The political parts of the Association Agreement (AA) with Ukraine are likely to be signed at the next EU summit on 20-21 March 2014.  

The Association Agreement will constitute a new stage in the development of EU-Ukraine contractual relations, aiming at political and economic association and leaving open the way for further progressive developments. The AA provides for a shared commitment to a close and lasting relationship, based on common values, in particular full respect for democratic principles, rule of law, good governance, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The claim that the Crimean referendum violates international law is undercut by the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence. In that opinion, the ICJ found (among other things) that general international law does not prohibit unilateral declarations of independence. The authors of the “unilateral” declaration of independence did not consult Serbian authorities (much less get its consent). Like the declaration of independence, the referendum does not by itself “secede” Crimea from Ukraine under international law.

Here below is an article written by Dmitry Tamoikin. Dmitry Tamoikin is both a Canadian citizen since 1996 and a Russian citizen by birth and blood. Furthermore, his grandmother is Ukrainian which makes him ¼ Ukrainian as well. He was  born in Sevastopol, Crimea where he  lived there for a long time and has a desire to live there again. Today he says he has two places that he can honestly call home, they are: Halifax, Nova Scotia and Sevastopol, Crimea.

The Eastern Partnership (EaP) was initiated by Poland and Sweden and was adopted as an eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in 2009. It comprises six post-Soviet states, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The initiative was designed to supplement the ENP and enable political and economic integration without the promise of enlargement.

If there is an annexation of Crimea, if there is a referendum that moves Crimea from Ukraine to Russia, we won't recognize it, nor will most of the world, U.S. deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. So I think you'd see, if there are further steps in the direction of annexing Crimea, a very strong, coordinated international response. So what?

This article was written by Stephen F. Cohen,( a professor emeritus at New York University and Princeton University) and published in the March 3 edition of The Nation under the title ‘Distorting Russia: How the American media misrepresent Putin, Sochi and Ukraine'

Today we’re witnessing a giant media propaganda war against Russia, particularly against Crimea and against the Russians in Ukraine. There are many lies circulating in the media. There is a kind of media fantasy that imagines that we are seeing a rerun of the Cold War and a tendency to see the worst in every move that Russia makes. And there is a lack of sympathy or empathy or understanding, whichever side you’re on, whatever your interpretation of events in Ukraine.

By the late nineteenth century, U.S. commercial and military interests in Cuba and the wider Caribbean had deepened. When a Cuban uprising against Spanish control threatened to secure the island’s independence, American policymakers pursued military intervention, capitalizing on popular outrage at the mysterious explosion of the U.S.S. Maine, in Havana harbor, in February of 1898. In a nine-day battle for Guantánamo Bay, American soldiers, under Commander Bowman H. McCalla, and Cuban insurgents defeated the Spanish garrison.

Brussels, 6 March 2014

As laid out by many CNN expert analysts