Posted on 03/31/2014 10:14:02 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a "partial withdrawal" of troops from the border with Ukraine, the German government has said.
Mr Putin informed Chancellor Angela Merkel of the move in a telephone conversation, according to her office.
Thousands of Russian soldiers are still said to be deployed along the border.
Earlier, Ukraine condemned a visit to Crimea by Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and a delegation of government ministers.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Kiev said the highest-level trip to the Black Sea peninsula by officials from Moscow since its annexation by Russia was a "crude violation" of international rules.
A note protesting against the presence of an official in "the territory of another state without preliminary agreement" had been sent, he added.
Crimeans voted to leave Ukraine for Russia on 16 March, in a referendum condemned as illegal by the UN General Assembly.
Mr Medvedev said he would make Crimea a special economic zone. He also vowed to quickly boost salaries and pensions, and to improve education, healthcare and local infrastructure.
'Calmed down'
Russia's decision to annex Crimea has triggered a crisis in relations with the West.
The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on members of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle and other officials. Russia has retaliated with its own sanctions on US lawmakers.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has told his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that resolving the crisis depended on Russia pulling back its troops from along Ukraine's border.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Putin’s nameless security forces inside the Ukrainian uprising have the ball. It’s an economy of force measure with an additional benefit of appearing less threatening while the consolidation of power is underway.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a “partial withdrawal” of troops from the border with Ukraine>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
But Putin is massing troops on the border of Finland.Only the half truth of MSM myopia here in this thread article.
Putin is hitting every alarm chime he can.
obama probably said, “Help me out here, bud! We’re on the same team in the long run. Just give me a little concession so I can pump my numbers back up.”
Merkel had and used actual leverage. Perhaps she said that Germany was willing to forego Russian gas even if it meant buying LNG at exorbitant prices, knowing that it would cause hardship for Germany but the end of Russia's economy. Russia depends more on Germany than vice-versa, and Putin knows it.
In other words, Putin respects Merkel and Germany. In contrast, he brushes Obama off like a piece of lint.
The arms US sends to Saudis wind up in the hands of jihadis regardless.
However, I think that the real threat to Putin came from Merkel, not from Obama nor the Saudis. If she just flat-out said that she's willing to cut out Russian Natural Gas and instead have Germans pay an arm and a leg for imported natural gas, there isn't much Putin can do about it. While Russia is a big oil exporter, gas is its most significant export in terms of market share.
The MSM will build this up as a victory for Obama. Sadly many if not most Americans will buy it.
LOL.
Sounds like pooties oligarchs want to start travelling to the French Riviera again and access their foreign bank accounts. Nothing like a little capitalism to fix a tyrant.
“Saudi Arabia lowers the price of gas drastically”
Are you speaking of gasoline or natural gas? Saudi exports large quantities of neither. They have modest refinery capacity. Saudi does have large reserves of natural gas, but limited capacity to retrieve it at present. Most of what they do produce goes to internal consumption. Their big export remains oil. Oil they could dump into the market...
Interesting articles and graphs:
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=10231
http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=SA
Correct. Saudi’s plans for future expansion of natural gas production are limited for the time being to domestic consumption.
That’s not to say the Euro’s could not build a big pipeline from the Gulf to Europe, and assist with development of Gulf gas fields, but it’d take time and be one heck of a project, on several levels, not the least of which would be security of that pipeline.
It’s much worse than that, the reciprocal is also true, and the consequences of the latter, given some time, are what is truly scary.
There are very good reasons the U.S. made deals all over the world to provide security, instead of having everyone defend themselves.
Well, where’s Germany going to import from?
There’d have to be at least agreement by the U.S. to ramp up our production / exports as fast as possible, and even then, the next few winters could be dicey, as the above would take time, and Putin could try to force the Euro’s to sign long term contracts.
And SHE knows it, and has the stones to USE that fact.
blah blah blah....... nothing happens
Possession trumps words and claims of international law.
What seems to be is not what is
The posturing is to later claim Putin was stopped.
Meanwhile, he keeps Crimea which was his goal all along.
End result...... win win
It could be a ruse to lure everyone into a sense of complacency before the invasion.
Playing and creating foreign policy crises would be like having a money machine to those who pull strings and influence the financial markets.
Go short today, create crisis tomorrow. Go long today ease up on crisis tomorrow. It certainly goes on and is probably why political elites and others in the know go out of office a lot richer than when they go in. Knowing (or influencing) the future helps big time in buying low and selling high.
BBC updates: No sign of pullout.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26830336
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