Putin 'shielding himself behind Merkel and Steinmeier'.

In yesterday's blog  entry (14 May, 2015) I stated that,

" ... the US is now effectively regarding Putin's rebel proxies in eastern Ukraine as an integral part of Putin's military forces, whilst Merkel and many other leaders in the EU still view them as 'Russian-speaking Ukrainian rebels'".

And today we learn that,

"Kerry flew in to the Turkish seaside resort of Antalya to brief NATO foreign ministers on his eight hours of talks on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Those talks (in Sochi) offered no sign of concrete progress to end the crisis over a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has chilled relations between Russia and the West.

"There was strong agreement among all of the NATO members that this is a critical moment for action by Russia and by the separatists to live up to the Minsk agreement," Kerry said, referring to a ceasefire accord that has been regularly broken." ( Adrian Croft and Tulay Karadeniz : Reuters :
Wed May 13) (my emphasis)

At the same time, the Putinversteher foreign minister of Germany, Walter Steinmeir, was rather more "upbeat".

"Although the ceasefire is still fragile in two places and being constantly violated, we have finally seen progress in the last couple of days as working groups have been installed where representatives of the Kiev government and the Donbass region will talk about humanitarian aid, economic development, the political process and the security situation," he told reporters." (ibid Adrian Croft and Tulay Karadeniz) (my emphasis)

Needless to say, Putin's propaganda machine is pushing foreward Steinmeier's 'upbeat' view of the dire situation in eastern Ukraine.

From RT (Russia Today) we have,

"German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says there has been a serious breakthrough in fulfilling the Minsk peace roadmap in Ukraine. Despite any difficulties encountered, he says, the participants must press on with implementing the deal." (RT : May 13, 2015)

whilst Sputnik serves us up with the headline,

 "No Alternatives to Minsk Agreements on Ukraine - German Foreign Minister"

Let us now recall that in March of this year,

"A Russian Foreign Ministry official said [that]... Moscow had the right to deploy nuclear arms in Crimea, but said he knew of no plans to do so."(Adrian Croft : Reuters : 13 May, 2015) (my emphasis)

However, NATO and the Ukrainian foreign minister, Pavel Klimkin (left),

"....are ... deeply concerned by statements of the Russian leadership with regard to possible future stationing of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems in Crimea, which would be destabilizing," NATO and Ukraine foreign ministers said in a joint statement after meeting in Turkey." (ibid Adrian Croft) (my emphasis)

Putin has already recently threatened the use of nuclear weapons.

"Threat: Vladimir Putin will consider any attempt to return the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine as a declaration of war, and will take any necessary step - including using nuclear weapons - to retain control of the region" (John Hall : Mail Online : 2 April 2015) (my emphasis)

The concerns of NATO and Ukraine are therefore not without foundation. Yet Steinmeier, like Merkel, simply will not budge an inch from their original stance that there are "No Alternatives to Minsk Agreements on Ukraine", as Putin's propaganda sheet 'Sputnik' so 'eloquently' puts it.

Forget about the fact that:

• The Minsk1 protocols failed utterly
• The Minsk2 'ceasefire', in Steinmeier's own words, " is still fragile in two places and being constantly violated "
• Putin has threatened that, "any attempt to return the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine [will be viewed] as a declaration of war, and [that he] will take any necessary step - including using nuclear weapons- to retain control of the region"
•  Russia is carrying out a new military build-up in eastern Ukraine, massing troops on the border and deploying advanced air defences inside its neighbour, the US state department says. (David Blair and Tom Parfitt : National Post : April 24, 2015)
•  The recently released Boris Nemtsov Report claims that  Russia has up to 10,000 soldiers involved in the war in Ukraine and at least 220 have died in battles there in the past year (AP : National Post : May 12, 2015) (my emphasis)

And yet, even in the face of the disintegration of the Minsk2 'ceasefire' and the expectation of the residents of Mariupol that they could be invaded at any time by Putin's military forces, Steinmeier and Merkel (below) together are sticking to their guns that,


"Germany is working with Russia, not against it.” (RT : May 10, 2015)"



Poroshenko (right) must be asking himself, "With 'friends' like these, who needs enemies."

 Yesterday Merkel met with Poroshenko. And all that she had to say about the crisis in Ukraine was,

"On the basis of February's Minsk agreement," Merkel said on Wednesday, "we must realize that we are not yet where we want to be." (DW : 13.05.2015) (my emphasis)

In other words, Merkel said 'absolutely nothing'......

(to be continued)