Looks Like The Week For Enigmatic Questions So ...

[ichkeria]

What planet are Hollande and Merkel on if they think they've signed a "Peace Agreement" with Putin?

Munich 1938 is looking like the Anglo-Irish agreement by comparison :-)

[jno]

a useful piece here on the impossibility of dealing with Putin

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e3ace220-a252-11e4-9630-00144feab7de.html#axzz3RYCwa3IL

I imagine, diplomatically speaking, it may be more productive to act as though he can be relied on rather than just assailing him as a liar, however accurate that may be.

[brionon]

So what do you suggest ? Don't even try ?

[delboy3]

At least they are trying, unlike Cameron who is nowhere to be seen.

[humbersloop]

so far only seen it described as a ceasefire deal Ich, acknowledged as a fragile one at that, and Merkel seems very far from any illusions

good link jno, thanks

[Peter Pedant]

I think it is on the lines of jaw-jaw is better than war-war ( Churchill )

and even Churchill negotiated with Uncle Joe Stalin

What do you expect politicians to do ? pickup kalashnikovs and let rip ?

[Peter Pedant]

I know you have specialised knowledge of the on-oing disaster which is Ukraine but negotiation will have to be done at some point

[Pocket_Rocket]

Planet Europe.

[douglas9401]

No, Peter. We expect them to blow and posture in ivory towers while their minions have bits blown off them by each other.
Those politicians, when they tire of 'the game', get together and act all statesman like showing the world how clever they all are to have solved the problem.
If they were facing probable death there would be a solution in jig time.

[ichkeria]

This is not a 'normal' scenario. Here, the prime instigators of the conflict deny, when it suits them, that they have anything to do with it. At least with situations like N Ireland and just about every other conflict, there may be differences but the protagonists do not deny that they are just that.
Here you have an 'agreement' which is both complex and ill defined at the same time. Ukrainian forces are supposed to retreat behind one demarcation line and Russian forces behind another. This is effectively a retreat for one side. Furthermore the ceasefire is not supposed to start until Sunday night. One can only imagine what might happen in the meantime. Added to which no one can even agree on the extent of the occupied territory.

I post the link above as it rather uncannily reflects the mentality of the west in dealing with Putin Media URL: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IX_d_vMKswE&feature=youtu.be
Description:

[ichkeria]

Well that worked :-) Rather appropriately perhaps

[ichkeria]

Last attempt Media URL: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IX_d_vMKswE&feature=youtu.be
Description:

[jourdain2]

Nice try, ich. Going to bed now.

[ichkeria]

One last go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX_d_vMKswE&feature=youtu.be

[ichkeria]

Obviously doesn't work from an iPad ...

[sevenOP]

ichkeria, neither Merkel nor Hollande signed the Ceasefire Deal.

So this is the Second Minsk Agreement ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_Protocol ) that the instigators of the conflict, the US and its EU puppet, have very carefully avoided signing, so sadly it is another waste of time.
Both Minsk Agreements only came about when Kiev seriously started losing militarily and this second time Merkel and Hollande realised the US was about to give military aid to Kiev so they faced a protracted European proxy war.
This was how the US expressed its support for he peaceful resolution of the First Minsk Agreement
http://www.dw.de/us-begins-joint-exercises-with-nato-allies-in-ukraine/a-17921814

Here is some balance "for an East German pastor’s daughter, with a deeply-ingrained sense of fairness," jno:
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141769/john-j-mearsheimer/why-the-ukraine-crisis-is-the-wests-fault

https://www.popularresistance.org/wikileaks-cables-ukraine-elected-our-ukraine-insider/

https://www.popularresistance.org/joe-bidens-son-appointed-to-board-of-largest-gas-company-in-ukraine/

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/06/when-ukrainians-choose-not-to-die-in-a-war/

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/08/09/cia-intervention-in-ukraine-has-been-taking-place-for-decades/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQjmwVC_Dts#t=24

[ichkeria]

Well you are obviously on planet Putin

Meanwhile, on planet earth, while it's noble to try and solve these things peacefully, it is also only fair to point out that such and such a scenario plainly is not going to work.
The hope was, still is perhaps, that the aggressor has been moved back to a deal by the very real threat of force. And maybe, given that, he will be able to control the gangsters and goons he has unleashed to do most of his dirty work for him when they find out that their fiefdoms going to be taken away from them. I'd suggest that both of those are rather optimistic.

[tamborine]

Its a truce. Methinks Putin heard Obama was threatening to supply weapons to Yugoslavia?

[sevenOP]

Are these the 'goons' you are referring to ichkeria ?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-hughes/the-neo-nazi-question-in_b_4938747.html

https://consortiumnews.com/2014/09/08/seeing-no-neo-nazi-militias-in-ukraine/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-RyOaFwcEw

[ichkeria]

I think you've been watching too much of the wrong sort of TV.