Putin and the Mythical Empire
Western media, following the "bullhorns of propaganda" resident at the White House and State Department, assumes Putin is bent on re-building the Russian Empire and/or Soviet Union.
This is assumed to be true because the “bullhorns of propaganda” say it’s true.
There is never any evidence cited or even a coherent analysis provided to back up this claim. Needless to say, this mindless approach to foreign policy – if it can be called that – ends with car wrecks on someone else’s turf, in this case Ukraine. I submit a completely different and actually very simple interpretation of Putin’s foreign policy. It has nothing to do with an empire and everything to do with respect of ethnic Russians and democratic rights.
Putin has no interest in rebuilding the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was an incredible net economic loss for Russia and Russians. In this century, Russia correctly sees an empire as too costly, politically risky, and importantly at odds with international law. Since the advent of the Putin presidency, the Kremlin has demonstrated it will make smart trade deals with its immediate neighbors, but outright subsidies are to be avoided. (Russia’s overly generous approach toward Ukraine since 1991 is a partial exception – trade relations with Kiev have always been complicated by Russia’s important trade relationship with Europe).
Putin’s ‘near abroad’ foreign policy is about people and principles. The day the Soviet Union came to an end, millions of ethnic Russians suddenly found themselves in a country that was not their own. Putin is addressing this painful historical wrong. And it is a very important domestic issue among Russians at home.
The West likes to consider itself to be above all others due to its self-proclaimed superior values. This includes values of the right to self-determination. However, these are only often words. Ethnic Russians in the Baltic states frequently see themselves as being treated as second-class citizens within the European Union. They are discriminated against on the basis of language and even cultural values. In Georgia in 2008, they were violently assaulted in South Ossetia. Russia was forced to intervene militarily to protect lives, including those of Russian citizens and internationally recognized peacekeepers. In Ukraine, the same is happening, though on a horrific scale and supported (again) by the West.
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http://rt.com/op-edge/159796-putin-empire-ukraine-west/
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4now
(1,596 posts)
yurbud
(39,405 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)It is published in propaganda outfit controlled by Putin himself, an outfit to which Putin gave a state award for its pro-Putin commentary regarding the Ukraine.
Attempting to control and dominate the governments of one's neighbors is imperialism, regardless of whether it's Reagan or Putin doing it, whether it's Bill Kristol or Peter Lavelle serving as a shameless apologist for it.
go west young man
(4,856 posts)Even a novice imperialist expansionist would have easily taken Georgia.....the fact that he didn't is proof that Russia's expansionist ambitions are not there. It's US propaganda. Now ask yourself who's military is in over half the countries of the world? That would be the US in case your unable to figure it out.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,174 posts)All this dates back to the victories won by tsarist Russia in notorious wars in the epoch of Catherine the Great and Prince Potyomkin with the center in Novorossiysk; hence the name- Novorossiya. Then for different reasons these territories were lost, but the people remained. "
Vladimir Putin, April 17, 2014