Un (inhabituel) coup de chapeau appuyé à LA représentante de l’OSCE à Minsk.
The Unsung Heroine of Minsk Talks - Bloomberg Business
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-12/unsung-heroine-how-swiss-diplomat-rescued-ukraine-talks
Just two women were at the table as the cease-fire between Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine and the government in Kiev was hammered out. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was one. The other was #Heidi_Tagliavini.
The discreet, 65-year-old Swiss diplomat worked alongside Merkel, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, France’s Francois Hollande and Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko on the deal to stem the conflict that has devastated eastern Ukraine.
In the “Green Room” of the vast marble-and-glass Independence Palace in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, Tagliavini helped stave off a collapse late in the talks, according to officials who were there. As someone Putin has long felt he could trust, diplomats say, she was able to silence a contingent of separatists who wanted to see the whole deal reworked.
“She is very smart,” Alexander Surikov, Russia’s ambassador in Belarus, said on the sidelines at the Independence Palace as talks stretched into the night. “She really works for security. She helps to keep these talks on the right path.”