Putin's week in politics

Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, said in 1964 that, "A week is a long time in politics"

The late Harold Wilson

Political decisions surrounding Putin's invasion-strategy of eastern Ukraine changes hourly, and is spread around the globe within minutes.

• Dec 1, 2014 : Ukrainian government troops and Russian-backed separatist forces in the Luhansk region have agreed on a new ceasefire, international monitors said. (Peter Leonard in Kiev: The Scotsman)

•  Dec 2, 2014 :  Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO chief, said on Tuesday that they agreed to activate four trust funds which will help pay to upgrade Ukraine's logistics, cyber warfare, command and control and medical services, and added a fifth to support wounded Ukrainian soldiers.

•  Dec 2, 2014 : Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly knows his classics in battle strategy as he is applying the proverb “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” with his overtures to Turkey about a gas supply line in a standoff with the European Union over Ukraine, laying bare the political weakness of the block. ( Marcel Michelson  : Forbes :02/12/2014)

• Dec 3, 2014 : There is a scare at a nuclear plant in Ukraine. "Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk provoked further concern today when he referred to the incident during a Cabinet meeting". ( Simon Tomlinson for MailOnline)

• Dec 3, 2014 : A new round of negotiations may be staged next week involving representatives of the rebels, Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said in televised remarks. Russia continues to destabilize its neighbor and undermine stability in the region, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels. (Kateryna Choursina and Ian Wishart : Bloomberg) (my emphasis)

•  Dec 3, 2014 : U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today in Basel, Switzerland.(ibid Kateryna Choursina and Ian Wishart)

Marking a year since the start of protests

•  Dec 4, 2014 : Just 5 hours ago the BBC reported that, "Russia is suffering badly as a result of Western economic sanctions - but Ukraine's situation is far worse, with a predicted fall in GDP of 7% this year." (Anatol Lieven)

• Dec 4, 2014 : As reported by Deutsche Welle, "Amid growing economic woes and heightening tensions with the West over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to hold his annual address to the nation on Thursday in the Kremlin's St. George's Hall."

Sanctions against Russia being felt by Russian Middle Class

"In what will be his eleventh annual speech, (Dec 4, 2014) Putin is expected to address his country's declining economy, in light of Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and retaliatory Russian import bans." (ibid Deutsche Welle)

For Putin, however, a new headache for him has emerged.

"Several police died in clashes with militants who attacked a traffic post in the Chechen capital, Grozny, and then stormed a building housing local media, Russian officials said on Thursday." (Dec 3, 2014)

"The latest skirmishes in volatile Chechnya will be seen as a major affront to President Vladimir Putin who is set to deliver his annual state of the nation address later in the day." ( Agence France-Presse in Moscow : The guardian.com, Thursday 4 December 2014)

The Press House in flames in Grozny, Chechnya

To fully understand just how angry Putin must be over the sight of these burning buildings in Grozny, the capital of Chenchnya, it should be borne in mind that,

" ..... Russia fought two wars over the past 20 years in Chechnya, the last one following Putin's bombing of flats in Moscow and then blaming it on the muslim Chechen terrorists."

Ironically, it was the late Boris Berezovsky who exposed those 1999 killings in Moscow flats as having the fingerprints of Putin and the FSB all over it.

The late Boris Berezovsky

                                             

Who's the real terrorist? Bombings in Russia, Vladimir Putin's rise, Chechnya war documentary

It was this 1999 Chechen war that really set in motion the law-and-order 'tough-guy image'  of  Putin, an image that would stand him in good stead with the Russian public during the presidential elections of 2000. Since then, this image that he has assiduously cultivated over the years, and that is so popular with the Russian people, simply cannot be undermined by either the Ukrainians or the Chechens.

It would really seem that Harold Wilson was correct when he said that, "A week in politics is a long time."

We now await to hear what Putin will be saying at his annual address to the Russian people today.

(to be continued)