As I've predicted after leaving Ukraine's post-Maidan governing coalition the former leader of the Orange Revolution 'Gas Princess' Yulia Tymoshenko has now called for early elections. What's more she's doing so against the wishes of the Americans:

In a national poll conducted in the week to February 17 by the Kyiv-based Gorshenin Institute, 15.8% of respondents said they would back the former prime minister and 'gas princess' in a hypothetical presidential election against Poroshenko, who narrowly holds the lead with 17.2%.

It's a strong position for someone who only scraped past the 5% barrier to get seats in parliament during the October 2014 elections, and it has clearly emboldened Tymoshenko to call for what almost everyone else, Ukraine's Western backers included, is intent on avoiding: costly new elections in a country depleted morally and financially by war and political chaos.

Americans were instrumental in preserving the ridiculously unpopular Yatsenyuk as the Prime Minister in Kiev. A negotiated change of Prime Minister was seen as a bad enough outcome for the State Department - a new election would be seen as a downright disaster.

Just the other day, Ukrainian blogger Yurasumy analyzing the catastrophic state of the post-Maidan Ukraine wrote:

"Has the population begun to live better? Maybe some people have but this absolute minority of the Ukrainian population are the ones who made a business out of the blood of their citizens. Most people are worse off, and most have fallen into poverty."

This video shows some facts about these 'select people':

• Poroshenko's Presidential administration spends more money on a fleet of official cars than Yanukovich ever did.
• The salaries of Duma deputies are ballooning in real terms.
• A 'New Amsterdam' luxury residential and recreational real estate project is being developed on a former industrial site, where Poroshenko just happens to be a major property owner.

General information on the application of measures for the reconciliation of opposing sides

In the course of the last day, the Russian party has signed cease-fire agreements with four commanders of moderate opposition units, which controlled Dumeir (Damascus province). Total number of reconciliation agreements has reached 38.

Peacemaking negotiations with leaders of five armed formations located in the Damascus, Daraa and Homs province are continued.

By the mediation of the Russian Federation, leadership of the Daraa province had meetings with civilians from Etbaa, al-Samein, Mesmia, Nava, Saida and Nahtah. More than 1,000 people participated in the meeting.

In accordance to the meeting results, 842 members of Jaysh al-Islam, Free Syrian Army and al-Yarmuk Brigade signed consents to stop warfare and back to the peaceful life.

The meeting took place despite efforts of radical groups taken in order to foil the event. Several civilians were beaten by militants on their way to the meeting.

Moreover, militants have captured retired Colonel of the Syrian army Zaidan al-Nasirat, who is one of the meeting initiators.

More than 50 Russian warships and support vessels are preparing to begin naval exercises in the Caspian Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry's Southern Military District's press center said Monday.

International Military Review: Syria (Mar. 1)

Don Trump Jr. said he would happily pay for some of his father's black critics to leave the United States.

The Republican presidential candidate's son appeared Monday morning with his brother, Eric Trump, on "Fox and Friends" to discuss the "Super Tuesday" primary elections and the concerted attacks on their father by his GOP rivals.

"You know, it's sad to see," Eric Trump said of the attacks. "We love our father. He's an amazing guy — he would do such an unbelievable job for this country. He's an amazing businessman, he's an amazing negotiator. He's funding himself, right?"

Trump Jr. predicted his father's candidacy would draw "historic turnout for the GOP" because the real estate tycoon and reality TV star has attracted Americans who don't typically vote.

Host Ainsley Earhardt pointed out that some celebrities "don't think he's going to make America great" — as Trump's campaign slogan and baseball caps promise.

Fox News showed video clips of Whoopi Goldberg, Al Sharpton and Raven-Symoné — all of whom are black — vowing to move to another country if Trump or another Republican won.

"I'll buy them their airfare," Trump Jr. said, laughing. "I'm more than happy to chip in."

Eric Trump said their criticism might actually "be the greatest endorsement ever," and his brother agreed that criticism from political enemy only strengthened support for their father.

"Those are endorsements for Trump," Trump Jr. said. "That's the thing — when you have the establishment people in the debates, and they stack the debates with a thousand people that are all booing, those are votes for us. Because the people in the audience watching at home are like, 'Wait a minute — he's saying what I'm thinking.' I love that. That's as good an endorsement as we could possibly get."

