By Vestnik Kavkaza
The British newspaper the Financial Times published an article on the eve of the visit of Hollande and Merkel to Moscow. “Western officials still struggle to understand what Mr Putin’s objectives are. Does he want to restore Novorossiya, the Black Sea territory conquered by Catherine the Great stretching from Donetsk to Odessa? Is he determined to break the Nato alliance? Whatever his objective, one thing became clear in August: Mr Putin was determined not to “lose” in Ukraine," the article reads. "The escalation has left western capitals baffled once again about Mr Putin’s motives. Is he seeking to force the west into broader negotiations on issues such as his demand for guarantees that Ukraine will not join Nato? Or is he seeking to create a “frozen conflict” in the east as a way of destabilising the Kiev government? It has also revived the debate about providing arms to Ukraine — one which could yet undermine the unity between the EU and the US... From Berlin to Washington, western leaders are concluding that the rupture with Russia marks a fundamental shift... The failure of diplomacy so far to resolve the crisis has led to concerns that Mr Putin may simply not want a resolution," the Financial Times reports.
According to the Guardian, the Munich conference revealed "the deep and widening divide between the west and Russia, with the audience openly laughing at claims by Lavrov and other Russian officials that Moscow had no troops in the Ukrainian conflict. It pits eastern European nations and increasingly vocal members of the US Congress, who want to send arms to the Ukrainian government, against western European states who are against such a move."
"Arming Ukraine army may escalate conflict, west warned," the Guardian reports in another article. The head of OSCE, Lamberto Zannier issued a warning at the Munich security conference, that arming Ukraine might further escalate the conflict. "“This carries a risk with it, and the risk is that it might even push the Russians to take a more direct role in the conflict.
The Washington Post believes that Europe has not been pressuring Russia enough in relation to Ukraine. "Russia should be required to withdraw all its forces and equipment from Ukraine, reestablish the border under international monitoring and cease its support for a separatist statelet — or face a significant escalation of economic sanctions and a Ukrainian army with better weapons," the editors of the American newspaper believe.
"Crashing Ruble Means Russia Has Cheapest Costs for Gold," the American financial media resource Bloomberg reports. According to Bloomberg, the mining companies of Russia, the biggest gold producer in world after China, are profiting from the weakening of the ruble. In order to curb the economic crisis, the Central Bank is buying gold. "Russia’s advantage in gold mining will grow this year as the ruble continues its slide... In dollar terms, Russian gold producers can cut costs by as much as 25 percent, BCS estimated," the article reads.
