Ukraine's Collapse Will Destabilize The Entire Southeast Part OF Europe

Dozens waited outside the Rodovid Bank in Kiev on Friday to take money out of their accounts. The bank is close to failing. Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

KIEV, Ukraine — Steel and chemical factories, once the muscle of Ukraine’s economy, are dismissing thousands of workers. Cities have had days without heat or water because they cannot pay their bills, and Kiev’s subway service is being threatened. Lines are sprouting at banks, the currency is wilting and even a government default seems possible.

Ukraine, once considered a worldwide symbol of an emerging, free-market democracy that had cast off authoritarianism, is teetering. And its predicament poses a real threat for other European economies and former Soviet republics.

Read more ....

My Comment: I am glad that my father is not alive to see this happen. Even though Russian by birth, my father and my grandparents grew up in the Ukraine from the 1920s till (in my father's case) the start of the Second World War when he was conscripted into the Russian Army. Many of my cousins still live in the Ukraine, and are in fact part of the financial banking system that operates there.

Am I surprise to see what is happening. No.

Ukraine is a fractured country made up of two separate and distinct societies (Russian and Ukrainian) that do not see eye to eye on many issues. This has manifested into a financial and economic crisis that now makes it almost impossible for politicians to come to some form of accommodation and compromise that will help to alleviate the situation.

In the background is Russia, and it looks at the Russian parts of the Ukraine as its own. While Russia can help to alleviate the suffering in the Ukraine, it will not. There is too much bad blood and animosity between the two sides .... an animosity that will probably take decades to alleviate.

The West is powerless to help. Mired in its own financial mess, it does not have the will nor the resources to help the Ukraine. The best that they can do is make promises, and vague commitments.

As a result, I do believe that this is going to be a summer of discontent .... hitting countries like the Ukraine especially hard. I was in the region in 1992 when everything went to hell in both Russia and the Ukraine. I guess the same is going to be the case this summer of 2009.

On a personal level, I have already made plans to be in the Ukraine and Russia this summer .... and I am still going. While this blog is dedicated to covering and commenting on wars, political conflicts, and internal strife, I will be reporting and commenting on my trip to both countries.