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This week on Behind the Headlines, your hosts examine the extraordinary series of meetings that took place in Europe this week concerning the civil war in Ukraine.

Behind the Headlines airs live this Sunday, 8 February 2015, from 2-3.30pm EST / 11am-12.30pm PST / 7-8.30pm UTC / 8-9.30pm CET.

Running Time: 01:42:00

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Part one (On 6th February 2015)

They have apparently continued for 5 hours and are still not finished though it seems some sort of document is being prepared for tomorrow.

Three comments:

1. If negotiations go on for 5 hours that does not suggest a smooth and conflict free discussion.

2. One of the most interesting things about the Moscow talks is that they mainly happened without the presence of aides and officials i.e. Putin, Hollande and Merkel were by themselves save for interpreters and stenographers. Putin and Merkel are known to be masters of detail and given his background as an enarque I presume Hollande also is. However the German and French officials will be very unhappy about this. The Russians less so because since the meeting is taking place in the Kremlin they are listening in to the discussions via hidden microphones.

President Poroshenko's PR advisers are helping him turn speeches into a kind of performance art. Sadly for the Ukrainian leader, they are more Laurel and Hardy than Laurence Olivier.

On Saturday, Poroshenko was again engaged in physical theatre, this time in Munich. Holding up Russian passports, he alleged that they belonged to Russian soldiers who had been found on Ukrainian soil. Citing "mountains of (Russian) lies and propaganda," the Ukrainian President stood on a German stage and, well, lied.

Speaking of 'propaganda,' Yahoo news called the Russian (civilian) passports - which all Russians traveling abroad carry - 'military ID's' which is certainly a new one.

Russian soldiers cannot use their passports while on active service - they must hand them in. Everybody who has ever lived in Russia knows this. Indeed, even contract soldiers are forced to hand in theirs while on army business and, like the troops, they get a replacement military ID. This is why Sochi's bars are crawling with off-duty Russian military - they can't go abroad without their travel documents.

US Vice President Joe Biden has called on European countries to show unity when it comes to sanctions against Russia, labeling the dissenting voices "inappropriate and annoying", reported Der Spiegel, quoting the participants of the Brussels meeting.

Germany's Der Spiegel magazine said that the US vice president's remarks were made at a special meeting of leaders of the European parliament factions at the EU headquarters in Brussels. Biden called on European countries to 'stand firm' against Russia's alleged threats to the region's unity.

"Putin continues to call for new peace plans as his troops roll through the Ukrainian countryside and he absolutely ignores every agreement that his country has signed in the past... including in Minsk," Biden said, referring to "little green men", but failing to provide any exact details of Russia's alleged military presence in the region.

Critics of the policy of sanctions against Moscow should be aware that they also benefited from the current low price of oil, Biden said. He deemed complaints made by some European states about costly sanctions against Russia "inappropriate and annoying."

The "perfect-storm" of geopolitical instability, diplomatic isolation, severe currency depreciation, and economic decline now confronting Russia has profoundly damaged Moscow's international standing, and possibly for the long-term. Yet, it is precisely such conditions that may push the country's leadership into taking the radical step that will secure its world-player status once and for all: the adoption of a gold-exchange standard.

Though a far-fetched idea at first glance, many factors suggest that remonetization in gold may be a logical next step for Moscow.

First, for years Moscow has been expressing its unwillingness to remain at the monetary mercy of the US and its NATO allies and this view has been most vehemently expressed by President Putin's long-time economic advisor, Sergei Glazyev. Russia is prepared to play strategic hardball with the West on the issue: the governor of Russia's central bank took the unusual step last November of presenting to the international media details of the bank's zealous gold-buying spree. The announcement, in sharp contrast to that institution's more taciturn traditions, underscores Moscow's outspoken dismay with dollar hegemony; its timing suggests coordination with the top rungs of government to present gold as a possible currency-war weapon.

Second, despite international pressure, Russia has been very wary of the sell-off policies that led the UK, France, Spain, and Italy to unload gold over the past decade during unsuccessful attempts to prop up their respective ailing economies - in particular, of then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown's sell-off of 400 metric tons of the country's reserves at stunningly low prices. Moscow's surprise decision upon the onset of the ruble's swift decline in early December 2014 to not tap into the country's gold reserves, now the world's sixth largest, highlights the ambitiousness of Russia's stance on the gold issue. By the end of December, Russia added another 20.73 tons, according to the IMF in late January, capping a nine-month buying spree.

