[Aaus-list] NYTimes: Ukraine Deal Imposes Truce Putin Devised & SWP: Obama The Chess Playing Pigeon Struts Around the Board & Claims Victory

[Max Pyziur]

NYTimes: Ukraine Deal Imposes Truce Putin Devised
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/06/world/europe/ukraine-cease-fire.html



SWP: Obama The Chess Playing Pigeon Struts Around the Board & Claims Victory 
http://streetwiseprofessor.com/?p=8728


"The reality is that this is a major victory for Putin. For crissakes, Putin 
and Lavrov have been demanding a ceasefire for weeks. Months even. Demanding. 
It’s what they’ve wanted all along, and has led their list of demands. It saves 
the Russian rebel puppets from defeat, and allows them to cement their position 
in Donbas. It forces Poroshenko to acknowledge the Russian puppet states as 
legitimate interlocutors. It creates a frozen conflict that makes Ukraine toxic 
for Europe and Nato. It creates a bleeding ulcer inside Ukraine that will sap 
the poor country of its vitality, and keep it on the precipice of becoming a 
failed state.

...

The timing is also telling. When did the ceasefire happen? In the immediate 
aftermath of a dramatic Russian escalation that inflicted a bloody, devastating 
defeat on Ukraine and turned the tide of battle. This forced Poroshenko to 
negotiate from a position of weakness, and allowed Putin to negotiate from a 
position of strength. This is exactly contrary to the impression that Obama 
attempts to convey, which is that Putin was forced into concessions.

...

But don’t think Putin will rest on his laurels. To the contrary, he smells 
weakness. How else to explain that a mere two days after Obama stood in 
Tallinn, Estonia and delivered in stentorian tones a solemn promise to defend 
Estonia and other allies to the last, that the FSB launched an operation inside 
Estonia, and kidnapped a member of the country’s counterintelligence service?"


fyi,

MP
pyz at brama.com