Almere-Digest

November 30, 2018

Saudi Arabia Murder G20 : Macron to meet with Crown Prince at G20 to get more information on Prince's involvement

Macron to meet Saudi crown prince despite Khashoggi uproar French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Argentina in

what would be a first meeting with a Western leader since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

November 29, 2018

Ukraine Russia Conflict: Trump refuses to condemn Russian aggression - by Nicole Gaouette

As world leaders denounced Russia's aggression against Ukraine, President Donald Trump waited more than a day before offering a muted response about the clash, leaving the task of criticizing Moscow to the outgoing US ambassador to the UN.

When asked how he felt about the clash, Trump said, "not good. Not happy about it at all." He seemed reluctant to blame Russia, adding, "we do not like what's happening either way. And hopefully it will get straightened out.

Trump spoke to reporters just days before he is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin at a G20 meeting in Argentina.

In the 24 hours after Russian ships opened fire on and seized three Ukrainian vessels near Crimea, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May, the foreign ministers of Germany, the UK and Canada,

European members of the Security Council, including France, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and the UK, as well as several US lawmakers expressed grave concern and called for a de-escalation.

During that time, the President and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo remained silent on the serious escalation in tensions between the two countries. After Trump spoke to reporters, a day and a half after the confrontation, Pompeo released a statement expressing "deep concern," condemning Russia and calling for restraint from "both parties.

But it fell to Ambassador Nikki Haley to reprise her role as the administration's leading and toughest voice on Russia, leaving analysts concerned that the White House silence and then Trump's low-key response would be read as encouragement, if not acquiescence.

Read more: Ukraine Russia: Trump refuses to condemn Russian aggression - CNNPolitics

November 28, 2018

Ukraine: Trump Administration wants to throw the EU under the Russian bus: Trump's Ukraine Response Muted as He Punts the Problem to Europe - by Nick Wadhams

Trump wants to throw the EU under the bus of Buddy Putin

The Trump administration’s expressions of frustration with Russia over its latest conflict with Ukraine did little to mask a conviction that the flare-up in Crimea is largely Europe’s problem to solve.

After almost a day of silence from the White House and State Department, Ambassador Nikki Haley went to the United Nations Security Council on Monday to condemn Russian forces for firing on Ukrainian ships near Crimea. But she also made clear that the U.S. would refrain from further action and would instead play a supporting role to European efforts to ease tensions.

Though Ukraine warned of a potential new Russian invasion and imposed martial law in some areas of the country for 30 days, Haley’s muted response reflected President Donald Trump’s inclination to distance himself from a conflict that he’s long blamed on predecessor Barack Obama. Trump says Obama failed to stop Russia from annexing Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2015.

Obama “allowed a very large part of Ukraine to be taken,” Trump said at a news conference this month. As a presidential candidate, Trump tweeted in 2016: “Russia took Crimea during the so-called Obama years. Who wouldn’t know this and why does Obama get a free pass?”

That the U.S. was so slow to condemn the incident suggested that the administration was wrestling with how to best to navigate the president’s ambivalence.

Note EU-Digest: This once again shows very clearly that the EU must stop pussyfooting with the US, specially now it is very clear that Donald Trump wants to throw the EU under the Russian bus of his buddy Vladimir Putin.

Priority number one for the EU is to set a unified and independent course, when it concerns, international relations, trade and military preparedness.

European Council President Donald Tusk on Monday condemned Russia's seizure of Ukrainian navy vessels in the Kerch Strait.

"I condemn Russian use of force in the Azov Sea. Russian authorities must return Ukrainian sailors, vessels and refrain from further provocations," Tusk said after a phone call with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

November 27, 2018

World War III ? Russia vs Ukraine War? Ukrainian President Says Neighbor Is Preparing Ground Attack - by Cristina Maza

During a televised speech on Monday in which he outlined his case for imposing martial law, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko claimed that his country’s intelligence service had evidence that Russia was preparing a ground attack.

