The suffering of Ukrainians and Russians being caused by Putin

Today is a sad day indeed. If, like myself, you have experienced the openess and kindness and hospitality of the Russian and Ukrainian people, then surely your heart must bleed at the suffering that they must now endure, thanks to Vladimir Putin's 'psychotic' dream of restoring the old Czarist Empire of Russia. The airwaves of the world are resounding with the falling price of the Russian currency, the rouble. Food is becoming more and more expensive. Russians are already beginning to hoard food.

A website has emerged that rather poignantly tells us, second by second, what is happening to the price of the rouble, as well as telling us what is happening to the price of a barrel of oil, the very foundation on which the Russian economy rests. Already interest rates have been hiked to more than 17%, making it more much expensive for ordinary Russians to even borrow money from their banks.

                  

The Russian economy is not simply faltering, it is rapidly slowing down. And with this slowing down will come unemployment and even more suffering for the Russian people. (BBC Business News: 16 December 2014)

Putin is not only making the Ukrainian people suffer, he is doing it to the Russian people as well. As reported by Pete Spence of the  Daily Telegraph,

"Russia’s rouble has slumped, hitting many Russian consumers by pushing up inflation at a time when any hopes for growth are distant." (14 Dec 2014)

"One Muscovite resident told Business Insider that ATMs in the city are being routinely emptied by people eager to withdraw as much cash as they can either to change into dollars or purchase goods with before the value falls even further. He said the mood there is unlike anything he had ever seen "including during the crash of 2008-9". (Tomas Hirst : Business Insider : Dec. 11, 2014)

Putin's criminal acts against Ukraine has precipitated the same types of problems in Ukraine. In the rebel-held territories of eastern Ukraine such problems are even more intense.

"...with the coming of winter it has become evident that the separatist leadership is incapable of providing any kind of normal life for the inhabitants in the occupied territories without external financial support. Bitterly cold Donetsk and Luhansk find themselves on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Smaller towns have already crossed the line: if we are to name things what they are, there is famine in the towns. Old people in particular are suffering. With the absence of functioning social and medical agencies the old people are slowly dying in their freezing homes with no food or medicines. (Ivan Iakovyna of EuroMaidan Press (2014/12/12)

So what real options does Putin now have?

According to Ivan Iakovyna, 

"By the beginning of December, the overall status of the separatists deteriorated. The hope that after the Battle of Ilovaisk Ukraine would agree to recognize the separatists and would agree to provide an official plan to federalize eastern Ukraine has been dashed. The isolation of the occupied territories from any financial means has led to the crash of the local economy. Moscow has ended up with a bunch of armed people, a destabilized region, and a famished and freezing population.

 

The Russian leadership is left with four options:

• To escalate the conflict and to force the Ukrainian side to declare federalization and to take on the responsibility for Donbas and its people
• To drop the Novorossia project, let the people fend for themselves, close off the border to Russia and  admit and declare defeat
• To freeze the conflict by absorbing Donbas and its resources
• To try to achieve the original objectives through negotiation

The first option has been rejected by the hawks in the Kremlin [for the following reasons] (collapse of the economy, social upheaval and popular unrest).
The second option is unacceptable for ideological reasons. The Russian people who for over a year have been told that “those are our people” will be unable to comprehend or to accept such a decision. Today already men like Strelkov-Girkin are explicitly blaming the Kremlin for betraying “Novorossia” and are gaining popularity among the most conservative segment of Russian society. Besides, in Moscow everyone understands that abandoning Donbas will not lift the international sanctions that are in place. Crimea is next in line. For the Kremlin it is essential to keep stoking instability in eastern Ukraine for as long as possible. Capitulation is not an option." (my emphasis)

If  Ivan Iakovyna is right in his assessment that "Capitulation is not an option" for Putin, what will the 'fragrant' Mogherini, who must also be aware that capitulation is not an option for Putin; what will she be able to 'suggest' at her meeting today with Poroshenko that will alleviate the suffering of the Ukrainian and Russian people? Can she cast from her mind her past (?) communist mind-set when having her discussion with Poroshenko about how to get Putin to leave eastern Ukraine and return Ukrainian Crimea to Ukraine?  

         

(to be continued)