Third, while the Russian economy is structurally weak, enough of the country's monetary fundamentals are sound, such that the timing of a move to gold, geopolitically and domestically, may be ideal. Russia is not a debtor nation. At this writing in January, Russia's debt to GDP ratio is low and most of its external debt is private. Physical gold accounts for 10 percent of Russia's foreign currency reserves. The budget deficit, as of a November 2014 projection, is likely to be around $10 billion, much less than 1 percent of GDP. The poverty ratefell from 35 percent in 2001 to 10 percent in 2010, while the middle class was projected in 2013 to reach 86 percent of the population by 2020.

The real reason Washington feels threatened by Moscow

"I want to appeal to the Ukrainian people, to the mothers, the fathers, the sisters and the grandparents. Stop sending your sons and brothers to this pointless, merciless slaughter. The interests of the Ukrainian government are not your interests. I beg of you: Come to your senses. You do not have to water Donbass fields with Ukrainian blood. It's not worth it."

- Alexander Zakharchenko, Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic

Washington needs a war in Ukraine to achieve its strategic objectives. This point cannot be overstated.

The US wants to push NATO to Russia's western border. It wants a land-bridge to Asia to spread US military bases across the continent. It wants to control the pipeline corridors from Russia to Europe to monitor Moscow's revenues and to ensure that gas continues to be denominated in dollars. And it wants a weaker, unstable Russia that is more prone to regime change, fragmentation and, ultimately, foreign control. These objectives cannot be achieved peacefully, indeed, if the fighting stopped tomorrow, the sanctions would be lifted shortly after, and the Russian economy would begin to recover. How would that benefit Washington?

It wouldn't. It would undermine Washington's broader plan to integrate China and Russia into the prevailing economic system, the dollar system. Powerbrokers in the US realize that the present system must either expand or collapse. Either China and Russia are brought to heel and persuaded to accept a subordinate role in the US-led global order or Washington's tenure as global hegemon will come to an end.

Remarks and replies to media questions by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, during the discussion at the 51st Munich Conference on Security Policy, Munich, February 7 2015

Ladies and gentlemen,

Mr. Wolfgang Ischinger included in the agenda the topic of "the collapse of world development". It is impossible not to agree that the events unfolded not by the optimistic scenario. But you cannot accept arguments of some of our colleagues that a sudden, rapid collapse of the world order, which existed for decades, had occurred.

On the contrary, the events of the past year have confirmed the validity of our warnings regarding deep, systemic problems in the organization of European security and international relations in general. I would like to remind about the speech by President Putin spoken here eight years ago.

Mikhail Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia, told Ukrainian television that with the appropriate knowledge, skills and weaponry, the Ukrainian military could "capture the whole of Russia."

Former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told Ukrainian television on Saturday that a properly armed and prepared Ukrainian army has the "spirit" to capture all of Russia.

In an interview for Ukraine's Channel 24, Saakashvili noted that "our officers, who were trained by the Americans, are now training your military. They say that the spirit of Ukrainian soldiers is the best in the world, and that if they were given the necessary knowledge, skills and weapons, they would be able to capture the whole of Russia."

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman has angrily dismissed a Pentagon study that claimed the Russian leader had Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.

"That is stupidity not worthy of comment," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Gazeta.ru news website.

His comments came after USA Today reported that a 2008 study carried out by an internal Pentagon think tank, the Office of Net Assessment, suggested that Mr Putin has Asperger's syndrome, giving him a need to exert "extreme control" on his surroundings and is uncomfortable with social interaction.

The Pentagon played down the study, saying it apparently never made its way to the desk of the defence secretary or other top decision makers.

Broadcasting from deep in the heart of the American Empire, join your host Harrison Koehli and fellow Sott.net editors as they discuss everything from current events and the latest machinations and manipulations of the global elite to history, science, and religion, and how it all fits together.

This week, join our hosts as they discuss the latest events in Ukraine, and some history that may help put it all in context. History may not repeat, but it certainly does rhyme!

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Running Time: 01:44:00

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