Russia bent backward over the refusal of Kiev to pay its debt, and the West says: "Very good, now keep going, you need to bend still more and better than that!"

Bloomberg: Once Russia backed off over Ukraine's $3 billion outstanding debt to Russia and the de facto default of Ukraine, Russia needs to bend and being bent backwards even more so now and then all the way:

"The West should see Putin's offer and raise him: Russia should do more to ease a crisis of its own making. ... Now the situation has changed. The IMF has signaled that it might be willing to lend to Ukraine even if the government doesn't pay Russia in December. ... The IMF should take this opportunity to demand that Russia accept a bigger haircut .... The more Ukraine pays, the more IMF money will go straight back out to a country that -- by annexing Crimea and supporting a pro-Russian rebellion -- played the central role in undermining its economy."

The position of both Kiev and the West is, to make it so, that Russia sees no money paid back on its loan--the reverse has been in the works--Russia's de facto reparations and tributes.

Putin's request for guarantees is just formal. It only serves as a cover and a straw for the usual crowd to applaud Putin's genius and cunning. The West is not going to give any guarantees, and Russia's decision to put off the payments from Ukraine is already a done deal anyway.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-11-17/putin-s-deal-for-ukraine-isn-t-enough?cmpid=yhoo.headline