EU Unlikely to Extend Russia Sanctions at Upcoming Summit | Business | The Moscow Times

European Union leaders are unlikely to reach an agreement at their summit next week to prolong economic sanctions on Russia that expire in July, a senior EU official said Friday.

New sanctions on Russia are also off the table for now because EU governments want to give a chance to a fragile cease-fire in eastern Ukraine.

But some of the EU's 28 member states had pushed for an early decision on extending sanctions on Russia's financial, energy and defense sectors adopted in July last year over Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

While leaders will discuss sanctions at next week's summit, the senior EU official said a majority would probably want to hold over discussion of renewing the economic sanctions on Russia until July.

 "I don't think there is unanimity at all for the rollover of sanctions, the sanctions that are due in July," the official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said.

 Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Friday that new or extended EU sanctions against Russia would not help the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine.

 Complete story at - EU Unlikely to Extend Russia Sanctions at Upcoming Summit | Business | The Moscow Times

The ECB’s Noose Around Greece | Dissident Voice

Remember when the infamous Goldman Sachs delivered a thinly-veiled threat to the Greek Parliament in December, warning them to elect a pro-austerity prime minister or risk having central bank liquidity cut off to their banks? (See January 6th post here.) It seems the European Central Bank (headed by Mario Draghi, former managing director of Goldman Sachs International) has now made good on the threat.

The week after the leftwing Syriza candidate Alexis Tsipras was sworn in as prime minister, the ECB announced that it would no longer accept Greek government bonds and government-guaranteed debts as collateral for central bank loans to Greek banks. The banks were reduced to getting their central bank liquidity through “Emergency Liquidity Assistance” (ELA), which is at high interest rates and can also be terminated by the ECB at will.

In an interview reported in the German magazine Der Spiegel on March 6th, Alexis Tsipras said that the ECB was “holding a noose around Greece’s neck.” If the ECB continued its hardball tactics, he warned, “it will be back to the thriller we saw before February” (referring to the market turmoil accompanying negotiations before a four-month bailout extension was finally agreed to).

The noose around Greece’s neck is this: the ECB will not accept Greek bonds as collateral for the central bank liquidity all banks need, until the new Syriza government accepts the very stringent austerity program imposed by the troika (the EU Commission, ECB and IMF). That means selling off public assets (including ports, airports, electric and petroleum companies), slashing salaries and pensions, drastically increasing taxes and dismantling social services, while creating special funds to save the banking system.

These are the mafia-like extortion tactics by which entire economies are yoked into paying off debts to foreign banks – debts that must be paid with the labor, assets and patrimony of people who had nothing to do with incurring them.

Playing Chicken with the People’s Money

Greece is not the first to feel the noose tightening on its neck. As The Economist notes, in 2013 the ECB announced that it would cut off Emergency Lending Assistance to Cypriot banks within days, unless the government agreed to its bailout terms. Similar threats were used to get agreement from the Irish government in 2010.

Likewise, says The Economist, the “Greek banks’ growing dependence on ELA leaves the government at the ECB’s mercy as it tries to renegotiate the bailout.”

Complete story at - The ECB’s Noose Around Greece | Dissident Voice

Breedlove's Bellicosity: Berlin Alarmed by Aggressive NATO Stance on Ukraine - PaulCraigRoberts.org

Top NATO commander General Philip Breedlove has raised hackles in Germany with his public statements about the Ukraine crisis.

US President Obama supports Chancellor Merkel’s efforts at finding a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis. But hawks in Washington seem determined to torpedo Berlin’s approach. And NATO’s top commander in Europe hasn’t been helping either.

It was quiet in eastern Ukraine last Wednesday. Indeed, it was another quiet day in an extended stretch of relative calm. The battles between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatists had largely stopped and heavy weaponry was being withdrawn. The Minsk cease-fire wasn’t holding perfectly, but it was holding.

On that same day, General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander in Europe, stepped before the press in Washington. Putin, the 59-year-old said, had once again “upped the ante” in eastern Ukraine — with “well over a thousand combat vehicles, Russian combat forces, some of their most sophisticated air defense, battalions of artillery” having been sent to the Donbass. “What is clear,” Breedlove said, “is that right now, it is not getting better. It is getting worse every day.”

