A Global Times editorial provided commentary on Angela Merkle's revealing confession that the 2014 ceasefire brokered by Berlin and Paris in Minsk was simply a ploy to allow Kiev additional time to strengthen its military.
“From pushing for the Minsk agreements to inciting the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev, the West is attempting to exhaust and contain a country which they deem as a rival through protraction efforts, be they explicit or inexplicit.
It has never really genuinely regarded Russia as a dialogue partner. In an interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit last week, former German chancellor Angela Merkel revealed the West's real intention behind its negotiation with Russia and Ukraine to promote a ceasefire in 2014. She admitted the Minsk agreements were an ‘attempt to give Ukraine time’ and that Kiev had used it ‘to become stronger’.
In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Merkel's remarks were ‘completely unexpected and disappointing’. As the U.S. media New York Post pointed out, Putin felt betrayed by the West following the Minsk agreements. ‘It has turned out that no one was going to implement the agreements’, the Russian leader pointed out.
The Minsk agreements intended to manage the Ukraine crisis and avoid escalating the conflict. Merkel actually confessed something Western politicians do not want to admit about the Minsk agreements: They were just a stopgap to buy time for Ukraine and the West, and Western countries have never put real effort into resolving the differences with Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
What the former German leader stated tears down the last remaining bit of the ‘friendly’ mask some Western countries put on with Russia. In the eyes of some Western countries, Russia is just a diplomatic and political ‘alien’. Moreover, under the influence of Washington, some view Moscow as a so-called threat due to its huge military power and political system that does not meet the ‘Western standard’. As a result, these countries have never stopped suppressing Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
On the other hand, Russia has always considered itself a European country, expecting to build trust with the West. Thus, it is understandable when Putin expressed disappointment and a sense of betrayal from Merkel's words.
Russia's trust in the West has already fallen to a new low. And the West's hypocrisy has worn out Moscow's will to engage in an effective dialogue with the West, some experts noted. ‘Now there is a question of trust on the agenda, and it is already close to zero’, said Putin.
Merkel's confession about the Minsk agreements also showed that some Western countries, particularly the U.S., do not honor contractual obligations at all. They can go back on their words so easily.
The agreement the U.S. wants is never about credibility; it is all about interests. An agreement is seen as useful by the U.S. when it can advance the country's interests; otherwise, Washington is always ready to deny it. This is exemplified by U.S.' withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Washington also adopts a double standard to advance its allies' interests when carrying out the agreement.
The U.S. and several other Western countries have become ‘defaulters’ in the international community. They dare to break their promises because they are protected by the Western hegemony with the U.S. at its core. Washington has already hijacked many other Western countries to join such a hegemony, creating and maintaining a distorted international order.
It is anticipated that some U.S.-led Western countries will keep using so-called values as an excuse to defend their collective hegemony and bully others under international rule and order in their favor. As long as such domination exists, the world will still be the victim of power politics rather than a place full of justice and fairness”. -Global Times, "Real intention behind Minsk agreements further destroys credibility of the West"
If there was ever a belief on the part of the Kremlin that it could conduct honest negotiations with the U.S. and NATO in good faith, that illusion is now well and truly shattered.
Vladimir Putin has stated repeatedly that the objective of Russia’s military intervention was to demilitarize his enemies as it’s been made abundantly clear that the Russo-Ukrainian conflict has much less to do with the Ukrainian people per se, as it does with NATO and the U.S. Department of State.
However, the President of the Russian Federation apologized recently for his reticence as NATO attempted to goad Russia into combat through continual Ukrainian attacks on Donbass and ignored Russia's security concerns as they aggressively pursued expansion.
Yet NATO’s foolish Ukraine puppetry has appeared to have accomplished the opposite of their primary objective, which was to weaken Russia and render it incapable of resistance to the diktat from Washington, D.C., and Brussels.