"Putin Is Winning In Ukraine"

[applegrove]

Putin Is Winning In Ukraine

by Edward Lucas at the Telegraph, Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-west-is-letting-putin-win-in-ukraine-2014-2

"SNIP......................................



But the real picture is much simpler. Most Ukrainians want their country to be part of Europe. Russia, the former imperial master, forbids this. It wants Ukraine to be part of its new Eurasian Economic Union – a counterweight to the European Union, albeit one run by crooks and spooks in Moscow, rather than eurocrats in Brussels.

Without Vladimir Putin, Ukraine would be at peace today. It was Russia which forced Ukraine to shun the economic agreement offered by the EU in October, launching a crippling trade war against Ukrainian exports. It was Russia which offered cheap gas and soft loans as the Ukrainian economy tottered.

It was Russia which installed hundreds of “advisers” in key Ukrainian public bodies and ministries, including the SBU secret police, to ensure that they toe the Moscow line. Without Russia’s silent putsch, Ukrainians would have not have needed to build barricades in the streets in protest at the regime’s misrule. Even then, without the continued and escalating Russian pressure on Mr Yanukovych, the conflict could have been defused.

Kremlin meddling in Ukraine is not new. It has systematically breached an agreement made in Budapest in 1994 under which Ukraine gave up its Soviet nuclear weapons in return for a promise that Russia would never submit it to economic coercion or other aggression. It has repeatedly cut gas supplies to Ukraine, and fostered a culture of murky energy-trading intermediaries whose money poisons Ukrainian politics.



......................................SNIP"

[lostincalifornia]

1. Not much anyone can do outside. Even sanctions won't be effective in this case

[Pretzel_Warrior]

3. if they are targeted and feeze the billions of the current ruling elite it sure will

[lostincalifornia]

6. I assume that would involve the Europeans more than us, but it makes sense

[applegrove]

7. Yup. I am relieved that the Russian elite are so dependant on the West

for banking.

[LittleBlue]

8. Problem is, Russia supplies a lot of energy to Europe

That's the reason it's hard to sanction Russia.

The Russian Federation has a significant security role in the European energy sector as the largest exporter of oil and natural gas to the European Union. In 2007, the European Union imported from Russia 185 million tonnes of crude oil, which accounted for 32.6% of total oil import, and 100.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent of natural gas, which accounted 38.7% of total gas import.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_in_the_European_energy_sector

Europe would freeze if Russia cut off their energy in winter.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

9. It does pose a challenge. Russia is #2 supplier to EU behind Norway

and there have been plans to utilize natural gas from Caspian Sea and North Africa.

But there are definitely ways to ensure Putin would find it very difficult to pull that maneuver.

THis link is to a congressional research report in PDF format.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R42405.pdf‎

[Pretzel_Warrior]

2. this is a horrible opinion piece by a Telegraph war hawk. whatever, dude. This is on EU to freeze

assets of the kleptocracy in Ukraine. They basically need to shut down Ukrainian corrupt elites' ability to enjoy the fruits of their crimes and drag them forcibly to the table to get this thing sorted out.

Meanwhile, the CIA should unleash a few of its trade craft surprises on Putin the way he did in releasing the surveilled phone conversation of our ambassador.

Any author who says, 'don't over complicate it by discussing actual texture and history of the nation under discussion' should immediately be discounted as a fraud.

[JVS]

4. business insider is about as reliable as RT

[Pretzel_Warrior]

5. that seems to be the case. I almost googled them to see.

I think with their graphical presentation and name they are hoping for some fake credibility.