Merkel and Ukraine 2015

 

Julia Tymoshenko has, rather succinctly, summed up the Trojan nature of the Minsk Protocol, upon which Angela Merkel is pinning all her hopes in bringing and end to the war between Ukraine and Russia.

She says that,


"No one should believe that the Minsk Protocol – agreed in September by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the Kremlin-backed armed militants in the eastern cities of Donetsk and Luhansk – marked the beginning of a return to normalcy in either Ukraine or Europe. Under that agreement, Ukraine’s government ceded de facto control of the Donbas region, supposedly for only three years, to Russia’s hired secessionists. But this imported hybrid war – and Russia’s bid to carve up Ukraine – is far from over." (Jewish Business News (JBN): Wed, Jan 7th, 2015) (my emphasis)

She further stated that,

"On the contrary, the Minsk Protocol marked only the end of the beginning of Putin’s program to turn Ukraine into a vassal state, and to restore a Russian veto over its neighbors’ international relations. His efforts to thwart Ukraine’s European future will continue, as will his efforts to hollow out our democracy and replace it with a Kremlin echo chamber, unless the world imposes such a high price for his imperial ambitions that the Russian people refuse to bear it." (ibid JBN) (my emphasis)

And, as I stated yesterday,

"But it is not only Merkel who fears a collapse of the Putin's economy. Behind her is a long queue of EU members [and EU MEP's], INCLUDING HOLLANDE, calling for,

" .... an easing or lifting of the sanctions on Russia, which have hit its banks, energy industry and arms manufacturers, as well as targeting powerful figures close to Mr Putin. Politicians in Italy, Hungary and Slovakia are among those who want the sanctions eased." (BBC News : 5 January 2015)


In other words, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, amongst other EU presidents and MEP's, are rapidly moving away from "imposing upon Putin a high price for his imperial ambitions that the Russian people [will] refuse to bear"

Even Merkel herself, who has been dubbed the "Chancellor of Europe", has her hands tied by her SDP coalition partners (especially Walter Steinmeister, her SDP Foreign Minister), German businessmen, and Putin's supporters in the EU. Yet, as Andrew Marr says in the video clip below,

"Germany .... with the most clout on the continent" (7 January, 2014). And Timothy Garton Ash of Oxford University goes so far as to say that Putin respects and fears her even above Barak Obama.

But is this really so? Are neither of these men aware of the implications for Merkel's political position in Germany of the rapidly growing German right-wing populist movement, Pegida? Practically the whole German political establishment have been rudely awoken from their cosy political slumber by Pegida. Even German Justice Minister Heiko Maas (in centre of picture) and Berlin's Integration Senator Dilek Kolat (on the right) joined the demonstration in Berlin to protest against a rally by the mounting right-wing populist movement.

 And right-wing movements are spreading in ALL EU countries.

All of this is music to Putin's ears, to which so many European politicians are turning a deaf ear.

Julia Tymoshenko is correct when she says that,

" Yet, sadly, there have been signs of slackening Western commitment. The European Commission’s agreement in September to postpone full implementation of Ukraine’s association agreement with the European Union – the agreement that Ukrainians fought and died for in Kyiv last winter – signaled to Putin that cunning, force, and intimidation can win Western acquiescence in his subjugation of Ukraine and theft of Crimea." (ibid JBN)

Putin does not need to ramp up his propaganda machine to influence the European public. The right-wing forces in Europe are doing it for him. Millions of Euros have been 'lent' to Marine Le Pen's 'Front Nationale'. What is the betting that the rise of Pegida in Germany may also be secretly funded by Putin?  Remember that during his former years in Germany he was based in Dresden where, 

" ... [a]round 18,000 people have taken part in an anti-Islam rally in the German city of Dresden despite a plea by Chancellor Angela Merkel to reject the growing protests, which she has branded racist." (Sky News : Wednesday 07 January 2015)

Rather belatedly is the EU only now beginning to try to counter the Putin propaganda machine. 

As Kashmira Gander reports,

"The UK is among European Union (EU) member states to have informally backed a Russian-language TV station run by the bloc, to combat “very aggressive” propaganda in Russian media, according a senior Latvian politician. The European TV channel would feature entertainment as well as “very factually accurate news”, and should not be another propaganda tool, Edgars Rinkēvičs, the foreign minister of Latvia, told BuzzFeed News in an interview." (The Independent : Wednesday 07 January 2015)
But is this too little too late? 

"As Rita Ruduša, the commissioning editor for news, current affairs, and documentaries at LatvianTelevision, admitted to BuzzFeed News that it is difficult to compete with Russian channels which spend more on a single prime-time programme than public broadcaster spends on Russian-language programming in total." (ibid The Independent) (my emphasis)

 
This rather underscores how Julia Tymoshenko sees the coming year viz.

"...Ukraine’s ability to resist, and the international community’s ability to prevent brute force from having free rein, depends on whether world leaders understand that appeasement begets only further aggression. If they do not, 2015 could mark the return of a European and world order that was supposedly overcome seven decades ago." (idid JBN)

(to be continued)