Ukraine, Putin’s maneuvers beyond the Donbass
The recognition of the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk it could be just the beginning. Vladimir Putin seems intent on redesigning the map of the Russia, or at least of the areas that may fall within its direct sphere of influence. In his view, he is forced by the eastward enlargement of NATO which directly threatens it safety of Moscow. But there are not only geopolitical or defensive reasons at the root of the Russian president’s moves. No, he himself returned a historical, identity and almost philosophical yearning to the ambitions of enlargement towards the West. And the red circles on the map multiply. In addition to Ukraine, what is happening in Belarus and in the direction of the Baltic and the Black Sea should be kept under observation.
“I would like to emphasize once again that Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us: it is an inalienable part of our history, our culture and our spiritual space. Since time immemorial, people living in the southwest of what has historically been the Russian land have called themselves Russians and Orthodox Christians. It was like this before the seventeenth century, when a part of this territory reunited with the Russian state, and then after, “Putin declared, announcing his decision. And again:”Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia or, to be more precise, from Bolshevik and Communist Russia. This process began practically immediately after the 1917 revolution, and Lenin and his comrades carried it out in a way that proved extremely hard on Russia – separating what is historically Russian land. Then, before and after the Great Patriotic War, Stalin incorporated into the USSR and transferred to Ukraine some lands that belonged to Poland, Romania and Hungary. He gave Poland some of what was traditionally German land as compensation, and in 1954, Khrushchev took Crimea out of Russia by giving it to Ukraine. This is how the territory of modern Ukraine was formed “.
Putin’s view on Ukraine: “A contrived state created by Soviet Russia”
These are fundamental words to read and understand, because they give the deepest meaning to Putin’s conception of Ukraine. A Russian territory by nature, a semi-artificial national construction. “Ukraine has never had stable traditions of true statehood and therefore opted to foolishly emulate foreign models, which have no relation to Ukrainian history or realities. The so-called pro-Western civil choice made by the Ukrainian oligarchs was not and is not aimed at creating better conditions in the interests of people’s well-being, but at keeping the billions of dollars that the oligarchs have stolen from Ukrainians and that they keep in their bank accounts. Westerners, “Putin said again, outlining the contours of what he wants to sell to Russian citizens as one mission.
Putin goes further: “The disintegration of our united country was caused by the historical and strategic mistakes of the Bolshevik leaders and the leadership of the Communist Party, mistakes made at different times in the construction of the state. The collapse of the Historical Russia known as the USSR it’s on their conscience. ” This is the fundamental passage that makes us understand how much Putin aims, at least at a rhetorical level, not only to recover as much Ukraine as possible, but also to seek a partial reconstruction of what once was and that it was a mistake to let it dissolve.
On Putin’s map, Ukraine should become one bearing state. The tension of Kiev towards the West and towards NATO make it inevitable an intervention to bring back to the fold a country that in his view has historically reason to exist only thanks to a concession from Moscow. To understand how this concept can be translated in the field. We will stop at the recognition of the separatist republics of Donbass or we will try to create a united pro-Russian territory by uniting them with Crimea? Or, as the United States continues to argue, the ultimate goal may even be Kiev?
The answers to these questions will probably arrive in the next few days after the new negotiation rounds, also because they have always focused on that. The scenery Georgia“, as Affaritaliani had defined it in reference to what happened in 2008 in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, was the minimum objective of a Putin who could not simply turn his heel in the face of the rhetorical battle with the West. In the meantime, however. , Moscow has in fact also taken control in another neighboring country, the Belarus.
(Continued with the maneuvers on Belarus and the Baltic)
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