Putin taking Ukraine to court. A sign of Putin's total failure in eastern Ukraine?

Ian Talley (left) has reported that,

"....Ukraine’s Western allies are preparing to accelerate planned changes to the International Monetary Fund’s lending policies to prevent Russia from stymieing the country’s $25 billion financial rescue package." (Wall Street Journal : Oct. 29, 2015) (my emphasis)

Putin being Putin, if Ukraine's Western allies can 'stymie' his attempt to prevent Ukraine from receiving IMF funds, then he will drag Ukraine through the courts to get the 'BRIBE MONEY' that he gave to Yanukovich to 'scupper' the EU Association Agreement with Ukraine. (cf: The Guardian: Wednesday 18 December 2013)

And so it is that Ukraine and Putin,
 

"...are vowing to fight each other in a London court over a $3 billion bond Vladimir Putin bought to reward his Ukrainian ally, Viktor Yanukovych, for rejecting closer trade ties with the European Union two years ago." (Natasha Doff (left) : Bloomberg Business : October 28, 2015) (my emphasis)

Given, however, that it is universally known that Yanukovich stole $ billions from the Ukrainian coffers, and that he now resides in Moscow in comfort and under the protection of Putin himself, is it too far fetched to assume that Putin's banks ALREADY have that bond money stashed in Russian banks, under the name of Yanukovich?

If so then, in effect, Putin himself is now trying to steal $3 billion from the Ukrainian people under the guise of retrieving a loan that he gave to Yanukovich, and that Yanukovich himself stole from the Ukrainian people.

Thus the mealy-mouthed Anton Siluanov (right), Putin's Finance Minister, on 28th October stated that,

"...Moscow would take legal measures if Kiev did not repay the debt on time." (Lidia Kelly : Reuters : 28/10/2015),

yet ...... TWO DAYS LATER then stated that Putin,

" ... expressed concern about a possible rule change by the International Monetary Fund that would enable it to keep lending to Ukraine even if Kyiv defaults on its debt to Russia.

"Russia does not want Ukraine to be left without financial support," Anton Siluanov said on October 30, but Russia is suspicious of the "hastiness" of the rule change at the IMF. " (RFERL : Saturday, October 31, 2015) (my emphasis)

Can we really believe that Putin is sincere in saying that, "Russia does not want Ukraine to be left without financial support". Really?

Whilst many Western political pundits will view this dragging of Ukraine into a British court by Putin as a 'diplomatic manouvre' to keep up his political pressure on Poroshenko, what it really exposes is his petty minded vindictiveness.

Putin simply dare not be seen to have lost in eastern Ukraine. If he has to conform to the full implementation of Minsk2 then, like any thug, he will continue to kick at Ukraine, especially whilst it is economically vulnerable.

To complement his taking Ukraine to court in the UK,

 "Ukraine's former deputy defence minister, Leonid Polyakov, predicts Putin will be back with a new plan on Ukraine....

"Instead of provoking combat engagements they shifted emphasis to training sabotage units and multiple detachments they send one after another to Ukraine just to wreak havoc and undermine trust of population in Ukrainian authorities." (Ukraine Today: Oct. 26, 2015) (my emphasis)

And, as Polyakov predicted, Jack Losh reports that,

"Huge blasts have rocked a town in eastern Ukraine after an ammunition depot exploded and a series of fireballs erupted into the night sky.
.......
The Ukrainian security service is investigating the incident as a possible terrorist act, report local media. It is as yet unclear what sparked the massive fire." (The Guardian : Thursday 29 October 2015) (my emphasis) (cf. also : Natalia Zinets : Reuters : Fri Oct 30, 2015)

And whilst Putin's 'Spetsnaz' is beginning to wreak havoc in Ukraine, Farangis Najibullah reports that,

"A Russian member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission in eastern Ukraine has lost his job after revealing his bias.

The Ukrainian-language TSN new channel, a partner of Ukraine Today, on October 27 aired video footage of a man identified as Maksim Udovichenko revealing his past as a Russian military officer and giving locals his opinion on the situation in Ukraine. " (RFERL : October 29, 2015) (my emphasis)

It remains to be seen just how much 'wiggle room' Putin now has to extricate himself from his war with Ukraine, without seeming to to have fallen from his mythical pedestal of 'invincibility'.

That his current military support for the Syrian president, Bashar Al Assad, also seems to have rather 'backfired' on him.

In the words of the Saudi Arabian Foreign Minster Adel Al Jubeir (right),

"Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said Saturday that Russia and Iran must agree to a date and means for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to quit the country, and to the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Syria." (AlJazeera : October 31, 2015) (my emphasis)

Will Putin heed the call of the Saudi Foreign Minister and help in the removal of Bashar Al Assad, given that he has publicly stated that his forces in Syria are there to defend Bashar Al Assad against being overthrown?

We can but wait and see.

(to be continued)