Then, when the Times belatedly sent two reporters to eastern Ukraine to investigate the ethnic Russian rebels, the Times discovered what appeared to be an indigenous force operating without any instructions from Moscow. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Another NYT 'Sort of' Retraction on Ukraine."]
What Does Putin Want?
Still, the U.S. narrative -- blaming the crisis almost entirely on Putin -- has proven powerfully resistant to facts. And that makes Obama's job of laying out a truthful narrative, which could invite Putin's cooperation in resolving the crisis, that much harder.
From my reporting on Putin, I have concluded that Official Washington's analysis of him is seriously off-target. He is not particularly interested in taking over the economic basket case that is Ukraine. Crimea was a different story because of its strong historic ties to Russia, the presence of a Russian naval base at Sevastopol, and the overwhelming secession vote by the Crimean people. But even the expense of administering Crimea, including building a new bridge or tunnel from the Russian mainland, will tax the Kremlin's treasury.
What Putin wants more than anything, I'm told, is to have Russia accepted as a member of the First World and be afforded the accompanying respect and respectability. That was one reason why he invested so much in the Sochi Winter Olympics. He also appears to have had a fondness for President Obama and was eager to work with him in finding diplomatic answers to crises in Syria and Iran.
But Putin is also a proud man who has been stung by his vilification over the Ukraine crisis which he feels was forced on him, not something he sought. The insults from Secretary of State John Kerry and other U.S. diplomats have been extremely offensive to him -- and he feels betrayed by Obama's unwillingness to rein in the excessive rhetoric of his subordinates.
Putin is on the verge of forsaking his First World aspirations, I'm told, as he has come to view the U.S. government and the EU as sources of endless double standards and double talk, places without honor. So, as part of any summit or cooperation with Obama over Ukraine, Putin first wants to hear an American "statement of intentions," i.e., a recognition of how valuable U.S.-Russian cooperation has been and can be.
But the prospect of Obama somehow finding the courage to rise to this occasion can't be considered high. He would have to do something like President John F. Kennedy did in his famous address at American University on June 10, 1963, when -- near the height of the Cold War -- Kennedy had the courage to assert the common humanity of Americans and Russians.
In perhaps his most important words, Kennedy said, "For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal."
Kennedy followed up his AU speech with practical efforts to work with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to rein in dangers from nuclear weapons and to discuss other ways of reducing international tensions, initiatives that Khrushchev welcomed although many of the hopeful prospects were cut short by Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Can Obama Speak Strongly for Peace?"]
The question now regarding Ukraine and the possibility of a new Cold War is whether Obama can pick up Kennedy's torch of peaceful understanding -- and see the world through the eyes of the ethnic Russians in Donetsk as well as the pro-European youth in Kiev -- recognizing the legitimate concerns and the understandable fears of both.
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