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Berlin and Paris look East: How close are we to a Common Economic Space?
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a sociologist, award-winning author and
geopolitical analyst.
http://on.rt.com/qt9idn
Published time: March 02, 2015 10:18
Top officials from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus
take part in a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union in Astana.
(Reuters/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin)
Asia, Belarus, Brazil, China, Clashes,Conflict, Cuba, EU, Europe,
France,Germany, Global economy, Greece,History, Hollande, Kazakhstan,
Meeting,Merkel, Moscow, Opposition, Politics,Putin, Russia, Sanctions,
Syria, Turkey,USA, War
The Eurasian Economic Union is a reality that may end up costing the
US its "perch" in Eurasia's western periphery as a Common Economic
Space is formed.
Former US national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski averred the
following in 1997: "But if the middle space rebuffs the West, becomes
an assertive single entity, and either gains control over the South or
forms an alliance with the major Eastern actor, then America's primacy
in Eurasia shrinks dramatically. The same would be the case if the two
major Eastern players were somehow to unite."
This was a clear warning to the elites in the Washington Beltway and
Wall Street. Camouflaged behind thinly veiled liberal and academic
jargon, what Dr. Brzezinski was saying is that if the Russian
Federation and the post-Soviet space manage to repulse or push back
Western domination--meaning some combination of US and European Union
tutelage --and manage to reorganize themselves within some type of
confederacy or supranational bloc, either gaining influence in the
Middle East and Central Asia or forms an alliance with China that
Washington's influence in Eurasia would be finished.
Everything that Brzezinski warned Washington to prevent is in motion.
The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)--simply called the Eurasian Union--has
been formed by Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. Kyrgyzstan
will be acceding into the Eurasian Union as an EEU member, and
Tajikistan is considering joining it too. The Kremlin and the EEU are
actively looking for new partners too. Countries outside the
post-Soviet space, such as Syria, are even interested in joining the
EEU and the Russian-led bloc has already signed an important trade
agreement with the Arab juggernaut Egypt. In Southeast Asia,
negotiations with Hanoi have also been completed and Vietnam is
scheduled next to sign an agreement with the EEU sometime in 2015.
Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski (Reuters/Jim Young)
The "Middle Space" is clearly resurgent. Turkey is looking towards a
Eurasian alternative. The Turk Stream natural gas pipeline deal
between Ankara and Moscow has put Washington and the European
Commission on alert. Following the energy and trade agreements with
Turkey, Russia renewed its military ties with Iran and has
subsequently offered Tehran the Antey-2500--Tehran alongside Moscow was
a key player that prevented an open Pentagon war from being launched
on Syria in 2013. Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and his
Iranian counterpart, Brigadier-General Dehghan, publicly signed
agreements in Iran to renew Russo-Iranian military cooperation on
January 20, 2015. From Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria to Yemen and Iraq,
Russian influence is growing in the Middle East (i.e."the South").
In Latin America, from Argentina and Brazil to Nicaragua and
Venezuela, Russian also influence is rising. The Latin American
regional tour last year by Russian President Vladimir Putin and one
this year by Shoigu have both included military cooperation talks and
led to speculation about the erection of a network of Russian signals,
naval and air bases in the area. Moreover, the increase in Russian
influence and Washington's declining weight inside Latin America have
both been factors for Washington's rapprochement with the Cubans.
Moscow's influence was present even on the eve of a historic visit to
Cuba by a delegation from the US Congress when the Russian naval ship
Viktor Leonov, an intelligence and signals vessel, docked in Havana on
January 20, 2015.
Both the "Middle Space" and the "Middle Kingdom" (Zhongguo/China)
joined forces long ago. This happened before the formation of the EEU
or the EuroMaidan coup in Ukraine. Moscow and part of the post-Soviet
space began building an alliance with China (i.e. "the major Eastern
actor") at the bilateral or multilateral levels in the late-1990s.
This has begun blossoming. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO), which was formed out of the Shanghai Five in 2001, is proof of
this. The mega Sino-Russian natural gas deal is merely the fruits of
this alliance and the coming together of the"Middle Space" and the
"Middle Kingdom."
