NEWSLINK: Awaiting Russia’s Next Move in Ukraine
[“Awaiting Russia’s Next Move in Ukraine” – The International New York Times – Celestine Bohlen – February 11, 2014]
The International New York Times covers efforts by the West to address the crisis in Ukraine. Russia is expected to step up efforts to bring Ukraine more firmly into the Russian sphere, once the Sochi Winter Olympics are concluded:
… in Kiev … a tag team of Western envoys has been trying to cobble together a financial and political package to pull Ukraine out of its crisis. The assumed deadline in this case is the end of the Sochi Winter Games, when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will no longer have to play the congenial Olympic host and can turn his attention to scoring a Russian “win” in Ukraine.
There are suspicions that Russia is responsible for spying on, and leaking, a phone conversation by a U.S. official on the subject of Ukraine, in which she used locker room language to reference the EU. The suspected Russian tactic is referred to as Soviet-style:
It seems Russia did not wait for the opening of the Games on Friday to work its mischief, with a leaked diplomatic telephone conversation – dated Jan. 25 – that had a top American official dismissing the European Union with a crude expletive. The United States State Department openly hinted at Russian responsibility for the leak, which makes sense since it would require expert listeners to troll through three-week-old tapes to find the four-minute segment where an American official says rude things about the European Union.
Sowing discord among Western allies is a tactical maneuver, straight out of the Soviet playbook. What worries Western diplomats is the possibility of more aggressive moves by Russia once the Sochi Games are over.
Anders Aslund of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington lists possible Russia options as including a trade war, a gas war, covert actions, and a threat of military force.
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