Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Lindsey Graham – Order of Yaroslav
The Wise
It will take knowledgeable and principled Republicans, who control the American government now, to stop the destructive impulses of U. S. President Donald J. Trump.
Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of them. But one shining light has been U. S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who time and again has argued for stronger U.S. support of Ukraine.
First this week, Graham called Trump’s budget proposal “dead on arrival.” It would have gutted foreign aid and cut the U. S. State Department budget 37 percent while boosting defense spending an additional $54 billion (on top of the $662 billion already spent). The one-year increase sought by Trump is more than the State Department spends and more than gets spent on foreign aid. In short, considering the Pentagon has covered up $125 billlion in waste in recent years, it’s a disastrous plan. American needs diplomacy and foreign aid as part of its arsenal, not just the heavy-handed “do as we say” or we’ll go to war.
Also, in a town forum broadcast by CNN, Graham — with another stalwart Ukrainian friend U. S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona at his side — said that the U.S. should impose harder sanctions on Russia for interference in the U.S. presidential elections and Ukraine.
“I want the Russians to be sanctioned more for interfering in our election and the last thing Trump should ever envision is relieving sanctions that would reward them for taking Crimea by force because Putin will not stop until somebody makes him stop,” Graham said.
Marine Le Pen – Order of Lenin
Russia interferes in many elections abroad, from the United States to France and elsewhere, so why can’t Ukraine at least take sides?
One of the next elections in Europe with a big stake for Ukraine is the French presidential election on April 23 and, barring a majority victory by any of the candidates, a runoff two weeks later on May 7.
Marine Le Pen, the National Front leader with financial backing from the Kremlin, is favored by polls to make it into the runoff election. This would be a disaster for France, we think, but particularly for Ukraine.
She is another politician who has expressed admiration for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin (what is the fetish so many politicians in democracies have with dictators?) and who supports Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.
All of this leaves some heavy diplomatic lifting ahead for Ukrainian Ambassador to France Oleg Shamshur and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, who is quoted as telling 1+1 TV channel that he will seek a meeting with Le Pen in Paris in May to try to change her mind about Crimea.
Le Pen also thinks Ukraine’s EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted dictator Viktor Yanukovych was a “coup.” She also is critical of NATO and threatens to withdraw France from the eurozone and possibly the European Union.
She is, in short, a disaster. But there are other political storm clouds in Europe. Far-right, EU-bashing and Ukraine-bashing Geert Wilders has a chance, according to polls, of emerging victorious in the March 15 parliamentary elections in the Netherlands.
It was Wilders who used a non-binding referendum on whether to accept or reject the EU trade deal with Ukraine as a publicity drive for his nationalist and protectionist views.
And if these elections aren’t enough to keep Ukraine fans up at night, the German parliamentary elections are Sept. 24 – with their own Euroskeptic candidates running.