Preventing Eurasian integration: Attempts to cordon the "Middle Space"
Without Russia, Europe is incomplete by any means or calculation. The
Russia Federation is in both demographic and territorial terms the
largest European country. There is no question about it either that
Moscow is a major political, socioeconomic and cultural force in
European affairs that cannot be overlooked from the Baltic Sea to the
Balkans and the Black Sea.
Economically, Russia is an important export and import market for the
EU and its members. This is why the EU is suffering from the
US-engineered economic sanctions that have been imposed against Russia
as a form of economic warfare. It is in the context of Russia's
economic importance to the economies of the EU that US Vice-President
Joseph Biden candidly even admitted during a lecture at the John F.
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University that Washington had
to pressure the EU into accepting the anti-Russian sanctions regime on
October 2, 2014.
Brzezinski's warning has another angle to it too, which involves
Washington's EU and NATO partners."Finally, any ejection of America by
its Western partners from its perch on the western periphery would
automatically spell the end of America's participation in the game on
the Eurasian chessboard, even though that would probably also mean the
eventual subordination of the western extremity to a revived player
occupying the middle space," he warns. What the former US official
means is that if the US-aligned major European powers (i.e. France and
Germany, or the EU collectively) reject Washington's influence (maybe
even withdraw from NATO), the US would lose its western perch in
Eurasia. Brzezinski warns that an assertive Russia--probably alongside
its Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) allies--would instead
replace US influence.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (2nd R) presents his Venezuelan
counterpart Nicolas Maduro with a book dedicated to late Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez during a meeting in Brasilia July 16, 2014.
(Reuters/Alexei Nikolskyi/RIA Novosti/Kremlin)
The reason that unity in the post-Soviet space and any political and
economic convergences between the EU and the "Middle Space" are a
threat to Washington can be analyzed by using the standpoint and
lexicon of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Under 32 Smolenskaya-Sennaya
Square's framework, Eurasia is partitioned into three zones or
regions: the Euro-Atlantic (western periphery), Euro-Asia (central
area), and the Asia-Pacific (eastern periphery).Hence, the explanation
for the term "Middle Space" used by Brzezinski to describe the
post-Soviet space.
In organic terms, it is the central Euro-Asia region that can unite
and integrate both the western and eastern Eurasian peripheries.
Russia and the EEU want to ultimately establish a free trade zone
encompassing the entire EU and EEU -- a "Common Economic Space." In the
words of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the EEU "is designed to serve
as an effective link between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region."
It is Russia and the EEUacting as a bridge between the twoEurasian
peripheries that threatens Washington's plans to integrate the
Euro-Atlantic and Asia-Pacific zones with itself.
The Common Economic space vs. the TTIP and the TPP
The US wants to be the center of gravity in Eurasia. It fears that the
EU could eventually gravitate towards the "Middle Space" and integrate
with Russia and the EEU.
The tensions that Washington is deliberately stoking in Europe are an
attempt to estrange the EU from Moscow as a means of allowing the
continuation of US empire-building in Eurasia -- this is Washington's
version of a modern "Great Game." Even Brzezinski's warning about the
resurgence of the "Middle Space" (i.e., Russia and the post-Soviet
space) is about the area unifying to become "an assertive single
entity" and not even an "aggressive" entity that is a military threat
to world peace.
Washington wants the western periphery (Euro-Atlantic) and eastern
periphery (Asia-Pacific) to integrate with it through the
Trans-Atlantic and Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The EEU and any thoughts of a Common
Economic Space are a threat to the consolidation and merger of these
regions with the US. This is why the US cannot tolerate an independent
and assertive "Middle Space" or, for that matter, an independent and
assertive "Middle Kingdom." This is why both Russia and China are
being demonized and targeted: Moscow is being target via the
instability the US has helped author in Ukraine (as well as through a
new wave of Russophobia) whereas Beijing is being targeted through
Washington's so-called military "Pivot to Asia." This has taken place
while the US has destabilized the Middle East (i.e. the South).
