The US may have the arms, and Germany the money, but Britain has the international broadcaster
Source:
Close the entire text of the article here
Vladimir Putin is the Slobodan Milosevic of the former Soviet Union: as bad, but bigger. Behind a smokescreen of lies, he has renewed his drive to carve out a puppet para-state in eastern Ukraine. Innocent bystanders are killed in the Black Sea port of Mariupol. In besieged Debaltseve, a woman scoops water from a giant puddle in the road. The rubble that was once Donetsk airport recalls a scene from martyred Syria. Some 5000 people have already been killed in this armed conflict, and perhaps 1 million uprooted. Preoccupied by Greece and the Eurozone, Europe is letting another Bosnia happen in its own front yard. Wake up, Europe. If we have learned anything from our own history, Putin must be stopped. But how?
In the end, there will have to be a negotiated solution. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier have been right to keep trying diplomacy, but even they concluded in mid-January that it wasn't worth going to meet Putin in Kazakhstan. On Saturday, another attempt to agree a ceasefire failed in Minsk. Diplomacy's time will come again, but it is not now.
We should ratchet up the economic sanctions against the Putin regime. Combined with the impact of the fallen oil price, these are already having a significant effect on the Russian economy. Despite a small wobble from the new Greek government, the EU last week kept its unity on extending sanctions. Won't that feed a siege mentality in Russia? Yes, but the Putin regime is already stoking that mentality with its own nationalist, anti-Western propaganda. If the threat did not exist, Russian television would invent it.
Like Milosevic, Putin is prepared to use every instrument at his disposal, with no holds barred. In his war against the West, he has deployed heavy military equipment, energy supply blackmail, cyberattack, propaganda by sophisticated, well-funded broadcasters, covert operations, agents of influence in EU capitals - oh yes, and Russian bombers nosing up the English Channel, with their transponders off, potentially endangering ordinary flights to and from France.
There is a Polish saying which translates roughly as 'we play chess with them, they play kick-arse with us'. (Dupniak, or kick-arse, is a Polish game in which people try to identify who kicked them from behind.) This is the problem of the democratic West in general and the slow-moving, multi-nation EU in particular. It was recently exemplified in a woefully unrealistic chess paper on strategy towards Russia prepared for Federica Mogherini, the EU's new High Representative for foreign and security policy.
In the long run, Putin will lose. The people who will suffer most from his folly will be the Russians, not least those in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. But the long run for skilful, ruthless dictators in large, well-armed, resource-rich and psychologically bruised nations can be quite long. Before he goes, more blood and tears will flow unquietly down the river Donets.
So the challenge is to shorten that period and stop the mayhem. To do this, Ukraine needs modern defensive weapons to counter Russia's modern offensive ones. Spurred on by John McCain, the U.S. Congress has passed a Ukraine Freedom Support Act which allocates funds for the supply of military equipment to Ukraine. It is now up to President Barack Obama to determine the timing and composition of those supplies. A new report by a group including Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to NATO, and Strobe Talbott, the veteran expert on Russia, identifies the kinds of equipment needed: 'counter-battery radars to locate long-range rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), electronic counter-measures for use against opposing UAVs, secure communications capabilities, armoured Humvees and medical support equipment'.
Only when Ukrainian military defence can plausibly hold Russian offence to a stalemate will a negotiated settlement become possible. Sometimes it takes guns to stop the guns. Won't such arms supplies further nourish a Russian paranoia of encirclement? Yes, but Putin is feeding the paranoia already, untroubled by the facts. He recently told students in St Petersburg that the Ukrainian army 'is not an army, it is a foreign legion, in this case a NATO foreign legion'.
The EU could never secure unanimity on such military supplies. If at all, it would have to be done by individual countries. Although this may bring back the old jibe that 'America does the cooking and Europe the washing up', there is a case for the US doing most of the heavy military supply. The US has the best kit, it is probably in the best position to control its use, and it is less vulnerable to bilateral economic or energy supply pressures. European countries, and Canada, can offer other security necessities, such as armoured vehicles for monitors and support for police and gendarmerie (something Europeans did well in former Yugoslavia).
The overall burden-sharing would be fair. European economies take most of the pain of sanctions, since they have more trade with and investment in Russia; they will provide a lot of the economic support that Ukraine requires if it is to survive; and they are doing most of the diplomacy. In fact, McCain and Merkel make a perfect hard cop, soft cop combination.
