Originally Posted by Firn
AP took offense here with my comment---Russia was "suckered into eastern Ukraine".
But if we carefully look at every move by the current Ukrainian President and the Ukrainian PM---we tend to see a country threatened by a far superior military force that has been extremely effective in side stepping, delaying, and finally frustrating every move Putin is making--almost as if they have the Russian "playbook" in their hands.
While having a draft army and weak militarily they have held their own and have in some aspects contained currently the Russian military in a far smaller "New Russia" than Putin initially wanted, they have mobilized the West into a set of sectorial sanctions that are not coming off any time soon and they have ongoing election campaigning in the face of Russian aggressor.
One is starting to see the Russian "frustration" with the Ukraine coming now to the surface inside the Duma.
"Frustration" is probably also due to the sanctions, falling Rubel and a massively damaged economy due to falling oil prices--which they seem to blame on the Ukraine and the West.
MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. A lawmaker of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) has submitted a proposal to the government on introducing a special economic regime with Ukraine to revise the current contracts with Kiev and ban further deals, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Thursday.
Lawmaker Roman Khudyakov said Russia’s harsh economic policy will help bring a swift end to the armed conflict and force Kiev to comply with the agreements signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk last month during the talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
“The goal is very simple — forcing Ukraine to peace,” the newspaper quoted Khudyakov, a politician from Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria, as saying.
The proposed measures include a ban on the supplies of Ukrainian food, machinery and metalwork products to Russia. Russia could also block exports to Ukraine of “everything that may be used for military actions of the Ukrainian army,” including tank engines and KAMAZ trucks, the report says.
The Russian lawmaker has urged Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to check the legality of a $6.7 billion contract of the Kremenchug-based Kryukovsky Wagon Building Plant with St. Petersburg metro.
Khudyakov said the Ukrainian authorities have been repeatedly committing war crimes and violating the Minsk agreements on ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and called on Russia to react to Kiev’s actions.
“Although we cannot react with military force, we can respond economically,” he said.
“We should stop crimes like witch-hunt and terror against (Ukraine’s) own people and armed aggression against (self-proclaimed) Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. For example, if the Ukrainian army continues bombing territories of the republics, any gas supplies should end,” he said.
Under the proposal, Russia should also ban a range of Ukrainian businessmen from entering the country and freeze their property and assets on the Russian territory.
The special economic regime should not directly target ordinary Ukrainian citizens, the lawmaker said.
In mid-August, Ukraine’s parliament adopted a package of anti-Russian sanctions, giving the National Security and Defense Council the right to block assets, restrict trade operations, stop, fully or partially, the transit of resources, air flights and haulages via Ukrainian territory; prevent the outflow of capital, suspend the implementation of financial and economic obligations and annul licenses.
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