2007, 2008 & “Britain out to Kill Putin” tale

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• GET THIS – UK out ‘to kill Putin’!
• Russia – Georgia – South Ossetia – 6 Day War
• The Coup
• Blair’s Last Official Visitor … Who?
• Will Brown Survive 2008?
• The ‘Sub-Prime’ Minister V The Ongoing Chancellor
  
• Blair – The Family Man

Comment at end

UPDATED 11TH August, 2008

Russia “bully” advances in west Georgia

The prime minister/president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, (you didn’t think he had only one job?) is in the eye of the storm right now over Georgia. The rights and wrongs of the argument are still being debated but the Conservative leader David Cameron, and following him (it seems he said nothing before) Gordon Brown have both attacked the Russian response.

The Russians are saying that they are only defending their own citizens in the region. What? This from the country which kills its (former) citizens, if they leave the motherland and settle elsewhere – Litvinenko. And perhaps even removes Russia-based Russian journalists if they dare to speak out against the government.

It does seem that Putin IS trying to re-configure the map of Europe.

I have written a post on Russia/Georgia/South Ossetia here.

UPDATED 21st April, 2008

“RUSSIA SEES BLAIR AS AN INSTIGATOR OF TENSION BETWEEN RUSSIA & BRITAIN”

Nice try, Mr Putin et al.

It seems Russia is not getting very far with its Middle East ambitions to bring Hamas to a Moscow negotiating table on the Middle East. Russia wants its own Conference on the matter soon, and thinks Hamas should be represented, although Hamas seems to have gone cold on it all. I expect they’re glowing in the warmth of the light of President Jimmy Carter, who knows better than all the rest of them, it seems. Israel is none too excited about Hamas’s attendance either, for some strange reason.

And now Russia is reluctant to work with Blair because Blair is seen as “an instigator of tension between Russia and the UK”. WHAT? Nothing to do with polonium killings, Mr Putin? Litvinenko’s murder? Only Blair in the UK was bothered about that? Not the present PM too!? Nor anything to do with Putin threatening to nuke Europe if the USA goes ahead with its nuclear shield?

Russia & Tony Blair have past issues. I remember, on the day Blair was leaving Parliament. It seems he had to wait until the very last moment for Putin, Russia to say they had agreed to his becoming the Quartet’s Middle East Envoy.

So if the Russiana suddenly decide they can’t or won’t have a Spring conference on the Middle East after all, watch out for who they blame? One guess? It won’t be Hamas, Israel or the USA.

There has often been tension between Russia & Britain. Clearly there might be more for some time yet. Whatever we do, let’s look after Mr Blair. We NEED him, in ALL sorts of hotspots in this world.

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6th January, 2008

All right – all RIGHT! Don’t shout.

The cold turkey was awful – so I’m back, for a bit anyway. They warned me this computer business would get me in the end. Caught the norovirus thing. Then again, it might have been the cold turkey. Some of my loyal commenters told me it would be unpalatable ;0(

Anyway, what am I doing here? You might well ask. I know I said I’d have stopped this site by now, but the period between Christmas and a few days ago took me away on unexpected business. On my return I probably caught the bug from all those people on the train who insist on breathing in my presence; so inconsiderate. The family are pretty bemused, since I’m famously never ill.

Much better now, thank you. How are you?

So this is the post I started to draft ready for the last day of December, 2007 (now with appropriate updates).

But before I continue – what do you make of this story of an incident on December 23rd? I must have been busy then; I missed it. And just after Christmas, Benazir Bhutto’s assassination stunned the world. I’m tempted to ask this: is Putin cashing in on the present fears of political assassination to gather his adoring public protectively around him? Especially since over 10,000 policemen are lined up to protect Bush on his trip to Jerusalem this week, and millions are now spent on Blair’s security?

Can’t be out-classed in the ‘importance’ stakes now, can we? That’s a joke, Mr Putin. Honestly.

SO WHAT’S THE STORY, MORNING GLORY?

It seems that British agents were out to kill Vladimir Putin tomorrow! Oh, no! Not the Person of the Year, the hero of the Russian teenager? It reports that three “Armenians” are actually “British MI5 agents” who’ve been paid millions by the Vatican – yes, that’s what it says – the Vatican!!! And guess who’s running the Vatican now, AND the EU in a year or so’s time, when he’s sorted out the Middle East? Yep, you got it. Our man in Jerusalem, no less.

