Has Putin's 'Crimean ploy' against sanctions paid off?

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. And so it is.

A smiling Putin, and a somewhat subdued Kerry, US Secretary of State, after Kerry stated that,

"No one should be forced to choose between a dictator and being plagued by terrorists," Kerry said. However, he described the Syrian opposition's demand that Assad must leave as soon as peace talks begin as a "nonstarting position, obviously." (AP : Daily Mail : 15 December 2015) (my emphasis)

All of this follows closely on the heels of US Vice President Biden, who stated on Monday that,

"U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that Washington remained determined to see Russia adhere to a shaky Ukrainian peace agreement and hand back Crimea to Kyiv." (World Bulletin : 08 December 2015 Tuesday) (my emphasis)

BUT with the caveat that,

"It's absolutely critical for Ukraine... to root out the cancer of corruption," the U.S. vice president said.  "There's a growing degree of popular frustration about the slow pace of the reforms and the efforts to root out corruption," Biden warned." (ibid World Bulletin) (my emphasis)

And suddenly yesterday, Putin explodes another bombshell at his "stage set" press conference.

As Shaun Walker reports from Moscow,

"Vladimir Putin has for the first time admitted the presence of Russian military specialists in east Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly denied a military presence in the conflict, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But the Russian president conceded there were military intelligence officers operating in the country in a marathon press conference on Thursday." (The Guardian : Thursday 17 December 2015) (my emphasis)

Even more significantly, Putin stated that,

"We are NOT going to introduce ANY sanctions against Ukraine .... I want this to be heard ..."

But ...... wait a minute .....  did not Putin recently,

"[order] the suspension of Russia’s free trade zone with Ukraine, following up on threats that Kiev’s trade deal with the EU would cost it preferential access to the Russian market.

The move by the Russian president comes as EU members prepare to discuss on Friday another extension of sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Crimea and its role in the war in Ukraine."? (Kathrin Hille, Roman Olearchyk, and Christian Oliver : Financial Times : December 16, 2015)

And did this not elicit from Ukraine the response that,

"Ukraine is "ready to pay the price" for a trade deal with the European Union, President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday (16 December), after Moscow moved to restrict its own trade ties with Kyiv over the accord that is due to take effect on 1 January." (EuroActiv : 17 Dec 2015) (my emphasis)

These tectonic political shifts comes against the backdrop of President Obama beginning to muse on what he will do as he begins to walk towards the sunset of political retirement.

The burning question that now has to be answered is,

"Has Ukraine been sold down the river by Obama, as a payment to Putin for his intervention in Syria?"

Is this why Kerry so categorically described,

"...... the Syrian opposition's demand that Assad must leave as soon as peace talks begin as a "nonstarting position, obviously."?

Let us remind ourselves of the words of  Orysia Lutsevych (right), who recently wrote that,

"..To ease sanctions [against Putin's Russia] in order to secure Russian cooperation on Syria would be to treat Ukraine as a bargaining chip for the West. This must not be allowed to happen. Syria and Ukraine are entirely separate issues whose only connection is Russian opportunism.. " (New York Times : December 10, 2015) (my emphasis)

Already,

"Italy has requested a debate at the EU summit on plans to extend economic sanctions against Russia for its intervention in Ukraine by six months until July of next year. This is considered an unusual move given that there is already broad consensus among EU states on the extension." (Francesco Guarascio (left): Reuters : Fri Dec 18, 2015) (my emphasis)

Yet on 14 December 2015, Tom Burridge (right) reported that,

"The official collective position in Brussels, though, is that there will be no trade-off of issues.

The bloc will work hard to engage Russia on many issues without giving up its "very clear position" on Ukraine. (BBC News : 14 December 2015)

 And so,

 

"Sanctions were set to be extended on Wednesday, but that did not happen after the Italian government instructed its ambassador to raise objections during a closed-door meeting of EU countries’ delegates, which was supposed to approve the extension without much political noise." (The American Interest : Dec 11, 2015) (my emphasis) (Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy (left)

 

More ominously,

 

"... On Thursday, the 28 EU ambassadors met again, but the delicate topic was not put to vote for a second time as Italy signaled it wouldn’t change its position, diplomatic sources told POLITICO.[..]

...

Italy wants Europe to take Russia’s military help in Syria into account when discussing sanctions, a source said." (ibid The American Interest) (my emphasis)

 

Has Putin finally wrested this demand of his from President Obama?

 

 

 

(to be continued)