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Western Ukraine will be an economically weak and pro-Nazi state

24 February 2014 / 21:02:57  GRReporter
4753 reads

Anastasia Balezdrova

At a time when the division of Ukraine is closer than ever, the major powers in the region and the world, such as the European Union, Russia and the U.S., are openly against this outcome of the conflict. At the same time, the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine have firmly opposed the protests whereas some supporters of the events in Kiev have appeared in Crimea.

The development of the conflict, the opposing sides and major players on the political scene, and the final outcome are the topics of a GRReporter interview with journalist Dimitris Triandafilidis. He graduated from Kiev State University, he is a political journalist and translator of Russian.

 

Dimitris Triandafilidis in Kiev

The situation in Ukraine

The country has only a few hours to avoid a generalized civil war but I am not at all sure that it will be able to do so. This depends on the actual players of the crisis who finally came to the fore yesterday. I mean the "Right Sector." This is the frontal organization of the Ukrainian nationalists and neo-Nazis who are located in the region from the Carpathians to the central part of the country. Their leader is 40-year-old Dmitry Yarosh. These people have already announced that they will not give up their weapons until the end of the Ukrainian revolution. To them the end means sending all politicians to prison. They have also stated that they will prohibit the use of the Russian language and close the few schools where the Russian language is taught.

 

Photo: Reuters/ Maks Levin

On the other hand the southern regions of Ukraine, namely Odessa, Kherson and Crimea, where Russian-speaking people live, as they are called now, but they are actually people of Russian origin, state that each area that wants to join the European Union is free to do so as long as the plan does not include Crimea. The local government had announced this a week earlier and confirmed its decision yesterday. The same is true in the majority of the southern regions of Ukraine, which have a Russian population. The only problem there is Tatars, a small ethnic group that collaborates with the Ukrainian nationalists. Their goal is the separation of Crimea from Ukraine and its integration into Turkey. Many of them have recently participated in the war in Syria on the side of the Mujahedeen.

Moreover, there is already information about the existence of training camps of nationalists and extremists in the Carpathians. It is known that they are organized in 100-member teams following the example of the Roman legions. For example, unit 23 is controlling Maidan Square in Kiev and carrying out military operations there. A sniper was arrested on Sunday night who fired at the police and the protesters.

How could all those who claim that Ukrainians are divided into pro-Russian and supporters of the European Union explain these facts? The methodology of this analysis is wrong.

Scenarios for resolving the crisis

I think the interests of the two strong players in the region, namely the European Union and Russia, coincide at present. The scenario of dividing Ukraine into western and eastern does not benefit anyone. If a state is created in the western part of Ukraine it will be 10 times poorer than neighbouring Poland, it will have a far right, Nazi government and zero industrial infrastructure, which will be a nightmare for the European Union.

At the same time, central and eastern Ukraine, which will be in the Russian sphere of influence, will be an unstable area of paramount importance for the defence of Russia. We must not forget the fact that the two largest Russian naval bases are in Crimea. They ensure Russia’s outlet on the Mediterranean Sea, especially after Moscow has recovered the governance of its naval forces in the Mediterranean after a 25-year break. The country has 20 major warships that had arrived in the Mediterranean during the crisis in Syria.

I think the U.S. triggered the crisis in Ukraine while trying to break Russia's attempts to create a customs union as an initial structure for the future establishment of a Eurasian Union modelled on the European Union. The U.S. tried to gain geostrategic dominance. They have succeeded to some extent, contributing towards the emergence of an Eastern European Hitler at the same time. The situation is just that. Yarosh does not hide his intentions. He speaks about a country based on the law of blood, on the "purity" of the Ukrainian people and the use of the Ukrainian language alone. And all this in a country that is a mosaic of ethnicities.

Viktor Yanukovych, Yulia Tymoshenko and the "Right Sector" group

He was a representative of the corrupt elite and another of its representatives, Yulia Tymoshenko, is replacing him. There is no possibility of Yanukovych returning. He is either hiding somewhere in eastern Ukraine or is already in Belarus, where he will spend the coming years with the money he has acquired by illegal means. His son was the biggest mobster in Ukraine. Can a dentist like him win all public procurement in the country in 2013?


Photo: Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Tags: PoliticsUkraineCrisisEuropean UnionRussiaYulia TymoshenkoRight SectorNationalistsNeo Nazis
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