Venting Righteous[ly-deserved]Spleen

"[Of] far greater concern [than the presence of Russian ships northeast of Australia beyond the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea is] the continued penetration of a Russian presence in eastern Ukraine and obvious actions designed to provoke violence."
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

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• Stephen Harper had a showdown with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, telling the Russian leader to 'get out of Ukraine.' (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

European security monitors in Ukraine have seen a van crossing from Russia into Ukraine. The same van was once again seen by the monitors going in the opposite direction. This time the van was carrying the bodies of dead combatants; returning Russian soldiers' corpses who had entered Ukraine surreptitiously, to fight alongside the ethnic-Russian secessionists in conflict with the Ukrainian military.

Monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe cited their spotting of the vehicle on Tuesday The van had crossed the border near the town of Donetsk, marked with the words "Gruz 200", translating as "Cargo 200", a term used by the military for the bodies of men killed in conflict.

The OSCE had stated as well that over the previous week it had formally recorded that 630 people wearing military garb had crossed the same checkpoint, "mostly to Ukraine". Validating the often laid claims that Russian involvement in the civil war roiling eastern Ukraine is a reality, not a figment of anyone's feverish imagination, despite Kremlin denials and President Putin's scornful denials.

During the traditional 'family photo' Putin was relegated to the very edge of the frame (far left) while Tony Abbott stood front and centre along with other world leaders such as Angela Merkel and Barack Obama

The G-20 leaders' summit taking place in Brisbane, Australia, ostensibly to discuss the global economy, appears to have fixated on the situation in Ukraine. The summit, taking place in Australia, has had to welcome Russia as part of the G20, a country that was not so long ago invited to join the G7, but which now could never partner with Canada, France, Germany,Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States.

Appearing in Australia, the country burning with rage that 38 of their citizens perished in the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner over Ukraine. To state that Vladimir Putin is not welcome in Australia is to vastly understate the obvious. Moreover, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had demanded of Putin that he "stop trying to recreate the lost glories" of the Russian past, an urgent demand he had put to the man last week in Beijing during the Asia-Pacific summit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) spoke with Prime Minister Tony Abbott (left) during their meeting at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing on Tuesday

The G20 countries represent two-thirds of the population of the globe and those same countries produce over three-quarters of the global economy. Countries with expanding economies like India, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and China (BRICS includes Russia) are represented within the group; countries thought of as on the brink of reshaping the financial order of the world by their vigorous new economic presence with far more to come in the future.

At one point in the proceedings President Putin approached Prime Minister Harper with hand extended in greeting. Mr. Harper, who makes no pretense at having any patience with the expansionist activities that Russia has been fomenting on the world order under Vladimir Putin who has expressed his admiration for Stalin and his nostalgia for the days of the USSR, said: "I guess I'll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine."

As the man with the under-the-circumstances-unenviable focus of attention of many of those in presence at the summit, Vladimir Putin received his just due in condemnation from Western world leaders. 
"Russia would be so much more attractive if it was aspiring to be a superpower for peace and freedom and prosperity, if it was trying to be a superpower for ideas and for values, instead of trying to recreate the lost glories of czarism or the old Soviet Union", said Tony Abbott.

And David Cameron reminded that Russia would be hit with further sanctions if it failed to respect the ceasefire agreement signed between the government of Ukraine, the secessionist rebels, and Russia, with all indications from observations being that Russian troops and tanks keep flooding into the eastern reaches of Ukraine.


Mr. Putin did some chastising of his own, threatening France just before the summit that "serious" consequences would ensue if it failed to deliver a warship that had been contracted for and which France had indeed been anxious to deliver, but was held back by the condemnation of Germany and most other members of the European Union for aiding and abetting a country that has turned from collegial to threatening.

Mr. Putin turned as well on the G20 nations for having the temerity to impose any sanctions on his country at all, stating in an interview where he vented his grievances on Russian state media that the measures to punish Russia for no reason other than malice from Europe and its allies violated the very principles of the G20.