by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright February 3, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

                   Fighting a proxy war with pro-Russian separatists in South Eastern Ukraine, 62-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin continues his master plan of a land corridor between Russia to Crimea.  Seizing Crimea March 1, 2014 Putin signaled he was no longer partnering with the European Union on anything other that energy sales.  Putin blames the Feb. 22, 2014 pro-Western coup in Kiev on the U.S. CIA, meddling in his backyard, toppling 64-year-old Kremlin-backed Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich.  Booted out of the G8 March 24, 2014, Putin now goes it alone.  Reluctant to take the military stance on Putin?s aggression in Ukraine, the U.S., EU and NATO give Vladimir a green light to repeat his 2008 takeover of Georgia?s South Ossetia and Abkhazia.  No matter what economic sanctions and hardship on the Russian economy, Putin sees expanding Russian territory as worth the price.

                        Sworn in June 7, 2014, 49-year-old chocolate baron Ukrainian President Petro Petroshenko can do nothing to stop Putin from splitting Ukraine into two separate countries.  No matter all the lip service from Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the Kremlin has no intent of honoring the Sept. 5, 2014 Minsk Protocol, calling for a ceasefire between the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatists.  Putin denies Russian involvement in Southeastern Ukrain, supplying pro-Russian separatists led by Kremlin-backed Donetsk leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko to unmarked Russian military personnel and arms to defeat Poroshenko?s dilapidated army.  Seizing the Donetsk airport and port city of Mariupol, Putin thumbed his nose and U.S. and EU attempts to preserve what?s left of Ukraine?s sovereignty.  No U.S. or EU leader, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is willing to confront Putin.

             White House officials find themselves in a quandary with the new GOP-controlled Congress, where House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) look inclined to usurp the White House foreign policy authority.  Inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Jan. 21 to speak to a joint session of Congress March. 3 without White House consent, Boehner breached usual protocol for the purpose of bypassing the White House.  Obama?s poor foreign policy track record led conservatives in Congress, like Boehner, to proceed independently of the White House.  Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) are urging stronger U.S. involvement defending Ukraine?s sovereignty.  Going in opposite directions, Merkel announced she would not supply Ukraine arms.

             Putin?s incursions into Ukraine violate the generally accepted U.S. Cold War protocol requiring a vigilant and firm policy of containment.  Since the collapse of the Soviet Union Dec. 25, 1991 under Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, the U.S. containment policy went South, until Putin assumed office May 7, 2000.  Putin disguised his ambitions of recapturing lost Soviet territory until he invaded Georgia Aug. 7, 2008, annexing South Ossetia and Abkhazia.  Seizing the strategic Crimean Peninsula March 1, Putin took the Russian Federation in a different direction, bullying former Soviet satellites and threatening to takeover more territory.  Putin justifies seizing Crimea as an historic mistake by the late Soviet Premier Nikita  Khrushcev to gift Crimea to Ukraine Feb. 19, 1954.  Putin has no problem taking the territory back after Ukraine toppled Kremlin-backed Yanukovich.

             Deviating from the EU?s isolationism, Obama announced he?s considering supplying arms to Ukraine.  Russian-backed separatists have steadily increased their fighting force with the help of Moscow to 100,000.  Ukraine hopes to increase its troop strength to 50,000 but Poroshenko faces defections by troops forced into battle sometimes against friends and family in the Southeastern Donbass region.  Under pressure from Corker and McCain, Obama considers arming Poroshenko when it?s already too late to regain control over Ukraine?s Donbass region.  Putin wants a land corridor from Russia to Crimea, accomplished by taking Mariupol and annexing Southeaster Ukraine.  Without any credible resistance in the U.S., EU or NATO, Ukraine?s lost for the foreseeable future to Moscow.  Starting his new Eurasian Union Jan.1, Putin seeks to bypass economic ties to the U.S. and EU.

             Without a credible military force to counter a pro-Russian takeover of Southeastern Ukraine, Ukraine is no longer sovereign state with recognized borders.  Having already seized the strategic Crimean Peninsula March 1, Putin hopes to complete his land bridge to Russia through Urkaine?s Donbass region.  Poroshenko can only look on helplessly while the U.S., EU and NATO equivocate about confronting Putin?s aggression.  Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton?s March 5, 2014 comparison to Hitler in the 1930s looks more valid with Putin showing no signs of backing down from seizing Southeastern Ukraine with Russian surrogate troops.  New voices on the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Service Committees led by Sen. Bob Corker and Sen. John McCain won?t accept Putin?s newfound aggression.  Without drawing a line in the sand, no one?s safe in Eastern Europe.

 About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

©1999-2005 Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.
(310) 204-8300
All Rights Reserved.