"Just as the scarlet thread of the Maidan Revolution of Dignity has inextricably woven Trump and Putin together into a tight embrace, it has now woven Trump and Zelensky together into a deadly embrace."Zelensky is desperately trying to extricate himself from this deadly embrace as it grows ever more tighter.
As reported by Josh Lederman and Anna Schecter,"In the Ukrainian capital, the impeachment saga has emerged as a sword of Damocles for new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, with each wrinkle and disclosure before Congress threatening to pull his government further into the morass. For Ukrainian leaders, there is no upside but plenty of downside to becoming the latest cudgel in Washington’s deeply polarized political battleground." (NBC News : 30 October 2019) (my emphasis)
NBC News : 30 October 2019
And as reported by Andrew Prokop (left),"Now, the Times reports that Vindman testified there were at least two parts of the conversation that weren’t properly captured in the document.
1) In the below section marked with an ellipsis, Trump claimed there were recordings or tapes of Joe Biden discussing corruption in Ukraine. It is unclear what he meant by that.
How important are these discrepancies? It’s not really clear, at this point." (VOX : 30 October 2019) (my emphasis)
Aware of the critical political predicament that Zelensky finds himself in vis-à-vis Trump, Putin wasted no time in increasing the pressure on Zelensky.
As reported by Alexandra Brzozowski (left),...
Szijjarto’s comments came ahead of a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Budapest on Wednesday afternoon, where Orbán and Putin are expected to discuss the Paks II power plant expansion, built by the Russian state-owned Rosatom, as well as the possible construction of a new stretch of the TurkStream gas pipeline in Hungary.
Critics have repeatedly suggested that the Hungarian government might be undermining Ukraine’s western integration efforts due to Orbán’s relationship with Putin." (EURACTIV : 30 October 2019) (my emphasis)
Added to which, UNIAN reports that,
" ... the Danish Energy Agency issued a permit to Nord Stream 2 to construct a 147-km section of the twin pipeline southeast of the Danish island Bornholm in the Baltic Sea" (UNIAN: 31 October 2019)
The tepid response of Angela Merkel in achieving her ambition of making Germany the Gas Hub of Europe is best summed up by German government spokesman Steffen Seibert who said that,
“We [Germany] have always said that there is a political dimension to Nord Stream 2, and we have always said that gas transit through Ukraine must have a future.” ( Jan M. Olsen : APNews : 30 October 2019) (my emphasis)
UNIAN (ibid) goes on to further report that,
"Seibert noted that Merkel discussed the issue [of gas transit through Ukraine having a future] with Russian President Vladimir Putin two days ago, and said Germany continues to support three-way talks between Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission on gas transit."
The waning political star of Merkel makes her gestures about supporting Russian gas transit through Ukraine totally meaningless ... empty political gestures as she begins to leave the political stage.
Which rather raises the thorny issue of the Normandy Four summit that is supposed to be held in the near future.
Merkel CANNOT prevent Putin from later tearing up any agreement about ensuring Russian gas transit through Ukraine.
Indeed, Putin will simply sign any such agreement as a "quid-pro-quo" in gaining HIS concessions about HIS control over the Donbas.
And once Zelensky has been politically "boxed-in" by making these consessions Putin will simply tear up any agreement to further consolidate his political hold over Zelensky himself.
As for Macron; all that he is interested in is getting the EU sanctions against Putin removed so that the lackluster French economy can be given a boost by increasing trade with Putin's Russia.
Zelensky should ask himself,
"With Merkel and Macron as 'friends' who needs enemies"
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