Is Putin succeeding in sowing seeds of dissention in the EU and globally?

The rapid and speeding escalation with which events are unfolding over Putin's invasion of Ukraine is now forcing many EU politicians to publicly backtrack on their covert support of Putin. But is this really so?

Previously,

• Merkel has spoken to [Putin] by phone three dozen times. Her Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD), traditionally a Russia-friendly party, has invested hundreds of hours trying to secure a negotiated solution to the conflict. ( Noah Barkin and Andreas Rinke: Reuters: Tue Nov 25, 2014) (my emphasis)
• M. Laurent Fabius, French Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, speaking about the Russian-French Mistral contract– "No. It’s a contract which was signed in 2011; it was another government, but it doesn’t much matter. There’s a rule which applies internationally as well as nationally: contracts which have been signed and, moreover, paid, must be honoured." (Embassy of  France in London: 22 July 2014) (my emphasis)

M. Laurent Fabius, French Minister of Foreign Affairs

•  Some EU politicians, such as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have been openly scornful of sanctions and these countries are likely to push for an easing of sanctions next week. (Previous blog entry) (my emphasis)

Robert Fico, Slovak Prime Minister

These are but a few of the critical decisions that have previously been taken by EU governments in relation to the crisis in Ukraine. And of course there have been EU countries who have always supported the Ukrainian people in their struggle to cast off the yoke of their subservience to Putin's Russia, including the Baltic States, Poland, and especially Great Britain.

What is rather frightening is that Matteo Renzi, Italy's Prime Minister, has throughout this crisis been conspicuous by his TOTAL silence in condemning Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Let us not forget that Italy is one of the key economies of the Euro Zone, and that,

"Italy, now currently the Head of the Council of the EU, "has oodles of money invested in Russia, of which Putin is well aware. That is why Putin has said that he has “... high hopes that Italy will give a new impetus to the development of relations between Russia and the European Union”, as reported in Ria Novosti on the 17^th April 2014." (Previous blog entry)

To the current Italian Head of the Council of the EU we can now add the 'fragrant' soft-on-Russia Italian, Federica Mogherini, EU Foreign Secretary.

                         The 'fragrant' Federica Mogherini                                 Matteo Renzi                                            

Today, the 26th November, 2014, things seemed to have changed somewhat.

• The Czech Republic should not tell Ukraine what kind of future to choose, the former minister of foreign affairs, Lubomír Zaorálek, said on Tuesday, [25th November, 2014] hours after Czech President Milos Zeman said Ukraine should remain neutral and not join NATO. Speaking after a meeting in Prague with his Lithuanian counterpart, Linas Linkevičius, Mr. Zaorálek said Ukraine should itself decide in a sovereign manner on its future direction.
•  Noah Barkin and Andreas Rinke report that, "Merkel has hit a diplomatic dead-end with Putin" (Reuters: 25th Nov., 2014) She is willing to continue with sanctions even though it will hurt German industry. At the same time, "Matthias Platzeck, a former leader of the [SOFT ON RUSSIA] German SPD, broke ranks earlier this month and urged Germany to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea." (ibid Noah Barkin) 
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• France will not hand over the first of two state-of-the-art warships built for the Russians until Moscow halts its military action in Ukraine, the Elysée Palace has announced. (Kim Willsher: Tuesday 25 November 2014) (my emphasis) 
• Yevhen Perebyinis, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman, told journalists that a total of 85 vehicles had been detected in the five columns that entered at the Izvaryne border crossing point from Russia on Monday. "Up to six of these were heavy armored transporters. The rest were vehicles and buses carrying [Russian] fighters and ammunition," he said. (Reuters: Tue Nov 25, 2014)

The above bullet-points indicate that Putin's strategy to cause dissention amongst members of the EU seems to be working, that he has many influential supporters within the EU, and that his aim to particularly isolate Britain and the US from the EU stance since they are advocating that stronger action against him be taken to confront his growing militaristic adventurism against NATO, seems to also be working. Only the Baltic NATO members are siding with the US and Britain.

"Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius, as part of the delegation led by President Dalia Grybauskaitė, visited Kyiv on 24 November. During the visit, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin to discuss the situation in Ukraine, bilateral cooperation and partnership within international organisations." (November 24, 2014: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania)

Barkin (ibid) has [also] pointed out that, "German media have been complaining for months about their news sites being bombarded with pro-Russian comments. German security sources say they are part of an organized offensive steered from the Kremlin."

But the Putin propaganda strategy has a global dimension that is even more sinister.

Apart from pouring millions into his global propaganda machines, Putin is also cynically using the UN as a tool to infect the leaders of the world with his warped narrative of events in Ukraine.
 

UN Gereral Assembly

"The Resolution on Combating Glorification of Nazism and Other Contemporary Forms of Racism put forward by the Russian Federation was adopted by voting on 21 November 2014 at the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, 115 states voting for, 3 against, and 55 abstaining." (UN)
 
Even more disconcerting is Joanna Szostek's perceptive analysis of the Russian propaganda machine. 

Joanna Szostek

As she states,

"According to some commentators, the purpose of Russian propaganda is less to win outright support than to sow doubt, introduce ambiguity and thus weaken the resolve of those challenging the Kremlin. Even if this is so, Western countries will not become any safer by rejecting all Russian arguments as ‘psychological operations’ or heavy-handedly obstructing their diffusion in public discourse." (ibid Szostek) (my emphasis)

Furthermore, 

"[t]he problem [for the West] is that the Kremlin’s narrative has become far more than a tool for manipulating foreigners. It also structures how tens of millions of individuals at all levels of Russian society (not to mention some Ukrainians) think and perceive the world. Therefore, the more the Russian account of events is ignored, censored or condemned in the West as utterly illegitimate, the deeper public distrust of the West in Russia is likely to become – and this will hardly facilitate a reduction in current tensions.(ibid Szostek)

The next few days will determine whether Putin will begin to blink or whether he will "push the proverbial nuclear button" and cause the EU to tear itself apart.
 
(to be continued)