So, everyone is talking about the stalemate between Russia and the west regarding the Crimean referendum a couple of days ago, but it seems to me that it is not, in fact, a stalemate. Russians are getting their way everywhere you look. The Russian majority won the referendum with a whopping 97% of the vote - although I heard listening to NPR that there were reports of big, burly men in leather jackets with Russian flags on them were in the voting centers, obviously trying to sway people. When asked if this was not intimidating (and by extension, unfair), these men said simply that they didn't care.
Obviously, all of this does not meet the criteria for free and fair elections. And that 97% seems a little high, doesn't it? Russian-speakers constitute 60% of the population of Crimea, which is obviously a clear majority, but 97%? That makes you scratch your head a little, doesn't it?
Many have criticized Putin for allowing this situation to develop much too fast, but he is ignoring all of these criticisms, and moving ahead with all deliberate speed. He and Crimean leaders signed a treaty yesterday that sets up the groundwork for a draft bill towards Russia's eventual, surely inevitable annexation of Crimea.
And so, the beginning of what appears to be Cold War II seems just as inevitable, as well. It's not just American officials that seem willing to head in that direction, either. Al of the western leaders seem to be united on this issue, as evidenced by a quote from "Putin approves draft bill for annexation of Crimea" by Nataliya Vasilyeva of the Associated Press (see link below):
France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Europe-1 radio Tuesday that leaders of the Group of Eight world powers "decided to suspend Russia's participation, and it is envisaged that all the other countries, the seven leading countries, will unite without Russia."
Crimea was traditionally a part of Russia, but was given to Ukraine by former Soviet leader, Nikita Khruschev. Putin gave a major speech on the subject, claiming that Crimea was "stolen" from Russia half a century ago, and that it was a symbol of Russia's glorious military past, and the birthplace of the Russian navy. He declared before a highly supportive joint session of parliament that the 1954 allocation of Crimea to Ukraine was a mistake, and had come at a very bad time in history, when Russia was going through what he termed a "difficult phase". Here is a snippet of the speech that he gave, according to the article "Crimea Was 'Stolen' From Russia, Vladimir Putin Says" by Albina Kovalyova of NBC News, March 18, 2014 (see link below):
"The people of Crimea were not asked about anything,” he said. “It was hard to imagine then that Russia and Ukraine would be different countries. But it happened. The U.S.S.R. collapsed."
"When Crimea became part of a different state Russia felt it was stolen. A million people went to bed in one country and woke up in another.”
He said Russia thought Ukraine would be a friendly neighbor but that the situation "developed differently."
To rapturous applause from lawmakers during an address to a joint session of parliament, Putin described the 1954 allocation of Crimea to Ukraine by then Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev as a mistake and said that the wishes of the local people had been ignored.
I was wondering where Gorbachev was during all of this. He was, after all, a leader with a great deal more moderation and, seemingly, wisdom. What was he thinking during all of this, with Russian troops entering Crimea, and many accusing Putin of trying to recreate the past, of recreating the Soviet Union, if you will.
Well, as it turns out, this whole situation has Gorbachev's blessing! Regarding Crimea, he suggested that “people really wanted to return to Russia”, and that this referendum was a "happy event".
Furthermore, Gorbachev said that what happened in Crimea should set the example for the rest of eastern Ukraine, which would suggest that he, as well as many Russians, would want to see more such military maneuvers and referendums in the near future.
'For sanctions to be imposed there should be a very serious basis. And they must be supported by the United Nations,' Gorbachev told the Interfax news agency on Monday.
'The possible taking of Crimea into Russian territory does not constitute such a basis,' he added.
Additionally, he added that the world should embrace the choice of Crimeans to rejoin Russia.
'If until now Crimea had been joined to Ukraine because of Soviet laws that were taken without asking the people, then now the people (of Crimea) have decided to rectify this error,' he said.
'This should be welcomed and not met with the announcement of sanctions,' he added.
The world, he said, should "respect Crimea's choice".
