Will Merkel be swayed to agree to Putin's 'referendum' so that Nord Stream 2 can go ahead unhindered?

The fallout in the US of the recent Trump-Putin 'private' meeting in Helsinki continues to mount.

Each day brings new concerns about what Trump and Putin agreed to during their more that 2 hour 'private' meeting.

Not more so than by the recent pronouncement by the Kremlin that,

"The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is ready for the practical implementation of the agreements reached at the meeting of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Helsinki. This was stated by Major-General Igor Konashenkov. (left)

As noted, the Russian military are ready to "intensify contacts with their American counterparts in the General Staff and other channels of communication to discuss the extension of the START Treaty, the interaction in Syria, as well as other topical issues of ensuring military security." (RG-RU : 17/7/2018) (my emphasis) (google translate)

Surprisingly, and to their consternation, US generals were not informed about these 'agreements' between Trump and Putin.

MSNBC 25-7-2018

If Trump and Putin's 'private' Helsinki meeting is causing serious consternation amongst US army generals, then what are we now to make of the 'private' meeting between Angela Merkel, the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, that dyed-in-the-wool Soviet foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, AND the head of Russia’s military general staff Valery Gerasimov?

Merkel              Haas              Lavrov             Gerasimov

As Madeline Chambers reports,

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Berlin on Tuesday (23/7/2018) to discuss Syria, the situation in the Middle East and the conflict in Ukraine, Germany’s deputy government spokeswoman said.

The meeting, agreed last week by Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin, was also attended by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and the head of Russia’s military general staff Valery Gerasimov, said the spokeswoman in a statement. No further details were given." (Reuters : July 24, 2018) (my emphasis)

As in the case of the Trump-Putin 'private' meeting, what was discussed between Merkel, Haas, Lavrov, and Gerasimov?

What agreements were reached between them in Berlin regarding Putin's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, and his ongoing war with Ukraine?

Exactly the same question can be posed regarding the 'agreements' reached between Putin and Trump at Helsinki!

We now have yet another 'confirmation' from Putin's aide, Yuri Ushakov (left), that,

" ... the issue of holding a local referendum [on the regional status of] eastern Ukraine's Donbas was being discussed at the Helsinki talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. "This proposal was discussed, while there has been no reaction yet," Ushakov told the Izvestia newspaper.
...
Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, confirmed that Putin had raised the topic with Trump, saying Putin made “concrete proposals” on how to handle the ongoing conflict." (UNIAN : 25 July, 2018) (my emphasis)

Was this 'referendum' of Putin that he proposed to Trump at Helsinki also 'discussed' at the Berlin meeting between Merkel, Haas, Lavrov, and Gerasimov?

And if so, what agreements were reached?

Bear in mind that at the Putin-Merkel meeting in Sochi (18 May,2018), Merkel concluded that,


"We have strategic interests to maintain good relations with Russia ..."

To which Putin responded,

"Germany is one of our key trade partners ... We just started to buy German goods in higher volumes, which supports jobs in Germany"

Furthermore, bear in mind that at the recent NATO meeting in Brussels,

" U.S. President Donald Trump laced into Germany ahead of a high-stakes NATO leaders’ summit in Brussels, declaring at a breakfast meeting Wednesday morning that Germany is “totally controlled by Russia” and lashing out at the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project." (David M. Herszenhorn : Politico : 11 July, 2018) (my emphasis)

Added to which, as reported by UNIAN,

"Ukraine and the United States have a common understanding of how to counteract the implementation of the Russian Nord Stream 2 project, which appears a direct threat to the energy security of Europe and worsens the situation with the diversification of energy deliveries to European consumers," the press service of Ukraine's Cabinet said in a statement on Monday, July 23. (UNIAN : 23 July, 2018) (my emphasis)

So the question now is :-

"Will Merkel be swayed to agree to Putin's 'referendum' so that Nord Stream 2 can go ahead unhindred"?

(to be continued)

Putin should be alarmed that Trump's Helsinki behaviour has propelled him closer towards impeachment.

