“Putin has declared war on Ukraine,” reports
newspaper Ukrainska Pravda. Despite stern warnings from
the U.S. about meddling in the nation, the Russian government is
taking rapid steps toward invasion and other destabilization
tactics.
After Russian forces already began mobilizing within
Ukraine’s Crimean region, Russia’s parliament today unanimously
approved a request from President Vladimir Putin to send in
as many as 28,000 troops. He
contends that Ukraine’s revolution poses a “threat to the lives
of citizens of the Russian Federation, our compatriots, and the
personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation who are
deployed on the territory of Ukraine.”
Crimea has a large Russian population and houses Russia’s Black
Sea Fleet. Earlier this week some citizens installed pro-Russian
leader who
wants a Russian military intervention, though others have
pushed back against the idea.
The Kyiv Post
writes that “despite the strong Kremlin overheated rhetoric,
there is no evidence that ethnic Russians are in any danger in
Ukraine more than anybody else.”
Russia’s former chief economic advisor, Adrei Illarionov,
argues that
Putin’s goal is to render Ukraine totally unstable as an
independent country so that Russia may justify extending its own
sphere of influence.
The parliament is also moving forward with legislation to
“establishes a simplified procedure for a foreign territory to
accede to the Russian Federation. The explanatory note for the bill
states that it pertains to the situation in Ukraine,”
according to Russian news site Interfax.ru. As part of its war,
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is
offering to employ members of Ukraine’s notorious and
now-defunct riot police, Berkut, with the promise of granting them
Russian passports. Many members of the force are antagonistic
toward Ukraine’s new, opposition-controlled government, because it
dissolved Berkut for killing civilians during protests last month.
Russia is also using social networks to
rally ex-military personnel to join the fight for Crimea.
At the same time, the Russian government is openly snubbing the
US. The parliament “recommended that the Kremlin recall the Russian
ambassador to the United States to underscore objections to remarks
made by President Obama on
Friday,” explains the Los Angeles Times. So far, Putin has
declined the
recommendation but it remains an option.
Yesterday, President Obama
warned that “it would represent a profound interference in
matters that must be determined by the Ukrainian people. It would
be a clear violation of Russia’s commitment to respect the
independence and sovereignty and borders of Ukraine, and of
international laws.”
Read more Reason coverage of Ukraine here.
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