Putin Aims to Destabilize Ukraine, Former US Envoy Says

[Little Tich]

Source: Voice of America

A former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine says recent military moves by Russia show that President Vladimir Putin's "minimal goal is to destabilize the current government" in Ukraine.

John Herbst, who now directs the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, said from Kyiv that Putin is seeking to ratchet up the pressure on Ukraine, "and in order to do that, he can’t simply sit behind the cease-fire line. He needs to move forward to cause additional instability in the country.”

Moscow has long denied charges by Kyiv and many Western governments that it has supported rebels in eastern Ukraine with military personnel and weapons.

But NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the Russians had moved a significant amount of military equipment along the Ukrainian border as well as inside eastern Ukraine. "They have provided the separatists with well above a thousand pieces of heavy equipment, advanced weapon systems, advanced air defenses, tanks, artillery,” he said.

Read more: http://www.voanews.com/content/putin-aims-destabilize-ukraine-former-envoy-says/2734007.html

[okaawhatever]

1. Putin is a pathological liar. He is going too far and it's going to bite him in the azz. nt

[Cha]

2. I hope.. he's sickening.

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. ' Putin is a pathological liar.' It's called, 'diplomacy'.

[FairWinds]

3. Face Palm Alert . .

Well of course the USG destabilized a Ukranian government too.

Actually, I find RT less blatently propagandistic than VOA.

And VOA, by the way, uses our own tax dollars to propagandize us.

[Little Tich]

4. Don’t believe anything from RT. The site pretends to be a news outlet,

but in reality it’s just a Russian propaganda site. You won’t find anything negative about Russia there.

[okaawhatever]

13. LOL That's funny comrade. nt

[usbek]

5. How many of you knows who is Victoria Nuland? She is YOUR official, btw

I think, this call everybody already knows in their mind. Do you?
There was BIG scandal in EU, I'm not sure anybody in US even knows what I'm talking about.
Ok, you can listen it here

About Putin destabilizing Ukraine, are you sure it is Putin? Read some other point of view
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4790336352848302540#editor/target=post;postID=7929482876318472511;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=8;src=postname

[deurbano]

6. Thank you for reminding me of that! And she's married to a Kagan...

[Little Tich]

8. Where do the rebels get their tanks from, do they grow them in their own backyard like cucumbers?

And where did the terrorists get their long range SAM battery from, you know, the one which they used to shoot down the MH17?

Don't try to blame Ukraine for being invaded. It's like blaming Poland for being invaded by the Soviet Union.

[newfie11]

9. People ignore this info

We have no business deciding who the next president should be. We need to stay out of this.

[NuclearDem]

19. As if a nearly identical conversation likely wasn't taking place at the Russian embassy

Countries discuss who they want to see in power in a particular country. Big deal.

[okaawhatever]

21. We weren't deciding who it should be, we were only saying who we would support. nt

[okaawhatever]

14. Yes, Nuland was one of the Little Green Men who invaded Ukraine and helped start the war. No, wait

that's Putin's men My bad, Nuland is a diplomat who was overheard saying F$%k the EU. You know on the phone call that Russia tapped.

Putin needs to be careful. If Obama does decide to unleash our military on him he won't win. Putin doesn't have the equipment/technology/forces we do. Luckily for him starting a ground war in Asia is generally viewed as a really bad idea.

[swilton]

17. It is the US/NATO that need to be careful

Unlike the other countries that NATO & the US invaded which by the way was a violation of the UN Charter, Russia has nukes. Ukraine is in Russia's vital interests-and Russia will not back off. Unlike the US which has to transport their heavy arms across the Atlantic, Russia is on Ukraine's back door. Furthermore, NATO is hardly unified about having a confrontation on it's back porch. It's okay to bomb and invade other countries when their in the Middle East and miles away - Ukraine is an entirely different matter. They've been there and done that as far as having wars in Europe - even if it is the eastern part.

[okaawhatever]

20. Putin has many advantages, but he just doesn't have the equipment or tehnology yet. It's not

even my pro-American stance, just cold hard analysis of equipment. If Putin continues to upgrade and expand his military he will one day have a similar amount of equipment and troops, maybe even surpass us, but that day hasn't come yet.

I've also read that Putin has a shortage of able bodied young men if there were a protracted war.

I don't think Putin would ever use nukes, he's not stupid. He doesn't want Russia to go down in history that way. Besides, nukes are stupid with our second strike capabilities just as it would be stupid of us to try and nuke Russia (for the same reason). Mutually assured destruction, remember?

[swilton]

22. Whatever Putin has in shortages of

able bodied young men, they're doing a lot better than Ukaraine's national military.

I don't know why you caveat your post as 'pro American' - when some of the best foreign policy scholars (John Mearsheimer) have characterized this latest foreign policy as a blunder of greatest proportions.

Other scholars have already characterized this as either a continuation of the old Cold War or a restart of a new Cold War (let history judge). Whatever, the US domestic economy is directly impacted by blunders such as this and there are many more worthy investments for the US budget that creating a war that the country can ill afford to pay for.

[Wilms]

7. Victoria Nuland

Start there.

[Pooka Fey]

11. Oh FFS let's talk about Victoria Nuland destabilizing Ukraine

[okaawhatever]

15. I wonder if she knows she has that much power. One woman destabilized an entire country. LOL

Nice try. Putin destabilized Ukraine, everyone who isn't a Putin boot licker acknowledges that. In addition, Putin gave the rebels the equipment to shoot down a civilian airliner. Mistakes happen during war but some feel like it was intentional. If so, that makes Putin an accomplice to murder. Not like he hasn't murdered journalists, opposition party members, and generally anyone who gets in his way.

[Pooka Fey]

16. Acknowledging Victoria Nuland's role in destabilizing Ukraine makes one a bootlicker?

Interesting perspective on how to interpret geopolitics

[NuclearDem]

18. Well she once said a mean thing on the phone and had cookies.

PWOOF

[cosmicone]

12. We never destabilize any country .. never

nosireeeee, not us, no no no no no.

We just feed Victoria's cookies to the hungry and destitute Svoboda and Right Sektor.