May 22:
Islamists in Syria are urging Muslims in Ukraine and Crimea to take up arms against Russia, an Israeli think tank has warned. A new report from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, a policy institute closely affiliated with the Israeli intelligence community, notes that a top official of al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria has called upon Muslims in Ukraine and Crimea to wage holy war against the Russian state. The exhortation is intended to “inspire the local Tatar population to carry out acts of terrorism and subversion against Russia,” the Center concludes. “It illustrates the potential dangers for countries of origin (one of which is Russia) from the fighters in Syria.”
May 23:
Ahead of Ukraine’s much-anticipated election, Russian President Vladimir Putin is striking a conciliatory tone. The Associated Press reports Putin as saying that he will recognize and honor the outcome of the May 25th vote in Kyiv, and “respect the choice of the Ukrainian people.”
Russia’s interference in Ukrainian politics is rooted at least in part in concerns over the country’s future role in the Western security architecture, Reuters reports. "Tomorrow Ukraine may join NATO, while the day after tomorrow parts of the US anti-missile system could be deployed there," the news agency cites Russian President Vladimir Putin as telling an investment forum in St. Petersburg.
May 25:
The Moscow Times reports that Russian security forces have killed seven militants in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia. The militants, part of a local extremist group linked to the killing of local law enforcement officials in 2013, were killed following a three-hour gun battle with government forces.
In what many observers are terming a rebuke to Russia, billionaire “chocolate king” Petro Poroshenko has won a resounding victory in Ukraine’s election. The Guardian reports that Poroshenko won 56% of the vote in the election, obviating the need for a second round of voting. Poroshenko, who campaigned on a platform of national unity amid unrest in Ukraine’s south and east, has pledged to launch a dialogue with Russia and begin negotiations on a new security arrangement guaranteeing the country’s territorial integrity to replace the now-defunct 1994 Budapest memorandum.
May 27:
Just days after his election, Ukraine’s new president has pulled his country out of the CIS. The Moscow Timesreports that Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has officially filed paperwork with the country’s parliament to begin the protracted process of exiting from the Moscow-dominated bloc. According to analysts, the move marks “the last nail in the coffin of the Kremlin's Moscow-centered integration project built on the bones of the Soviet Union,” the Times reports. "For a thinking man, a neo-Soviet Union without Ukraine is nonsense," the paper cites independent political analyst Sergei Shelin as saying.
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