Insight: Merkel hits diplomatic dead-end with Putin

[Scott]

Insight: Merkel hits diplomatic dead-end with Putin

By Noah Barkin and Andreas Rinke

BERLIN (Reuters) - After nine months of non-stop German diplomacy to defuse the crisis in Ukraine, Chancellor Angela Merkel decided in mid-November that a change of tack was needed.

Ahead of a summit of G20 leaders in Australia, Merkel resolved to confront Vladimir Putin alone, without the usual pack of interpreters and aides.

Instead of challenging him on what she saw as a string of broken promises, she would ask the Russian president to spell out exactly what he wanted in Ukraine and other former Soviet satellites the Kremlin had started bombarding with propaganda....

http://news.yahoo.com/insight-merkel-hits-diplomatic-dead-end-putin-135131306.html

[hard124get]

No interpreters needed Merkel speaks Russian and Putin speaks German. Privately they are on the same page.

[Credo]

Privately they are on the same page? It doesn't sound like they are even in the same book.

[zydeco]

Interesting passage in the story:

German media have been complaining for months about their news sites being bombarded with pro-Russian comments. German security sources say they are part of an organized offensive steered from the Kremlin.

Like the Chinese, the Russians seem to be using government stooges to infiltrate social media sites. I wonder where else they might be operating? Hmmm. Makes every pro-Russian statement on any board anywhere look suspect.