Keeping Russia out has always been Europe’s Job No. 1
A Jonathan Power writes on todays Boston Globe op-ed page that the current election turmoil in Ukraine is partly Europe’s and America’s fault. According to Power, the lack of economic aid to Russia after the collapse of the Evil Empire (actually, we squandered billions, but who’s counting our money?) in combination with NATO’s expanison to the borders of Belorussia and Ukarine stoked Slavic nationalism in the literally dying Russia.
Power concludes:
Ukrainians must work it out for themselves, which means finding a way of resolving this crisis in a way that Russia can accept.
The West for its part needs to rethink its whole post-Cold War policy toward Russia. The United States should put a stop to its aggressive geopolitical strategy of challenging Russian interests in the “near abroad,” and Europe must use the lure of European membership for both countries to keep Russian and Ukrainian democracy and behavior on the straight and narrow.
Otherwise a return to the hostilities of the Cold War cannot be ruled out, and it will be as much the West’s fault as Russia’s.
That’s right, as long as the West exists, it will be the chief reason for any conflicts between it and Russia. Geography and history has blessed Europe with three natural enemies, and Russia is one of them. That’s just the way life is. Expanding NATO while Russia was weak – not that it is exactly strong today – was absolutely the right thing to do. In fact, it should be the West’s policy to bring about a split of Ukraine, to enable us to push NATO yet farther East.
And forget ever offering Russia European Union membership. Maybe we can all get along, but we can most certainly not all be friends.
