U.S. President Barack Obama speaks next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a news conference after their meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, June 19, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Thomas Peter
Merkel Not Ready To Back Economic Sanctions Against Russia -- RT
The West has not yet reached a stage where it will be ready to impose economic sanctions on Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, stressing that she hopes for a political solution to the stalemate over Ukraine crisis.
The chancellor said she is “not interested in escalation” of tensions with Russia, speaking after Wednesday meeting with the South Korean president in Berlin.
“On the contrary, I am working on de-escalation of the situation,” she added, as cited by Itar-Tass.
Merkel believes that the West “has not reached a stage that implies the imposition of economic sanctions” against Russia, advocated by US President Barack Obama. “And I hope we will be able to avoid it,” she said.
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Update: German chancellor Merkel against imposition of economic sanctions on Russia -- Voice of Russia
My Comment: German - Russian trade and investments totals hundreds of billions of dollars each year .... broad economic sanctions will definitely hurt Russia, but it will also hurt Germany and Merkel knows that. She is right that the situation needs to de-escalate .... but her position is opposite from what President Obama proposed on Wednesday (i.e. more sanctions and more political measures against Russia) .... a U.S. position that would (quite frankly) only escalate the crisis.
This public split is embarrassing, and to say that this is a debacle in U.S. foreign policy is an understatement .... someone in the State Department or in the White House should have consulted the Germans. The Russian press has picked up on this story, and my guess is that the Kremlin now knows that they are dealing with a U.S. - European alliance that is fractured. My guess is that President Obama made the unilateral decision to speak out on what the EU should do .... thinking that they would follow his lead. Unfortunately .... some member states in the EU clearly have a different point of view and different policy objectives .... and German Chancellor Angela Merkel made the point abundantly very clear late Wednesday night.
Update #2: Adding more to this German - U.S. split .... Russia’s actions in Crimea ‘completely understandable’ – German ex-chancellor -- RT
3 comments:
Ate my comment eh! Alright, Putin's exposing Western security orgs for the social clubs that they are. Whether he knew this in advance and planned on it, I don't know. My guess is that the view point he's occupied for the last 20 years had shown him enough to bet on.
Our leaders have big egos .... so I do agree that these summits do stroke that feeling. But the focus in my post was more on the failure of the White House to discuss what needs to be done with our allies .... the impression that I (and many in Europe) have is of a President who believes that by making a speech everyone would then fall in line. LOL .... anyone who knows Europe knows that such thinking does not work .... but for some reason this White House believes that it does.
I agree with the thrust of your post. For years NATO was the kind of outfit that when a problem arose everyone would make a good "show" and then wait for the US (with UK help usually) to come in and do the dirty work. Well now the US through Obama is all show too, so that doesn't leave much and Putin's pointing it out." but for some reason this White House believes that it does." they believe their own propaganda and others don't.
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