Presumably they also think Mr Blair runs MI5, though he never did before, even when he was PM. Although having “overall responsibility”, he did not make operational day-to-day decisions.

And the fact that there are some maneuverings by a Russian civil nuclear energy company – which already provides some of our power – to take over our ageing nuclear power stations has nothing to do with anything! Should make one of GB/PM’s ‘difficult’ tasks of persuading the country that we need to build new nuclear power stations that bit less onerous. (Btw, Blair already did most of the persuading on this while he was winning the Trident debate in March 2007 in Parliament. The country already approves and understands both these issue, even if all of Old Labour doesn’t. Not too much hard work there, then GB/PM).

Excerpt:

“But, the greatest ‘shock’ to Moscow, in their growing state of crisis with the United Kingdom, was this past weeks news that Britain’s former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and who once headed the Church of England, renounced his faith and has converted to Catholicism thus forming an alliance with Rome’s Dark Pope, and which to the Kremlin is a ‘defacto declaration of war’ as Blair is set to become the President of the newly formed European Union, and which was foisted upon the European peoples by the treachery of their leaders in league with Rome.”

LET’S GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT

So we’re ‘de facto’ at war, then, are we? Sounds like the threat to target nukes on Europe, again.

And, er … “newly-formed” EU. Been hibernating for a while, oh Great Russian Bear?

Blair never ‘headed the Church of England’. The Queen does; the Monarch ALWAYS does. Blair’s desire to defer changing denomination within the Christian Church was probably to avoid any clash with the Prime Ministerial role of appointing Church of England high-ranking leaders, if as PM, he were then Roman Catholic. Sensible and sensitive, I’d have thought.

Anyway, surely you don’t mean that that nasty Blair man, 007-like, is after your great leader in the guise of a religious peacemaker? Titchy too! They could write a song about it and get it to the top of the Russian pop charts. (Could call it “Jealousy” but that’s a touch insipid).

In fact here goes: (quick five minute job; I charge for a more thoughtful effort.)

VLAD THE GREAT

They loathe him, they fear him, Vladimir the Great

We love him, we need him, the man they love to hate.

No threats and no power will staunch his might

For Russia, forever, he’ll stand and fight.

CHORUS (all together now)

Fight, fight, fight for the right to be the one

Who’ll sink the creepy Vatican and their brand new son.

They beat us once and they’ll never do that again

Fight for the right to write with your polonium pen.

… OK, that’ll do.

[Pic: Litvinenko killed in London in November, 2006, suspected by Russian use of polonium. Russia refused a request for extradition to the UK of suspect Andrei Lugovoi]

The “assassinate Putin” story could all be fabricated, for consumption by Russia for political purposes. A mixture of Russian conspiracy, big business, energy supply concerns, power muscle-flexing, positioning in the same old Putin way, fear of Blair’s probable new EU authority, envy and mixed loyalties at any possible success in the ME, anti-religion, and well anti- more or less anything. Except Vlad the Great, of course.

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Now where was I?

2007 – THE COUP – AND A TRULY POLITICAL MILESTONE YEAR

Sadly, a year I’d rather forget for its misguided political machinations. But I know I’m prejudiced, unlike many who insist that they are the unbiased font of all true knowledge.

In my humble opinion, there was but ONE HUGE event inside British politics this year. No, not the Northern Ireland settlement, though that was truly remarkable. And not the Scottish elections bringing smirking, snide Salmond into power in Scotland. Nor the fact that the cash for honours debacle came to nothing. Nor the coronation of whatsisname. Nor the election that wasn’t. Nor the Northern Rock business, though that still has some way to run. Nor that Cameron went up in the polls as Brown went down. Nor the missing data or umpteen other bits of fun and games afflicting Brown’s ‘new’ government.

The huge event was the loss of one of the best prime ministers this country has ever had. Ever!

THE SIGH (Click to watch video) THAT BROKE A MILLION HEARTS

Listen out for Mr Blair’s sigh right at the start of this full recording of his statement made in a North London school. VERY significant.

