The West must realise that the world is changing and the star of the West and the US is in decline.
KARACHI: The melodrama going on in Ukraine is another example of how Western, and especially American, thoughtless and malicious interference in the affairs of other countries can backfire and damage, not only the country concerned itself, but also peace in the whole region if not in the entire world. US hawks are unhappy with the return of Russia as a global power in the international arena and have decided that the Russian sphere of influence has to be limited. They had earlier been successful in luring the Baltic states of the former Soviet Union into Western alliance — which in a certain way did make some sense — and then tried to surround Russia by befriending the Central Asian states and establishing military bases there.
By trying to bring a new government in Georgia, which was hostile to Russia, Western powers precipitated a limited war in the region, with Georgia losing some of its autonomous territories in the fallout. In Ukraine, the West then pushed and financed a so-called ‘orange revolution’, allegedly in favour of democracy. This was led by Yulia Tymoshenko, a woman of dubious credentials. When she lost the elections to Russia-friendly Viktor Yanukovych and when under his rule, Ukraine left talks for membership in the European Union and tried to go into the Russian fold of influence, more money was pumped into the country to push forward another ’revolution’.
The EU foreign relations head, Catherine Ashton, was recently told by the Estonian foreign minister in a leaked telephonic conversation that the snipers who had shot those protesting against Yanukovych’s government and the police had actually been hired by the leaders of the protest movement themselves. This is why, for good reason, the new Ukrainian interim government is refusing to carry out an investigation into the identities of the snipers and who sponsored and paid them.
The Ukrainian crisis is another incident of how the US is manipulating people, governments and the media. We should not take any reports of the Western media on face value as it is part of the propaganda machine of the US. Let us hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin sticks to his stand that he will not fight against the Ukrainian people. The call for sanctions against Russia by certain Western governments will be a very sorry response to the current crisis. The West must realise that the world is changing and the star of the West and the US is in decline.
Ali Ashraf Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2014.
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