Eugenio Di Rienzo
Ed. Rubbettino
pagg.105
Ukraine, the second largest state in Europe after European Russia, with its forty-six million inhabitants and its seven hundred thousand square kilometers of extension, is at the center of opposing geopolitical interests, culminating in "glorious night of 22-23 February 2014, which saw the deposition and escape of the satrap Viktor Janukovyc and the return to power of the controversial Ukrainian Joan of Arc Julija Tymosenko". On the one hand, then, the strong pressures of Germany, France and Poland, the latter among the most strenuous supporters of the opponents of Janukovyc, for the ambition of "restore the ancient supremacy over Lithuania, Belarus, part of Ukraine and Latvia, sanctioned by the Union of Lublin of 1569 and survived until the third partition of the Polish state", On the other the Russian Bear who wants to demonstrate to the whole world that he is still in possession of"powerful muscles, strong and sharp claws and above all an indomitable heart that allows him to keep big and small opponents at bay."In the background the US diplomatic action, aimed at including Ukraine in"US hegemonic (politico-military-economic) system"Inaugurating a climate of competition with Moscow, namely the New Cold War, to be able to zero, with its expansionist ambitions ranging from North Africa, Egypt, the Middle East to the former Soviet Central Asia,"the centuries-old state of Great Power, a hegemon between Europe and Asia, of Russia."So, according to the author, professor of Modern History at the University La Sapienza of Rome, the attempt by the United States to push Ukraine into NATO would be the beginning of the disintegration of Russia as Great Power, as Russia would automatically become indefensible, since "the Ukrainian space, together with Belarus, constitutes the strategic gap that separates Russia from the increasingly threatening deployment of NATO countries to the West. Therefore Putin defended himself. It defended itself not to lose the strategically essential ports on the Black Sea of Odessa and Sevastopol, the latter in the Crimea, and also Ukrainians. It defended itself, responding to the economic sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union, with counter-sanctions "that have undermined not only the agri-food sector of the southern part of the euro, but also the industrial sector of the German locomotive". It has defended itself, stipulating a contract for the supply, to China, of thirty eight billion cubic meters of gas a year for the next thirty years, and thus creating a Moscow-Beijing axis, which represents strategic advantages for both the states. In fact, Moscow has created, in this way, a valid alternative to its exports of gas and oil to the European market. Beijing, on the other hand, will benefit from a new supply corridor to meet the growing demand for clean energy, with the advantage that the pipeline in question will not have to transit through third states. The new partnership will also allow the two states to "share the risks that the growing tension with NATO has caused."Thus a breakup of the Russian-American alliance has been created, which even the fight against the common enemy, represented by Islamic terrorism, does not seem able to restore.
All this because we did not take into account the fact that, as Henry Kissinger has observed, "if the destiny of Ukraine is to survive and prosper, it can not become the military outpost of one or the other camp, but must instead be transformed into a bridge capable of uniting and not into a ditch created to divide. Russia must realize that transforming Ukraine into a satellite state and then expanding its borders would condemn it to repeat the centuries-old cycle of its opposition to Europe and the United States. The West must understand that Russia will never tolerate that Ukraine could become a foreign and potentially adverse country."
Gianlorenzo Capano