We were persuaded in the summer of 2006 that a Labour Party clique knew best, and were singularly competent to decide who should be our prime minister, although we had just voted for Labour under Blair a year or so before (in 2005 for a 4/5 year term). We read the press, and they seemed to agree that he had to go. Eventually, in September 2006, after the coup attempt, even he conceded this.

Wrongly, in my humble opinion, and I do wish I had been in his parliamentary party to speak on his behalf. But his statement was understandable. (Click here to watch Nick Robinson’s BBC report and clips of Blair’s statement). There is only so much that any of us can take.

Blair: “… it’s important for the Labour party to understand that we can’t treat the public as irrelevant by-standers in a subject as important as who is their prime minister.”

Ah, but they did, Mr Blair – and we, the great British voters, let ‘em!

Nick Robinson quotes one angry Blairite minister as saying, “it would be an absolute effing disaster if Gordon Brown was PM, and I’ll do anything in my power to effing stop him”.

Nick Robinson on Blair: “This was the day he was co-erced by his party into declaring that his time in power was almost up”.

Here’s a quick reminder of Labour’s folly, so that you don’t have to chase around this blog to see what I and others thought at the time.

Why did they, in their collective wisdom, think he had to go? Three sets of villains – for three sets of reasons:

1. Brown’s ‘reason’: His misplaced and unrealised ambition. He felt it was part of a ‘deal’. So, presumably, even if things had changed, the deal still had to be honoured. Even if the successor-to-be came to be considered incompetent or lacking the right character requirements?

My thoughts: No deal made years ago in youthful exuberance is quite mingled blood even to the Brothers B. And, Brown has now proved himself not to be made of the right prime ministerial stuff. He might have realised that years ago.

2. Old unreconstructed Labour’s ‘reason’: The Left of Labour thought … possibly still think … that Blair was too ‘new’ or too ‘Tory’ for them. They fool themselves if they think they can return to their old socialist habits and still win over Middle Britain.

My thoughts: Blair won by appealing right across the electorate. He was not ‘Left’ or ‘Right’ – just in tune with the times. Brown and his acolytes, the B Team, will never be able to do this.

3. The disgustingly unbalanced feral intelligentsia press’s reasons: Not ALL of the press, granted, but much of the printed press in this country decided in their wisdom that Tony Blair was evil, easily led, or at least misguided, and that therefore he had to be removed and replaced. Their excuse was Iraq and their differences with Blair on this. It was NOT, imho, their place to set out to destroy a prime minister over press dissatisfaction. They are there to report, not to make policy. No-one voted for the press!

My thoughts: The press grabbed onto any snippet of information and any quote from any ‘authority’ to support their political stance. Any overheard thought and opinion on Tony Blair was printed as fact. They traduced his reputation gleefully, with no personal regard for him or his family. They behaved like a malignant tumour and should, imho, be excised or radiated out of existence. I do not buy into this “freedom of the press” business while they seldom preface their writings, with an “in my opinion”. Facts, leaks and opinion are used and abused in their hands. They behaved like the scum which many of them clearly are.

The feral press, Brown and Labour were all WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

AND WHO DO THE BL***Y PRESS THINK THEY ARE ANYWAY? God Almighty?!

Freedom of the press comes with responsibility, imho. And much of the British press, and/or their leader writers, shouldn’t be left in charge of a mouse much less a keyboard. Unless, of course, they’d like to borrow mine; it’s probably covered with the norovirus!

I still considerate it an affront to democracy that some in the Labour party and/or the press, in an underhand collaboration, felt they had the right to push the country’s Prime Minister to resign before he either needed or intended to.

There are some facts we should remember:

1. Tony Blair said in 2004 he’d serve a full third term if elected in 2005. (See the start of my video below for his words on this).

2. The Iraq invasion had started in 2003, and yet Labour, under his premiership, was still elected in 2005, over two years later. THAT was the time, 2005, for the electorate to complain; they didn’t. A smaller majority, true, than in 2001 or 1997. But still a larger majority than for many UK governments, reduced as to be expected for ANY third term government. This, under Blair, was the FIRST time Labour had EVER won three consecutive elections, so they didn’t quite get it. They still don’t. They soon will. Labour still managed a 64 seat overall majority in 2005, which was 158 seats more than the official opposition party, the Conservatives.

