Minsk 2: The big farce of Western policy on Russia.

This article was written in February 2016 and is still relevant today.

by Roman Sohn
“It’s understandable that no one wants to start an all-out war with a nuclear-armed state or to give Putin a pretext, as in Georgia, for a full-scale conventional assault.

This is why the US and EU powers invoke the hypocritical dogma that “there’s no military solution” to Crimea or Donbas, even as they pursue military solutions in other theatres.

This is why they never gave arms to Ukraine or fired a shot in its defence, despite solemn promises under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which they pledged to protect Ukraine in return for nuclear disarmament.

The unilateral dismantling of the world’s third biggest nuclear arsenal saved Western nations billions. But Ukraine can’t get a single rifle in return.

By the same logic, or fear, Nato gave Russia a veto on Georgia and Ukraine enlargement.

It’s all meant to leave the door open for Putin to pull back without losing face.

Shameful cowardice
But it’s also seen for what it is by the Kremlin’s revanchist masters – shameful cowardice.

It has already emboldened Russia to open a new front in Syria and to escalate provocations against the Baltic states and Turkey. The day oil prices go back up, we’ll see just how effective Western policy has been.

It’s left Ukraine in a surreal position.

We’re left on our own to fight a war which we can’t call a war, against an aggressor which the UN does not recognise as an aggressor.

It’s left Russia free to fight a ‘clandestine’ conflict in full view of international observers.

This is also why Western sanctions, which don’t touch Russian oil and gas sales, are designed to stop short of causing an economic crisis in Russia.

It has created an unreal situation which fuels bogus media coverage of the Russian invasion as internal Ukraine unrest. It has created a hall of mirrors in which the Western public cannot hold their governments to moral account if they drop the sanctions regime. “