German foreign minister urges talks with Putin, as fighting in Ukraine continues
German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has urged further discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin after speculating that Russia may seek to disjoin Ukraine by backing eastern separatists.
“I’m taking Russia at its word that it doesn’t want to destroy the unity of Ukraine. The reality, however, is speaking a different language,” he told Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine.
Though Russia has denied funding the conflict in parts of the Ukraine that it borders, the European Union and the US have accused the nation of ignoring a September truce.
The truce was signed in Minsk, Belarus and Ukraine, prohibiting Russian military from crossing into their territories.
Putin faced a variety of criticisms during the G20 summit that took place in Brisbane, Australia, last week. The president decided to exit the talks early, claiming he needed to make sure he had a four-hour sleep before returning to Moscow.
On Sunday, Putin spoke about Eastern Ukraine’s separatist cause in an interview with Russia’s Tass news agency where he claimed that people in Luhansk “perceive themselves as parts of the greater Russian world”.
“As soon as we rise, some other nations immediately feel the urge to push Russia aside, to put it ‘where it belongs,’ to slow it down.”
Rebels in both Luhansk and Donestsk held elections earlier this month where the conflict has so far killed over 4,300 people. The latest reports indicated that pro-Russian separatists had continued their attacks on Ukrainian government troops over the last 24 hours. Several buildings were reportedly destroyed in overnight shelling according to the Donetsk city council.
Russian economy may be weaker than thought
Acting as a backdrop, the latest edition of the The Economist pointed out that the ability of the Russian Federation's economy to withstand further economic sanctions or other sources of instability may be a fair deal less than is commonly thought to be the case.
Instead of being able to draw on about $370bn of international reserves to meet its economy's international commitments, in reality the Kremlin can probably only call on about $270bn. To take note of, Russian firms have $130bn in external debt which is due to fall due before 2015 is finished, out of a total of over $500bn.
The above situation however might also lead to further adventurism by Putin in foreign policy, the weekly title claimed.