Here is another dissenting voice from Russia on the issue of Crimea’s annexation. Swimming against the popular tide for Russia’s Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, columnist Alexander Goltz wonders how Putin’s actions in Ukraine can be considered a victory, when the very things he has been working to prevent for decades are now happening as a direct result.
For the Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, Alexander Goltz begins his column this way:
Only yesterday, Russian politicians and political analysts confidently predicted that the West had digested the annexation of Crimea. Putin has supposedly led another flawless military and diplomatic operation: trading a troop withdrawal from the Ukrainian border for the acquiescence of Western states to the annexation of the peninsula. Well played and let’s move on.
Well, it has turned out to be nothing like that. A meeting of NATO foreign ministers ended with the adoption of a statement that refers to the suspension of both civil and military cooperation between Russia and the alliance. By cutting off all communications, NATO intends to preserve the possibility of dialogue within the Russia-NATO Council at the level of ambassadors and higher. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen explained that the alliance would like to maintain cooperation on Afghanistan, including the transit of goods through Russian territory and Russia’s supply of helicopters to the country.
If we keep in mind that the rest of the partnership has been declining from one year to the next, then NATO’s punishment of Russia could be called symbolic. If not for one important fact: NATO remains a military alliance, and by branding Russia a country that violates international law, a country that poses a threat to European security, NATO is naturally turning to a discussion about militarily deterring Russia. This, above all, means helping Kiev organize its own defense. It is intended to intensify Ukrainian participation in joint military exercises. NATO countries have taken measures to offer all necessary support in the modernization of its military. NATO’s secretary general isn’t even excluding the deployment of mobile units of military advisers to Ukraine.
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