German leaders in Berlin were stunned. They didn’t understand what Breedlove was talking about. And it wasn’t the first time. Once again, the German government, supported by intelligence gathered by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, did not share the view of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).

The pattern has become a familiar one. For months, Breedlove has been commenting on Russian activities in eastern Ukraine, speaking of troop advances on the border, the amassing of munitions and alleged columns of Russian tanks. Over and over again, Breedlove’s numbers have been significantly higher than those in the possession of America’s NATO allies in Europe. As such, he is playing directly into the hands of the hardliners in the US Congress and in NATO.

The German government is alarmed. Are the Americans trying to thwart European efforts at mediation led by Chancellor Angela Merkel? Sources in the Chancellery have referred to Breedlove’s comments as “dangerous propaganda.” Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier even found it necessary recently to bring up Breedlove’s comments with NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg.

Complete story at - Breedlove's Bellicosity: Berlin Alarmed by Aggressive NATO Stance on Ukraine - PaulCraigRoberts.org

Europe, The Morally Bankrupt Union - The Automatic Earth

The European Union is busy accomplishing something truly extraordinary: it is fast becoming such a spectacular failure that people don’t even recognize it as one. People have no idea, they just think: this can’t possibly be true, and they continue with their day. They should think again. Because the Grand European Failure is bound to lead to real life consequences soon, and they’ll be devastating. The union that was supposed to put an end to all fighting across the continent, is about to be the fuse that sets off a range of battles.

To its east, the EU is involved in a braindead attempt at further expansion – it has only one idea when it comes to size: bigger is always better -, an attempt that is proving to be such a disaster that heads will roll in the Brussels corridors no matter what. Europe has joined the US and NATO very enthusiastically in creating not just a failed state, but a veritable imitation of Hiroshima, in Ukraine, right on its own borders. The consequences of this will haunt the EU (or if it doesn’t last, which is highly plausible, its former members) not just for weeks or months or years, but for many decades.

The carefully re-crafted relationship with Russia, which took 25 years to build, was destroyed again in hardly over a year, something for which Angela Merkel deserves so much blame it may well end up being her main political legacy. Vladimir Putin, and Russia as a nation, will not easily forget the humiliation the west has thrown at them, the accusations, the innuendo, the attempts to draw them into a war they never wanted and in which they see no advantage for any party involved.

That US warmongers would try and set this up, is something Moscow has long known and expected; that Merkel would stand side by side with the likes of John McCain and Victoria Nuland is seen as a deep if not ultimate betrayal between neighbors and friends. Russia will present Germany with the bill when it feels the time is right. Obviously, all other EU countries that have behaved in the insane ways they have over the past year will receive that same bill, or worse.

To be sure, this week we’ve seen the first protest voices from Germany regarding NATO’s vacuous attempts to draw Russia into the battlefields of Ukraine. But those voices are years too late. They can’t undo the damage already done. They may keep American weapons from reaching Kiev – and even that’s a big maybe -, but they can’t bring back either the lives of the victims, the Ukrainian economy or the trust lost between east and west.

To its south, the EU faces perhaps its most shameful -or should that be ‘shameless’? – problem, because it doesn’t do anything about it: the thousands of migrants who try to cross the Mediterranean to get to Europe but far too often perish in the process.

The Italians spend themselves poor, trying to save as many migrants as they can (170,000 last year!), and there are private citizens – Americans even – pouring in millions of dollars, but the EU itself has zero comprehensive policy as people keep dying on its doorstep all the time. The official line out of Brussels is that the EU polices only the European coastline, but the drownings mostly take place off the Lybian coast. At least Italy and others do sail there to alleviate the human misery.

Complete story at - Europe, The Morally Bankrupt Union - The Automatic Earth

How Goes the War? | James Howard Kunstler

Oh, you didn’t notice that World War Three is underway, actually has been for more than year?

Well, that’s because most of it has been taking place in the banking sector, which for most people is just an alternative universe of math. The catch, which many people either miss or don’t care about, is that the math doesn’t add up.

For instance, the runaway choo-choo train of linked European sovereign bond obligations with its overloaded caboose of interest rate swaps and other janky derivatives of mass destruction. That train left the station in Athens a few weeks ago bound for Frankfurt. Ever since, the German government and its cohorts in the EU, the ECB, and the IMF have been issuing reassurances that the choo choo train will not blow up when it reaches its destination.