There is one other area in which Europe in general, and Britain in particular, can do more. Broadcast media are usually classed as soft power, but they are as important to Putin as his T-80 tanks. He has invested in them heavily. Among Russian speakers, not just in Russia itself, but in eastern Ukraine and the Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltic states, he has used television to impose his own narrative of a socially conservative, proud and martial Russia threatened by fascists in Kiev, an expansionist NATO and a decadent EU. Last year, a Russianist of my acquaintance was sitting naked and at ease in the hot tub with a friend of his in Moscow, after several vodkas, as is the Russian custom, when this highly educated Russian asked confidentially: 'so tell me, honestly, why do you support the fascists in Kiev?'
We need to counter this skilful propaganda not with lies of our own but with reliable information and a scrupulously presented array of different views. No one is better placed to do this than the BBC. The US may have the best UAVs in the world, and Germany the best machine tools, but Britain has the best international broadcaster. And there is an appetite for it: the BBC's sadly diminished online Russian-language service still counts an audience of nearly 7 million, and in the course of the crisis its Ukrainian-language audience has tripled to more than 600,000. In his excellent new report on the future of news, James Harding, the head of BBC News, makes a strong commitment to growing the World Service. Immediately stepping up its Russian and Ukrainian offerings would be a good way for the BBC to show that it will put its money where its mouth is. Without compromising the BBC's independence, the British government could also chip in some extra funding. If ever there were people in need of accurate, fair, balanced information, it is Russians and Ukrainians today.
None of these things will stop Putin tomorrow, but in combination they will work in the end. Dictators win in the short run, democracies in the long.
Timothy Garton Ash is Professor of European Studies at Oxford University, where he currently leads the freespeechdebate.com project, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His latest book is Facts are Subversive: Political Writing from a Decade Without a Name
There is no a shred of evidence that Russia has boots on the ground in Ukraine.
(Leonidas, 4 February 2015 11:09)
After today's news that Russia has invaded the Ukraine, we expect a retraction of your Communist drivel.
You have lost all credibility.
(EU Citizen, 9 February 2015 20:55)
You are not talking to the Russian populace here
(icj1
Indeed.I am talking to Albanian idiots like yourself who manage to lumber around and behave generally like a trolls in whatever fairy tale they like.Man get over your inferiority complex.
(Leonidas, 5 February 2015 10:32)
There is no a shred of evidence that Russia has boots on the ground in Ukraine.
(Leonidas, 4 February 2015 11:09)
Sorry mate, but if you have no self-respect for your intelligence and are OK to be taken for an idiot, you can't expect other posters in these forums to be like you and become laughing stock! You are not talking to the Russian populace here or people like rote...
(icj1, 5 February 2015 04:14)
What kind of nonsense are you talking about? On the territory of Russia? The only involved party in this conflict that invaded a neighboring country and is fighting on its territory (with soldiers 'on holiday' in army vehicles without number plates and without insignia) is Russia.
(Comm. Parrisson,
The only nonsense are coming from the loyal followers of Fox News Albanians and no one else.There is no a shred of evidence that Russia has boots on the ground in Ukraine.Had this been the case Poroshenko and his nazi scum would've left the country already.
(Leonidas, 4 February 2015 11:09)
TGA is an idiot and a paid shill. An utter disgrace to the world's oldest Enlgish-speaking university. If Ash is that adamant about fighting Russia, he's more than welcome to travel to the front lines and fulfill his wish. But, count the rest of us (sane people) out.
(Brick Top, 4 February 2015 02:49)
It is locals fighting for survival against the evil puppet Kiev regime which is even using phosphorous weapons on the civilians of eastern Ukraine.
(ida, 3 February 2015 23:26)
"In any non-nuclear military operation against Russia, on the territory of Russia, the West led by the US/Nato is doomed to defeat."
(Leonidas, 3 February 2015 17:22)
What kind of nonsense are you talking about? On the territory of Russia? The only involved party in this conflict that invaded a neighboring country and is fighting on its territory (with soldiers 'on holiday' in army vehicles without number plates and without insignia) is Russia.
(Comm. Parrisson, 3 February 2015 20:29)
What war mate?! Russia is not fighting with anybody, according to Putin lol
(icj1,
Putin has been talking about financial war-this is what economic sanctions are-and not military confrontation.In any non-nuclear military operation against Russia, on the territory of Russia, the West led by the US/Nato is doomed to defeat. And the generals in the Pentagon exercising real leadership of NATO forces are aware of this.Russia is certainly neither Yugoslavia, nor Iraq or Libya.
