US media: Putin is the biggest loser

03.07.2014 16:37

Ukrinform

Last Friday's signature by Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia of Association Agreements with the European Union is the result of the Kremlin's failed policies in attempts to keep these countries in the sphere of Russia's influence. In addition, Moscow's efforts to destabilize the situation in east Ukraine bring the West closer to a serious step in response, after which Russia is unlikely to recover.

The U.S. media have reported this in recent days, a Ukrinform correspondent said.

In particular, the Chicago Tribune edition on Wednesday posted an article entitled "Ukraine's Independence Day," which analyzes the latest events around Ukraine and the possibility of the West's providing proper assistance to the country.

"[Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko signed the deal with Europe on Friday, striking a huge blow against Putin. Afterward, the Ukrainian president called it 'the most important day' for his country since its 1991 independence. That's a reason for the West to celebrate - and to quickly ramp up its economic and military support for Ukraine," reads the article.

According to the newspaper, more good news is that "Georgia and Moldova, two other former Soviet satellites that have had trouble escaping the Kremlin's gravitational pull, also signed, much to Moscow's displeasure."

After the Friday signing, Russia warned of "grave consequences" for Kyiv, the author writes.

The edition emphasizes that the threat of Russian intervention to these three countries is real. "Imagine the courage that the president of a smaller, weaker nation must summon to poke the Russian bear in the eye," the author writes.

In this regard, Chicago Tribune quoted Amanda Paul, a researcher at the European Policy Center: "The big loser in all of this is [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. He has gone out of his way to create problems internally in Ukraine, but only pushed Ukraine further into the arms of the West than it ever would have gone before. It totally backfired for Putin."

On Monday, there was another welcome display of independence from Poroshenko, Chicago Tribune reported. He brushed aside pressure from Moscow to extend a ten-day-old truce and launched new attacks on pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. "The 'truce' was a fiction: While Ukrainian forces held fire, the rebels killed Ukrainian soldiers and rearmed themselves with tanks and surface-to-air missiles courtesy of Moscow," the newspaper notes.

The author believes that this should be the cue for the U.S. and its European allies to flood Ukraine's new leaders with military help in order to quash the rebels and their patron in the Kremlin. "This should be the moment that galvanizes Western leaders to put Ukraine's welfare ahead of Europe's extensive and lucrative business ties with Moscow, and to end the generally passive tone from Washington," the author wrote.

The leaders of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia put their countries, their governments and their people on the line to stand up to Russia. "The stakes here are huge: their independence from Russia and Europe's long-term security in the face of an aggressive Moscow," reads the article.

The author says that the U.S. and its allies need to show Putin that there's a high - and mounting - cost to backing pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, "to disrupting its democratic government and to quashing the aspirations of its citizens to move closer to the West."