G7, Ukraine and Russia: rhetoric and reality
- By Sumantra Maitra
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 10, 2015
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In deep water [By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn] |
At the recently concluded G7 summit in Germany, the leaders of the seven most industrialized countries seemingly united against Russia and its role in the ongoing Ukrainian crisis. This G7 meeting was particularly important, as Russia was a part of G8, but was banished from the informal club of industrialized nations after the Ukrainian civil war started in 2014.
Since then, over 7,000 people have died and millions have been displaced in a war right at the center of Europe, the first European war in which there has been a territorial annexation since the end of World War II. Russia is accused of harboring and arming rebel factions, a claim the Kremlin has consistently denied. Russia, on the other hand, has accused Western European and American governments of subverting a democratically elected government and installing a puppet fascist regime that has brutalized Ukraine's Russian-speaking minorities.
United States President Barack Obama took the opportunity of the close of the summit to criticize what he termed "neo-Soviet empire-building" by Russia. Obama also criticized Putin by talking about how isolationist and paranoid Russia has become.
"Does he continue to wreck his country's economy and continue Russia's isolation in pursuit of a wrong-headed desire to recreate the glories of the Soviet empire? Or does he recognize that Russia's greatness does not depend on violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other countries?" Obama asked in his closing address.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also backed President Obama, saying her country and the European Union are "ready, should the situation escalate - which we don't want - to strengthen sanctions if the situation makes that necessary, but we believe we should do everything to move forward the political process of Minsk."
If one looks past all the rhetoric of the summit, one ought to realize that though the G7 is united in its condemnation of Russia, there is hardly any unity within the European Union as to how to move forward with the issue.
First of all, the categorization of the Ukraine crisis as a civil war with Russia-backed separatists is deeply flawed. The rebels are not just some farmers who learned to use the Buk missile system; to believe that they are is ridiculous. The missile systems and tanks now being used in the conflict are sophisticated weapons that require delicate mathematical calculations and professional military training to operate, things that are far beyond the capabilities of farmers and miners.
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