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The Forum > Article Comments > The justifying myths of Russian intervention > Comments

The justifying myths of Russian intervention : Comments

By Peter Shmigel, published 4/3/2014

When the West looks at Vladimir Putin, it sees him through a conventional lens of 'political leader'. When Putin, looks at the West and at his own interests, he looks through the lens of a former KGB colonel.

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Why write "When the West looks at Vladimir Putin...", followed by "When Putin looks at the West and at his own interests..."
Is the West not also looking at its own interests?
If there is strong evidence to suggest that many of the pro-Russia spokespeople are being paid by Russia, is it not also true that many of the pro-West spokespeople are being paid by the West?
I think the recent developments in Ukraine are clearly 1) an attempt to split Ukraine, if not away from Russian influence, then into two pieces, and 2) an attempt to deny Russia's Black Sea Fleet access to Sevastopol.
It looks in these early days as though the first might succeed, but the second has already failed.
And lastly, I do wish our Government were not such camp-followers.
Posted by halduell, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 8:49:13 AM
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When I started to read this article I was dismayed that yet again ignorant ill-informed nonsense was getting space. Then I reached the end and saw the pean of praise for Abbott (surely our worst informed PM on foreign affairs in recent decades) and saw that the writer was a paid propagandist for the Liberal party and it all became clearer.

Graeme, if you are serious about encouraging informed debate, there have been a number of excellent articles written in recent days that are freely available. Please stop inflicting this self-serving drivel on us.
Posted by James O'Neill, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 10:57:52 AM
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An excellent article Peter Shmigel.

It certainly has the two parrots above squarking.

Their claim of independence from Putin's policies are somewhat undercut by the interest of one of them in maintaining "Russia's Black Sea Fleet access to Sevastopol."

They are truly Putin's Useful Idiots. The definition is:

"...useful idiot is a term for people perceived as propagandists for a cause whose goals they are not fully aware of, and who are used cynically by the leaders of the cause."

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot

They don't realise that Russian aggression towards Ukraine, including Crimea, cannot be excused.

Regards

Pete
Posted by plantagenet, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 11:15:20 AM
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When it comes to Colonel Putin, I've always seen him as a power hungry psychopath!?
And POWER HUNGRY PSYCHOPATHS, are not know for rational decisions.
Clearly, the majority of Ukraine citizens, would be prepared to lay down or risk their lives, than return to the Russian yoke!
A very dangerous situation, when that citizenry, feeling they have very little left to lose, have their fingers, hovering over nuclear armed ICBM's!
Nor would they be very troubled by the need to re-aim these weapons of mass destruction at Moscow, or St Petersburg, or the industrialized Urals!?
Given any fall out would travel east to west, only Russia and Putin, has very much to lose?
Other than that, the Ukraine could chose to turn their quite massive exportable reserves of grain into ethanol?
Which would allow them to live without Russian gas or energy supplies, particularly if they converted their current biological waste, to biogas, which could be used to power and heat their cities, indefinitely, and indeed, long after Russian gas supplies have completely dried up!
Posted by Rhrosty, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 12:50:13 PM
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"This needs to be viewed through an historical lens."

Indeed it does. Pity the author doesn't take his own advice.

Ukrainian language and identity are inventions out of wholecloth from the last 125 years and stem from Polish-dominated Austrian Galicia.

Prior to that time, no one had ever spoken a language called Ukrainian, no one called themselves Ukrainian or claimed a Ukrainian ethnicity, and there was no place or subdivision or country called Ukraine.

What now passes for Ukrainian language is a sort of pidgin-Russian heavily influenced by Polish loanwords and phonetics, and spoken as a dialect of Russian inside the Galicia, Volhynia, Vinnytsia, Zhitomir regions dominated by the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth and Polish nobles from 1350 to 1790/1940. Ukrainian language exists in a continuum of basically mutually comprehensible East Slavonic dialects which in a circle are Russian, Surzhyk, Ukrainian, West Polesian, Belarussian, and Trasianka before coming back to Russian.

People who now call themselves Ukrainians prior to 1890 called themselves Rusyns as opposed to "Rossians" or "Russians". Anyone with any intelligence will notice that ethnonym is identical to Russian. The "Ukrainians" in Transcarpathia, the part of Ukraine ruled by Hungary and Slovakia up until 1945 still call themselves Rusyn, not Ukrainian.

In truth, Ukrainian should be thought of as a political party promoting separate identity from Russia coming out of Austrian Galacia, and opposed to the Russophile Party looking towards Russia, and the Ugro-Rusyns in Transcarpathia. These divisions are still present in Ukraine.
Posted by drab, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 1:38:09 PM
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I'll repeat the words of my pacifist grandfather who fought against conscription, and who was jailled for his troubles, in WW1.

We are seeing the start of another European War. It's none of our business. Stay out of it it will only lead to the pointless spilling of Australian blood in faraway lands.

Lets give that message to all our politicians and our eurocentric friends... again.
Posted by imajulianutter, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 2:03:36 PM
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