Is Putin being let off the hook of a crumbling economy, at the expense of Ukraine?

In my blog-entry of 4th January, I stated that,

"This relationship between Hollande and Putin no doubt 'coloured' Hollande's input during the recent Skype meeting between Merkel, Hollande, Poroshenko and Putin, regarding the full implementation of Minsk2.

Bear in mind also that Merkel opened the doors of Germany to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing from Assad's war against his people, even though she initially received much 'flak' from many political quarters in Germany. (Deborah Cole : AFP (Yahoo News): 15 December 2015)

As I stated in my last blog entry,

"From this [Skype Conference held on 30 December, 2015] one can only deduce that the hidden agenda of Merkel and Hollande is to get sanctions against Russia lifted!

 

Watch this hidden agenda unfold as the New Year progresses."

Suddenly, since yesterday (25 Jan. 2016), a veritable 'chorus' has erupted, from John Kerry to the French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron to the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, and to that 'dyed-in-the-wool" Soviet foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, that sanctions against Putin's Russia could soon be lifted.

As Gregory Viscusi, Ian Wishart, and Kambiz Foroohar report,

"The worsening of crises from Syria to Libya are forcing the international community to reconsider sanctions slapped on President Vladimir Putin’s government over Ukraine as a way of getting a key diplomatic power broker on board. Of late, a flurry of senior officials from the U.S. and the European Union have suggested a thaw is within reach." (Bloomberg Business : January 26, 2016) (my emphasis)

Furthermore that,

"German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble (right) wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper Monday that the EU should forge closer ties with Russia to help resolve the civil war in Syria and reduce tension in the Middle East between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

That came on the heels of Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron (left) telling his country’s businessmen in Moscow that France would like to see sanctions lifted by the summer.

“[John] Kerry (right) is holding the possibility of lifting the sanctions but Russia has to do certain things, like cooperate on Ukraine and Syria and then the U.S. would reverse some sanctions,” said Mark Katz, a professor of government and politics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. (ibid Viscusi, Wishart, and Foroohar) (my emphasis)

These developments come close on the heels of that 'secret' meeting between Victoria Nuland and Vladislav Surkov (left) held on Jan. 15 in Kaliningrad.

As Lucian Kim reports,

" ... Their six-hour “brainstorming” session, Surkov later told Russian journalists, touched on the thorniest issues of Ukraine’s tenuous peace process and proved both “constructive and useful.” (Reuters : January 25, 2016) (my emphasis)

In yesterday's blog entry (25 Jan. 2016) I wrote that,

"Is the ghost of Catherine the Great, that German "daughter of Prince Christian of Analt-Zerbst, a small German principality", [who] at "15 years old, [was selected by] Empress Elizabeth of Russia to be the wife of her nephew and heir, the future Emperor (Czar) Peter III, of Russia, and who "annexed Crimea "in violation of the Peace Treaty of Kϋϛϋk Kaynarca.", hovering over Angela Merkel? (Crimea Historical Society)
 

Is it not ironic that the two Germans, Catherine the Great and Angela Merkel, are giving Crimea to Russia, the first by conquest, and the second by ..... political expediency?

Is it therefore any wonder that Poroshenko is now putting Crimea back on the agenda, expecting to,

".... bring the Russian-occupied part of eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea back under government control by the year’s end."? (KyivPost :  Jan. 14, 2016)"

And today we have that 'dyed-in-the-wool-Soviet' foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, pronouncing that,

"There is nothing to return, we are in talks with no one on Crimea's return. Crimea is Russian territory in full conformity with the expression of will of Crimea's peoples," he said at a news conference dedicated to the results of 2015, TASS wrote." (UNIAN : 26.01.2016) (my emphasis)

This sudden eruption of calls to

• lift sanctions against Russia as a sort of 'payback' to Putin for coming on side in the Syrian conflict, and
• Lavrov's sudden outburst about Ukrainian Crimea being "Russian territory in full conformity with the expression of will of Crimea's peoples"

cannot be co-incidental.

Which rather also poses the question,

"Will this sudden call for the lifting of sanctions apply exclusively to those sanctions implemented when Putin started his war with Ukraine in the Ukrainian Donbas region, or will it also INCLUDE those sanctions imposed on Putin and his cronies over his annexation of Ukrainian Crimea?"

Those now clamouring for the lifting of sanctions are NOT making this distinction.

This is why Lavrov is now hastily pre-empting Poroshenko's strategy to bring,

"... Crimea back under [Ukrainian] government control by the year’s end." (KyivPost :  Jan. 14, 2016)"

But perhaps the most significant aspect of this call to lift the sanctions against Putin and his cronies, is the fact that, finally, the international community has been made aware of the corrupt and kleptocratic nature of Putin himself. 

And this is the man that is now being let off the hook of his country's collapsing economy, a country's from which he has plundered billions of dollars.

(to be continued)