COLD WAR AGAINST
RUSSIA
The crisis in Ukraine is increasingly taking a
dangerous turn that some are warning could trigger a new cold war between
Russia and the west. The crisis began with protests against the elected but
widely considered corrupt government of former President Viktor when he plumped for closer ties to
Russia rather than the European Union. The mediated compromise agreement
between Viktor and the opposition in the streets on 21st Feb 2014,
brokered by Germany, Poland and France, unraveled even before the ink was dry
on it and this finally led to the ouster of the president and his flight to
Russia, where he has been given protection. Meanwhile the Crimean peninsula
where the Russian Baltic Fleet is stationed has been taken over by pro-Russian
elements. Eastern Ukraine, overwhelmingly inhabited by people of Russian ethnic
origin, could be the next pawn on chessboard. The fracturing on ethnic and
political lines of Ukrainian national unity between pro-23st and pro-Russian
groups spells either a breakup of the country or as Russia may be trying to
achieve a federal solution that prevents Ukraine from turning wholesale from
what Moscow sees as a Ukraine that is not Russia into a Ukraine in Opposition
to Russia. Russia’s mobilization of 20000 troops after the duma gave President
VIadimir permission to invade Ukraine if necessary to protect
Russian-co-ethnics, defend the Russian Fleet’s base in the Crimea and ensure
Ukraine does not become a hostile neighbor at the behest of the west has evoked
a military mobilization in Ukraine by the interim government that replaced
Yanukovyeh.
However no one has any doubts that the Ukrainian
armed forces are no match for Russia’s might. US president and Secretary of
State have warned Russia of the cost to be paid for its actions so far as well
as if it invades Ukraine. These would include a likely cancellation of the
impending G8 summit in Sochi in June, economic sanctions and a pullout of US
and other western businesses from Russia. This threat seems unlikely to deter
Putin, who since his rise to power has been battling western attempts at
encroachment and worse in the near abroad, Russia’s neighbours that are former
Soviet states. Since the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1991, the west has
felt free to carry out military and subversive interventions in a host of
countries to bring about regime change that suits its interests.
The US led west’s new-imperialism through direct
military intervention or subversion through paid trained proxies on the streets
is causing enough trouble all over the world. In the case of Ukraine it could
engender a new conflict and even the beginning of a new cold war. The promise
of peace, cooperation and progress after the end of the cold war has been
dashed by western countries unabashed desire to subjugate the globe through
military might and the power of capital. History suggests the west may be
overplaying its hand and threatening humanity the world over with the unbridled
ambition of dominance that cannot but engender enormous new tensions and
conflict in a war weary world.
