Adding to growing tensions between Ukraine and Russia, and the broad Ukrainian hostility toward all things Russian, President Petro Poroshenko announced on Friday that he is banning all Russian men between the ages of 16 and 60 from the country.
Officials are trying to tie this to last weekend’s maritime incident with Russia, and Poroshenko is claiming it is to prevent Russian soldiers from sneaking into the country to “destabilize” Ukraine before a war.
In reality, it feels like a continuation of Poroshenko’s anti-Russia policies which included harsh restrictions on the use of the Russian language, the sort of policies which fueled secessionist fervor in the mostly ethnic-Russian east.
In the near term, the impact is mostly economic and cultural. Russian soloist Andrei Merkuriev, from the Bolshoi, reported that he was forbidden from attending a ballet in Odessa, a show which he was staging in the first place.
Beyond this, Poroshenko announced new crackdowns on the Russian Orthodox church, ordering raids against important religious sites in the country. This comes amid his government’s push to emphasize the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox church.
If Russia were to conclude the time had come to covertly infiltrate Ukraine to destabilize its government (the way the US did not so long ago), I’m sure they could find plenty of competent women to get it done. This latest Ukrainian policy might make such actions seem more necessary to Russia. Now that Russia isn’t giving Ukraine free natural gas, Russia can just wait for Ukraine to implode economically and politically.
Does this mean the ethnic Russians in the Eastern Republics can break off now? Hint: nobody there is asking Porky for permission to do so.
In addition the G7 have given unqualified support to Poroshenko and vow that they will never accept the association of the Crimea with Russia. While they thereby pour gasoline on an already raging fire they ask at the same time for “restraint”. How hypocritical! They first ought to show restraint themselves.
Putin, by taking the Crimea has checkmated Poroshenko and the EU because Ukraine cannot become an EU member as long as it has unsettled border issues. That is a basic fact.
These dangerous G7 mafioso’s do not understand that the only rational solution is that Ukraine joins the Russian Federation at which time the Crimea can and probably will be returned to Ukraine. That will need arduous and almost certainly lengthy negotiations.
My critique of President Trump is that he is nowhere in sight instead of calling for negotiations for that goal. The question for Putin is “what are you prepared and willing to give for Ukraine joining the Federation?”
Ukraine is not Poland.
What else would you expect from this Neo-Nazi loser? He’s desperate to cling to power, either by provoking the Russians into acting rashly (which of course they won’t) or by playing to NATO and the neolibs who put him into power back in 2014. Unfortunately, former Clintonista “f-ck the EU” Victoria Nuland isn’t passing out cookies anymore ($5 billion worth) and he’s a dead duck in the next election.
Guys like Poroshenko can make the most antiwar person turn into a rabid regime change proponent.
How pathetic Poroshenko is. He plays to everyone who will keep him in power, be it American neolibs or CIA/Mossad who want to set up a covert base in Mykolayiv, Ukraine, whoever…
When they finally catch Poroshenko, he will go the way of Mussolini.
So these are the people “we, beacons of democracy and freedom”, support.