Once started, such talks can go on forever.
They may achieve little, but at least the fighting and killing has been stopped.
The ones in Georgia - ages ago, I used to be involved in helping to put together TPs (talking points) for some of those meetings - are still - in fits and starts - taking place.
Exactly.
As you know, I used to teach the history and politics of Russia/Soviet Union and central and eastern Europe; this was my specialty.
However, until last Thursday, I would have agreed with you.
Until last Thursday, I would have leaned towards the 'neo-realist' approach, assumed that I was dealing with rational actors, and acted accordingly.
Someone earlier - must check the post (was it
@Zoidberg?) wondered about the "experts" and "advisers", and why they didn't "know".
If they knew - or suspected - and I did wonder and warn about Ukraine and have done so since my time in Georgia - they, most of them, - and I include myself - never thought it would come to this.
For, in the past, I have been one of those advisers, and, until last Thursday, I would have assumed that Mr Putin was simply throwing shapes, making threats for the purposes of securing diplomatic or economic advantage (a sort of chess); now, I have long thought - and wrote here and elsewhere - that I believed that his aim was to cripple Ukraine by putting such pressure on political fault lines that it would crack, and split in two.
And, had he confined himself - and his deluded ambitions - to eastern Ukraine, I believe that he would have gotten away with it; we would have accepted it, because some in the east of the country do define themselves as culturally compatible with Russian rule.
However, never did I think he would be so deluded as to attack - in such a manner - the entire country; and the nature of the threats he has been making ever since, lead me to conclude that there are no limits to what he capable of.
The other thing to note is the long, tragic, murderous path of assassination and intimidation of Russian civil society that has been occurring over the past twenty years. To those who ask why Russians aren't protesting (and some are, with extraordinary courage), I might mention that a critical civil society has been eviscerated over the past twenty years, many of its most able, ethical, and prominent members murdered.
We recall the well known names, but some of the finest people in Russia - including lawyers (Sergei Magnitsky), politicians (the outstanding Galina Starovoitova, and, of course, Boris Nemtsov), bankers, yes, bankers, (a deputy chairman of the central bank, who was cracking down on corruption, Andrei Kozlov), journalists (Anna Politkovskaya) were killed in those years. That must take an enormous toll of any society.
