This is beginning to look like the Super Bowls.
"The EU Eastern Partnership programme was also designed to expand the West-controlled geopolitical space to the east. This was its true aim and it is perhaps for this reason that the promises to offer us trilateral projects involving the EU, the so-called “focus states” and Russia have never materialised. There is a policy to confront the CIS countries with a hard, absolutely contrived and artificial choice – either you are with the EU or with Russia. It was the use of this approach to Ukraine that pushed that country, which is just beginning its movement towards stable statehood, to a profound internal political crisis. Let me remind you that the “either with us, or against us” philosophy first surfaced ten years ago during the then Ukrainian presidential elections rather than last year before the planned signing of the EU Association Agreement. Running for president against Viktor Yushchenko, Viktor Yanukovych won both rounds. But the EU imposed an absolutely unconstitutional decision on Ukraine, via the Constitutional Court, to hold a third round of voting, something that was not stipulated by the Ukrainian Constitution. As early as that period, some European politicians, specifically Belgium’s Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht (currently winding up his career as the European Commissioner for Trade), claimed in public that Ukraine had to choose who it wanted to be with – Russia or the “enlightened” Europe. This was not a new phenomenon; it has a long history and deep roots in the minds of European politicians."
This is a continuation list of Russia's--legitimate--grievances against the West, of its lack of "respect" for Russia. It wasn't until the end of this paragraph and "enlightened," that I had any memory of this (or had any knowledge in the first place). I do remember "enlightened" and it is disrespectful, insulting really. This "either-or" formulation has been used before, by Putin, to characterize the choice America presented to all of Europe after 9/11. And it is accurate! It was Bush, as I recall, who said "You're either for us or against us." That too was disrespectful, pushy, arrogant, "noveaux riche," Putin's phrase at Valdai.
"The EU Eastern Partnership programme was also designed to expand the West-controlled geopolitical space to the east. This was its true aim and it is perhaps for this reason that the promises to offer us trilateral projects involving the EU, the so-called “focus states” and Russia have never materialised. There is a policy to confront the CIS countries with a hard, absolutely contrived and artificial choice – either you are with the EU or with Russia. It was the use of this approach to Ukraine that pushed that country, which is just beginning its movement towards stable statehood, to a profound internal political crisis. Let me remind you that the “either with us, or against us” philosophy first surfaced ten years ago during the then Ukrainian presidential elections rather than last year before the planned signing of the EU Association Agreement. Running for president against Viktor Yushchenko, Viktor Yanukovych won both rounds. But the EU imposed an absolutely unconstitutional decision on Ukraine, via the Constitutional Court, to hold a third round of voting, something that was not stipulated by the Ukrainian Constitution. As early as that period, some European politicians, specifically Belgium’s Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht (currently winding up his career as the European Commissioner for Trade), claimed in public that Ukraine had to choose who it wanted to be with – Russia or the “enlightened” Europe. This was not a new phenomenon; it has a long history and deep roots in the minds of European politicians."
This is a continuation list of Russia's--legitimate--grievances against the West, of its lack of "respect" for Russia. It wasn't until the end of this paragraph and "enlightened," that I had any memory of this (or had any knowledge in the first place). I do remember "enlightened" and it is disrespectful, insulting really. This "either-or" formulation has been used before, by Putin, to characterize the choice America presented to all of Europe after 9/11. And it is accurate! It was Bush, as I recall, who said "You're either for us or against us." That too was disrespectful, pushy, arrogant, "noveaux riche," Putin's phrase at Valdai.
