Window on Eurasia: West has Given Putin a ‘Mandate’ to Take as Much of Ukraine as He Wants, Latynina Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 21 – The Geneva accords represent “a complete victory” for Vladimir Putin and “the complete capitulation of Europe and Ukraine,” which when translated out of diplomatic language gives the Kremlin leader “a mandate” to seize as much of Ukraine as he wants, according to Yuliya Latynina.

            On her Saturday evening program on Ekho Moskvy, the Moscow journalist says that this victory and this capitulation reflect the fact that the European bureaucracy’s “way of life is to conduct negotiations.” It has to do so to justify and “legitimate its existence.” Hence “this senseless piece of paper was signed” (echo.msk.ru/programs/code/1303030-echo/).

            That becomes obvious, Latynina continues, if one considers that US President Barack Obama and NATO commander Philip Breedlove had both said Russian military units are operating in Ukraine but that there is “not a word” about that in the Geneva accord. “This means doesn’t it that someone is mistaken?”

            And that in turn leads to the question “what relationship does the Geneva agreement have to the activity of the supposedly spontaneous groups which have provoked violence in Donetsk and Luhansk?”  As the Moscow journalist points out, “they will say and in substance already have that they will not sign this document.’ And then the Kremlin will say: ‘Well, we don’t control these people ... [and the Geneva accord] concerns only the illegal Maidan.’”

That is contributing to a terrible tragedy in Ukraine, but in reality it represents a trend that is very dangerous for Europe’s future, Latynina says, adding “Thank you, European bureaucracy” because the Kremlin will only be encouraged to be more aggressive, experience suggests, when the West fails to stand up to Moscow.

What happened in Geneva?  According to the Moscow journalist, the only analyst who predicted what would happen there correctly was Andrey Illarionov, one, she says who is “inclined to conspiracy theories” but who, “when a conspiracy exists,” is in fact the best at understanding it.