberal Orange Revolution retreads and neofascists has been installed, one of whose first acts was to try and remove the official status of Russian, spoken by a majority in parts of the south and east, as moves were made to ban the Communist party, which won 13% of the vote at the last election.

It has been claimed that the role of fascists in the demonstrations has been exaggerated by Russian propaganda to justify Vladimir Putin's manoeuvres in Crimea. The reality is alarming enough to need no exaggeration. Activists report that the far right made up around a third of the protesters, but they were decisive in armed confrontations with the police.

Fascist gangs now patrol the streets. But they are also in Kiev's corridors of power. The far right Svoboda party, whose leader has denounced the "criminal activities" of "organised Jewry" and which was condemned by the European parliament for its "racist and antisemitic views", has five ministerial posts in the new government, including deputy prime minister and prosecutor general. The leader of the even more extreme Right Sector, at the heart of the street violence, is now Ukraine's deputy national security chief.

Neo-Nazis in office is a first in post-war Europe. But this is the unelected government now backed by the US and EU. And in a contemptuous rebuff to the ordinary Ukrainians who protested against corruption and hoped for real change, the new administration has appointed two billionaire oligarchs – one who runs his business from Switzerland – to be the new governors of the eastern cities of Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk. Meanwhile, the IMF is preparing an eye-watering austerity plan for the tanking Ukrainian economy which can only swell poverty and unemployment.

From a longer-term perspective, the crisis in Ukraine is a product of the disastrous Versailles-style break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. As in Yugoslavia, people who were content to be a national minority in an internal administrative unit of a multinational state – Russians in Soviet Ukraine, South Ossetians in Soviet Georgia – felt very differently when those units became states for which they felt little loyalty.

In the case of Crimea, which was only transferred to Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev in the 1950s, that is clearly true for the Russian majority. And contrary to undertakings given at the time, the US and its allies have since relentlessly expanded Nato up to Russia's borders, incorporating nine former Warsaw Pact states and three former Soviet republics into what is effectively an anti-Russian military alliance in Europe. The European association agreement which provoked the Ukrainian crisis also included clauses to integrate Ukraine into the EU defence structure.

That western military expansion was first brought to a halt in 2008 when the US client state of Georgia attacked Russian forces in the contested territory of South Ossetia and was driven out. The short but bloody conflict signalled the end of George Bush's unipolar world in which the US empire would enforce its will without challenge on every continent.

Given that background, it is hardly surprising that Russia has acted to stop the more strategically sensitive and neuralgic Ukraine falling decisively into the western camp, especially given that Russia's only major warm-water naval base is in Crimea.

Clearly, Putin's justifications for intervention – "humanitarian" protection for Russians and an appeal by the deposed president – are legally and politically flaky, even if nothing like on the scale of "weapons of mass destruction". Nor does Putin's conservative nationalism or oligarchic regime have much wider international appeal.

But Russia's role as a limited counterweight to unilateral western power certainly does. And in a world where the US, Britain, France and their allies have turned international lawlessness with a moral veneer into a permanent routine, others are bound to try the same game.

Fortunately, the only shots fired by Russian forces at this point have been into the air. But the dangers of escalating foreign intervention are obvious. What is needed instead is a negotiated settlement for Ukraine, including a broad-based government in Kiev shorn of fascists; a federal constitution that guarantees regional autonomy; economic support that doesn't pauperise the majority; and a chance for people in Crimea to choose their own future. Anything else risks spreading the conflict.

Twitter: @SeumasMilne

Tea Party and the Right

AlterNet / By Max Blumenthal

Is the U.S. Backing Neo-Nazis in Ukraine?

Exposing troubling ties in the U.S. to overt Nazi and fascist protesters in Ukraine.

February 24, 2014 | http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/us-backing-neo-nazis-ukraine

As the Euromaidan protests in the Ukrainian capitol of Kiev culminated this week, displays of open fascism and neo-Nazi extremism became too glaring to ignore. Since demonstrators filled the downtown square to battle Ukrainian riot police and demand the ouster of the corruption-stained, pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich, it has been filled with far-right streetfighting men pledging to defend their country’s ethnic purity.
White supremacist banners and Confederate flags were draped inside Kiev’s occupied City Hall, and demonstrators have hoisted Nazi SS and white power symbols over a toppled memorial to V.I. Lenin. After Yanukovich fled his palatial estate by helicopter, EuroMaidan protesters destroyed a memorial to Ukrainians who died battling German occupation during World War II. Sieg heil salutes and the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol have become an increasingly common site in Maidan Square, and neo-Nazi forces have established “autonomous zones” in and around Kiev.

An Anarchist group called AntiFascist Union Ukraine attempted to join the Euromaidan demonstrations but found it difficult to avoid threats of violence and imprecations from the gangs of neo-Nazis roving the square. “They called the Anarchists things like Jews, blacks, Communists,” one of its members said. “There weren’t even any Communists, that was just an insult.”

