So, Who Blinked?
"We hope that all provisions of the law will be implemented responsibly. It is clear that the attempts of well-known political groups in Ukraine to cancel it or change its essence will renew the confrontation in the southeast and undermine efforts of the international community and sensible politicians in the country to normalize the situation."Russian Foreign Ministry statement
Ukrainian Nationalist Party supporters burn torches
Wednesday outside the presidential office in Kiev to protest autonomy
for rebel-held areas.
European Press photo Agency
The recently-enacted response-to-reality law passed by a practical-minded Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko trying to save what he can of his country, yet granting self-governance powers to the ethnic-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine has been challenged by disgruntled politicians in Kyiv recognizing it for what it is: yet another, albeit totally grudging giveaway of Ukrainian geography to Vladimir Putin.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian Parliament also passed this week legislation ratifying the pact that had been rejected in 2013 by previous president Viktor Yanukovych, in sync with what his Russian masters demanded. This symbolic move putting on hold free trade provisions for the time being is demonstration enough that what is left of Ukraine will not settle for Russian domination any longer, preferring to move toward the democratic West.
In his visit to Ottawa today, Mr. Poroshenko has demonstrated his intentions in forging closer ties with Western nations whose support for Ukrainian sovereignty and absolute rejection of Russian hegemonic forced ties is unequivocal. More symbolism; in President Poroshenko's visit to Ottawa, there is the acknowledgement that Canada hosts the greatest number outside Ukraine itself of ethnic Ukrainians as Canadian citizens.
Canada, through Prime Minister Stephen Harper's firm statements abhorring Vladimir Putin's machinations in surreptitiously dispatching Russian military to Ukraine to aid the rebels it incited in capturing Donetsk and Luhansk, and his previous annexation of the Crimean peninsula has placed Mr. Putin beyond the pale. The settlement of enhanced authority for the east is a coverup by Kyiv of the reality that will eventually take place; the total russification of Novorossiya.
The ethnic Russians champing at the bit to move Ukraine's east completely into Russia's orbit find even the temporary placatory move by Kyiv unbearable. They want it all, and they want it now. As for Ukraine, granting temporary self-rule to the separatists will inevitably result in total separation. The man who once asserted with authority that he intended to reclaim Crimea for Ukraine appears now to have submitted to the reality that Crimea is lost forever.
He once also stated that there would be no amnesty for the ethnic-Russian Ukrainians who were guilty of violence; they would be apprehended and they would be tried for their crimes. Now, reality is that he has been forced by circumstances beyond his ability to control, to offer amnesty to the separatists. Most of whom have indeed been deeply involved in violence. As for those involved in the criminal act of shooting down a Malaysian passenger jet, how likely is it that any will face justice for a crime they deny having been involved in?
But then, where at one juncture it appeared certain that Moscow would continue to incite the separatists to take greater possession of south-eastern Ukraine with Russian troop assistance clearly intending to take possession of regions north of the Sea of Azov as well as a land corridor to Crimea through Mariupol, that ambition also may have been stunted by NATO, European Union and U.S. actions including financial sanctions to forestall what seemed inevitable.
Ukrainian servicemen ride on an armored vehicle Wednesday near the town of Pervomaysk.
Reuters
At that time, the hoary, frightening prospect of the stand-off turning into unthinkable combat leading to another world war, appeared imminent resulting from the level of territorial aggression unthinkable in today's world. Quietly and suddenly the isolation, threats and condemnations appear to have filtered through to Vladimir Putin's deliberately dulled consciousness, and he seems to have withdrawn his most ardent ambition at least for the present.
While speaking of a perceived 'threat' to ethnic Russian Estonians. Always the warning, the opening gambit for renewed Russian aggression. The threat is, of course, to Estonia itself, as demonstrated with the abduction of an Estonian policeman by Russian security agents. Intimidation softening up toward aggression. And this time NATO would have to respond in kind.
Now, while the Russian-approved ceasefire embarked upon on September 5 appears to be holding with a smattering of scattered violence, Russian troops have been pulled back out of Ukraine and the inflamed rhetoric with reference to "nuclear" and how easy it would be for Russian troops to take Kyiv in "two weeks" has been toned down.
The cold-war shattering of the USSR's corpse is still twitching.
Labels: Aggression, Civil War, EU, NATO, Russia, Secession, U.S., Ukraine
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, September 18, 2014
<< Home