This evening went to listen to the debate at Cadogan Hall “Stop poking the bear: the West needs to engage with Putin not castigate him” with Tony Brenton, former British Ambassador to Russia, Prof. Sergey Karaganov. Russian foreign and economic affairs specialist as speakers for the motion and speakers against motion Julia Ioffe, Senior Editor at The New Republic, and Edward Lucas, Senior Editor at The Economist. Before debates started 46% were for motion, and 23% against motion, 31% not sure. After debate 54% were against motion! From all Ukraine Thank you for Julia Ioffe and Edward Lucas and everyone who voted against such naïve motion. The truth is no one love aggressor. We were pleased to learn from Tony Brenton that Putin cannot be compared to bear but only to badger, as Russia is not that strong. But naïve Mr Brenton was trying to assure everyone that Putin is not going to grab Moldova or others? Brenton offered “let Putin to have Crimea, and if anything some more part of Ukraine and we then no need to castigate but we will contain Russia?” Was appalled that Karaganov, who called himself Hunter representing Bear/or more correctly Badger, was talking of all that injustice, Russia was cornered by all that Europe and of course America? Ukraine is incompetent? Loved Karaganov words “Russia orchestrated reunion with Crimea” thought maybe I misheard him? Truly it is difficult for clever people to lie all the time, so even experienced in lies Putin propaganda machine makes some truthful remarks sometime. Julia Ioffe reminded everyone about the so called Crimea referendum which was organised by Putin in such haste? with the guns and tanks, but Russia has more than 100 minorities and for just idea of such referendum in Russia – 5 years in prison. That about 30 dead Russians are returning in coffins to Russia, and Putin is still denying Russia aggression in Ukraine? Edward Lucas reminded everyone about long suffering Tatars in Crimea, about Russia disregard to Tatars or Ukrainians in Crimea ‘ human rights. That Putin changed dramatically. Lucas wrote in his book “The new Cold War” “PUTIN’s threat to Russia and the West” (updated with a new preface on the Crimean Crisis) ”I did not see the spectacular growth of the Putin personality cult, now a dominant feature of Russian politics. The modest, taciturn man who took power in 1999 is barely a memory. Instead the reverent Russian media portray the president as the country top celebrity – a man who poses topless, with his chest waxed, for photo shoots which depict him as the epitome of Russian masculinity. Mr Putin has piloted a microlight to guide migrating cranes, stunned a Siberian tiger which was supposedly menacing a female journalist, flows a fighter plane, and dived down to the Black seabed to “find” two antique amphorae (which turned out to have been borrowed for the occasion from a museum). His domestic life changed too. The long-suffering Ludmila Putin, his wife for 30 years, has been airbrushed from public life like a disgraced commissar in the Soviet era. I also underestimated of the growth of Russian ideology. As Radek Sikorski, Poland Foreign minister, observes, the Kremlin “has brainwashed people into thinking that Europe stands for gay marriage, licentiousness, an amoral lifestyle. The West must hold Russia to the commitments it made when it joined international clubs based on freedom and justice As this book goes to press Russian forces are massed on Ukraine ‘eastern frontier… The first hard lesson for the West from the upheaval of early 2914 is not to play geopolitics half-heartedly, Mr Putin plays it for real. Securing the political, economic, ethnic and social stability of Ukraine is an enormous task. Now the weather is stormy, and far more is at stake. Yet making a success of Ukraine and other ex-Soviet states is the West’s most powerful weapon against the Putin regime. He knows it. We sometime forget.” Adam Zamoyski, historian said about E. Lucas book “More than timely – if our politicians had read it and acted when it first came out in the 2008, the West would n’t have been caught with its pants down when Russia invaded Ukraine.” Thomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia, said “It is little comfort for those of us in NATO’ frontline states that this book’s message has been vindicated” Edward Lucas - from all people in Ukraine and abroad - THANK YOU! PS Love what you wrote on my book за вашу и нашу СВОБОДУ!
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 23:58:06 +0000
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