The deployment by Russia of troops along the Ukrainian border, these days, has triggered all the alarms. Moscow does so for geopolitical reasons that have to do with the expansion of NATO, because it considers that America is in decline and has lost the will to fight, and perhaps also to distract from their internal problems after the impact of the sanctions and their poor handling of the pandemic.
Putin is obsessed with what he sees as growing NATO harassment, after twelve countries of the former USSR have joined the organization and perceives it as an existential threat. That is why he wants to equip himself with a defensive glacis around his own territory and that is why Ukraine is so important to him.
Ukraine has 1,700 kilometers of border with Russia, 44 million inhabitants (half speak Russian and are of Orthodox religion) and its history is closely linked to that of Russia itself since the Middle Ages. For Putin they are reasons enough to affirm that Ukraine is an “inalienable part of Russia & rdquor; and that should be tied to Moscow or at least be sensitive to their interests. And it demands that Kiev stop flirting with the European Union and NATO, as it has been doing since 2014 after the overthrow of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, when it suspended the signing of the Association and Free Trade agreements with the EU. The Kremlin saw in its fall the long hand of Europeans and Americans.
In 2008, NATO frivolously offered admission to Ukraine and Georgia without setting a date, a promise that has not been fulfilled or has traces of doing so. Today Ukraine is a partner of NATO, and in that capacity it sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, but non member and the difference is important because Article 5 of collective automatic defense is not applicable to the partners, in case of external aggression. In other words, if Russia attacked Ukraine, NATO would not defend it with arms in hand. And the same Biden He categorically excluded that possibility a few days ago.
Moscow believes that Ukraine is slowly becoming a kind of aircraft carrier at the service of its enemies next to his border, and how he is not willing to admit it Crimea was initially annexed in 2014, something that no one in the world has recognized but that does not for that reason seem less irreversible, and has then intervened covertly to promote the separatism of the so-called Donestk and Luhansk republics. He has not yet recognized them, but has already distributed half a million passports on them, while fighting continues there between separatists and regular Ukrainian forces.
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Moscow is now concentrating 175,000 soldiers along the Ukrainian border, firing not weapons – at least so far – but yes all alarms. It may be that they are innocent military maneuvers, but neither the moment chosen nor the place where they are carried out encourages us to think so. That is why Putin and Biden had a tense telephone conversation this week, in which the former asked him to guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO (which is still an inadmissible interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state) , and the second has reiterated its commitment to the sovereignty of this country and has threatened heavy economic sanctions if Russia attacks or invades Ukraine. These threats have also been joined Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, which warned Russia that any aggression “will have consequences”. It is about confronting the Kremlin with the calculation of the human, economic and even reputational costs of the adventure, in comparison with its eventual benefits in the form of security and territory. After the conversation there are indications that Russia is thinking better of it, as Putin pointed out that “Russia has a peace-loving foreign policy but has the right to guarantee its own security,” he added that “we hope that at least this time our concerns be heard & rdquor ;, and promised to continue the dialogue with Washington in the coming weeks. We will see. For now, it continues to deploy its soldiers.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com