‘Putin needs to change or face more severe consequences’

Today, Russia and Ukraine meet in Minsk, Belarus, to discuss the way forward. Will Russian President Vladimir Putin hear the wake-up call? His, and Russia’s welfare depends on it, says the world media.

Let’s hear it from the horse’s mouth. Says the Kyiv Post, writing on the eve of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Ukraine: “It’s disturbing to hear some people say Western sanctions against Russia haven’t worked in getting the Kremlin to stop its war against Ukraine. Nonsense. Sanctions have never really been given a chance to work because they have been too weak. It is even more disturbing when others write nonsense that the West should work with Russian President Vladimir Putin because his successor might be worse or that the West should recognize that Ukraine is within the Russian “sphere of influence.” Double-nonsense.

Putin, says the Kyiv Post, doesn’t belong to the civilised world. “Hopefully, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Kyiv – the first since 2008 – will reinforce that Putin needs to change or face more severe consequences.”

On the crisis engulfing the country, it writes, ”This is war, not of Ukraine’s choosing, but one in which it must fight and win to secure the nation. It will have to have help, however, from its Western friends, who should give generously not merely to help Ukraine but to stop one of the 21st century’s biggest tyrants.”

The Boston Herald looks forward to today’s summit meeting between Russia and Ukraine in Minsk, Belarus. “What happens will depend on what demands Putin brings to the table. If he demands to slice off eastern Ukraine, either as an independent state or to add to Russia, Poroshenko cannot possibly agree. That would rival in foulness the detaching of German speakers from Czechoslovakia at Hitler’s demand in 1938.

“If, however, Putin raised a clamour about “language rights” or some other cultural issue, Poroshenko might be able to let him enjoy his carnival of bluster if that is all there is at issue. About seven-eighths of Ukrainians say Ukrainian is their primary language but bilingualism is widespread. Nobody, in recent years at least, has cared much about who speaks what where, though Ukrainian is the language of government.

“These are all just possibilities for now. The meeting remains a crap-shoot, but one the world will be watching for further evidence of Putin’s bullying ways.”

Today’s summit holds hope for the Chicago Tribune as well. Its editorial says, ”(Today’s) meeting between Putin and Poroshenko in Minsk offers an opportunity to break the standoff. Poroshenko’s June peace plan, which promised to decentralize power and entrench Russian-language rights, remains a good place to start. There will need to be a cease-fire, as well as international monitors to secure it. Most of all, Poroshenko and Putin will need to address the root causes of this made-in-Russia conflict. The deepest of these involves Ukraine’s economic ties with its neighbours. The challenge here — which is not as hopeless as it sounds — is to allow Ukraine to forge connections with both the European Union and the Russian-led Eurasian Union.

“As for Putin? He should be under no illusions about the long-term cost to Russia for escalating this conflict.”

The Washington Post has this to say, “The only acceptable solution is for Putin’s aggression to be reversed. Any discussion that leads to a shred of success for Putin’s nonlinear war would encourage the use of such tactics again. Putin must be shown that it does not work and that the West has the fortitude to block his subterfuge.”

Says the Star Ledger, “The West has to respond firmly, but carefully. We do not want to stumble into a shooting war with Russia by sending military advisers and offensive weaponry to Kiev, which has no hope of defeating Russia militarily.

‘Putin considers the collapse of the Soviet Union to be a catastrophe, and may be deluded enough to think that he can stitch together that lost empire.

But the real influence of the West lies in economic sanctions. Russia is a weak nation now, nothing like it was at the height of the Cold War. Its population is shrinking, the life expectancy of Russian men now ranks between those of Tanzania and Angola. Putin can bluster all he wants, but his is a stagnant and corrupt state.”

The Nato, it says, needs to fortify its presence in the Baltic states and other member countries that are within striking distance of this modern Russian bear. “Putin’s disastrous leadership,” it says, “is crippling Russia and endangering its neighbours. The West needs to make clear that he can’t, at the same time, expect to benefit by being part of the global economy.”