Is Putin now cursing the day he gave Trump the keys to the White House?

On 14 September, 2018, Angela Merkel said that,

"Before the Minsk [2] agreement has been implemented or progress has been made in that regard, we will not consider lifting sanctions on Russia."." (DW- Deutsche Welle : 14-9-2018) (my emphasis)

The only problem with this pronouncement of the 'Putinversteher' Merkel is that she still insists that the 'dead horse' of Minsk2 has to be implemented.

Possibly aware that this is an impossible task, she now adds the caveat, "or progress has been made in that regard", thus limiting the FULL implementation of the Minsk2 proposals.

In so doing, Merkel has given to Putin the green light that if he implements only one of the Minsk2 proposals, then the sanctions against himself and his 'siloviki', for illegally annexing Ukraine's Crimea, and starting a war against Ukraine in the Donbas, will start to be lifted.

One need only refer to the following Minsk2 proposals to discover the 'lifting of sanctions' bonanza that Merkel is giving Putin. (cf: Wikipedia for full proposals)

• Provide pardon and amnesty by way of enacting a law that forbids persecution and punishment of persons in relation to events that took place in particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine.
• Provide release and exchange of all hostages and illegally held persons, based on the principle of "all for all". This process has to end – at the latest – on the fifth day after the pullout (of weapons).
• Provide safe access, delivery, storage and distribution of humanitarian aid to the needy, based on an international mechanism.

And almost in the same breath, Merkel insisted that,

" .... the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, [..] made economic sense." (The Baltic Times : 15/9/2018), which was sweet music to the ears of Putin.

It is no wonder that Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's President, correctly stated that,

" ... [] the Russian authorities will seek ways in January to weaken sanctions imposed on them. "The ruble is weakening even amid growing prices of crude oil. The Russian authorities were forced to raise the retirement age. They had to increase VAT. This is the cost of aggression" (UNIAN : 20 Sept. 2018) (my emphasis)

But all is not going Putin's way.

As reported by Xinhua News,

"U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order to further implement a U.S. sanction act against Russia.
.....
"These sanction actions are "in response to Russia's aggression in Ukraine, annexation of Crimea, cyber intrusions and attacks, interference in the 2016 elections, and other malign activities," [U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather] Nauert (left) said" (Xinhua News : 21 September, 2018) (my emphasis)

UNIAN further reports that,

"The U.S. Air Force and eight other nations will participate next month in independent Ukraine's largest aviation exercise, which aims to promote regional security and improve that country's cooperation with NATO members, the military said Tuesday.

The U.S. plans to send about 450 personnel from bases in the States and in Europe, a U.S. Air Forces in Europe spokesman said Tuesday." (UNIAN : 18 September, 2018) (my emphasis)

And as Dominic Nicholls also reports,

"Britain will increase military support to its ally by sending Royal Marines later this year and increase the presence of Royal Navy patrols in the Black Sea in 2019.  Odessa, Ukraine’s biggest port, located in the west of the country, is expected to come under pressure from the Russian Navy over the coming months as they try to effect an economic blockade." (The Telegraph : 20 September, 2018) (my emphasis)

Now recall that in my last blog entry (15/9/2018) I stated that

"This interest-rate rise, coming on top of the demonstrations in Russia against Putin's recent 'pension reforms', and the turning of Manafort into Mueller's witness, once again raises the issue of Putin's recklessness in response."

Now, compounding Putin's 'recklessness of response, we have :-

• further implementation of US sanctions against himself and his 'siloviki'
• The U.S. Air Force and eight other nations will participate next month in independent Ukraine's largest aviation exercise and,
• Britain to increase military and naval support to Ukraine.

The dangling of the measured lifting of EU sanctions in front of Putin's eyes by Angela Merkel, if there is "some progress" in implementing Minsk2, will not lessen Putin's recklessness of response, especially in light of the above developments.

We now have to ask ourselves :

"Is Putin now cursing the day he gave Trump the keys to the White House?"

(to be continued)