If you thought the United States bombardment of Libya that lead to the overthrow of Gaddafi and his eventual execution by the Libyan rebels angered the Russian, If the United States and NATO support for the Syrian rebels did push Moscow to the wall, and that Washington open support for Moscow protesters after the 2012 election that brought Putin back to the Kremlin was a poke in the eye of the Russians, then it is not an understatement for one to say that United states and European Union (EU) supports for Ukraine protesters is what is really becoming the front of the renewed cold war between Moscow and the United states.
It is an open secret that Moscow and Washington have always been at each other’s throat on the global stage for years, but the tension seems to intensify whenever Vladimir Putin is president.
President Bush, in the later years of his presidency did have a good relationship with Putin until August of 2008 when Russian troops invaded Georgia in a battle that lasted less than a week.
The elections of Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in their respective countries was seen as an opportunity to repair a broken relationship that has sometimes brought these two world super powers to a brink of war. We remember Hillary Clinton’s infamous reset button diplomacy that was supposed to reunite Moscow and Washington so that the two can leverage their might in dealing with the tremendous global issues of the time. None of that has happened; in fact, the gulf between Moscow and Washington has deepened more than never before.
Whiles almost all the Moscow-Washington confrontations have occurred outside their respective countries, the latest flare-up is right at the door of Moscow. In fact, Ukraine, is one of the few if not the only post-soviet countries with it cord still attached to Russia. Ukraine’s geographical location is of an immense economic and military importance to Russia who desire to build reliable alliances along its borders so as to ward off any American or European Union incursions into its territories.
This is why the ongoing protest in Ukraine is crucial to the brinksmanship between these two countries. Washington has declared it’s unflinching for the protesters and has slapped Kiev with diplomatic sanctions. Moscow has unequivocally called on Washington and EU to desist from meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs, and have said to be considering military action if they feel threatened by the Ukraine crisis.
To avoid complete degeneration of Ukraine and possible balkanization of the Ukrainian state, the government has made several concessions including offering the Prime Minister and the deputy Prime Minister positions to the opposition, but the opposition has rejected it in apparent adherence to the dictates of their EU and Washington backers.
The brinkmanship continues and has made the situation in Ukraine very bleak and treacherous, which if it is not resolved amicably can bring Moscow and Washington and the EU to a rare military conflict.