(Leonidas, 3 February 2015 17:22)
Yes, Garton Ash is full of typical 'British' arrogance, but he's not a typical Englishman - England and Britain are NOT the same thing. The true nature of my country (I'm English) has been smothered over the centuries by the British imperialist mindset which Ash exemplifies.
Yes, it was hard to read his article, and deeply upsetting for me. This is just another example of how low the British 'intelligentsia' has sunk since I was young.
As a patriot I am deeply ashamed of this.
(TP, 3 February 2015 12:56)
Putin is out to restore the old order of the USSR. We know it but we are in denial.
Putin understands only one language, a tough one.
Right now he is laughing at us, indecisive bunch of incoherent EU and world leaders.
Where are the likes of Churchill, leaders with balls who know how to deal with bullies like Putin.
The West needs to take a tough stance and has no choice but to supply the Ukrainians with weapons and military support.
Sanctions do nothing. These will only make him stronger because sanctions confirm that the West is against all Russians.
Talks don't help because talking only gives him more time to carry out his expansionistic plans.
Putin is a danger to world peace and prosperity and we do nothing to stop him.
We just sit there and talk and while we are talking he is doing.
If we don't act now the Ukraine will be his very soon. And then what? Where will it stop?
(T, 3 February 2015 12:37)
The author of this article is a typical Englishman full of British arrogance; Russia should divide the UK on the English/Scotish border under threat of military force like they did to Germany after WWII.
The UK is amongst the world's biggest war-mongers of all times.
(The voice of reason, 3 February 2015 03:00)
I read a first paragraph and couldn't continue.
The usual rabid western diatribe, that wouldn't tell us a word about possible western wrongdoing in Ukraine.
(Sreten, 2 February 2015 17:41)
None of these things will stop Putin tomorrow, but in combination they will work in the end
What a lot of " academic" tosh.Putin is winning the war the US has waged by doing exactly the opposite of what they expect. The US wanted him to invade and take the bait. He didn't. They wanted him to lose that warm water naval port and Crimea. He didn't. They wanted to turn the Russian people against him. It didn't work. he became more popular. They wanted to sink the Russian economy with sanctions, industrial espionage, market manipulation and oil price rigging and the crash came and went. It didn't work.The US did manage to do some major damage to the European economy however, and expose the fact that they are financing Ukrainian Nazis who are killing their own citizens. The emperor has ironically removed all their clothes for us to see......and that body is looking fooking ugly.... a mix of Obama, Golem, and Madeline Albright. The naked old lady in that horror scene from "The Shining" comes to mind. Or is that George Soros? Either way it's ugly and more an more people can see it clearly.Now it's time for the US/EU and the IMF to pay up for that Ukrainian 'Frankensteins Monster".
(Leonidas, 2 February 2015 17:15)
What complete and utter rubbish. Ash completely ignores the fact that current Kiev government was put in place via an illegal coup d'etat, by Victoria Nuland and her friends, completely ignoring the wishes of the Russian dominated east and south Ukraine. Furthermore, it includes open nazis in parliament. He completely ignores the countless war crimes committed by the Kiev regime, such as the incineration of civilians in Odessa, and incessant shelling of populated cities such as Donetsk which has killed hundreds of civilians. Also, the MH17 was downed by drunken Ukranians, not the rebels, which is why NATO won't release black box data. Russians have provided all their evidence which is very compelling, while Ukraine and NATO have provided none, even though they have ships and satellites spying in the area.
Some more inconvenient truths: Crimea held a peaceful referendum, and with no casualties and shots fired, democratically voted overwhelmingly to join Russia. With the anti-Russian, slavish NATO bootlicking nazi mob that was put in place in Kiev by the West, it is no wonder the Russian east and south of Ukraine rebelled. If Ash and his ilk think Kosovo can secede, well then so can Crimea, so can Donbas, so can Republika Srpska....etc. These so called 'scholars' are dishonest, inconsistent, and simply not very bright. They work for NATO expansionists and Russophobes/Serbophobes, and this article is living proof. It's utter garbage worthy of Goebbels style propaganda.
