This week, their passive resistance brought them victory against the same invader in
Crimea. Unprovoked, Putin
declared war on Ukraine March 1, two days after his troops had already arrived.
He moved planes, helicopters, military
vessels and trucks full of special forces and military personnel hoping to
bring about capitulation. It did not
happen. Ukraine’s forces in Crimea did
not rise to the bait. They did not
precipitate a defensive response, a battle Putin would have liked to
have had. It would have provided him
with a cover to attack Ukraine on the pretext of defending the Russian
population.
The scenario failed. Despite
the blockage of Ukraine’s naval base and two naval ships; despite a
self-proclaimed puppet acting on Russia’s orders in Crimea’s parliament;
despite “Russians” with newly issued passports and parachuted “tourists” from
Russia “demanding” protection, the Ukrainian side stayed calm and
prevailed. Putin recalled his soldiers
back to the Russian base and halted war games on Ukraine’s boarder claiming, at
the same time that he has no control over “self-defense” volunteers.”
Even the lure of money failed
to convince Ukrainians to cross over.
A
stirring video clip show some two hundred Ukrainian naval officers blockaded in
their base by Russians touting machine guns, breaking into Ukraine’s national anthem when former admiral
Dennis Berezovsky tries convincing them to defect to Russia with him to get
“Russian Black Sea Fleet pay ”. He is
pushed out of the compound and told that that he is a little man unable to
withstand Russia’s pressure. The
applause is thunderous. He has since
been put on a “wanted” list. If caught
and convicted he stands to spend up to 15 years in prison for treason.
Putin’s words raced; he
was nearly shouting when he appeared in the television broadcast on March
4. Small wonder. Despite the costly image-making of the Sochi
Olympics, he is failing. First, his
puppet Yanukovyched abandoned the presidency. Now, Putin is looking foolish with his
attack of Crimea.
He had no reason to invade it
in the first place. Ukraine was not seeking the removal of Russia’s Black sea
Fleet, nor expelling Russians out of the peninsula. Even the repeal of Russian as one of Ukraine’s
official languages was withdrawn from parliament for being too divisive for
this time. He created a false scenario
to justify his invasion and the world saw it for what it was: a lie. The man is, as President Obama said, on the
wrong side of history.
And herein lies the problem: Putin does not get it. To be a great
leader today, as he would like to be, is not a function of brutality,
invasions, bullying and sniper executions. Influence in the neighborhood is bought with trust, concessions, trade,
working towards common interests for the good of the citizens. He is miscalculating. He is playing with fire: he must stop or get
burned.
It is vital for the West to
let him feel the pain for having violated the territorial integrity of a peaceful
neighboring state.
Isolation, removal
from the G-8 cancellation of events — military exercises, trade discussions– are
important gestures. However, they are
not adequate to counter the escalation of Russia’s military incursions in
Crimea and in other Black Sea ports and southern cities.
Perhaps, at long last, the
West is recognizing with whom it is dealing: a megalomaniac of Stalin’s or
Hitler’s stature. Europe and global
security needs Western powers, including Nato to stand up to him. The signatories guaranteeing Ukraine’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity—Great Britain and the United States—must
hold firm and assure the brave Ukrainians this is happening. It is not in the free world’s interest for
Russia to advance its global objectives by brazenly dismembering Ukraine. If not stopped now it will continue.
For this to happen there must
be no bowing to Russia’s claims of “former greatness” or “right to its near
abroad”. These are bizarre positions in
light of today’s reality and must be removed from serious discussions. Russia’s autocrats have yet to point to
countries, including their own, where their brute force has brought peace and
prosperity to the citizens other than those in their intimate entourage.
Those who argue against bringing
Putin’s Russia to heel are collaborating with the wrong side.
Oksana Bashuk Hepburn,
former director with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, writes on Ukraine.