While Brussels had its own reasons for accelerating TTIP negotiations
with Washington, US fears of Eurasian integration hastened the sense
of urgency Washington felt in concluding TTIP negotiations to solidify
its influence over the EU. The sanctions (economic warfare) against
the Russian economy, the drop in energy prices prompted by the
flooding of oil markets, and the drop in the value of the Russian
ruble are part of this Rubik's Cube too.
The Common Economic Space is an aspiration for a Eurasian-wide trade
zone. As an ambition Moscow and its EEU partners see the Common
Economic Space as a framework to gradually incorporate other Eurasian
regions together. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Nebenzya
confirmed all this to the Tass news agency in an interview published
on December 31, 2014. Nebenzya told Tass that Moscow views the
long-term goal of EU-EEU cooperation "as the basis of a common
economic space from the Atlantic to the Pacific" in Eurasia.
Not only would any trade agreement between the EU and the EEU be the
basis for the Common Economic Space, it would be the embryo for a
broader Eurasian-wide trade zone that has the potential to include the
Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). A compartmentalized supranational
bloc could emerge.
>From a Russian perspective, instead of prioritizing the TTIP with the
US, it makes more sense for the EU to look at creating the framework
for cooperation with the EEU. This sentiment has been reflected by
Moscow's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, who told the EU
Observer in an interview published on January 2 that Moscow wanted to
start contacts between the EU and EEU as soon as possible and that the
EU sanctions on Russia should not prevent dialogue and contact between
the two blocs. "We might think of a free trade zone encompassing all
of the interested parties in Eurasia," Ambassador Chizhov explained as
he described the "Russia-led bloc as a better partner for the EU than
the US" during the interview. As Chizhov rhetorically asks, the
question that the EU needs to think over is thus: "Do you believe it
is wise to spend so much political energy on a free trade zone with
the USA while you have more natural partners at your side, closer to
home?"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses during the 51st Munich
Security Conference at the 'Bayerischer Hof' hotel in Munich February
7, 2015. (Reuters/Michael Dalder)
Is the EU waking up?
Ambassador Chizov's question has not fallen on deaf ears. The same
questions are being asked in various EU capitals. The leaders of EU
powers are realizing that the US is instigating a conflict with the
Russians that Washington wants them to fight and waste resources on
that would weaken the EU and Moscow to Washington's benefit. Smaller
EU powers have been vocal about this while the larger ones have been
slower in realizing it.
Greece refused to fall in line when the EU released a statement
blaming Russia for the eruption of the fighting in the East Ukrainian
city of Mariupol on January 24, 2015. Athens refused to blame Moscow
and complained that the EU acted undemocratically by not even
following its own procedures by asking for the consent of all members
before releasing a statement on behalf of the collective. Instead of
confrontation with Russia, the Greek government wants closer ties with
Moscow.
President Putin's February 2015 visit to Budapest ruffled feathers in
the EU and US. Hungary has been vocal in itsopposition to the EU
sanctions against Russia. This has outraged some in the Washington
Beltway and European Commission. A diplomatic row even started between
Budapest and Washington when US Senator John McCain called Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orban a "neo-fascist dictator" because Hungary
refused to cut ties with Russia in 2014.
While there has been speculation that Hungary is being used as the
"good cop" to bargain with Moscow, the US has even gone as far as
banning members of the Hungarian government from entering US territory
on October 20, 2014. Although the EU would react collectively if any
country slapped diplomatic sanctions on one of its members, Brussels
effectively did not respond to Washington.
Cypriot Present Nicos Anastasiades has joined the revolt against
Brussels and Washington by visiting Moscow on February 25, 2015.
Nicosia and Moscow even signed an agreement allowing the Russian Navy
to use Cypriot ports.
Germany and France--once mocked as "old Europe" by Pentagon honcho
Donald Rumsfeld-- are having second thoughts too. Franco-German
differences with the US emerged at the Munich Security Conference at
the Bayerischer Hof Hotel when German Chancellor Angela Merkel
rebuffed members of the US and British delegations about a military
solution for Ukraine. In this context, Paris and Berlin rehashed the
Kremlin's original peace proposal for East Ukraine and began
diplomatic talks in Moscow.
Merkel casually also mentioned she supported a Common Economic Space
too: a sign of things to come?