Few people grok that Greece is an entity with an economy not much bigger than North Carolina’s, yet it is burdened with roughly $350 billion of old debt that will never be paid back. The only thing at issue is how it will not be paid back, that is, what mode of pretense will be employed to disguise the inability to pay back this debt. The mode du jour has been the crude one of lending Greece more money to pay back the interest on the old debt. A seven-year-old ought to be able to understand where that leads.

It’s kind of up to the Greeks this week to possibly opt out of that farcical deal. They have at least two other present options: return to being a sunwashed semi-medieval backwater of olive farmers, shepherds, and inn-keepers, or perhaps lease out some cozy corner of their vast Mediterranean coastline to the Russian navy for enough annual walking-around money to keep the lights on for the aforementioned farmers, shepherds, and inn-keepers. Of course, that would drive the United States and its NATO quislings batshit crazy.

Complete story at - How Goes the War? | James Howard Kunstler

EU Plays “Good Cop” With Russia Over Ukraine Deal | New Eastern Outlook

US President Barack Obama previously commented on the Ukrainian conflict, claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin was speeding past all the “off ramps” offered by the US and its NATO military alliance to end the violence. And just as it appeared the US and the rest of NATO were about to take their own advice and use the Minsk accord as their own face-saving “off ramp,” they’ve decided to put the pedal to the metal instead.

Of course, considering NATO’s long history of eastward expansion, global militarism and extraterritorial aggression, there was little hope of anything positive coming out of Minsk. Instead, NATO has used it as a means to draw an arbitrary line their media monopolies will claim in the near future Russia has “crossed,” thus justifying greater measures still to escalate the conflict, increase bloodshed and help their client regime in Kiev cling to power a little longer.

A similar tactic is being employed simultaneously in Syria, where President Obama has attempted to receive broader authorization to wage war “on ISIS.” Of course, barring any actual attempt to target ISIS’ state sponsors, such a war is bound to fail. And while President Obama’s measures are aimed at “stopping ISIS” by waging wider war in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon has already admitted ISIS has spread as far as Afghanistan. Once again, even at face value, the narrative concocted by the US doesn’t add up.

This is important to remember, and the parallels between Ukraine and Syria should not be dismissed easily. The enduring chaos in Syria portends the fate of Ukraine. Essentially, it is a nation destined to be burned completely to the ground before allowing NATO’s agenda to be rolled back. And considering this parallel, one could have easily predicted ahead of time that any good will expressed by the EU before the meeting in Minsk was disingenuous, and the daggers of additional sanctions, expanded military aid for the junta in Kiev and additional NATO posturing along Russia’s borders were all but inevitably brought along.

“Good Cop, Bad Cop”

If the US is slapping Russia around in the interrogation room, the EU is the more reasonable of a duo working in concert to break Russia’s will. The EU speaks softly, offers Russia concessions and compromise, but ultimately has the exact same end game in mind as the US. To illustrate this, with the Minsk accord agreed to, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has shifted gears and is taking a hard line on enforcing sanctions against Russia, apparently to ensure Russia’s part of the deal is implemented.

The post-accord antics included NATO’s new client state’s prime minster, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk of the dubious “Fatherland” Party, threatening Russia from the confines of the German Council on Foreign Relations. The New York Times would publish several of his accusations aimed at Russia, along with Chancellor Merkel’s demands that Russia meet all of the requirements first before any good will is shown by the EU’s lifting of sanctions.

Complete story at - EU Plays “Good Cop” With Russia Over Ukraine Deal | New Eastern Outlook

'Guantanamo of the East': Ukraine Locks Up Refugees at EU's Behest - SPIEGEL ONLINE

'Guantanamo of the East': Ukraine Locks Up Refugees at EU's Behest

By Maximilian Popp

Hasan Hirsi has been learning German for the last year and a half, and recently even enrolled in a class that meets for five hours a day, from 1 to 6 p.m. Nevertheless, he still has no words to describe what happened to him before his arrival in Germany.

