Reuters reports: One of Vladimir Putin’s most influential supporters was up early on Thursday explaining to puzzled Russians why the president has softened his stance on Ukraine.
Vladimir Solovyov, the outspoken host of a popular radio call-in, enthusiastically portrayed Putin’s unexpected appeal to separatists in east Ukraine to suspend a planned autonomy referendum as a masterstroke.
“This is a very clever and strong move in the game of chess over Ukraine,” he told listeners. “Putin has again become peacemaker number one.”
Dismissing a caller’s concerns that it might seen be as a sign of weakness, he said: “Putin has forced the Ukrainian authorities into a dialogue … He’s massively raised his support in Europe.”
When another listener dissented, the acid-tongued host told him he was listening to the wrong channel and, inventing a name, told him to “go and listen to ‘Voice of the Enemy’.”
If ever Putin needed supporters like Solovyov, it may be now. [Continue reading…]
A Russian invasion into Eastern or Southern Ukraine is exactly what the U.S. would like. Just like the successful propaganda spread by Western powers that the Kiev coup government is legitimate, they will paint Putin’s protection of ethnic Russians and his legitimate national interests as aggression and impose even stronger sanctions.
Putin is too savy to fall into that trap. All he needs to do is wait and watch the IMF, banksters and oligarchs financial destroy an already weak and indebted Ukraine. The west and south of Ukraine will eventually rise up against the thugs in Kiev and when the time is right Russia will assist them. The best outcome would be a loose federation of an independent Ukraine but that is not the U.S. plan, the neocons are quite satisfied to destroy Ukraine if it weakens Russia and its relationship to Europe.
Anyone who thinks the U.S. wants Russia to invade Ukraine must be spending too much time visiting sites like Infowars. Ukraine, like many other issues around the world, is one that Washington would prefer to be able to ignore.
So that is what it is, a game of chess “over Ukraine”? I always thought that sport was over sport and nothing else. Maybe Putin is a good sport at the game of chess, but he certainly is not a good politician or a peacemaker.