“There are lots of Nationalists here, including Nazis,” the anti-fascist continued. “They came from all over Ukraine, and they make up about 30% of protesters.”

One of the “Big Three” political parties behind the protests is the ultra-nationalist Svoboda, whose leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, has called for the liberation of his country from the “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.” After the 2010 conviction of the Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk for his supporting role in the death of nearly 30,000 people at the Sobibor camp, Tyahnybok rushed to Germany to declare him a hero who was “fighting for truth.” In the Ukrainian parliament, where Svoboda holds an unprecedented 37 seats, Tyahnybok’s deputy Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn is fond of quoting Joseph Goebbels – he has even founded a think tank originally called “the Joseph Goebbels Political Research Center.” According to Per Anders Rudling, a leading academic expert on European neo-fascism, the self-described “socialist nationalist” Mykhalchyshyn is the main link between Svoboda’s official wing and neo-Nazi militias like Right Sector.

Right Sector is a shadowy syndicate of self-described “autonomous nationalists” identified by their skinhead style of dress, ascetic lifestyle, and fascination with street violence. Armed with riot shields and clubs, the group’s cadres have manned the front lines of the Euromaidan battles this month, filling the air with their signature chant: “Ukraine above all!” In a recent Right Sector propaganda video [embedded at the bottom of this article], the group promised to fight “against degeneration and totalitarian liberalism, for traditional national morality and family values.” With Svoboda linked to a constellation of international neo-fascist parties through the Alliance of European National Movements, Right Sector is promising to lead its army of aimless, disillusioned young men on “a great European Reconquest.”

Svoboda’s openly pro-Nazi politics have not deterred Senator John McCain from addressing a EuroMaidan rally alongside Tyahnybok, nor did it prevent Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland from enjoying a friendly meeting with the Svoboda leader this February. Eager to fend off accusations of anti-Semitism, the Svoboda leader recently hosted the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine. “I would like to ask Israelis to also respect our patriotic feelings,” Tyahnybok has remarked. “Probably each party in the [Israeli] Knesset is nationalist. With God’s help, let it be this way for us too.”

In a leaked phone conversation with Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine, Nuland revealed her wish for Tyahnybok to remain “on the outside,” but to consult with the US’s replacement for Yanukovich, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, “four times a week.” At a December 5, 2013 US-Ukraine Foundation Conference, Nuland boasted that the US had invested $5 billion to "build democratic skills and institutions" in Ukraine, though she did not offer any details.

Ukraine crisis: March 6 as it happened

US sends 12 F-16 fighter jets to Poland for training exercise as Washington imposes first sanctions on Moscow and Russia begins major military exercise within 300 miles of Ukraine border

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10679802/Ukraine-Russia-crisis-live.html

Ukrainian servicemen make the sign of the cross as a priest reads a prayer for peace at a base in the Crimean village of Belbek

Ukrainian servicemen make the sign of the cross as a priest reads a prayer for peace in the village of Belbek Photo: Thomas Peter/Reuters

By Barney Henderson, Arron Merat and David Millward

6:10PM GMT 06 Mar 2014

3018 Comments

This page will automatically update every 90 secondsOn Off

• New Russian military drills less than 300 miles from border
• US imposes first sanctions on Russians
• Crimea MPs vote to join Russia
• EU leaders hold emergency summit over Ukraine
• Sanctions agreed against Viktor Yanukovych

00.30 The Telegraph's live coverage of the Ukraine crisis will resume in the morning

23.57 The White House has released a readout of the call between the American and Russian leaders.

"President Obama spoke for an hour this afternoon with President Putin of Russia. President Obama emphasized that Russia’s actions are in violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which has led us to take several steps in response, in coordination with our European partners. President Obama indicated that there is a way to resolve the situation diplomatically, which addresses the interests of Russia, the people of Ukraine, and the international community.

"As a part of that resolution, the governments of Ukraine and Russia would hold direct talks, facilitated by the international community; international monitors could ensure that the rights of all Ukrainians are protected, including ethnic Russians; Russian forces would return to their bases; and the international community would work together to support the Ukrainian people as they prepare for elections in May.