Hirsi, a 21-year-old refugee from Somalia, is huddled on a worn sofa in an apartment in Landau, a small town in southwestern Germany, which he shares with three other Somalian asylum-seekers. He is wearing a gray hoodie and has short, black hair. A retiree from Landau who has volunteered to assist the refugees is sitting next to him. He wants to help Hirsi adjust to his new life in Europe.

But Hirsi is finding it difficult to forget the past. Indeed, he still has nightmares about Ukraine, a place where he became stranded for a lengthy stay on his way to Europe. He now refers to the country as "hell." Staring at the floor, Hirsi says: "It is difficult." He repeats the same word, "difficult," in different languages.

After fleeing from Somalia in the summer of 2008, Hirsi tried several times to reach Europe through Ukraine. He was detained once each by Ukrainian and Hungarian border patrols, and twice by police in Slovakia. Ukrainian security forces robbed, beat and tortured him, he says. After being apprehended, he spent almost three years in four different Ukrainian prisons -- for committing no crime other than seeking shelter and protection in Europe.

Most migrants reach Europe through Italy or Greece and many of them die on the way. A broad coalition, ranging from Pope Francis to German President Joachim Gauck, is demanding better protection for refugees on Europe's southern border and the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, describes the route across the Mediterranean as the world's deadliest. But when it comes to the eastern route, and the fate of migrants like Hasan Hirsi, interest has thus far been limited.

SPIEGEL and "Report Mainz," a program on Germany's ARD public television network, have now taken a closer look at the stories of refugees who were locked up in Ukrainian prisons for months during their journeys to Europe.

Complete story at - 'Guantanamo of the East': Ukraine Locks Up Refugees at EU's Behest - SPIEGEL ONLINE

NATO: Atlantic Bridge is Falling Down… | New Eastern Outlook

Washington created something called NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949 to weld Western Europe firmly to the future foreign policies of Washington, however destructive that might prove to the genuine interests of Germany, France, Italy and the other nations of Europe. In 1986 the twelve nations of the then-European Economic Community modified the 1957 Treaty of Rome and signed the Single European Act. That mandated the creation of a single EEC market by end of 1992, and set forth rules for European Political Cooperation, the forerunner of the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.

Then on November 9, 1989, an event of historic dimension intervened to disrupt the EEC strategy for a single market. Gorbachev’s USSR surrendered the German Democratic Republic to the West. The Cold War was de facto over. Germany would be reunited. The West had apparently won. Most Europeans were jubilant. Many believed the decades of living on the brink of possible nuclear war were over. The emerging Europe seemed proud, confident of the future. NATO was an entity created by Washington, in the words of its first General Secretary, Lord Ismay, to “keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

European Defense Pillar or US NATO?

The Maastricht Treaty, a document with fatal flaws, was introduced at a meeting of the EEC in December 1991. A shocked Helmut Kohl was told by France’s Mitterrand and Britain’s Margaret Thatcher that Germany must agree to creation of a single currency to control the Bundesbank. That became today’s Euro and an independent supranational European Central Bank. It was blackmail as precondition for their accepting German unification. The Germans swallowed hard and signed.

What was little discussed at the time was that the Maastricht Treaty also included a section mandating establishment for the first time of a Common Foreign and Security Policy. The twelve nations signed the treaty and intense discussions were underway of establishing a European defense pillar independent of NATO. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the raison d’être for NATO was gone. The Warsaw Pact had dissolved. Washington had assured Gorbachev that NATO would never extend to the east.

Bush Destroys EU Defense Pillar

US President George H.W. Bush was a man who left a blood-soaked legacy, from his early years in Washington that likely included playing a key role as CIA agent in Dallas Texas in November 22, 1963 in the assassination of JFK. He went on to head the CIA in the 1970’s and to lure Saddam Hussein to occupy Kuwait in 1990 to provide the excuse for a bloody war Operation Desert Storm against Iraq.

As President, Bush also set in motion the events that would result in the destruction of Yugoslavia beginning the 1990’s, much as Washington is destroying Ukraine today. The central purpose behind that US-incited war that ravaged the Balkans for a decade, was to make clear to the EU nations that NATO, under US Pentagon control, would remain and, in fact, would go east. In effect, he used the Yugoslav war to destroy the emerging threat of an independent EU defense capacity, the EU defense pillar. As US Presidential adviser and Trilateral Commission former founder, Zbigniew Brzezinski openly described Washington’s view of Germany, she was a “vassal” of US imperial power, not a sovereign nation.

