i think ben wallace talked about the whiff of munich in minsk. is that a widely held fear in continental europe? to be perfectly honest, i m not actually sure what the foreign ministry in france was driving at. i would certainly be said mr macron has the look of chamberlain about him. he looked particularly weak and ineffective as moscow met with mr putin, especially when that ridiculous great table was placed between the two leaders. there has certainly always been a with around the minsk agreement, especially in terms of annexation. we must not forget that russia got away with the annexation of crimea.
if russia is excluded from the us dollar dominated swift international payment system, china will also suffer because much of the trade payment settlement between the two countries are also in us dollars. so china will have to weigh this up very, very carefully. it is one thing to say something that is so nice to each other, and quite another to behave in such a way to show you are real friends. and only this week, russia was saying, china may be our best friend but germany is our second best friend. welcoming 0laf schulz to moscow a few days ago. that takes us to the diplomatic initiatives and there are plenty of them. lots of talk about reviving the minsk agreements which brought some kind of ceasefire in eastern ukraine back in 2014. it may turn into a hot war again.
the ukrainian constitutional system. both sides have an incentive to say, oh, yes, great idea, let s implement this. each side sees this very differently. this. each side sees this very differently- this. each side sees this very differentl . , ~ . differently. interesting. we have had the french differently. interesting. we have had the french foreign - differently. interesting. we have had the french foreign ministerl had the french foreign minister warning of the danger that russia potentially posed to europe in a sense an echo of the fears in the 19305 sense an echo of the fears in the 1930s about germany. perhaps some of the enthusiasm in countries like the united states and britain, for doing deals with dictators to prevent fighting, comes at a price that a price that is paid by smaller countries, weaker countries. ithink ben wallace talked about the with of munich in minsk. is that a widely held fear in continental europe? to be perfectly honest, i m not actually be perfectl
actually sure what the foreign ministry actually sure what the foreign ministry in france was driving at. mr macron ministry in france was driving at. mr macron has the look of chamberlain about him. he looked particularly weak and ineffective as moscow particularly weak and ineffective as moscow met with mr putin, especially when that moscow met with mr putin, especially when that ridiculous great table was placed when that ridiculous great table was placed between the two leaders. there placed between the two leaders. there has placed between the two leaders. there has set meals been a with around there has set meals been a with around the there has set meals been a with around the minsk agreement, especially in terms of annexation. we must especially in terms of annexation. we must not forget that russia got away with we must not forget that russia got away with the annexation of crimea. mr macron away with the annexation of crimea. mr macron has even suggested
mobilising troops from the united states and other parts of europe. in a sense, calling president putin s bluff. do you think he s bluffing? one of the problems is i think the only person who knows the answer to that question is vladimir putin himself. and i think it s fairly clear that that is at least in part what this is about. and that is to say that president putin wants russia to be centre stage again in world diplomacy, he wants the west s and washington s eyes upon moscow and the kremlin. that has self evidently been happening to a greater extent than pretty much at any time since the collapse of the soviet union. as to whether this amassing of huge numbers of combat ready troops does indeed mean there s an invasion afoot, the only thing that apparently is incontrovertible