"President Obama indicated that Secretary Kerry would continue discussions with Foreign Minister Lavrov, the government of Ukraine, and other international partners in the days to come to advance those objectives."
23.43 President Obama spoke to Vladimir Putin for an hour, Raf Sanchez reports from Washington. He urged the Russian president to withdraw his forces, but the call ended without a breakthrough.
23.19 Jan Eliasson, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, has told the Security Council that international representatives are facing intimidation in Ukraine from what he described as "armed elements" bearing no insignias on their uniforms. In a video briefing from Kiev he said those singled out have included Robert Serry, special advisor to Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General.
22.49 Samantha Power, US ambassador to the United Nations, warns Putin he faces international isolation if he does not pull back from the brink. Speaking on CNN she voices fears that the Russian president is not prepared to get on what she calls the "de-escalatory ramp."
21.49 Russia has begun massive air defence drills 280 miles from the Ukraine border according to the Ria Novosti, the Russian state-run news agency. Col. Oleg Kochetkov spokesman for Russian's western military district says it is the "largest ever exercise" held by air defence units in the area.
20.57 The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved US financial aid to crisis-plagued Ukraine, but the Senate is unlikely to take up the measure until at least next week.
The lower chamber of Congress voted 385 to 23 in favor of the loan guarantees, the first tangible congressional response to Russia's incursion into its neighbor and former Soviet satellite.
The White House and State Department have said the aid will include some $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine's government as Kiev grapples with military and political interference by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine's new leaders have asked for at least $15 billion in financial aid.
19.56 Photograph by Kerry Sheridan of Agence France-Presse of pro-Kiev demonstrations outside the White House calling to isolate Russia:

19.34 Tom Kington reports from Kerry's briefing in the US embassy in Rome:

Speaking at press conference in Rome shortly after President Obama's speech in Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry outlined Obama's punitive measures against Russia, but suggested the US would not yet put into effect the economic sanctions it had set up to target individuals.
"President Obama has issued an executive order that gives the Treasury Department the legal framework to sanction those who threaten Ukrainian sovereignty and democracy, those who contribute to the misappropriation of Ukranian state assets and, just as importantly, those who try to assert government authority over any part of Ukraine territory without authoristation from the legitimate government in Kiev," he said.
But he went on to add: "I want to emphasise, and there is a reason there was a legal framework put in place, and not the specific designations, and that reason is even as we keep faith with what we have said and what we will do, we want to be able to have the dialogue that leads to de-escalation. We want to be able to continue the intense discussions with both sides to try to normalise and end this crisis."
Kerry firmly denied he felt Europe was slipping behind America's resolute response to Russia's actions.
"I do not believe there is a gap. There may be some differences of opinion about timing, or about one particular choice versus another, but that is not unusual when you have many countries working together as we do."
19.04: Kerry in Rome: "Crimea is part of the Ukraine. Crimea is Ukraine. And we support the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the government of Ukraine needs to be involved in any decision" on whether the peninsula would split off.
18.52 Kerry has said that the Ukrainian Constitution requires all of the country to be involved to make referendum valid. Interesting that he implies a referendum for secession will take place but is just arguing about conditions.
18.30 Raf Sanchez reports from Washington:

President Barack Obama today condemned the proposed referendum on Crimea becoming part of Russia as a violation of the Ukrainian constitution and international law.
Hours after the US announced travel bans on Russian officials deemed responsible for the crisis, Mr Obama said the referendum's results would be illegitimate.
"The proposed referendum on the future of Crimea would violate the Ukrainian constitution and violate international law. Any discussion about the future of Ukraine must include the legitimate government of Ukraine," Mr Obama said from White House
"In 2014 we're well past the days when borders can be drawn over the heads of democratic leaders."
The president said he was encouraged by the meeting of European leaders in Brussels and "our international unity is on display at this important moment".
Mr Obama said he remained hopeful that the crisis could be resolved under a deal that would include Russian forces withdrawing to their bases, international monitors being sent to Ukraine and elections in May.
He urged Congress to move ahead with a support package for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.

_{Ukrainian soldiers stand guard inside their base blocked by troops
believed to be Russian in Perevalnoye, near Simferopol. PHOTO: AFP / GETTY}

18.13 Barack Obama says a referendum in Crimea would violate international law.
<noframe>Twitter: The White House - President Obama: "The world can see that the United States is united with our allies and partners in upholding international law." <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23Ukraine" target="_blank">#Ukraine</a></noframe>
18.06 The announcement that the US was sending 12 F-16s to Poland came after Washington earlier sent six additional F-15 fighter jets to Lithuania.
"I have had confirmation that the air police missions will be reinforced by six additional F-15 fighters," Lithuania's defence minister Juozas Olekas told AFP.
The move is a response to "Russian aggression in Ukraine and additional military activity in the Kaliningrad region," Russia's exclave bordering Lithuania and Poland, he said.
"We have witnessed increased military activity in Kaliningrad. Today it is less than three or four days before."

17.42 Poland's defence ministry has confirmed that the US military will send 12 F-16 fighter jets and 300 service personnel to Poland next week for a training exercise whose scope was expanded in response to the crisis in neighbouring Ukraine.
Tomasz Siemoniak said the training exercise, centred on the Lask air force base in central Poland, was originally to have been smaller and involved only transport aircraft. He said Poland requested it be beefed up after Russia's intervention in Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula.
Standing at a news briefing alongside the minister, US ambassador to Poland Stephen Mull said:
When we face such a dramatic challenge for our security, we need to reassure our allies that our security guarantees are valid.

