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)