The Russian President, who has denied persistent allegations that his government is arming the separatists, seemed to back the rebels in the battle for Debaltseve.
The locals refer to the indiscriminate nature of the Ukrainian army's shelling, as well as the separatists' seeming inability to protect them.
Halfway into his six-year term, the economy is faltering, corruption and cronyism seem to be ascendant and Muslim separatists and kidnappers are getting out of hand in the southern Philippines.
The separatist force appears to be a mix of young toughs and heavily armed professional military men who seem to spend most of their time indoors.
These people seem to pull Sortu's strings.If Sortu is banned, Batasuna's leaders may instead plant their candidates in the electoral lists of Eusko Alkartasuna (EA), a dwindling non-violent separatist party that seems ready to co-operate.
Few historians seem to have written that oddity into their prognosis, though it wouldn't be the first time that metropolitan carelessness has encouraged the separatist instinct.
He said: "Ed Miliband was actually rather good when he did actually for the first time seem to make it absolutely clear that his priority was to unite the country and to have nothing to do with the separatists.
But there seem to be equally clear signs of divergence now, for example over Mr Erdogan's embrace of peace talks with armed Kurdish separatists, led by jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.
A peace deal with separatists in Aceh seems to be holding; and more Islamist terror suspects are being brought to justice.
