Putin has just carried out the most audacious land grab since the days of Hitler trouncing a myriad of international agreements in the process and what is the response from the United States of Europe, practically nothing!
President Obama’s genius idea is to freeze the bank accounts of 20 well-known Russian entrepreneurs – that will undoubtedly terrify Mr. Putin. I wonder what Obama said to Putin during his 90-minute tirade on the phone last week? At least it gave Mr. Putin time to have his manicure whilst his varnish was allowed to dry.
Oh dear, how we are lacking a leader with authority to establish some discipline among the despots and bullies of the world. I wonder what North Korea must be thinking if they have aspirations to grab South Korea.
And, if the Europhiles feel that Europe is being ably represented by Catherine Ashton, who prior to being catapulted to this exalted position ran a health authority, then they are delusional.
There has to be someone out there in Europe or the USA between Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama to grasp the nettle and lead the way forward.
It need not lead to war but with all the economic power available to the West if the sum total of their efforts is to freeze 20 bank accounts then something is systemically wrong at the top.
We all know that this problem will not be solved by the use of military force but Russia is a one trick pony and Gazprom and its sales of gas and oil are the mainstay of the Russian economy (which in world terms is tiny) and anything that can tread on this air line will effect Mr. Putins ambitions to grab the rest of Ukraine not just Crimea.
There is no question that he is an extremely able negotiator as demonstrated by the way that he ran rings around Mr. Kerry on Syria. Whilst the latter was playing snap Mr. Lazarov was playing 12 dimensional chess. It was a very sad sight indeed for us in the West to be so poorly represented.
It just may be that Mr. Putin’s grand scheme is to use the bargaining chip of Crimea to trade this for a guarantee that Ukraine will not join Nato or Europe in which case his mastery of strategic maneuverings will have worked magnificently and he knows it.
We need a strong, courageous and intelligent leader of Europe and of the USA to combat these skillful artful dodgers or else we will all be in the hands of appeasers and the ghost of Neville Chamberlain will come to haunt us.