Ukraine Diplomatic Push Intensifies

[Manifest Destiny]

Source: The Wall Street Journal

MUNICH, Germany—The diplomatic scramble to calm the Ukraine crisis burst into the open here on Saturday as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urged a cease-fire agreement to be signed immediately and German Chancellor Angela Merkel clashed with Western officials over whether the West should deliver weapons to Ukraine.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference after two days of intense international diplomacy to ease the crisis, Mr. Poroshenko said that “immediately, we need just very simple things: a cease-fire.”

He said Ukraine is ready to sign up now and that it was now up to Russia to agree a cease-fire without any preconditions. He said, “We should have an answer in a very few hours or maybe maximum a few days.”

Ms. Merkel, who held emergency talks in Kiev and Moscow in recent days, pledged to keep pushing for a deal to calm the fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has claimed more than 5,000 lives. But she warned that despite what her spokesman described as constructive talks in Moscow on Friday, there was no guarantee that Russian President Vladimir Putin would make good on any pledges to halt the conflict.

Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/merkel-expresses-uncertainty-over-ukraine-peace-deal-1423304102

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Hopefully cooler heads will prevail before the NATO generals and the US war hawks escalate this further by giving weapons to the Ukrainian regime.

[HERVEPA]

1. Screw your Putin love.

[Manifest Destiny]

3. Looks like Merkel has got a dose of Putin love too now.....

if one considers your illogical mindset. Everyone who doesn't follow the script is a Putin lover, is that it?

[Duckhunter935]

5. I am just curious on how

she handles it when this still goes further and when in the next country, little green men show up to help out.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Chancellor Merkel is a thoughtless "Putin-lover"? Who knew? AND President Hollande?? Shocking!

Who else dares to give peace a chance ?

[pampango]

9. She more likely has a dose of Putin-fear. "Fear of Vladimir Putin grows in EU capitals amid spectre

of ‘total war’"

In Brussels and other European capitals, the fear of Vladimir Putin is becoming palpable. The mood has changed in a matter of weeks from one of handwringing impotence over Ukraine to one of foreboding.

The anxiety is encapsulated in the sudden rush to Moscow by Angela Merkel and François Hollande. To senior figures closely involved in the diplomacy and policymaking over Ukraine, the Franco-German peace bid is less a hopeful sign of a breakthrough than an act of despair. “There’s nothing new in their plan, just an attempt to stop a massacre,” said one senior official.

Arming the Ukrainians, meanwhile, will open up big divisions between the Americans and most Europeans. Putin is playing on those divisions as he plays on splits between the Europeans. He does not need to try very hard. The divisions are ever-present over sanctions.

Putin is increasingly seen as a reckless gambler who calls bluffs and takes risks, and is inscrutable, paranoid and unpredictable. Trying to work out what he wants is guesswork. The Europeans sound scared.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/06/vladimir-putin-west-divisions-war-ukraine

Madman theory

The madman theory was a primary characteristic of the foreign policy conducted by U.S. President Richard Nixon. His administration, the executive branch of the federal government of the United States from 1969 to 1974, attempted to make the leaders of other countries think Nixon was mad, and that his behavior was irrational and volatile. Fearing an unpredictable American response, leaders of hostile Communist Bloc nations would avoid provoking the United States.

Nixon explained the strategy to his White House Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman:

I call it the Madman Theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to believe I've reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war. We'll just slip the word to them that, "for God's sake, you know Nixon is obsessed about communism. We can't restrain him when he's angry—and he has his hand on the nuclear button" and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace.

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

[Fred Sanders]

2. The rebel leaders now encircling a major town are the ones Poroshenko should be, but refuses, to

even talk to.

If one side refuses to talk to the other how can there be a ceasefire?

Maybe after the Ukranian currency drops another 50% in two days.

[Duckhunter935]

4. At least Ukraine showed up at the last Minsk meeting

The "pro-Russians" did not bother as they were gaining ground after unilaterally pulling out of the signed cease fire agreement.

[snappyturtle]

7. It's 10:10 CST and all I'm picking up is that the talks failed from

Bloomberg, Business Insider, Kiev Post which I think it an attempt to derail any good that happened since Putin, Merkel and Hollande are scheduled to talk again on the phone Sunday morning....so, the pro-Ukrainian folks are signaling failure...now?

[MattSh]

8. Poroshenko urged a cease-fire agreement to be signed immediately?

He only does that when he's having his ass handed to him.