If Putin and his kleptocratic 'siloviki' cohorts in the Kremlin popped champagne corks when Trump won the 2016 US Presidential election, after the Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki they were more than effusive in praising the way that Putin exposed to the world just how much 'control' he has over Trump.

In the words of that dyed-in-the-wool Soviet foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov,

"...Lavrov, asked how the summit went, responded: "Fabulous…better than super.".

Unfortunately for Donald Trump no such accolades as "fabulous" or "better than super" greeted him when he stepped back onto US soil after his Helsinki meeting with Putin.

Rather, he was met with a chorus of criticism of just how he not only threw all his intelligence agencies under the bus, with Putin smirking next to him, but also that throughout their joint press conference one could not really distinguish between their answers to the questions that were posed by the press.

Furthermore, what is now taxing the minds of many policy-makers in the US is ,"Just what did Trump and Putin discuss during their more than two and a half hours of private conversation?"

Only the respective translators were present during their discussion, and it is NOT known whether they were present THROUGHOUT the duration of this private meeting.

I can only point to, once again, what Putin said when confronted with a question about Ukraine's Crimea.

As reported by The New York Times,

"Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and continues to support Russian separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine, aggression that the West has condemned. Mr. Trump did not address the matter publicly, either before or after the meetings on Monday, but Mr. Putin was asked whether his American counterpart had made any concessions.

“The posture of President Trump on Crimea is well known and he stands firmly by it,” Mr. Putin said. “He continues to maintain that it was illegal to annex it. Our viewpoint is different.” (New York Times :July 16, 2018) (my emphasis)

Trump's posture on Ukraine's Crimea is:

• President Donald Trump told G7 leaders that Crimea is Russian because everyone who lives there speaks Russian, according to two diplomatic sources. ( Alberto Nardelli and Julia Ioffe)
• U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking two weeks before a planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has declined to rule out recognizing Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
  
  Asked by reporters on Air Force One late on June 29 whether reports about him dropping Washington's longstanding opposition to the annexation were true, Trump said: "We're going to have to see." (RFE/RL)

This being the case, exactly how is Trump maintaining that Putin illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea, when he believes that Ukraine's Crimea is Russian?

Is it Trump or the US Congress and Senate that believes that Putin illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea?

The deafening silence of Trump to denounce Putin's war with Ukraine, and his illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, prompted a US bi-partisan statement of condemnation.

As reported by Myroslava Gongadze, 
 
"In a Tuesday evening statement signed by the co-chairs of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Sandy Levin of Michigan (left), and Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, said they were "deeply troubled by the president's subservient behavior towards President Putin."
....
The legislators also expressed concern that Trump didn't condemn Russia's "assault on Ukraine's sovereignty, including cyberattacks on its institutions, aggression in the Donbass [sic] region, and the illegal occupation of Crimea, the first forcible transnational seizure of territory in Europe since World War II." (VOA : July 19, 2018 ) (my emphasis)
 
And on the sanctions front, we now discover that,

"The U.S. Treasury is open to removing Russian aluminum producer Rusal from a U.S. sanctions list, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday, adding the objective was “not to put Rusal out of business.” (David Lawder : Reuters : July 21, 2018) (my emphasis)

Does this sudden about-turn on US sanctions give us a hint of what Putin and Trump privately discussed at Helsinki?

Lavrov, together with Putin's kleptocratic "siloviki" in the Kremlin, may still be cock-a-hoop at just how Putin controlled Trump at Helsinki.

But the fallout from that  private Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki is far from abating in the US.

Putin should now be alarmed that Trump's Helsinki behaviour has propelled him closer towards impeachment.

(to be continued)

"Is Trump Putin's 'Manchurian Candidate'?

A "Manchurian Candidate" is defined as,

"... a person, especially a politician, being used as a puppet by an enemy power. The term is commonly used to indicate disloyalty or corruption, whether intentional or unintentional." 

In more ways than one, yesterday (16 July, 2018) Trump exposed himself internationally as a possible Manchurian Candidate during the Putin-Trump press conference, after their slightly more than two hour PRIVATE tête-à-tête in Helsinki, that is also euphemistically being called a 'Summit Meeting'.

