Упрощенная HTML-версия
Электронное приложение к журналу «
Международная жизнь
»
Author : A. Orlov
Director, Institute for International Studies, Moscow State Institute (University) for International Rela-
tions, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
For twenty-odd post-Cold War years, the United
States and its Western allies have been demonstrat-
ing perseverance or even obstinacy worthy of a bet-
ter cause when adjusting the geopolitical map to
their military-political, economic and other interests.
The changes on the political map of the Old World
are a visible and highly impressive illustration of the
dynamics of NATO and the EU eastward move-
ment.
Those who still doubt that the Kievan Maidan was
carefully planned and realized by the West are either extremely naïve or prefer to look at the world
through rose-tinted glasses.
I have written this article in an effort to identify the aim/aims which forced the West to support
(without qualms) and fan the Ukrainian putsch which makes Western capitals directly responsible
for the immediate and more distant consequences of this infinite tragedy.
We all know that in the West, and in the U.S. in particular, there are forces willing and determined
to aggravate the relations with Russia so that to push the world back into the era of global con-
frontation.
Sooner or later everything becomes clear: today, the (Western) logic of the processes we have been
watching for the last two decades has become obvious. Russia which is invariably pushed into the
epicenter of these processes has become an object of a multilayer military-political, economic, cul-
tural and even religious pressure. The events in Ukraine, which come second after the Yugoslav
tragedy of the 1990s where the number of casualties and the scope of destruction are concerned,
were not spontaneous. They were obviously painstakingly planned by egghead analysts and past
masters of clandestine operations.
Experienced puppeteers turned the social conflict into a widescale anti-Russian campaign, the reper-
cussions of which cannot be correctly assessed so far. In the twinkling of an eye civilian protesters
were replaced with fighters of radical nationalist pro-fascist groups trained by Western instructors.
To sum up: What is the West - America in the first place - seeking in Ukraine? The answer suggests
itself: a wider influence zone; a NATO and EU membership for Ukraine; and the isolation of Russia.
It should be "contained" in the same way as the West boasted of "containing" the Soviet Union at
the height of the Cold War. One can argue that it was the Soviet Union which successfully contained
the United States. It seems that the Western, American in the first place, experts have been hardly
careful when analyzing all possible repercussions.
Strategic Mistake or Calculated Plan?