Tag Archives: Viktor Yanukovych

Hope And (Regime) Change

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Our drive-by intervention accomplished regime change in Libya, but the country has still not recovered from its liberation. [Credit: National Post]

Our dri­ve-by inter­ven­tion accom­plished regime change in Libya, but the coun­try has still not recov­ered from its lib­er­a­tion. [Cred­it: Nation­al Post]

The Con­sti­tu­tion requires Pres­i­dent Oba­ma to leave office in 700 days.  If he has his way, Vladimir Putin and Ben­jamin Netanyahu will pre­cede him into pri­vate life.

It should not be sur­pris­ing that a Pres­i­dent who prides him­self on refus­ing to nego­ti­ate with elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives has so lit­tle patience with some of his fel­low nation­al lead­ers.  Or that regime change has become a lead­ing char­ac­ter­is­tic of the Pres­i­den­t’s for­eign pol­i­cy.   Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Next Ukraine Crisis

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Pro-Russian Crimeans celebrate referendum results. Putin won this round of the Ukraine crisis. How should the West prepare for the next one? [Credit: China Daily]

Pro-Russ­ian Crimeans cel­e­brate ref­er­en­dum results. Putin won this round of the Ukraine cri­sis. How should the West pre­pare for the next one? [Cred­it: Chi­na Daily]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and his Admin­is­tra­tion have been pro­claim­ing for weeks that the Rus­sians would suf­fer if they didn’t with­draw from Crimea.

They haven’t with­drawn.  They’re not suf­fer­ing.  Now what?

Vladimir Putin seems once again to have pre­vailed, annex­ing Crimea with­out mil­i­tary or eco­nom­ic reprisals of con­se­quence.  Our government’s veiled threats of mil­i­tary action and explic­it warn­ings of deep eco­nom­ic pain have thus far proven emp­ty, though both the US and Europe are expect­ed to add to the list of Rus­sians on whom it will impose trav­el and finan­cial restric­tions. The cri­sis may soon wind down, but we can expect anoth­er in a few months when new elec­tions are to be held and bills come due for a Kiev gov­ern­ment on the edge of bank­rupt­cy.  The Admin­is­tra­tion should han­dle this next cri­sis differently.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Ukraine Economic Woes Could Hold Key To Peace

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Uniformed troops believed to be Russian stand guard outside a Ukrainian military base in Crimea. Is there a peaceful resolution to this crisis? [Credit: Business Insider]

Uni­formed troops believed to be Russ­ian stand guard out­side a Ukrain­ian mil­i­tary base in Crimea. Is there a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion to this cri­sis? [Cred­it: Busi­ness Insider]

Ukraine’s inter­im gov­ern­ment, whose part the Admin­is­tra­tion has tak­en in the Crimea cri­sis, includes a promi­nent polit­i­cal leader who has in the past urged his coun­try­men to fight the “Mus­covite-Jew­ish mafia” and called on his gov­ern­ment to halt the “crim­i­nal activ­i­ties” of “orga­nized Jewry.”

The author of this calum­ny, Oleh Tyah­ny­bok, is a leader of Ukraine’s Svo­bo­da (“free­dom”) par­ty, who in Decem­ber 2012 was named Per­son of the Year by read­ers of the coun­try’s lead­ing news mag­a­zine, Kor­re­spon­dent.

Such are the com­plex­i­ties that lurk not far beneath the sur­face in the ongo­ing cri­sis over Russia’s incur­sion into Crimea. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

On Ukraine, President Obama Should Heed Merkel

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Russia has seized control of Crimea, the southernmost portion of Ukraine. Resolving the crisis peacefully requires adult leadership. [Credit: Washington Post]

Rus­sia has seized con­trol of Crimea, the south­ern­most por­tion of Ukraine. Resolv­ing the cri­sis peace­ful­ly requires adult lead­er­ship. [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Post]

In deal­ing with the Russ­ian incur­sion into Ukraine, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma will hear no bet­ter advice than this: lis­ten to Angela Merkel.

A week ago, it appeared that Ukraine would prove an embar­rass­ment for Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin. Demon­stra­tors in Kiev demand­ed the res­ig­na­tion of the country’s Russ­ian-backed Pres­i­dent, Vik­tor Yanukovych, reject­ing a ten­ta­tive set­tle­ment with protest lead­ers that would have allowed him to retain pow­er tem­porar­i­ly. Yanukovych fled to Rus­sia and a tran­si­tion gov­ern­ment was formed in Kiev, which prompt­ly charged him with mass mur­der. Con­tin­ue read­ing →