While not a huge fan of Putin, and having been critical of Putin's authoritarian style in the past, he felt that pretty much everything was done right in regard to Crimea recently.
I was talking to my mom about the whole thing and she, like me, didn't know quite what to make of it. I am more than a little skeptical about the western interpretation, because it is as self-serving and, in it's own way, narrow-minded as it has always been.
After all, let's face it: the majority of those living in Crimea are Russian, and even though the 97% majority voting in the recent referendum may be an exaggeration, the fact that a majority of Crimeans apparently do welcome rejoining Russia. So, in a sense, it might not be all that different than the reunification of Germany, which the world hailed.
So, what's so different now? Well, the reunification of Germany ushered in a new, post-Cold War era, and to many westerners, particularly Americans, it was just one more confirmation - and a celebrated and highly visible one at that -of the western, particularly American, triumph in the Cold War. What had been East Germany essentially dissolved, and what had been West Germany took over and absorbed that former country, to become a greater Germany. Some had trepidations but, for the most part, people embraced it. The wall came down, and reunification was just the most logical next step.
This situation suggests the complete opposite. Just as Americans began to feel their power and sway in the world lessen, with some blaming the Bush administration, and others blaming the Obama administration, these latest developments in Crimea, and really Putin's presence and recent actions overall, have felt to many Americans like they have served to undermine America's "exceptional" status.
And if there is one area where I feel very clear on in what feels like a very muddy situation, it is that this interpretation is wrong. The one constant has been the American sense of superiority throughout. Americans were celebrating when the Soviet Union collapsed. While a country was on it's knees, trying desperately to rebuild and find some measure of stability, Americans were preoccupied with patting themselves on the back and congratulating each other on what they felt was American victory in the Cold War. Nuclear weapons went unaccounted for, and a nation sank into violence and economic instability. But for Americans, it was all good - just confirmation of their superior status. The Soviets had hastened their own decline with their involvement in Afghanistan, of course. When Americans assisted the Afghans, they made the same mistake: they did only the minimum that that they could to assist the country in liberating themselves against the big, bad Soviets, but they forgot about Afghanistan when the country lay in ruins. The only time people remembered, and began to regret, this role in Afghanistan was after September 11th, when it was clear that Afghanistan, which was then ruled by the Taliban, was a hotbed of terrorism, because of the Taliban. The Taliban, of course, had taken over and established some measure of stability in a country that had known only chaos and war for decades.
Americans in the late 80's only wanted an end to the "evil empire" of the Communist Soviet Union. It happened, and Americans were joyous. But maybe it's a case of be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. We wanted to use that to reinforce our own prejudices, and to promote ourselves and our values as a nation. It came back to bite us in 2001, and maybe it has come back to bite us once again in 2014, this time with Russia. Not all that surprisingly, many Russians reminisce fondly about the days when their country was a superpower, one of only two in the world. They felt in control of themselves and their destiny, much like Americans feel right now. Is it really all that surprising that, once they began to get up on their own two feet again, they might feel justified in restoring their former privileged status again? If they enjoyed it back then, who are Americans to criticize them, since Americans obviously enjoy their own privileged position as the world's leading superpower? Americans talk ad nausea about the "American exception" (which Putin specifically took aim at in a New York Times Op/Ed piece this past summer), about being the "leaders of the free world", about being "God's country" and "the greatest country in the world". No matter who is President, or what party they are from, each President seems to end a major address to the American people with "God bless America". And many other prominent Americans in all walks of life seem to reinforce this ingrained sense of superiority and exceptionalism - an unofficial exceptionalist "doctrine", if you will, that many Americans readily accept without question. But they wonder why the rest of the world does not seem to accept the notion that every country but America should be confined and have to play by the rules, that every country but America has to do things according to the wishes of the world community.
