My wife is 50% Ukrainian. Her grandfather, on her father’s
side, came to the U.S. as a young man looking to escape a region that did not
offer any hope of a happy, peaceful and prosperous future; he did well in
Detroit and so did his children and grandchildren.
Ukraine still remains a country with a questionable future
especially now that the Russians have invaded Crimea which was gifted to
Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev in the 1950s. Why did he do that???
The Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea has been invaded numerous
times by Huns, Tartars, Greeks, Turks, etc. and was once an outpost of Venice and
Genoa; yes Italians.
The Russians have always considered Crimea as part of Russia
which it was for a long time and most of the people living there are Russians
anyway. The Russian fleet is based there since all other Russian ports are
frozen solid and this is of vital importance to the Russians.
Yes the Russians should never have given Crimea to the
Ukrainians but they did; they must have thought that the Soviet Union would
last forever…not!
Anyway, I think we should allow Crimea to transfer to the
Russians. Allowing the Russians to control Crimea will bankrupt Russia since
the place is basically bankrupt itself…as is all of Ukraine?
The real problem is what will happen in the rest of the
Ukraine which thanks to Stalin is divided into Ukrainian speaking people and
Russian speaking people. There are also many Poles living there since Stalin
took a good portion of Eastern Poland and put it within Ukraine’s borders.
Putin is trying to rebuild the Russian Empire and he needs
allies like Ukraine which until recently was in the Russian sphere of influence
until the pro-Western Ukrainians toppled the pro-Russian government.
A civil war could break out in the Ukraine and the country
could end up divided along ethnic lines with Ukrainians in the West and
Russians in the East.
Either way, the country is bankrupt and needs monetary and
organizational help desperately.
I can see a country divided with the West helping the Ukrainians
and the Russians helping the Russian part of the Ukraine.
This would be like Germany during the Cold War, with the
Western part prospering and the Communist side faltering badly.
This is great history in the making and I am quite excited
about it even though it is a serious matter and I hope cooler heads will
prevail. I am hoping that Germany’s Merkel will put together a deal which will
allow Putin to save face and Obama to look like he won also.
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