Crimea just declared itself part of Russia. Well, its government did. What the status is of that government is unclear, but then that’s also true for the Ukrainian government, which the west is all too eager to declare the one and only. Perhaps the first thing to do for the US and EU is to sit down with Russia and agree on the legal standing of the Kiev government, since without any such agreement no progress can be achieved. They’d
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The drivel that lies like a blanket over our societies still directs traffic, markets, news and the weather. If we have to believe CNN and BBC, “we” have forced Putin into some sort of moral submission (or whatever you’d call it), making him feel obliged to sit his ass down at the high diplomacy effort tables we want him seated at. The US, looking as powerful as a brainless haircut can, considers severe sanctions, say the “reporters”, and when Russia
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Arguably, the US lost its first PR war over Vietnam. When its young and hopeful started dying on live TV, it was over. Never again, swore spin doctors on all sides of Capitol Hill. Over the past 40-odd years, PR and spin techniques have been substantially refined, and the media – both written and TV -, hard as it may have seemed at the time, have moved much closer to the government’s PR interests. So much so that one can
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John Kerry made me laugh yesterday. Not that he seems to be a very amusing man, but then I don’t think he was looking to entertain. And there’s not a lot of funny material to be found in the Ukraine situation to begin with, obviously. But John still found an angle. Kerry, in his quest to appear muscular in his use of language and make Russia look like a nation filled with demons, said this on Sunday’s Face The Nation:
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There’s never just one side to any story. The eastern – largely ethnic Russian – past of Ukraine has been saying for a while that it feared being overrun by “hordes” of their western compatriots, who ousted Yanukovych and want to move closer to Europe. This morning the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that “Armed men dispatched from Kiev to the southern Ukrainian region of Crimea attempted an overnight storm of the local Interior Ministry”. Whether such a move, assuming there’s
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Well, at least these times are not dull. Normally, we would be looking with wary eyes at record unemployment in Italy, deflation in Spain and plummeting French consumer spending. Or at big, smart, institutional money leaving the US housing market. None of these are small matters by themselves, but they are dwarfed by the groups of as yet mysterious militia, mercenaries, whatever they may be, I used the term guerrillas yesterday, that would do, who have taken hold of, first,
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Esther Bubley for OWI “Sign on the bus route through Indiana to Chicago” September 1943 Saxo’s Steen Jakobsen looks at his data and comes up with a number of predictions, in particular about China: “China is not happy these days”. Then again, who is? Russia is not, that’s for sure. Or Ukraine. Or Japan. Neither are America or Europe. They’re all not happy for different reasons, and even inside their borders there are different reasons people are not happy. When
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An interesting government commissioned report came out yesterday in Britain, prepared by a commission under oil veteran Sir Ian Wood, and dealing with the prickly issue of what to do with the fast dwindling oil and gas production – and tax revenue – that comes from the British North Sea patch. What probably “worries” the government most of all at this point is that the oil and gas industry is threatening to leave any further investment and exploration alone because
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The climate debate has gone completely off track over the past few years, and at least 50% of the blame for that lies with the well meaning people who want climate change to be our (as in: all 7 billion of us) number one if not only priority. But as well-meaning as they may be, they’ve fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book. They’ve been tripped and blind-sided by straw men. Most of you have at one
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There’s a lot more to the Ukraine situation than meets the eye. The country was already on the verge of bankruptcy before the protests started three months ago, and seems dead set on default now. Russia seemed willing to help, but the protests against Yanukovych are protests against Putin too. Moreover, Russian banks have substantial holdings of Ukrainian bonds. Then, there’s of course the energy question. Ukraine relies on Russian gas and oil. It’s also where Russia’s pipelines for Europe
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