Ukraine summons Russian envoy, wants talks with Moscow

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ukraine's Foreign Ministry summoned Russia's acting envoy in Kiev on Thursday and called for immediate consultations with Moscow following the seizure of the regional government and parliament buildings in Crimea.

It said in a written statement that the envoy, Andrei Vorobyov, had been handed a note requesting that Russian military based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol stay on base.

Russia recalled its ambassador from Kiev for consultations in Moscow after parliament stripped President Viktor Yanukovich of his powers on Saturday. The armed men in Crimea have raised the Russian flag over the regional government and parliament buildings, indicating they may be ethnic Russian separatists.

Russia says doubts legitimacy of Ukrainian authorities

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's prime minister voiced grave doubts on Monday over the legitimacy of the authorities in Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovich's ouster, criticising Western states for recognising officials he said came to power in an "armed mutiny".

In some of Russia's strongest statements condemning the toppling of the Moscow-backed leader, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev made clear he was not yet ready to engage with the former opposition figure appointed acting leader by parliament.

"We do not understand what is going on there. There is a real threat to our interests and to the lives of our citizens," Medvedev was quoted as telling Russian news agencies, explaining why Moscow had recalled its Kiev ambassador on Sunday.

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U.S. gasoline rose almost 12 cents over two weeks

Feb 23 (Reuters) - The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States rose almost 12 cents over the past two weeks as violent crises in three areas of the world heightened concerns in the oil market.

A gallon of regular grade gasoline increased 11.67 cents to an average retail price of $3.41, according to the Lundberg survey released on Sunday. In the previous two-week period, the price had declined by less than two cents per gallon.

Developments in three global hot spots in Ukraine, Venezuela and South Sudan caused U.S. wholesale gasoline prices to "zoom up," said Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the survey.

She said she expects the rise in wholesale prices to add yet a few more pennies to the price at the pump.

Even with the latest increase, the current price is lower than a year ago, when the average price for a gallon of gasoline was $3.79.

The lowest price for a gallon of regular gas in the survey was found in Billings, Montana, where the average price was $3.08. The highest price, $3.82 per gallon, was found in San Diego.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

NYT: Ukraine Parliament Moves Swiftly to Dismantle President’s Government

The New Republic: These Factors Will Determine What Happens Next

By Julia Ioffe

East and West: There is a huge element of anti-colonialism in this revolt. Most of the crowd in the Maidan speaks Ukrainian and the tents are marked with the names of cities of the Ukrainian-speaking West. For at least the last century, speaking Ukrainian was an inherently political act, one that showed one's cultural and spiritual independence from Russian political and linguistic dominance. (This is in part why Tymoshenko, who had to learn the language, now speaks exclusively in Ukrainian in public.) The Russian-speaking east of the country doesn't share this sense of oppression. They feel closer to Russia, and don't mind the Russian embrace. They also have most of the country's industry. For the last week, there has been talk of the country splitting, or, worse, civil war. While I think civil war is highly unlikely, the East-West divide is going to be one to watch: will the Russian-speaking East go along with the change, or not?

The Crimea: The home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Crimean peninsula has long been a subject of contention between Ukraine and Russia, with the latter deliberating whether it should have been kept by the Russian Federation in the 1991 split. Russia has been fanning those fires, handing out Russian passports to local residents, and there are reports that pro-Russian separatism is on the rise. And, given the number of Russian speakers in the area, these tensions could escalate. Watch, for example these Russians yelling at local activists who tried to set up their own Maidan in the Crimean city of Kerchi.

Russia: What will Russia do? Sending in troops is highly unlikely, unless they feel the need to "rescue" Russian citizens in a restive Crimea—much like they did with Ossetians and Abkhazians during the 2008 Russian-Georgian War. There are also economic measures Russia could take to give force to its rather vocal displeasure. Yesterday, it already froze the second tranche of a promised loan to Ukraine. Now that its ally Yanukovich is gone, it's unlikely that tranche will ever get unfrozen. Before Yanukovich, when Ukraine was ruled by a pro-Western coalition, Russia often cut off the flow of gas to the country in order to exert political pressure. This tool remains in the toolkit.

Europe: Tymoshenko is already saying that Ukraine will join the EU iminently. Will the EU let the economically troubled country in to reward it for its choice? Or will it continue to string Ukraine along, much as it's done for the last decade?

Tymoshenko: Tymoshenko has also declared that she will run in the country's newly announced presidential elections in May. Tymoshenko today is a newly freed political prisoner, but she is a rapacious and utterly, clumsily cynical politician with her own dark history of—and appetite for—corruption. Should she cruise to victory on this wave of revolutionary fervor, will she be any better than Yanukovich? As the outgoing prime minister, she ran against him in 2010, and lost, in part because Ukrainians had so tired of her take-no-prisoners approach to politics.

Demobilization: The so-called self-defense groups patrolling and ruling the Maidan these last few months are now highly organized groups of men who have tasted victory—and their own power. What do you do after you take up a baseball bat and topple a president? Go back to your day job? The new interim Interior Ministry head said he promised the groups posts inside the Ministry, but the devil will absolutely be in the details: there are a lot of these guys, and some of them really are extremists. Will there be room for all of them? If not, what will happen to the rest?

The nationalists: There is undeniably a faction of ultra-nationalists on the Maidan, and, when the violence started, they formed the core of the anti-government forces. They say they want to form a political party and run for parliament, but they too have tasted victory and blood: will a seat in the Rada be enough?

Tymoshenko tells protesters they should keep up protests.