Eight hours ago,
"Russia has used its veto at the UN
to block a draft resolution to set up an international tribunal into the
MH17 air disaster in July 2014.
It was the only nation at the 15-member UN Security Council to oppose the move, triggering widespread condemnation." (BBC News : 30 July,2015) (my emphasis)
Putin himself stated that,
"a tribunal would be "counter productive"". (ibid BBC)
And whilst Putin is exposing to the world his 'fear' of the truth emerging about the downing of MH17 by his proxies in eastern Ukraine who used Russian military equipment, we learn that US political journalist Brian Whitmore speculates that,
"there have long been suspicions that the United States and Europe might give Ukraine up in exchange for Russia's support in securing a deal to curb Iran's nuclear program.
.....
"Moscow's endgame is to embed Russian territories back into Ukraine as a Trojan horse. And it is desperate to cut a deal to secure this result." (Ukraine Today : Jul. 29, 2015) (my emphasis)
This endgame of Putin's is, in fact, being imposed upon Poroshenko by BOTH President Obama AND the EU's Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande.
As Vladimir Socor (right) explains,
"Berlin, Paris, Brussels and even Washington lack the means or the will to deal with that situation on the ground. Instead, they have taken to urging Kyiv to implement political clauses first, irrespective of Russia’s noncompliance on the military side; thus reversing the Minsk sequence and canceling even the pretense of reciprocity. Their policy can be described as “Minsk revisionism.”
This generates concentric pressures on Ukraine, essentially to legitimize the Donetsk-Luhansk authorities through direct negotiations on political and constitutional issues. " (The Jamestown Foundation: July 20, 2015) (my emphasis)
Recall that on my June 24, 2015 blog entry I suggested that,
"The question that now needs to be asked is whether Merkel, Putin, and Hollande, who had a private Skype meeting about Ukraine without Poroshenko,
also discussed over the phone on Monday (Associated Press:22/06/2015) whether Ukraine should be,
"[carrying] out the “last” points of the Minsk agreement and not wait for Russia and the Russian-controlled militants to carry out their portion of the agreement." ( EuroMaidan Press)
It would now seem that this was, indeed, the case.
The Iran negotiations, together with dealing with ISIS and Bashar Al Assad, seems to be the endgame of President Obama.
The United States presidential election of 2016 is expected to be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016.
That is 16 months away.
President Obama has entered the last stretch of his Presidency. From here on in his endgame requires him now to make deals with Putin.
President Obama has his legacy firmly in sight, and it does not include ruffling Putin's feathers over Ukraine.
As Vladimir Socor explains,
"The other context of Nuland’s (right) intervention [for Ukraine to implement political clauses first, irrespective of
Russia’s noncompliance on the military side] is the diplomatic
rapprochement between the United States and Russia over the Middle East.
This has spawned the bilateral channel of Nuland and Russian Deputy
Foreign Affairs Minister Grigory Karasin, to deal with the problem of
Ukraine.
...........
While Ukraine is directly represented in the Normandy Quartet, it is unrepresented in the Nuland-Karasin channel." (ibid Vladimir Socor) (my emphasis)
And whilst President Obama now quietly slips into becoming an ex-president NATO, on the other hand, is beefing up its training of Ukrainian soldiers. (BBC News : 26 July 2015)
Furthermore, Ukraine is beefing up the protection of its border with Transnistria.
As
Lauren Davidson (right) informs us that,
"Shoplifting in Russia surged last year as the economic fallout from crippling sanctions and plunging oil prices increased the number of people living in poverty.
"Russia has used its veto at the UN
to block a draft resolution to set up an international tribunal into the
MH17 air disaster in July 2014.Putin himself stated that,
"a tribunal would be "counter productive"". (ibid BBC)
And whilst Putin is exposing to the world his 'fear' of the truth emerging about the downing of MH17 by his proxies in eastern Ukraine who used Russian military equipment, we learn that US political journalist Brian Whitmore speculates that,
"there have long been suspicions that the United States and Europe might give Ukraine up in exchange for Russia's support in securing a deal to curb Iran's nuclear program.
.....
"Moscow's endgame is to embed Russian territories back into Ukraine as a Trojan horse. And it is desperate to cut a deal to secure this result." (Ukraine Today : Jul. 29, 2015) (my emphasis)
This endgame of Putin's is, in fact, being imposed upon Poroshenko by BOTH President Obama AND the EU's Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande."Berlin, Paris, Brussels and even Washington lack the means or the will to deal with that situation on the ground. Instead, they have taken to urging Kyiv to implement political clauses first, irrespective of Russia’s noncompliance on the military side; thus reversing the Minsk sequence and canceling even the pretense of reciprocity. Their policy can be described as “Minsk revisionism.”
