Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 32

(Photo by Evan Vucci, Associated Press)

President Barack Obama meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin 17 June 2013 in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. Relations between
the United States and Russia have been strained, in part from Western policies that call for bringing countries such as Ukraine into the
NATO fold and the European Union.

wreck Ukraine to prevent it from becoming part of the
West. This is what is going on now. Putin is basically
telling the West they have two choices. Either they back
off, or he will work to damage Ukraine so badly that it
cannot join the West.
If you want to end this crisis, and you care greatly
about the Ukrainian people, and you don’t want to see
their country destroyed, then it’s imperative that we
back off and give up on the idea of making Ukraine
part of the West. Instead, we must work to make
Ukraine a neutral buffer state, which it was effectively
between 1991 and 2014. I am talking here about returning to the status quo ante. This means, of course,
that NATO expansion must be explicitly taken off the
table, and it means that EU expansion must also be
explicitly taken off the table. And, it means that the
United States and its European allies have to stop democracy promotion in Kiev that aims to put in power
individuals who are pro-Western and anti-Russian.
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Now, the question is, how likely is it that the West
can do a 180-degree turn and abandon its present policy
and adopt one that’s designed to make Ukraine a neutral
buffer state? I think it’s very unlikely this will happen. I
think there are a number of reasons for that. First of all,
Western leaders are so deeply invested in the present
policy that it is going to be very difficult for them to
move away from it and instead work to make Ukraine
neutral. Remember that NATO expansion into Ukraine
has been at the heart of the West’s strategy since 2008. I
think it would be hard to turn that ship around. Second,
I think that Putin, and the Russians more generally, do
not trust the West anymore. And, any promises that we
make will be hard to sell in Moscow. I think the waters
have been so thoroughly poisoned in recent years that
convincing the Russians that the West has good will and
wants to work with them will be difficult. Third, I think
NATO itself is in trouble independent of this crisis. For
starters, the United States is pivoting to Asia. And, if
May-June 2016  MILITARY REVIEW