Posted on 02/22/2020 3:24:15 AM PST by tlozo
Russia could regain its status as “a global rival” for Western powers through some degree of “integration” with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said...
Putin made the comment while reiterating his belief that Ukrainians and Russians are “the same people,” a claim widely perceived as a means to justify Russian influence over former Soviet nations. His reference to “integration” is even more unusual, and incendiary, according to Western analysts, given that the two countries have been locked in conflict since Russia’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine in 2014...
Multiple Western analysts noted that Putin has been pressuring Belarus to form a new political union with Russia, a political shift that could enable him to remain president of the expanded Russian state. That effort is anchored in an ambiguous 1998 political agreement between the two countries. Ukrainian authorities never signed such a deal, and the current conflict has alienated the two peoples despite Putin’s long-running effort to deny that Russian military forces invaded Ukraine.
“The Ukrainians understand now that the Russians, particularly this group in the Kremlin, are no longer their brothers,” another former U.S. official familiar with Russian-Ukrainian issues told the Washington Examiner. “From the Ukrainian standpoint, it's ludicrous to even contemplate.”
Alisa Muzergues, a foreign policy analyst at GLOBSEC, echoed that assessment and added that the attempt to maintain influence in Ukraine is partly a way to appeal to the domestic Russian population.
“Putin is striving for recognition of Russia as a superpower, but while having limited capacities, it can only have a direct influence on its immediate neighborhood,” she told the Washington Examiner. "And Ukraine is indeed a crucial player in this game of Putin’s influence due to a number of reasons: economic, cultural, historic — but also it is important for his influence inside Russia.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Russia is fighting an undeclared war in southeastern Ukraine, since 2014 which has resulted in 13,000 deaths and 1.5 million refugees in that region.
Not much I agree with this article, seems to be a lot of conjecture mixed with bias.
The talks of it are revived because it seems like Ukraine is opening to the idea. They once again realized that Western choice was a mistake.
Now the Russians need to explain their leaders that Brzezinski’s ideas are dated and irrelevant in the era of modern communications and weapons of mass destruction.
Europe broke it, Europe bought it.
Putin needs to insist on free elections in DNR and LNR and insure these would be independent countries. They have anything to prosper without Ukraine and Russia.
The rest of that tar baby Ukraine needs to stick to Europe and be Europe’s problem.
Ukraine is already divided religiously, linguistically, and ethnically. It’s time to formalize the division.
Lemberg and the rest of Austrian Galicia wants globohomo. Let them have it (although I don’t know how the Visegrad group will feel about that).
The rest has a Russian soul. Let Russia have it.
Majority (53%) in Ukraine want economic ties with Europe and only 13% support the so-called Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) with Russia. Six years of conflict with Russia has destroyed the Soviet propaganda of slavic brotherhood.
Galician hillbillies has poisoned the overall culture over last 30 years, more so since 2014. I think it would be even correct to say Khruschev started it releasing Nazi collaborators from prisons in 1955.
Just look at the recent riots around coronavirus.
It is a sort of savage gluttony you could expect in Ternopol but it is happening in Poltava now.
Allowing these people who didn’t even know indoor plumbing to take over Kiev was a huge mistake.
Propaganda and the lack of free media does it. How old are your numbers? Do you have anything from objective sources and recent?
Apparently the Russians upon reaching Berlin in 1944 thought toilets were foot washers.
Russians and Ukrainians are not “one people”. Ukraine has historically been easy to invade because it is a plain.
Its Putin's heavy handed, crude attempts(turning off the gas, Crimea and Donbas War) at corralling Ukraine that have backfired. Its why Putin just fired Vladislav Surkov (His advisor on Ukraine), who stage-managed Russia’s involvement in Ukraine.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/21/putin-fires-vladislav-surkov-puppet-master-russia-ukraine-rebels/
Do you really believe Surkov was fired over Ukraine? Ukrainian affairs were maybe a 1% of his duties.
The toilet stories are many times recycled muths.
Despite international blockade Donbas has the better standards of living than the rest of Ukraine.
As for Crimea it is even nothing to compare.
None of our business.
If you ever make the mistake of calling a Ukrainian a Rusdian you will see that Ukraine views “integration” with Russia like a rape victim views her abuser.
Meanwhile the new anti corruption President of Ukraine continues to flush the corruption and is joyfully embracing a relationship with the swamp draining America.
The greatest legacy of Russia in the Ukraine is the ghost city of Chernobyl. It seems the rape by Russia left incurable STDs behind.
Russia sends soldiers, the west sends aid, which would you choose if you lived there?
Back in the USSR !
What soldiers? Do you mean a hundred advisors long gone? Confederates field a 60000 strong mechanisized militia.
And Mighty Flows the Don.
My grandmother was Russian. Lived in the Ukraine. Never called herself a Ukrainian. Just Russian.
“The fact that Russia has rotated 27 brigades and regiments through the Donbas while the U.S. Army possesses only 31 BCTs must not be overlooked,” Fox wrote. “The Russian military, especially its ground forces and its combat experience, need to be respected.”
“Cyborgs at Little Stalingrad: A Brief History of the Battles of the Donetsk Airport,” was published this month by The Institute of Land Warfare at the Association of the U.S. Army. The author, Maj. Amos C. Fox, is the operations officer for the 1st Battalion, 35th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas. https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/05/14/russian-military-gains-in-ukraine-could-spell-trouble-for-the-us-army-even-in-a-conventional-fight/
Okay, even if we’d believe these speculations no Russian military is there since early 2015. It is a long time.
As for now the pro-Confederate mood is growing in the government-controlled eastern areas. Big time.
Everybody realize that the European choice was a fraud. Smart people knew it full well since the beginning.
There was no such term as Ukrainian before 1920s. All of them called themselves Russian. The Westernmost were Hungarians and Polish and called themselves accordingly.
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