(Dragan, 2 February 2015 17:15)
None of these things will stop Putin tomorrow, but in combination they will work in the end
What a lot of " academic" tosh.Putin is winning the war the US has waged by doing exactly the opposite of what they expect. The US wanted him to invade and take the bait. He didn't. They wanted him to lose that warm water naval port and Crimea. He didn't. They wanted to turn the Russian people against him. It didn't work. he became more popular. They wanted to sink the Russian economy with sanctions, industrial espionage, market manipulation and oil price rigging and the crash came and went. It didn't work.The US did manage to do some major damage to the European economy however, and expose the fact that they are financing Ukrainian Nazis who are killing their own citizens. The emperor has ironically removed all their clothes for us to see......and that body is looking fooking ugly.... a mix of Obama, Golem, and Madeline Albright. The naked old lady in that horror scene from "The Shining" comes to mind. Or is that George Soros? Either way it's ugly and more an more people can see it clearly.Now it's time for the US/EU and the IMF to pay up for that Ukrainian 'Frankensteins Monster".
(Leonidas, 2 February 2015 17:15)
What complete and utter rubbish. Ash completely ignores the fact that current Kiev government was put in place via an illegal coup d'etat, by Victoria Nuland and her friends, completely ignoring the wishes of the Russian dominated east and south Ukraine. Furthermore, it includes open nazis in parliament. He completely ignores the countless war crimes committed by the Kiev regime, such as the incineration of civilians in Odessa, and incessant shelling of populated cities such as Donetsk which has killed hundreds of civilians. Also, the MH17 was downed by drunken Ukranians, not the rebels, which is why NATO won't release black box data. Russians have provided all their evidence which is very compelling, while Ukraine and NATO have provided none, even though they have ships and satellites spying in the area.
Some more inconvenient truths: Crimea held a peaceful referendum, and with no casualties and shots fired, democratically voted overwhelmingly to join Russia. With the anti-Russian, slavish NATO bootlicking nazi mob that was put in place in Kiev by the West, it is no wonder the Russian east and south of Ukraine rebelled. If Ash and his ilk think Kosovo can secede, well then so can Crimea, so can Donbas, so can Republika Srpska....etc. These so called 'scholars' are dishonest, inconsistent, and simply not very bright. They work for NATO expansionists and Russophobes/Serbophobes, and this article is living proof. It's utter garbage worthy of Goebbels style propaganda.
(Dragan, 2 February 2015 17:15)
I read a first paragraph and couldn't continue.
The usual rabid western diatribe, that wouldn't tell us a word about possible western wrongdoing in Ukraine.
(Sreten, 2 February 2015 17:41)
It is locals fighting for survival against the evil puppet Kiev regime which is even using phosphorous weapons on the civilians of eastern Ukraine.
(ida, 3 February 2015 23:26)
The author of this article is a typical Englishman full of British arrogance; Russia should divide the UK on the English/Scotish border under threat of military force like they did to Germany after WWII.
The UK is amongst the world's biggest war-mongers of all times.
(The voice of reason, 3 February 2015 03:00)
What kind of nonsense are you talking about? On the territory of Russia? The only involved party in this conflict that invaded a neighboring country and is fighting on its territory (with soldiers 'on holiday' in army vehicles without number plates and without insignia) is Russia.
(Comm. Parrisson,
The only nonsense are coming from the loyal followers of Fox News Albanians and no one else.There is no a shred of evidence that Russia has boots on the ground in Ukraine.Had this been the case Poroshenko and his nazi scum would've left the country already.
(Leonidas, 4 February 2015 11:09)
Yes, Garton Ash is full of typical 'British' arrogance, but he's not a typical Englishman - England and Britain are NOT the same thing. The true nature of my country (I'm English) has been smothered over the centuries by the British imperialist mindset which Ash exemplifies.
Yes, it was hard to read his article, and deeply upsetting for me. This is just another example of how low the British 'intelligentsia' has sunk since I was young.
As a patriot I am deeply ashamed of this.
(TP, 3 February 2015 12:56)
You are not talking to the Russian populace here
(icj1
Indeed.I am talking to Albanian idiots like yourself who manage to lumber around and behave generally like a trolls in whatever fairy tale they like.Man get over your inferiority complex.
(Leonidas, 5 February 2015 10:32)
TGA is an idiot and a paid shill. An utter disgrace to the world's oldest Enlgish-speaking university. If Ash is that adamant about fighting Russia, he's more than welcome to travel to the front lines and fulfill his wish. But, count the rest of us (sane people) out.
(Brick Top, 4 February 2015 02:49)
What war mate?! Russia is not fighting with anybody, according to Putin lol
(icj1,
Putin has been talking about financial war-this is what economic sanctions are-and not military confrontation.In any non-nuclear military operation against Russia, on the territory of Russia, the West led by the US/Nato is doomed to defeat. And the generals in the Pentagon exercising real leadership of NATO forces are aware of this.Russia is certainly neither Yugoslavia, nor Iraq or Libya.