Complete story at - NATO: Atlantic Bridge is Falling Down… | New Eastern Outlook

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

OK, so we all know what's going to happen next, right? Ukraine and the USA will (sneak around / break / defy / do what they want / walk all over) this agreement, and as the war continues, the USA, the EU, NATO, and Ukraine will all blame Russia because they're not controlling the separatists.   And that's even more true because Mr. Putin is one of the participants making the announcement.  Yep, stop me if you think you've heard this one before.

TASS: Russia - Western sanctions against Russia destabilize global economy — diplomat

HAVANA, February 6. /TASS/. Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine violate the international law and destabilize the global economy, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Nebenzya told a briefing in Havana on Thursday.

"The policy of West’s sanctions is not only a blow to Russia, but is also a major source of destabilization of global economy," the diplomat said after two-day consultations between the foreign ministries of Russia and Cuba.

"It is difficult to imagine a less suitable moment for sending a signal to the global business community that certain political forces can unilaterally change multi-lateral rules of the game, undermine the atmosphere of stability in international relations and cause damage to the existing business ties," Nebenzya said.

"Russia had to take countermeasures against certain export articles of countries that had imposed sanctions against us," he explained. "The irony is that now we can hear voices from these countries saying that it turns out Russia is violating basic rules and norms of the World Trade Organization," he said.

The deputy foreign minister said Russia was diversifying international ties, looking also to Latin America, but noted that Moscow "is not going to do this at the expense of cooperation with Europe". The development of ties with other states "comes in addition to traditional cooperation with European countries, with Europe that remains the main trade and economic partner of Russia," he said.

Complete story at - TASS: Russia - Western sanctions against Russia destabilize global economy — diplomat

TASS: World - EU looking at blacklisting about 15 more Russians and Ukrainians and 4 organizations

BRUSSELS, February 5. /TASS/. The European Union is looking at supplementing the blacklist of Russian and Ukrainian citizens with about 15 more names, a European diplomatic source told TASS late on Wednesday.

The source said it would be mostly leaders of self-defense forces in eastern Ukraine. Apart from that, the European Union might blacklist another four organizations.

The issue, according to the source, has been discussed by the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union since the beginning of the week. A final decision is expected by the weekend. In this case supplements to the blacklist will be published before a meeting of the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council due on February 9.

The diplomat also said that Greece, which opposed new sanctions against Russia, would not block the blacklist extension as move having no economic impacts.

Another European diplomat told TASS that new names to the blacklist would be made public on Saturday at the latest.

Greece will not block tougher sanctions against Russia that are to be agreed by European Union permanent representatives by the end of this week, a European diplomatic source told TASS late on Wednesday.

"Blocking of sanction is out of the question, since they have no economic effects," the source said.

Complete story at - TASS: World - EU looking at blacklisting about 15 more Russians and Ukrainians and 4 organizations

EU Policy in Ukraine Could Result in Mass Exodus to Europe / Sputnik International

Europe will have to consider building a wall on the border with Ukraine when millions of hungry and desperate Ukrainians flee west, a professor at Moscow's Higher School of Economics believes.

MOSCOW, January 28 (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova – International experts question Ukraine's national sovereignty and warn Kiev's Western allies to be cautious in supporting Ukrainian extremist rhetoric as it may lead to the nation's collapse entraining a mass exodus of Ukrainian refugees.

Both the number of casualties and the military rhetoric from both sides of the Ukrainian conflict have increased, with shelling last week in the city of Mariupol leaving 30 civilians dead, while over 100 people have been killed in the town of Gorlovka alone.

"I am afraid that the West is making the same mistakes with Ukraine as it did with al-Qaeda while creating and founding it in Afghanistan… or as it did with founding the anti-Bashar opposition in Syria which eventually turned to a back bone of ISIS," Alexander Domrin, Professor at the Higher School of Economics, told Sputnik.

He underlined that, at some point, "Europe will have to consider building a wall on the border with Ukraine when millions of hungry and desperate Ukrainians will start sneaking into Europe."

