How Putin shows the same ‘maskirovka’ as his own soldiers

Yesterday in the European Parliament the EU Commissioner at the heart of the Ukraine crisis told MEPs that the rhetoric from Russia was “worse than at any time in the Cold War.”

Today in Geneva four-way talks are taking place which are bringing Europe back to the forefront of the diplomacy seeking to de-escalate the crisis. But the stand-off in towns across Eastern Ukraine remains at least as likely to trigger the very opposite.
On behalf of Labour in Europe, we have continued to maintain a cross-party British approach seeking to build the strongest possible opposition to Russian military aggression. The political fault lines on this issue are much more between those who favour collective European action to uphold international law and those whose dependency on Russian energy and other trade makes them more cautious to do so.

In this context, the characteristically careless remarks by the UKIP leader in support of Putin would be laughable if they didn’t reflect such dangerous stupidity.

In my own speech in yesterday’s parliamentary debate, I described Vladimir Putin as showing the same ‘maskirovka’ – masking of insignia – as his own soldiers, now undoubtedly present in an attempt to foment conflict in Eastern Ukraine.

The Russian President is guilty of three specific double standards.

If rebels had seized police stations, security services and government buildings in Chechnya within the Russian Federation, I doubt he would have been so quick to defend their right to be there and to call it a peaceful protest?

If he is really worried about minorities, why does he ride roughshod over the rights of the Tatars in Crimea? And will he pay any attention to this
week’s report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights which said there are no widespread or systematic attacks against the ethnic Russian community in Ukraine?

And if Putin is so keen to cut-off arms supplies to what he calls a region of conflict, why does he not do the same to Syria?

I hope today Europe will signal a clear readiness for ‘third phase’ economic sanctions against Russia if the crisis escalates further. It may be the best way to ensure it does not.

In Parliament’s Socialist Group, I continue to support an attempt to pursue intelligent diplomacy of Europe’s position, without responding to the understandable fears of the EU’s post-Soviet countries by mistakenly ratcheting up our own rhetoric to Cold War levels.

Nevertheless it is difficult to foresee any outcome other than one which once again sees at least a political Berlin Wall being rebuilt between East and West.

Putin says Ukraine may be on the verge of civil war – but he surely knows that Europe will view any external Russian military action as an act of war. For Europe, the best way to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity is for us to give maximum support for forthcoming elections to be both successful and peaceful across a united country.

We will now see if this will be allowed to happen.

Richard Howitt MEP is Labour Foreign Affairs Spokesperson in the European Parliament