3. The unease over the WMD issue and the so-called ‘dodgy dossier” added to the lies about “lying” around Blair. The ‘dodginess’ concerns had long been in the public domain, since just after March 2003, long before the 2005 general election. The rest of the civilised world, the UN, all nations who heard the “intelligence” accepted that Saddam had WMD (since he had used them to kill his own people). But Blair’s motivation for Iraq and his ‘blind following’ of Bush were relentlessly hammered at. The electorate, imho, were more ready to trust their leader on this than a despotic murdering madman in Iraq, and were sufficiently sophisticated to understand the complexities. But our shameful press persuaded them otherwise. The perceived “lies” were more important than the known facts.

4. The honours fiasco provided more ammunition for the ferals and Blair’s opponents. It was pregnant with come-uppance and hoisting on petards. It was also largely flagged by self-motivated Brownites within Blair’s government, and by the nationalists, who actually gained in the end by this “dissing”. Here Charles Clarke , at the start of the police investigation, asks why Jack Dromey, Labour’s party Treasurer, did not know about the loans.) Something to do with trust and the behind-the-scenes leadership struggle? Dromey is married to Harriet Harman, sacked early, 1998, as a Blair minister, but later re-instated by Blair, 2001 – 2005, as the first female Solicitor General. She now holds five posts in Brown’s government.

Neither issue – WMDs nor the ill-advised, costly and failed honours investigation which dogged Blair’s last 16 months was grounds for hanging. And yet the press hung out to dry one of the most highly respected international leaders in democratic politics, and our most successful Labour Prime Minister EVER.

[Pics: Blair at the time of his party's unrest, spring and summer 2006. The stress of this, and the police honours inquiry, clearly shows.]

I have written extensively about this shameful episode at these pages:

Abdication or Political Assassination?

Coup – Brown: “Nuffink To Do Wiv Me, Guv”

Coup – or – How To Kill The Leader Without Anyone Getting Blamed

5 Sep 2006 – Letters Calling On PM To Quit

A HUNG PARLIAMENT

Talking about hanging – yes, I know some people would be happy to hang the lot of them – me included now that Blair is out of the place. But the reason I consider Blair’s leaving as The Huge Event is simple. Only time will tell, but it is my humble opinion that the Labour Party will lose the next election, or at the very best share government with the Liberal Democrats. It’s an uphill battle for Cameron to bridge the huge gap of parliamentary seats that presently remains, especially with boundaries presently favouring Labour. But Brown is helping him all the way.

What a legacy that would be for Brown, the erstwhile saviour of the Labour party. They dump their election winner – and then lose. Complicated?

[Pic right: Blair in May 2007, announcing his resignation date of June 27th to his constituents in Sedgefield.]

The loss of Tony Blair as our country’s prime minister before his time and when we needed him most, was excruciatingly painful. At least it was to those of us with the wherewithal to recognise him for the unique politician that he is.

What a ludicrous and unnecessary thing to allow to happen! Blair was never beaten by the opposition or dismissed by the voters in a general election; he was Labour’s record-breaking three times winner; he was and still is a highly regarded international figure; he has proved himself a man of vision with the ability to articulate that vision. I could go on …

Don’t think I’ll ever quite get over the matchless stupidity of the pathetic British Labour party and the equally pathetic press. Oh, and the apathetic public!

This Venezuelan analyst puts it well on the “coup” of 7th September 2006. Excerpt:

‘Ergo why is Brown doing this? What does he want to obtain by destroying both the best leader Labour has ever had and the party? Why haven’t mature senior leaders reprimanded Brown, or are we to believe that this is a case of collective political suicide?’

Couldn’t have put it better myself. Wonder why foreigners can see this more clearly than we can?

And all that summer the press kept informing us that “senior figures” in the party (Kinnock, Straw et al) were about to present Blair with the pearl-handled pistol and the whisky.

These ’senior figures’ should have presented the glass of Glenkillmeoff to Brown instead.

He certainly needs it now. Cheers, Gordon. Doon the hatch.

Just had to show you this disturbing picture of the present prime minister, taken as he launched his “new” health check-ups campaign to avoid disease (though much of it was hardly new)! Now which mad or evil character from which film does he remind you of? The mind boggles. I know I go on a bit in the comparison business, but I have NEVER seen Mr Blair with this kind of look, even in his darkest moments. And this was supposed to be a good news days for Brown. What is he thinking here? “If your neck fits, put it here”?

