Gonzalo Lira: The Great Ukraine Blame Game Has Begun!
My comment concerns Western MSM, which (obviously) is dominated Russophibic presstitutes. I’m talking about The Washington Post in particular. Let me tell you about my experience with this media outlet.
The Post has been banning me from their comments board since the war started. When posting, I always respect their moderation rules. But I get banned anyway. The bannings are usually for seven days. Without doubt, I’m being banned because of my pro-Russian views.
This morning, my latest seven day ban ended. So, I joined the conversation on one of the Russia-related stories. Within minutes, however, I was banned again. I had only posted four comments when the moderator blocked me.
Here are the four comments which the Post found so offensive that they booted me from their forum:
1.
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This article totally misrepresents Putin’s words. Putin merely compared Russia’s retaking of eastern Ukraine today with Peter the Great’s reacquisition of Ingria in 1703
The comparison is valid, as Ingria and eastern Ukraine are both historically Russian lands that were lost to greedy foreign states during times of political turbulence.
Ingria existed as part of the Principality of Novgorod from the 9th century until 1617, when Sweden forcibly wrenched the region from the Russian people. In 1703, Peter forced the Swedes out of Ingria, permanently rejoining the region with the Russian motherland.
Eastern Ukraine became Russian territory in stages between 1505 and the late 1700s. Initially uninhabited, this area was first settled by Russian colonists. Later, Ukrainian settlers moved to various parts of eastern Ukraine, where they merged with the native Russians and became willing subjects of the tsar.
But in the 1920s the communists stripped the Russian SSR of eastern Ukraine and attached it to the Ukrainian SSR. In 1991, the Ukraine seceded from the USSR, taking this demographically and historically Russian region with it. Kiev refused to negotiate the matter, and also failed to give the eastern Ukrainian people a referendum so they could decide their own future.
Peter the Great settled the Ingrian issue by crushing the Swedes at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. Today, Putin is resolving the eastern Ukraine matter by destroying the Ukrainian army in the battles of Donbass.
History moves in circles.
2.
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You are 100% wrong.
In 1505, Russia acquired eastern Ukraine, which corresponds to today’s Kharkov and Donbass areas. At the time, nobody lived there. It was open steppe territory, traversed by warlike nomads.
Throughout the 1500s and 1600s, Russia settled the region, which was then called Sloboda Ukraine. But Russia had a problem defending the territory against frequent Crimean Tatar raids which ravaged the area.
In the 1630s, the tsar invited Ukrainian Cossacks to migrate to Sloboda Ukraine, to establish population density. The Ukrainians willingly did so, and became contented subjects of the tsar. Together, Russians and Ukrainians then repulsed the Crimean Tatar invasions.
As this was happening, further west, there existed Ukrainian Cossack settlements. This area was known as right-bank Ukraine. These Ukrainians were in a constant state of rebellion against their monarch, the Polish king.
In 1654-67, Russia forged an alliance with the Ukrainian Cossacks. Together, they defeated the Poles, and the consequent peace treaty mandated all of right-bank Ukraine, where the Ukrainian Cossacks were established, would be ceded to Russia.
After 1667, a conflict emerged between the Russian tsar and the Ukrainian Cossacks concerning the terms of the peace treaty. The Ukrainians argued it implied an alliance between the Russia and the Cossacks. But the tsar believed otherwise, claiming the treaty meant the Ukrainians agreed to be Russian vassals.
I could write a lot more, but I’ll end it here. I just want to refute your erroneous claim about the deep history of eastern Ukraine.
3.
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Europe will be in flames only if US/NATO continues stoking proxy wars on Russia’s borders. Don’t blame Russia for this mess.
Putin’s focus is preventing US/NATO from turning the Ukraine into a giant military base, to be used against Russia. That’s key point number one. Keep it in mind.
4
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Russia has always had a Monroe Doctrine of its own. That’s why it won’t tolerate US/NATO turning adjacent countries into military bases.
Didn’t you read the history of the Cold War? Russia maintained control of Eastern Europe in order to create a buffer zone against potential Western aggression.
Russia did the same under the tsars, maintaining Poland, the Baltics, and Finland as forward defensive zones to hedge against possible European invasions.
So, when Russia allowed the Soviet empire to break-up in 1989-91, the question arose about where Russia’s buffer zones would lie. At first, US/NATO leaders sympathized with Russia’s defensive needs, and promised no eastward NATO expansion. But Western leaders broke their own vows less than a decade latter.