Barack Obama will try to make another step to unite the US and EU positions at G7.
Le Figaro:
Barack Obama will give a speech to unite the West in the face of Russian aggression, Lora Mandevil writes in her article for Le Figaro newspaper. American president will deliver his speech on Wednesday to assure allies and bring Western countries together in the face of Russian defiance. Barack Obama will talk about “the necessity for Europe and the US to go hand in hand to ensure safety for Eastern Europe,” said Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. After Crimea’s annexation and destabilisation of eastern Ukraine, countries of Eastern Europe dream of Kennedi and Reagan speech style with commitments to deploy military troops in eastern Europe, thinks Jeremy Shapiro from Brookings Institution.
www.lefigaro.fr
Ukrainian journalist Serhiy Leshchenko points out that Poroshenko’s victory was merely by chance and reminds that Poroshenko is the part of the oligarchs who were one of the causes of the Maidan.
New Republic.
“The oligarchs—along with President Yanukovych—were one of the causes of the Maidan. Poroshenko has tried to distance himself from this negative image. He considers the label “oligarch” offensive, and his campaign used the slogan “To live in a new way.” In fact, he has spent 16 years in Ukrainian politics, changing parties, working for different presidents, multiplying his capital from year to year, and possessing loyal TV channels that he refuses to sell even now, after his presidential victory.” Leshchenko writes.
www.newrepublic.com
Ukraine must end ATO.
The New York Times:
“Eastern Ukraine has become a breeding ground for an armed insurgency. And if a comprehensive political settlement isn’t reached soon, Ukraine could descend into outright civil conflict.” The senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies Samuel Charap warns in his article for The New York Times.
He thinks that the Ukrainian government and its Western partners need to focus on three priorities that would do far more to stabilize and unite Ukraine than the recent presidential poll: an end to the “anti-terrorist operation” and a good-faith attempt at a negotiated settlement with separatists in the east. “Second, the Ukrainian government must bring regional balance to a government that is currently dominated by representatives from western Ukraine: About two-thirds of ministerial-level and higher portfolios have gone to those regions, which represent only 12 percent of the population.” the article says. “The country desperately needs a decentralized political system so that no Ukrainian feels that his or her way of life is threatened by a change in power in Kiev.” the analyst explains.
www.nytimes.com
Russian-Ukrainian gas talks. Western Media think Russia gives ground.
Der Standard:
Moscow backs down on a gas poker game with Kyiv. Two countries are currently looking for a compromise proposal from Europe. Chief executive officers of both the Russian company Gazprom, and Ukrainian state oil and gas firm Naftogaz will further consult and continue talks in the next days over gas supply issue. The aim is to ensure that a future price would deal with all legal disagreements at least until June 2015, EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said at a press conference after the trilateral meeting on Monday.
derstandard.at
Le Figaro:
Poland and Hungary could supply Ukraine with gas, Slovakia also agrees on gas reverse supplies to Ukraine starting from October. Europe could survive without Russian gas in a year, according to the Bruegel center March report.
www.lefigaro.fr
Forbes:
Russian resident Vladimir Putin has come to an important intersection in his dangerous game of chess with Ukraine and the West. While he has successfully scored some minor victories, the crisis has also demonstrated the boundaries of Russian influence beyond such regional machinations. “It has quickly become obvious that the three percent of global GDP Russia represents can and will be constrained by the US and EU’s combined fifty percent.” contributor Chip Register writes. Said differently, Russia’s greatest weapon for projecting power in the world, as before, again comes with a similar “mutually assured destruction” feature, which was the case during the Cold War. This time, however, it leaves them relegated to a position – both politically and economically – of a middle-weight actor constrained inside a highly-integrated regional and global economy.
www.forbes.com
