... to Russian gas. Germany and its industry even depends more than 50% on Russian gas. This also puts some break on “financial sanctions”.
Andrey Kortunov:
The end of diplomacy? Seven Glimpses of the New Normal
If Russia cannot get paid for gas, and ... ... will survive or experience a crash and depletion of confidence worse than 2009. Western voices say that “Russia has brought NATO together”. Well—after the current Western songs and hymns are replaced with realism or despair (or a new US President ...
... the media, are on Kiev’s side. And we are not talking exclusively about Western countries here.
Implication 4.
Unprecedented sanctions against Russia. All the bravado concerning the sanctions and statements claiming that that they are barely affecting ... ... predicted three months ago can now be supplemented with another two.
Afterthought 1.
Moving towards a significant increase in NATO’s military presence in Eastern Europe. With a number of Western states blocking the airspace, the Kaliningrad Region can ...
... military-technical cooperation with its partners across the CSTO. The West has established various formats and mechanisms of sanctions pressure, boosting NATO’s eastern flank and increasing policy coordination both within the Alliance and within the European Union as well as military-technical ... ... hard to solve this difficult task. Many practical proposals have been prepared on both Ukraine and broader issues pertaining to European security.
Unfortunately, none of these proposals have been heard to become a cut-off point for an agreement. The gap ...
... to the proposals for security guarantees. Washington refused to accept Moscow’s demands for legally binding guarantees of NATO’s non-expansion, but indicated its readiness to discuss certain issues, such as arms control and strategic stability. Starting ... ... forceful regime change in Ukraine, with the expectation that there will be no massive resistance from the population.
Western sanctions will be a painful blow to Russia, but they won’t be fatal. The benefits to military security are greater than the ...