Ukraine Will Be Dismembered In Months

Image from The Guardian

Putin’s “Greater Novorossiya” - The Dismemberment of Ukraine -- Adrian A. Basora, Aleksandr Fisher, Foreign Policy Research Institute

On April 17, Vladimir Putin introduced a dangerously expansive new concept into the Ukraine crisis. During his four-hour question and answer session on Russian TV that day he pointedly mentioned “Novorossiya” – a large swath of territory conquered by Imperial Russia during the 18th century from a declining Ottoman Empire. This historic Novorossiya covered roughly a third of what is now Ukraine (including Crimea).

Subsequent comments and actions by Putin and his surrogates have made it clear that the Kremlin’s goal is once again to establish its dominance over the lands once called Novorossiya. Furthermore, it is clear that Putin hopes to push his control well beyond this region’s historic boundaries to include other contiguous provinces with large Russian-speaking populations.

Read more ....

My Comment: Two months ago I would have scoffed at the possibility of a broken up Ukraine. Today .... after witnessing the incompetence of the Ukraine interim government, the anti-Russian rhetoric from Ukrainian nationalists, the slow pace of the West in providing essential aid and credits to the interim government .... and the final gesture of sending soldiers and tanks to attack and kill civilians in the east .... any hope of a successful resolution to the crisis is now over. The question that now needs to be answered is .... where will they draw the borders.