Whilst Cod War 1 was a tragedy, Cold War 2 is definitely a farce. While Kiev talks to Moscow for purposes of survival, the clowns running the West talk sanctions. The proponents of globalisation want to retreat into their bunkers now that globalisation is no longer going their way. Still, there is hope that this sorry spectacle may be brought to an end if Wagenknecht’s remarkable Bundestag speech is anything to go by.
Moscow Forces Ukraine to Seek Coal from Novorossiya
Kyiv has started talks with Russia as well as with Russian-backed rebels in East Ukraine in order to source electric power and coal, as Ukraine’s national grid faces a critical shortage of fuel, Ukraine’s new energy minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said on December 4.
A number of German politicians and opinion-makers have lately expressed concerns over the West’s reactions to President Putin’s policies. Although critical of Russia, more German officials doubt if further sanctions are the right course of action.
What should be puzzling to anyone with half a brain and a cursory grip on common sense – is how technocrats in Brussels, London and Washington can say they are ‘committed to harsh economic sanctions against Russia over its interference in Ukrainian affairs’ – when the Ukraine itself, is has already resumed trade relations with Moscow?
The EU has dispatched its foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to Turkey to prioritize the country’s admission to the Union, as well as to talk about its anti-ISIL efforts. This could be seen as a carrot-and-stick approach to goad Turkey away from Russia and back into the Western fold.
Russia has abandoned the troubled South Stream project and will now be building its replacement with Turkey. This monumental decision signals that Ankara has made its choice to reject Euro-Atlanticsm and embrace Eurasian integration.
Russia doesn’t want Ukraine to be split up, NATO intelligence officials say, warning their colleagues against wrongly assessing Moscow’s policy on the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
The European Union has approved a law that will enable the bloc’s 28 member states to restrict the cultivation of genetically modified crops, even if the EU has declared them as safe. The law comes despite furious lobbying from multinationals.
When an elephant means to put his foot down on something with the objective of crushing it, a German speaker uses the same word as in English – trample (trampeln). When the intention and the outcome are emphatic, an English-speaker can say trample underfoot.
In These New Times 