Sunday, December 8, 2013

Short update on the events in the Ukraine and a better option for Russia

I just wanted to update everybody on a few interesting aspects on the current crisis in the Ukraine.

The opposition:


 Vladimir Klichko, Arsenii Iatseniuk, Oleg Tsiagnibok
 
Yulia Timoshenko

The opposition is currently headed by four people: Vladimir Klichko, Arsenii Iatseniuk, Oleg Tsiagnibok and, of course, Yulia Timoshenko (in jail, of all things, for signing a gas deal with Putin).  There are a number of smaller parties also participating on the opposition movement, but these four politicians are clearly in charge.  Well, by now, all four of them have officially declared that they goal is not to get the government to reverse its decision or to renegotiate anything.  By now all four have openly and officially declared that they goal is to overthrow the current government.  This is now the official goal of the opposition: regime change.

The EU:

Over the past week or so, the center of Kiev has witnessed constant flow of senior EU political figures who came to express their support for the opposition including Carl Bildt (ex Prime and Foreign Minister of Sweden), Loreta Grauziniene (chairwoman of the Lithuanian Parliament), Guido Westerwelle (German Foreign Minister and homosexual activist), Vlad Filat (ex Prime Minister of Moldova), Mikheil Saakashvili (ex Georgian President and loser of the 08.08.08 war), Jerzy Buzek (ex President of the European Parliament), Jaroslaw Kaczynski ( leader of Poland’s opposition party Law and Justice), John Baird (Canada’s Foreign Minister, no EU but still) and many others. All spoke about the *Russian* interference in the Ukraine's internal affairs :-)

The "pro-Russian" government:

In the meantime it became know that President Yanukovich put forth a number of demands which the EU would have to accept before the Ukraine would sign the association agreement including the joint modernization of the Ukrainian gas transport system and the revision of the EU's position "on the construction of economically unsound facilities for the transportation of natural gas to Europe, bypassing Ukraine".  In other words, the EU would have to stop getting gas from Russia by the North Stream and South Stream gas pipelines.  Yes, this "pro-Russian" politician demands that the EU stop directly purchasing Russian gas.  With friends like these...


The Ukraine riding to a bright future, no doubt

Let's summarize it all:

The opposition wants to overthrow the government, EU politicians are actually on the ground supporting the opposition while the putatively pro-Russian government of Yanukovich demands that the EU renege on its agreements with Russia.

As for me, I honestly wonder whether Russia would not be far better off *without* such wonderful "allies", "friends" and "brothers" as the modern Ukrainians and whether it not be a far better option for Russia to let the (already sinking) Ukrainians join the (already sinking) EU and then sit back and relax to watch the ensuing "love fest" between these two russophobic forces.

The Saker