The Ukraine Already Voted Russia Out in an Open and Fair Election
The Russian Bear Trap
Putin blames Ukraine — the twin, the sister, or brother, country theory you’ve been hearing about in the news — for destroying his Soviet strength. Russia at the helm of the whole Soviet Union was the unparalleled Greatness Putin knew. Russia has been on a tear since the 9th century. Its empire did nothing else but continually expand for a millennium until it stretched all the way to the Pacific Ocean, then consuming 17 Soviet countries, then ‘capturing’ in its sphere of influence many “satellite countries,” like East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia.
Democracy — a real and fair democratic vote never seen in Russia — all brought it to an end.
The voice of the people who were never heard before imploded the Soviet Empire in rapid order, a matter of weeks.
Ukraine was as the head of this vote. Not the first but perhaps the largest and most significant, the one that could be counted on, unlike Latvia or Estonia. Ukraine’s ethnically similar Russian people voted overwhelming against being a part of the Soviet Empire. Soviet Premier Gorbachev gave a choice to the Ukrainians in a vote. Over 90 percent of Ukrainians vote NOT to be part of the Soviet Union. Just three weeks later it was its own country, and the Soviet Union was gone, collapsed. Putin was out a job.
Just imagine the first real vote in its history: Be a part of Russia or Not. They chose Not. Putin and even the US media seems to miss this extremely critical point. The Ukrainian people overwhelming voted nationalistically to separate from Russia, loudly, decisively, in every part of the Ukraine, even the so-called “Donbas” region in the East on the Russian border. The people had enough. Finally, Freedom, Ukrainian freedom, Ukrainian self-determination.
In fact, not long ago, the people revolted again and defeated the Russian puppet president, Yanukovych, in the 2014 “Dignity Revolution.” He has built a mass estate with animals and statues, and he fled to Russia. The Ukrainian People unified to stop Russian control of their own country.
That wasn’t the first time either. Back in 2004 the Ukrainians had already taken to the streets in “The Orange Revolution.” They stopped a corrupt vote. The vote had to be rerun. It ended with the next election being seen as fair, which gave a clear winner.
At three times in 31 years, the Ukrainians unified to protect their country. They made a clear statement that they were not only their own people but would not tolerate Russian rule and Russian interference. Putin still doesn’t get it. And that’s a deep, deep problem for him and for Russians, especially the younger generation under 40 who do get it.
Ukraine isn’t Iraq (with apologies to Iraq). Iraq was artificially formed by the British and then supported in the current state by the Americans. Had the people their own choice in a democratic vote, it probably would have broken into three distinct countries, satisfying the people’s wishes, with Kurdistan in the North, the Shia region in the east-ish and the Sunni Arabs in the southwest-ish. Instead, they were forced together, and remain that way, apparently overcoming ‘ethnic’ tensions.
Ukraine though did have a clear choice; the people made that choice in a clear vote. The vote was a decisive victory to re-establish Ukraine on the world stage, as a modern nation. 13 years later, another assertion of self-rule, followed by yet another revulsion against Russia in 2014, just 11 years later. Every generation of Ukrainians had a chance to overwhelming act patriotically for Ukraine and against Russia. It’s not that they hated the Russians, in fact they see the similarities and felt before Putin to be kin, a cousin. They just clearly saw their own identity and right to self-rule.
And so, this is what Putin faces: trapped in a country where everyone hates him, where they have all fought against him before, and will continue to all fight against him. Does he really expect them become divided and to somehow rule them?
America got stuck between tribal warfare and religious zealotry factions in Afghanistan. Despite a good number of people in Kabul, its capital, that felt America was helping build the country, the warring factions, which were never unified but always fought against each other and the Taliban, made it ultimately a sandpit the U.S. sunk into for 20 years.
Imagine thus the unity instead of the Ukraine, in a place allied with the west ready to use its weapons, already trained having fought for a thousand years. For Russia, that’s not a sandpit. It’s a beartrap. And Russian bear is stuck and will be targeted for years to come, it’s soldiers endlessly resisted and killed, with more nationalistic determination and in far greater organized numbers and ‘zealotry’ than the Taliban had.
