Yanukovych Says Ukrainian Famine Not Genocide

It's been a good week for Moscow vis-a-vis ties with their Slavic brethren in Ukraine.  First, the Kremlin secured a 25-year extension to the lease for its Black Sea fleet.  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin smirked smugly as Ukrainian lawmakers rocked and socked amid the a haze from smoke bombs to ratify the extension, which opposition gadflies blasted as a sellout of Ukraine's sovereignty.  For Russia, Yanukovich was paying immediate dividends.  But he wasn't finished.  Now, Yanukovich has had a rethink on the Holodomor, the Stalin-era 1930s famine that Ukrainian patriots, as well as more than a dozen countries, have classified as a genocide.Yanukovich said that Holodomor was “a consequence of Stalin’s totalitarian regime,” but cannot be called genocide against any particular nation, since mass famine was a tragedy for all countries in the Soviet Union.

Could Polish Air Tragedy Lead To Better Russian Polish Ties?

In the fog and trees of western Russia, Poland lost many of those who moved and shook that eastern European country.  The Saturday crash in Smolensk took the lives of President Lech Kaczynski, and dozens of other Polish political, military and religious leaders.  Poles are shocked and numbed, noting the bitter irony of the disaster.  Poland's who's who were on their way to commemorate victims of the Katyn massacre.  In 1940, Soviet secret police gunned down more than 20,000 Polish officers and other elites, effectively decapitating the ruling class.  And while completely at different ends of the scale spectrum, the target was the same: Polish elite.  And although one appears to be an accident, the other coldblooded mass murder, the two tragedies took place a stone's throw from the other.  But there is one other big difference.  Katyn painted the Russians as murderers and liars, just another seed of distrust, fear and hatred in these countries' stormy 500 years of ties.  However, the Smolensk plane tragedy has brought the two countries together if briefly, to share their grief and condolences.

Informant Follow-up: French Confirm Warship Sale To Russia

Over and over again, NATO, read Washington and its tag-along European 'allies", repeat the same boilerplate: the alliance is not Russia's enemy, and therefore any of its military maneuvers and plans should not spark suspicion in the Kremlin.  So Moscow's purchase of a state-of-the-art warship from NATO member France shouldn't raise anyone's blood pressure inside the military pact, right?  Afterall, NATO and Russia are friends.  Yeah, right.

Yanukovych Wins Ukrainian Presidential Election

A former member of the Communist party, a two-time felon, and a mechanic by trade.  That is the short bio of Ukraine's new president Viktor Yanukovych.  On Sunday, the 59-year-old got his revenge for his 2004 ignominy, when his election to the same post was snatched away by the "Orange Revolution."  This time not only did Yanukovych win, but he defeated one of the main heroines of that 'revolution', Yulia Tymoshenko.  For Moscow, the result is sweet as well.  The Black Sea Fleet, Ukraine's energy pipelines are now on the block prepped for Moscow's bidding.  For many, the biggest disappointment five years after the Revolution has been choosing between Yanukovych and Tymoshenko, two overly familiar figures both tainted by scandal.  Anyway, out with Orange in with Blue.

Romania Eager To 'Host' U.S. Missile Shield

Another piece in Washington's global military puzzle has been placed in a forgotten, poor country on Europe's eastern edges, Romania. That country's president, Traian Basescu has announced his country will host Washington's leaner, and meaner, missile 'defense shield.' Moscow, naturally, is angered by the move, which comes as Russia's military establishment has labeled NATO enlargement as one of the country's main threats. Astonishingly, NATO, which has expanded up to Russia's borders, can't understand why.

French Plans To Sell Warship To Russia Raises Fears

France is planning to sell one of its most advanced warships to Russia in a move that would greatly beef up Moscow's military might. 

However, former Soviet states are jittery about the Russians getting their hands on a Mistral warship, the second largest in the French fleet.  Some in Washington are warning the first ever sale of such high tech military equipment by a NATO country to Russia could upset regional stability.

Berlusconi To Belarus, Say What?

It was a visit that hovered below the media radar, but a biggy, nonetheless.

For the first time in fifteen years, a Western European leader has visited Belarus, referred to as Europe's last dictatorship due to Alexander Lukashenko's heavyhanded rule.

The European official to break the diplomatic boycott of the former Kolhoz director's country? None other than Italy's Silvio Berlusconi.