Is the EU wrong to impose sanctions on Russia?

realitykeeper wrote: »

After the Malaysian airliner was shot down over Ukraine, Putin said it would not have happened if there was no war in the Ukraine. This is undoubtedly true. It is also true from a Russian perspective that the EU and the US are fueling Ukraine`s aggression against the separatists. The Ukraine would be far less belligerent if the EU and the US were not supporting them, at least in word if not financially.

The EU told the Ukraine that if they wanted closer ties with Europe they would have to forfeit closer ties with Russia. This was an unnecessary precondition which seems to have been partly responsible for the situation which has developed in Ukraine as well as a deterioration in relations between Russia and the EU.

It is generally accepted the people of Eastern Ukraine want to be free of the rest of Ukraine. Their wishes should be respected but by insisting the territory is Ukrainian, the EU and the US is preventing Russia from helping to resolve the situation properly. The referendum in eastern Ukraine was hardly ideal and the leaders of that territory do come across as a bunch of thugs. However, without international support for Russian involvement, the thugs will stay in power and Russia will probably help them covertly as they are seen as the lesser of two evils from a Russian perspective.

This Russian help maybe reprehensible but it is a consequence of EU failure to share the Ukraine as a trading partner with Russia, along with EU and US failure to respect the wishes of the people who actually live in Eastern Ukraine, plus the advancement of NATO etc.

The people of eastern Ukraine are descended from Russians who were sent there during the Soviet era. Ukraine and the west do not believe this territory should go to Russia because that would be like rewarding aggression and conquest. All this may be true and certainly one option may be to continue upping the anti, waging world war three, letting the dust settle, seeing where the chips lie (if we are alive to see them) and then reflecting upon the lessons of war like others who survived wars in the past.

Alternatively, what if the west desisted from supporting Ukraine`s claim to the eastern part of it`s country, and supported an independent eastern region of Ukraine or a possible merger of that territory with Russia. Some have claimed it would be like the allies letting Nazi Germany have Czechoslovakia but that is hardly an accurate analogy. Hitler was not a well man. He was an anomaly whose rise to power was a reaction by the German people to the morally bankrupt treaty of Versailles which ruined and humiliated Germany.

If eastern Ukraine were to go to the Russian sphere of influence, it is possible that the territory would eventually revert to Ukraine. For example, if the Russians in the territory discriminate and marginalize the Ukrainian minority, then the minority population will thrive like all poverty stricken peoples and the demographics will eventually make them the majority. If they are not discriminated against then what difference does it really make if they are part of Russia or Ukraine. It could be like northern Ireland. Everyone agrees to pretend it is part of the UK but in reality of course it could no more be part of the UK than the moons of Saturn.

Putin is more like Churchill than Hitler. He is a stubborn and proud man who will not be bullied. He does want Russia to regain the power and status of the old Soviet Union just as Churchill strove to retain the British Empire and prevent its collapse. CIA operatives view Putin with suspicion. They describe him as "KGB". This may be true but at the end of the day, KGB agents are people.

Fear and suspicion of the other is what leads to conflict. Trust is priceless. In a Mexican standoff, it is better to lay down the gun. Even if the other guy kills you, that is the best strategy - you may need to think about that to understand why. Pope John Paul II encouraged love of the other as a key philosophy of life. In this age of nuclear proliferation, environmental degradation etc it may be that the literal teachings of Christ are what is needed in modern governments. The core philosophy being: love one another and love your enemy as yourself. If this were deployed as a universal policy then the war in Gaza would not have happened.

Using this philosophy, the conflict in Gaza was between good and evil and not between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The good being all those opposed to all the violence and the evil were those who sided with either the Israelis or the Palestinians. In other words, both the Israeli and Palestinian aggressors were both on the same side, that of evil while the good were opposed to the violence on both sides of the conflict.

The US did not support Russian action in Chechnya and Russia responded by opposing US aggression against Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iran etc, etc, etc. Perhaps the US and Russia could have helped each other by mediating in these conflicts instead of choosing a side a standing opposed.

The US is now attempting to bully EU countries and companies to support their sanctions against Russia by means of threats and fines for companies which it sees as infringing the trade sanctions. This is tyrannical and in any case sanctions against Russia are not going to improve relations between Russia and the west.

Not only will sanctions not help the situation in Ukraine but they will give rise to counter sanctions against the EU. When the sanctions fail will the EU (spurred by the US) increase sanctions and who will those sanctions ultimately effect? The latest round of sanctions for example will hit Russia`s oil and gas industry and that will have direct consequences for ordinary Russian people. The Russian people will blame those who imposed the sanctions on their country. They will not blame Putin. This should be obvious from the lessons of history.

The escalation of tensions between east and west through sanctions and counter sanctions is at odds with the simple message of Christ. Love one another. The alternative is not a good idea.