Saturday, March 1, 2014

Cold War II, officially on?



by Eze Eluchie

I usually tend to proffer answers to questions or project perspectives from a sub-Saharan viewpoint in my Blogposts – the fluidity of the evolving Ukrainian situation makes it imperative to ask quite a lot of questions, The answers to these questions will serve to found subsequent perspectives on the rather interesting (to the observer from afar, certainly not to those living in the front-lines in Ukraine) developments in Ukraine and the volatile Black Sea region.

Some of the intriguing questions include:
1.      Could any discerning observer have predicted the robust reaction by the Russian Federation to the unfolding crisis in Ukraine?

2.      If yes, should stop-gap measures not have been thought out in advance to ameliorate the reactions now evolving?

3.      Did Russia’s offer of Billions of Dollars in economic aid to the ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich a few weeks ago not serve as sufficient indication to all concerned o f the extent to which the Russian Federation was willing to go to protect its historical cultural, economic and political ties to Ukraine?

4.      Did the aggressive support given to the opposition to Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich by the European Union and its member States, inclusive of the leaked private conversations where the US Ambassador to Ukraine was discussing preferred outcomes of the Ukrainian ‘revolution’, serve as sufficient impetus to raise Russian fears as to the purport and direction of the Ukrainian opposition?

5.      Was there a bit too much haste in ‘recognizing’ the ‘opposition’ as the defacto government in Ukraine – long before the said ‘opposition’ had actually formed anything akin to a Government?

6.      In the light of the February 21st agreement brokered between the Ukrainian opposition and the President Viktor Yanukovich administration by a group of European Union Foreign Ministers with the tacit approval of the Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations, was the forced removal and sack from office of President Viktor Yanukovich legitimate under International Laws?

With the entry of Russia’s Armed Forces into Ukraine, Cold War II, which has been brewing for years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, is officially on. The Russian Army is clearly not in Ukraine to see the sights.

What implications for us in sub-Saharan Africa, and Nigeria in particular, we will have to deal with our domestic situation by ourselves, the best ways we deem fit. There will be far greater things of concern to the United States and its allies in the short-term than which terror group is blowing up school buildings across West African States or which East African country is passing laws to protect its social values.

Let’s be ready, we are living in quite interesting times.


Picture: Flags of Russia and the United States of America


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