Why is there a cat?
Speaking on December 19 in an interview to Russia's Dozhd TV in Moscow in reaction to Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual news conference of December 18, Russian opposition figure and former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said:
Putin "came up with a third explanation in a row for the annexation of Crimea. First, [the reason behind it] was a threat for the Russian-speaking population; then it was [the symbolism] of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and Khersones [references Putin made in his annual address to the Federal Assembly of December 4] -- everyone has been shocked by this explanation -- while [on December 18] it turned out that there is a conspiracy to deprive Russia of its sovereignty, thus [Russia] made an advance kick bellow the belt -- that's how I interpret it -- and took Crimea in order to protect our sovereignty. Do you follow the changes? The change of arguments over the last three months having been made by the head of a nuclear power and a permanent member of the UN's Security Council?"
"The [fall of] oil [prices] and [Western] sanctions have accelerated the inevitability of the collapse of the entire [Russian power] system. People can see that the next year will be decisive. Putin will have to make a decision next year. He said it might take two years for [the economic troubles] to dissipate and for the situation to get back to normal, while I am saying there are only two years left until the end of the regime, unless the right decisions are made next year."
Vladimir Putin takes a defiant stance:
President Vladimir Putin has warned that no country can "intimidate" or "isolate" Russia.
Putin, speaking in Moscow on December 20, said such attempts had repeatedly been made over centuries.
But Putin, in an address to mark the Russia's Security Services Day said: "Of course, no one will be able to intimidate us, or contain and isolate Russia. No one has ever been able to and no one ever will."
Putin called for improvement of Russia's secret services to tackle "modern challenges and threats" amid tensions with the West over the Moscow's role in the Ukrainian crisis.
Putin said the most important tasks for Russia's intelligence services are the fight against global terrorism and the prevention of "any attempts of foreign special services to deal a blow to Russia and her political and economic interests."
Russia's economy is expected to slip into recession next year because of Western sanctions and the falling price of oil. (AFP, Reuters, and Interfax)
This ends our live-blogging for December 20. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
From Interfax:
Poroshenko, Merkel Discuss Situation In Eastern Ukraine
KYIV, Dec 21 (Interfax) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Saturday evening had a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the presidential press center reports.
Poroshenko and Merkel discussed the process of a peaceful settlement in Donbas. They agreed that the videoconference of the trilateral contact group is "a positive development on the road of implementing the Minsk accords."
"However, in this case it is vital to hold a meeting of the contract group to come up with the dividing line, to record the roadmap
of troop withdrawal and to free hostages," the report says.
Poroshenko and Merkel also discussed economic and financial cooperation.
Poroshenko said that Ukraine has compiled a plan of reforms and that the bill on the 2015 budget will be put to vote in parliament before the end of the year.
The sides agreed to bend efforts to continue the multilateral dialogue aimed at the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas.
Belarus Strongman Looks To Revive Ukraine Peace Talks
KIEV, Dec 21, 2014 (AFP) -- The authoritarian leader of Belarus visits Kiev on Sunday hoping to revive stalled Ukrainian peace talks he has been hosting in order to calm Europe's volatile eastern edge.
But a high-ranking Ukrainian official said Belarussian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka will be just as keen to use the trip to build bridges to Europe that ease his dependence on an increasingly isolated Russia.
Two major rounds of negotiations in the Belarussian capital Minsk in September produced deals on a truce and disarmament that granted limited self-rule to the two Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine that rebelled against Kiev in April.
The agreements stemmed the worst fighting but were still followed by at least 1,300 more deaths. The toll from Europe's worst security crisis since the Balkans wars of the 1990s now stands at 4,700 -- a figure UN officials warn is a conservative estimate.
The clashes left Ukraine in economic ruins and have turned Russia in Western eyes into an international pariah that foments conflicts in neighbouring countries that have aspirations to break their bonds with the Kremlin.
Moscow denies backing the insurgents and calls Russian fighters in the war zone "volunteers". It also defends its annexation in March of Ukraine's Crimea region as the product of a referendum and not a covert deployment of troops.
Lukashenka's first visit to Kiev since its historic shift westward last winter comes as EU efforts to get the peace talks back on track are in full swing.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko overnight held his third conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel since last weekend about the continued delay of the talks.
The talks were first pencilled in for September 9 and have since been hung up by Kiev's refusal to discuss the resumption of social payments to militia-run regions that Poroshenko cut off last month.
Poroshenko and Merkel agreed that the new talks should "produce a demarcation line and establish a roadmap for withdrawing troops and releasing hostages," the Ukrainian president's office said.
"Petro Poroshenko expressed the hope that all sides of the peace process make an effort to ensure the (meeting) happens soon," it added on its official website.
EU heads of state and Poroshenko had most recently hoped to see the Minsk talks convened in the presence of European and Russian envoys on Sunday.
But two top rebel negotiators told AFP that no talks were scheduled for the immediate future.
"The Minsk date has still not been determined," separatist representative Vladislav Deynego said by telephone.
A senior Ukranian government source told AFP that both Lukashenka and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev -- due in Kiev on Monday -- were now trying to make amends for deciding to join a political and economic union led by Moscow.
Russia is lurching through a financial crisis sparked by a plunge in the price of its oil exports and a punitive freeze on its firms' ability to raise money on US and EU markets.
But Lukashenka in particular has been shunned by the West for his intolerance of dissent and establishment of what Washington once dubbed "the last dictatorship in Europe".
Lukashenka and Nazarbaev "have sensed that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is weak," the senior Ukrainian source said.
"They would like to see Ukraine help them improve relations with Europe."
Belarus and Kazakhstan officially joined Russia in a customs union in 2010. Their alliance has since been strengthened into an "economic union" open to other countries.
Putin had hoped that Ukraine's own participation would give the group the clout needed to become a real competitor to the European Union that had room to grow in booming Asia.
But the February ouster of Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych and Ukraine's subsequent ratification of a landmark EU trade and political association deal shattered Putin's ambitions.