Back to …

BLAIR ANNOUNCES IT’S TIME TO GO

Nicholas Watt
Sunday December 23, 2007, The Observer, Excerpt:

With a final theatrical flourish, the greatest actor of the modern era to occupy Number 10 Downing Street took his leave of British politics. ‘That is that. The end,’ said an emotional Tony Blair to MPs in the Commons, at his ultimate Prime Minister’s Questions on 27 June.

… the outpouring of affection showed respect for one of Blair’s most remarkable qualities: his skill in reaching across party barriers. It was telling that Blair’s final put-down to the fiercely Eurosceptic Conservative MP Nick Winterton – ‘Au revoir, auf Wiedersehen and arrivederci’ – reduced the veteran Tory to fits of laughter. Blair made it look easy at the time. It was only some time after his departure that Labour – and the political world – realised what it had lost. ‘We won’t see his like for another generation,’ one cabinet minister said.

TOO RIGHT, Mr Watt … too right! If we ever see his like again!

Two questions: Why didn’t that cabinet minister speak out at the right time? And HAVE Labour and the rest of us really realised what we have lost?

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On that, I suppose I can claim a clear conscience, as recorded at this blog for posterity.

QUALITY & CLASS SHONE THROUGH AT HIS LAST PMQs ON 27TH JUNE 2007

Tony Blair’s final question time started, as usual, with probably the most difficult message about the most troublesome issue of his premiership – Iraq. He did not baulk at this or avoid it. Saying that he did not consider that those who had died had given their lives in vain, he paid sincere tribute to our forces as “the bravest and the best”.

David Cameron, the Tory leader, paid a warm tribute to him, with particular attention paid to the effect of recent years on his family. This genuine and personal touch showed a capacity for empathy which might well pay dividends for Cameron in the end.

Blair received a warmer tribute than he might have expected about, arguably his greatest achievement – Northern Ireland. Ian Paisley of the DUP, the man who fought Blair hard against the Good Friday Agreement wished him the same success in the Middle East. Blair, despite Paisley’s misgivings, won the Good Friday argument, with the help of the electorate in Northern Ireland and Ireland. In the end Paisley won too, despite himself. As did Northern Ireland and the rest of us.

For me, the words of the Father of the House, Alan Williams, were deserved indeed and very moving, as well as long awaited, coming as they did from a senior Labour party member. They will be proved in time to be deeply appropriate:

Mr. Alan Williams (Swansea, West) (Lab): I apologise for being more political than I normally would, but it is a special occasion.

May I wish the Prime Minister success and fulfilment in whatever he chooses to do? I hope that he chooses to do something that makes best use of those qualities that brought peace to Northern Ireland. He and I have not always agreed on policy, but I genuinely say to him that he is one of the outstanding Prime Ministers of my political lifetime and, without doubt, the most politically effective Prime Minister that the party has ever had.

May I thank him for leading us out of 18 years of wilderness life on the Opposition Benches, leading us successfully through three general elections and giving us 10 years of government with more to come? Under him, the party has once again become a natural party of government.

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Blair’s Last Official Visitor – Arnie on 26th June, 2007

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Watch video below of Blair/Arnie press conference on Blair’s last day as PM

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THE TERMINATORS?

I won’t say, “I’ll be back”, says Blair.

On a visit to the UK on climate change talks, Arnold Schwarzenegger praised Tony Blair’s environmental leadership as “truly a model for the world”, as the two men met in Downing Street on Mr Blair’s last full day as prime minister. He revealed that it was only thanks to Mr Blair “getting everyone back round the table” at this month’s G8 that any deal at all was achieved.In an early morning press conference between the two men, Mr Schwarzenegger said that the prime minister’s visit last year had “been an inspiration to everyone in California”, and the state had now copied a British style cap-and-trade model on curbing emissions.Mr Blair, in his turn, praised Mr Schwarzenegger’s “vision and leadership” on the issue, which has seen California lead a small number of US states in adopting Kyoto-style targets, despite Washington having pulled out of that treaty back in 2001.Asked if the meeting would be Mr Blair’s last bilateral talks at No 10, his official spokesman said: “I suppose that will be the case.”But the governor, who has made the battle against climate change a personal crusade, added: “Out of selfish reasons I hope that he becomes the envoy for the environment and brings all the countries of the world together to join some kind of treaty – a Kyoto kind of treaty – that everyone can join and we can all together reduce greenhouse gases.”I think the prime minister is the only person who can do that.”
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My thoughts: Hhm…mm. Next job lined up for Mr Blair? Someone, somewhere, internationally is going to have to grab hold of this issue, and he’s going to be busy sorting out the EU next year, if Vlad the Great is right!

