Posted on 04/01/2014 11:00:53 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Washington (CNN) -- In diplomacy, like in sales, success often depends on making your adversaries believe they proposed the result you wanted.
By that measure, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have closed the sale on annexing Crimea from Ukraine. On Monday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited the region that Moscow now claims over international protests, while Russia also said it was withdrawing a battalion of infantry troops from the tens of thousands deployed near the border with eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts focus on defusing the immediate threat of armed conflict and setting up a negotiating process, rather than necessarily reversing the Crimean annexation.
~snip~~
As tension climbed, Putin called President Barack Obama last Friday and the two leaders agreed that their top diplomats would try to find an opening for negotiations on resolving the crisis.
In four hours of talks on Sunday in Paris, Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov focused on easing the border tension and working out a formula for a negotiating process that includes the Ukraine government.
Afterward, Kerry told reporters that both governments agreed on the need for a diplomatic solution, and that the goal for now was de-escalating the crisis to allow for further talks.
However, he never directly mentioned Crimea or its annexation and he didn't repeat an earlier U.S. demand that Russian troops leave Crimea.
~snip~~
A variety of outcomes remain possible, ranging from further Russian military incursions in other ethnic-Russian strongholds in the region to a negotiated political agreement in which Ukraine adopts a new constitution and holds new elections -- almost certainly minus Crimea.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
It was gone the day after it happened.
Yep, Crimea is gone. We knew that from the beginning - just knowing the two players, Obama and Putin!
On to the next grab.
The Crimea was Putin’s original goal. All his blabber about Ukraine was to distract the West. Putin then grabbed the Crimea and pretended he “backed down” over Ukraine, allowing the cowards like Obama to claim they forced Putin to back down.
They gone.
The real question now is “what next?” I have “Estonia” in the pool (not the rest of Ukraine).
Is Crimea gone? Man,,, not much gets by those guys at CNN. I understand their Sochi Olympic coverage will begin next week.
I’ll take Eastern Ukraine for $5.00
All Obama’s horses and all Obama’s men couldn’t put the genie back in the bottle again... Or something like that.
The process of reunification continues in Russia, and nothing the US or EU can do will stop it.
Just as soon as their five-star hotels are ready.
It meets the necessary criteria...Ethnic Russians.
I would get a good laugh if one day soon, a Russian Sub appears off of Brighton Beach, New York City to rescue those Ethnic Russians. What would Obama do? What would NATO do?
Play another 18 holes, I reckon.
There are only about 30,000 ethnic Russians in Finland out of a population of more than 5 million, so the excuse Putin used to justify the annexation of Crimea (to protect his fellow Russians) won’t work.
Its gone-—get over it. Putin will never let it go now.
Its gone and its not coming back.
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