Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Russian Grumblings about Ukraine Politics Continue


Who's really in the driver's seat?


Vladimir Putin, and the rest of the Russian Government, is ... Unhappy with the establishment of a popular government in Ukraine. Between criticisms being leveled by the Dmitri Medvedev and the Russian Foreign Ministry and the recent deposition of President Viktor F. Yanukovich over the weekend following the mass killings of protesters last week. 

“Strictly speaking, today there is no one to talk to there,” Mr. Medvedev said in remarks reported by Interfax. “The legitimacy of a whole host of government bodies is raising huge doubts.”


Attempts by the Russian government to de-legitimatize the new Ukrainian government are fierce and pointed - especially from Vladimir Putin. Questioning European and American motives regarding Ukraine, Putin issued a statement saying they had been driven “not by a concern for the fate of Ukraine but by unilateral geopolitical calculations.”


Russian Political leaders further pushed to show that the established government was too young and unprepared to be recognized by Russia. Saying the warrant for the arrest of Yanukovych came without "thought, perception, or foresight," the Russian Foreign Ministry has basically labeled the new Ukrainian government the plaything of a child. 


“If people crossing Kiev in black masks and Kalishnikov rifles are considered a government,” Mr. Medvedev said, “it will be difficult for us to work with such a government.”


Even going so far as to indicate the Ukraine government a terrorist hierarchy, Russian political heads have pointed to a few isolated events in Pro-Russia areas. 


“A course has been set to use dictatorial and sometimes terrorist methods to suppress dissenters in various regions,” the Foreign Ministry statement said, alluding to areas in Ukraine’s east and south where pro-Russian sentiment is stronger and Russian is widely spoken.


These observations are not to say the government recently established in Ukraine is "good," "infallible," or even morally adequate. However, it is important to look at the output of the Kremlin to predict the actions Russia may take, as well as to observe the attitude which they have adopted.


All in all, the treaty that some believed meant peace may have simply been one step closer to the real fire. 

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