Russia’s invasion of Crimea is a new chapter in American-Russian relations, and the same old story for former Soviet republics.
—-
Before I begin one of the many pieces of media you’re going to consume over the next few weeks about a “new cold war”, I want you to do something.
Imagine, for a second, that you’re Ukrainian.
After hundreds of years of having your cultural identity confined to a cog in a machine operated by (in no particular order) the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Poland, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union, your country finally achieved real independence in 1991, by a referendum that carried huge majorities in every single territory – even the majority Russian speaking Crimea, which voted for Ukrainian independence by a vote of 76%-24%. No longer were you a citizen of some overlooked territory only needed for strategic purposes, but a part of an actual nation with established sovereignty. Your country is finally independent. You are finally free.
Then, over the next ten plus years, you are faced with corrupt leaders, followed by more corrupt leaders, followed by the Orange Revolution, where Viktor Yuschenko, an anti-corruption candidate, is poisoned and almost killed before he takes hold of the presidency. Once he leads the country, chances are, you hate him, and along with nearly 95% of your fellow countrymen, vote him out in 2010 and replace him with Viktor Yanukyovch, the same pro-Russian candidate who was taken down by the Orange Revolution.
Four years later, nothing is better. The economy is still terrible, the politicians are still corrupt, one of your most popular opposition leaders has been in prison for three years as political payback, and you’re fed up with the old way. You protest. The West paints it as a plea to join the EU, while Russia paints you as a terrorist, a Nazi, an anarchist hell bent on disrupting the geopolitical balance. Finally, the President flees the country and is removed, and replaced with another politician that half of the country views as corrupt. Then, in the same territory that borders Russia, that over twenty years ago voted to break away from it, a leader declares the federal government illegitimate and asks Russia’s president for help. He obliges. Within days Russian soldiers are on your country’s soil. Just like the old days.
So, tell me, an American force-fed the news for so many years of burgeoning progress in Eastern Europe, and improved relations with a country that was nearly our partner in the world’s nuclear annihilation, about how thankful you are to the West for giving you the gift of democracy, or the value of your partnership with Putin’s Russia. Because from the outside of this conflict, it looks like you are, once again, being used as a bargaining chip in a war of words between the East and the West.
♦◊♦
Unsurprisingly, the weekend was bombarded with the breaking news that Russia has rightfully returned to its’ place on the throne named America’s Mortal Enemy. There were signs of this, of course, the most notable being Putin’s invasion and week-long war with the former Soviet state of Georgia over a separatist region back in 2008. During Barack Obama’s presidency, Vladimir Putin has only pushed harder to reclaim Russia’s spot as a world superpower and to create a Eurasian Union, one that Hillary Clinton declared to be a “move to re-Sovietise the region”, that will rival NATO and China. And now, with the crisis in Crimea following Ukraine’s ouster of president Viktor Yanukoyvch, Putin has decided that now is the time to announce Russia’s re-emergence.
Forget the Sochi Olympics, the archaic laws aimed at the LGBT community, the Snowden Affair, and the cold tone between the U.S. and Russia that shaped the Syria negotiations; this is the real deal. Except this time, there’s no moral high ground for either side. Russia is the most prominent nation to visibly and actively work against gay rights, is only six years removed from an invasion of Georgia, and has had numerous high-profile incidents involving the imprisonment of political prisoners like Pussy Riot and Mikhail Khodorkovsky. On the other hand, the U.S. is only a couple of years removed from our disastrous occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and our support of dictatorships and authoritarian regimes in the name of American interests is more widely known than ever before. It’s a little difficult for the Secretary of State to call on Russia, with a straight face, to “respect national sovereignty”, when eleven years ago, as a Senator, he voted to authorize force in Iraq.
This is not to say that Putin has any legitimate standing for invading Ukraine, or that the US should not work to impose real and serious sanctions on Russia because of Putin’s power play. But our flaws, in the information age, are as illuminated as Russia’s, if not more so. Our proxy wars with the Soviet Union around the world have resulted in massive blowback that has come home to roost in our relations with the Middle East, and the NSA wiretapping scandal has cooled relations with some of our staunchest allies.
If this is truly a new Cold War, the only similarity is the nations fighting it. |
While this may be (in some ways) the official beginning of another Russo-American rivalry, it’s not exactly the titanic battle of ideas that marked the Cold War; Russia is of course no longer communist, and as the brilliant Jason Jones piece on the Daily Show noted, shares a lot of the values of libertarian-leaning mainstream America, such as low taxes and gun rights. Also gone are the days where it was considered a viable option to make both hemispheres a nuclear wasteland. If this is truly a new Cold War, the only similarity is the nations fighting it.
♦◊♦
So here we are, in a very compromising position, where Russia is our clear rival on the world stage, and they have just made the first move to reaffirm their power. This can be a defining moment for Obama’s legacy; if he can work with the Ukrainians, the Russians, and other world leaders like Angela Merkel (who has taken the lead in defusing the situation) to find a way out without a shot being fired, it will be a testament to a successful foreign policy. If this path forward doesn’t work, we could be looking at a something much worse – a new Cold War between NATO and Russia and her allies.
Chances are that the answer will fall somewhere in between, but for the Ukrainian citizen just trying to make it through another day, I can only offer one thing to say, as the citizen of a country that is once again using you and your nation as a pawn: I’m sorry.
Like The Good Men Project on Facebook!
Photo – Narengoyn/Flickr
Hi Paul
It is not much fun being an European right now.
But when I read what you wrote here I smiled.
” This can be a defining moment for
Obama’s legacy; if he can work with the Ukrainians, the Russians, and other world leaders like
Angela Merkel (who has taken the lead in defusing the situation) to find a way out without a shot being fired, it will be a testament to a successful foreign policy. ”
We can always hope , but who thinks he so qualified ?