Russian Bear eyeing Ukraine
Editor:
On Sept. 2013, in the ancient city of Novgorod, Vladimir Putin gave an important speech.
In a city he calls the “spiritual centre of Russia,” which dates back 1100 years to Russia’s beginnings, Putin said “The key to Russia’s success is our intellectual, spiritual and moral strength that is grounded in our history, values and traditions.” This is how, he says, Russia will remain strong.
Putin lamented about the depravity of godless and rootless Western liberalism.
“We can see Euro-Atlantic countries rejecting their roots, even their Christianity, which is the basis of Western civilization,” whereas Russia, he said was a “state civilization reinforced by the Russian people, the Russian language, Russian culture and the Russian Orthodox Church.”
Fast forward to June 2017 and listening to Donald Trump’s speech in Warsaw, Putin, who did not attend, surely smiled. Trump said, “The people of Poland, the people of America and the people of Europe still cry out ‘We want God.’” The West, he said, “Is bound up by culture, faith and tradition that make us who we are. We can have the largest economy and the most lethal weapons, but if we don’t have strong families and strong values, we will not survive.”
The parallel between the two speeches is not accidental. Trump’s speech reflects the global views of his advisors, Steve Bannon and long time protégé Stephen Miller who see Putin as a fellow nationalist and a crusader against their common enemy, liberal cosmopolitanism of globalists. But there are difficulties.
One of the biggest difficulties is that Putin has maintained the revolution in the Ukraine was America’s doing and its fate should be discussed with the Americans rather than the Europeans. This has been the stumbling block with the Obama administration and why there never seemed to be any progress in Ukraine. American hegemon denies culpability and the Russians believe they are.
Tillerson, in Kiev the day after the G-20 summit, affirmed American insistence that the war in Ukraine was planned and started from Moscow, and it was up to the Russians to make the first step in de-escalation. Until Russia does so, sanctions will remain in place.