Though the world leaders have not congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin yet, it seems that he has successfully created a parallel universe on Earth. The story he has created for Russians to read out and believe in about the MH17 crash in this 21st century will definitely make people believe that the Russians are literally in an alternate universe.
Russians are hearing a story about how the Ukrainian military is responsible because the plane crashed in the skies of Ukraine, omitting the fact that the part of Ukraine it happened in is not controlled by the Ukrainian military.
Moreover, in this century, they have been led to believe that the Ukrainian military was trying to assassinate Vladimir Putin, trying to shoot his plane down, then missed and hit the civilian jetliner instead. According to them, Putin is the saviour of Russia, who is protecting their motherland from the “evil” Ukrainian government backed by the “evil” west.
This state-run sarcasm of the Russian Federation is not only a signal to the world of how the Russian administration perceives the Ukrainian separatists, but also an indication of how they will turn a deaf ear to the sanctions and all other diplomatic pressures to save their torch-bearers in Ukraine.
During the first days of this year, amid frequent threats of international sanctions, the Russian Army annexed the Crimea. A referendum was held in a chaotic situation that formally endorsed the assimilation of Crimea with Russia.
The well-planned move to reunify Crimea with Russia ended successfully on March 16, but the Russian hegemony did not see the end that day. Apparently, Russian imperialism got inspired from the events in Crimea.
Getting encouraged from the assimilation of Crimea, pro-Russian rebels launched fresh attacks in several regions of Ukraine from the second week of March. Till date, militants have taken control of a formidable region in the Ukrainian province Donetsk and declared an independent Donetsk People’s Republic.
The flight MH17 of Malaysian Airlines, which was carrying 295 people, was hit by a missile shot from the soils of Donetsk and crashed in the rebel-held region of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. In addition, last Wednesday, two more Ukrainian fighter jets were shot down while assisting the infantry units of the Ukrainian Army, who were fighting against the rebels, get back control of Donetsk by the same rebels.
Alexander Borodai, the self-proclaimed Prime Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, himself negotiated with the Malaysian delegation about the black box of the airplane, handing it over to the Government of Ukraine. Alexander Borodai and his right-hand man Igor Girkin however, are not everyday thugs. Both are Russian nationals with suspected ties to the Kremlin and experienced in separatist conflicts.
Igor Girkin, a former Russian security service officer, runs an army formed in the so-called republic that has been battling with Ukrainian soldiers since April. There are several other separatist groups, but the one led by Girkin is the largest.
It seems that Vladimir Putin considers international sanctions a mere headache. According to economists, the European Union is the biggest trading partner of Russia. Russia, in turn, is the third biggest trading partner for the European Union. There are deep economic links between the two.
So far, the EU has imposed financial and visa restrictions against 21 carefully selected Russian and Ukrainian officials, but avoided anyone from President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and stayed clear of any large-scale economic sanctions.
Furthermore, Russia provides a third of the European Union’s natural gas. Germany, the euro zone’s biggest economy, imports around 40% of its gas from Russia. So, Russia can squeeze the Europe almost as effectively as the Europe can squeeze them. Imposing a full-fledged sanction over Russia is almost impossible for the west.
Backing rebels was a fashion during the Cold War days. During the regime of Ronald Reagan, the USA started providing military training and a handful of arms to the anti-communist guerillas all over the world. He publicly met the Afghan mujahedeen leaders. According to some critics, President Reagan described the Afghan mujahedeen leaders to be “moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers of America.”
It appears that President Putin, a former KGB official, has learnt a good lesson from the USA. Pondering about a greater Russian Federation, Putin’s Russia is playing a strategic game of backing the insurgents and maintaining close ties with them that escalated further terror in the European region. More than a thousand people have already been killed since the beginning of the pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine. Another 295 civilians, who had nothing to do with the conflict, died in the sky.
The Afghan mujahedeen (which eventually converted into the Taliban) can only be compared to the Frankenstein’s monster. Aiding them was one of USA’s biggest mistakes that left the entirety of Asia under the threat of terrorism. Now Russia is putting Europe at stake by assisting the insurgents of Ukraine. Europe has never been this interesting since Napoleon marched to Moscow, and surely it will remain so if Russia does not cut its ties with the pro-Russian rebels of Ukraine.
