As Russia prepares to formally invade the Ukraine and use its base in Crimea to potentially attack the eastern regions of the Ukraine, I hearken back to something I wrote six years ago: [link]

“Russia can never be trusted. It is largely an orientalist power with boundless imperial ambitions and claims to the east, south and west. In the past 50 years Russia has fought hot wars with China, various Central Asian states, Eastern European nations, and in the Caucasus. The trend and pattern is pretty clear. Russia desires increasing its empire further south, east and west. Each region has its own prerogative.”

The Russian 'West' includes what all Russians regard as Russian motherland territory – the Ukraine. Ukrainians and Poles are regarded by Russians as inferior races, useless, lying tribes who have no claim to their land. It is a chauvinism and supremacism which runs deep. The Russian 'West' contains industry, the world's best farmland, the Crimea, and the great port of Odessa. It is not difficult to figure out why Russia wants it back.”

That was back in 2008. It is not difficult at all to see why Russia wants the southern and eastern strips of the Ukraine. The south provides a port for its fleet and trade entrepots. The eastern Ukraine has heavy industry and mineral resources. Both would be great assets to Mother Russia.

Russians view the Ukraine as their own territory and seat of the ancient Rus' empire. The Ukraine is no more a country in the eyes of a vast majority of Russians than South Dakota would be to the average American. Especially noxious for the Russian nationalist is the Crimea, a piece of Russian land transferred to the Ukraine in 1954 by Ukrainian-born Russian Communist Leader Khrushchev. Modern Russia views that transfer as illegitimate.

Ironically Russia should be an ally of the West. Its Christian heritage and imported European cultural legacies from Catherine and Peter the Great, should make Russia amenable to Western ideals. Add to this is the Moslem threat as real to Russia as it is to the West. Yet the Orientalist bonds chain Russia. It faces East. It always has since the days of the Mongol invasions. Built into the Russian psyche is a distrust if not a latent hatred of the 'West'. The Ukraine is now viewed as a Western province. Unless the Europeans and Americans do something to defend the Ukraine the Russians will simply carve up the country and take what they want.