PressTV:
US VP speaks more than he thinks, James Petras says
Thu
Jun 19, 2014 4:33PM GMT
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A political commentator says
US Vice President Joe Biden is a “very loquacious politician” who thinks less
and speaks more.
In a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday, Biden said that “the US would work with our partners to impose further costs on Russia if it continued on its current course” over the Ukraine crisis.
Biden “is a very loquacious politician who speaks more than he thinks, and I think as a result we shouldn’t take too serious the consequences of his statement”, Professor James Petras, who has written several books on the Latin America and Middle East, told Press TV in a phone interview on Thursday.
“Nevertheless, I think it indicates the direction that President Obama wants to go which is to engage in a full-scale return of the Cold War,” he added.
Petras said that Washington’s threats against Russia are “a continuation of the aggressive posture that Washington has taken and particularly with regard to initiating sanctions.”
But Biden’s threats have no support though, he continued.
“On one hand Biden does not have the support of the allies in Western Europe,” he said. “Secondly, Russia has done everything possible to avoid a confrontation.”
“The problem is that the European Union, in particular Germany, has resisted hitting the energy and financial sector because they have important investments that affect hundreds of thousands of German workers and thousands of German enterprises,” Petras noted.
“The Russians have been extremely conciliatory toward the new ruler in Kiev. So there is no basis for Biden to make threats since the Russians have agreed to recognize this president, recognize the elections, which are very dubious, and offered to negotiate a settlement,” he pointed out.
Thus there are “no indications” of a change in the German position, at least the way Biden is anticipating, he added.
The United States has imposed sanctions against some Russian individuals and entities, including SMP Bank and Bank Rossiya. However, despite repeated threats, Washington has not yet announced any sanctions that would target key sectors of the Russian economy.
Tensions between Washington and Moscow intensified over the crisis in Ukraine, especially following a March referendum in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in which people overwhelmingly voted to join the Russian Federation.
http://jhaines6.wordpress.com/2014/06/20/presstv-us-vp-speaks-more-than-he-thinks-james-petras-says/
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