As Dostoyevsky said - we are all guilty. Guilty of perverse
and incompetent diplomacy. That includes President Obama who couldn't control
his neo-conservatives, President Putin who failed to check his perfectly
legitimate fear of American hegemony, the EU - totally incompetent with no
ability to form foreign policy and resist that American neo-conservative
aggression. And the Murdoch dominated world media, perversely persuading the
'West' that 'it's all Putin's fault'. My
book, A Word Before Leaving, just published in print and on Kindle, shows how Sergei
Lavrov's has been the only voice for peace and for a Ukraine being a hyphen
joining the EU in the West of Europe and Russia in the East of Europe instead
of a bone of contention. He lamented what might have been - if there had been
any other diplomats of his stature.