It’s telling that this article does not mention Obama’s pledge of flexibility to Putin and calls for a response from the west. That response will not be coming because the leader of the free world is disengaged. The article is designed to obfuscate the real situation.
Obama thinks he runs the show but Europe looks to be taking the lead without him:
Russia could avert EU sanctions if it stops arming pro-Moscow rebels in Ukraine, the Dutch Prime Minister has said.
“All indications are that Russia is continuing to arm the separatists,” Mark Rutte told a parliamentary committee on Friday.
The PM, who is seen to have a key role in the EU’s response to the downing of airliner MH17, said: “There’s an easy way out for Russia: to distance themselves from the separatists, and stop arming them.”
He added that the Netherlands would support sanctions if Russia did not do so, and would also do so if it were proven that Russia had been behind the downing of the airliner, in which 298 people, including 194 Dutch, lost their lives.
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-07-25/dutch-pm-russia-still-arming-ukraine-separatists/
BTW Putin may have tipped his hand: Maria Putin and her boyfriend snuck out of the Netherlands in the middle of the night.