Putin does not have time on his side.

Gabriela Baczynska and Alastair Macdonald report that,

"Russia is likely to penalise Ukrainian imports from January after EU-brokered talks failed to find a compromise on Tuesday, exactly a month before the launch of an EU-Ukraine free trade pact that Russia opposes.
......
The clock is ticking very, very fast," said EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom after hosting the meeting. She stressed that Ukraine and the European Union would not heed Russian calls for them to amend their agreement or, following more than a year's delay, put off its implementation any longer." (Reuters : Tue Dec 1, 2015)

True to form, Putin is once again 'spitting nails' as the days to the launch of the EU-Ukraine free trade pact tick down.

Lashing out, Putin has now decided to penalize Ukrainian exports to Russia. As Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev (left) puts it,

"It is a very probable scenario that there will not be an agreement before January 1 [between the EU, Ukraine, and Russia] and the non-preferential trade regime [for Ukraine] will be introduced," (ibid  Gabriela Baczynska and Alastair Macdonald)

And galloping over this tense EU-Ukraine economic horizon into Putin's camp is the Putinversteher Walter Steinmeier. 

As Alex Barker, Stefan Wagstyl, and Roman Olearchyk report,

"Germany is piling pressure on the European Commission to cut a deal with Russia to avert a flare-up when an EU trade deal with Ukraine comes into force next month.

In a bid to resolve the dispute, Berlin has proposed a joint declaration between the EU and Russia offering Moscow the prospect of long-sought investment and energy concessions to create a more integrated economic area from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The suggestions are outlined in a November letter, seen by the Financial Times, from Frank-Walter Steinmeier (right), Germany’s foreign minister, to Cecilia Malmström, the EU’s trade chief." (The Financial Times : December 1, 2015) (my emphasis)


Yet many Eastern European countries, 

"....view the EU’s planned “energy union” as a way to break energy dependence on Russia; the language in Mr Steinmeier’s the declaration, by contrast, appears to accommodate Russia as a permanent structured partner" (ibid  Alex Barker, Stefan Wagstyl, and Roman Olearchyk) (my emphasis)

And whilst Steinmeier, with the blessing of Angela Merkel (Alex Barker et al), is once again coming to the rescue of Putin, 

"Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved on Tuesday sanctions against Turkey in retaliation for the downing of a Russian warplane." (Pavel Polityuk : Reuters: Tues Dec 1, 2015)

And in a twist of fate, Poroshenko is now extending a helping hand to Turkey in the light of Medvedev, Putin's glove puppet, approving those sanctions against Turkey.

"Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko (right) has already proposed that Turkey replace Russian food with Ukrainian, saying Kiev could double its export of sunflower oil, wheat and maize to Turkey." (ibid Pavel Polityuk) (my emphasis)

Just as Poroshenko is extending a helping hand to Turkey in the face of Putin's sanctions, at the current Paris Climate Conference Putin has done an about-turn on the issue of climate change.

From his years of mocking the issue of climate change, suddenly he announced at this conference that,

“Climate change has become one of the gravest challenges humanity is facing,” he said. He went on, “Caused by global warming, hurricanes, droughts, floods and other anomalies are the source of economic damage.” (Coral Davenport: New York Times : December 1, 2015) (my emphasis)

Coral Davenport rather perceptively comments on Putin's change of attitude.

"Were Mr. Putin’s statements merely further attempts to win a place back in the international fold, after he was marginalized because of Russia’s aggression in Crimea, eastern Ukraine and Syria?"

Poroshenko, on the other hand, pointed out to the conference delegates the dangerous pollution in the Donbas caused by Putin's war with Ukraine.

Which rather exposes the deceptive nature of Putin's comments on climate change.

This is not the only 'about turn' that Putin has recently committed.

From him shouting from the rooftops that his invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine was to protect his Russian kith and kin, we now hear that,

"Moscow will be pushing out of Russia early next year all those who fled Ukraine. Their presence in Russia has deepened Russian suspicions about people from Ukraine, but their return to Ukraine will even further deepen the split between the two countries because of the experiences they had in Russia...
......

Russians in Russia began to understand that “many of these did not want to work but only to live at the expense of the Russian state; and this is one of the reasons why as of January 2016, all the offices for Ukrainian refugees in the Russian Federation will be closed” and the refugees themselves forced to return home." (Lev Shlosberg (left) [member of the Pskov Region Assembly]: Window on Eurasia : November 28, 2015) (my emphasis)

Where, now, is Putin's sympathy for the Russian diaspora?

(to be continued)