What does Russia want in the conflict with Ukraine?

Comments ( 4 )

1. dima83 says

   Son of Woodrow – Sorry, man, but you are very wrong. It is easy to give some false facts without proof. If you are ignorant – ok, but why do you broadcast your false opinion? There were no proof of Russia's cyber attacks. It could be anyone with any intents. And the statue was not of Lenin, but of unidentified soldiers, who died in WW2. There were corpses under that monument and riots began because noone likes it heroes to be buried out from the grave only because some people can't forgive. In WW2 many people died and many were enslaved, but let's finaly get over it.

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2. Son of Woodrow says

   Ammianus—Are you sure about that part about Germany? Germany, for the past few years, has taken the old role that Jacques Chirac used to play, as the appeaser extraordinaire. Last year when Russia provoked a war in Georgia, and flexed its muscles and then began the dispute with Ukraine, Germany was bending over backwards to not aggrevate the Russians. Why?

   Read this: http://atlanticreview.org/archives/1222-Three-Rol…

   "Germany was among the most vocal in rebuffing the plan and insisted on keeping the regular accession procedure, which will keep Ukraine and Georgia out of NATO for the foreseeable future."

   Energy dependency. Germany is more afraid of its sweetheart oil/gas deal with Russia then it is about eastern Europe. Germany has the best relations with Europe out of any country in Western Europe, and is proud of it.

   I feel sorry for the East, the people who have barely been out of the totalitarian empire for two decades, and now are trying to assert themselves, and the insecure thugs who run Russia do whatever they can to stop.

   Russia is big into dick moves. They were resposible for one of the first attacks of cyber terrorist either last year or two years ago, against Estonia, because they took down a statue of Lenin, a man who enslaved, murdered and exploited their countrymen. Russian spies brought down the internet in that country, and then denied being involved. Classy.

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3. greyguy says

   This is a complex question with a long history. Ukraine has been part of the Russian empire for most of the time there has been such an empire, whether tsarist or Soviet.
   Continual reasons for Russia's interest in Ukraine are:
   1. Ukraine's large and productive agricultural and mineral-producing areas
   2. Ukraine's position as a buffer state against Russia's eternal enemy, Germany
   More recent reasons include:
   1. Ukraine's location straddling gas and oil pipelines
   2. Ukranian oil fields
   3. During the Soviet period, the Russian Federated SSR granted the Ukranian SSR a large land cession from Crimea westward. The Soviet leaders were not anticipating a breakup of the USSR and did not figure it mattered much if a big chunk of Russia and a lot of Russians were made part of Ukraine. Now it matters, and the Russians would like to get the area, with its seaports and natural resources, back.
   Germany's interests are to prevent Ukraine from falling back into the orbit of Germany's enemy Russia, which could squeeze off gas supplies, etc., if they controlled Ukraine.
   It remains to be seen whether the current Russian government will "take up the Slavic burden" and try to reintegrate former Russian Empire and Soviet Union territory (such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, etc.) back into one big nation dominated by Russian interests.

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4. ammianus says

   Russia wants the heavy industry and coal deposits in eastern Ukraine.Also, Ukraine was the breadbasket of both Czarist Russia and USSR; present day Russia thus wants to reabsorb the whole of the Ukraine.

   As for Germany, they would very much like for Ukraine to join both NATO and the EU, as this would give them an economic and military ally on the Russian border, further isolating and weakening the one country that really scares the Germans.

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