EU Shows Little Appetite For More Russia Sanctions
Source: REUTERS
By Adrian Croft and Alistair Scrutton
RIGA Sat Mar 7, 2015 7:02pm GMT
(Reuters) - EU foreign ministers showed little appetite on Saturday for stepping up pressure on Russia over Ukraine, preferring to give a fragile ceasefire a chance before deciding whether to apply more sanctions or even to extend existing ones.
Most ministers at an EU meeting in the Latvian capital pinned their hopes on the latest Minsk agreement succeeding and said the EU should only consider tightening sanctions if the ceasefire was seriously violated, such as by a separatist offensive on the Ukrainian port of Mariupol.
Both Kiev and pro-Russia separatists have accused each other of violence since last month's peace accord called for heavy weapons to be withdrawn from the frontline in east Ukraine.
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni saw "encouraging signals" on the ground in eastern Ukraine.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/03/07/uk-ukraine-crisis-eu-idUKKBN0M30H320150307
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Purveyor
(29,876 posts)The EU is resisting calls from hotheads to supply arms to Ukraine, saying it won’t be pulled into a confrontation with Russia. Europeans cite the progress in implementing a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine between Kiev and local rebels.
The idea of providing lethal aid to Kiev is popular among many NATO officials and American politicians. US House Speaker John Boehner and a bipartisan group of top lawmakers called on President Barack Obama to deliver the weapons. But Europeans are opposing the move, which would likely escalate tensions with Russia.
“The European Union today is extremely realistic about developments in Russia. But we will never be trapped or forced or pushed or pulled into a confrontative [sic] attitude,” the EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini told the media on Friday, following an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Riga, Latvia.
“We still believe that around our continent – not only in but around – cooperation is far better than confrontation. We still argue for that,” she added.
Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said the EU’s goal in Ukraine is “a ceasefire, not an escalation.”
MORE...
http://rt.com/news/238681-eu-oppose-confrontation-ukraine/
KoKo
(84,711 posts)
KoKo
(84,711 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)which has an RT article
uhnope
(6,419 posts)
uhnope
Yeah sure - easy for you to say - as you are not the one who would be hurt badly if War engulf Europe once again - and tear down all the progress we have made possible the last 70 years - we have a collative memory of World War two that US just do not have a clue about. US have not had any real wars on their own soil since 1865... And was not devested by the end of world war two....
What is important now - is to make the peace stick in Ukraine - even if it a weak one - and work from there - not to mess around and force the issue all the time.. I doubt Russia want a war with the rest of Europe - they have more than enough to sort out in their own ranks as it is.... and it is absolutely a sting to the russian economy as it is the sanctions put in place - who hurt ordinary russians - as the groups who is linked to the russian president - and it is there we can se if it is any progress for solving the Ukraine issue - not some less than flatering remarks of Hitler and Chamberlain - who honesty belived if he just solved the Austrian issue with Hitler - could make peace in Europe... He was wrong - and Hitler know it - he had planed a war against Poland, and France all the time back to the 1920s when he stated many things rather clearly in Main Kampf...
What we have to do - is to take mr Putin serious, when he state what he does - and be smarter han he is... If we had leaders who could play a shess game with Putin, instead of try to take him out, then things could be a whole different game...
Diclotican
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)How many more former Soviet republics could acceptably be carved up by Russia before people actually start taking this seriously?
Diclotican
(5,095 posts)NuclearDem
I do hope most of the former Soviet union members will not be eaten up by Russia - or forced to seede territory to Russia as the best way to try to stay alive as independent states - it is a reason most of East-Europe after the cold war, ended up as member of the NATO alliance - and members of EU - as some former soviet republics did when they was able to do so.. And I doubt Russia would try to go head on with NATO, even if they had been spending billions worth of money and many resources on their military - they are still way to weak to attack a NATO member head on... And it is true, that many nations who was deeply connected to USSR, today is scared about how Putin want to play the game - some of the old soviet republics have already been feeling the pinch, as Russia is more or less treating them to accept a foreign policy who would just benefit Russia - not them - and not their trading partners in the West...
The fact is - that many of the former soviet republics are scared - as they do not want to be part of Russia anymore - but they have some large minorities of russians inside their own borders - who they fear - with some justice could be used as a pretext to do a lot of damage - even try to install a more Kremlin friendly governments - specially the Baltic States, who had their own, rather unique experience with Russia, going back to when the baltic states was divided between Russia and Sweden, back in the 16th and 17th century - not to say the inter-war period, who ended rather brutal when Hitler and Stalin, in their Molotov-Ribbentrop tractate divided east and west between them - and the baltic states ended in Stalins hands - and how the Red Army, helped by russian minorities was doing so much damage - both before World War two - and after the war, when for some years nationality's had a war going on with the Red Army - and was brutally stooped in 1950, almost 5 years after the war ended.. And then, for the next 45 years was part of the Soviet Union, and who had a rather painfully divorce in 1991-93 - and they have no interest whats so ever be part of Russia anymore...
