Light Weekend Reading: Putin Forswears Use of Economic Muscle

Just keeping up-to-date with Putinesque 'corporate communications' on Ukraine ...

 I think we should act so that our partners feel themselves quite confident in our intentions, we should stick to healthy business relations. Also, we have to deepen their confidence that we will never use our economic connections as a tool to lobby our interests, which are not really tied to economics – we’ve never done this before and, of course, we are not going to follow this path in the future.

Oh, and then this:

Russia is building up forces on its borders with Ukraine, prompting pro-Kiev forces and analysts to predict an impending pro-Russian attack in the near future.

Carrot and stick, I suppose.  The lightning encirclement of Mariupol can't be far off now.

ND