Will Ukraine Bid To Join NATO Unleash 21st Century Cold War?

[newthinking]

[font size=2]Will Ukraine Bid To Join NATO Unleash 21st Century Cold War?[/font]

Experts warn that if US and Europe continue to expand NATO's reach without recognizing destructive consequences, crisis in eastern Ukraine risks serious escalation
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
http://www.Commondreams.org


NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (right) receives the Order of Liberty
from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (left) at a ceremony in Kiev on August 7, 2104. (Photo: flickr / NATO)

[font size=2]
In a move that could dramatically spike international tensions and escalate the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Prime Minister of the Ukraine government in Kiev on Friday submitted legislation to Parliament declaring intention to join the western military alliance of NATO and longer-term ambitions to actually join the European Union.

Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk submitted the proposal on Friday just ahead of a NATO emergency meeting held in Brussels to discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

Following that meeting, NATO's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen emerged to say NATO would "fully respect" Ukraine's effort to join the alliance.

In comments on Thursday, President Obama chastized Russia for its behavior in Ukraine, blaming President Vladimir Putin for the continued resistance shown by armed rebels in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk who have resisted submission to the government in Kiev which came to power in a coup earlier this year. "The violence [of the pro-Russian separatists] is encouraged by Russia," the president charged. "The separatists are trained by Russia. They are armed by Russia. They are funded by Russia. Russia has deliberately and repeatedly violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine."[/font]

(SNIP)

[font size=2]Speaking with Democracy Now! on Friday morning, journalist Jonathan Steele, former Moscow bureau chief for the Guardian newspaper, argued the most important aspect to understand about the underlying political dynamics is that "Russia is trying to prevent Ukraine joining NATO."

To explain the reasoning behind Russia's thinking, Steele explained, "Imagine what would happen if Canada or Mexico decided to join an anti-U.S. alliance? Obviously, the U.S. would be concerned. Russia has legitimate concerns about the expansion of NATO. We’ve already heard just in the other day the Secretary-General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen was saying that NATO is now going to preposition stocks in Eastern Europe, and bring equipment in and have bases there. It is only further provocation to Moscow."[/font]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/08/29/will-ukraine-bid-join-nato-unleash-21st-century-cold-war

[KoKo]

1. Recommend...hopefully this will be useful information to some posters here....

who seem to know very little about what is really going on in the Ukraine and the issues with Russia's concern over NATO bases encircling it's borders.

[EX500rider]

7. "Russia's concern over NATO bases encircling it's borders"

Here's a map of Russia....please explain how NATO could "encircle" Russia:

[Duckhunter935]

2. well they were not

Until they were invaded and part of their nation was annexed after Russia broke international law and sank a ship blockading the Ukrainian navy in port then storming those ships and bases.

[newthinking]

4. Not covered in our media... Ukraine was the first to "annex" Crimea against the will of it's people

I know people heavily engaged in power geopolitics will howl at this, because it will challenge their preconceived notions, but the historical fact is that Crimea fought inclusion into Ukraine during the period that the USSR was breaking up. That was how Crimea ended up with it's very own constitution and that is where the name" The *Autonomous Republic of Crimea" came from. It was intended to be a compromise and though Crimean's were not happy with it they settled into it.

However Ukraine broke that compromise and used it's courts to overrule and rewrite that agreement and constitution. That is why one of the selections on the referendum included the original constitution.

Sevastopol has always also specifically been a federal city and distinct (Similar to Washington DC). It was supposed to have an elected mayor but Ukraine userped that and instead the president would just pick a mayor for the city. (Ukraine still does this very anti-democratic activity and the new administration decided the mayors of the cities this year as well.

The breakup of the Soviet Union left artificial boundaries.. Like what happened in the middle east.

I think that is one of the reasons that the west has not been more strident about Crimea. They know the truth of the situation is more complex and that indeed Crimea has always considered itself somewhat separate from Ukraine proper.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Oil? Again?

One would think that we would have caught on to this game by now.
Disaster Capitalism. Yawn.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. Putin is the abusive husband threatening to kill the wife if she gets a restraining order. nt

[mythology]

6. So as long as we give Putin whatever he wants

he'll play nice?

What utter nonsense. Putin has been a murderous piece of trash for years. There's a reason he's talking about how Russia has nuclear weapons in an attempt to get his way. The world will be better off when Putin isn't a part of it.

[tritsofme]

8. Russia may may not like NATO expansion, but Ukraine is probably is concerned

about Russia swallowing up the rest of their country. Or does Ukraine not get to be concerned about such things?

And in what fucked up world is it a "provocation" for NATO to reinforce it's members neighboring Russia...in response to Russia invading one of it's other neighbors. These Putin apologists are really something else.