In unusually candidate comments on a televised call-in show, Russian President Vladimir Putin conceded that the Crimean annexation came in part as a response to Russian concerns over NATO’s expansion ever-deeper into eastern Europe.
Putin said the NATO military bloc is “moving toward our borders,” and that there were “considerations that if we do nothing, then at some point, guided by the same principles, NATO will drag Ukraine in” as well.
Some NATO members had indeed been angling for Ukrainian membership, and with Russia’s Black Sea Fleet based out of the Crimea, the obvious conclusion was that the base would be squeezed out.
That had been a concern of Russia’s for many years, and during the previous Tymoshenko government Russia began some preliminary work on a naval base at Novorossylsk as a possible replacement.
Bizarrely, some reports centered on Putin saying that “of course” Russian soldiers were already in Crimea before the recent secession row. There was never any real doubt of that fact, because Russia has had a naval base there for centuries.
But all the mercenaries from US and Europe are welcome to stay as long as the Ukrainian crises is not solved, that is to say if it ever will. Which bring us to the question why cia director in Ukraine last weekend, he was looking for a safe house for his man and ones that are missing, more then a dozen of them.
There was no annexation of Crimea. Perhaps people ought to open a dictionary, or browse to one, to find out what Annex means. It requires force and unilateral maneuver – and in a situation where a peoples declared independence and then applied for accession to join another country, annexation is not even a possibility.
This obvious reality has not escaped Putin's comprehension, but I wonder why it has escaped so many in journalism. One might expect an English-language journalist to possess a competent level of English terminology, but here we see that such expectation would experience disappointment in this matter.
Is the trouble that English journalists don't know what Annexation means, or is it that they don't know what Objectivity, Honesty, Truth, Integrity, and Responsibility mean?
I seriously have to wonder, now.
The obvious solution is for Russia to join NATO. It wanted to join and the European members of NATO wanted it to join but the US vetoed that. Now, the US is paying the price of its own blundering, which didn't start with Victoria Nuland. Bear in mide also that, since the Black Sea is an enclosed sea, the Sebastopol base is in fact militarily useless. The fact that Putin is making such a fuss about it confirms the idea that the Russian military is hopelessly inefficient and badly led.
"Bear in mide also that, since the Black Sea is an enclosed sea, the Sebastopol base is in fact militarily useless."
What kind of fantasy world do you live in?
The Black Sea is Russia's gateway to the Mediterranean via the Bosphorus Strait. It is of incredible importance both commercially (including hundreds of millions of tons of oil shipping) and militarily.
Applying your logic, the Mediterranean sea is an "enclosed sea" too. Does that mean all the naval bases there are "useless"? Does that mean the British base at Malta was "useless" in WW2? Having a Black Sea base allows Russia to protect its Black Sea coast. It also allows for the possibility of launching amphibious operations against other countries with a Black sea coastline. Finally the base itself is a citadel and fall-back defensive position if the country is invaded. Look at how the heroic defense of Sevastopol in WW2 frustrated the German invaders.