Merkel and the 'Mogherini's' of the EU buckling under Putin's threats

Putin's propaganda mouthpiece, RT, informs us that,

“The European Union today is extremely realistic about developments in Russia. But we will never be trapped or forced or pushed or pulled into a confrontative [sic] attitude,” the EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini (left) told the media on Friday, following an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Riga, Latvia."(RT : March 07, 2015)

In this the 'fragrant' Mogherini is supported, of course, by Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and the  German FM Frank-Walter Steinmeier. To which we can also add Matteo Renzi, Italian PM, Francoise Hollande, President of France, Angela Merkel, and the Hungarian PM, Victor Orban, amongst others.

                         (top) Hollande, Steinheimer, Orban (bottom) Merkel, Kurz, Renzi

However, what is interesting in RT's report is that,

"The German Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government suspects the US and NATO of trying to derail the EU’s mediation effort in Ukraine." (ibid RT) (my emphasis)

Maybe, just maybe, they are the 'unwitting victims' of Putin's threatening bellicosity to retaliate if,

" .... the United States [sends] ....... just under a battalion of soldiers to Ukraine to train troops from the Ukrainian National Guard by the end of the week.

Russian officials denounced the anticipated arrival of U.S. troops for a training mission in Ukraine a “provocation” that could result in serious consequences for “Kiev authorities and the Ukrainian people.” ( Jack Kenny : The New American : Sunday, 08 March 2015) (my emphasis)

This 'muscle flexing' of Putin should be viewed against the following facts:

(i) The training exercise, first announced last August (i.e August 2014!), was
      scheduled to begin this month.

(ii) On the 24 Feb 2015, David Cameron, British PM, announced that,
      "Over the course of the next month we are going to be deploying British service
       personnel to provide advice and a range of training, from tactical intelligence to
       logistics to medical care, which is something else they have asked for.

      "We will also be developing an infantry training programme with Ukraine to
      improve the durability of their forces" (Peter Dominiczak : Daily Telegraph : 24 Feb
      2015) (my emphasis)

Why now, suddenly, does

“U.S.-Ukrainian military drills in the western Ukrainian Lviv region threaten Russia's security,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich (left) said in a statement carried by Tass, Moscow’s official news agency. “It is evident that they are not trying to bring peace to the country,” Lukashevich said. “Kiev authorities and all the Ukrainian people should think about the possible consequences of such steps.” Deteriorating U.S.-Russian relations, he added, will be further damaged if “the citizens of Donbas start being killed with the use of the U.S. weapons.” Donbas is a region near the Ukrainian-Russian border where separatists fighting the Kiev government have captured territory and declared autonomous “people’s republics.” (ibid Jack Kenny) (my emphasis)

Why did Putin not make these threats last August when the US training exercises were first mooted, or even when David Cameron recently announced that the UK, " ..... will also be developing an infantry training programme with Ukraine to improve the durability of [the Ukrainian] forces"?

But most critically, notice that he is publicly stating Putin's perception that,

" separatists fighting the Kiev government have captured territory and declared autonomous “people’s republics.”. 

This simple fact, more than anything else, really belies the fact that Merkel is trying to restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Like so many Germans, Merkel too is trapped within the "Russland Versteher" mentality that stretches from the left to the right of the German political spectrum.

As reported in the Economist, as long ago as May 10th 2014,

           Heinrich Winkler                        Karl Schlogel

"One German historian of Eastern Europe, Karl Schlögel, calls German Russophilia a “mixture of sentimentality, nostalgia, cowardice and kitsch.” 

Another historian, Heinrich August Winkler, has attacked the Russlandversteher for standing in a long and nasty tradition of Russo-German co-operation (most egregiously seen in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939), given that what they are excusing in Mr Putin is a mixture of neo-tsarist aggression and ethnic nationalism."(my emphasis)

What is most disconcerting about the implications of this "Russlandversteher" mental trap that many Germans simply cannot seem to extricate themselves from has rather presciently been stated by Ulrich Speck (left) in May of last year viz.

“The more America confronts Russia to defend the principles of international order,” he says, “the more Germany will distance itself from America.” For Europe, as for Germany itself, any such shift would be disastrous." (ibid The Economist) (my emphasis)

And this is precisely what we see happening now over the Ukrainian issue.