(Leonidas, 3 February 2015 17:22)
"In any non-nuclear military operation against Russia, on the territory of Russia, the West led by the US/Nato is doomed to defeat."
(Leonidas, 3 February 2015 17:22)
What kind of nonsense are you talking about? On the territory of Russia? The only involved party in this conflict that invaded a neighboring country and is fighting on its territory (with soldiers 'on holiday' in army vehicles without number plates and without insignia) is Russia.
(Comm. Parrisson, 3 February 2015 20:29)
There is no a shred of evidence that Russia has boots on the ground in Ukraine.
(Leonidas, 4 February 2015 11:09)
Sorry mate, but if you have no self-respect for your intelligence and are OK to be taken for an idiot, you can't expect other posters in these forums to be like you and become laughing stock! You are not talking to the Russian populace here or people like rote...
(icj1, 5 February 2015 04:14)
Putin is out to restore the old order of the USSR. We know it but we are in denial.
Putin understands only one language, a tough one.
Right now he is laughing at us, indecisive bunch of incoherent EU and world leaders.
Where are the likes of Churchill, leaders with balls who know how to deal with bullies like Putin.
The West needs to take a tough stance and has no choice but to supply the Ukrainians with weapons and military support.
Sanctions do nothing. These will only make him stronger because sanctions confirm that the West is against all Russians.
Talks don't help because talking only gives him more time to carry out his expansionistic plans.
Putin is a danger to world peace and prosperity and we do nothing to stop him.
We just sit there and talk and while we are talking he is doing.
If we don't act now the Ukraine will be his very soon. And then what? Where will it stop?
(T, 3 February 2015 12:37)
There is no a shred of evidence that Russia has boots on the ground in Ukraine.
(Leonidas, 4 February 2015 11:09)
After today's news that Russia has invaded the Ukraine, we expect a retraction of your Communist drivel.
You have lost all credibility.
(EU Citizen, 9 February 2015 20:55)
Putin is out to restore the old order of the USSR. We know it but we are in denial.
Putin understands only one language, a tough one.
Right now he is laughing at us, indecisive bunch of incoherent EU and world leaders.
Where are the likes of Churchill, leaders with balls who know how to deal with bullies like Putin.
The West needs to take a tough stance and has no choice but to supply the Ukrainians with weapons and military support.
Sanctions do nothing. These will only make him stronger because sanctions confirm that the West is against all Russians.
Talks don't help because talking only gives him more time to carry out his expansionistic plans.
Putin is a danger to world peace and prosperity and we do nothing to stop him.
We just sit there and talk and while we are talking he is doing.
If we don't act now the Ukraine will be his very soon. And then what? Where will it stop?
(T, 3 February 2015 12:37)
There is no a shred of evidence that Russia has boots on the ground in Ukraine.
(Leonidas, 4 February 2015 11:09)
Sorry mate, but if you have no self-respect for your intelligence and are OK to be taken for an idiot, you can't expect other posters in these forums to be like you and become laughing stock! You are not talking to the Russian populace here or people like rote...
(icj1, 5 February 2015 04:14)
"In any non-nuclear military operation against Russia, on the territory of Russia, the West led by the US/Nato is doomed to defeat."
(Leonidas, 3 February 2015 17:22)
What kind of nonsense are you talking about? On the territory of Russia? The only involved party in this conflict that invaded a neighboring country and is fighting on its territory (with soldiers 'on holiday' in army vehicles without number plates and without insignia) is Russia.
(Comm. Parrisson, 3 February 2015 20:29)
What complete and utter rubbish. Ash completely ignores the fact that current Kiev government was put in place via an illegal coup d'etat, by Victoria Nuland and her friends, completely ignoring the wishes of the Russian dominated east and south Ukraine. Furthermore, it includes open nazis in parliament. He completely ignores the countless war crimes committed by the Kiev regime, such as the incineration of civilians in Odessa, and incessant shelling of populated cities such as Donetsk which has killed hundreds of civilians. Also, the MH17 was downed by drunken Ukranians, not the rebels, which is why NATO won't release black box data. Russians have provided all their evidence which is very compelling, while Ukraine and NATO have provided none, even though they have ships and satellites spying in the area.
