In These New Times

Mr Mercouris is perfectly correct to point out that everything now depends on the Europeans. I am not so pessimist as he is on this point. If the Europeans fail to lean sufficiently on Kiev to get them to concede to Novorussian aspirations, then I think the European integration project is finished. It is this realization, with growing divisions over the sanctions, as well as the dire military situation from the point of view of their, rather unsavoury, proxies, which is panicking them to the negotiating table. They have already abandoned the worst excesses of their congenital Russophobia: it is they who are giving ground, not the Russians. This has been a humiliation for them. Since the have to throw their weight around somewhere, it will be, in my view, at the expense of Kiev. We shall see! It is also a very rich and varied terrain for the Greek government to manoeuvre and to apply the Archimedes principle.

Alexander Mercouris

Saker

12th February, 2015

Already there is debate about who has “won” and who has “lost” in the Minsk talks.

The short answer is that as the German foreign minister Steinmeier correctly said there is no breakthrough but the Russians and the NAF have made progress.

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