Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24
US House Prices Trend Forecast 2024 to 2026 - 11th Oct 24
US Housing Market Analysis - Immigration Drives House Prices Higher - 30th Sep 24
Stock Market October Correction - 30th Sep 24
The Folly of Tariffs and Trade Wars - 30th Sep 24
Gold: 5 principles to help you stay ahead of price turns - 30th Sep 24
The Everything Rally will Spark multi year Bull Market - 30th Sep 24
US FIXED MORTGAGES LIMITING SUPPLY - 23rd Sep 24
US Housing Market Free Equity - 23rd Sep 24
US Rate Cut FOMO In Stock Market Correction Window - 22nd Sep 24
US State Demographics - 22nd Sep 24
Gold and Silver Shine as the Fed Cuts Rates: What’s Next? - 22nd Sep 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks:Nothing Can Topple This Market - 22nd Sep 24
US Population Growth Rate - 17th Sep 24
Are Stocks Overheating? - 17th Sep 24
Sentiment Speaks: Silver Is At A Major Turning Point - 17th Sep 24
If The Stock Market Turn Quickly, How Bad Can Things Get? - 17th Sep 24
IMMIGRATION DRIVES HOUSE PRICES HIGHER - 12th Sep 24
Global Debt Bubble - 12th Sep 24
Gold’s Outlook CPI Data - 12th Sep 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Partition Ukraine to Prevent Civil War!

Politics / Eastern Europe Jan 26, 2014 - 05:08 PM GMT

By: LewRockwell

Politics

As violence and mayhem surge in Ukraine’s capitol, Kiev, fear is growing that Europe, the United States and Russia may be on a collision course.

Ukraine’s latest crisis began last November after Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an economic cooperation/integration pact with the European Union. Instead, near bankrupt Kiev accepted a Russian offer to supply heavily discounted natural gas and a pledge to buy billions worth of its shaky bonds.



Demonstrations erupted in Kiev and, later, Lvov. The Russian-backed Yanukovich government reacted with brutal police repression. Violence has mounted in recent days, with at least two demonstrators killed and scores injured on both sides. Moscow is making warnings.

This spreading crisis is of utmost geopolitical importance. It will determine the fate of 46 million Ukrainians, Russia’s future, and the stability of Eastern Europe.

Ukrainians are bitterly divided: western Ukraine, which mostly speaks Ukrainian, looks to the west and borders on Poland, a member of the EU. Predominantly Russian-speaking Eastern Ukraine looks east to neighboring Russia. The Crimea was Russian until Nikita Khrushchev gave it in 1954 on a whim (some say fuelled by vodka) to Ukraine. Crimea’s large Muslim population was destroyed or exiled by Stalin.

Ukrainian and Russian speakers understand one another’s tongue. The problem is more about economic and mentality than language, ethnicity or religion.

Western Ukraine championed the EU deal that would have begun integrating their nation with the rich EU and cast off the heavy hand of Russian political and economic influence. The example of booming EU member Poland inspired Ukraine’s western partisans. Ukraine’s ardent nationalists yearned to make a final break from Russia, which has never really accepted their nation’s 1991 independence from Moscow and has battled Ukrainian nationalists since the 1920’s.

The EU saw the trade pact with Ukraine as part of its grand strategy to keep pushing its borders east, a campaign that deeply alarms Russia.

But eastern Ukraine, notably its industrial Donetsk basin, feared that growing integration with the EU would wipe out their region’s antiquated manufacturing industry, mining, steel firms, commodity companies and chemical plants, causing high unemployment.

Ukraine’s inefficient, post-Soviet companies could not compete with the EU’s powerhouse integrated producers. The same phenomena was seen in former East Germany, where reunion with West Germany doomed most of the East’s rust-belt industries.

Eastern Ukrainians traditionally look to Russia as their cultural foundation. Most Russians regard Ukraine as their historic heartland, the cradle of Russian civilization and ethos.

When Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that the fall of the Soviet Union was modern history’s greatest tragedy, he was clearly thinking of the loss of heartland Ukraine, Russia’s breadbasket and gateway to the West. For many Russians, sunny, easy-going southern Ukraine is their region’s version of Italy.

Outsiders have been pouring gasoline on Ukraine’s fires. European and American politicians beat a path to Kiev to denounce the Yanukovich government, which first took power in 2004-05 by fraudulent elections.

US Senator John McCain and high-ranking US officials have gone to Kiev and called for the ouster of its government. Interestingly, they did not go to Cairo to denounce the increasingly brutal fascist dictatorship of Egypt’s US and Saudi-financed military junta.

Western intelligence services have been stirring Ukraine’s pot, using covert funding and advanced social media techniques to rally opposition to the government. Russia’s intelligence services have also been active, but more discreetly. Opponents of the government have been poisoned, abducted, tortured and even murdered by pro-Yanukovich thugs.

As Ukraine boils, the US has been turning up the heat on Russia and leader Putin, who is being vilified and attacked by the tame western media. The Sochi winter games have also become a target.

How dare those Ruskis use money and gas to bribe Ukraine to stay in Moscow’s orbit? The West is supposed to have a monopoly on such strong-arm tactics.

If violence continues to rend Ukraine, the inevitable question of partition will arise. Just like Czechs and Slovaks, Ukrainians may decide to go separate ways. Unless the hot-headed Ukrainians can reach some stable compromise, divorce may be their only option. Bad, of course, but not as bad as a truly scary confrontation between NATO and Russia over Ukraine.

Unimaginable? Well, few thought about Sarajevo or Bosnia in 1914.

Eric Margolis [send him mail] is contributing foreign editor for Sun National Media Canada. He is the author of War at the Top of the World and the new book, American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World. See his website.

Copyright © 2014 Eric Margolis

http://www.lewrockwell.com

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.


© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in