Mr Putin is a person who have some idea how he want to be remembered - not to say he want to make sure the world is fearing Russia again, as they did when he was growing up - and had an career in KGB - he want to turn the clock back to a time when Russia was a power to reckon with - and he want to build his own legacy about how Russia will be remembered in the future - not as a joke, a weak nation who could be pushed around as many russians feel they was in the 1990s - but as a powerfully nation, who is not to be pushed around.... And most russians also support the idea of Ukraine being a part of Russia - as at least 50 percent of the russian history - is centered around Ukraine - most of the early history of what become Russia, is from Ukraine - some of its most important kings and queens, the church (who under Putin have had some form of Renaissance as they have been used to propel the idea of Statehood in Russia.. And in most way - the Orthodox church today have the same tacit support from the State, as it had back before the revolution in 1917 - even if not as rich as it was back then....
I do hope mr Putin wil not go to war against the other independed states who once was part of Russia - either from old times - or from the time when they was part of USSR - but I have no clue about how mr Putin is thinking this days - untill Ukraine exploded I was allways beliving him to be a sort of nationalists who just wanted to make sure Russia is rembembed as a nation in Europe - to reqon with - and to respect... And I have allways beliving him to be a rather calculating person - who allways was able to have everything under controll... But in Ukraine - the conquest of the Krimera - and the east-ukraine chrisis - I suspect he miscalculed rather extreme - and now is turned himself into a corner - he can't get out off... And sadly, it is the russian pepole who is paying the price for all this - not to say - the rest of Europe - if this wil erupt into antything worse than it allready is...
Diclotican
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)the Russian occupation of Crimea and the de facto occupation/control of eastern Ukraine. Putin cannot be allowed these rewards for his warmaking--that would be classic Chamberlain-style appeasement
uhnope
Of course he should not be given the reward, a occuption of Eastern Ukraine - and the Crimea indeed are - but Russia are not that easy to do anything with as many other nations tend to be - and I think maybe, from what I do know - that EU have a more complicated concept about how to solve this issue than we, who is still on the outside, and have not knowledge about how things work on the inside - I suspect every EU/NATO member states to be busy trying to get Putin to understand that what he does in Ukraine - is counter productive if he want to be taken serious in Europe - if he want Russia to be respected as a major player in the World - Russia need to do something them self..
But then again - Ukraine itself have been messing really things up for the last 25 years - and have had many chances to repair the image problem it have had with Russia, and also to make the future better for most ukrainians - who have been living in a lot of hardship after its independence... The original Constitution gave minorities, specially the russians in the eastern part of Ukraine a lot of leverage in Kiev - and autonomy to a degree, as part of making sure everyone got enough freedom.. And it was all supported by Russia, UK, France and the US... 25 YEARs later it is a mess - where nationalist of all stripes of color are doing their best to wreck Ukraine - and where also UK and US are doing its best to undo what was the hallmark who Ukraine got its independence after the break-up of the soviet union in 1991...
And then we have mr Putin - who i suspect have mis-calculated tragically his own savynes - when it come to understand how the west will react when he invaded first the Crime ra - and then made plans for Eastern Ukraine - where the population for the most part is of russian origin - and where most of Ukraine's industry also is situated... Who also was the beating hearth of the Soviet Union back in the days... For Putin it is important beyond imaginable - to sort this out - and make sure Russia got back most of its industry in Ukraine...
It is a mess to be honest... And I suspect no one really know how to handle this in a way who make sure it would end up more stable than it was before...
And then we have the foreign minister, who once stated to the polish Prime Minister, that he had a idea how to sort it all out - if Russia was given free hands in the eastern part of Ukraine - the rest, the western part could be part of a greater Poland - as most of them who lived in the Western part of Ukraine - already was of polish origin as it was.... A very cold hearted calculation I would say - even if true - most of the Western Ukraine was indeed part of Poland, before Stalin was doing his land-swap at the end of the war.. and millions of polish ended up as citizens of the Soviet Union - them who was not able to run for th freedom in the west it is...
Diclotican
uhnope
(6,419 posts)I think you are a fine analyst and I can't disagree with anything you say
Demeter
(85,373 posts)and it didn't even take them that long to realize the stupidity of it all....
But will the USA, the Great Evil Empire, let these vassals slither out from the Great Plan to take down the Demonized Putin and the terrorizing threat of the USSR--which is where the USA is still fixated?
Free men set themselves free. This should be interesting to watch.
sadoldgirl
(3,431 posts)all the people, who want to see Putin punished
more severely than he is already:
Are those going to call Obama Neville Chamberlain
for resisting to go to war with Syria?
Just a question
