Today the two eastern Ukrainian territories that constitute the Donbass—Donetsk and Luhansk—announced their independence and Russia shortly thereafter granted diplomatic recognition and said it would move in its military to support the two new nations. The Russians are tired of messing around and there’s very little the U.S. and NATO can do about. This is reminiscent of what Russia did in Syria during the Obama presidency. Two days ago Paul Craig Roberts said Russia would engage in a judicious show of force and it looks like he’s right. This also looks like a masterstroke by Putin and company. From Roberts at paulcraigroberts.org:
Breaking News: Russia and Belarus Reassemble Forces as Ukraine Attacks Donbass
It is Amazing: Donbass Russians Are Under Attack from US Trained and Armed Ukrainians and the Kremlin Thinks the Answer is Negotiations
It seems Russia is so averse to using force that she will be pulled into a major war.
The situation is worsening
Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO who answers to Washington declared today (Feb 19) at the Munich Security Conference that “if the Kremlin’s aim is to have less NATO on its borders, it will only get more NATO.” He says NATO is beefing up its forces “across the alliance,” that is, in the NATO countries on Russia’s borders. https://www.rt.com/russia/549979-nato-chief-reply-russia/
This is an extremely aggressive response to Russia’s concern about missile bases placed on her borders. To speak frankly, Stoltenberg is inviting a Russian attack before she finds herself with more missile bases on her borders.
As if this isn’t enough and with Russia already concerned with the unwillingness of the West to abide by any agreements, treaties, and international law, the president of Ukraine declared today at the Munich Security Conference that Ukraine was on the verge of renouncing the Budapest Memorandum in which Ukraine agreed to abstain from nuclear weapons in exchange for its independence from Russia. As Ukraine has already broken the Minsk Agreement, there is no reason for Ukraine to keep to the Budapest Memorandum. https://www.rt.com/russia/549994-ukraine-threatens-renounce-memorandum/
So, Russia goes to the US and NATO and says frankly: “You are making us uncomfortable by putting missile bases on our borders and by your plans to bring Ukraine into NATO. This is not something we can accept. Here is our proposal for mutual security.” And the reply is more NATO military expansion and Ukraine developing nuclear weapons.
There was never any possibility of any success of Russian negotiations with Ukraine, because Ukraine is not a sovereign country and cannot make its own decisions. Ukraine is Washington’s pawn used to cause trouble for Russia. Russia brought this upon herself by standing aside while Washington overthrew the Ukraine government and installed a Washington puppet. Biden, Blinken, Stoltenberg, and the rest of the crew have made it completely clear that they intend to make Russia less secure. The West thinks that this is riskless because all the Russians will do is complain and ask for more negotiations. Washington has Russia trapped in the self-defeating process of answering Washington’s accusations.
STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC 