Replies

Yeah, unlike the left, I didn't miss the Ukrainian famine. So you are saying this is important to us because of the historic oppression of this region by the Russians. Ok, I feel bad about that. When I said I was didn't know anything about the Ukraine, I was referring to modern times. Does it have any strategic significance to us that you are aware of?

Does it do anything to enhance Russian power to our detriment? Does this signal some new era of Russian expansionism? Is Putin a threat to Europe?

Ukraine is the strategic lynchpin of Eastern Europe. It is the crossroads between Russia, Central Europe, the Black Sea, the Balkans, the Baltics, and the Caucasus. Its destiny has a crucial impact on the destiny of all those regions, and the reason that hasn't been more apparent in recent years is because Ukraine has still been reeling from the breakup of the Soviet Union and has remained tenuously in Russia's orbit.

Ukraine has the potential to be a force of stability and modernity or of disruption and antagonism. Russia desperately wants to reabsorb Ukraine thereby amplifying its influence dramatically once again in the Balkans and Central Europe. A hostile Russia in the future with Ukraine could easily rekindle the Cold War in the midst of Europe. A hostile Russia without Ukraine would be hemmed in, and even more so if Belarus is eventually pried from its clutches.

The progress of Ukraine also has a substantial impact on free market and free society reforms in Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union. A slide back toward an authoritarian satellite-state would not only expand Russia's geopolitical power but would also consolidate similar reactionary developments there. There is nothing trivial about the future of Ukraine, except that it was under the Russian boot for so long that most Americans don't have the independent historical background to appreciate its critical importance.

The number one expansionists here is the EU and Soros, who own the opposition. The Russians did not oppress the Ukraine. What the Soviets did they did to everyone. Russians come from Ukraine which was not Ukraine but the center (Kiev) of the Kieven Russ empire. West to Krakow east to Moscow north to Novograd, south to the Greek city of Dnepipetrovsk and Odessa was also a greek city. Most of the Ukrainian cities were built by the Tsars and the Cossaks were runaway Russian and Polish serfs and debtors.

Kiev was even rebuilt by the Tsars.

Ukrainian territory is home to a vast array of gazoducts and pipelines, so these resources can go from the Caucasus to Western European ports, and from that, to the ports of Russian customers - of which, IIRC, the USA is and will continue to be a member.