U.S. and Ukraine - Crimea (don't worry.)

Media Photo

A short column might suffice for many people who know that Western Ukraine is mysterious enough without the Russians organizing a snap referendum on joining their federation, then amassing military units to enforce the election terms at border and other areas as they apparently have been doing lately.  Our own reasons for Secretary of State Kerry trying to meet (and apparently hopelessly) with Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, have to do with the way in which the U.S. encourages any number of trends, ideas, principles, and other framework to allow for action in statehood affairs concerning the type of, again, Western federalism that has proved so successful and vital in places like Europe proper and North America.  The logic to this is complicated however rooted in the traditions of the power of non - Marxist and other centrist and non - centrist views and their role in free - thinking and other administrations that apply the rule of law, the structure of political, civil, and human rights and other applications of the kind of universalities, in a way very simple once illustrated properly, that appear to be lacking in Ukraine at this time; at least in the part now rapidly annexed by the Putin government as represented by Lavrov in many cases before the U.S. and U.N.  It is probable that Putin speaks English and likes places like McDonald's, and maybe even the Yankees, and Carnegie Hall, the Florida Coast - all pretty close and accessible to Russia at this point; he might even like watching the Red Sox this season on his Russian satellite television network.  What is therefore the sense and sanity, if perceptible, within the framework of the snap Ukrainian referendum on statehood and then the troop movements?  It is almost certainly not due to electoral or post - electoral opposition as those who had a stake in the referendum and lost at least are so momentarily weak, and their political allies as well that these could barely and hardly challenge the referendum - winning party or parties, themselves, and without really the help of menacing Russian crack troops as the television portrays them in this barely - warmer - than - late - winter March / April 2014.  With respect to this and editorials:  Maybe see as well related articles in U.S. national papers via your Google searches; and even South China Morning Post, ... .  Concerning the image above, remember it could represent a thousand or more people showing agreement or assent with a handshake, and then ... , and this with specific respect to Kremlin intransigence, to use a term here, and their own style of bamboozling and bulldozing.  Remember as well the Russians in power at this point, and those connected to them are wonderful people, fun and fun - loving, caring and concerned for everyone they meet, good at parties.

Though there is reason for optimism here, a silver lining:  There might now be some Kremlin statement the troops will be removed as soon as possible as is indicated sometimes, and apparently at least in part now with respect to the "Orange Revolution" of late - that politics have come full - circle again in Eastern Europe with Ukraine and that mystery of a place, Crimea, as a flagship example of the power of the Kremlin in first allowing for the administrative flux since some time ago, and then reining in the people whose chains they originally let out.  In remembering the political relationship, though they might have disliked each other personally, between Boris Yeltsin and his like to the Saint Petersburg people, Putin and Medvedev, Lavrov, included, Yeltsin himself might have had a word with his then underlings, maybe even in English as the Russians are good at English and other languages, that predicated the current politics and political movements and trends in Eastern Europe right now about Crimea and so forth upon things like Russian constitutional, legislative and military reforms, lots of public jostling and meetings including demonstrations and talking with foreigners including Putin's admonitions, jeremiads, and diatribes about affairs.  In the old days sometimes these sorts of things, and this for the ears probably only, really short things were said about some very large issues, today maybe of which the actual territorial bounds, some of which some Russians regard to justify expansionism, for example, as actually the "cultural", societal or linguistic boundaries of the country.  In this way, places like Chicago or Bloomington might be part of Russia, though naturally reasonable people know this to be impossible, and impossible it is with respect to this attitude duplicative of stalinist verbiage of old that people there really seem to admire despite its open brutality and blunt and brute force political and militarily - oriented intent.  Stalin was as expansionist as Hitler had been and chose a psychological and cultural, political approach to this instead of trying to move people out of the way in his aims by publicly and illegally shooting them.  The paradox of this is stalinism is supposed to be peaceful and as the religion of the time has its current descendants in control of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea where not many people know what is actually happening save for a few documentarists favorable to Kremlin aims.

This I propose that Moskva pulls the wool over everyone's eyes these days when it can, and does so arrogantly and in person very nicely and politely with all the manners and worldliness, sophistication that one would expect of Malenkov or Molotov, and disciples so anointed including Andrei Gromyko's, even Yuri Andropov's and Konstantin Tchernenko's descendants:  These people proved publicly only somewhat effective on the world stage in what concerns soviet political tour - de - force of the day after the 1960's and then the Brezhnev years.  The end of the cold war turned these people and their colleagues into court jesters, but to meet them or be in contact with them was extremely powerful and this with respect to their many - faceted political pursuits of which the trending brushfires in places like Africa and South and maybe even Southeast Asia, The Middle East, China, ... .  The legacy of these individuals, themselves down in history in their country at this point as heroes, tragically, has been the kind of troublemaking and knit - picking on the U.S. and its allies that has taken place since (and this noticeably) the change of the regimes in North Africa, notably that of Libya.  This Russian statebuilding, or referendum by the Russian Federation on Crimea represents on an incremental scale the sort of thing the old Bolsheviks dreamed about in all events given the open and wasteful spending by same of their political and other currencies and the dialectical paradoxes of the kind of military boasting same had done and continue to do while donned in administrative cloth.  Sergei Lavrov used us, used public opinion about basic sovereignty, misused it, and then betrayed his friends in the West to certify a regional military bedrock the Russian Federation has now assimilated in the Crimean peninsula.  This is tragic and ominous, and it what happened under the Tsars and later under the old Bolsheviks when people shook hands but there was no actual understanding of the intentions of Moskva nor of its machinations and "smoke and mirrors."  The same old thing again - trying to make the West and its envoys and ambassadors look like ineffectual fools, and they might have lately with the meeting in Europe between Kerry and Lavrov who has all this military / KGB and cloak and dagger tradition behind him.  All Kerry has at hand in Eastern Europe is youthful intelligence and aspirations, hope for the future, a spirit of freedom, democracy as it is known, the rule of law; principles that are ethereal to those who have manipulated them there and another reason or reasons the soviets were cast into oblivion by the Cold War.  This insight is not really my own, and despite the cloak and dagger, and the militants of old retaining the rights to enforce referendum results, one would like to see what actually happens now and into the future in places like Western Ukraine and the new border areas with its neighbor.  This might have been why everyone smiled and shook hands shortly ago in Paree.  Though the current situation is a tragedy with Russian troops imposing on another populace at this point, such a presence is quite expensive politically and concerning the Russian treasury.  It is however given certain evens here, including the ongoing opposition publicly to the snap referendum on Crimea, the Bolshevik will to power and its effects as demonstrated by a renewed type of stalinism are greatly attenuated by the passage of time since his death and other slack on the Russian Federation at this point making for less foreign kow - towing to the Kremlin than otherwise might be the case, and probably as well to the frustration of the reigning parties in Moskva and apparatchik and supporters at this time; and, and, and.  "Who, when".