_{(L-R) Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, President of Romania Traian Basescu, European Commission President
Jose Manuel Barroso and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk
(background) at the start of a EU-Ukraine head of states Summit at the EU
council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. PHOTO: EPA}

17.35 Bruno Waterfield reports from Brussels:
Under pressure from the US, the EU has moved closer to threatening Russia with sanctions but European leaders are still lagging behind.
If Russia does not show it wants to loosen its grip on Crimea over the next week then if will draw up a list of Russian officials to be sanctioned with travel bans and assets freezes.
Washington has already drawn up the list.
But it has to be said that the EU has come a long way from an original draft text that gave no detail of sanctions. Now a three phase approach has been set out with details of what Russia can expect if it escalates the conflict or fails to talk to the Ukraine or accept international observers.
17.34 Britain is sending experts in financial intelligence, money laundering and tracing criminal assets have travelled to Kiev to help the Ukrainian government recover misappropriated assets, the Foreign Office has announced in a statement:
The National Crime Agency led task force will be working with the Ukrainian authorities to assess the scope and scale of investigations into misappropriated assets and will be identifying the best way for the UK to assist with any such investigations. The NCA team will also identify any immediate impact the situation has on the UK.
17.26 Ukraine's parliament began a procedure to dissolve the regional assembly in Crimea after it asked to join Russia, Ukraine's interim president Oleksandr Turchynov said
17.07 Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, tweets:

<noframe>Twitter: Herman Van Rompuy - In absence of de-escalation, EU will decide on additional measures such as travel bans, asset freezes and cancellation <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23EURussia" target="_blank">#EURussia</a> summit.</noframe>
<noframe>Twitter: Herman Van Rompuy - 3-step approach. First: we decided to suspend bilateral talks with <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23Russia" target="_blank">#Russia</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23visa" target="_blank">#visa</a> matters and on the New Agreement.</noframe>

16.59 The Telegraph's Senior Political Correspondent Christopher Hope reports from Brussels where EU leaders are holding emergency summit over the crisis in the Ukraine:

16.55 The US military is sending 12 F-16 fighter jets to Poland for a training exercise, Polish media reported.
The jets will arrive at the Lask base, in central Poland, on Monday, the online versions of the Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita newspapers reported. A Polish defence ministry spokesman said he could not confirm the reports.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday it would intensify defence training with Poland in the light of the crisis in neighbouring Ukraine.
16.21 More from Peter Foster in Washington, who says:

A senior US official with close knowledge of the internal deliberations expressed exasperation at the divisions in the EU, but also cautioned over the complexity of sanctioning Russia in a globally interconnected economy.
"Russia is now a two-trillion dollar economy, if you're going to sanction them across the board you have to be very careful not to kill yourself while doing it," the official said.
He added that the administration was drawing up contingencies for three eventualities - an extended status quo, a Russian intrusion into Ukraine and the worst case “shots fired” scenario, but was seeking a de-escalation of the crisis, not a confrontation with Moscow.
16.15 Bruno Waterfield reports from Brussels:
East European diplomat tells me that Obama's executive order is "really helpful" and has made discussions "more solid".
It could mean that the EU has to spell out and toughen up on details of "future targeted measures", along the lines of the Washington announcement. Perhaps that is why the summit is running late.
New EU “red line” will be no Russian “intervention including self-defence groups” in Donetsk or Kharkov
"We expect the G8 Sochi summit to be cancelled but it's up to the G7," said a diplomat.
16.11 Raf Sanchez in Washington reports:

Senator Chris Murphy, the chair of the Senate's Europe committee, warned Britain and other European nations that the US expected them to take a stronger stand against Moscow.
"There has been a lot handwringing about the strength of the transatlantic relationship over the past six months and this is a test of that relationship," Mr Murphy told The Telegraph.
"A lot of us in the US will be watching the events of the next days and weeks to see whether or not the transatlantic community can truly speak with one voice on an international crisis of this gravity."
Mr Murphy said so far there was a greater sense of urgency in the US to respond to the crisis. "It should not be the United States speaking with the strongest and clearest voice: it should be the Europeans," he said.