Perhaps the most stunning expose of Trump was in his response to a question about Putin's meddling in the 2016 US Presidential election. 

The US questioner asked,

"Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did.

My first question for you, sir, is, "Who do you believe?"
My second question is, "Would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin ...  would you denounce what happened in 2016, and would you warn him to never do it again?"

Trump then went out of his way to agree with Putin, and in the process threw the whole of his US intelligence agencies under the bus! (video below)

Trump's response has, to say the least, alarmed many in the US.

Now recall that in my blog entry (28/6/2018) I wrote that,

"Also high on Putin's agenda will be a public recognition, by Trump, that Ukraine's Crimea really belongs to Russia." (blog entry :28/6/2018)

Towards the end of their press conference, a US reporter directed two questions towards Putin, which rather unnerved him.

• "Can you tell me what President Trump may have indicated to you about officially recognizing Crimea as part of Russia?"
• Secondly, "Do you ... does the Russian government have any compromising material on President Trump or his family .."

Putin's responses were rather interesting.

To the question about Ukraine's Crimea, Putin responded that,

" ... Posture of President Trump on Crimea is well known .... "

In other words, that Trump believes that Ukraine's Crimea is part of Russia because " ... they all speak Russian there"

(NBC News : 4 days ago)

To the question about Putin having 'kompromat' on Trump; Putin rather tried to fudge his answer, WITHOUT saying "No".

Which, indirectly, supports the details of 'some' of the 'kompromat' that Putin has on Trump, as outlined in the Steele Dossier.

Which raises the question,

"Is Trump Putin's 'Manchurian Candidate'?

(to be continued)

Has Trump laid the foundation at the NATO summit for lifting sanctions against Putin's Russia?

Trump's belligerent stand at his recent meeting with NATO members, when viewed together with the recent visit to Putin's Russia by a group of US Republican Senators, should give us pause for concern.

The visit to Putin's Russia, headed by Senator Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), was said by accompanying Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) to have,

" ...  sent a very strong message and a direct message to the Russian government,” he said, ticking off four items he said they pressed while there: Don’t interfere in U.S. elections, respect the sovereignty of Ukraine, work with us toward peace in Syria, and uphold obligations under nuclear arms treaties.

That message did not appear to have much impact, though." (Karoun Demirjian : Washington Post : 5 July, 2018) (my emphasis)

This is best exemplified by the fact that, as reported by Joel Gehrke (right),

"President Trump and U.S. lawmakers should consider revising sanctions targeting Russia so they focus more on Russian oligarchs, a senior Republican lawmaker [ Senator Johnson] suggested after participating in a congressional delegation visit to Moscow.
....
“You do something and nobody ever sits back and analyzes, 'Well, is it working?’” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told the Washington Examiner. “And I think you'd be hard-pressed to say that sanctions against Russia are really working all that well.” (Washington Examiner : July 7, 2018) (my emphasis)

Let us now remind ourselves that Senator Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), the Republican leader of this recent Republican delegation to Putin's Russia, also stated that,

"We have an upcoming meeting between President Putin and President Trump in Helsinki .... I think our meetings in St Petersberg ... especially here ... will lay the groundwork for some of that ..." (cf. first video)

The $64 question is this ...

"Have this Republican delegation to Putin's Russia laid the groundwork for the lifting of US sanctions against Russia since, in the words of one of those Republican delegates, "U.S. lawmakers should consider revising sanctions targeting Russia so they focus more on Russian oligarchs"?

In other words, should US sanctions against many important Russian industries, including Russian banking, now be excluded from US sanctions? 

This approach towards US sanctions against Russia, as now expounded by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis, dovetails with Trump's own views about US sanctions against Putin's Russia.

