Was Putin too afraid to attend the Astana meeting?

And so it has happened as predicted. As I wrote yesterday,

" ... his dyed-in-the-wool Soviet foreign minister Lavrov has to throw as many spanners as he can muster into the foreign ministers meeting between Ukraine, Germany, France, and Russia on the 12 Jan in Berlin (today), so that Putin can have a 'diplomatic' argument  for not attending the Astana meeting" (blog entry 12/1/2015)
 
Thus this morning we read that,

"Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after meeting ministers from Germany, France and Ukraine in Berlin on Monday that all had agreed that only a strict ceasefire could pave the way for the countries' leaders to meet in the Kazakh capital Astana." (Reuters : Tue Jan 13)

What, exactly, does Lavrov mean by the "observing of a strict ceasefire"? 

Given that Putin is adamant that there are NO Russian soldiers fighting in eastern Ukraine alongside his proxies, the logic that then flows from Lavrov's argument is that;  

• the Ukrainian army should lay down their arms
• Putin's proxies in eastern Ukraine can then be supplied with more arms from Russia
• more Russian soldiers can then cross the border into eastern Ukraine to counter Poroshenko's call-up of 50,000 more Ukrainian troops specifically to begin to control the BORDER between Russia and Ukraine

"According to Poroshenko, Ukraine's military forces are 100 percent equipped, while several months ago the army only had 20 percent of the needed supplies." ( KyivPost : Jan. 5, 2015)


But, most important of all, 

"Lavrov's comments put an end to plans for talks in Astana on Thursday, to which Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had invited the Russian, French and German leaders.
"According to the ministers, this (work on implementing the deal) will allow plans for a successful summit in Astana to move forward. It was agreed that it was necessary to work more on this," Lavrov said." (ibid Reuters) (my emphasis)

               Poroshenko                              Merkel                               Hollande                           Putin

These developments do seem to strongly indicate that Putin;

• does not have to be seen to have buckled under the weight of the collapsing Russian economy
• may have increased his isolation within his kleptocratic clan that is now in control of Russia
• like Stalin, is displaying real fear of being betrayed if he eased his grip on power
• giving his bevy of his supporters in the EU, especially Hollande, Renzi, and the 'fragrant Mogherini, a further argument for sanctions against Russia to be lifted.

            Hollande                               Renzi                 The 'fragrant' Mogherini

Putin's global propaganda machine RT rather succinctly exposes Lavrov's spanners that he threw into the foreign minister's meeting in Berlin yesterday to get Putin off the hook of having to attend the proposed 15 Jan meeting in Astana.

Notice further how the reporter refers to the rebel-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine as 'republics'. This rather exposes the fact that Putin has absolutely no intention of stemming the flow of armaments and Russian soldiers across the border between Russia and Ukraine into those territories occupied by his proxies and their Russian-soldier helpers, in the face of international law, notwithstanding the constant mantra of denial emanating from the bowels of the Kremlin.

We also learn that yesterday Viktor Yanukovych, deposed president of Ukraine has, after one year,  been finally placed on the wanted list of Interpol for embezzling billions of dollars in public funds from Ukraine. (BBC News : 12 January 2015)

 Yet we have the movie director, Oliver Stone,

"... wanting to make a four-hour documentary telling the [so-called] "dirty story" of the overthrow of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in what he believes was a "coup" organized with the help of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency." (Moscow Times : Dec. 31 2014)

This is the same Oliver Stone who has argued that,

"Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply," he said. Then he mentioned the S word. "Stalin has a complete other story. Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any person." (Ed Pilkington : The Guardian : Sunday 10 January 2010)

He further claimed,

" .... that the Russians suffered more during the Second World War and that there was a Jewish 'domination of the media'." (Daniel Bates : Mail Online : 28 July 2010)

which he later retracted saying,

"'In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret." (ibid Daniel Bates)

Now that Interpol will be hunting down Yanukovych, will Stone continue to make his propaganda documentary that will be sweet music to the ears of Putin?

(to be continued)