(Andromeda) Did Putin read the letter?
A: Yes
Q: (Pierre) Oh yeah? Wow, that's cool! That's the good news of the day. So he read it...
(Ark) Maybe he was showing it to Hollande during their meeting... [laughter]
(Chu) That's why it lasted five hours. [laughter]
(L) They met for five hours?
(Perceval) Basically, the result of it seems to be that the US is all up in arms about the fact that Germany and France are not supporting arming the Ukrainians. McCain is criticizing and saying, "They don't care about people dying and suffering in Ukraine!" Because basically, if Germany and France don't agree to the US plan to give weapons to Kiev to kill everybody in Eastern Ukraine, they can't do anything since it has to be under the auspices of NATO; NATO bases in Europe that would be used for any kind of procedure like that are in Germany, Italy, and are sanctioned by European countries.
(Niall) They basically agreed to partition Ukraine.
(Pierre) They asked for more autonomy for Eastern Ukraine, and a no weapon zone between the zones.
(Perceval) A demilitarized zone. The Europeans talking to Putin have decided that it needs to be some kind of strong autonomous region to end the conflict, while the US is saying, "No! War! War! We hate Russia!" And Hollande and Merkel are meeting with Putin.
A: Letters that Putin receives give him hope.
Q: (Pierre) That's really good.
(Scottie) I wrote to him about the Holocaust Memorial thing. I was super-pissed off and feeling really bad for Russia. I mean, more Russians died in World War II than any other country or group... estimates are between 21 and 27 million Russians! I wrote him a letter when he wasn't invited to the Holocaust thing in Poland. It was... heartfelt.
(Perceval) We should all start writing letters of support.
(Pierre) Yeah, why not!
(L) Keep his spirits up. Yeah, just like we feel when we get letters...
[Write to Putin:
http://eng.letters.kremlin.ru/]