The world post Cold War is not interested in, most don't know or care, how undemocratic kingdoms, caliphates, and such existed in past ancient history. I prefer to simplify the issues today going forward:
1. Mr. Putin wants to reconstruct the nations of the old USSR into a forced new Russian banking system to bolster their narrowly based oil and gas, and lots of timber, revenue base. Example today Russia shut down four banks in Crimea and converted them by sheer brute force, no rule of law whatsoever, into the Russian central banking system.
2. Spetznatz forces killed some say 3, the Russians say 6, over the weekend at a border crossing from Ukraine with Russia border security point.
3. Spetznatz led and in part manned parties, armed, continue to occupy Eastern Ukraine cities government buildings, which Russia said last week would be turned back to Ukraine to achieve a return to normalized relations between Russia and Ukraine.
Condemnation of those "in the name of religion" who continue to murder and mame innocent Muslims in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and in Africa is what you should be focused on and opposed to.
Russia is brutally disinterested in moderate peaceful relations with Chechnya, whose natural resources Russia is stealing.
Hypocrisy is in the eye of the beholder. You might want to visit a modern day democratic oculist for some help.
The Moscow Times - Breaking News, Business, Culture & Multimedia from Russia Read the only English daily newspaper, THE MOSCOW TIMES today's issue, front page article about breaking apart before it ever got to it's footing EU/US/Russian/Ukraine agreement of just last week.
Major, you are very polite compared to several younger folks on this site who are big on blaming others for complex world problems. And your wish to hold prices of gas and such down are understandable.
Perhaps you are unaware that alternative, near term replacements of and for gas and oil are rapidly being arranged, for Western Europe by increased production by the Saudis as well as by the US, which continues to open vast amounts of oil and gas reserve and has new gas and oil findings (together with Canada) which "should:"
1. Further reduce imports of gas and oil to the US (already a fact, reductions have been going in recent years).
2. This in turn frees up overseas from wherever oil and gas formerly sold to US now available to fill the potential short falls in Western Europe (to include the Ukraine if necessary) and the UK.
I stand by my opinions I hold as the most germane to core issues today. In no way do I mean or intend to be rude to you, but frankly look at the rude, radical, and ill informed remarks some youth here throw at me and any other Westerner on this site.
I am not "retaliating" continuing to emphasize the hard truths they, and to some extent, you wish would just "go away."
Mr. Putin as THE MOSCOW TIMES notes in the same editorial I note again today from yesterday has gone "nuts" and doesn't seem to know how to restrain, refocus, and control himself. Putin is bucking most of the free world, with the head of the UN on down condemning his breaking and defying of international law.
I also have relatives born, educated and still living in the UK (England) and am not unaware of impact of economic sanctions which THE MOSCOW TIMES editorial I posted here yesterday notes in finding fault with Mr. Putin's internationally illegal actions which some quickly would appease as was attempted with horrible results by Neville Chamberlin with Hitler leading into WW II. It is both brave and rare for a major media inside Mr. Putin's Russia to dare to speak the whole truth and they and it deserves full credit as far as many of us in the West are concerned.
Radical religion is a core issue in today's real world and has to be dealt with. It shows it's ugly head on this site when factions of a major religion attack each other as nations, by name, by those favoring one version or another. I have friends here in the US who are followers of the Agha Khan Shiite branch of Islam. They constructively, peacefully exist overseas in various Muslim majority nations, but they are innocently under physical attack today, particularly in Pakistan. They are under literally physical under attack(s), intermittently, with their mosques bombed and shot up. Such instances cannot be ignored.
In short, the cold realities are there and cannot ignore or wish them away.
Let me emphasize again what the brave editorial leadership of THE MOSCOW TIMES wrote yesterday in part:
"It seems that the crisis in Ukraine will have to get much worse before Washington and Moscow will understand that the only way to resolve the conflict is by cooperating and making concessions to each other. For now, though, it seems that Russia is holding its ground and simply waiting complacently to get slapped with additional sanctions.
The Geneva agreement might have offered a slight respite, but it did not generate serious hopes for resolving the crisis in Ukraine."
PS - I am myself a retiree at age 74, although I do a little business (recurring) along the way each year. I understand your retiree focus. But even here in the US, dealing with the still ongoing world financial crisis which remains greed driven in my book, us retirees are left with little to no interest earnings on savings and other investments due to the worldwide greed driven securitized mortgages, in particular, which have seriously damaged the national economies of Greece, Spain, Italy, France, and likewise has hit hard the economy of the UK where you live. Would any of us have ever imagined the whole US economy staggering as it is and has been since about 2006 or so while at the same time having very low inflation? How would you react when your mortgage company calls you up from another state here and tells you in recent years that your mortgage is "upside down" due to falling residential home values...which falling values are in part caused by and driven by the same greed driven mortgage bank which was calling me? I called my US Senator, a lifelong personal friend, and let him and his staff deal with the mortgage bank as I paid and still pay my mortgage one time with a near perfect credit rating. I subsequently got an individual personal letter from the mortgage banker who had the gall to call me. But I worry about those who didn't or don't personally know a powerful US Senator to get as quick a relief response as I was able to get. These are still tough economic times for us all, and that nut case Putin has now focused himself as part of the problem. Russia is shorting the supply of gas and oil over there by invading Ukraine and is now reaping a huge profit by artificially hiking instead of sanely lowering it's end user pricing.