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Blair – The Family Man [With Cherie and youngest son Leo in 2001, second election win]

[Family departing Number 10 Downing Street, 27th June, 2007]

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Found this blog entry on Brown’s future:

Will Gordon Brown survive 2008?

This may sound inconceivable, but looking at the Conservative lead in the polls and Labour’s disastrous end to 2007, there is a chance Gordon Brown will not survive as leader of the Labour Party until the end of this year. This possibility is based on a lot of ‘ifs’:

If Gordon Brown continues to preside over episodes such as ‘data-gate’ and Northern Rock;
If the credit crunch causes the economic downturn that many fear;
If Gordon Brown’s reputation for economic prudence is undermined by allegations that his failure to capitalise on the good times by putting something aside for the bad times, has left Britain over-exposed to economic downturn;
If the process of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty exposes rifts within the Labour Party over Europe;
If Gordon Brown loses the trust of the public by appearing to spin his way through government, relying on opportunism without strategy;
If Gordon Brown alienates all but a small handful of his closest colleagues by refusing to let his ministers run their departments;
If the Stalin caricature sticks (fair or unfair);
If the Mr Bean caricature sticks (fair or unfair);
If Boris Johnson wins the Mayoral election;
If Labour fares badly in May’s Local Government elections;
If Nick Clegg provokes a revival in the Lib Dem’s fortunes;
If David Cameron positions the Conservative Party as a credible party of government;

If all of those things happen, and Brown has committed to holding an election in 2009, at what point will the Labour Party decide that he is not the man to lead them in the fight for a fourth term in office?

Obviously this is all speculation and raises questions about who would be powerful enough to challenge him, but I’m throwing it out there for debate…

Posted by Mark Lever, Senior Account Executive, Edelman UK

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The Chancellor … er … PM Trying To Work It All Out

Michael Portillo has a perceptive article in today’s Times on Brown’s inability to act the part” of PM. He says, in a nutshell, what I said a year ago. That Brown has only ever held ONE job in government; insufficient for the overall job of PM.

And following Brown’s interview with Andrew Marr today, in which he prattled on about fiscal matters as he used to do in his real job, this article too argues that Brown is basically still the Chancellor.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear …

“Subprime” having been voted the US word of the year – you almost have to pity GB/PM AGAIN. A sub-prime minister indeed.

And if Stephen Byers, Alan Milburn, Charles Clarke and other Blairites are anything to go by, we friends and followers of Tony Blair can find no further reason for continuing. They are right, inasmuch as the Labour party is concerned. Blair IS history, and they need to move on from where they are. HE himself has emphasised this fact to them, and rightly so.

This blog gave up any small hope of retaining Mr Blair as PM just a few short weeks after it was launched in September 2006; but still I felt that it should continue to record the many achievements pursued under his premiership. I suppose in that way it has become a shrine, if that’s the right word, to his memory.

But since I am not a Labour member – nor a member or supporter of any party – disenfranchised at the moment – I suppose they can’t tell me to shutup! Not that I’d listen anyway. Still …

IT PAINS ME TO SAY THIS

This phrase used by Stephen Byers last month struck home with me; it pains me too, to know that Tony Blair will no longer be part of – in fact, the dominating figure in British politics. It feels just as wrong today as it did 6 months ago when he left office. Or 16 months ago when the Little People – the Coup Plot Planners – performed political hari-kiri as well as regicide.

It’s clearly the case that had Blair remained in place there would have been no talk of hurrying forward an election and none of this resultant discounting of Labour that is presently ongoing.

The message from Byers is that we have to move on. No-one is indispensable. And at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that Tony Blair is bringing his consummate political skills to a wider arena than UK politics.

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Tags: 1. Tony Blair, 2007, 2008, Arnold Schwartzenneger, Brown (Gordon Brown & his Labour Government, from June 2007), coup, EU, labour, political milestone, Putin, Russia