Syria conflict: Russia’s Vladimir Putin stands firm

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has resisted diplomatic pressure from Western nations to support tougher action against Syria’s government.

Putin, an ally of Syria, called for more time to be given to the peace plan of envoy Kofi Annan. The US and UK have called on Moscow to strengthen its condemnation of the Syrian regime since last week’s massacre in Houla, where 108 died.

Earlier, Moscow opposed a UN Human Rights Council resolution on Syria. In an emergency session on Friday, the council condemned Syria over the Houla massacre and called for an investigation. But Russia voted against the US-backed resolution, arguing that it was “unbalanced”.

Correspondents say Putin’s latest remarks, made after a meeting with French President Francois Hollande, highlight the divisions between Moscow and Paris towards the conflict in Syria.

Speaking at a news conference, Hollande called for further pressure and sanctions, and said the only solution was for President Bashar al-Assad to resign.

He said Assad’s regime had conducted itself in an “unacceptable, intolerable way” and had committed acts that disqualified it from power.

“There is no possible exit from this situation except with the departure of Bashar Assad,” he said.

Putin, however, questioned calls for the Syrian president to quit. “Why are we thinking that if we push the current leadership from power, then tomorrow general wellbeing will begin there,” Putin said.

“What is happening in Libya? What is happening in Iraq? Has it become safer there? We propose to act in an accurate, balanced manner at least in Syria.”

He said the most important thing was to prevent the worst-case scenario of civil war. There have been calls for more action to be taken in Syria to stop the violence, which has continued despite Annan’s six-point peace plan.

Speaking in Oslo on Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hit out at Russia saying she did not believe it was acting impartially.

“We know there has been a very consistent arms trade, even during the past year, coming from Russia to Syria. We also believe the continuous supply of arms from Russia has strengthened the Assad regime,” she told a news conference. On Thursday, Western officials confirmed a report that a Russian cargo ship had delivered heavy weapons to the Syrian port of Tartus last weekend.

Putin has insisted that Russia was not supplying Syria with arms “that could be used in a civilian conflict”.

America’s flagging recovery Third time unlucky

The story of the American recovery is one of constant disappointment: two steps taken forward, followed inevitably by one step back. After a return to job growth in early 2010, trouble from Europe dampened American expectations and led to a summer swoon, to which the Federal Reserve ultimately responded with more monetary easing.

 The economy recovered its footing and added 1.5m jobs in the year to April of 2011, only to be dragged to the brink of a double-dip recession by soaring oil prices, a disastrous debt-ceiling showdown, and still more trouble from Europe. Early this year, it seemed as though the economy might finally have reached escape velocity.

Private employment grew at the fastest pace of the recovery in January of 2012, and private employers added over 2.2m jobs in the year to February. Alas, the summer blues seem to have struck again.

America’s economy added just 69,000 jobs in May, according to a report released this morning by the Bureau of Labour Statistics. The BLS also revised down job gains in March and April; all told payrolls rose just by just 289,000 in the three months to May—the worst performance since August of last year.

The slowdown is broad-based. Manufacturers added just 12,000 jobs in May, and construction employment tumbled by 28,000. Retail employment was virtually flat, and the government, once again, shed jobs for the month. Government employment dropped by 161,000 in the year to May, 50,000 of which loss came at the federal level.

News from the household side of the survey was brighter for the month of May. Employment and participation in the labour force both jumped (labour-force growth led the unemployment rate a shade higher, from 8.1% to 8.2%). Yet the smaller survey size and the volatility of the household data suggest one shouldn’t take much comfort from the result. And elsewhere the news is bleak. Long-term unemployment rose after falling in recent months. Hours worked edged down slightly.

The rum employment figure came in below expectations, but it wasn’t entirely out of line with recent data points, which have signalled a slowdown in hiring and slower growth in the economy.

Moreover, the news is in keeping with a general turn in global economic sentiment, helped along by troubles in emerging markets but driven largely by chaos and recession in the euro zone. Manufacturing activity in the euro zone sank to a three-year low according to data released this morning and euro-zone unemployment reached a new record high at 11%.

Similar data point to accelerating contraction in Chinese manufacturing activity, as well.

The now obvious turn for the worse for the American recovery will place strong pressure on the Fed to intervene once again at its June meeting, taking place in just over two weeks. Intervention had not been expected, but falling inflation expectations, loss of momentum in labour-market recovery, and worsening financial conditions associated with the euro-zone crisis may make additional steps unavoidable.