Friday, February 6, 2015

Wladyslaw Gulewicz — "Sworn Frenemies", or why Poland supports Ukrainian nationalism

The 21st century is picking up right where the 20th left off. [And the 20th picked up where the 19th left off and so on extending back a millennium] Let’s not forget that the proximate cause of the Maidan had nothing to do with the United States, which exploited the situation rather opportunistically. It began with an effort to bring Ukraine into EU’s (and, therefore, Germany’s) sphere of economic influence through the so-called “association agreement.” If that agreement would not be signed by a democratically elected government of Ukraine, it would be signed by one brought into power by Ukrainian nationalists, while Germany “looked the other way”… So it would be entirely to simplistic to blame the Ukraine solely on the Obama administration (though it had played a very destructive role as well). Certain European powers, including Germany and Poland, had their hand in it too, not because "Washington made them do it," but because of their own long-standing political and economic interests.
History lesson in European nationalism and why it is so dangerous. Most Americans don't understand this since it is foreign to their way of the thinking and their history and cultural aspirations. As a result the US is blithely wandering into a snake invested swamp unawares. The snakes are the demons of history that live in people's mind as cultural memories and aspirations.

Fort Russ
"Sworn Frenemies", or why Poland supports Ukrainian nationalism
Wladyslaw Gulewicz
Translated from Polish by J.Hawk

See also

Europe, not Russia, Pressed Kiev over EU Association – ex-Ukrainian PM
“I’ve never heard neither Putin nor Medvedev saying that if you sign an agreement with the EU, you’ll have a different government. But I’ve heard [EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy, Stefan] Fule, repeatedly saying that if you don’t sign then the other government will sign it,” Azarov said at the presentation of his book ‘Ukraine at a crossroads. Prime Minister’s notes’ in Moscow. 
The decision to delay the signing of the association agreement by then-Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovich, led to Euromaidan protests in the capital, Kiev, which turned violent and resulted in a regime change in February 2014.

1 comment:

Dan Lynch said...

We live in crazy times, don't we?

Most of my non-wonkish friends don't have a clue about what is going on in Ukraine, and probably couldn't find it on a map.