It's really amazing how soon the Obama administration's chickens are coming home to roost. They made a big deal out of finding a "reset" button for U.S.-Russia relations. They wanted to reject what they saw as George W. Bush's truculence over the Russian invasion of Georgia last summer. So they went out of their way to send a message to Russia that they wanted a new beginning in their relations with Moscow.
Well, they've gotten it. London's prestigious Financial Times reports that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sent a tough "ultimatum" to Ukraine's leadership... [snip]
The 2004 elections in Ukraine were widely hailed in the West as an "orange revolution" because that was the color of Viktor Yushchenko's victorious political party. Persuaded by the U.S., Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons. It seemed a good idea at the time, to reduce the number of countries with nukes might make non-proliferation treaty enforcement easier, it was believed.
When Boris Yeltsin's star was on the rise in the Russian Republic, it seemed reasonable to think that Russia might be headed for a new future as a free and democratic state. That was before Vladimir Putin ... [snip]
Even liberals understand what's happening now. Lilia Shevstova is a senior analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center. She told FT that the Medvedev letter is
"a message to any new leader [in Ukraine] that we will deal with you only when you accept our demands."
The freedom of 45 million people in Eastern Europe is very much at risk. If Ukraine is clawed back into Moscow's orbit, can Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia hold out? What about the tiny, freedom-loving Baltic States?
When we see Barack Obama and his administration of amateurs falling all over themselves to appease Russia, is it any wonder Vladimir Putin is pressing his own reset button?
It's Ukraine--and Putin is pressing it hard.
[And with Ukraine in-hand Europe follows, as it's the only remaining alternative to Russia controlling virtually all of Europe's oil and gas imports - for which they'll do whatever they're told.]
READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment