Europe faces a new war - between Russia and Ukraine

Europe is faced with the danger of a major new war. In 1939, the German invasion of Poland marked the beginning of World War II. Today, the situation has become a hotbed of explosive not Poland, and Ukraine. And the aggressor will not be Adolf Hitler and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

His iron fist Russia into a gangster state. Democracy, an end to corruption is widespread, journalists are killed, jailed dissidents, and the media came under the control of the regime. With the influx of petrodollars Moscow seeks to restore the Great Russian Empire. It is a threat to its neighbors and the West.

Putin - a former KGB apparatchik, who has called the collapse of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the XX century". These words reflect his bloodlust and moral depravity. Communism is Soviet-style system has created the largest mass murder in history. He is responsible for the death of over 60 million people. The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 - it's not a catastrophe, but just the opposite, a victory for democracy, national self-determination and civilization.

Independent Ukraine has risen from the ashes. "No other nation has not suffered so much under the rule of Moscow, as the Ukrainian", - said Gerry Kelebay, a professor at McGill University in Montreal (Canada) and a leading expert on Ukraine.

In 1932-1933 Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin gave Holodomor. More than 10 million Ukrainians died of starvation. "If any country has won the right to statehood, so is Ukraine," - said Kelebay.

He's right: sovereignty and burgeoning democracy went to Ukraine at a very high price. Unfortunately, Ukraine is once again faced with the Russian aggression. But now it does not come from the Marxist-Leninists, but from the diehard nationalists.

Moscow comes. After the invasion of Georgia and establishment of the rule of Russia in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Putin is now tends to split Ukraine. The Russian leader did not hide his contempt for Kiev's independence. At the NATO summit in April, he told President Bush that Ukraine is not a real state, and that a substantial part of the territory was given to her Russian. Putin warned that the Ukrainian state will end, if it decides to join NATO.

Xenophobic Kremlin elite despises Ukraine, like Georgia, for a simple reason - it seeks to break free from the totalitarian grip of Moscow. In response, Russia is trying to destabilize Ukraine.

Moscow's objective is to knock the Crimean Peninsula from Kiev's control. Most of the inhabitants of the Crimea - the ethnic Russian. More importantly, the Russian Black Sea Fleet based in Sevastopol. Under an agreement between the two countries by 1997, the Russian Navy should leave by 2017. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko refuses to extend the lease, rightly fearing Moscow's intentions to eventually annex the entire Crimea. Russian officials have already said they will not give up the base in Sevastopol and that they do not obey the laws of the Sea of ​​Kiev.

Moreover, Russia has issued Russian passports to thousands of his supporters in the Crimea. The plan is to replicate the work done in South Ossetia and Abkhazia: Create a pretext to send the Russian "peacekeepers" to protect "citizens" Russia, supposedly in danger.

But Ukraine - is not Georgia, is a big, well-armed country that remembers the years of Russian domination. Any attempt to split it in Moscow will meet fierce resistance. This will lead to a bloody Russo-Ukrainian war. It inevitably draws in Poland and the Baltic states - all of them members of NATO. Militant nationalism Putin could ignite conflict in Europe.

Fighting for Ukraine - is not just a test of wills in the region. This clash over the future of Europe - and Russia's role in it. Convinced Slavophiles, such as Mr. Putin, dream of creating a "Slavic Union" with the participation of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. They advocate for the revival of Russian imperialism, seeking to dominate its neighbors and the establishment of its zone of influence in Eastern Europe and the Balkans and undermine American power abroad. This explains Moscow's support for recalcitrant regimes such as the regime of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia and Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran.

However, democratic, unified Ukraine stands in the way of Putin. Ukraine is the strategic bulwark against Russian expansion - the eastern bulwark of Western civilization. Kiev - is not a great regional capital of Russia, but an integral part of Europe. That is why Ukraine seeks to join NATO and the European Union.

And that is why Moscow desperately to prevent Ukraine's integration into Euro-Atlantic alliance. A prosperous and pluralist Orthodox Slavic state on the border with Russia would be an attractive alternative to the Kremlin's brutal dictatorship. A successful Ukraine would pave the way for the triumph of liberal democracy in Russia. And Putin is ready to do anything to prevent this from happening, even if it will have to make a new monstrous bloodbath in Europe. Now we are all Ukrainians.

A source