Putin is dangerously convinced of his own infallibility

Suddenly, throughout the diplomatic world of the EU and the US, the Minsk2 protocols, signed on 12 February 2015 by

• [Putin's proxies] Separatist's leaders Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky
• Swiss diplomat and OSCE representative Heidi Tagliavini
• Former president of Ukraine and Ukrainian representative Leonid Kuchma
• Russian Ambassador to Ukraine and Russian representative Mikhail Zurabov
  

is being put forward as a "practical" framework for the prevention of Putin unleashing, with his 'Dogs of War' in full preparededness on Ukraine's border, his second invasion of Ukraine. (image: left to right:  Zakharchenko, Plotnitsky, Tagliavini, Kuchma, Zurabov)

Since 2015, Putin has treated the Minsk2 protocols with contempt.

What everyone seems to ignore is that nowhere in these protocols is Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine's Crimea, and its illegal incorporation into the Russian Federation, mentioned.

As reported by NBC News in 2014,

"Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law Friday completing the annexation of Crimea. 

The ceremony at the Kremlin means Crimea has become part of the Russian Federation as two administrative districts, Crimea and the port city of Sevastopol.

Before signing the law, Putin hailed the incorporation of Crimea into Russian territory as a “remarkable event,” The Associated Press reported." (NBC News : 21 March 2014) (my emphasis)

(video: Youtube 27 Mar 2015)

 

 

Having raised Minsk2 with Putin as a way of 'defusing' the crisis on Ukraine's border that Putin himself has created, Macron then reported that, "Russian leader Vladimir Putin told him he would not further escalate the Ukraine crisis in their marathon talks at the Kremlin a day earlier." (Cumnock Chronicle : 8 February 2022) (my emphasis)

However, according the Putin's mouthpiece, Dmitry Peskov,  “in the current situation, Moscow and Paris can’t be reaching any deals”. (ibid Cumnock Chronicle)

I am somewhat reminded of the  declaration made by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his 30 September 1938 remarks in London concerning the Munich Agreement between himself and Hitler, and the subsequent Anglo-German Declaration.

Hitler had agreed that he "would NOT invade Poland"!

"Peace in our time", proclaimed Chamberlain, as he landed back in the UK.

Yet Hitler's subsequent invasion of Poland sparked off WW2.

And now in 2022, as Lauren Lewis and Will Stewart report,

"Russia has denied reports that Vladimir Putin agreed a deal on Ukraine with French President Emmanuel Macron during talks in Moscow yesterday despite Paris' claim he managed to exact concessions from the Kremlin.  
...
The denial comes amid fiery warnings from Moscow that a nuclear war could break out if Ukraine joins NATO and after Putin accused the West of 'complete disregard for our concerns' following the six-hour-long talks yesterday."  ( : Mail Online : 8 February 2022) (my emphasis) (video: Mail Online : 10 February 2022)

Whither, therefore, the Minsk2 proposals?

To assume that 'raising the Minsk2 protocols from the dead' can serve to hold back Putin's 'Dogs of War', who are now straining at the leash to invade Ukraine, is tantamount to believing that 'pigs can fly'! 

As Mikhail Khordokovsky recently remarked,

"He (Putin) is convinced of his own infallibility, and he is capable of all sorts of actions, including ill-judged ones." (Sky News : 6 February 2022) (my emphasis)

(to be continued)