UkrainePutin's Big Power play in Ukraine

For twenty years, Vladimir Putin, the strongman of Russia, has schemed to subvert and annex the neighboring country of Ukraine.  Now, with the world distracted over Brexit and Venezuela, he is making his move.

When the Soviet Union collapsed twenty-eight years ago, its constituent republics became separate countries, with the two biggest being Russia and Ukraine.  With 50 million people, a size larger than France, and a unique culture, history and language, Ukraine became a major European nation.

The rump Russia - once the core of the superpower Soviet Union - shrank into just another European “middle power,” with an economy smaller than Italy, Spain, or Canada - and less than 8 percent the GDP of the United States.  The decline of Russia rankles Putin, who has openly called for “the reunification of the Slavic core” of the old Soviet Union.  That “reunification” means Ukraine:

In 2004, Putin ordered the attempted poisoning of the leading candidate for Ukraine President, Victor Yushchenko, to put his own flunky, Victor Yanukovych - a former bar bouncer with a criminal record - into power.  The assassination failed, and the Orange Revolution put Yushchenko in as President.

Ten years later, after rigging the 2010 Ukraine elections (with the assistance of Paul Manafort), Putin put his stooge Yanukovych in power.  He was about to get a “union treaty,” when the 2014 Maidan Revolution ousted Yanukovych, and restored democracy to Ukraine.  Rather than accept Ukrainian democracy, an angry Putin hit back militarily - annexing the Crimea, and waging a “Russian separatist” war in the east of Ukraine.

The 2019 Ukraine presidential election is March 31st.  For the past year, the two leading contenders have been former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and current President Peter Poroshenko.  Both are Putin foes and Ukrainian patriots.  Suddenly, a Russian TV comic, Volodymyr Zelensky, has entered the race and jumped into the lead.  Zelensky plays the “President of Ukraine” in a TV comedy show, but has never held nor run for office.  Worse, the Putin-controlled media are relentlessly promoting Zelensky, who has dark ties to Kremlin-linked oligarchs.

The West - the United States and Europe - need to expose this scam campaign by Putin and his puppet Zelensky, before its too late.  Whatever Putin did in America’s elections is nothing compared to what he is doing today to threaten and destroy the legitimacy, freedom and independence of Ukraine.

This article is published courtesy of The Leader newspapers