"They won't be just hungry and desperate but well-armed by the United States and NATO," Domrin stated, stressing that nobody needs or wants to bail out Ukraine at this point. The expert pointed out that Europe is already struggling with the economic crisis in Greece, suggesting that the Ukrainian project could soon turn into a nightmare for the European nations.

Complete story at - EU Policy in Ukraine Could Result in Mass Exodus to Europe / Sputnik International

Most Russians Think Moscow’s Ukraine Policy Is Fine Despite Sanctions | Johnson's Russia List

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – February 3, 2015) With the fallout of Western sanctions felt by a vast majority of Russians, one in five think that Moscow should make concessions in its policies toward Ukraine, but nearly seven in 10 believe that their country should continue its course, a respected Russian pollster said Tuesday.

A total of 79 percent of respondents said sanctions have affected their lives, including 34 percent who said they experienced “serious problems,” according to a survey by the independent Levada Center pollster.

Slightly more than one in five Russians, or 21 percent, said Moscow should look for a compromise and make concessions to have the sanctions eased, but another 69 percent said their country should continue its course despite Western measures, the pollster said.

The poll was conducted on Jan. 23-26 among 1,600 people in 134 of Russia’s cities and towns, the pollster said, adding that the statistical margin of error was no more than 3.4 percentage points.

Another poll, conducted on the same dates and released by Levada Center on Monday, indicated that inflation, which has soared amid Western sanctions, has emerged as by far the strongest concern for many Russians.

Complete story at - Most Russians Think Moscow’s Ukraine Policy Is Fine Despite Sanctions | Johnson's Russia List

Ukrainian Government: "No Russian Troops Are Fighting Against Us" - Fort Russ

Eric Zuesse, 30 Jan. 2015

Ukraine’s top general is contradicting allegations by the Obama Administration and by his own Ukrainian Government, by saying that no Russian troops are fighting against the Ukrainian Government’s forces in the formerly Ukrainian, but now separatist, area, where the Ukrainian civil war is being waged.

Here is a screen-print of a google-chrome auto-translation of that statement:



The Chief of Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, General Viktor Muzhenko, is saying, in that news-report, which is dated on Thursday January 29th, that the only Russian citizens who are fighting in the contested region, are residents in that region, or of Ukraine, and also some Russian citizens (and this does not deny that perhaps some of other countries’ citizens are fighting there, inasmuch as American mercenaries have already been noted to have been participating on the Ukrainian Government’s side), who “are members of illegal armed groups,” meaning fighters who are not paid by any government, but instead are just “individual citizens” (as opposed to foreign-government-paid ones). General Muzhenko also says, emphatically, that the “Ukrainian army is not fighting with the regular units of the Russian army.”

In other words: He is explicitly and clearly denying the very basis for the EU’s sanctions against Russia, and for the U.S.’s sanctions against Russia: all of the sanctions against Russia are based on the falsehood that Ukraine is fighting against “the regular units of the Russian army” — i.e., against the Russian-Government-controlled-and-trained fighting forces.

Complete story at - Ukrainian Government: "No Russian Troops Are Fighting Against Us" - Fort Russ

EU Set to Blame Russia for Ukraine Violence – but Greece May Intervene » American University in Moscow

Alexis Tsipras government could disrupt Thursday’s summit after it disagreed with a joint EU statement on Mariupol shelling

European governments are to push for tighter sanctions against the Kremlin and against Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine on Thursday.

But the new leftwing Greek government of Alexis Tsipras is likely to use the emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels to pick its first fight with the rest of Europe.

The meeting was called at short notice by Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy coordinator, who has been forced to back down from a position calling for a relaxation of pressure on Moscow, as a result of last week’s shelling by separatists of the town of Mariupol that killed 30 civilians.

In an unusual statement on Tuesday released in the name of all 28 EU heads of government, Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, who chairs EU summits, held Moscow responsible for the shelling and told the foreign ministers to draw up additional sanctions options to be put to a summit of leaders in two weeks.

Britain, Poland and Lithuania are to push at Thursday’s meeting for a ratcheting up of the pressure on President Vladimir Putin, favouring stiffer and broader economic sanctions against Russia.

