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Europe Fractures: France Pivots To Putin, Cyprus Offers Moscow Military Base, Germany-US Splinter On Ukraine
Following yesterday's summary of the utter farce that the Minsk Summit/Ukraine "peace" deal talks have become, the various parties involved appear to be fracturing even faster today. The headlines are coming thick and fast but most prescient appears to be: Despite John Kerry's denial of any split between Germany and US over arms deliveries to Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Steinmeier slammed Washington's strategy for being "not just risky but counterproductive." But perhaps most significantly is France's continued apparent pivot towards Russia... Following Francois Hollande's calls for greater autonomy for Eastern Ukraine, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has come out in apparent support of Russia (and specifically against the US), "we are part of a common civilization with Russia,” adding, "the interests of the Americans with the Russians are not the interests of Europe and Russia." Even NATO appears to have given up hope of peace as Stoltenberg's statements show little optimism and the decision by Cyprus to allow Russia to use its soil for military facilities suggests all is not at all well in the European 'union'.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier doubled down on Germany's rejection of weapons deliveries to Ukraine in a speech here Sunday...
- *GABRIEL SAYS GERMAN SPD WOULD NEVER BACK ARMS TO UKRAINE
- *EUROPE SEES U.S. ARMS DELIVERIES TO UKRAINE AS BAD IDEA: LAVROV
"I see this, to say it openly, as not just for risky but for counter-productive," Mr. Steinmeier said at the Munich Security Conference. Mr. Steinmeier also hit back at open criticism of Germany's position on weapons deliveries from U.S. Senators and others here on Saturday. The White House is mulling delivering weapons to Ukraine to support the country's fight against pro-Russia separatists in the country's east.
"Perhaps we are so insistent because we know the region a bit," Mr. Steinmeier said.
But John Kerry says, everything's fine... as he denies any split between U.S. and Europe on Russia policy...
Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday denied any divisions between the U.S. and Europe over how to handle Russia, as Germany announced another high-level summit aimed at stemming the crisis in Ukraine.
Kerry told a security conference in Munich that he wanted to "assure everybody there is no division, there is no split" between Washington and its European allies amid the crisis in Ukraine.
"We are united, we are working closely together," he told the conference following meetings with his French and German counterparts. "We all agree that this challenge will not end through military force. We are united in our diplomacy."
But perhaps most significantly is France's continued apparent pivot towards Russia... Following Francois Hollande's calls for greater autonomy for Eastern Ukraine, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has come out in apparent support of Russia (and specifically against the US).
“We are part of a common civilization with Russia,” said Sarkozy, speaking on Saturday at the congress of the Union for a Popular Movement Party (UMP), which the former president heads.
“The interests of the Americans with the Russians are not the interests of Europe and Russia,” he said adding that “we do not want the revival of a Cold War between Europe and Russia.”
“Crimea has chosen Russia, and we cannot blame it [for doing so],” he said pointing out that “we must find the means to create a peacekeeping force to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine.”
And then Cyprus joins the fracture party, offering to sign a military cooperation agreement on Feb 25th offering Russia the use of military facilities on its soil...
The air force base at which Russian planes will use is about 40 kilometers from Britain's sovereign Air Force base at Akrotiri, on the south shores of Cyprus, which provides support to NATO operations in the Middle and Near East regions
Even NATO appears to know the "peace deal" is not coming...
- STOLTENBERG: 'IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY' IF MINSK PRODUCES CEASE-FIRE
But there is still hope.. as Germany's Vice-Chanceller hopes...
- *GERMANY'S GABRIEL `CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC' ABOUT MINSK SUMMIT
demands...
- *PUTIN MUST TAKE EU'S `OUTSTRETCHED HAND,' GABRIEL SAYS
But adds...
- *EU SEEKS POST-CRISIS PARTNERSHIP RENEWAL WITH RUSSIA: GABRIEL
We will know soon...
- *RUSSIA SAYS FEB. 9-10 UKRAINE MEETINGS TO PREPARE MINSK SUMMIT
* * *
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I think Kerry's face elongation therapy is taking hold but at the expense of his rationality. Either that or Orwell has his arm so far up Kerry's ass that he can't think straight for all of the internal giggling. In the face of clear facts DENY DENY DENY. The spaceshiü is not rattling aparrrrtt caaaptaiin.
