A Russian Perspective on the Ukrainian situation.

  Russia is a Nation that is traumatized by Invasions from the West. She fought her major wars of annihilation from the west except one from the east (Mongols, who subjugated her for 200 years).

The first was the 'Northern crusades' called by the Pope to convert the eastern orthodox (an offshoot of Christianity after the schism) slavs to an iteration of Catholism, the Slavs led by Russia resisted it, but that singular act sowed seeds of hatred amongst the slav & Europe. A permanent cultural/spiritual border was established along the polish border & Balkans with consequences akin to the Sunni/Shiite split.

Thus the Slavs (Russians, Pols, Ukrainians, Serbs etc) have always been treated with contempt by their Anglo-Saxon/Lombard & Romano cousins to the west. A series of invasions followed whom the Russians see as a continuation of the 'Northern crusades' with strong support from the Pope..

The Swedish Empire invaded, an invasion which Tsar Peter the great repelled at great cost.

Napoleon invaded too, an invasion the Russians saw with significant support from Europe.

Then the Bolsheviks, the communist yoke seen as a foreign conspiracy, with Lenin getting significant support from London, New York & Berlin

The communist plunged Russia to a new depths of despair, killing off millions with her spiritual & cultural elites the main target. This is seen as an attempt to strip her of her identity and help achieve what the 'Northern crusades, Swedish invasion, Napoleon & The Turks' failed to do. 

Then came Hitler, who in 1941 launched the largest invasion in history; Operation Barbarossa, 4.5 Million German troops, with millions of French, Italian, Finns & Swedish auxiliaries launched the attack on the USSR all from the same west and north, with the ukraine being the primary route of invasion. 

The Russians managed to win the War but at a great Human cost with estimates ranging from 20-30 Million people. 

Russia has always felt threatened from the West and view NATO as a modern reiteration of the 3rd Reich. 

In 1991, the USSR dissolved, with express promises by Bush Snr. to Gorbachev not to move NATO 'an inch to the east', no sooner had the USSR dissolve did NATO launch an illegal invasion of Serbia, Instigated the Balkan wars in Yugoslavia and precipitating distrust and genocide.

Russia was too weak to defend herself and her interests in the 90's, reeling from IMF imposed austerity, an incompetent Yeltsin at the helms and an insurgency in Chechnya.

In 1999, Putin became PM and immediately sought to save the Nation from the Abyss.

He ruthlessly dealt with the Chechen Insurgency, rebuilt the military, stopped the oligarchs parasitic leeching off her resources, arrested a declining economy and demography, restoring national pride.

In 2008, with NATO prodding, Georgia attempted an invasion of the regions of Abkhazia & South Osettia whom are overwhelmingly Russian, this Prompted a Russian response and the Georgians were sent packing & their capital Tbilisi occupied.

In 2011, the UN mandate 'Responsibility to protect' was used as a pretext to murder Gaddafi, Putin rued Russian failure to protect an ally, thus, in 2015, with Damascus at the brink, The Syrian President Assad sought assistance from the Russian government, to help him roll back the foreign instigated extremists bent on exterminating every minority in Syria ( Alawites, Druze, Shiites, Christians, Sufis) etc.

Thus, the Russian military intervened with their Airforce, Special operation forces, intelligence & arms helping Syria roll back the tide of ISIS and other extremist Jihadists identified & bankrolled by the west, the gulf sheikhdoms and Turks branded with the misnomer, 'moderate Jihadists'.

In 2014, their was a coup under the pretext of 'Maidan revolution', a Russian allign democratically elected Government was removed, and in it's place, a russohobic, naziphilic aggressive regime came into power bent on taking the Ukraine (the frontier in Russian) into NATO.

This tenuous scenario was seen as simply unacceptable, bringing back memories of the Nazi invasion of WWII.

Crimea where the strategic naval base in Sevastopol sought reunification, a referendum was conducted with a whooping 90%+ voting to rejoin Russia, where they have been for 150 years before Khruschev a Ukrainian leader of the USSR moved her to Ukraine.

The provinces of Lughansk and Donetsk in the Ukraine are provinces with a Russian majority, after the 'revolution', they declared their independence and like Crimea, sought to join Russia instigating the current simmering Civil War.

The US friendly and imposed regime promptly sought to join NATO, a request seen as a redline in Moscow.

Mark Whitney writing for unz.com puts the crisis as a Machiavellian attempt to derail the potential Berlin - Moscow - Beijing axis capable of ruling the European and Asian heartland whilst also locking out the US and UK. He states:

"The Ukrainian crisis has nothing to do with Ukraine. It’s about Germany and, in particular, a pipeline that connects Germany to Russia called Nord Stream 2. Washington sees the pipeline as a threat to its primacy in Europe and has tried to sabotage the project at every turn. Even so, Nord Stream has pushed ahead and is now fully-operational and ready-to-go. Once German regulators provide the final certification, the gas deliveries will begin. German homeowners and businesses will have a reliable source of clean and inexpensive energy while Russia will see a significant boost to their gas revenues. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.

The US Foreign Policy establishment is not happy about these developments. They don’t want Germany to become more dependent on Russian gas because commerce builds trust and trust leads to the expansion of trade. As relations grow warmer, more trade barriers are lifted, regulations are eased, travel and tourism increase, and a new security architecture evolves. In a world where Germany and Russia are friends and trading partners, there is no need for US military bases, no need for expensive US-made weapons and missile systems, and no need for NATO.

That’s where Ukraine comes into the picture. Ukraine is Washington’s ‘weapon of choice’ for torpedoing Nord Stream and putting a wedge between Germany and Russia. The strategy is taken from page one of the US Foreign Policy Handbook under the rubric: Divide and Rule. Washington needs to create the perception that Russia poses a security threat to Europe. That’s the goal. They need to show that Putin is a bloodthirsty aggressor with a hair-trigger temper who cannot be trusted. To that end, the media has been given the assignment of reiterating over and over again, “Russia is planning to invade Ukraine.” What’s left unsaid is that Russia has not invaded any country since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and that the US has invaded or toppled regimes in more than 50 countries in the same period of time, and that the US maintains over 800 military bases in countries around the world. None of this is reported by the media, instead the focus is on “evil Putin” who has amassed an estimated 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border threatening to plunge all of Europe into another bloody war.

The primordial interest of the United States, over which for centuries we have fought wars– the First, the Second and Cold Wars– has been the relationship between Germany and Russia, because united there, they’re the only force that could threaten us. And to make sure that that doesn’t happen.” George Friedman, STRATFOR CEO at The Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs"

It should be noted, the major wars in Russian history are wars that are defensive in nature, from the:

Northern Crusades

The Mongols 

The Swedes

Napoleon & above all,

Hitler in WWII.

Their's a popular saying in Russia:

'Russia does not start wars, but she knows how to end them!' 

The writer can be reached via;

Email: walinajeeb2@gmail.com

Phone: +2347030758038