This generates concentric pressures on Ukraine, essentially to legitimize the Donetsk-Luhansk authorities through direct negotiations on political and constitutional issues. " (The Jamestown Foundation: July 20, 2015) (my emphasis)
Recall that on my June 24, 2015 blog entry I suggested that,"The question that now needs to be asked is whether Merkel, Putin, and Hollande, who had a private Skype meeting about Ukraine without Poroshenko,
also discussed over the phone on Monday (Associated Press:22/06/2015) whether Ukraine should be,
"[carrying] out the “last” points of the Minsk agreement and not wait for Russia and the Russian-controlled militants to carry out their portion of the agreement." ( EuroMaidan Press)
It would now seem that this was, indeed, the case.
The Iran negotiations, together with dealing with ISIS and Bashar Al Assad, seems to be the endgame of President Obama. The United States presidential election of 2016 is expected to be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016.
That is 16 months away.
President Obama has entered the last stretch of his Presidency. From here on in his endgame requires him now to make deals with Putin.
President Obama has his legacy firmly in sight, and it does not include ruffling Putin's feathers over Ukraine.
As Vladimir Socor explains,
"The other context of Nuland’s (right) intervention [for Ukraine to implement political clauses first, irrespective of
Russia’s noncompliance on the military side] is the diplomatic
rapprochement between the United States and Russia over the Middle East.
This has spawned the bilateral channel of Nuland and Russian Deputy
Foreign Affairs Minister Grigory Karasin, to deal with the problem of
Ukraine. ...........
While Ukraine is directly represented in the Normandy Quartet, it is unrepresented in the Nuland-Karasin channel." (ibid Vladimir Socor) (my emphasis)
And whilst President Obama now quietly slips into becoming an ex-president NATO, on the other hand, is beefing up its training of Ukrainian soldiers. (BBC News : 26 July 2015)
Furthermore, Ukraine is beefing up the protection of its border with Transnistria.
As
Lauren Davidson (right) informs us that,"Shoplifting in Russia surged last year as the economic fallout from crippling sanctions and plunging oil prices increased the number of people living in poverty.
Some 930m rubles (£10.4m) of goods were stolen from Russian stories in
2014, an increase of 44pc on the 648m rubles-worth swiped the previous
year." (Daily Telegraph : 23 Jul 2015) (my emphasis)
And as if this were not enough,
"This is what belt-tightening looks like in Russia: Vladimir Putin has fired 110,000 government officials at a stroke.
The Russian president signed a decree last week limiting the number of staff employed by the Interior Ministry to just over one million. That requires massive layoffs that will bring total headcount down by 10%." (CNN Money : July 24, 2015) (my emphasis)
Added to which,
"Three years ago, President Vladimir Putin promised the Russian people a kind of utopia: salaries would grow by up to 50 percent, average life expectancy would rise to 74 and waiting lists at kindergartens would disappear.
.....
Russia's regional governments have fallen deeply into debt under the weight of these pledges. And with a drop in aid from the federal budget, which is increasingly tied up in such expensive projects as military rearmament and the integration of Crimea, relief is nowhere in sight.
......
In the first quarter of this year, 26 regions slashed spending on education, 21 cut health care spending and 16 curtailed spending on social security, she said.
"In this situation, it's the people who suffer. Especially vulnerable people, low-income people — for whom a rise in the cost of utilities is very serious — and people who receive social subsidies," [Natalya Zubarevich] said." (Delphine d'Amora : Moscow Times : Jul. 15 2015) (my emphasis)
Is it any wonder that 'shoplifting is now becoming a Russian pastime?
Yet, without so much as batting an eyelid, Putin simply,
"....[uses his veto] at the UN
to block a draft resolution to set up an international tribunal into the
MH17 air disaster in July 2014." (ibid BBC News)
(to be continued)
And as if this were not enough,
"This is what belt-tightening looks like in Russia: Vladimir Putin has fired 110,000 government officials at a stroke.The Russian president signed a decree last week limiting the number of staff employed by the Interior Ministry to just over one million. That requires massive layoffs that will bring total headcount down by 10%." (CNN Money : July 24, 2015) (my emphasis)
Added to which,
"Three years ago, President Vladimir Putin promised the Russian people a kind of utopia: salaries would grow by up to 50 percent, average life expectancy would rise to 74 and waiting lists at kindergartens would disappear.
.....
Russia's regional governments have fallen deeply into debt under the weight of these pledges. And with a drop in aid from the federal budget, which is increasingly tied up in such expensive projects as military rearmament and the integration of Crimea, relief is nowhere in sight.
......
In the first quarter of this year, 26 regions slashed spending on education, 21 cut health care spending and 16 curtailed spending on social security, she said.
"In this situation, it's the people who suffer. Especially vulnerable people, low-income people — for whom a rise in the cost of utilities is very serious — and people who receive social subsidies," [Natalya Zubarevich] said." (Delphine d'Amora : Moscow Times : Jul. 15 2015) (my emphasis)
Is it any wonder that 'shoplifting is now becoming a Russian pastime?
Yet, without so much as batting an eyelid, Putin simply,
"....[uses his veto] at the UN
to block a draft resolution to set up an international tribunal into the
MH17 air disaster in July 2014." (ibid BBC News)(to be continued)
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