_{Members of Crimean self-defense units and Interior Ministry members
detain a topless activist from Femen taking part in an anti-war protest near
the Crimean parliament building in Simferopol. PHOTO: REUTERS}

16.00 Peter Foster reports from Washington:

Harry Clark, the head of international trade and compliance at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, said that the executive order had effectively loaded the sanctions gun against Russia, but deferred on pulling the trigger.
"They have established the mechanism for sanctioning without designating the sanctioned persons. That's not unprecedented but it is unusual. There would usually be a shortlist of designated persons accompanying the executive order.
“The Treasury is in the throes of both internal deliberations and communications, particularly with the EU about trying to proceed in a co-ordinated way," he told The Telegraph.
“The EU action is limited to the former Ukrainian officials; they don’t appear to have sanctioned any Russians.
“The US government would like the EU to go along with it, with respect to broader sanctions, designated Russian persons, and for example, limitation on military and intelligence-related goods and services. There are heated discussions ongoing both within the US government and internationally.”
15.56 The rouble has fallen sharply against the euro again. The rouble value to trade 50.06 rubles to the euro at 1445 GMT, 0.5 rubles more than the closing price yesterday, with the pressure increased by optimistic comments by ECB chief Mario Draghi earlier on the eurozone. The ruble also lost value to trade at 36.186 rubles to the dollar, a rise of 0.1425 rubles from yesterday.
15.08 Arseniy Yatsenyuk Ukraine's interim prime minister, says "Ukraine will defend itself":
Putin, tear down the wall of military intimidation immediately.
We are ready for cooperation but not for surrender to be subordinate to Russia
In case of further escalation and military intervention into the Ukrainian territory by foreign forces, the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian military will act in accordance with the constitution and laws.
We don't have nuclear weapons and we have less arms than Russia but we have the spirit of liberty, of Ukraine's revolution.

_{A Ukrainian self defense volunteer bows his head during a funeral
ceremony for Andryi Pozniak who was killed by an unknown assailant near
Kiev's Independence Square. PHOTO: AP}

15.02 Tom Kington reports from Rome:
Silvio Berlusconi, an old friend of Vladimir Putin's, met with the US ambassador to Italy on Wednesday to warn America against isolating Russia, Italian daily Il Messaggero reported today. America, added the former Italian prime minister, had done its best work in foreign policy when it involved the Kremlin, the paper wrote.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Rome confirmed that ambassador John Phillips had met Berlusconi, but declined to reveal what was discussed.
Il Messaggero reported that Berlusconi had recently spoken to Putin, who had "complained" that the US and Europe had not respected the Feb 21 deal signed to hold elections in Ukraine.
As revealed by the Wikileaks cables, the US government has had its suspicions about Berlusconi's ties to Putin.
The then ambassador to Rome, Ronald Spogli, in a series of cables in 2008-9 called Berlusconi a "mouthpiece" for Putin, and US officials reported suspicions - later denied by Berlusconi - that he had shared business interests with Putin. "Berlusconi admires Putin's macho, decisive and authoritarian governing style, which the Italian PM believes matches his own," wrote Spogli in a leaked cable.
14.29 An unnamed senior US official says that and decisions about the future of Crimea must involve the Ukrainian parliament:
With respect to the referendum that was announced, it is the belief of the United States that decisions about Crimea or any part of Ukraine need to be made with the government in Kiev.
14.20 Ukraine is ready to sign EU association pact as soon as possible, prime minister says.

_{Members of Crimean self-defence units guard the Crimean parliament
building in Simferopol. PHOTO: REUTERS}

14.02 Ukraine's prime minister, Arseniy Yatseniuk, has denounced the Crimean parliament's decision to join Russia as "illegitimate":
This is an illegitimate decision and this so-called referendum has no legal grounds at all. That's the reason why we urge the Russian government not to support those who support separatism in the Ukraine.
Crimea is, was and will be an integral part of Ukraine.
14.00 John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov will hold another meeting - their third in two days - later today. this time in Rome.
13.49 The USS Truxtun, a US Navy guided-missile destroyer, is heading to the Black Sea for what the US military has described today as a "routine" deployment that was scheduled well before the crisis in Ukraine.
13.19 Bruno Waterfield has some analysis on what the draft of the EU summit text means:
Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are pushing for harder language on sanctions. The wording on Georgia and Moldova is important for them as a warning to Russia that it will not be allowed to pick off countries wanting closer links to EU.
Diplomats tell me that the demand for “quick steps towards the dissolution of any paramilitary structures” could be dropped because it would also apply to Kiev groups, particularly the far-Right nationalist groups that are the backbone of the new government there.

_{Ukrainian riot police stand guard outside the regional state
administration building in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, after regaining its
control. PHOTO: AFP/GETTY}

