Putin fails to split the EU

Yesterday that dyed-in-the-wool Soviet foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov (left), apparently,

" ... appealed to Germany and France on Saturday to ensure Kiev does not try to incite violence in east Ukraine to encourage the United States to send Ukrainian forces lethal weapons. ........

......
In an interview with Russian television, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was concerned Kiev might stage "provocations" to try to persuade the United States that it should aid Kiev by sending it lethal weapons." (Katya Golubkova : Reuters : Sat Mar 21, 2015)
  
Since the beginning of Putin's invasion of eastern Ukraine, sophisticated lethal weapons from Russia have flowed like an unstoppable torrent into the hands of Putin's proxies, and have been operated by the flood of Russian soldiers that accompanied those weapons across the Ukrainian-Russian border. 

This TV interview of Lavrov, beamed into all the households in Russia, had  two central purposes viz.

The first is to  " .... to set the stage for 'legitimising in the minds of the Russian public in particular' the impending Russian invasion of Mariupol that is stealthily been set up by Putin's proxies and his Russian soldiers".

Already, as admitted by the OSCE observers trying to monitor the removal of heavy weaponry from the 'conflict' boundary between Ukraine and Russia, 

"International observers trying to monitor the ceasefire in the Ukraine are being led on an impossible game of 'hide and seek' that could shatter the peace deal.......Both pro-Russian rebels and government troops have been accused of concealing weapons from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) which could threaten the treaty." (Sam Mathew : MailOnline : 21 March 2015) 
 

The second, and possibly more important purpose, of Lavrov's TV interview for the Russian people is to somehow deflect their gaze from increasing unemployment, increasing inflation, and steadily emptying shelves in their supermarkets of the goods to which they have become accustomed.  

"Russia reels under depleting reserves, rising unemployment, and plummeting retail sales

Data released by the Central Bank of Russia and the Federal State Statistics Service on March 19 indicate that the country’s foreign exchange and gold reserves have depleted further. Retail sales have plummeted as consumer confidence is shaken by the sliding ruble and inflation runs rampant. 

........

The unemployment rate also increased to 5.8% in February from January’s 5.5%, adding to Russian households’ misery." (Stephanie Johnson : CNBC (Yahoo Finance) : Sun, Mar 22, 2015) (my emphasis)

Things have reached such a stage in Russia that even Putin is now urging,

".... Russian business leaders to bring money held abroad back to Russia sooner rather than later, warning that international sanctions could see foreign assets frozen.
"I would like to repeat that the situation is such that alarming information is coming from some countries and we are getting the impression that attempts may be made to prevent the return of capital to Russia," Putin told the business community at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs congress in Moscow on Thursday, ... " (Holly Ellyatt : CNBC : Friday, 20 Mar 2015) (my emphasis)

Underlying this rather desperate call of Putin for money, 'stolen from the Russian people in the first place', to be brought back to Russia, is yet again a constant reinforcing of the extreme nationalist sentiments emanating from Putin's Russian TV propaganda machine that the Russian people are constantly being subjected to. 

The question is, "For how long can Putin's propaganda machine pull the wool over the eyes of the Russian people as the economic situation in Russia continues to deteriorate and more severly affects the living standards of the Russian people"?

Adding to Putin's woes is the fact that the EU leaders on Friday have decided that their sanctions against Russia will continue until the 'ceasefire' conditions outlined in Minsk2 have been fulfilled. This INCLUDES Ukraine regaining control over its border with Russia by the end of this year.

"The sanctions, imposed because of Russia's alleged military intervention in Ukraine, are now linked to "complete implementation" of a ceasefire deal." (BBC News : 20 March 2015) (my emphasis)

So, intstead of Putin being relieved of these sanctions in July, they will continue until the end of this year.

And looming on the horizon is the prospect of even more sanctions being imposed by the US administration against Putin and his kleptocratic cronies and 'siloviki'.

If this were not enough, as his proxies and Russian soldiers continue to try and conceal their heavy weaponry manouvres from the eyes of the OSCE, Obama will be finding himself more and more unable not to send lethal weapons of defence to Ukraine.

 

(to be continued)