Obama Backs Down on Crimea

"The plans being drawn up are openly described as the 'Greek model,' i.e., the programme of savage cuts imposed on Greece by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union (EU) that has caused Greece's economy to collapse by nearly 25 percent in five years and produced a massive growth in unemployment and poverty..." ("What the Western-backed regime is planning for Ukrainian workers, World Socialist Web Site)

So, Putin definitely has his work cut out for himself. Fortunately, he appears to be getting sound advice from his political and military advisors who have avoided pointless grandstanding, gamesmanship or incendiary rhetoric the likes of which erupt from the White House and State Department on a daily basis.

Despite the fact that the Kremlin does not want to see Washington "lose face," sometimes events make that impossible, as the astute political analysts at Moon of Alabama pointed out on Sunday. Here's a blurb from a post at MoA that shows how Washington has essentially capitulated to Moscow and accepted its basic framework for resolving the crisis while trying to dupe the public into thinking the policy was their idea. Here's the excerpt:

"There was another phone call today between Secretary of State Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. The call came after a strategy meeting on Ukraine in the White House. During the call Kerry agreed to Russian demands for a federalization of the Ukraine in which the federal states will have a strong autonomy against a central government in a Finlandized Ukraine. Putin had offered this 'off-ramp' from the escalation and Obama has taken it. The Russian announcement:

(Reuters) -- Lavrov, Kerry agree to work on constitutional reform in Ukraine: Russian ministry

"Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed on Sunday to seek a solution to crisis in Ukraine by pushing for constitutional reforms there, the Russian foreign ministry said.

"It did not go into details on the kind of reforms needed except to say they should come 'in a generally acceptable form and while taking into the account the interests of all regions of Ukraine.'

"'Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov and John Kerry agreed to continue work to find a resolution on Ukraine through a speedy launch of constitutional reform with the support of international community,' the ministry said in a statement." (Ukraine: U.S. Takes Off-Ramp, Agrees To Russian Demands, Moon of Alabama)

Can you believe it? The goofy Obama team wants the public to believe that the whole "constitutional reform" thing was their idea so people don't notice that the clunker administration and President Featherweight have run up the white flag and headed for the hills. This is classic Barack "lead from behind" Obama trying to make a full-blown retreat look like a victory.

It's pathetic!