Quote: Dally "To give some context to the Russian psyche where Crimea is concerned, consider how huge WWII is in the British psyche. We lost over 400,000 people in that war. Russia (not USSR) are estimated to have lost c. 14 million. Russian military losses in Crimea were more than total British losses in the war. Crimea was then part of Russia then - Khrushchev only gave it to Ukraine in 1954 as an autonomous part of the USSR . Khrushchev, not surprisingly, was from Ukraine!
Now if Britain or the US where in Russia's shoes what might their attitude be?'"
And when Ukraine was given independence following the breakup of the USSR a referendum was held in Crimea in which the voters elected to be part of the new Ukraine.
If Crimea wishes to now join Russia then it should do this through a proper referendum in line with the constitution of Ukraine. If in such circumstances it votes to join Russia then of course the West should, and I believe would, respect that decision. However it is not appropriate for Russia to simply drop passports into Crimea, announce them to be Russian citizens and then annex the territory to 'protect its citizens'. I very much doubt that you would consider it reasonable for the US to invade and annex the UK to protect those of us who share an ethnic and cultural bond with the American people.
The fact is that Russia is a declining power. For 20 years it has seen its perceived sphere of influence decline as its neighbours have clamoured to join the West - through NATO and the EU. On major international issues such as Iraq and Yugoslavia it found its views completely ignored by the West. Its economy is enormously unstable, based on volatile and finite oil and gas sales. Its Slavic population faces demographic disaster due to a low birth rate and competition with its internal Muslim population that has a far high birth rate and which will constitute a majority in 30 years. Its military is poorly trained and despite recent advancements, remains way behind the capabilities of the West.
This act of an aggression, as with Georgia in 2008, is an attempt by the wounded bear to reassert some semblence of control over its neighbour. It reveals the fundamental weakness of Russia, in that it has to use force to keep its neighbours close to it, whereas say the USA does not have to invade Poland to keep it as a member of NATO.
Your refer to Ukraine as Russia's backyard and therefore there is some legitimacy in Russian actions. Just because Ukraine is a neighbour of Russia doesn't give it a right to decide whether or not Ukraine can join the EU and NATO. This is solely a question for the Ukrainian people to decide. If the Ukrainian people cannot decide, then the East and West should separate into two countries to better reflect the ethnic and cultural realities. Do you think that it would be acceptable for France to invade the UK if we tried to leave the EU on the grounds that Britain is its neighbour?
