US/NATO War on Russia

[Paul Rigby]

[B]PROTOCOL[/B]

on the results of consultations of the Trilateral Contact Group
with respect to the joint steps aimed at
the implementation of the Peace Plan
of the President of Ukraine, P. Poroshenko,
and the initiatives of the President of Russia, V. Putin

Upon consideration and discussion of the proposals put forward by the participants of the consultations in Minsk on September 1, 2014, the Trilateral Contact Group, consisting of the representatives of Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe [OSCE], reached an understanding with respect to the need to implement the following steps:

1. Ensure the immediate bilateral cessation of the use of weapons.
   

1. Ensure monitoring and verification by the OSCE of the regime of non-use of weapons.
   

1. Implement decentralization of power, including by means of enacting the Law of Ukraine "With respect to the temporary status of local self-government in certain areas of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions" (Law on Special Status).
   

1. Ensure permanent monitoring on the Ukrainian-Russian state border and verification by the OSCE, together with the creation of a security area in the border regions of Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
   

1. Immediately release all hostages and unlawfully detained persons.
   

1. Enact a law prohibiting the prosecution and punishment of persons in connection with the events that took place in certain areas of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions of Ukraine.
   

1. Conduct an inclusive national dialogue.
   

1. Adopt measures aimed at improving the humanitarian situation in Donbass.
   

1. Ensure the holding of early local elections in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "With respect to the temporary status of local self-government in certain areas of the Donetsk and the Lugansk regions" (Law on Special Status).
   

1. Remove unlawful military formations, military hardware, as well as militants and mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine.
   

1. Adopt a program for the economic revival of Donbass and the recovery of economic activity in the region.
   

1. Provide personal security guarantees for the participants of the consultations.
   

Participants of the Trilateral Contact Group:
Ambassador Heidi Talyavini (signed)
Second President of Ukraine, L.D. Kuchma (signed)
Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, M.Y. Zurabov (signed)
A.V. Zakharchenko (signed)
I.V. Plotnitskiy (signed)

I'm sceptical that any of the participants/signatories, for their many and conflicting reasons, believed a word of the above, or reposed any confidence whatever in the measures outlined. So what were their real motivations and objectives?

The twitter feeds are going nuts.

Gleb Bazov ‏@gbazov 21m #ALL - THE ONLY WAY OUT OF THIS IS FOR THE WAR TO RESUME. And Zakharchenko/Plotnitskiy should not bother coming back to Donbass.

Gleb Bazov ‏@gbazov 46m GODDAMN IT - LPR AND DPR WERE NOT EVEN _NAMED_ in the DAMN DOCUMENT. COULD IT GET MORE INSULTING? PERFIDY.

Tricoteuse Defarge ‏@tricodefarge 15m @hero_crappy @GBabeuf @gbazov It's suicide if this is implemented. The fascist death squads were "legalised" months ago. Only NAF disarms.

And this tweet was interesting:
Gracchus Babeuf ‏@GBabeuf 14m @gbazov @baz2000 it is customary law from time immemorial: inviolability of ambassadors. This clause actually enshrines their outlaw status.

Those interested will doubtless have read oodles on the reinforcements, repositionings and resupplying undertaken by the junta. It would be fascinating to know just what the NAF was doing during the brief hiatus.

More seriously still, one hitherto unremarked consequence of the "damned document" was an apparent change in the junta's strategy: instead of shifting from offence to defence, Langley's kamikaze squad reversed tack and went back to "more of the same". If this reading is correct, I rather suspect that strategists in Moscow will regard the entire farce as a richly rewarding exercise.

Their objective, after all, is to bleed the junta dry, of both blood and money, just in time for the onset of winter.