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a sociologist, award-winning author and
geopolitical analyst.
http://on.rt.com/qt9idn
Published time: March 02, 2015 10:18
Top officials from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus
take part in a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union in Astana.
(Reuters/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin)
Asia, Belarus, Brazil, China, Clashes,Conflict, Cuba, EU, Europe,
France,Germany, Global economy, Greece,History, Hollande, Kazakhstan,
Meeting,Merkel, Moscow, Opposition, Politics,Putin, Russia, Sanctions,
Syria, Turkey,USA, War
The Eurasian Economic Union is a reality that may end up costing the
US its "perch" in Eurasia's western periphery as a Common Economic
Space is formed.
Former US national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski averred the
following in 1997: "But if the middle space rebuffs the West, becomes
an assertive single entity, and either gains control over the South or
forms an alliance with the major Eastern actor, then America's primacy
in Eurasia shrinks dramatically. The same would be the case if the two
major Eastern players were somehow to unite."
This was a clear warning to the elites in the Washington Beltway and
Wall Street. Camouflaged behind thinly veiled liberal and academic
jargon, what Dr. Brzezinski was saying is that if the Russian
Federation and the post-Soviet space manage to repulse or push back
Western domination--meaning some combination of US and European Union
tutelage --and manage to reorganize themselves within some type of
confederacy or supranational bloc, either gaining influence in the
Middle East and Central Asia or forms an alliance with China that
Washington's influence in Eurasia would be finished.
Everything that Brzezinski warned Washington to prevent is in motion.
The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)--simply called the Eurasian Union--has
been formed by Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. Kyrgyzstan
will be acceding into the Eurasian Union as an EEU member, and
Tajikistan is considering joining it too. The Kremlin and the EEU are
actively looking for new partners too. Countries outside the
post-Soviet space, such as Syria, are even interested in joining the
EEU and the Russian-led bloc has already signed an important trade
agreement with the Arab juggernaut Egypt. In Southeast Asia,
negotiations with Hanoi have also been completed and Vietnam is
scheduled next to sign an agreement with the EEU sometime in 2015.
Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski (Reuters/Jim Young)
The "Middle Space" is clearly resurgent. Turkey is looking towards a
Eurasian alternative. The Turk Stream natural gas pipeline deal
between Ankara and Moscow has put Washington and the European
Commission on alert. Following the energy and trade agreements with
Turkey, Russia renewed its military ties with Iran and has
subsequently offered Tehran the Antey-2500--Tehran alongside Moscow was
a key player that prevented an open Pentagon war from being launched
on Syria in 2013. Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and his
Iranian counterpart, Brigadier-General Dehghan, publicly signed
agreements in Iran to renew Russo-Iranian military cooperation on
January 20, 2015. From Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria to Yemen and Iraq,
Russian influence is growing in the Middle East (i.e."the South").
In Latin America, from Argentina and Brazil to Nicaragua and
Venezuela, Russian also influence is rising. The Latin American
regional tour last year by Russian President Vladimir Putin and one
this year by Shoigu have both included military cooperation talks and
led to speculation about the erection of a network of Russian signals,
naval and air bases in the area. Moreover, the increase in Russian
influence and Washington's declining weight inside Latin America have
both been factors for Washington's rapprochement with the Cubans.
Moscow's influence was present even on the eve of a historic visit to
Cuba by a delegation from the US Congress when the Russian naval ship
Viktor Leonov, an intelligence and signals vessel, docked in Havana on
January 20, 2015.
Both the "Middle Space" and the "Middle Kingdom" (Zhongguo/China)
joined forces long ago. This happened before the formation of the EEU
or the EuroMaidan coup in Ukraine. Moscow and part of the post-Soviet
space began building an alliance with China (i.e. "the major Eastern
actor") at the bilateral or multilateral levels in the late-1990s.
This has begun blossoming. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO), which was formed out of the Shanghai Five in 2001, is proof of
this. The mega Sino-Russian natural gas deal is merely the fruits of
this alliance and the coming together of the"Middle Space" and the
"Middle Kingdom."
