To my thinking Russia under Putin has been a shit sandwich wrapped in a Crony-Capitalist Kleptocracy wrapped in an Oligarchy of former KGB people with connections. But that's just me. Others may tell me of their beautiful literature or cinema or poetry or whatever, but in most part Russia since Putin has been a contemporary art project of how awful petty nationalism can be in the 21st century. It's like a country taken over by a man with an inferiority complex who wants to boast of his secret inner greatness. As such the country displays strange impulses in all its affairs, from its handling of the Chechens in Georgia to the land grab of Crimea to funding extremist nutjobs in Ukraine just to stop Ukraine joining the West to hosting bad looking Olympics and wining unlikely World Cup bids.
So, here's an interesting article explaining how these impulses play out inside Russia.
Some Western pundits, including foreign policy realists and anti-interventionists who see US support for Ukraine’s pro-Maidan leadership as a textbook example of meddling and dubious alliance-making, contend that the Russian point of view in the Ukraine crisis has been insufficiently considered and unfairly maligned. Russia has legitimate reasons, they say, in not having hostile neighbours, not being surrounded by NATO members, and for feeling general resentment at being kicked around by the West after the end of the Cold War.
There is certainly much to debate about various US and NATO actions in Eastern Europe after 1991, and the extent to which the United States should be involved today in counteracting Russia’s coercion toward its neighbours. That said, it is hard to see by what moral or geopolitical principle an authoritarian crony capitalist regime in Moscow is entitled to bite off chunks of a non-consenting Ukraine.
A few years ago, retired Russian general and former arms negotiator Vladimir Dvorkin wrote in a column for ej.ru that the real cause of the Kremlin’s anxiety about NATO expansion was not fear of invasion - an absurd idea given Russia’s nuclear arsenal - but fear of ‘‘encirclement’’ by more liberal and modernised societies, which would then exert pressure on Russia to follow the same path.
I guess I would be one of those people saying the West ought not to be meddling in Ukraine. But as you know I base that observation of never being able to win the Eastern Front in computer games as Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm II or Hitler. I just don't see much meat on the bone that makes it worthwhile, although I will say that resources in Ukraine are underdeveloped. It's entirely another debate whether more petrochemical resources development - i.e. mining for gas and oil - is a good way forward for what was once the breadbasket of Eastern Europe. I would contend it wasn't.
Was Nuts Yesterday, Is Nuts-er Today
It's an interesting thing that the world leader on a collision course with Vladimir Putin is Tony Abbott, who while he may not have the military might to scare Russia for a moment, has the ample opportunity to dis-invite Putin from the G-20 meeting in Brisbane later this year. Of course, Tony Abbott is jumping at the opportunity to be any kind of international statesman because his own domestic politics aren't working out well. One would imagine it is similar in nature to Vladimir Putin's desire to go invading neighbouring states that were once part of the USSR, just not as violent.
The advice he got yesterday from the international community about sending troops to Ukraine to help 'secure the site' of the MH17, was that it was nuts. This sentiment has been echoed by the ADF itself, through unofficial channels otherwise known as "figures who" do "not wish to be named".
The senior defence figure, who did not wish to be named, said it was a poor idea for Australia.
''They can't secure the site,'' he said. ''It's kilometres long and wide. They could escort Australian officials and provide close protection, but this is a civil task rather than a military task and it's a terribly volatile area.
''We don't have the language skills or knowledge of the area.
''For any military deployment, you have to look at a status of forces agreement with the government and, given the area the aircraft is in, I don't think there is anyone to make that agreement with. What I've heard is the rebels don't want more than 30 investigators there.''
What's particularly interesting about this is that while Tony Abbot was in opposition, banging on about how he will send the Navy to "stop the boats", similar leaks came out of the ADF saying the Navy wasn't exactly equipped to be doing this kind of thing. This was Advice which was promptly ignored - and so we can reasonably expect this bit of advice would be ignored as well.
More interestingly what we're seeing from Tony Abbott is a pattern where if he can't solve it through sloganeering, he's totally happy to send in the men and women in uniform to just sort it out, out of sight with the benefit of official secrets to make the whole thing un-transparent and utterly opaque. One can therefore imagine that should unfortunate things be found in Ukraine, they'll jump to an immediate "can't comment, our troops are in operations" mode of communication.
Age of Entitlement Ending? More like Age of Ultron-Perks
I offer this to you without comment.
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