By Joshua Einstein | The Save Jersey Blog
In the short term, the de facto annexation of the Crimea (and possibly more of Ukraine) by Comrade-Czar Putin will have little to no ramification for US national interests, Save Jerseyans.
In the long term, however, it emboldens totalitarian regimes everywhere and many, though not all, harbor expansionist dreams. One need only look at Putin’s actions in Europe to understand the totalitarian playbook of manufactured crisis and territorial expansion.
Revanchist Russia has been aiding and abetting the Iranian nuclear program, assisting the Syrian Assad regime and views itself as juxtaposed the US. Despite the billions in aid we donated to the post-Soviet Russia, the U.S. is blamed for all of Russia’s problems. That the aid we graciously gave to a former enemy was misspent is clear; that it was part of the era of rampant Russian crony capitalism is as well. What is unclear and thoroughly irrelevant to the current crisis is how Russia’s socio-economic downward spiral is ours to blame.
What we do know is that Russia has grand global ambitions and the loss of Ukraine from its sphere is a great blow.
It is clear from Comrade-Czar Putin’s actions that the Crimea will now become an economically depressed black market hub a la Transnistria, the ethnic ally Slavic breakaway “Republic” in revolt from Moldova. It looks as if Russia may not stop at Crimea but will attempt to take the Eastern portion of Ukraine and while much of the media refer to this region as ethnically Russia, the reality remains that while the region has a majority of the ethnic Russian population in Ukraine, the region itself (save for Crimea) is majority ethnic Ukrainian.
Nonetheless, there is no empirical proof that Ukrainian Russians desire Kremlin kelptocracy. Even in Crimea (where Russians are a majority) the requests by the regional parliament to Russia for protections and the referendum (which has only the choice between joining Russia and independence) only came about after an armed (but thank God bloodless) seizing of the regional government by Russian troops.
The West must speak loudly and resolutely to Comrade-Czar Putin to stop his territorial expansion.
While in an ideal world Europe would immediately engage in economic sanctions and put an over $400 billion (the annual trade between the two) price tag for Russia’s action, this decisive action from the EU member nations is unlikely. What we should not do is borrow more money we do not have to loan it to Ukraine, but what we can do is relatively easy – freeze the foreign bank accounts of the Russian oligarchs and wealthy government (ie military and Kremlin) men and cut off their international travel.
This group is the only constituency of any influence in Russia and the only one that Comrade-Czar Putin pays any attention to. Depriving them of the bulk of their pilfered earnings and capital assets in the West, limiting their international travel, as well as signaling that the permanent forfeiture of their property is a real possibility should the occupation of Ukrainian territory continue would establish clear consequences for continuing Russian aggression.
Militarily, while we must not enter a shooting war with Russia, we can play the same game Comrade-Czar Putin has engaged in. The US should move the bulk of the 6th Fleet (which is stationed in the Mediterranean) in two deployments – in the international waters north of the Bosporus, and off the coast of the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria. Transnitria is a tiny ethnically Slavic region of Moldova, propped up by Russia, and is a center for black market activities from smuggling to gun running. We should begin negotiations with Moldova regarding its territorial integrity, it’s withdrawal from the Joint Control Commission (which enables up to 2,400 Russian troops to serve as “peacekeepers”), and request Ukraine quietly close its border with Transnistria.
These actions up the ante for Putin by establishing a clear cost for his Crimean occupation and create economic penalties for his expansionist desires. It punishes his oligarchs, crony capitalist friends (and their overseas financial empires), deprives Russia of influence in an illegal ethnic enclave of its own creation as well destroys the Russian myth of the Black Sea as a Russian lake.
Unfortunately our President is not known for having a strong will when confronting crises or despots but if we are to turn back Russian aggression and prevent Comrade-Czar Putin from recreating a scaled down (but still destabilizing) Cold War, Save Jerseyans, then we must stand with Ukraine.
Nice article
Pay a lot of attention to Putin’s kleptocracy. Disregard *our* kleptokracy, in which both parties eagerly participate. Yeah, that’s the ticket.