Timothy Garton, a professor at Oxford University proposes to think about what would happen if China decided to protect its citizens in Southeast Asia.
Der Standard:
Putin thinks Russia should protect “all Russians abroad and he will decide, who are Russians,” the journalist writes. Putin says those country bears responsibility where the tragedy happens, so Ukraine bears responsibility for the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17. The author thinks this statement is “a hypocrisy of Orwell’s extent”. No doubt, there are Russians in eastern Ukraine who are dissatisfied, but their protests are fueled by extremely dishonest Russian TV reports, and Putin’s Russia supports those armed units.
derstandard.at
Pentagon advisers to help Kyiv rebuild its fractured military
The Washington Times:
Lawmakers and analysts expect the mission will result in recommendations for greater military assistance in the country’s fight against pro-Russian separatists. Within the next few weeks, a group of Defense Department representatives who specialize in strategy and policy will head to Kiev to evaluate specific programs that the United States may want to help bolster, said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. Their objective is to work with Ukrainians to “shape and establish an enduring program for future U.S. efforts to support the Ukrainian military through subject-matter expert teams and long-term advisers,” he said.
www.washingtontimes.com
Europe’s foreign ministers failed to agree new sanctions against Russia despite a push by Britain, Sweden and a group of eastern European countries for an arms embargo to be imposed on the Kremlin.
Financial Times:
EU rifts scupper new Russia sanctions. An embargo met resistance from other EU countries, particularly France, “which was forced to defend its decision to continue honouring a €1.2bn contract to sell Mistral-class helicopter assault ships to Russia,” the newspaper writes. Instead, the hardliners won concessions that “the European Commission will, for the first time, be asked to present options for broader economic sanctions – including blocking Russian access to Europe’s capital markets and limits on military and other “sensitive technologies”, including in the energy sector – to diplomats on Thursday.,” the newspaper writes.
www.ft.com
Hollande: “makes a monkey out of France and all Europe”.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung:
“France takes up a strange position, by planning to provide Russia with modern warship – a ship that can carry dozens of attack helicopters and tanks, and hundreds of soldiers,” Wetzel continues. French President Francois Hollande speaks the contract has been signed and if France cancelled the sale, they would pay 1 billion euro forfeit.” “Could France be bought for so cheap?” “How would Hollande react if not Dutch people, but his citizens were on MH16 board?”
www.sueddeutsche.de
UK arms export licences for Russia still in place despite claims of embargo.
The Guardian:
“More than 200 licences to sell British weapons to Russia, including missile-launching equipment, are still in place despite David Cameron’s claim in the Commons on Monday that the government had imposed an absolute arms embargo against the country, according to a report by a cross-party group of MPs released on Wednesday.
www.theguardian.com
The head of France’s ruling Socialist party Jan-Christophe Cambadelis accused Britain’s David Cameron of hypocrisy in debates over imposing sanctions against Russia.
Financial Times:
David Cameron urged Paris to scrap the sale of two Mistral-class warships to Russia. Cambadelis, on the other hand, advised British prime minister to “start by cleaning up his own backyard.” “This is a false debate led by hypocrites,” French politician adds. France is among several EU countries to have been irritated by Mr Cameron’s tough talk on sanctions, accusing the prime minister of being soft on Russian interests in the UK for fear of hitting the City’s lucrative trade with Russia.
www.ft.com
Russia is pregnant with Ukraine, Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin writes..
Frankfurter Allgemeine:
Blue and yellow sperms of Maidan under explosions of stun grenades, Molotov cocktails’ flashes and whistles of bullets have made their man’s work. Russia, sitting in front of big TV screens, has been fertilized. New life was born in Russia’s huge body: the independent Ukraine. The rulers were seized by terror, the liberals – by envy, the nationalists – by hatred. Russia is pregnant with Ukraine. The birth is inevitable. Everything is waiting ahead – more and more pain, cutting of the umbilical cord, the first cry of the newborn. The infant will get a nice name: “Farewell to the Empire”. Will his childhood to be happy? Nobody knows. Many will sincerely wish him to grow up healthy.
www.faz.net
Mr. Obama has unfortunately dwelled on getting international forensic experts to the crash site instead of emphasizing the vital strategic lessons to be drawn from this terrible episode.
The Wall Street Journal:
“Mr. Obama is treating this terrorist act—which even such a stalwart supporter of the president as Sen. Carl Levin called “an act of war”—as something akin to a police homicide investigation,” John Bolton, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute writes for The Wall Street Journal commenting on the Obama’s response to the July 17 attach on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Tectonic power and political forces—not legalisms—are now clashing in Europe. Vladimir Putin, though a lawyer like the American president, understands this. Mr. Obama does not. Bolton notes Beijing is intently watching how Washington deals with Moscow. “What China’s leaders have seen to date simply feeds their aggressive aspirations in the East and South China Sea and along the country’s land borders. China’s near neighbors fully grasp the point,” he thinks. “Yet it is not just Europe and Asia that need U.S. leadership. America, for its own safety’s sake, needs it too. On the evidence of recent days, such leadership is still not forthcoming,” he concludes.
online.wsj.com
US intelligence officials accused Moscow of “creating the conditions” that resulted in the death of 298 people aboard the Malaysian Airlines jet shot down last week over a part of Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
The Guardian:
www.theguardian.com
Washington says they continue working on what has happened with Boeing 777 and will reveal the details later.
The Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com
