The West and Putin's Russian Vision Meet in Ukraine

Let's take a tour of Eastern Europe. According to MIKHAIL GORBACHEV, the last leader of the Soviet Union who presided over its collapse, perestroika was the "conference of development of democracy, socialist self-government, encouragement of initiative and creative endeavor, improved order and discipline, more glasnost (openness) criticism and self-criticism in all spheres of our society. It is utmost respect for the individual and consideration for personal dignity." In 1988 when Gorbachev introduced glasnost, giving the Soviet people freedoms they had never known, including greater freedom of speech, the press became far less controlled, and thousands of political prisoners and dissidents were released. Gorbachev's goal in undertaking glasnost was to pressure conservatives within the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party who opposed his policies of economic restructuring, and to lead the Soviet people to support his reform initiatives through openness, debate and public participation, perhaps not realizing that at the same time, he opened himself and his reforms up for more public criticism. ~~~ In his presidency and premiership, VLADIMIR PUTIN has shown that Russia has no intention of establishing a copy of the American or British political system. Putin says he is interested in a system closer to Russia's own traditions and circumstances. Putin's administration has often been described as a "sovereign democracy." According to those who agree with that description, Putin's actions and policies are designed to gain popular support within Russia itself and not internationally. And in a speech before NATO in 2007, called the Munich speech, Putin called for upholding the principle that "security for everyone is security for all," while criticizing the policies of the United States and NATO, condemning the unipolar model of international relations as flawed and lacking moral basis, condemning the "hypocrisy" of countries trying to teach democracy to Russia, condemning the domination of hard power and enforcement by the US of Western norms and laws to other countries bypassing international law and substitution of the United Nations by NATO or the EU. Putin also called for a stop to the militarization of space and questioned the plans to deploy American missile defense in Europe as threatening strategic nuclear balance and spurring a new cold war. After the Munich speech, Washington came to regard Russia as obstructionist and a spoiler because of Syria, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. In turn, those nations began to look to Russia for protection against the US. And Europe, which needs Russian gas, but worries about Russian interference in the affairs of Eastern Europe, began to expand the EU eastward, which angered Russia. Central Asia sees Moscow as a former overlord too powerful to ignore. In Asia, India has moved from being a close ally of the Soviet Union to becoming a partner of the United States with strong nuclear and commercial ties. In East Asia, Japan and Russia remain estranged over the ownership of the Kurile islands, a dispute which has hindered cooperation for decades. And the Russia-China relationship has morphed constantly since the 1950s - from client state to antagonist to strategic resources partner. ~~~ The President of Ukraine elected during the Orange Revolution, Viktor Yushchenko, was succeeded in 2010 by VIKTOR YANUKOVICH, which led to improved relations with Russia. Yanukovich is an ethnic Belarus-Polish-Russian, whose mothertongue is Russian and who learned to speak Ukrainian later. The President of Kyrgyzstan since 2009, Almazbek Atambayev, wants a "common future" with its neighbours and Russia. Despite existing or past tensions between Russia and most of the post-Soviet states, Putin has followed the policy of Eurasian integration. Putin endorsed the idea of a Eurasian Union in 2011, (the concept was proposed by the President of Kazakhstan in 1994). Putin is quoted as saying in 2010 at a European meeting that if Ukraine attempted to join the European Union, he would consider annexing eastern Ukraine and the Crimea, althougb Putin denies having said this. In 2011, the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia signed an agreement setting a target of establishing the Eurasian Union by 2015. ~~~ In UKRAINE this weekend, as riots spread from Kiev to nearly half of the country, President Yanukovich promised to reshuffle his government and make other concessions - not enough for opposition leaders who say nothing short of his resignation will do. Hours after the president's comments Friday, fireballs lit the night sky over central Kiev and thick black smoke rose from burning tires at huge protester barricades. Angry demonstrators hurled firebombs, rocks and fireworks at officers as a protest leader said: "We will force the authorities to respect us,...Not they, but we will dictate the conditions of a truce." The fighting had stopped earlier this week as opposition leaders entered into face-to-face talks with Yanukovich. Vitali Klitschko, an opposition leader who is a former world heavyweight boxing champion, said the only way to end the street protests - known as the Maidan after the central Kiev square occupied by protesters - is for Yanukovich to resign. "Just a month ago, the Maidan would have gone home," Klitschko told reporters Friday night, according to the Interfax news agency. "Today, people are demanding the president's resignation." The more violent rallies broke out after Yanukovich scrapped a key treaty with the European Union in order to secure a bailout loan from Russia President Vladimir Putin, who has pressed hard to keep Ukraine in his nation's political and economic orbit, but more Ukrainians favor closer ties with the EU than any new alliance with Russia. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who spent several years backing the scrapped EU agreement with Ukraine, suggested that Yanukovich was losing control over the country. He posted a map of Ukraine on his Twitter account, where many regions were shown engulfed by protests : "If Kiev regime tries a military solution to this situation, it will be very bloody and it will fail." EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele flew to Kiev on Friday to meet with Yanukovich and the opposition and try to broker a solution. The West has been urging Yanukovich to compromise with the protesters, while threatening sanctions against his government. ~~~~~ Dear readers, these points in modern eastern European politics are related. Putin has now, according to sources, sent Cossack troops to help Yanukovich. It seems clear that the Putin vision of a renewed Russian hegemony includes not only the southern tier breakaway nations from Georgia to China, but also Ukraine. The view that Ukraine buffers Russia from western Europe is a thousand years old. The Putin view of modern Russia as the natural socialist leader of the space from Warsaw to Mongolia can be seen in Putin's efforts to consolidate power and influence through oil and gas diplomacy that supports his instinctive opposition to western democratic societies. Gorbachev was trying to save the USSR from internal economic collapse when he undertook the politically dangerous opening up of Soviet society. The unintended consequences of his gamble have made him a 'friend' of tbe West, but it was Gorbachev who said in 1985 : "Many of you see the solution to your problems in resorting to market mechanisms in place of direct planning. Some of you look at the market as a lifesaver for your economies. But comrades, you should not think about lifesavers but about the ship, and the ship is socialism." The efforts of EU leaders going to Kiev to coax Ukraine west would be better spent in talking to Vladimir Putin about a compromise that will call his Cossacks back home and stabilize gas deliveries into the EU. Then, the EU will be able to defend the protesters, who fear a return of Soviet-era Russian overlords. Perhaps a key to success is the little-known Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian politician, lawyer and business oligarch considered one of the most important post-Soviet Ukrainian politicians, less active now and operating out of public view. Currently Medvedchuk is chairman of the pro-Russian political organization Ukrainian Choice, and is considered 'the undisputed leader of Russia’s fifth column in Ukraine.' Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk's daughter Darina (born in 2004). Medvedchuk and his party now have marginal popular support in Ukraine, but, with President Yanukovich's son, a feared oligarch who yields huge business power in Ukraine, he may be able to convince Putin to save their, and thus Putin's, fortunes and power by helping Ukraine find a future acceptable to Russia and the West. Not at all easy. "The country is sliding towards dictatorship and we must stop that," says a 33-year-old protester."Molotov cocktails are louder than any empty words from politicians."