Hammond knows nothing of Russia and its history

THE FOREIGN SECRETARY Philip Hammond has expressed the view that the Russian President Vladimir Putin is behaving like a "mid 20^th century tyrant" over the Ukraine. While the German Chancellor Angela Merkle and the French president Hollande have paid a visit to Kiev for talks with the Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, in order to help secure a peace deal with Putin. The duo then proceeded to Moscow for talks with Putin; before finally returning to Germany for a conference -  on the other hand America is considering arming the Ukrainians.

                What this tells me is that the Merkle/ Hollande travelling circus has persuaded Putin that the EU, at least, has finally blinked. The Americans however are not very happy with the Merkle and Hollande approaches towards Kiev and Putin: and Merkle is now on her way to Washington to consult with Obama (perhaps the weakest American president since Carter) whom she hopes to convince that a compromise (in Euro- speak, a synonym for fudge)  is possible. One, no doubt, that will, at the very least, leave the Crimea in Putin's hands.

                The one thing both Merkle and Putin are in agreement with, is that President Obama is like a ball of plasticine – easily moulded to whatever shape you wish to mould it to. Both Russia and the West, including Republican America have little faith in the stringency of Obama's backbone; and no doubt Merkle goes to America with this same observation in the hope that she can compromise with Putin and persuade Obama to put off arming the Ukrainians.

                Obama cuts a pitiful figure. His red lines have been tested and his bluff called. Now he is being treated, even by America's so-called allies, as a weak and easily manipulated president. A president who (like all politicians) seek for himself a place in history. Obama now cares only for one thing from his presidency; that history will give him a favourable report as the first black American president. Every pitiful decision he has taken in foreign affairs has been taken based upon his own place in American history.

THIS WHOLE UKRAINIAN business began when the European Union (EU) decided to make additions to its social democratic empire by making approaches to Ukraine to become part of it. The EU made overtures for the Ukraine to develop into a full member of the EU, thus, providing it with another addition to its empire. The Ukrainians could not have proven more eager. Their economy was battered and down trodden by decades exposed to the Soviet hegemony over their lives; and they were eager to become, so to speak, a barnacle attached to the EU hull at any cost - well the cost is becoming  greater and more bloody as the weeks and months unfold.

                However, the EU still presses on with its almost Napoleonic ambition. They are the future and nothing can stand in the way of a  United States of Europe. The EU, with their customary arrogance, supposed that Russia would shrug its shoulders when they saw the Ukraine becoming part of their empire. Well perhaps any Russian leader other than Putin, would have indifferently shrugged it off - but not Putin.

                Putin is a typical Russian nationalist, but with the charisma, strength, and the power he is willing to use. Mother Russia is his standard bearer, along with the support of the Russian people. Russian nationalism under Putin will not be intimidated by Western economic sanctions. The Russian people have a long history of tradition and sacrifice on behalf of the motherland. Nothing the West can do through economic sanctions will turn the Russian people against Putin. Even if, as the West hopes, Russia's oligarchies will disengage themselves from him; it will not happen because in the likely event that the West will cave in; the oligarchs will be far richer: and a cave-in seems ever more likely with the fraught behaviour of Merkle and Hollande; as well as the recumbent nature of our American president.

THE BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY Phillip Hammond has the temerity to accuse Putin of being a 20^th century tyrant. But what of the EU who remain intent upon what can be likened to their Napoleonic advance throughout Europe? He has nothing to say about the EU's attempt to draw into their European Empire the Ukraine. Putin is indeed a monster, but no more so than have often been found throughout Russian history before, during, and now after the demise of the Soviet Union.

                

               At least the Russian people voted for Putin. But who voted for the European Commission that now holds onto the reins of power within the EU? The great unelected who have, first of all, managed to almost ruin the economies of the Southern European nations through the idiocy of promoting a single currency without the political foundations to make it successful. They then make an enemy of Moscow and impose sanctions on the country. This causes a  response which is having, if not an equitable effect, has certainly, at a time when a dim light was perceived at the end of the tunnel for the European wide recession, caused problems for the German economy which has a heavy dependence on Russia for her trade – which is why of course Merkle, whose country drives the European economy, wishes to seek a compromise with Putin.

                

                 Putin holds all the cards; and name-calling by Phillip Hammond only goes to show how weak Europe is in its response to the events unfolding in the Ukraine. Russia and its people will hold out against all economic threats. The Russian people are not like those in the West who would be driven to tears by any shortage of petrol, food, makeup, or the latest technological gadget.

                

                 The Russians have historically been used to rationing in all its cruel and many forms, and they have put up with it - first under Lenin and Stalin; then under the Nazi threat. Russian nationalism (which was always far more engrained in the Russian character than Communist ideology) responds well to the kind of threat the West have made by imposing economic sanctions. When it comes to their country the Russians are a bloody-minded lot; and such bloody mindedness escapes the comprehension of the effete and decadent West.

               

                 Putin holds all the cards. Economic sanctions will only strengthen his popularity. Russian people have always lived (economically speaking) on the brink; and it will be the West that blinks first when it comes to the Ukraine.