Tassos Symeonides(RIEAS Academic Advisor based in Seattle, USA)
Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) based in Athens, Greece. (Publication Date: 17 September 2014)
With an uneasy ceasefire in place, the Ukraine crisis is far from over. How did we end up like this?
In a recent article, prominently carried by Foreign Affairs, Professor John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago delivered a point-by-point deconstruction of the prevailing theory that the crisis is exclusively the fault of Mr. Putin's Russia. Briefly, Professor Mearsheimer underlined that NATO expansion, on the one hand, and attempts by the EU to "integrate" the Ukraine into "Europe," on the other, triggered well-established Russian security fears and ignored the possibility of Russia reacting in not-too-neutral terms. The resulting imbroglio, complete with "pro-democracy" bloody demonstrations enhanced by provocateur snipers and "special detachments" delivering killing blows to innocents and then blaming "Russian interference," just got out of hand. Furthermore, steadily increasing "Free World" propaganda moves in support of a Kiev regime, which incorporates elements with thinly-veiled fascist beliefs and admiration of the Ukraine's collaborationist past with Nazi Germany, did not help at all.....Read more