Faith of a Small Ukraine Adjacent to a Big Russia and Americans Play the Porn

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines Monday, March 17th, 2014

By Prof. R.A. Ipinyomi, University of Ilorin, Nigeria

The ongoing standoff between local Ukrainians and its different allies from both Russia and the West has got a new twist when Crimea voted in a referendum on Sunday March 16, 2014 with over 90% in favour of returning once more to be part of Russia. There was an initial drama at the United Nations notwithstanding, where only Russia approved the referendum; the outcome of the results gave the people in Crimea a burn fire celebration. Jubilant people in Crimea responded with fireworks and fluttering Russian flags on Sunday after they had voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and rejoin Russia.

The United States and Europe condemned the ballot as illegal and destabilizing. Russia may earn further sanctions and isolation for this act of commission even when Secretary Kerry said Russia has legitimate interests. In a similar vein Ukraine’s new government in Kiev called the referendum a circus directed at gunpoint by Moscow. Russia has staged thousands of its troops in the strategic Black Sea Peninsula after seizing it two weeks ago. After the polls closed late on Sunday and results were coming in, crowds of ethnic Russians in the regional Crimean capital of Simferopol erupted with jubilant chants in the main square, overjoyed at the prospect of once again becoming part of Russia. Whether this jubilation will last remains a test of time because in our view Crimea people will soon want their independence from big Russia. They may seek this with tears then without ever getting it anymore. This would be a lesson for history students.

However when one adds the facts of the near civil war a few weeks before, together with the alleged Russian troops in and out of Ukraine, the effects of Western propaganda, actual possible effects the result and what Russia may do or not do, it would not be a zero sum game for Russia and Crimea in particular. Certainly Ukraine is going to remain a new political game field for both Russia and Western politicians in days and years ahead. It could be a re-enactment of the cold war or the realization that there are both individual and mutual group interests to be pursued.

How did we get here where Ukrainians had to choose between their lifelong big brother Russia and the near ideal free Western life many of them now quest for? Crimea Peninsula people speaking Russia is not to be taken as if they are Russians after all most Nigerians speak the Queen English language fluently and may never have been anywhere near the Buckingham Palace. Russia refused or was unable to colonise her conquered territories in language whereas the British Empire though fading donated the English language to the World by omission or commission. Russia went only for military might and forgot to equip its colonies economically and culturally.

Brute force that President Putin resulted to lately in Ukraine is a yesteryear approach always used by the unlearned and the desperate. Following a due process through UN Russia would have annexed even the entire Ukraine as USA Foreign Secretary John Kerry had been educating his near deaf Russian counterpart. There is no need to use force any more anywhere in our modern world. Follow the due process and obtain all your results thence. Russia has been behaving like a railway train going downhill on a high speed that has lost its breaks.

We shall analyse Ukraine as a state consisting of extremists and who at the end could never be pleased by anyone. So far only Ukrainians are dying and many may still die on this course of whether to belong to NATO or to Russia, whether to harvest plantain from orange plants or be satisfied with what had been planted is a crucial point in the analysis. In one sense a few capitalists have entered Ukraine economy and drawing the main land along. On the other hand Crimea is not only the warm water port for Russia it is also in direct contact with NATO immediately Ukraine succeeds in joining NATO through the EU; the arch-enemy of Russia. Meanwhile the EU and the USA are not people who would give up on issues as strategic as Ukraine. The other extremists there are still completely socialists; including President Putin himself who wants to score many goals with the same nude game. The economies of Russia, EU and those who depend on them will slump soon from factors relating to the feuds in Ukraine.

Here in Africa we read it as a learning process whereby we should be vigilant only. Africans have gone through many of these circles in our history. Africa’s time should just coming up but when her leaders are slumbering and sleeping. The overall message is that it shall be well with every small country in Africa and elsewhere if our leaders stay awake guarding their posts to defend their territorial integrities alone and not to bring in the Russians or the West. China has demonstrated time and again that she is only out to milk on and to tap world resources anywhere and has nothing to do with world peace. China would stay neutral or use her veto only for self interest. We are our brother’s keeper even though the Americans are making a meal of the slogan wrongly or rightly. Somewhere between what the USA and its allies are doing and what they fail to see or do is the defining line we should pursue to ensure that we are properly protecting weaker nations. A Putin may be obsessed that a NATO is too close by for his comfort and this may cause him to carelessly run over a neighbouring small Peninsula like Creamier in a furry.

Our concern right now is not whether or not Russia successfully annexes Crimea sooner or later. It is a foregone conclusion that Russia has been blinded by the desire to do so under Putin. Any other alternatives would not be plausible to Russia at this moment. Enormous cost is going to be paid for this action caused by capitalists in Ukraine and fanned by the Western sponsors but for which Russia lacks enough patience and appropriate diplomacy. The battle in Ukraine is not about to settle but just starting with unknown ending and consequences. A newly installed acting Ukrainian prime minister visited the White House recently where President Obama offered America’s continued support. Obama a liberal  politician of our time did not see the need to question his visitor on the roles several far right ultra-nationalists have been playing in Ukraine’s new government. Is the new prime minister committed to democracy and pluralism? The situation in Ukraine is not as simple as it might seem. Dialogue however remains the only option not war.

Africans should awake otherwise one day any of our islands could be reclaimed by a colonial past master with internal support. Unfortunately even South Africans have forgotten the apartheid regimes and its evil. They prefer to read it in history books that are written by only popular authors at tea times. Russia caught many people asleep in Crimea and went in almost effortlessly. NATO knew that they were getting too close to the headquarters of their opponent in Russia but they kept admitting more into their fold thinking that Russia would sleep off. We had all lost on moral ground whereby the policymakers in Washington had failed to guide the Ukraine’s new leaders on how to respect the rights of all her own citizens, including supporters of the ousted regime. We are now at a stage where it is hard to see how the new Ukrainian government can wrest Crimea back from President Putin’s grab.

Prof. R.A. Ipinyomi,

ipinyomira@yahoo.co.uk or/and raipinyomi@unilorin.edu.ng

 

 

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