Angela Merkel

Furious Putin rips into Merkel over Ukraine, accuses her of complicity in ‘Kiev’s destructive acts ‘

The Kremlin has released a summary of a telephone conversation between Russian President Putin and German Chancellor Merkel, which took place yesterday Saturday 7th February 2017.
Note that the summary does not say who initiated the call.  The content of the summary however suggests strongly that it was Putin.
The summary, which is unusually detailed, reads as follows

German intel finds no proof of Russian ‘disinformation ops’ against Berlin – govt source

RT | February 7, 2017 Following a year-long inquiry, German intelligence agencies have found no reliable evidence of a Russian “disinformation campaign” against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, according to media citing cabinet and security sources. The German intelligence service (BND) and the counterintelligence agency (BfV) had been searching for evidence of Russian interference in the […]

Ukraine’s offensive ‘aimed at preventing Russian sanctions being lifted’: provokes criticism instead

Just a few days ago on RT’s Crosstalk programme Peter Lavelle, myself and the two other guests, Dmitry Babich and Ed Lozansky, discussed the Ukrainian regime’s likely reaction to the new Trump administration.
We all agreed that the likely response of the Ukrainian regime to the steps the Trump administration is taking to try to patch up US relations with Russia would be to escalate military tensions in the Donbass with a view in part to bolstering its political support in the West as this appeared to slide.

US negotiations with Mexico will be tough but open and pragmatic

A crucial element in respecting the sovereignty of foreign states is an implicit understanding that the decisions a state might make during a negotiation process, may not always be that which is desired by the other partner.
Despite an exaggerated response by the mainstream media, the current open negotiations between the US and Mexico over Trump’s border wall represent everything a robust bilateral negotiation should be. The words exchanged between the US and Mexico have thus far been frank and the various quid-pro-quos exchanged have been realistic.