Preventing Eurasian integration: Attempts to cordon the "Middle Space"
Without Russia, Europe is incomplete by any means or calculation. The
Russia Federation is in both demographic and territorial terms the
largest European country. There is no question about it either that
Moscow is a major political, socioeconomic and cultural force in
European affairs that cannot be overlooked from the Baltic Sea to the
Balkans and the Black Sea.
Economically, Russia is an important export and import market for the
EU and its members. This is why the EU is suffering from the
US-engineered economic sanctions that have been imposed against Russia
as a form of economic warfare. It is in the context of Russia's
economic importance to the economies of the EU that US Vice-President
Joseph Biden candidly even admitted during a lecture at the John F.
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University that Washington had
to pressure the EU into accepting the anti-Russian sanctions regime on
October 2, 2014.
Brzezinski's warning has another angle to it too, which involves
Washington's EU and NATO partners."Finally, any ejection of America by
its Western partners from its perch on the western periphery would
automatically spell the end of America's participation in the game on
the Eurasian chessboard, even though that would probably also mean the
eventual subordination of the western extremity to a revived player
occupying the middle space," he warns. What the former US official
means is that if the US-aligned major European powers (i.e. France and
Germany, or the EU collectively) reject Washington's influence (maybe
even withdraw from NATO), the US would lose its western perch in
Eurasia. Brzezinski warns that an assertive Russia--probably alongside
its Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) allies--would instead
replace US influence.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (2nd R) presents his Venezuelan
counterpart Nicolas Maduro with a book dedicated to late Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez during a meeting in Brasilia July 16, 2014.
(Reuters/Alexei Nikolskyi/RIA Novosti/Kremlin)
The reason that unity in the post-Soviet space and any political and
economic convergences between the EU and the "Middle Space" are a
threat to Washington can be analyzed by using the standpoint and
lexicon of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Under 32 Smolenskaya-Sennaya
Square's framework, Eurasia is partitioned into three zones or
regions: the Euro-Atlantic (western periphery), Euro-Asia (central
area), and the Asia-Pacific (eastern periphery).Hence, the explanation
for the term "Middle Space" used by Brzezinski to describe the
post-Soviet space.
In organic terms, it is the central Euro-Asia region that can unite
and integrate both the western and eastern Eurasian peripheries.
Russia and the EEU want to ultimately establish a free trade zone
encompassing the entire EU and EEU -- a "Common Economic Space." In the
words of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the EEU "is designed to serve
as an effective link between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region."
It is Russia and the EEUacting as a bridge between the twoEurasian
peripheries that threatens Washington's plans to integrate the
Euro-Atlantic and Asia-Pacific zones with itself.
The Common Economic space vs. the TTIP and the TPP
The US wants to be the center of gravity in Eurasia. It fears that the
EU could eventually gravitate towards the "Middle Space" and integrate
with Russia and the EEU.
The tensions that Washington is deliberately stoking in Europe are an
attempt to estrange the EU from Moscow as a means of allowing the
continuation of US empire-building in Eurasia -- this is Washington's
version of a modern "Great Game." Even Brzezinski's warning about the
resurgence of the "Middle Space" (i.e., Russia and the post-Soviet
space) is about the area unifying to become "an assertive single
entity" and not even an "aggressive" entity that is a military threat
to world peace.
Washington wants the western periphery (Euro-Atlantic) and eastern
periphery (Asia-Pacific) to integrate with it through the
Trans-Atlantic and Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The EEU and any thoughts of a Common
Economic Space are a threat to the consolidation and merger of these
regions with the US. This is why the US cannot tolerate an independent
and assertive "Middle Space" or, for that matter, an independent and
assertive "Middle Kingdom." This is why both Russia and China are
being demonized and targeted: Moscow is being target via the
instability the US has helped author in Ukraine (as well as through a
new wave of Russophobia) whereas Beijing is being targeted through
Washington's so-called military "Pivot to Asia." This has taken place
while the US has destabilized the Middle East (i.e. the South).
