UKRAINE: MOBOCRACY VS. DEMOCRACY

The legality or illegality of the Ukrainian government overthrow by a Kiev mob vs. the Crimean referendum

The U.S. and the E.U. have recognized the new Ukrainian government which was formed after Kiev mobs ran their president out of the country. Russia considers the new government to be illegal. The Russians have declared that Sunday’s Crimean referendum asking whether Crimea should become part of Russia is legal. The U.S. and the E.U. have declared that the referendum is not legal and they do not recognize the new Crimean prime minister and his government.

Sunday’s referendum asked two questions: ‘Do you support joining Crimea with the Russian Federation as a subject of Russia?’ and ‘Do you support restoration of the 1992 Crimea Constitution, and Crimea’s status as part of Ukraine?’ An overwhelming majority - 97 percent - of Crimean voters chose to join the Russian Federation by placing a checkmark in the box for the first question. Huge public celebrations with fireworks followed the announcement of the voting results.

The Kiev government and the E.U. claim the referendum was rigged what with all those Russian troops in the streets. But it seems hardly likely that those troops were intimidating to the voters since they were welcomed by the vast majority of the Crimean people.

The U.S. and the E.U are pontificating that the conflict with Russia is all about democracy for the Ukrainian people. But what can be more democratic than a referendum intended to carry out the will of the large ethnic Russian majority living in the Crimea? And what was democratic about the Kiev mob overthrowing a legal government when the eastern region of Ukraine has a large ethnic Russian population which has no desire to align itself with the E.U. What you have now is a mobocracy in the western part of Ukraine and a democracy in Crimea.

Let’s be real. The conflict between the U.S. and the E.U. on the one hand and Russia on the other has absolutely nothing to do with democracy or preserving the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The conflict has everything to do with a power struggle between the West and Russia. Putin is trying to restore the grandeur of the former Soviet Union and the West is utterly opposed to that.

I’m not saying who is right or wrong in this conflict, but I do know all the banter about democracy is just a crock of pure horseshit. Had the Ukraine been ruled by a one-man dictatorship with strong ties to the E.U., you wouldn’t have heard a peep out of the West about the lack of democracy.