None of them have undergone inspection by Ukrainian authorities, it goes without saying.
Dismissing much of Putin's recent state-of-the-nation speech as so much Soviet-style pablum, "The Economist" goes on to argue:
What most Russians really need is news about the unfolding economic crisis that Mr Putin’s message from above largely ignored. The continuing fall in the rouble, eroding living standards and a sharp rise in food prices are worrying people far more than the fate of separatists in Ukraine. Now that sanctions are starting to bite, enthusiasm for war and isolation is diminishing fast. “Cognitive consonance between propaganda and people’s self-feel does not withstand external shocks,” says Mikhail Dmitriev, head of New Economic Growth, a think-tank.
Over the past nine months opinion polls find that support for the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine have fallen from 74% to 23%. Many who dismissed Western sanctions as irrelevant now fret over Russia’s isolation. “The sanctions are working,” says Lev Gudkov, head of the Levada Centre, an independent pollster. The consumers who have emerged in Russia’s big cities in the past decade are “not prepared to tighten their belts,” he adds. This does not mean that such people are prepared to sacrifice their consumption for civic freedoms, either.
While Poroshenko praises the current lull in fighting as a "real" truce, pro-Kyiv military blogger Dmitry Tymchuk with a reminder of more ominous goings-on under the surface. In addition to the arrival on Ukrainian territory of another Russian truck convoy -- the ninth -- Tymchuk says pro-Moscow forces are "centralizing and organizing militias as part of a so-called 'Novorossiya Army.'"
Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak to broadcaster TVN24 in Warsaw yesterday:
"Over the past few days we have seen unprecedented activity by the Russians in the Baltic Sea, both the Baltic fleet and Russian aircraft."
Siemoniak added that Poland, a member of NATO, is not under threat of attack and the Russian maneuvers are most likely designed to test how NATO forces in the region reacted.
Siemoniak also said Warsaw's decision to acquire long-range missiles from the United States was due on the current tensions in the region.
The $250 million deal includes 40 joint air-to-surface missiles that are to be integrated into the Polish Air Force's three tactical squadrons of F-16 fighter jets.
Love the qualification that the staunch Moscow defenders of Russia Insider introduce this piece with:
This is another article we publish not because we agree with its thesis (we don’t) but because it intelligently argues that the western policy of confrontation with Russia is wrong even if one accepts its underlying assumption, which is that Russia’s policies are intended to reverse the “defeat” Russia suffered at the end of the Cold War.
It continues, but you get the picture: "Ignore most of what this says because it's inconvenient, but hey, look: Someone is criticizing Western policy on Russia!"
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko commenting today in an address to the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney about reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin's delegation to India may have included Sergei Aksyonov, Crimea's Moscow-backed leader:
"Indian position doesn't help and doesn't save Mr Aksyonov. He is a criminal, very simple. He has a criminal background, and no doubt he has a criminal future."