13.13 Roland Oliphant reports:

The referendum called for March 16 will offer voters two options: unifying with Russia as a new region of the Russian Federation, or restoring the 1992 Crimean constitution and remaining in Ukraine as an autonomous region - in British terms a kind of devolution max.
That second option seemed until this morning to be the Kremlins preferred course of action. It would have left Russia in de facto control anyway without being accused of annexation, and it is much easier to sell to the Crimean public (autonomy within Ukraine is something almost everyone can just about agree on, including Russians, Tatars and Ukrainians).
But unification changes that calculus entirely. It will be divisive - The Tatar leadership has already said they will not recognise the results of the referendum - and it goes further and faster than anything the Kremlin has done in this field before. Despite recognising South Ossetia and Abkhazia after winning a war against Georgia in 2008, Russia never formally annexed them or made them regions of the federation.
Lots of us assumed that would not happen in Crimea simply because of those precedents. But precedents are being torn up everyday now.
13.09 Barack Obama has moved to impose visa bans "in response to Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity".:
In an executive order, Obama also authorised the blocking of property of "those who are most directly involved in destabilising Ukraine, including the military intervention in Crimea," the State Department said.
13.04 Gunmen are apparently preventing a group of 40 military observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from entering Crimea on Thursday for a monitoring mission. A Western diplomatic source told AFP:
They are stuck but they are not turning back. They are not being allowed in by two groups of armed people - very professional, very well-trained.

_{A boy looks at uniformed men, believed to be Russian, near a Ukrainian
military base in the village of Perevalnoye. PHOTO: REUTERS}

12.54 Bruno Waterfield has a draft of the EU summit text. He has pulled out the highlights:

"We endorse the conclusions adopted by the foreign affairs council on 3 March, in particular its strong condemnation of the unprovoked violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine."
"Failure by Russia to de-escalate the situation will have serious consequences on our bi-lateral relationship [to be updated in the light of events]."
"Efforts should continue to reach out to all Ukrainian regions and population groups and to ensure full protection of the right of all people belonging to national minorities, drawing on the expertise of the Council of Europe and OSCE. Quick steps should also be taken towards the dissolution of any paramilitary structures.”
"We stand by Ukraine and commit to provide it with strong financial backing. We welcome the comprehensive assistance package presented by the Commission and task all relevant Council bodies to process it rapidly and with a view to to early implementation. The IMF support will be critical to unlocking support from the European Union."
"We reiterate the European Union’s commitment to signing the Association Agreement.… The EU is considering unilateral measures that would allow the Ukraine to benefit substantially from the advantages in the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area."
"Energy and energy security are an important part of the EU's external relations. We will continue our efforts to ensure security of supply. The EU also stands ready to assist Ukraine in securing its energy supply."
"The European Union expresses its objective to further strengthen the political association and economic integration with Georgia and the Republic of Moldova. We confirm or aim to sign the association agreements [with them] no later than at the end of August 2014."

_{A priest reads a prayer for peace to Ukrainian servicemen at a base in
the Crimean village of Belbek. PHOTO: REUTERS}

12.41 The pro-Russian authorities in Ukraine's Crimea region are illegitimate and working under the barrel of a gun, Acting President Oleksander Turchinov has said:
The authorities in Crimea are totally illegitimate, both the parliament and the government. They are forced to work under the barrel of a gun and all their decisions are dictated by fear and are illegal.
12.40 The Ukrainian region of Crimea could adopt the Russian rouble as its currency and "nationalise" state property as part of plans to join the Russian Federation, a regional official has been quoted as saying.
Interfax news agency cited Rustam Temurgaliyev, Crimea's vice premier, as saying: "All Ukrainian state enterprises will be nationalised and become the property of the Crimean autonomy."
Hoping Moscow would let Crimea become part of Russia, he said: "We are ready to introduce the rouble zone."
12.30 David Cameron speaking in Brusels:

11.57 More from Bruno Waterfield at the EU summit:

The EU members of a "contact group" brokering talks between Russia and Ukraine will be UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland.
Diplomats are stressing that the Russians are talking to the EU and US, if not to Ukraine so sanctions are not on the cards.
Crimea has brought forward the referendum that had previously been set for May, at the same time as elections in the rest of Ukraine.
Sources: "There is no legal basis for the Crimean referendum. The referendum will colour the discussion here in Brussels."

_{David Cameron talks with Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseney Yatsenyuk,
right, during the European leaders emergency summit in Brussels. PHOTO:
REUTERS}

11.42 Bruno Waterfield reports:

It is worth contrasting the soothing tones of British, German and French leaders to the anger of East European countries that have been previously occupied by Russia and who feel directly threatened.
Poland, Lithuania and other have felt more reassured by Nato and US commitments to step up air patrols over their territories and are dismayed by what they see as EU equivocation.
Dalia Grybauskaite, the Lithuanian president and a Karate black belt, called on the EU to counter Russia's "open and brutal aggression".
"Russia today is trying to rewrite the borders of Europe after World War Two, that is what's going on," she
"I think the first thing for Europeans is we need to understand that this is serious. And that is about even rewriting of borders and if we allow this to happen, next will be somebody else. So today I first want my colleagues to hear what I have to say, because we felt in on our skin, it is our neighborhood. This is not only about Ukraine, it is also about the Baltic region. About sanctions, let's first understand that Russia today is dangerous, that Russia today is unpredictable. It's not about to be afraid, it's about to stand up and say we understand it."

