The mess in the Ukraine is directly attributable to the left-over Communists still in power there – and in Moscow.
Let us not fool ourselves: Russian President Vladimir Putin is and always was a die-hard Communist KGB agent.
To think otherwise would be naive.
And yet President George W. Bush said Putin “had a soul” when they first met four years ago.
Well, guess what? If Putin had a soul, then the KGB never would have hired him in the first place!
Putin and his repressive agents are desperate over what is happening today in next-door Ukraine; this is an out-and-out war between the Communist past and a Free future – and the bad guys are playing dirty in order to hold onto power.
To many of us the Battle in Kiev is of no seeming importance. We have enough to worry about here not to mention Iraq, Iran and other worldly problems. But the historic confrontation going on inside Ukraine will have much to do with our future, too.
If Putin – who is re-instating massive government control inside Russia – wins in Ukraine, he will be re-establishing the firmament of the old Soviet Empire: Russia and Ukraine combined equal almost 200 million people with vast agricultural and industrial capacity.
The Ukraine – bordering Poland and Hungary and other now-free former Soviet Communist satellites – is the buffer between Russia and the West. If it tilts away from Moscow, then Russia is truly ‘all alone.’ The idea of NATO reaching all the way to Russia’s borders is completely mind-boggling!
And Vladimir RAS-Putin must be shaking in his boots over the thought of all of Russia’s eastern satellites becoming part of the West!
This East vs. West fight is still the epic battle of our time: a war between individual liberty versus state control of our lives. And so far, the West has won all the battles since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Yes, there are times when the two sides need to work together. The War Against Fundamentalist Islam is such a cause; Putin has been helpful to us because he, too, is under grave threat inside Russia from Muslims angered over the situation in Chechnya.
But let us not fool ourselves: Putin is not our friend and he is not on our side. And he is not on the side of freedom either.
He re-consolidation of state control of the Russian media and corporations and his removal of elected officials to be replaced by his own appointees smacks of Stalinist control.
Putin has also blatantly meddled in the internal politics of the Ukraine. All during this round of elections he actually campaigned along side and for the hard-line Prime Minister. Can you imagine a foreign leader coming into another country and actually campaigning for or against a candidate?
This is unprecedented!
And Putin has been greatly harmed by this typical act of Russian arrogance. He now has had to back-track and agree that new elections are needed in Ukraine. But how much do you want to bet that he and the corrupt outgoing Ukrainian President Kuchma are already planning on how to swipe yet another election?
The United States would be greatly mistaken to believe a word from Vladimir Putin – or from any other ‘former’ Communist official.
The entire ‘collapse’ of communism wasn’t quite what it seemed: almost all of the formerly communist governments of Eastern Europe are still having their government bureaucracies run by the very same communist apparatchicks as before – only now they say they are not communists.
It is the people of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe who forced the commies to relinquish some of their power. But the commies were smart: rather than fight it until it led to a bloody confrontation and they were dragged out of their offices and shot ala the evil Ceaucescu family in Romania, they ‘joined’ it! And then they stayed in power!
Thus, the battle for Kiev today is indeed a battle between the good guys and the bad guys.
Make no mistake about it: Vladimir Putin is evil. And a liar. And corrupt.
Let us hope no American – a president or anyone else – thinks otherwise.