Posted on 04/25/2014 1:46:50 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
OTTAWA - The Kremlin has lost touch with reality in accusing the West of plotting to control Ukraine, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Friday.
Baird ramped up the war of words with Russia from Latvia, his latest stop on a multi-country eastern European tour aimed at demonstrating Canadian solidarity with some of Russia's worried neighbours and its NATO allies.
Baird said Russia faces further sanctions that will only isolate it further unless it stops its provocative actions in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian gunmen have exerted their authority following last month's Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
"There is no doubt that Russia continues to ramp up its propaganda machine all the while accusing the West of some sort of plot to control Ukraine," Baird said.
"Such ridiculous statements show just how out of touch — and out of touch with reality — the leaders are in the Kremlin."
He was responding to remarks made a few hours earlier by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, who accused the West of seeking to control Ukraine to further its own political ambitions.
"The West wants — and this is how it all began — to seize control of Ukraine because of their own political ambitions, not in the interests of the Ukrainian people," Lavrov said in Moscow on Friday.
Baird said halting Russia's dangerous actions remains a priority for the free world.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper also reiterated that concern during remarks to a business audience in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.
"This is really for the first time since the 1930s, since the events that led to the Second World War, where you have a major power now articulating that it has a right — for ethnic reasons, essentially, but other reasons — to essentially seize and control and take over territory adjacent to it," Harper said.
"In a case like this, regardless of some short-term economic consequences for ourselves as well as for the Russians, we simply cannot ignore this development. This is very threatening, and the guy who's doing it runs a very large security operation that is potentially a very significant menace to the region and to the wider world."
Baird accused Russia of reneging on the deal that was reached last week in Geneva to defuse the crisis.
"Russia has not taken one concrete move to uphold the commitments it made at Geneva," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Baird continued, "thinks he has the authority or the duty to expand his empire and redraw the boundaries of Europe. In the 21st century this won't stand."
He said the international community is succeeding in isolating Russia politically and economically. He said there has been a "tremendous flight of capital from the country" along with instability with the Russian currency, the ruble, and its stock market.The ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut Russia's credit rating Friday to one level above "junk status" because investors were pulling money out of country.
"The Russian Federation should know that we stand ready to strengthen our sanctions regime and isolate them further at a moment's notice," Baird said.
"If Russia wants to join the international community, it needs to call off its provocateurs … and withdraw their forces from the confrontational posture."
Baird has had frequent meetings with Lavrov since becoming foreign minister nearly three years ago, but he refused to speculate on whether his conspiracy accusation against the West diminished the chances for a diplomatic solution to the crisis."
A political and diplomatic solution is preferable," Baird said, but added Canada will continue to deliver "forceful" messages to Russia.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday he was "deeply encouraged" by the consistent condemnation of Russian actions that he is seeing across Europe, North America and elsewhere.
Obama also said Russia has not lived up to the agreement struck in Geneva. He said Europe and the U.S. were working on broader sanctions in the event Russian forces crossed into Ukraine.
"We'll continue to keep some arrows in our quiver in the event we see further deterioration," Obama said during a news conference in South Korea.
I don’t know. I think Putin is clearly more grounded than Obama.
I was thinking the same thing. Obama is the one who has lost contact with reality. He lives in a phantasy world. Even the Washington Post acknowledged it.
Agreed.
But “more grounded than Obama” leaves him a lot of empty space in which to lose touch with reality.
Must be difficult for closeted homosexuals like Obama to remain grounded. I bet he stares every night at that pic of a bare-chested Putin on horseback, kisses it, sighs sadly and whispers “Lucky horse” to himself until he closes his eyes and drifts off to Rainbowland.
“I was thinking the same thing. Obama is the one who has lost contact with reality. He lives in a phantasy world. Even the Washington Post acknowledged it.”
Agreed...
Alinsky demonization tactics aren’t deterring Putin, and they don’t know what to do next.
World War 3.0 looming on the horizon.
Interesting observation. Domestically he gets away with using Alinsky tactics and has the support of the MSM, Hollywood, and academia to amplify his message. Its all too easy to manipulate things internally, but outside the U.S. its a different ballgame. BS alone doesn’t cut it and doesn’t intimidate many foreign leaders. They will call your bluff.
It’s funny how now Canada has taken the lead from the US as “Leader of the Free World.”
That said, I can't get over these diplomats accusing Putin of being "delusional" or "out of touch". He knows exactly what he is doing. And, he knows exactly where he is going.
The telephone system must be down.
2014..meet..1914
What I want to know is why is the West going bonkers over Ukraine? It’s a bankrupt country - worse off than Greece. It doesn’t have oil or gas. And yet the US and the EU is willing to start a war over it. Why?
Obama sees himself as managing America's decline. In actuality he is the architect.
Canadian politicians see themselves as serving the interests of their constituents. Lots of Ukrainian Canadians in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Ontario also.
Obama’s arrow is quivering at the thought of that
kind of nerve.
Wealth.
All wars are economic in nature. The object is to get rich and be exempt from being cannon fodder.
And the engineer also.
“What I want to know is why is the West going bonkers over Ukraine?”
International Energy Geopolitics....
Remember Syria?
The Saudi’s want a new gov in Syria, so they can build the gas pipeline project through Turkey, connecting to Europe directly.
There have been two competing projects, the Saudi’s, and Russia’s South Stream Project, which will bring gas directly from Southern Russia and the ‘Stan’s to Italy and Austria, bypassing Poland and Ukraine.
I wondered why after two years of civil war it was so imperative for Obama to attack Syria, and now we know.
Obama was suddenly going to bomb Syria, then Putin put a thin line of ships in front of him and said “NYET!”.
Destabilizing Ukraine was their way of “getting back” at Putin.
Bulgaria’s announcement yesterday that they are OK’ing the Russian project, instead of the Saudi one, ups the pressure on Obama by a BUNCH, I think.
I can agree with both statements.
Interestingly, if you substitute "Putin" and "Russia" for "Obama" and "America", both become untrue.
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