Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says his government is ready and willing to meet Ukraine’s President-elect Petro Poroshenko, saying there is no need for Western mediation and they are ready for direct talks.
Poroshenko, who won yesterday’s election, has significant business interests in Russia, and if not a welcome candidate was at least seen as less objectionable to Russia than some of the alternatives.
At the same time, Russia’s primary goal is to negotiate an end to the military offensive against Donetsk, along the Russian border, saying Ukraine must halt “military operations against their own people.”
That seems unlikely, as Poroshenko is ruling out any talks with the easterners, who he dubbed “terrorists,” and talked up a quick military victory against the regions.
I think he will talk with Putin , and I think he will pull the army back and let things simmer down
However, currently he seems to want to emulate "Sherman's march to the sea" (sea=East Ukraine) and to recover Crimea. The first is in progress. The second is a pipe-dream.
The only "talk" the Nazi junta in Kiev will listen to is is talk that comes from the barrel of a gun.
I hope the Russians realise this before hundreds of Ukrainian civilians are killed.
The Nazi's in Kiev have already stated that the East Ukrainians who are pro Russian will be "liquated"
What more does Russia need to intervene?
because a Russian invasion is exactly what DC wants. and getting an oligarch who is completely out for himself suits Moscow completely.
They need the situation to devolve to the point where even the US (and some of their warmonger voices) can no longer ignore how wrong they were to back the fascists. I find it interesting the call to arms by the US when Assad was "killing their own citizens" doesn't translate to Ukraine. Perhaps the lapdog US media could ask Obama or any of his house warmongers? …yeah, right.
Poroshenko would be unwise not to talk with the Russians, and attempt to cool things down, because Ukraine needs Russian gas. But with IMF loans dependent on Ukraine's eastern provinces remaining under Ukrainian control, Poroshenko doesn't have much room to maneuvre for a solution. The USG, and/or western bankers, could cool the situation down rapidly, but seem much more interested in making Russia appear to be the "bad guy," and ensuring that all of Ukraine remains available for looting. Hoping for saner minds to prevail seems a little overoptimistic when sane minds wouldn't have created this situation in the first place.
Sounds like Putin is trying to find a way out of the corner he let Nuland manipulate him into. So much the better. If Poroshenko sends in special police, then it won't be "military operations", will it?
What corner is that? He holds most of the cards. And the joker.
Also: "White House Kidstuff At Work: Big Oil Drives Huge Russian Energy Deals Right Thru Siberian-Scale Loophole". Yeah, google it.
Occasionally I need to respond to another AW article because I refuse to become a "facebooker". Elsewhere on AW Sheldon Richman avers that our nation made Joseph Stalin acceptable during WW2. Nothing could be further from the complete truth. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union our nation was not (yet) in WW2. Almost immediately after the German attack it was Winston Churchill who welcomed Stalin as an ally. When Hitler declared war on our nation could President Roosevelt not have accepted Stalin as an ally? Nonsense.
"Almost immediately after the German attack it was Winston Churchill who welcomed Stalin as an ally."
At which point FDR added the Soviet Union to Lend-Lease and the first shipments of US equipment arrived in the Soviet Union the same week that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. After which for the following three years the US government propagandized for what great allies "Uncle Joe" and the Russian people were.
This is all Kabuki theater. Putin is one of "them". He plays the role of the "bad guy", so as to give his buddies in the West a reason to keep defense spending at intergalactic levels, as well as his own defense industry's. The guy has retreated on all fronts in the past couple weeks. I know people think that he is just waiting for Ukraine to collapse, but who knows what will happen with that. The way this "Chocolate King" is, he seems pretty pragmatic and can play Russia and the West off of each other. That maybe Putin's only hope, but he will sacrifice the separatist fighters and lose the goodwill of ethnic Russians in the region. I also would not be all the surprised if Vlad the Impaler gives up the Crimea. I am not saying I expect that to happen, but in lieu of all that has transpired in the last week, I wouldn't be all that surprised.
Wow I have posted comments on 4 different stories now that question if Putin is really a resistance figure against this neocolonialism and I can't get a response published?