So why is so much energy being put into demonizing Russia's leader -- a tactic that historians and Russia scholars have noted never occurred during the height of the Cold War?
As investigative journalist Robert Parry's sources in the White House have revealed, the massive propaganda instruments of western corporate media are the only real leverage they have in the crisis they helped to engineer:
In the context of Ukraine, I asked one senior administration official about this behavior and he responded that Russia held most of the advantages there by nature of proximity and history but that one advantage the United States wielded was "information warfare" -- and it made no sense to surrender that edge by withdrawing accusations that had put Russian President Vladimir Putin on the defensive.
Indeed, many pundits in the media have bloviated about Putin's supposed crimes and imperial ambitions or have lamented that they can't figure out what the mysterious Russian president wants. This, however, indicates dishonesty or laziness. In countless speeches and interactions with western leaders over the course of his presidency, Putin has reiterated that he wants Russia to be accepted by the west or at least for its interests to be taken into account. Judging by his actual past actions, not the distortions and lies that have been put in their stead by western politicians and pundits, he wants stability, friendly or benign neighbors and reciprocal economic exchange.
Putin wants these things because he believes they will create the environment most conducive to increasing Russians' security and standard of living -- two values that are higher on his list of priorities than political democracy, though the latter is not completely rejected out of hand either as Russia is more democratic than it has been in its 1,000 year history of authoritarian rule, except for Gorbachev's brief period of leadership. With Putin's approval ratings never having dipped below the 60s, Russians seem to agree with his priorities.
This brings us to the question of how to resolve the Ukrainian civil war and the larger geopolitical tensions they embody. Instability and possible membership in NATO on his western border does not serve Putin's objectives for Russia. Due to Ukraine's internal cultural divisions, it is imperative for both Ukraine's long term stability and Russia's security that Ukraine serve as a neutral buffer state with decentralized political control, the opportunity to benefit economically from both Russia and Europe and no NATO membership.
The second and third requirements are interrelated as the EU attempted to force Ukrainian president Yanukovich to accede to an association agreement that not only would have created the economic problems already outlined, but would have also required Ukraine to align its military and security policies with NATO as reflected in the language of the association agreement itself as well as the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon requiring the same of all incoming EU members. This posed a major security dilemma for Russia as Putin, Lavrov and other Russian officials had warned American leaders and diplomats over the years that it would.
Unlike the unique situation in Crimea, Putin has shown no interest in absorbing the Donbas into the Russian Federation. Setting aside the likely political repercussions and thornier issues of international law, if Putin were to absorb the Donbas, there would be no viable counterweight to an extremist government in Kiev that would be free to pursue NATO membership.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
