Interesting how ‘the west’ views ‘security’ as such a vital consideration, all of a sudden.
The United Kingdom, European Union and Ukraine are fixated upon the importance of ‘security guarantees’ not just for Ukraine, but – in face of the (fictitious) ‘existential threat’ that Russia and Putin pose – for the entire ‘free, sovereign, democratic, laudable-values, civilised world.’
What hypocrisy and double-standards.
Had ‘the west’ taken Russia’s ‘security concerns’ seriously – as articulated by Putin and his predecessors continually since 1991 – the current fiasco in Ukraine would never have occurred.
And we’re still not taking them into consideration. Which guarantees the continuation of the conflict.
Western policy towards Russia, led by the US since the Clinton administration, has been a deliberate ‘project’ born from the belief that the US had become the single most-powerful superpower after the fall of the USSR and that there was nothing the Russian Federation could do to resist her dominance and will.
Russia’s concerns be damned.
Expand NATO to the very borders of Russia, particularly in Ukraine and Georgia. Agitate within Russia for ‘regime change’ and/or the breakup of the federated republics of Russia. Cast Russia and Putin as ‘the enemy.’ Lie – continually – in support of a thoroughly Russophobic narrative. Create, promote and support any anti-Putin ‘dissident’ group within Russia, including Navalny. Push – and extend – Russia.
Ukraine itself was a keystone of that project, encapsulated in the US-fostered Maidan coup in 2014, the billions invested to control Ukraine’s media and political processes, the building of over a dozen CIA ‘stations’ along the Ukraine/Russia border, the investment in Biolabs within Ukraine, and the ‘Anti-Terrorist Operation’ undertaken against the populations of southern and eastern Ukraine for eight years prior to 2022 using the full power of the western backed and trained Ukrainian Armed Forces (which included a significant and influential Nazi and Neo-Nazi element) against Ukraine’s own citizens.
The conflict in Ukraine is – more than any other facet (including the actions of Putin and Russia) – the making of the west; the child of deliberate, articulated, published US policy.
And now that we have a US administration that appears to be prioritising peace and life over imaginary ‘security guarantees,’ the rest of the west is seemingly insistent upon the continuation of war and death.
‘Security’ is suddenly so important. But only for Ukraine and the west.
Russia’s concerns be damned.
Enough.
We should have listened to Russia.
We need to listen to Russia, now.