_{A woman holds a poster against war in Kiev's Independence Square. PHOTO:
AP}

11.30 The China Daily, the state-owned newspaper writes in an editorial that the West should "be honest with the fact that their biased mediation has polarized Ukraine and only made things worse in the country":

Looking to the future, Russia's economic cooperation and assistance are vital for Ukraine to solve its various problems.
The Ukrainians have to figure out what is best for their own country and solve the problems through political dialogue and negotiations.
At the same time, the United States and European countries must work with, not against, Russia to tackle the crisis.
11.15 In case you missed it, there was a fun statement from the US state department overnight, evoking Fyodor Dostoyevsky to slam Vladimir Putin.
The Russian leader's assertions that the ousting of president Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev was "an armed seizure of power" prompted the State Department Wednesday to publish what it called a "Fact Sheet" accusing Putin of ignoring or distorting reality:
The world has not seen such startling Russian fiction since Dostoyevsky wrote, 'The formula 'two plus two equals five' is not without its attractions.
10.46 On the decision of Crimean politicians to hold a March 16 referendum, Sergei Shuvainikov, a member of the local Crimean legislature, said:
This is our response to the disorder and lawlessness in Kiev. We will decide our future ourselves.

_{Uniformed men, believed to be Russian servicemen, walk near a Ukrainian
military base in the village of Perevalnoye. PHOTO: REUTERS}
10.42 Roland Oliphant reports

If this vote on Crimea joining Russia is true, it is bold, unprecedented, and significantly ups the stakes of this stand off just as we thought this might de-escalate.
10.36 Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, writes in the Washington Post, Ukraine can become a bridge between East and West:

Ukraine should be free to create any government compatible with the expressed will of its people. Wise Ukrainian leaders would then opt for a policy of reconciliation between the various parts of their country. Internationally, they should pursue a posture comparable to that of Finland. That nation leaves no doubt about its fierce independence and cooperates with the West in most fields but carefully avoids institutional hostility toward Russia.
10.29 Barack Obama's planned holiday is apparently in jeopardy over the Ukraine crisis. The US president had been planning to fly to Miami for a long weekend with Michelle Obama and their two children. However, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told Politico that their getaway is now being reconsidered:
The president had planned to stay in South Florida with his family for the remainder of the weekend. However, it is possible the President may return to the White House on Friday as events unfold in Ukraine.

_{A Ukrainian soldier raises a Ukrainian navy flag as he stands guard on
board the navy ship Ternopil docked in the port of Sebastopol. PHOTO:
AFP/GETTY}
10.25 Pro-Moscow authorities in Crimea have asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to examine a request for their region to join the Russian Federation, which will be put to a referendum on March 16. A member of the parliament's leadership, Grigoriy Ioffe, told AFP:
The parliament of Crimea has adopted a motion for Crimea to join Russia. It has asked the Russian president and parliament to consider this request
10.22 More from Bruno Waterfield in Brussels:

A key EU demand - made by Mr Cameron on his arrival in Brussels - is for Vladimir Putin to open direct talks with Kiev’s interim government and to accept international observers in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
European countries were dismayed and infuriated yesterday when Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, boycotted talks in Paris because of the presence of Andriy Deshchytsia, Ukraine’s acting foreign minister.
After a meeting under the auspices of the “Budapest memorandum”, the legal treaty that governs Russia’s military bases in Crimea, the UK, US and Ukraine agreed what has become the EU's minimum "de-escalation" demand on Russia.
“The US, UK and Ukraine agreed that direct talks between Ukraine and Russia, facilitated as needed by members of the international community, are crucial to resolving the current situation,” said a statement.
“They also agreed that international observers should be deployed immediately in Ukraine, especially in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. International observers would help address any concerns regarding irregular forces, military activity and the treatment of all Ukrainians irrespective of their ethnicity or spoken language.”
10.20 Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, has accused Mr Putin of "Cold War" behaviour. Speaking on his regular LBC radio phone-in, Mr Clegg said:
He regards any closer links between Ukraine and the EU as something synonymous with the old-style ideological confrontation between communism and capitalism. It is not.
The Liberal Democrat leader said Mr Putin had got it "very, very wrong", and the EU was "the world's largest borderless single market" rather than a "military organisation".
Forging closer links between Ukraine and the EU would be a "good thing" for both, he added:
There is nothing incompatible with that with also many Ukrainians, including Russian-speaking Ukrainians, retaining a very strong sense of affiliation with people in Russia.
To see it always as a zero sum game, that there are these rigid boundaries on the map and they have to be fiercely protected one way or the other, is a throwback to a past that I hoped Europe had gone behind.
10.10 Bruno Waterfield reports:

