What is done is done and all the tough talks notwithstanding, Moscow has bagged Crimea. The people of Crimea have spoken and they loudly declared for a Russian membership. Icheoku says in the battle for Crimea, Moscow has again outfoxed Washington. It happened before in the threat of punitive sanctions against Iran and again in the "red-line" ultimatum Washington gave to Damascus. In both cases, Moscow's Putin won Obama's Washington decidedly. Now in the latest stare-down over Ukraine breakaway region of Crimea, it would seem the ex KGB boss is at the top of his game as he had surreptitiously used the Crimean people to push Washington and Europe as well as Kiev off the cliff in that standoff. What a deft calculating chess player this Vladimir Putin is that used Washington's game to outplay it - democracy is afterall all about the voice of the people and the people of Crimea have spoken thunderously that they want to move back to their old country, Russia.
Vladimir Putin waited patiently for the Sochi Winter Olympics to come to an end while plotting his move following the revolution in Kiev that pushed out his crony president. Soon thereafter, he moved his defence forces near the eastern borders of Ukraine in the guise of a military exercise. Before the world could wake up to what was going on within the Ukrainian eastern borders, Russian troops and tanks moved into Ukrainian Crimea and the rest they say is now history. Icheoku says despite mountain of International pressure to dissuade Putin, an effort led by Washington, to scare off the Russian strongman, a plebiscite was engineered whereby instead of using his amassed army to conquer and subjugate Ukraine, the people were instead used to achieve the same result - ownership of Crimea. Icheoku says it is important to remember that when the history of the Ukrainian conflict is written, it will be recorded as the first ever conquering of a territory without firing of even a single shot.
Icheoku had always maintained that Kiev and its Western advisers made a huge mistake in not resisting the Russian army when they first ventured into their territory. The primary responsibility and reason for the existence of the military of any sovereign country is to serve as a buffer and deterrent of any foreign aggressor(s) and invader(s). So when the Ukrainian military remained docile and cowered in fear while the Russian red army marched in, in violation of their territorial integrity, Icheoku knew it was a fait accompli for what the world is witnessing today. Although the Ukrainian army were no match to the all powerful Russian military, but so was Georgia in 2006, when the same Putin invaded the country but not without a fight; admitted that war ended with Russia taking two of Georgia's territories. The world watched and did nothing then because they could not do anything and in the same vein, the same world is now also watching in askance as Russia gobbles down Ukrainian Crimea and nothing will be done about it. It is deja vu Georgia scenario in Ukrainian Crimea as a stupefied world watch while Putin claims yet another prize in Crimea. Like those lions of Serengeti with their captured prey, Vladimir Putin is not and will not yield Crimea, not to Kiev, not to Washington and not to Brussels. If these people want a different outcome or want Crimea, they better come and get it reads the demeanor of Putin.
Icheoku says it would seem that the only possible way this can be accomplished is in the all out war the West is coy about fighting with Russia. If not now, when? As with every bully, one unchallenged act always leads to another. So with Crimea now effectively gone or rather bagged, who knows which territory Putin's cross-hair is aimed next if his latest act of aggression is left unchallenged or unresponded to? All talks that can be talked has been talked and so are all threats of sanctions been made that can be made; yet all have been ignored by the deaf man in Moscow. The world led by the West is now left with only one meaningful option - engage Putin in the same manner as they did against Hitler and now is the time to do it. All appeals have failed and so were all diplomatic niceties but like King Herod of Egypt, the Tsar of Russia will not hearken and the world has to muscle him to reason.
The result of the Crimea referendum has again put the Obama's foreign policy team on the spot; forcing Icheoku to gravitate to the opinion expressed by former Defense Secretary Gates that it is not in the proper hands. While foreign policy Team Obama held the bag, Putin and company snarled the pricey Crimea and as far as the Russians are concerned, Washington can go on hollering, but Crimea is theirs for keeps and no one can do anything about it. Despite the threatened sanctions and unquantifiable price to be paid should the Crimea referendum proceed, Putin's Russia ignored it and went ahead and have now captured Crimea by proxy of Crimeans. What happened in Crimea will be difficult if not impossible to undo or will the West now force an unwilling people of Crimea, who have expressed their preference for Russia to now go back and remain in a forced unholy matrimony with a Kiev they despise with passion?
Icheoku says this scenario is not likely going to happen as it will be tantamount to forcing a people against their will and democracy does not support this. At best, Russia will in the end keep Crimea but asked to go no further with capturing more of Ukrainian territories. Crimea will be the opportunity cost of greater Ukrainian territories or the pawn of the chess face-off. Moreover, Crimea was Russia and used to be Russia until Krushev in a drunken magnanimity in 1954, in the same manner Obasanjo gave away Bakassi to Cameroon, gave Crimea away to Ukraine. So what is wrong in a people returning back to the land from which they were literally thrown away from and without their say or support for the action? icheoku says with the development in Crimea, hopefully Bakassi people of Nigeria will someday in the future return back to their Nigerian roots while giving Cameroon and the international gang up their middle finger. Like the people of Israel who left slavery in Egypt and returned to their land, the Russian people of Crimea have peradventure returned back to their mother Russia, case closed.
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