Decisions already drafted for Thursday’s meeting say the foreign ministers are to carry out "further preparatory work on further restrictive measures” before presenting the options to the summit on 12 February.

Complete story at - EU Set to Blame Russia for Ukraine Violence – but Greece May Intervene » American University in Moscow

PACE Puzzled Why Russia Left After Voting Rights Suspension / Sputnik International

Talka notes: Well, lookie here. Just when you think the EU couldn't possibly become more clueless than they currently are, they go ahead and prove you wrong.

PACE delegates were left confused after the Russian delegation left the forum as a response to a suspension of their voting rights until April.

MOSCOW, January 30 (Sputnik) — Legislators at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) were left confused as the Russian party left the session after a suspension of its voting rights.

"The day after the vote, we were confronted with the consequences of our 'brilliant' decision," one legislator told Sputnik, saying that he considers the resolution to deprive Russia of voting rights "blunt foolishness."

As a result of the decision, Russia's delegation has left PACE and will no longer participate in discussions on renewing Russia's voting rights in the organization. According to PACE President Anne Brasseur, a reversal of the decision will depend on fulfilling all points of the resolution, which means "troop withdrawal from Transnistria, return of Crimea, progress in resolving the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, release of Savchenko within 24 hours" and other acts.

The British and Ukrainian delegations reacted to the result of the resolution positively and continued to discuss the situation even after the Russian delegation had left. However, the other delegates were confused by the result.

Complete story at - PACE Puzzled Why Russia Left After Voting Rights Suspension / Sputnik International

Two worlds in Ukraine - New Cold War: Ukraine and Beyond

By Sergei Kirichuk, published on Liva.com, Jan. 28, 2015

“The sooner this regime in Ukraine falls, the more lives will be saved”

A Facebook user wrote on his page about how, while meeting a cousin at the train station, he saw two categories of passengers on the platform: young men in camouflage, headed East, obviously, to participate in the so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), and other young men, dressed in beautiful winter jackets, carrying skis and snowboards, traveling to the West to enjoy skiing on the slopes of the Carpathians.

The first go to the front, die heroically and, perhaps, have a few words reported on TV, then are forgotten forever. The second will race on the steep slopes of the Bukovel ski resort, drink mulled wine and visit the cozy restaurants and bars which have always been beyond the means of the first. Perhaps some of them are ardent nationalists, perhaps they gave money to the ATO, and in the future may even lay flowers at monument to the “heroes”. But spending time in the Carpathians is still much more pleasant than to die or fall wounded in the Donbass.

The stark contrasts don’t end there, however. Recently, Ukrainian media reported that from now on, to travel abroad, men of military age will have to submit a certificate from the military that they are not subject to conscription. However, travel abroad is not difficult for everyone. In the center of Berlin — the secret capital of the European Union — is Kurfürstendamm Street, consisting of luxury shops, equivalent to the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

Here, among the dealers on the street, Russian speech is common, there are a lot of migrants from the former Soviet Union everywhere as well as tourists from Ukraine and Russia. Disputes about political issues do not arise here, where Ukrainians and Russians both make expensive purchases. Despite significant discounts, the prices bite. Prada boots, for example, cost nearly 1,000 euros. But tourists from Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Moscow and St. Petersburg are not too concerned about these prices.

Beautiful, well-groomed young mothers, dressed as if on the covers of fashion magazines, talk to their children in different languages. They want their children to be trained from childhood to study in European schools and universities. Many Ukrainian officials, businessmen and top managers have long since moved their families from Kiev to Berlin, away from the instability and bad news.

Complete story at - Two worlds in Ukraine - New Cold War: Ukraine and Beyond

The Vineyard of the Saker: Europe’s addiction to Russian gas: How long before withdrawal symptoms set in?

by Leonid Krutakov for Odnako

(translated by: Robin)

In mid-January, EU Energy Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič held talks with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in Moscow. After the talks, Mr. Šefčovič expressed surprise at three circumstances.

First, Gazprom has no intention of building the South Stream pipeline. Second, in the future natural gas will be delivered to Europe via Turkey. And, third, Russia is not prepared to discuss the terms of its gas deliveries to Ukraine.

To quote Mr. Šefčovič, all three circumstances, were “very surprising,” even though Russia’s decision to cancel South Stream and instead build Turkish Stream was announced in December of last year in Ankara at a joint press conference held by the Presidents of Russia and Turkey.