Some more inconvenient truths: Crimea held a peaceful referendum, and with no casualties and shots fired, democratically voted overwhelmingly to join Russia. With the anti-Russian, slavish NATO bootlicking nazi mob that was put in place in Kiev by the West, it is no wonder the Russian east and south of Ukraine rebelled. If Ash and his ilk think Kosovo can secede, well then so can Crimea, so can Donbas, so can Republika Srpska....etc. These so called 'scholars' are dishonest, inconsistent, and simply not very bright. They work for NATO expansionists and Russophobes/Serbophobes, and this article is living proof. It's utter garbage worthy of Goebbels style propaganda.
(Dragan, 2 February 2015 17:15)
I read a first paragraph and couldn't continue.
The usual rabid western diatribe, that wouldn't tell us a word about possible western wrongdoing in Ukraine.
(Sreten, 2 February 2015 17:41)
None of these things will stop Putin tomorrow, but in combination they will work in the end
What a lot of " academic" tosh.Putin is winning the war the US has waged by doing exactly the opposite of what they expect. The US wanted him to invade and take the bait. He didn't. They wanted him to lose that warm water naval port and Crimea. He didn't. They wanted to turn the Russian people against him. It didn't work. he became more popular. They wanted to sink the Russian economy with sanctions, industrial espionage, market manipulation and oil price rigging and the crash came and went. It didn't work.The US did manage to do some major damage to the European economy however, and expose the fact that they are financing Ukrainian Nazis who are killing their own citizens. The emperor has ironically removed all their clothes for us to see......and that body is looking fooking ugly.... a mix of Obama, Golem, and Madeline Albright. The naked old lady in that horror scene from "The Shining" comes to mind. Or is that George Soros? Either way it's ugly and more an more people can see it clearly.Now it's time for the US/EU and the IMF to pay up for that Ukrainian 'Frankensteins Monster".
(Leonidas, 2 February 2015 17:15)
There is no a shred of evidence that Russia has boots on the ground in Ukraine.
(Leonidas, 4 February 2015 11:09)
After today's news that Russia has invaded the Ukraine, we expect a retraction of your Communist drivel.
You have lost all credibility.
(EU Citizen, 9 February 2015 20:55)
You are not talking to the Russian populace here
(icj1
Indeed.I am talking to Albanian idiots like yourself who manage to lumber around and behave generally like a trolls in whatever fairy tale they like.Man get over your inferiority complex.
(Leonidas, 5 February 2015 10:32)
It is locals fighting for survival against the evil puppet Kiev regime which is even using phosphorous weapons on the civilians of eastern Ukraine.
(ida, 3 February 2015 23:26)
What war mate?! Russia is not fighting with anybody, according to Putin lol
(icj1,
Putin has been talking about financial war-this is what economic sanctions are-and not military confrontation.In any non-nuclear military operation against Russia, on the territory of Russia, the West led by the US/Nato is doomed to defeat. And the generals in the Pentagon exercising real leadership of NATO forces are aware of this.Russia is certainly neither Yugoslavia, nor Iraq or Libya.
(Leonidas, 3 February 2015 17:22)
What kind of nonsense are you talking about? On the territory of Russia? The only involved party in this conflict that invaded a neighboring country and is fighting on its territory (with soldiers 'on holiday' in army vehicles without number plates and without insignia) is Russia.
(Comm. Parrisson,
The only nonsense are coming from the loyal followers of Fox News Albanians and no one else.There is no a shred of evidence that Russia has boots on the ground in Ukraine.Had this been the case Poroshenko and his nazi scum would've left the country already.
(Leonidas, 4 February 2015 11:09)
The author of this article is a typical Englishman full of British arrogance; Russia should divide the UK on the English/Scotish border under threat of military force like they did to Germany after WWII.
The UK is amongst the world's biggest war-mongers of all times.
(The voice of reason, 3 February 2015 03:00)
Yes, Garton Ash is full of typical 'British' arrogance, but he's not a typical Englishman - England and Britain are NOT the same thing. The true nature of my country (I'm English) has been smothered over the centuries by the British imperialist mindset which Ash exemplifies.
Yes, it was hard to read his article, and deeply upsetting for me. This is just another example of how low the British 'intelligentsia' has sunk since I was young.
As a patriot I am deeply ashamed of this.
(TP, 3 February 2015 12:56)
TGA is an idiot and a paid shill. An utter disgrace to the world's oldest Enlgish-speaking university. If Ash is that adamant about fighting Russia, he's more than welcome to travel to the front lines and fulfill his wish. But, count the rest of us (sane people) out.
(Brick Top, 4 February 2015 02:49)