Putin, Greece, and Ukraine.

In 1985 the late Margaret Thatcher gave a speech to the American Bar Association where she argued against giving terrorists the “oxygen of publicity.”

"And we must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend. In our societies we do not believe in constraining the media, still less in censorship. " she said." (David Gerstman (left) : L.I :  Monday, April 8, 2013) (my emphasis)

More recently, Peter Pomarentsev (right) has informed us that,

"The Kremlin exploits the idea of freedom of information to inject disinformation into society. The effect is not to persuade (as in classic public diplomacy) or earn credibility but to sow confusion via conspiracy theories and proliferate falsehoods." (Interpretermag : pdf file) (my emphasis)

At yesterday's (19 June, 2015) "St. Petersburg International Economic Forum", Putin was on form displaying precisely what Margaret Thatcher warned against viz. giving himself the 'oxygen of publicity on which he depends', as well as Peter Pomarentsev's insight that the 'Kremlin exploits freedom of information to sow confusion via conspiracy theories and proliferate falsehoods' about Russia's war with Ukraine.

It should be noticed how he purposefully evaded answering the question about his war with Ukraine, and his annexing of Ukrainian Crimea by switching to WWII, Iraq, and Libya, then stating that,

"... we are not the original cause of those crisis phenomena which happened in Ukraine"

How deceptive that he does not mention that the Ukrainian Maidan occurred because he bribed Yanukovich not to sign the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, but rather that Ukraine should be emraced by the 'bear' hug of his Eurasian Customs Union.

This was also part of his political strategy to attack the EU itself.

As Ian Traynor reported,

"Ukraine has abruptly ditched its plans to sign a historic pact with the European Union aimed at shifting the country out of the Kremlin's orbit. The decision handed victory to President Vladimir Putin in the increasingly vicious tug of war between Russia and the west for Ukraine's future, and looked like turning a special EU summit next week focused on Ukraine into a debacle." (The Guardian : Thursday 21 November 2013) (my emphasis)

He is now employing exactly the same tactic by 'luring' the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, with 'wads of money' to pull Greece out of the cataclysmic economic mire that threatens to engulf it.

It is for this reason that, as Neil MacFarquhar reports,

"... [Putin] and [Alexis Tsipras] produced a grand pageant of solidarity, friendship and supposed economic cooperation at Russia’s annual gathering for global business executives Friday, but the embrace seemed mostly about thumbing their noses at Europe." (New York Times : June 19, 2015) (my emphasis)

Furthermore, Sandy MacIntyre and Nataliya Vasilyeva report that,

"Russian President Vladimir Putin said after Friday's talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that a prospective Russian natural gas pipeline should help Greece service its debt, but the Kremlin said the question of direct Russian financial aid to Greece was not discussed.

..."We are starting a new era in Greek-Russian relations and we consider you who live here [in Russia] to be playing a very important part in this effort," Tsipras said. " (AP : 20 June, 2015) (my emphasis)

However, if Putin throught that by 'seducing' Tsipras he would cause panic within the Eurozone countries, Merkel (left) soon put paid to that idea of his.

"The emergency summit of leaders from eurozone nations will be held in Brussels on Monday, after negotiations on Thursday failed.

"Let me make it very clear as to the expectations," Mrs Merkel said on Friday.

"Such a summit can only become a summit of decisions if there is something to base a decision on.

"It is up to the three institutions [the ECB, IMF and European Commission] to assess this, and up to now we don't have that assessment." (BBC News : 20 June, 2015) (my emphasis)

At the same time, next week,

"A ministerial meeting between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany aimed at finding a rapid solution to the conflict [in Ukraine] will be held next week in Paris". (Barbara Tasch (right) : Business Insider UK : Jun. 17, 2015)

She further reports that,

"Tensions might be running high in Paris. European Union governments announced on June 17th that the economic sanctions against Russia would be upheld until January 2016. The EU hopes that prolonged sanctions will put more pressure on the Kremlin to end conflict in Ukraine." (ibid Tasch) (my emphasis)

What must rather be sticking in the craw of Tsipras is the fact that the IMF is willing to countinue to bail out Ukraine even if it defaults on its debts, whilst it is demanding that Greece institutes radical reforms, especially in the area of its extremely generous  pension payments.

And sticking in Putin's craw is the fact that,

"Cash-strapped Ukraine promised on Friday to make the next payment on a disputed Russian loan it had threatened to stop servicing due to Moscow's rejection of more lenient terms." (Dmitry Zaks : AFP : 20 June, 2015)

"Russia had warned it would ask the International Court of Justice in The Hague to declare Ukraine in default if it failed to make a scheduled $75-million interest payment on Saturday. Jaresko said the money would be delivered on Monday because banks remained closed over the weekend." (ibid Dmitry Zaks) (my emphasis)

Putin's contemptable threat about taking Ukraine to the Int. Court of Justice if his money is not paid to-day (20 June, 2015) rather says it all.

Perhaps Mikhail Khodorkovsky (right) is correct when he said that,

"The Russia-Ukraine conflict has no short-term solution and is part of a fabricated conflict with the West to distract everyday Russians from corruption and incompetence ... " (RFERL : Saturday, June 20, 2015) (my emphasis)

It would therefore be in Putin's interest to continue with his war against Ukraine.

Even more telling, and in support of Khodorkovsky's contention about the fabricated nature of Putin's war with Ukraine, is the fact that,

"A former finance [Russian] minister [Alexei Kudrin (left)] proposed on Thursday bringing forward the next presidential election to give his ally, Vladimir Putin, a stronger mandate to reform the economy and guide Russia through a financial "storm".

Russia is sliding into recession, with economic sanctions imposed by the West over Moscow's role in the Ukraine conflict taking a toll and lower global oil prices depriving the country of its main source of revenue." (Oksana Kobzeva and Polina Devitt : Reuters : Thu Jun 18, 2015)

Signs of desperation?

(to be continued)