Putin being handed eastern Ukraine and Ukrainian Crimea on a plate by Steinmeier and Kerry

"Vladimir Putin, marking the anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, has exhorted workers building a bridge between the Black Sea peninsula and Russia to fulfil a “historic mission” conceived by a Russian tsar." (The Guardian (Reuters): Saturday 19 March 2016)

Putin is now publicly donning the mantle of "Czar" by proclaiming that he is 'fulfilling 'the historic' mission of a previous Czar' to finally link Ukrainian Crimea with a land bridge to Russia. No longer will Russian have to ferry themselves across the sea to reach Ukrainian Crimea.

And to underscore his determination to ensure that this bridge is built, Putin has,

" ..... himself has invoked imagery of capital punishment, threatening "to hang" the person responsible for reconstruction of a highway in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula forcibly seized by Russia in 2014, if the individual "fails to do the job.
...
"We need a concrete person, whom it would be possible to hang if he fails to do the job," Putin was quoted by the state-run TASS news agency as saying." (Carl Schreck : RFERL : Sunday, March 27, 2016) (my emphasis)

Why is Putin so forcefully invoking the 'death penalty' for anyone who fails to complete the job?

Because, as long ago as  Aug. 13, 2015, Neil MacFarquhar (left) was reporting that,

"Analysts in the Russian news media have suggested the root problem is the fight to control the river of Russian government money flowing into Crimea, with about 700 billion rubles, currently valued at about $10 billion, pledged by 2020. For example, Kremlin auditors announced in June that two-thirds of the funds that Moscow had allocated for road construction in 2014 could not be accounted for." (New York Times)

And today? Nothing, it would seem, has changed.

"Kremlin critics say that much of the billions of dollars being poured into the peninsula is being looted, and senior officials in Crimea’s Moscow-backed government have been targeted in official corruption probes." (ibid Carl Schrech)

Meanwhile that 'Putinversteher' Walter Steinmeier,

" ...  met and negotiated with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, (23 March, 2016) who described the talks with his German counterpart as an “intense dialogue.”

At the meeting, the two ministers focused on major global political issues, such as mechanisms for the implementation of the Minsk Agreements in Eastern Ukraine, the prospects for the peace process in Syria, the situation in Libya, the increasing threat of international terrorism, and the future of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the presidency of which in 2016 will be entrusted to Steinmeier." (Russia Direct : March 27, 2016) (my emphasis)

Walter Steinmeier is under severe pressure from German industry to force Poroshenko to hasitly hold 'elections' in Putin's rebel held area of eastern Ukraine so that there can be,

" ... a return to the old format of trade and economic relations between the two countries. And this is no coincidence – in Germany they appreciate pragmatism, and if one quarter of German companies, in one way or another, have been affected by the “sanctions war,” then of course public opinion cannot remain indifferent.." (ibid Russia Direct) (my emphasis)

 German economic jackboots are readying themselves to walk all over Ukraine, following in the footsteps of the German military jackboots during WWII.

History, it would seem, is repeating itself.

We now have to ask ourselves whether, irrespective of all the 'political' platitudes about Ukraine not being a bargaining chip with Putin over his military actions in Syria, that the politics of Minsk2 and Putin's military intervention in Syria are inextricably linked in a  diplomatic waltz that now also includes none other than John Kerry, US secretary of state, himself.

" Kerry began talks with his Russian counterpart, the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, on Thursday morning, and is due to meet president Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin later in the day.

“I know many people are very hopeful, Sergei, that these meetings here in Moscow today have an ability to be able to further define and chart the road ahead so that we can bring this conflict in Syria to a close as fast as possible,” Kerry told Lavrov in televised remarks ahead of the meeting." (Shaun Walker : The Guardian : 24 March, 2016) (my emphasis)

And Putin is making sure that his place at the High Table of international politics is secure by continuing to support Bashar Al Assad with his bombers.

The stage is thus being set by Steinmeier and Kerry for Ukraine to be sacrificed on the political alter supplied by Putin himself.

And lest we forget ...

 (to be continued)