The International Spectator - Putin's Crimea takeover sends shivers across ex-Soviet Union
It is December 2019 and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is flying to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his bold moves in standing up to the US and establishing a new world order.
“Even in its sleep the world does not forget that Russia can turn the entire planet into radioactive ash, not only the United States,” reads a new satirical short story by Belarussian writer Sergei Ostrovtsov.
The piece, titled “A Nobel for Putin”, was published online as waves of concern spread across countries of the former USSR over Moscow’s seizure of Ukraine’s peninsula of Crimea.
Putin’s pledge to protect compatriots beyond his country’s borders and his readiness to revisit history has re-opened old wounds in the Baltic nations and even troubled the Kremlin’s traditional allies.
Many of the post-Soviet countries have sizeable Russian-speaking populations and are struggling with festering territorial disputes and separatist claims of their own.
“All the former Soviet countries have artificial borders,” said Konstantin Kalachev, head of the Political Expert Group.
“A precedent for redrawing borders has been created.”
Following an uprising that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych last month, Putin sent troops to Russian-speaking Crimea, citing concern for compatriots.
On Tuesday, he signed a treaty making the peninsula part of Russian territory, saying Nikita Khrushchev’s decision to give it to Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union in 1954 was a mistake.
Rest of article here.
It is December 2019 and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is flying to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his bold moves in standing up to the US and establishing a new world order.
“Even in its sleep the world does not forget that Russia can turn the entire planet into radioactive ash, not only the United States,” reads a new satirical short story by Belarussian writer Sergei Ostrovtsov.
The piece, titled “A Nobel for Putin”, was published online as waves of concern spread across countries of the former USSR over Moscow’s seizure of Ukraine’s peninsula of Crimea.
Putin’s pledge to protect compatriots beyond his country’s borders and his readiness to revisit history has re-opened old wounds in the Baltic nations and even troubled the Kremlin’s traditional allies.
Many of the post-Soviet countries have sizeable Russian-speaking populations and are struggling with festering territorial disputes and separatist claims of their own.
“All the former Soviet countries have artificial borders,” said Konstantin Kalachev, head of the Political Expert Group.
“A precedent for redrawing borders has been created.”
Following an uprising that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych last month, Putin sent troops to Russian-speaking Crimea, citing concern for compatriots.
On Tuesday, he signed a treaty making the peninsula part of Russian territory, saying Nikita Khrushchev’s decision to give it to Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union in 1954 was a mistake.
Rest of article here.