Watch the entire interview posted online by Fox News:

Chemical terrorism is now a reality, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes, as extremists from Islamic State and other terrorist groups now possess the technical capabilities to produce 'proper chemical war agents.' The threat of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of non-government groups is widely recognized, the Russian Foreign Minister said.

The issue emerged in light of evidence that militants from Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) and other terrorist groups not only repeatedly used "toxic industrial chemicals," but also "proper chemical warfare agents," Lavrov said. He added there is a growing threat of similar crimes being committed in Libya and Yemen.

There is intelligence about terrorist groups acquiring access to scientific and technical documentation for the production of chemical weapons, and seizing equipment needed for such production, according to Lavrov. This involves foreign specialists in order to master the synthesis of chemical warfare agents.

Lavrov mentioned incidents in the town of Marea, 25 kilometers north of Aleppo in northern Syria in August-September 2015.

In October, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) released a report saying that mustard gas had been used during fighting between IS and other militant groups in Marea. The gas is known to cause severe delayed burns to the eyes, skin and lungs. "It leaves no room for doubt that chemical terrorism is now turning from an abstract threat to a harsh reality, which can and should be stopped by intensifying serious work at an international level."

The presidential election campaign is really just a badly acted, billion-dollar TV show - and Donald Trump is making a mockery of it.

The first thing you notice at Donald Trump's rallies is the confidence. Amateur psychologists have wishfully diagnosed him from afar as insecure, but in person the notion seems absurd.

Donald Trump, insecure? We should all have such problems.

At the Verizon Giganto-Center in Manchester the night before the New Hampshire primary, Trump bounds onstage to raucous applause and the booming riffs of the Lennon-McCartney anthem Revolution. The song is, hilariously, a cautionary tale about the perils of false prophets peddling mindless revolts, but Trump floats in on its grooves like it means the opposite. When you win as much as he does, who the hell cares what anything means?

He steps to the lectern and does his Mussolini routine, which he's perfected over the past months. It's a nodding wave, a grin, a half-sneer, and a little U.S. Open-style applause back in the direction of the audience, his face the whole time a mask of pure self-satisfaction.

"This is unbelievable, unbelievable!" he says, staring out at a crowd of about 4,000 whooping New Englanders with snow hats, fleece and beer guts. There's a snowstorm outside and cars are flying off the road, but it's a packed house.

Greece has recalled its envoy from Austria for consultations in an escalation of a row between Athens and Vienna over the European Union's management of the current refugee crisis.

The Greek Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that it was recalling the ambassador to Austria for consultations to "safeguard friendly relations between the states and peoples of Greece and Austria."

The Austrian Foreign Ministry retorted that the recalling of the envoy could be an opportunity for him to inform Athens of the challenging situation facing countries on the refugees' route, such as Austria itself.

Austria has introduced a daily cap on asylum applications in the country. Earlier this week, the Austrian government held a meeting with Balkan countries but chose not to invite Greece, which is another first landing spot for the asylum-seekers.

The meeting between Austria and the Balkan states was reportedly aimed at discussing more restrictions on refugee entries. The restrictions would mean that many of refugees will have to remain stranded in Greece, where they usually arrive by boat first.

Athens, grappling with an acute economic crisis of its own, has been complaining of the massive numbers of refugees entering the country from one side but unable to leave from the other in the face of border restrictions by neighboring countries.

The Greek government is also unhappy with the failure by other EU members to share some of the burden of the refugee crisis with Athens. Ahead of an EU meeting on Thursday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras warned that any EU deal on the refugee crisis must incorporate mandatory distributions of the refugees.

US President Barack Obama is pushing for a significant military increase in Eastern Europe, citing fears of Russian "aggression." As American authors Lawrence Korb and Eric Goepel point out for Defense One, the plan is wasteful and an unnecessary provocation.

"...The [US] Department of Defense has fallen back on a tried-and-true Cold War boogeyman: the threat of Russian aggression against allies in Europe," Korb and Goepel, both with the Center for American Progress, write for Defense One.

President Obama's recently unveiled $600 billion defense budget includes $3 billion to boost the US military presence in Eastern Europe.

"Obama just asked Congress to fund the biggest military buildup by NATO in Eastern Europe since the Cold War," Korb and Goepel write.