2018 has just begun, and already Putin's woes are hanging heavily on his mind

Just as the winter holidays have ended, UNIAN reports that,

"Permanent Representative of Bulgaria, the country now presiding over the European Union, Ambassador Dimiter Tzantchev (left), said that Sofia will adhere to the principles adopted by the EU Council on sanctions against Russia, and so far there are no conditions for their lifting, an UNIAN correspondent reported.
......
[Dmiter] Tzantchev said. "We’ll stick to the five principles of relations with Russia approved by the Council in March 2016. Full implementation of the Minsk agreements by all sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine is an important condition for the change in EU relations with Russia. At present, this condition has not been fulfilled," he said. The ambassador stressed that the EU "insists that Russia fully respect international law." (UNIAN : 8 January, 2018) (my emphasis)

This blow to Putin has been further compounded by the fact that,

"Beginning in February, the U.S. Treasury Department will submit the details on possible expanded sanctions, though their general targets — sovereign debt and oligarchs — are already known.
...
In its February report, the Treasury Department will detail the effects on Russia and the global market of possible sanctions on U.S. citizens who buy new Russian domestic government debt. 
...
If the United States implements sanctions on Russian sovereign debt, Western investors (beyond American) could be spooked away from buying it." (Stratfor : Dec. 18, 2017)

Now recall that,

"In July, the U.S. Congress wrested the power to directly withdraw the Russian sanctions away from the presidency, and [US] lawmakers now require that changes to the sanctions regime go through them first. President Donald Trump signed the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act in August, and it included provisions for expanding penalties in the coming years." (ibid Stratfor)

Trump, therefore, cannot lift the millstone of sanctions around Putin's neck. Nor can he stymie the US Congress from adding more sanctions against Putin and his Kremlin 'siloviki'.

Futher exacerbating Putin's woes as we enter 2018 is the fact that Canada may sign on to a "European Plan for Ukraine".

As Steven Chase reports, 

"Lithuania is urging Canada to sign on to a long-term package of support for Ukraine that would funnel more investment into the Eastern European country and strengthen its ties with the West as Kiev struggles to fight internal corruption and rebuild its economy despite a war with Moscow-backed militants. 

...

The Lithuanian government in concert with Ukraine is championing what is provisionally called a "European Plan for Ukraine" and would disburse an estimated $7.47-billion annually to Ukrainian recipients for a period of 10 years.

.....

More than 1.3 million Canadians, including Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland (left), can trace their heritage to Ukraine, where Canada is currently training Ukrainian soldiers to fight the Moscow-backed rebels." (The Globe and Mail : 8 January, 2018) (my emphasis)

This "European Plan for Ukraine" may gain more momentum now that Angela Merkel is on the verge of creating a stable coalition with Germany's Social Democrats.

As reported by Leigh Boobyer,

"The embattled German leader of the CDU met with SPD leader Martin Shulz today to set out the structure of exploratory talks in an initial meeting, alongside CSU leader Horst Seehofer.
...
The talks resulting in an initial programme of government will begin on Sunday 7, and should be completed by January 11.
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All sides talked of growing confidence today, which will be seen as good news for Ms Merkel, whose reputation as Europe’s consensus-builder is one line in this second bid to form a coalition after weeks of sniping between its would-be partners. (Express : Wed, Jan 3, 2018) (my emphasis)

Putin's woes, however, do not end with the threat of more sanctions hanging over his head, nor by the fact that Angela Merkel may succeed in creating a stable coalition government which may then also lend its support for "A European plan for Ukraine". 

Putin now has also to contend with the fact that his most wealthy and supportive Ukrainian oligarch during the Yanukovich era is having big chunks of his assets frozen.

We now learn that,

"Rinat Akhmetov, (left :Yanukovich and Akhmetov) Ukraine’s richest man, has been served with an order from a Cyprus court freezing $820m of his assets in a long-running legal dispute with a rival over the country’s biggest fixed-line telecoms group." (Roman Olearchyk : Financial Times : January 6, 2018)

Roman Olearchyk further reports that,

"The Cyprus ruling means that three out of Ukraine’s five richest oligarchs now have asset freezes of varying sizes in place against them. In an unrelated case last month, the High Court in London granted an order to freeze more than $2.5bn of assets belonging to Igor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov, linked to the near-collapse of PrivatBank, Ukraine’s biggest commercial lender which they then owned, in 2016." (ibid Roman Olearchyk) (my emphasis)

Then we have another Putin supportive Ukrainian oligarch, Dmitry Firtash, exiled and stuck in Austria, awaiting possible extradition to the US on corruption charges.

And as Kim Janssen reported in February of last year,

"The oligarch’s [Dmitry Firtash] business dealings with [Paul] Manafort are detailed in court filings in a separate, civil case in New York and add an intriguing wrinkle to a case that already had the potential for wide-ranging repercussions. Manafort’s ties to Russia are under federal investigation, according to The New York Times." (Chicago Tribune : February 21, 2017) (my emphasis)

This is the same Paul Manafort who, as reported by Andrew Prokop,

"... .. ran Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for several months in 2016, [and who] was indicted [..]  as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Manafort’s former business partner Rick Gates, who also worked on the Trump campaign, was also indicted. You can read the full indictment here." (VOX : Oct 30, 2017) (my emphasis)

2018 has only begun, and already Putin's woes must be hanging heavily on his mind.

Neither can Putin depend on his woes being lifted by the fact that Republicans in both the Senate and the House of Congress are circling their wagons around Trump, hoping to successfully defend Trump against the continuing onslaught of evidence about his collusion with Putin during the 2016 US presidential elections.

 (cf: Joe Scarborough: MSNBC : 8 January,2018)

(to be continued)