Europe is now practically divided as in the Cold War

European Council – June 2014. From left to right: José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council. (European Council – Council of the European Union photographic library, Shoot date: 27/06/2014).

Last week’s European Summit in an implicit way actually sealed the partitioning of Europe as in the Cold War. The European Sting has repeatedly reported and commented on this issue and analyzed the efforts, mainly by Germany, for this new division to be avoided. However, Berlin’s endeavors towards this direction were in vain. The European Council’s conclusions on Ukraine, while backing one hundred per cent the Kiev government and the new President Petro Poroshenko, contain no reference whatsoever to the legitimate rights of the Russian speaking millions in the eastern provinces. There is no mention of any degree of autonomy or the use of the Russian language.

Such a European and generaly Western attitude will subject the millions of Russian speaking populations of Ukrainians to a state of inferiority vis-à-vis the Kiev authorities. In a smaller scale this is what happened in the Baltic democracies after their attachment to the European Union and the West in general. In Kiev and the western parts of the country, there are right wing or even fascist political groups which openly regard the Russian speaking citizens as an inferior race.

What about Svoboda and the Right Sector?

The Svoboda and the Right Sector political parties thriving in the west of Ukraine don’t hide their fascist ideology and their contempt for democratic rules and the Russian speakers of the east. Western English language media do a great favour to the Kiev political establishment by avoiding to report of the fascist ideology of those political groups. Evidently, the reason for this ‘special treatment’ by some mainstream media is related to the affiliation of Svoboda and the Right Sector with certain Western countries.

Not to forget that armed units organized by those two extreme political groups occupied the Maidan Square (Kiev’s historic central parade), after the hundreds of thousands of normal protestors were chased away by the armed militias and the special police forces. The use of firearms in Maidan by both the security forces under the previous President Viktor Yanukovych and the paramilitary units of ‘protestors’, sent away from the streets the ordinary people leaving the place open to the armed gangs.

Asking them to capitulate

Coming back to the present developments, all along the past few weeks Germany supported an all-inclusive dialogue between the two fighting sides, as the only way out from the on-going bloody civil war. Understandably, such a dialogue cannot have disarmament of the one side as a precondition. The disarmament of one warring side means capitulation, not dialogue! Yet the West wholeheartedly adopted President’s Poroshenko’s unilateral ceasefire after he had bombarded residential areas in a large scale. This ceasefire theoretically would lead to a dialogue on the condition, though, that the pro-Russian side has to disarm. This means to surrender to Svoboda and Right Sector fighters who have been incorporated in the Ukrainian army. Understandably, no Pro-Russian rebel is willing to do so.

Last week the European Council almost reiterated the requirement of disarmament of the pro-Russian fighters, as a condition for the beginning of a dialogue. The relevant passage of the Council’s conclusions contain the following paragraph: “In that respect, the European Council expects that by Monday 30 June the following steps will have been taken:
•agreement on a verification mechanism, monitored by the OSCE, for the cease-fire and for the effective control of the border;
•return to the Ukrainian authorities of the three border checkpoints (Izvarino, Dolzhanskiy, Krasnopartizansk);
•release of hostages including all of the OSCE observers;
•launch of substantial negotiations on the implementation of President Poroshenko’s peace plan”.

The above quote clearly demands that the Pro-Russian rebels surrender their positions, while according to Poroshenko’s peace plan they also have to surrender their arms. Obviously, this proposal cannot be accepted by the pro-Russian side, which means that those who forward it don’t want to end the civil war. Then what are the EU and the US aiming at? Not to forget that all along, in the Ukraine crisis the main actor on EU’s behalf is Catherine Ashton, who collaborates very closely to say the least, with the American Foreign Secretary John Kerry.

It’s then clear that the US and some major EU powers like Britain and even France don’t seem to mind that much about finding a peaceful solution in the Ukrainian crisis. Everybody can see that this strategy leads directly to a new partitioning of Europe, by keeping Russia isolated from the western economic volume. Germany and Russia will be again separated as in the Cold War. In the in between space the US will place their missiles in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, hence creating a crisis of some kind whenever they want. This new partitioning will cost Germany dearly, while the other two major European powers will not suffer much.

Seemingly, Germany couldn’t have it all. Jean-Claude Juncker was the maximum Angela Merkel could get from last week’s European Council. Evidently, keeping Russia in the western economic volume surpassed even the abilities of the German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. But then again, Germany in order to continue to prosper doesn’t need Russia that much. This will leave Moscow alone out in the cold, probably attempting an Asian opening.