Kremlin Uses Semantics To Walk Back Recognition of Donbass Elections Before The G20 Summit

The Kremlin is attempting a shopworn gambit to avoid further sanctions and shield Putin from world opprobrium at the G20 conference. Putin declares he does not recognize the illegitimate Donetsk and Luhansk elections. Instead he respects them. What difference do such semantics make, and does he take the West for fools? What greater recognition is there than to supply troops, tanks, missiles, and other heavy weaponry to those so-called republics whose elections you “respect?”

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Does the Today's Geneva Agreement Defuse the Ukrainian Crisis?

The Geneva agreement sketches out a general plan for de-escalation and leaves the key details out. How, for example, is the Russian side to disarm local pro-Russian forces and convince them to leave occupied buildings, if they are, as claimed, self organized and independent of Russian influence? The Russian requirement that Ukraine maintain its “neutral status” is not in the agreement but would require Ukraine to nullify its association status with the European Union. Ukraine’s joining of the European Union was at the heart of the Euro-Maidan protests, and the Russian foreign minister appears to be requiring that Ukraine drop its goal of becoming part of the European economy.

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