Once again we hate the Russians, the enemies of my youth; after all, they invaded the Crimean Peninsula, sovereign territory belonging to Ukraine, and shot down a commercial aircraft, and it is all President Donald Trump’s fault. The Russians colluded with Candidate Trump to sabotage our Democracy, right?
Interesting that the term collusion is vanishing from the media vocabulary. How dare President Trump attempt to get along with the Russians? If I am not mistaken, the invasion of Ukraine was during the Brack Obama administration and the stage for the invasion was set during Secretary Clinton’s watch.  President Obama resurrected this issue in his speech in Illinois, marking his recent return to political campaigning. The strategy will be to wrap the Russians and President Putin around President Trump’s neck and by extension all Republican candidates.
“The U.S. has influenced elections in at least 84 countries since 1945.” Global News. Is that a bad thing? Not in my eyes, but let’s not get so full of outrage that we stop talking to other nations who do it to us.
A Feb. 24, 2014, Washington Post editorial celebrated the Maidan demonstrators and their successful campaign to overthrow Yanukovych, a pro-Russian head of the Crimean government. The “moves were democratic,” the Washington Post concluded, and “Kiev is now controlled by pro-Western parties.” Think the United States of America would like it if the Russians help overthrow a sovereign pro-American government in Mexico or Canada?
The Cato Institute published “U.S. officials were blatantly meddling in Ukraine. Such conduct was utterly improper. The United States had no right to try to orchestrate political outcomes in another country—especially one on the border of another great power.
“It is no wonder that Russia reacted badly to the unconstitutional ouster of an elected, pro-Russian government—an ouster that occurred not only with Washington’s blessing, but apparently with its assistance.” Cato Institute.
It is worth looking at a bit of history to understand the Russians’ view of and the mindset of the Russians before the invasion of the Crimean Peninsula. The all-weather deep water ports the Russians have maintained on the Black Sea on the Crimean Peninsula date back to 1783. They were deeded to the Ukraine in 1954 when they were part of the Union of Socialist Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), with a treaty to allow the use of the ports by the Russians. The demise of the USSR in 1991/1992 resulted in a sovereign government in Ukraine and a treaty leasing the ports to the Russian Federation. All was well until 2014, when with our help, the elected pro-Russian government was overthrown, and the leases canceled.
The Russians lost nearly half a million troops in the Crimean War and arguably 450,000 or more in World War II defending and retaking the Crimean ports. The Russians are not going to relinquish control of the Black Sea all-weather deep-water ports without a fight. How in the name of history the Department of State did not see this is puzzling. It is diplomatic malpractice to think that the Russian Federation was just going to give up the ports without a fight.
If the new government in the Ukraine had left the leases in place, all would have been well. The United States has leases for bases in Cuba, the Philippines, Japan, Germany, Korea, Kosovo at Camp Bond Steel, England, Belgium, Iraq, Afghanistan and many more nations.
The Chinese have a system that allows Hong Kong to exist with a different system of government and economic system but still be a part of China; a similar compromise could have avoided a war. However, the President Obama/Clinton Department of State forgot history and tried to freeze the Russians out of ports vital to the economy and defense of the Russian Federation.
They handed the Russians a winning issue on a silver platter. Putin’s approval ratings with the people went from a very high 61% to an astronomical 81% after the invasion of Ukraine. President Clinton once said, “if I have a 60% approval rating, I could do anything I want.”
I am fully aware the American left and right want to hate the Russians, but the invasion of the Ukraine and Putin’s undying popularly was a diplomatic blunder on our part that needs to placed at the feet of President Obama, not President Trump.

 

2 Comments

Couchman
September 16, 2018
What is the point of this opinion piece? Is it justification of President Putin's invasion and arranging for a succession vote for the residents of the Crimea? Why do Russian WW2 deaths matter? Because Germans had invaded Crimea, which has been part of Russia since 1783, then the USSR after the 1917 revolution and now Russia again for the warm water ports? The Russians invaded to regain Crimea prior to President Trump ever announcing his intention to run for the Presidency. The invasion and subsequent vote to rejoin Russia all occurred while President Obama was in office. As a former member of the U.S. Army, how many battalions of U.S. ground troops would you have approved to face Russian ground troops in Crimea and Ukraine? How many US servicemen’s casualties would have been acceptable? How would you have advised President Obama? I didn't think it was wise to create a crisis between two of the world's nuclear powers. Did you ever think how the U.. would replace the millions of cubic feet of natural gas Europe uses for heat that would have been stopped had military action ensued? President Putin wins elections in Russian following two rules: First, The Golden Rule and since President Putin hand picks his oligarchs and according to multiple intelligence agencies including our allies (at least out allies until recently) and our own, President Putin has a 50/50 arrangement with them. If they make $100M on a transaction like the sale of natural gas to EU countries, President Putin's cut is $50M. According to Bloomberg, this arrangement has made President Putin worth an estimated $84 billion. The second way Putin wins elections is a bit darker. He eradicates opposition. Since Putin was elected, 22 journalists critical of his government have been killed and two have vanished. One of those killed was American Paul Klebnikov who was in Russia working as an editor for Forbes Magazine’s Russian edition who was gunned down in a Moscow drive by shooting in 2004. Politicians and former government members are also killed after being critical of the Putin government. Critic/political leader Boris Nemtsov was assassinated in Moscow while walking in Moscow. Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with a radioactive poison in London and died after being critical of Putin. In 2003 Surgei Yushenkov was shot and killed hours after registering a opposition party. In 2013 former Putin insider/hand and picked oligarch Boris Berezovsky had a falling out with Putin. He was found dead in his London apartment from what was initially called a suicide but the case was re-opened. More recently we have seen the poisoning of two more Russians living in Great Britain. Many Americans, including myself, can’t justify President Putin’s actions in Ukraine or how he handles domestic criticism including taking action against those no longer living in Russia. Many of the same group can’t trust a U.S. President who insists on meeting one on one with President Putin, refuses requests by his advisors and the refuses to have a State Department employee there to transcribe what both parties said in the meeting. After the Helsinki meeting, President Trump has refused to allow the Senate Intelligence Committee privately interview the translator who was only other American present. President Trump is our president and Not my Fault or is it former President Obama’s fault doesn’t address the here and now. And so it goes.
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Robert M Traxler
September 16, 2018
Mr. Couchman, Sir, Thank you for the comment. You and I are on different planets. Your comment makes no sense. The point boiled down to a few words you may understand is this. We, the United States orchestrated the canceling of the leases on the ports. The Russian national pride would not allow that to stand, so they took the ports. We should have known it would happen. Your words “ how many battalions of U.S. ground troops would you have approved to face Russian ground troops in Crimea and Ukraine? How many US servicemen’s casualties would have been acceptable? How would you have advised President Obama? I didn’t think it was wise to create a crisis between two of the world’s nuclear powers.” WOW! From telling the Ukrainians not to cancel the leases for the ports to avoid Russian action to starting WWIII is a leap even for you! Please read the column; the American Department of State should have advised the Ukrainian government to allow the leases in a manner like China does for Honk Kong. Leases like we have with dozens of nations for bases. This matter could have been avoided. President Obama screwed this one up. I never advocated American troops on the ground, only wiser diplomacy, given the history of the area.
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