John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“Backing Rebel Donbass Costs Moscow Very Little, Betraying It Would Be Far Costlier”
America, meaning its Washington power establishment, is just angry and embarrassed over what has happened in Ukraine.
The engineered coup was supposed to hurt and intimidate Russia right along a major border.
But it hasn't worked out that way at all.
You do have to expect a lot of bellowing and fuming when you frustrate a big bully from finishing an ugly piece of work.
I think this is a situation Putin has handled as a master statesman.
He has struck the right balance between accepting Crimea - historically Russian and whose people voted overwhelmingly for the change - and assisting Donbass in its troubles but not accepting it as part of Russia, all while helping create the Minsk Protocol to solve the mess.
I regard his overall position as unassailable.
Who knows how this will all turn out? The government in Kiev is very weak and has often been threatened by some of its own citizens. People in Western Ukraine have run away from its military draft in droves.
Large semi-fascists outfits like the Azov Battalion continue to make their presence felt. Poroshenko avoids implementing Minsk because he is weak and feels threatened by Ukraine’s Right Wing. Europe can see what has been happening, and, despite its American-influenced rhetoric against Russia, it knows Putin is fully committed to a settlement according to the Minsk Accords.
The Right Wing running the United States keeps rattling Ukraine’s chain, but so far it does nothing too serious to arm it and encourage war, something the Europeans would not appreciate.
One way or the other, I’m inclined to believe the Minsk Accords will come to prevail, but who knows? Donbass may be able to sustain itself as an independent state while Ukraine is never ready to make the effort or is not strong enough to overpower it.
I’m don’t think Ukrainians in general are keen to fight a serious war on behalf of the pathetic current Ukrainian government, weak and ineffective as it is, riddled with corruption, and having brought the economy crashing down.
It all could go on for some times. But Putin is the figure who stands out from all the rest in his handling of it.
