Posted on 12/20/2013 7:45:43 AM PST by 1rudeboy
Under its current government, Ukraine may be a prize not worth winning
ANOTHER victory for Vladimir Putin, another defeat for the West. That is how the outcome of the battle for Ukraine, the country between Russia and the European Union, is being portrayed in Moscow and in many Western capitals.
On December 17th, after a meeting between Mr Putin and Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s president, Russia agreed to lend Ukraine $15 billion and to slash the gas price from $400 to $268 per thousand cubic metres, as a reward for Mr Yanukovych’s ditching of an association agreement with the EU. Unsurprisingly, the mix of money and political cover for theft and violence proved more enticing to Mr Yanukovych than the EU offer of the rule of law, free trade, competition and reform.
Yet look closer, and Mr Putin’s victory and Europe’s loss seem less obvious. Probably Mr Yanukovych never intended to sign an agreement with the EU—certainly not without being paid for it. By keeping up the pretence, he was able to bargain with Mr Putin, who has now agreed to provide money without Mr Yanukovych having signed a deal to join his Eurasian customs union.
And neither Mr Yanukovych nor Mr Putin nor EU leaders factored in the response of Ukrainians, who have been pouring into the streets for the past four weeks. Angered by Mr Yanukovych trading the country’s future for his own benefit, they were bolstered when he used violence against students. What started as a modest-sized street action demanding a deal with the EU has turned into a national awakening and vocal rejection of a kleptocratic post-Soviet state.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
Poor, poor Russia. Imagine, having to “protect its economy and markets” from a superpower like Ukraine. If things get much worse, Russia might be forced to assassinate some political opponents (or put them in prison), and stop shipping natural gas, again.
“There’s a conscious element of a memory of nation breaking. It isn’t just of famine. The Ukrainians have a lingering memory of a previous union with the Russians that nearly broke the back of their nation,” Zaryckyj tells me. “In fact, some may claim that it did break them.”This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Holodomor — a genocidal famine inflicted on the Ukrainian people by Stalin’s Soviet government, during which millions perished in the span of months and Ukraine’s intelligentsia and political, social, and religious elites were annihilated.
The Roots of the Ukraine Protests: Stalin’s Genocide, Alec Torres, National Review, December 19, 2013.
Choice between a fascist collective and a neo Orthodox state.
I have letters from my grandfather with Stalin Stamps on the envelopes.
That comparison works, as long as you consider the “neo-Orthodox” to be the arm of an authoritarian state.
My forebears were not allowed to send letters out of the Soviet Union.
Disagree. The tendency to see Russia and Ukraine as analogous is false Since partition Ukraine has made great progress. They have a way to go but the new generation is nationalistic and forward looking. They don’t want closer ties to Russia
Of course. After accession to the EU, they could all freely move to the UK, Germany, etc. and get free housing and benefits, all without lifting a finger. They see the Romanians and Bulgarians doing that *right now*. Sweet ride on the gravy train! Who wouldn't go for that deal?
I will fight to the last drop of blood in a chickenscratch liberal’s scrawny body to bring democracy to the world.
You're supposed to buy low and sell high.
How many people in America’s politics have connections to the people who perpetrated the Holomodor?
Big strings.
... what the EU offers but it should be looked at soberly and objectively.
Bottom line.
Dunno. Bill Ayers, maybe, for one? (Albeit indirectly).
Never heard of such a thing.
Well, perhaps your parents weren’t anti-communists. Although I should clarify: of course one was “allowed” to mail a letter from the Soviet Union. Some of them simply were “lost.”
Agree, am not a fan of Khodorkovsky just used him as an example of how a Russian totalitarian government can crush even an oligarch.
I’m talking blood relatives who might have been Cheka, I’m also talking oligarchs who profited from the Holomodor.
Name an oligarch who profited.
You forgot your sarcasm tag. Please read Post #17, above, which lays out many of the reasons why Russia covets re-integration (economically and politically) with Ukraine.
Blabla. Ukraine could go the way of Switzerland but both the EU and Russia would not like it.
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