Get the blowhard and his boss off the world stage...Bring in the hook. Who are these kindergartners? Evil children is what they are.
I hope its becoming obvious for some in the EU to see, that the rotten regime in Vichy DC only wants to drive a wedge between Russia and Europe for its own benefit of maintaining hegemony in the world. Russia and Europe should be natural partners.
The US does not want peace and unity on the Eurasian landmass.
...
Without ignoring bankers kleptomania: When Yanis Varousfakelaki is talking about "opening a door to the truth" he should point in the first place to the Greek fakelaki-kleptocracie.
Greece became part of the Eurozone against the explicit advise of former German finance minister Theo Waigel. After having forced itself into the Euro with manipulated statistics and Goldman Sachs the biggest credit-party ever (...without Greek protests...) took its course.
Refusing to meet its costs, negating any benefits, pointing to an allegedly guiltier outside its nepotism-"economy", trying to solve it's record debts by firing the money-printing press etc... Athen measured up all expectations of this antique drama.
Shifting on liabilities to German taxpayers Athen completely adapted bankers attitude.
Varousfakelakis "new deal for Europe" financed by the EIB means avoiding structural reforms by direct state financing backed by German modesty. With other words: A return to sophisticated standard of life by generating digital shopping-coupons for its neighbours goods (called common currency) e. g. printing ration coupons for German BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, submarines etc... out of thin air.
Thanks to jugglery and nepotism printing such coupons (called "common currency") are already a condoned reality in the Eurozone e.g. in Italy - the EIB would merely shorten this way.
Apprehensions became real:
The Greeks want to pay with Euros generated by Drachme-printers, the Italians want to pay with Euro valued Lira, Spanish want...etc...
Living standard beyond its means, feeding a corrupted system and compensation of "mass-tax-avoiding" life financed by a transferunion - funded by other peoples work.
Extortion, revoking old ressentiments against Germany and forging an alliance of hate seems to be more easy than gathering taxes at home, implementing basic reforms and stopping its own kleptomania(s).
Unconditional bailouts for bankers and austerity for the people has caused a lot of problems in Europe.
It was the bankers who took the gamble to lend to Greece at very low rates assuming Germany would pick up the tab.
They could make more profit by lending to Greece at slightly higher interest rates than Germany, whilst Germany still stood behind Greek loans.
The banker profit making was based on a false assumption.
German and French banks have off loaded their Greek loans onto their taxpayers again.
Bankers take the profits and taxpayers take the losses and then get hit with austerity.
Putin has got EU on this lap. He will get sanctions off, federalized Ukraine, and a promise of no NATO accession...end of story
Well Duh.
Europe gets 30%+ of it's energy from Russia.
Quoting Sarkozy from the Russian propagenda machine RT, and you find no other source for that quote, that is strange ... I will go so far as t say that it is a pure lie, and that Sakozy would reject ever taken the above position. The disinformation flow is really gaining traction here on Zero H
Russia does not need military bases on Cyprus, especially considering the current economic climate, former chief of the international agreements division of the Russian Defense Ministry\'s main international cooperation department Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Buzhinsky said.
"Sure, we do not need them [the bases], especially given the present-day economic conditions," Buzhinsky, PIR Center Board Chairman, told Interfax-AVN on Monday.
He was commenting on a statement by Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiadis who said Cyprus was prepared to consider the deployment of Russian air and naval bases on the island.
In the opinion of Buzhinsky, "Cyprus must need something, it wants money and is ready to do anything. It is especially amusing that they are offering [Russia] to open its base near Akrotiri, the location of a British military base."
Russian defense sector eyes change of focus to limit effect of sanctions
Being a member of the European Union, Cyprus is part of the sphere of influence of the Europeans and the Americans, primarily, the Brits, he said.
"So, all this talk about Russian bases on Cyprus reminds me of Cyprus' "procurement" of S-300 missile systems. It even paid the bill, but the S-300 systems were finally deployed in Greece because no one would let Cyprus to deploy Russian-made air defense systems," Buzhinsky said.