Perfect example, really, is what happened a little over a decade ago, when the United States, against the wishes of the world, invaded Iraq. The world protested, and Americans did not care. We didn't need a permission slip from anyone to "defend" ourselves from the supposedly immediate threat to world peace that Saddam Hussein in Iraq posed to us. The very freedoms that Bush claimed the terrorists hated were suddenly under threat right here at home, because dissent was most certainly stifled. I was opposed - vehemently opposed - to the invasion of Iraq, and trust me, dissent was stifled considerably. We collectively felt the rest of the world was naive to question the wisdom of the invasion, and the arrogance of our self-assuredness came to bite us in the butt in the end, didn't it? We were so certain we were in the right. And then, low and behold, we were wrong, weren't we? The rest of the world watched as we fought a war under false pretenses, and the mass arsenal of WMD's never materialized. We fought a war under false claims.
Now, we expect Putin, Russia, and the rest of the world to take as seriously when we have John Kerry, who voted in favor of the Iraq invasion, scolds Putin and figuratively wags his finger at the Russians, claiming that they cannot invade other nations under highly trumped up charges?
Who do we think we are?
I suspect that what really makes Americans uncomfortable about this whole thing is that we are watching another nation act as we are used to acting, and there is not a damn thing we can do about it. Russian troops enter and occupy Crimea, and possibly soon, much of Ukraine, and they receive the strong support of the Russian people, including Gorbachev. And they had a historical link to Crimea, which used to be part of Russia. What right did we have in invading Grenada, or Panama, or Iraq? Yet, after each of those invasions, the approval ratings for the invasion, and for whatever President happened to be in office at the time, was overwhelming. In the case of Grenada and Panama, there was little to no build up leading up to th invasions. Americans woke up to find that their military had initiated an act of military aggression on foreign soil, and they overwhelmingly approved.
Yet, the rest of the world, and Russia in particular, is supposed to take us seriously when we scold and lecture others about military aggression?
Please!
The situation in Crimea today is, frankly, unclear. I don't know where to stand on it, what to believe. I can't say that I approve of Russia's military intervention, or of a too quick call for a referendum, or of cases of clear cut voter intimidation. But it seems that there is a case to be made that Crimea may just be a part of Russia in reality.
I don't know. What I do know is not to trust our American leaders, no matter what their names or what party affiliation they belong to, when it comes to these things. Nor, for that matter, do I trust the major media sources or, for that matter, a majority of Americans, who tend to see things only the way they want to see them, through their own nationalist prejudices. If there are lessons to be learned for Americans regarding the seemingly aggressive nature of Russians suddenly hungry to add to their territory, then it is, indeed, that we should live by the same rules that we set for others, and not be blinded by our own hypocritical actions.
We ourselves entered a war of aggression against the world's wishes, even when other world leaders - including Putin himself - warned us that their would be consequences. We wanted to feel invincible, perhaps. The war exposed us as anything but. And now, Putin, once again, is reminding Americans that they might not be nearly as all-powerful as they wished, and that the world does not revolve around American wishes or desires.
These are the articles that I used to complete this blog entry:
"Putin approves draft bill for annexation of Crimea" by Nataliya Vasilyeva of the Associated Press, March 18, 2014:
http://news.yahoo.com/putin-approves-draft-bill-annexation-crimea-074249071.html;_ylt=AwrBJR4kwilTtgsASgXQtDMD
"Crimea Was 'Stolen' From Russia, Vladimir Putin Says" by Albina Kovalyova of NBC News, March 18, 2014:
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/crimea-was-stolen-russia-vladimir-putin-says-n55366
"U.S. suggests Baltics war games in response to Russian "land grab" by Roberta Rampton of Reuters, March 18, 2014:
http://news.yahoo.com/biden-pledges-stronger-nato-response-russia-land-grab-132835220.html
Gorbachev says 'respect Crimea's choice' posted by skynews.com.au, March 19, 2014:
http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=959118
"Mikhail Gorbachev Hails Crimea Result as 'Happy Event'"
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/mikhail-gorbachev-hails-crimea-result-happy-event-n55416
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