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The Geneva Respite
The agreement on Ukraine that Russia, the European Union, U.S. and Ukraine reached in Geneva on Thursday is the first document in which all four parties expressed at least some degree of common interest. It provided a glimmer of hope that the Ukrainian crisis might cool down somewhat. At the same time, however, it does not offer the de-escalation that would stave off the second round of sanctions that Washington is threatening to impose against Moscow.
The Geneva agreement might have offerred a slight relief, but it did not generate serious hopes for resolving the crisis in Ukraine.
It is good that the EU, U.S. and Russia sat down at the same table together, and it is good that they have assumed some responsibility for complying with this fragile agreement. That is especially important considering that the interim government in Kiev lacks full control over the situation in the country.
At the same time, though, nobody should overestimate the significance of the Geneva agreement. The most alarming thing is that it took participants eight hours of intensive negotiations to formulate the text of what is essentially just a standard truce. Rumors even flew during the talks that the process might break down at any moment.
The finished document calls for disarming all militant groups and for militants to vacate the buildings they seized, while offering amnesty for rebels, except those who committed capital crimes. The agreement also calls for a "national dialogue" but fails to spell out who would participate in such a dialogue and what results it should produce. Neither does the document refer in any way to the presidential election slated for May 25 or to the possibility of canceling or rescheduling that election.
The document also fails to stipulate if constitutional reforms that will introduce elements of federalism and weaken the powers of the president should precede or follow the election and whether a referendum on those reforms will be held. Lavrov left the Geneva talks claiming that constitutional reform in Ukraine is inevitable. But his counterpart, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, said nothing to indicate that Washington shared that view.
One other problem is that the word "federalism" — perhaps the largest issue of contention between Kiev and the militants in the eastern regions — does not even appear in the document. The participants simply deferred that issue, referring only vaguely to some indefinite process of "national dialogue." But I seriously doubt the effectiveness of such a dialogue unless the same international mediators who met in Geneva will accompany the process throughout. Even before the current crisis, the Ukrainian political elite were renowned for their inability to reach an agreement among themselves and their habit of breaking obligations they had only just assumed.
Kerry said if Moscow did not take demonstrative steps to de-escalate the crisis by the weekend, Washington would impose a new round of sanctions. Therefore, whatever respite the Geneva agreement may have provided is doomed to be short-lived. Kerry's statement once again confirmed the U.S. position that the rebels in Ukraine's south and east are nothing more than Moscow's puppets, and that if the Kremlin would just stop meddling in those regions, the standoff would somehow dissolve.
But even if the pro-Russian militants really were receiving support from Moscow, it does not necessarily follow that they would stop protesting the moment they were told to do so. It would be just as unrealistic to imagine that Right Sector extremists would obey orders from the authorities in Kiev. The people occupying administrative building in eastern Ukraine have already declared that they will not leave until extremists leave the Maidan in Kiev and release buildings they have seized.
Obviously, it will be very difficult to disarm militant groups anywhere in the country. Only an outside force acting on behalf of the EU, U.S. and Russia would have the ability of forcing all militias to disarm. But the trust between Russia and the West has completely broken down, making such a cooperative arrangement all but impossible. This distrust is particularly acute over the issue of Ukraine, which has brought a new cold war right up to Russia's borders.
It seems that the crisis in Ukraine will have to get much worse before Washington and Moscow will understand that the only way to resolve the conflict is by cooperating and making concessions to each other. For now, though, it seems that Russia is holding its ground and simply waiting complacently to get slapped with additional sanctions.
The Geneva agreement might have offerred a slight respite, but it did not generate serious hopes for resolving the crisis in Ukraine.
Hon Sir,
In my view, reference to Chechnya, Syria etc. and dragging in religion simply muddies the waters. Main issue here is whether annexing of Crimea by Russia was legal; what caused it and what could be the future ramifications of an act of changing international borders in the 21st century
Regardless of what we want or would like; we are what history made us. For example despite the fact that Scotland & England were united thru an act of parliament in 1603 and merged in 1707, I can vouch that during my stay in Glasgow back in 1966, England was still referred to as “old enemy” by the Scots and there is going to be a referendum on September 18, 2014 wherein Scots will decide whether they wish to remain in the Union or not.
It is however your privilege to choose to see the events from whichever end of the telescope you prefer. I am only trying to rationalize the reasons as to why Crimean people and a section of Ukrainian population suddenly start rebelling against an incumbent government? I also consider referendum by the Crimean people as an expression of their democratic right.
I live in the UK and hence am deeply concerned with the economic well-being of UK & the European Union that are still in the middle of a long recession. Any hostilities or tension with the Russian Federation would be bad for the economic well-being of ordinary residents of Europe. It would raise gas prices if nothing else.
This may be construed as selfish but anyone who reads my posts will know that I am a middle of the road liberal and I stand by my statement “I sincerely hope that better sense prevails and the matter is resolved thru negotiations”. I would also not take a Moscow News paper headline as expressing Putin's view point; as I am sure most Americans don't consider opinions expressed in the Fox News as official White House policies.
I am not taking sides as both all the stake holders in this dispute are playing 'Realpolitik'. I have no need to see an “Oculist” as you suggested. You may call me myopic and an isolationist if it pleases you. However no need to be unpleasant about it. Let us agree to disagree.
its a news to me.
