-- The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution that affirms Ukraine's territorial integrity.
-- The IMF has announced "a staff-level agreement" with Kyiv on assistance of $14 billion-$18 billion in conjunction with a reform program that will "unlock" up to $27 billion over the next two years, pending final approval next month. Tthe U.S. Congress has also passed an aid bill for Ukraine.
-- Ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko has announced plans to run for president.
-- Members of the Right Sector have been holding a demonstration outside the Ukrainian parliament building to vent their anger at the killing of prominent member Oleksander Muzychkoearlier in the week.
-- Six Ukrainian military officers detained by pro-Russian troops in Crimea have been released, including Colonel Yuliy Mamchur, but five others are still being held captive.
-- Anonymous sources quoted by CNN say U.S. intelligence "concludes it is more likely than previously thought that Russian forces will enter eastern Ukraine."
-- U.S. President Barack Obama, in the keynote speech of his visit to Europe, chided Russia for its use of "brute force" in Ukraine and vowed that a determined alliance of the United States and Europe will prevail over time.
*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Kyiv
Journalist Michael Weiss takes a closer look at alleged ties between Britain's political elite and Russian oligarchs that might be influencing the U.K.'s reluctance to impose sanctions on Russia over Ukraine.
"The Cold War may be over in the Western imagination for a number of reasons, but the triumph of cold hard cash is one of them. Russians have bought nearly five percent of the premium London properties in 2013. They’ve kept the tills full at Harrods during an “austerity” economy. They’ve sent their children to elite boarding schools and Oxbridge colleges, paying full tuition fees. And they’ve shoved their questionably-gotten gains into British tax shelters or financial institutions. In return, the political establishment, be it Labour or Tory, has only asked for more."
14:277.3.2014
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke to reporters after a meeting of the European People's Party in Dublin today about the situation in Ukraine. Here are some bites:
"Our meeting today is perhaps the most important meeting in the history of our community. This is because history is standing on our doorstep. The part of history I am referring to is the one we have been witnessing for several months, happening just across our eastern border."
"The way that the European Union acts towards Ukraine, towards Russian politics in Ukraine, will actually define who we are. Yesterday, in Brussels at the European Council we took decisions which show that Europe has a chance to pass this important historical exam."
"We have heard a lot recently about Europe being weak, that the European community is losing its strength and energy. What I want to say is that we have demonstrated we are able to fight crisis by redefining the community. Equally, we have demonstrated yesterday that Europe can be effective, strong and courageous."
14:347.3.2014
RIA-Novosti's report on the visit of the Crimean parliament delegation to the Russian parliament today.
Crimean parliament chairman Vladimir Konstantinov quoted as saying: "We have made a decision on entry into the Russian Federation. Now the ball is in your court. You must decide the fate of Crimea -- I hope, forever."
14:417.3.2014
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has been speaking to journalists in Berlin today.
Here are some quotes:
"The annexation [of Crimea by Russia] would definitely be a step not only sharply condemned by the European Union. In fact, I think the world community, all the way to Russia's neighboring countries, would be outraged and I can only warn against such a step."
"I have not received clear signals from Russia over the past 24 hours that they intend to participate in the contact group we are looking for."
"The motion of a draft law to the Russian Duma according to which Russia is ready to accept possible new federation subjects added fuel to the fire. So unfortunately, we fell back further yesterday than we were the day before."
See RFE/RL's report on the Duma's annexation bill here.
14:557.3.2014
15:017.3.2014
"USA Today" reports on a U.S. Pentagon program called "Body Leads" that " uses the principles of movement pattern analysis to predict how leaders will act."
The Pentagon "has backed the work of Brenda Connors, the director of Body Leads and a research fellow at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., since 1996, records show, and has paid about $300,000 since 2009 to outside experts to work with her. Part of her work includes a 2008 report for ONA on Putin called 'Movement, The Brain and Decision-making, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.'"
"While Connors declined to characterize her current work, she has written previously about Putin's movements, including what she identified as an irregularity in the way he walks. In a 2005 interview in The Atlantic magazine, she said Putin's physical problems 'created a strong will that he survive and an impetus to balance and strengthen the body. ... When we are unable to do something, really hard work becomes the way.'"
15:047.3.2014
There was a massive rally in Moscow today in support of President Vladimir Putin's policies in Ukraine. The main slogan of the demonstration was "We Trust Putin In Everything."
15:057.3.2014
15:137.3.2014
We've been waiting for an English-language piece that uses the Crimea crisis to remind of us of Vasily Aksyonov's classic dystopian novel "The Island Of Crimea." The Carnegie Endowment's Thomas de Waal serves it up.
"First published in 1979, Vasily Aksyonov’s fantasy imagines that Crimea is an island, not a peninsula, that had survived as a White Russian enclave after the 1917 Bolshevik takeover and then grown into a sort of Russian Taiwan, booming, decadent and crammed full with all the luxuries that Brezhnev-era Russians craved. It ends with a war, as mainland Russia invades and the anomalous experiment comes to an end."
But there have been numerous reports in recent days that Western economic and political elites find their relations with Russia too lucrative to put on the block. Here's one by Oliver Bullough: "Russia's Elite Are London's Cash Cows."
