The Western Nations’ response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been sound, and well thought out. so far. Their political overtures to Ukraine not so much. Offer Ukraine memberships in NATO and the EU now only shows their lack of foresight and imagination. It is like offering a woman who is being raped protection from being raped. Ukraine is being raped, repossessed, and manipulated by Russian forces, and The West can not really do anything with substance about it. Embargo, grabbing Oligarch’s possessions internationally all seem reasonable, but embargoes work only when those being embargoed have nowhere to go or do business, and why take possession of items that must legally be held and returned at a later date. Image and political theater. That is all. Ukraine will eventually fall. Over a million Ukrainians will leave this land, some for good. Russia will get what it needed, a victory, a conquest of historical proportions. Russia and her new ally China will develop greater and deeper economic and political relationships, bypassing the West’s economic systems, possibly establishing their own.
Many state and provincial governments as well as private and organizational organizations are divesting from Russia at their own peril. The more Russia is isolated, the closer it becomes to its neighbor to the south of it. Imagine if China, along with Russia withholds all supplies of natural resources, petroleum, and the many items the west has gotten used to receiving. Imagine. Furthermore what if Russia and China can pressure or influence India into a new economic-political alliance? Everything is on the table for people under siege. Just ask the Ukrainians.
The West’s foreign Policy can and may fail. It will take Russia further eastward, into the hands of their comrades in China. China wants and needs Russian petroleum, wheat, and natural resources. Their two systems are similar, based upon an eastern form of social capitalism. Corruption and profiteering in these two countries have become part of the social fabric. Who do Putin and China truly fear? Why it’s their own people. So long as they can manipulate and control their citizens, they do not fear the outside world. That’s how Dictatorships roll.
Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
skaszab@yahoo.ca
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