- http://rbth.com/news/2015/02/09/russia_does_not_need_bases_on_cyprus_-_military_expert_43544.html)
Dubya gave Vlad a pass on Georgia
Stupid Barry failed - back under bus
The use of US treasury as a foreign reserve instead of gold was partly originated when the East Germany (supported by the old Soviet Union) was a threat to the West Germany. The West Germany needed US military based in the country for protection, hence buying treasury instead of gold was a way of funding the US army. Now, east Germany is gone, Soviet is gone, Putin is more eager to make alliance and friend than any leader.
As a result, US knows its army getting no or less role in Europe which also ultimately a threat to the treasury. So they hope to create some instability in order to restore its influence in Europe.
What's inside in the Debaltsevo cauldron? Why did the leaders of Europe rush to Russia?
Admittedly, when "the mousetrap" began to shut, everyone began to shout about the need... the need of what? Oh, about the need to follow the Minsk agreements..
The "Debaltsevo cauldron" was intended as a "Debaltsevo springboard" to start a victorious attack on DPR and LPR. In this regard, huge quantities of weapons, ammunition and food was brought to this area. This was confirmed by the militia after the capture of Uglegorsk. They got arsenals overflowing with weapons and warehouses with American food.
To foolishly lose such volume of weapons and "illegal American aid" for tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, and then to beg for the "ultimate weapon to defeat Putin" - this is the height of idiocy and helplessness of senior command.
Likely for this reason, to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of sponsors, the Ukrainian offensive started today on all fronts at once, and with a simultaneous request for a truce...
It is a madhouse, and not a government and a General staff! They are so unpredictable, that honestly, it's laughable! And yet, there are theories that in the arsenals of Debaltsevo one will find phosphorous and cluster shells and bombs, banned by international conventions, but used by the Ukrainian armed forces during the shelling of cities and towns. This could be evidence of war crimes...
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/02/what-is-debaltsevo-cauldron-hiding....
Merkel & Hollande just delivered the first (official) right appreciations in terms of some "misunderstandings" during the Ukraine crises. Until now they were held back to satisfy some gamblers in Washington - needless to say that Putin has never been in doubt about Merkels & Steinmeiers real positions...
- Crimea is consecrated Russian earth - historical seen more than it is Hawaii to the US.
- Former Soviet-Colony East Ukraine is and remains the Russian Cuba (...and not a Cyprean outpost...). I suppose in that point even conservative US-senators might feel some comprehension (...if they were free to say...).
Dispelling with former mythes that reality has somehow changed since the Kiew revolution-show could be a fast way to return to peace & business. Putin lived to much time in Germany and learned to perfect its language that there should be insuperable barriers o misunderstandings between the two countries or blogs: Even Merkel can't hide the fact that there is no predominating incomprehension of Russian positions inside Germany - and nobody UNDERSTANDS this better than Putin himself. Putin does not need any adviser in that point - Obama yes.
Ukraines point of view is morally comprehensable - but Russians security interests also. It takes time to make a change in our heads.
A remarkable void of adult leadershp as Euro/USA slowly slide into both a financial and political disaster. Truly scary.
The northern countries of the EU (the wealthy ones) know full well, that it is not in their respective countries' interests to alienate Russia. To do so will jeopardise their economies, and put their long term energy supplies in danger. So far they have stuck with Washington for political reasons, but now things have gone too far.
The fact is, contrary to the propaganda put out in the western msm, far from dictating terms, the West is in an extremely weak position all round. They have little choice for their energy supply. Their economies need Russian trade especially with the rise of BRICS. They do not want war on their doorstep, just to stop the US from losing face. Let us face it, if it came to war, Putin still holds all the cards. He has the best airforce. He has the most nuclear weapons. He has the most troops. NATO would be decimated in no time. And, Russia has the backing of China. It really is no contest. We will see a climb down presented as a Western victory.
Cyprus was holding institutional-size accounts of Russian Oligarchs before the financial crisis blew them out of the water. This is at the heart of their move toward Russia now.
Anyone else think the U.S. State Department would be better off with Krusty the Clown instead of Heinz Ketchup Kerry?