Is Putin Blinking Or Preparing For War?

• Is Putin Blinking Or Preparing For War? 
  by L. Todd Wood, http://www.westernjournalism.com/ , 25 Nov 2014  
  Russia will not back down, sanctions and the West be damned.
  Today, it was reported that fighting eased between pro-Russian forces and the Ukrainian military in East Ukraine. Shelling from Novorossiya was said to quiet almost completely.  Bloomberg also reported that Russian troops were observed repositioning themselves along the Russian border.
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  In addition, Moscow announced that an eighth convoy of humanitarian supplies would leave Russia for Ukraine shortly. So fighting is quiet along the eastern front.
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  This begs the question: is Russian President Putin blinking in the face of Western sanctions as has been suggested by some in the Western media? Or is he simply preparing for further conflict (or even all-out war.)
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  I vote for the latter. As I have said before, there is no way Putin can stop now. He would be seen as weak and eventually deposed. He is all-in in Ukraine. The current lull in the fighting must be serving some type of tactical or strategic purpose. My guess is that the pro-Russian forces are preparing for a new offensive to pressure Kiev and take more territory for Novorossiya.
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  The Moscow Times in it’s opinion page today stated:
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  Putin may have decided that full implementation of September’s Minsk agreements, leading to a stable cease-fire and a gradual restoration of full Ukrainian sovereignty, would ultimately diminish Russia’s leverage over Kiev’s foreign and security policies. This explains the latest military surge and sham elections in the Donbass. Now the task is to force Kiev to negotiate a new framework for the Ukrainian state directly with Russian proxies.
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  read more!

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