"A week is a long time in politics". So said Harold Wilson, the late PM of Great Britain in the 1960's.
And so it is that after desperately trying to build up a coalition with some minor political parties, Angela Merkel has finally to concede that ".. her efforts to form a three-way coalition government had failed,
thrusting Germany into a political crisis and pushing Europe's largest
economy closer to a possible new election." (CNBC (Reuters) : Sun, 19 Nov 2017) (my emphasis) Let us now also recall that in June of this year (2017), Constanze Stelzenmüller testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and stated that,
"...Germany remains a major power, and in some ways the fulcrum of power on the continent. For a Russia that is clearly bent on destabilizing Europe and the transatlantic alliance, Germany is the prize: Weaken Germany, and you diminish the EU and the European project and, conversely, because Germany has orchestrated the European consensus on sanctions against Russia, it [Germany] has become the main obstacle for Russia in pursuing its interests in Europe and, indeed, in Ukraine." (Brookings :
To the delight of Putin, the turmoil in the German political scene has handcuffed Merkel in vigorously
continuing to orchestrate the EU sanctions against Putin and his
'siloviki' now that Germany seems to be heading towards new elections.
But Putin is not having it all his own way.
"The National Security Council decided during a meeting on Tuesday [November 14] to
greenlight the presentation of a $47 million grant package to the
Ukrainian government to purchase American defense arms, including the
powerful Javelin anti-tank missiles." (ABC News :
(cf also The Hill)
Which may have precipitated, as reported by Oliver Carroll that,
"Russian business should be prepared to switch to production to
military needs at any time, said Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. The
Russian president was speaking at a conference of military leaders in
Sochi.“The ability of our economy to increase military production and services at a given time is one of the most important aspects of military security,” Mr Putin said. “To this end, all strategic, and simply large-scale enterprise should be ready, regardless of ownership.” (The Independent : 22 November, 2017) (my emphasis)
Trying to prevent Trump from signing off on this $47 million grant package, that includes the purchasing of those Javelin anti-tank missiles, Putin stressed to Trump during their recent telephone conversation on Tuesday, 21st November, that the situation in Ukraine can only be solved through the full implementation of the Minsk2 agreement.As reported by
"Regarding the crisis in southeast Ukraine, the President of Russia pointed to the lack of a real alternative to unconditional compliance with the Minsk agreements of February 12, 2015." (The Duran :
Interestingly, the White House released statement about this meeting focussed primarily on Syria, with Ukraine thrown in almost as an afterthought by Trump at the end .
Which raises the $64 question ...
"Will Trump sign off on supplying Ukraine with anti-tank Javelin missiles?"
Perhaps the hint of an answer lies in the fact that,
"The European Union on Friday blamed Russia for the deaths of at least five troops in eastern Ukraine in what appears to be the worst outburst of violence in months.
"The death of five Ukrainian servicemen yesterday [23 November 2017] is the just the latest
proof of the tragic consequences of Russia's aggression in Ukraine,"
said EU Council President Donald Tusk (right) after a summit with six eastern European nations, including Ukraine." (Raf Casert, Associated Press ABC News : 
No comments:
Post a Comment