Dear Barack: The Extraordinary Partnership of Barack Obama and Angela Merkel by Claudia Clark

Author:Claudia Clark [Clark, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Presidents & Heads of State, history, Europe, Germany
ISBN: 9781633310575
Google: vDVZzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Disruption Books
Published: 2021-10-19T23:37:42.687520+00:00

After a marathon sixteen-hour session on February 12, 2015—over a year after the events that first sparked the conflict—Putin, Poroshenko, Hollande, and Merkel reached a new cease-fire deal for eastern Ukraine. Under the terms and conditions of the so-called Minsk II agreement, both sides agreed to the following: an immediate and full bilateral cease-fire to take effect on February 15; withdrawal by both sides of all heavy weapons; dialogue on holding local elections; release of all hostages and illegally detained people; an effective monitoring and verification regime for the cease-fire; internationally supervised, unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid; restoration of full economic and social links with affected areas; restoration of full Ukrainian government control over the state border through the conflict zone; and constitutional reform in Ukraine, including the adoption of a new constitution by the end of 2015.58

Despite the work Merkel and Hollande put forth to get both parties to agree, the United States and the EU remained doubtful that the Russians would comply. “The Ukrainian crisis was not caused by the Russian Federation,” said Putin in remarks posted on the Kremlin website. “It emerged in response to the attempts of the US and its western allies—who consider themselves ‘winners’ of the Cold War—to impose their will everywhere.” According to the Guardian, “The remarks reinforced western suspicions that Putin has never accepted the outcome of the collapse of Soviet and eastern European communism in 1989–1991 and is engaged in an attempt to revise the results of the post-Cold War order in Europe.”59 One could argue that the united front Obama and Merkel displayed here against Russia helped to bring the two leaders closer together again—not exactly the response for which Putin had hoped. One thing Putin had not counted on was that the shared belief in upholding democracy overshadowed personal disagreements between the two nations.

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