On arrival in Brussels, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said: "We have got to make sure we have Russia and Ukraine talking to each other, and demonstrate that we will help the people of Ukraine in their hour of need, and send a message to the Russian government that what has happened is unacceptable and if any further actions were taken, that would be even more unacceptable and would require further consequences. These are the things that matter, these are the things we are discussing today."
09.55 A second Russia Today presenter has gone rogue and quit the Kremlin funded TV station live on air. Liz Wahl said during a broadcast on Wednesday that she could no longer work for a Moscow-funded network which she accused of "whitewashing" the actions of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Here is the video of her extraordinary resignation:
Her resignation came after another Russia Today presenter launched a stand over Kremlin military intervention.
09.50 More from Bruno Waterfield on the EU summit:

Mark Rutte, the Dutch PM, was asked about sanctions given that Russia has so far refused to comply with demands from the EU and US.
He said: "We should do everything to give the route of de-escalation a chance. If we come to the conclusion today, in the next 48 or 72 hours that de-escalation is not an option then obviously sanctions are back on the table."

_{Ukrainian servicemen stand guard at an air base located in the village
of Lyubimovka near Sebastopol, Crimea. PHOTO: REUTERS}
09.47 Damien McElroy reports from Donetsk:

Pavel Gubarev, the self-declared governor of the eastern Ukraine city Donetsk has evacuated the government headquarters, ending a four-day stand-off.
Security sources said Mr Gubarev and 70 of his supporters had been taken into detention but he denied this in a message posted on social media.
Other local media reports said the Gubarev supporters had been arrested after the police chief, Roman Romanov, was sacked. Certainly the police had been allowing Mr Gubarev to act with relative impunity prior to the most recent developments.
"The government is wrong. The activity of Russian activists will continue. If I am arrested it will be on video," Mr Gubarev told Lifenews, a Russian TV channel. "I'm not afraid for my life but I am concerned for my friends."
Officials have been unable to confirm the whereabouts of Mr Gubarev but the government headquarters now stands empty and the flag of Ukraine is flying on top of the building.
09.40 Bruno Waterfield in Brussels says that EU leaders are highly unlikely to agree Russia sanctions:

European Union leaders are holding an emergency summit on Ukraine today amid deep splits over sanctions after Russia defied all calls to defuse the crisis.
Russia has snubbed EU calls for direct talks with Ukraine, failed to agree on international observers and did not return troops to barracks in Crimea.
The EU is also very worried about Russian “self-defence groups” in Crimea, Donetsk and eastern Ukraine after Robert Serry, the UN envoy, was driven out of Simferopol by armed men.
Russia’s refusal to loosen its grip on Crimea should mean sanctions but the EU is split.
East Europeans, led by Poland, are taking a hawkish line but Germany is leading the main camp which wants to keep Russia talking and to avoid sparking a tit-for-tat sanctions trade war.
David Cameron is coming to the summit with his position undermined by the photograph of a confidential Government document that ruled out “trade sanctions” or measures to “close London's financial centre to Russians”.
The EU not expected to go beyond: the suspension of preparations for a G8 summit in Sochi, calling a halt to EU visa liberalisation and energy talks with the threat of future “targeted measures” or sanctions.
“Failure by Russia to de-escalate the situation.......will have serious consequences,” a draft EU summit text says.
Travel bans or asset freezes against Vladimir Putin’s inner circle or senior Russian officials are not expected.
The EU will instead pledge a €11 billion aid package to Ukraine and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukrainian prime minister will be present to hear declarations of support for the new government.
The Prime Ministers will hold talks with German and French leaders on arrival in Brussels.
EU leaders are not expected to agree a legally binding summit text but will sign off on a statement.
A draft text seen by the Telegraph will welcome the appointment of an interim government but call on Ukraine to hold “free and fair elections, constitutional reforms and open investigations into recent violence”.
Ukraine will be asked to carry out economic reforms in return for aid and, sounding a note of caution about nationalists in the new government, to respect the rights of minorities.
The EU will offer the possibility of gas supplies being “reversed back” to Ukraine in the event of shortages caused by the conflict with Russia.
09.32 Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukraine's interim prime minister, accuses Russia of increasing tensions and provocations in Crimea.
Kiev wants a political solution so "it depends on Russia (if) it is ready to fix this conflict ... or is Russia reluctant and (wants) to increase tension, as they did in the past few hours," Yatsenyuk said after meeting European Parliament head Martin Schulz.
Yatsenyuk said Russian forces had again blockaded Ukraine units in Crimea, "so they are still provoking the clashes and the tension."
We asked Russia to respond, whether they are ready to preserve peace and stability in Europe or ready to instigate another provocation and tension in our bilateral relations.
09.30 London (GMT), 11.30 Kiev (EET), 13.30 Moscow (MSK), 01.30 Washington (PST) Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the Ukraine crisis.
Ukraine crisis: March 5 as it happened
Ukraine crisis: March 4 as it happened
Ukraine crisis: March 3 as it happened

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Jumat, 07 Maret 2014