As reported by Brett Forrest and Peter Nicholas ,

"Any meeting between the two presidents would be expected to include discussions on Syria, Ukraine and nuclear-arms control. The summit’s purpose would be to resolve longstanding differences, people familiar with the matter said.
....
[Trump] added: “There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy.” He went on to suggest that a more collaborative relationship with Russia could curb the arms race." (Wall Street Journal : June 1, 2018) (my emphasis)" (blog : 9/6/2018) 

At the recent breakfast of NATO members, Trump lambasted Merkel by complaining that,

“I think it’s very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia, where you’re supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia,” Trump said in his opening remarks at the breakfast, which were broadcast live on television." (David M. Herszenhorn (left): Politico :July 11, 2018) (my emphasis)

Was this 'undiplomatic' rant of Trump a further laying of the foundation for his total revising of US sanctions against Putin's Russia, as outlined by Senator Ron Johnson, at the upcoming Trump-Putin Helsinki meeting?

Has Trump laid the foundation at the NATO summit for lifting sanctions against Putin's Russia, sanctions that were put is place because of Putin's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, and his ongoing war with Ukraine in the Donbas?

(to be continued)

Trump is on the verge of recognizing Ukraine's Crimea as part of Putin's Russia.

In my last blog [28/6/2018] entry I wrote that,

"Also high on Putin's agenda will be a public recognition, by Trump, that Ukraine's Crimea really belongs to Russia.
...
Let us recall that even before the 2016 US presidential election, Trump legitimized Putin's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, blaming it on former US president Obama!" (blog entry: 28/6/2018)

And now Trump's 3rd Security Advisor, John Bolton, has somewhat let slip that at the upcoming Putin-Trump meeting in Helsinki, Trump is, indeed, open to acknowledging Ukraine's Crimea as a legitimate part of Russia.

RT, Putin's propaganda mouthpiece, has not been slow in flooding the international airwaves with Trump's response to a reporter on Air Force One that he is open to recognizing Ukraine's Crimea as part of Russia.

We now also hear from Christian Lowe (left) that,

" Russia’s energy ministry said it had conducted the first test of a German-made electricity turbine that was installed in Crimea in contravention of European sanctions.
...
Without help from Siemens or engineers affiliated with Siemens, it would be hard to activate the turbines and the software used to run them, several power generation specialists told Reuters.
...
The testing indicated, though, that Russia is getting closer to being able to commission the turbines and to start using them to generate electricity for Crimea." (Reuters : June 29, 2018) (my emphasis)

But even more significantly, Victoria Bryan and Thomas Escritt (left) report that,


“The project [Nord Stream 2] will definitely be financed. It is important for Gazprom and Russia currently has a high liquidity in euros,” Paul Corcoran, the Nord Stream 2 CFO, told Welt am Sonntag in an interview.

His comments come after [Angela Merkel's] Germany said on Friday it had been assured by the United States that any sanctions imposed on Russia would not affect the building of a gas pipeline to bring Russian gas to Europe - even though the United States said there had been no change in its policy" (Reuters : June 30, 2018) (my emphasis) 


 In both of these instances viz.

• Germany's Siemens flouting EU sanctions by helping Putin to install and operate their electricity turbines in Ukraine's Crimea, and
• Merkel now being assured that the US will NOT impose any sanctions on EU companies helping Putin build Nord Stream 2,

we have echoes of the German jackboots that walked over Ukraine during WW2, except that these jackboots are now being worn by German business men!

These developments will further embolden those in the EU who support Putin's call for an end to EU sanctions, notwithstanding the fact that,

"European Union leaders agreed  ..

... to extend their economic sanctions against Russia for annexing Crimea from Kiev and backing rebels fighting government troops in east Ukraine, an EU official said.

The decision, which will be formally confirmed in the coming days, will prolong EU's curbs on doing business with Russian banking, financial and energy sectors for six months until the end of January." (CNBC (Reuters): Thu, 28 June 2018) (my emphasis)

This decision now rings hollow in light of the fact that Nord Stream 2 is being heavily financed by EU companies, and that these companies have just been given a free pass by the EU and the US to continue with the building of Putin's weaponized gas pipeline against Ukraine.
 
So what, then, of the upcoming Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki?

The acknowledging by John Bolton that Trump is on the verge of recognizing Ukraine's Crimea as part of Putin's Russia. (cf. video above)

(to be continued)