Poroshenko's speech was given after Russia blocked three Ukrainian navy vessels from passing from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait on Sunday. The incident was a major escalation of the tensions that have existed between the two countries ever since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and began backing armed separatists in the country in 2014. Poroshenko is close to imposing martial law in Ukraine, which would allow the military to run the country, saying it was necessary for Ukraine’s security.

Many experts said Russia’s attack on Ukrainian naval ships on Sunday was a game changer.

“The big story here is that Russia’s armed forces, in broad daylight, launched an attack on Ukrainian navy ships. This crosses a new line. Moscow, of course, seized Crimea with its military, but under the guise of unidentified ‘little green men.’

Moscow has been conducting a not-quite-covert war in Donbass. Yes, there are thousands of Russian officers there and they control the fighting, but Moscow denies it. In this case, there is no denial,” John Herbst, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, told Newsweek.

Note EU-Digest : For those of us remembering our history classes, this is starting to resemble very much how the second world war started, when on October 1, 1938, Adolf Hitler's army marched into the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.

This accelerating Nazi Germany's aggressive World War II offensive.

At that time Europe also was divided, as it is now over Brexit, and to make natters even worse, the US, which used to be the West's major defender of Democracy, has now taken an isolationism turn under the leadership of a not too bright, ego-maniac President, who is in charge of a dysfunctional government, and a population, divided in two polarized camps.

Putin looking at this picture is probably thinking in the same way as Hitler thought back in 1939. "this is a window of opportunity and it appears there is no need to pull down the shades." Bottom-line, we in the West, and specially the EU, could become involved in a major war pretty soon, if we don't get our act together.

Read more: Russia vs. Ukraine War? Ukrainian President Says Neighbor Is Preparing Ground Attack

November 26, 2018

EU Defence Force: Germany may increase troop numbers to 203,000 by 2025

The defense ministry is set to approve a plan to create 5,000 more Bundeswehr jobs than initially foreseen, according to a newspaper report. Whether officials can convince young Germans to sign up is another matter.

Germany's military is planning to increase the number of active soldiers to 203,000 by 2025 — some 5,000 more than originally planned, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper has reported.

The plan by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen foresees creating a total of 20,000 active duty and reservist jobs to bolster Germany's cyber defense capabilities and meet the country's NATO and European commitments.

Read more: Germany may increase troop numbers to 203,000 by 2025 | News | DW | 26.11.2018

November 25, 2018

EU The Academic view: A vision for Europe is desperately needed – by Maria Graczyk

Liberals are better at pointing out others’ faults than at doing self-reflection. They spend more time explaining away the popularity of populism than explaining the fall of liberalism, says Jan Zielonka, adding that the EU has become a caricature of a neo-liberal project and needs a new vision.

For now, we are treading water. We are faking reforms, re-heating old ideas we did not accomplish at a time when there was a better economic situation. Real changes will therefore probably have to be forced by external shocks and therefore will be chaotic and painful.

Nevertheless, nothing happens, politicians dig into the wells. And they return to their discredited policy in previous years. Example? Refugees. For many years we have dealt with warlords and we know how it ended. Today, we are returning to the same model. We have become hostages of Erdogan’s policy with his refugee camps. First of all, I would not like to be hostage to his policy, and secondly – it is a denial of all the values on which liberal Europe was built.

It takes two to tango. Not only is Erdogan responsible for what is happening in Brussels-Ankara relations. When he came to power, he was very pro-European. Nevertheless, none of his efforts to get closer to Europe were successful. He was always told “tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.” In this way, we have deprived ourselves of credibility and instruments of influence on Turkey.

Most EU countries were reluctant towards this enlargement. Just as the Turks were stuck in the EU’s waiting room for years.

Turkey must either be accepted or it needs to be said openly that “we do not accept, but we want to expand our relations in specific areas”. Instead, Turkey has been a candidate for years while we have set its terms.

It was unbelievable. We left our cosmopolitan, pro-European friends in Turkey on the ice. It was similar with Ukraine. I’m not saying that all these problems were solvable, but I know that if we had followed what we declared, it would have not been as bad as it is. We did everything to destroy these good relations.

Read more: Academic: A vision for Europe is desperately needed – EURACTIV.com