Russia, Ukraine, and America

Some thoughts.

I am going to consider this situation in its broadest terms, without getting sidelined with petty details.

Both America and Russia are to blame for the degeneration of relations over the past 20-25 years, and the lost opportunity to forge a real, positive, friendly working relationship between the two nations, a lost opportunity that is a world historical tragedy. We must admit that America is more to blame for this than is Russia. America made promises to the end-stage USSR and to Russia, understandings both direct and indirect, and Russia was betrayed by American mendacity. NATO was not to be expanded eastward. There was the understanding that NATO would no longer be defined as an anti-Russian alliance, that America would not exploit Russia’s post-USSR weakness, that Russia would be a genuine partner and would not be economically pillaged. There was also the understanding that America would not interfere with the internal politics of Russia or in Russia’s sphere of influence. All of these promises and understandings were broken and betrayed. Russia has legitimate grievances with respect to this. America also made promises to Ukraine, to guarantee Ukrainian territorial sovereignty and integrity in exchange for them giving up the nuclear weapons on their territory (a big mistake on Ukraine's part and a lesson to other nations with respect to these weapons).

Russia is not guiltless, however. Just as there have been elements in the American Establishment wanting to rekindle the Cold War, similar elements exist in Russia as well. There are those in Russia who lament the break-up of the USSR and wish to reverse this to the extent possible.  Russia must be willfully ignorant if they fail to realize that the anti-Russian hostility in America comes from the Jewish power structure (both Neocon Jewboys and the Jewish Left) who have an undying ethnic animus against Russians (and against Ukrainians and against Slavs in general), coupled to their junior partners of the Anglo-American elites. The American people themselves are not anti-Russian. Trump, I believe, genuinely desired better relations with Russia, but to the extent Russia interfered with the 2016 election, and gave ammunition to anti-Russian forces in America, they sabotaged that possibility (one wonders if anti-American elements in Russia did that intentionally). Russian antics in targeting dissidents and defectors in the UK and their activities vs. Ukraine obviously do not inspire confidence abroad.

Russia has legitimate interests in keeping Ukraine out of NATO.  Ukraine, with good reasons to fear Russia, has equally legitimate reasons to want to be in NATO (although I’m skeptical how much support Ukraine would get even then). How these seemingly intractable set of interests could be resolved is something beyond the scope of this essay, but if Salterian governments were in charge of both nations, it could be worked out. In the current circumstances, a reasonable accommodation that meets the interests of both parties does not seem likely.  Ukraine’s unfortunate history in the 20th century, which informs in part its attitude toward Russia, is in large part due to Jewish crimes, just as Russia’s equally unfortunate history is. The Ukrainians seem as willfully ignorant, or even more so, about this than are the Russians, even to the point of electing Jews to rule over them. On the other hand, one can argue that both peoples know the score, but are just being pragmatic, given the realities of Jewish power and the need to try to leverage that power in their national interests. If so, they still don’t have a real understanding, as, in the end, Jews care only about themselves and hate both Russians and Ukrainians, and so no good will ultimately come from Slavs kowtowing to Jews.