I haven’t said this, but I guess it’s easier to make up straw men than to address what I did say.
Ukraine isn’t part of Europe, and Russia doesn’t get to meddle in the affairs of Ukraine. However, if Europe thinks that Russia is supposedly doing something in Ukraine, that does not constitute an adequate justification for Europe to use these vague allegations as a cover for much more blatant intervention than most of what they’ve accused Russia of. Absolutely everything that happens in Ukraine is Ukraine’s business only.
Contemporary Russia plus contemporary Ukraine does not equal the USSR. Do you suppose that, if Ukraine rejoined Russia tomorrow, Russia would start building military bases on the German and French borders, or stealing European markets, or destabilizing Europe’s territorial integrity, or advocating a Russian military presence in Europe? For one thing, Russia has too many of its own internal problems (economic stability, the threat of terrorism, and so forth) that it has to fix right now without the added grief of somehow trying to encroach on the European Union’s economic territory, which it wouldn’t be able to do anyway because the European Union is stronger economically than both Russia and Ukraine. If Russia and Ukraine decided to pursue a closer relationship, that would pose no economic threat to Europe, because Ukraine isn’t part of Europe to begin with, it’s not an important economic player in Europe, and it doesn’t have anything that belongs to Europe. Conversely, Ukraine is very important to Russia as an economic partner (and vice versa), which makes Europe’s attempts to exercise political and economic influence on Ukraine very threatening to Russia indeed.
Because “the same policies” would be if Russia decided to build military bases in Montreal, or Copenhagen, or Prague, and blatantly strongarmed elections in France and Germany’s most important trading partners. In reality, though, Russia withdrew from eastern Europe and dissolved the Warsaw Pact a long time ago. It is not actively moving into western Europe, whereas western Europe is actively encroaching onto eastern Europe. Pursuing closer ties with Ukraine, or any other former Soviet republic, is not moving into European territory, because that isn’t European territory; it’s not different at all from France and Germany deciding to pursue closer ties with each other.
Very true. It also follows from this that no body of countries has a right to intervene anywhere based on allegations that someone else may be intervening there, and cynically derive benefit from this intervention under cover of platitudes about “democracy.” I eagerly await your scathing denunciation of the American government’s use of your taxpayer money to fund Yuschenko’s campaign.
Let me see if I have this right. So, if there are Ukrainian citizens who support Yuschenko (i.e. one half of Ukraine), then they are independent people who are making an informed decision with no outside influence whatsoever; their existence shows that OSCE didn’t try to encroach on Ukrainian politics, simply because they are not in the OSCE, and if they tell journalists that Russia is meddling in their election, then that must be the truth. On the other hand, if there are Ukrainian citizens who don’t support Yuschenko (i.e. one half of Ukraine), then by definition they are simply “conspiracy theorists,” or “crybaby liberals,” or otherwise not legitimate; thus, their existence doesn’t prove anything, and if they tell other journalists that what Europe is doing is far worse than anything it’s accusing Russia of doing, then that can safely be disregarded despite evidence that it’s true. Damn, that’s really “unbiased.”
I must have missed the day when Russia accused Yuschenko of poisoning his opponent even though the accusation didn’t make sense, encouraged and paid Yuschenko’s opponents to shut down the government and force a new election, and sent ten thousand observers to that election to ensure that its own preferred candidate won.
Ah, some good old smear tactics! So I take it that you would have no problem with Russia building a military base in Montreal or Havana?
Next time, you might want to read at least some of what I’ve said before replying.