It’s easy to wax ironic about Mr. Šefčovič’s ignorance of South Stream in Turkey. And most commentators did just that. But his attempt to discuss new conditions for gas supplies to Ukraine with his Russian partners deserves much more attention. And confirmation of that was not long in coming.

Last week, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev convened a meeting with Messrs. Miller and Novak. He asked them for the details of their talks with Mr. Šefčovič, Ukraine’s gas debt and the repayment period. The meeting was broadcast live almost in its entirety.

Mr. Miller reiterated to Mr. Medvedev that Europe had only a few years to build its own transmission infrastructure to the Greece-Turkey border, where it will have to connect to the Russo-Turkish pipeline system. If Europe fails to do so, the gas will go to other markets.

And Mr. Novak pointed out that, when last year’s agreement on a $100 discount for gas sold to Ukraine expires on April 1, there will be no new discussions or agreements. The contract is valid and no one has cancelled it.

Complete story at - The Vineyard of the Saker: Europe’s addiction to Russian gas: How long before withdrawal symptoms set in?

The 4th Media » Syriza Wins Greek Election: The End of the IMF-ruled ‘VICIOUS Cycle of AUSTERITY’

Here’s summary of a momentous election result for the future of Greece and Europe:

1. The anti-austerity far left party Syriza has won the Greek election by a decisive margin, but just short of an outright majority. With more than three-quarters of the results in Syriza is projected to win 149 seats in the 300 seat parliament.

2. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras said his party’s victory marked an end to the “viscious cycle of austerity”. Referring to the neoliberal conditions set by the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, he said: “ The verdict of the Greek people renders the troika a thing of the past for our common European framework.”

3. Outgoing prime minister Antonis Samaras conceded defeated by acknowledging some mistakes. But he added: “We restored Greece’s international credibility”.

4. To Potami, the centre-left party could be the kingmakers in the new parliament, with a project 16 seats. Its leader Stavros Theodorakis has not ruled out a deal with Syriza. “It’s too early for such details,” he said.

5. The far-right Golden Dawn party is projected to come third in election, despite having more than half of its MPs in jail. Speaking from prison its leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos said the result was a “great victory” for the neo-fascist party.

6. Syriza victory has been greeted with alarm in Germany. The ruling CDU party insisting that Greece should stick to the austerity programme. But Belgium’s finance minister said there is room for negotiation with Syriza.

7. Leftwingers across Europe have hailed Syriza win. Spain’s anti-austerity party Podemos said Greece finally had a government rather than a German envoy. Britain’s Green Party said Syriza’s victory was an inspiration.

By Matthew Weaver, ICH

Complete story at - The 4th Media » Syriza Wins Greek Election: The End of the IMF-ruled ‘VICIOUS Cycle of AUSTERITY’

Russia News - News Analysis: How Syriza's Win Could Change EU Policy On Russia

BRUSSELS -- The election win by Greece's far-left Syriza party has focused attention on the impact that a potential "Grexit" could have on the eurozone economies.

But equally important is the effect this watershed victory could have on EU foreign policy -- especially in relation to Russia and its neighbors.

A look at how Syriza members in the European Parliament have voted on foreign-policy resolutions related to Russia and the Eastern Partnership countries in recent months gives an indication of where things could be headed.

Syriza members of the European Parliament voted against the Association Agreement with Ukraine in the autumn of 2014, which was supported by the majority of the Strasbourg chamber. They also abstained in the vote on Association Agreements for Georgia and Moldova, as well as in supporting a resolution condemning the closing of the Russian human rights NGO Memorial.

Other legislation Syriza deputies opposed included two recent resolutions drafted by the European Parliament that called for more sanctions on Moscow, condemning Russia's actions in Ukraine such as the annexation of Crimea and Moscow's support for separatists in the eastern part of the country.

Even a fairly low-key law on renewing EU-Ukraine cooperation on science and technology was opposed by the Greek party. In fact, the only Eastern Partnership-related item in the European Parliament that Syriza favored was granting EU trade preferences to Moldova.

Complete story at - Russia News - News Analysis: How Syriza's Win Could Change EU Policy On Russia