On Monday (9/10/2017),"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, during a visit to Ukraine, that Turkey won’t recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Erdogan said during Monday’s visit to Kiev that Turkey will continue to support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity." (Washington Post (AP) :
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.
What he CANNOT downplay, however, is the fact that there is a growing dis-satisfaction amongst the Russian people that money is being poured into Ukrainian Crimea by Putin, at their expense.
As reported by Paul Goble, (left) (Window on Eurasia : Sunday, October 8, 2017)," Russian commentators also are concerned about people in the regions complaining about funding Crimea by taking money away from them and about unfunded liabilities that the center imposes without checking with them (polit.ru/article/2017/10/02/crimea/ and afterempire.info/2017/10/01/spb-bomb/)"
He goes on to report that,
"There are many ways to measure the desperation of a population, but three reports this week suggest that an increasing number of Russians feel that way.
- some are attacking police in order to get arrested and be sentenced to prison where at least they will be fed (newsland.com/community/5652/content/sibiriak-razbil-litso-politseiskomu-chtoby-popast-v-tiurmu/6024004)
- Russian women are increasingly offering sexual favors to pay for rent (svpressa.ru/society/article/182408/)
- Russians are now spending two billion rubles (30 million US dollars) on forture tellers who they hope can tell them something good is coming (svpressa.ru/society/article/182427/)
- Ever more Russians are homeless, many are living on their credit cards, and all are facing rising prices for basic commodities like fish (ibid Paul Goble)
It is also against this backdrop that, as reported by
"Police
detained more than 100 supporters of jailed opposition leader Alexei
Navalny on Saturday as thousands rallied nationwide on President
Vladimir Putin's 65th birthday, calling for the leader to retire. 
......... [Navalny (right)] was arrested late last month and a court last week sentenced him to 20 days in jail on charges of repeatedly violating a law on organising public meetings." (The Telegraph : 7 October 2017) (my emphasis)
All of this is adding to Putin's desperation to have the US/EU sanctions lifted, that were brought against himself and his 'siloviki' clique because of his illegal annexation of Ukrainian Crimea, and his simmering war against Ukraine in the Donbas.
Even more concerning for Putin is the fact that Trump, himself, is also desperately flailing in his attempts to have the Steele dossier dis-credited, the dossier that outlines not only Trump's salacious behaviour in Russia but, more importantly, the now verified facts in the dossier about the collusion between Trump and Putin during the 2016 US presidential election.
This desperation of Trump is further indicated by the fact that Congressman Nunes, who was recused from the Congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, took it upon himself to further try to spike investigations into the Steele dossier.
Rachel Maddow further queries whether US Congressman Nunes has the power to subpoena the head of the company that hired Steele, and that ultimately led to the Steele Dossier.
It is rather ironic that just as the members of the Russian Duma will always support Putin to ensure their status as members of the Russian Duma so, too, are the Republicans in the US Congress desperate to ensure their status as members of the US Congress by protecting Trump from being impeached, especially in view of the upcoming Congressional elections next year.
Russian Duma US Congress
Is Putin now beginning to be as desperate as Trump is to hold onto power?
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