In a bizarre turn up for the book, after Russia’s ambassador to the United States declared on CBS, Sunday, that his country recognised the rebel areas of Eastern Ukraine as Ukrainian territory, though absolutely not Crimea (and he read from a document in making this declaration), today at the Russian Security Council President Putin has been moving ahead towards recognising these territories as Russian.
These two completely contradictory actions can only be reconciled if one assumes that the Foreign Ministry, on the advice of its ambassador in Washington DC, is at loggerheads with the armed forces on this question – Shoigu came out forcefully in favour of recognition – and that it has wanted to leave this issue open before taking action that will make negotiations with NATO even more difficult than before. Though what Lavrov says in public is not necessarily a direct reflection of what he advocates in private.
The West may look as if it has been in a muddle reacting to the Russian attempt to threaten its presumed enemies into talks by deploying its forces along Ukraine’s frontiers – coercive diplomacy at its most blatant – but it would seem that a consensus in Moscow has still to be forged.
Vzglyad ru:
Through Russian Eyes 