While Brussels had its own reasons for accelerating TTIP negotiations
with Washington, US fears of Eurasian integration hastened the sense
of urgency Washington felt in concluding TTIP negotiations to solidify
its influence over the EU. The sanctions (economic warfare) against
the Russian economy, the drop in energy prices prompted by the
flooding of oil markets, and the drop in the value of the Russian
ruble are part of this Rubik's Cube too.
The Common Economic Space is an aspiration for a Eurasian-wide trade
zone. As an ambition Moscow and its EEU partners see the Common
Economic Space as a framework to gradually incorporate other Eurasian
regions together. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Nebenzya
confirmed all this to the Tass news agency in an interview published
on December 31, 2014. Nebenzya told Tass that Moscow views the
long-term goal of EU-EEU cooperation "as the basis of a common
economic space from the Atlantic to the Pacific" in Eurasia.
Not only would any trade agreement between the EU and the EEU be the
basis for the Common Economic Space, it would be the embryo for a
broader Eurasian-wide trade zone that has the potential to include the
Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). A compartmentalized supranational
bloc could emerge.
>From a Russian perspective, instead of prioritizing the TTIP with the
US, it makes more sense for the EU to look at creating the framework
for cooperation with the EEU. This sentiment has been reflected by
Moscow's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, who told the EU
Observer in an interview published on January 2 that Moscow wanted to
start contacts between the EU and EEU as soon as possible and that the
EU sanctions on Russia should not prevent dialogue and contact between
the two blocs. "We might think of a free trade zone encompassing all
of the interested parties in Eurasia," Ambassador Chizhov explained as
he described the "Russia-led bloc as a better partner for the EU than
the US" during the interview. As Chizhov rhetorically asks, the
question that the EU needs to think over is thus: "Do you believe it
is wise to spend so much political energy on a free trade zone with
the USA while you have more natural partners at your side, closer to
home?"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses during the 51st Munich
Security Conference at the 'Bayerischer Hof' hotel in Munich February
7, 2015. (Reuters/Michael Dalder)
Is the EU waking up?
Ambassador Chizov's question has not fallen on deaf ears. The same
questions are being asked in various EU capitals. The leaders of EU
powers are realizing that the US is instigating a conflict with the
Russians that Washington wants them to fight and waste resources on
that would weaken the EU and Moscow to Washington's benefit. Smaller
EU powers have been vocal about this while the larger ones have been
slower in realizing it.
Greece refused to fall in line when the EU released a statement
blaming Russia for the eruption of the fighting in the East Ukrainian
city of Mariupol on January 24, 2015. Athens refused to blame Moscow
and complained that the EU acted undemocratically by not even
following its own procedures by asking for the consent of all members
before releasing a statement on behalf of the collective. Instead of
confrontation with Russia, the Greek government wants closer ties with
Moscow.
President Putin's February 2015 visit to Budapest ruffled feathers in
the EU and US. Hungary has been vocal in itsopposition to the EU
sanctions against Russia. This has outraged some in the Washington
Beltway and European Commission. A diplomatic row even started between
Budapest and Washington when US Senator John McCain called Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orban a "neo-fascist dictator" because Hungary
refused to cut ties with Russia in 2014.
While there has been speculation that Hungary is being used as the
"good cop" to bargain with Moscow, the US has even gone as far as
banning members of the Hungarian government from entering US territory
on October 20, 2014. Although the EU would react collectively if any
country slapped diplomatic sanctions on one of its members, Brussels
effectively did not respond to Washington.
Cypriot Present Nicos Anastasiades has joined the revolt against
Brussels and Washington by visiting Moscow on February 25, 2015.
Nicosia and Moscow even signed an agreement allowing the Russian Navy
to use Cypriot ports.
Germany and France--once mocked as "old Europe" by Pentagon honcho
Donald Rumsfeld-- are having second thoughts too. Franco-German
differences with the US emerged at the Munich Security Conference at
the Bayerischer Hof Hotel when German Chancellor Angela Merkel
rebuffed members of the US and British delegations about a military
solution for Ukraine. In this context, Paris and Berlin rehashed the
Kremlin's original peace proposal for East Ukraine and began
diplomatic talks in Moscow.
Merkel casually also mentioned she supported a Common Economic Space
too: a sign of things to come?
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress