Putinilla on vaikeuksia selittää omilleenkin käännöstä linjassa. Ohessa muutamia kommentteja:
Putin keeps Russians, West guessing with Ukraine shift
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/08/ukraine-crisis-putin-idUSL6N0NU3OA20140508
Ja alla muutama ote noista erilaisista näkemyksistä:
Vladimir Solovyov, the outspoken host of a popular radio call-in:
"This is a very clever and strong move in the game of chess over Ukraine," he told listeners. "Putin has again become peacemaker number one."
Maria Lipman, a Russian analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center think tank:
"I think it is unlikely that, while making this request to delay the secession referendum, Putin did not know what the answer would be"
"This can be used to show that the people in Ukraine's east are not Russians, take no orders from Russia, that Russia exercises no control over them because they only do what they want to do. Putin wanted to get this message across."
Former Kremlin spin doctor
Gleb Pavlovs:
"He needed the majority to 'move ahead' and annexe Crimea (on March 21). Now the majority want to go further and Putin doesn't. That leaves him facing a problem. The patriotism is turning into demands for annexation and whether the authorities can respond to them is not clear."
Putin may have decided he has achieved all he can in Ukraine, that he must settle for regaining Crimea - handed to Ukraine by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1954 - and that conditions are not right for annexing parts of east Ukraine.
The surge of violence in recent weeks, including a fire after clashes in the port city of Odessa which killed more than 40, may have convinced him Russia can no longer control events.
A civil war on its border would risk fuelling violence and instability in Russia itself with unpredictable consequences for the Kremlin and the likelihood of more damage to the already faltering economy.
Garry Kasparov was quick to hint at the economic background to the softening of Putin's stance:
"Putin announces troop pullback & endorses UKR elections right after meeting the Swiss president. Looks like banks are mightier than tanks!" he wrote on Twitter.
