Moscow flexes muscle in Ukraine

Here we go!!! What will President-elect-Obama do?? God Bless America

You could just as well use the headline "US flexes muscle in Ukraine". When I lived in Washington I subscribed to the Times because I was very put off by the bias in the post. I now live in Kiev. This article shows the same level of bias in the opposite direction. Let's take it piece by piece Russia has had control over the two enclaves in the Caucasus ever since the USSR dissolved in the early 90s. South Ossetia and Abkhazia did not want to belong to Georgia. Largely populated by ethnic minorities, they figured that they would get better treatment from Russia than Georgia. Ukrainian arms sales to Georgia are not an accusation. They are a fact. It is also a fact that quite a few Russians live in Ukraine, especially Crimea, and they hold Russian passports. It is also a fact that Russia issued Russian passports to the citizens of South Ossetia and Abkhazia during the 16 years they were affiliated with Russia. It is reasonable to assume that the Russian consular office routinely issues Russian passports to people within Ukraine. It would be difficult to assess whether or not they are doing it aggressively. Moscow has overtly supported Mr. Yanukovitch. The United States has overtly supported Mr. Yushchenko. The Pylyp Orlyk Institute for democracy cited in the article is an arm of the US Ukraine Foundation, certainly supported by the US government. We can hardly cry that Russia is playing politics when we do exactly the same. The question that Russian pressure comes when Ukraine is vulnerable is a non sequitur. Yes, their economy is down. It has a lot to do with subprime loans in the United States. The fact that the economy is down certainly does not make an increase in defense spending such as advocated by NATO advisable. I close having responded to only half the article. The bias is palpable. There is only a slender silver lining to Obama's presidency, but such as there is is associated with the fact that he is less likely to get us entangled in more wars. A real conservative would urge our country to mind its own business and not pick a fight with Russia.

Great comment grahamseib.

The article is untrue and false by large extent. Yes, Russia has some influence over a group of Ukrainian politicians. So States do. It is common for every political structure to have friends outside the country. What is so dramatic? However there is also fact that Russia's influence grows over years. But it is not because of evil people who sit in Kremlin it is because of Ukrainian president himself. Ukrainians lost trust in him as he turned even worse evil than Kuchma. In 2004 he was supported by majority of Ukrainians when he said "Bandits will be in jail". And people believed him as Ukraine needed huge changes. Yushchenko introduced his program "10 steps towards the people" in which he promissed needed reforms. The implementation remains on zero-level. He did not do anything. Instead he made friends with then bandits and today shares a car of an aircraft with them. With those who were to be in prison. Immediately after inauguration his son got into scandal on his lifestyle of demigod. President ignored it. Instead he started to cruise all over the World spending taxpayers money as no other Ukrainian president before him. He likes wearing Zilli and Brioni which president of a troubled country as Ukraine simply should not afford. State budget for President and his office for 2009 is bigger than budget of his counterpart from Russia. Lately National Bank of Ukraine issued a coin with Yushchenko on it. This is worse than one could think. His Majesty enjoys his powers. As Ukrainian I am truly ashamed to write this. President's two only concerns have been making Ukrainian language widely spoken and genocide of 1930s. And in both cases he blames Russia. For all other matters he delegated his powers to a clique of maraudic crooks. He talks about problems from afar, he never deals with them in person. He stabs his former allies. Timoshenko by all means is no perfect solution but unlike him she is capable of making decisions and she got guts to take responsibilities. President has been looking for ways to cut her powers since 2002 long before he was elected. He realized he was no competitor to her. His peoplerealize it too and turn away from everything associated with him including his "go West" ideas. And Russia benefits about it. No need to flex muscles.