The shooting down of the Malaysian aircraft and its aftermath
There is always a double truth behind ambivalent facts or incidents, especially when these cause collateral damage. The ambivalence is nourished by both political expediency and national –and occasionally nationalist– interests that are expressed by the political status quo of each sovereign state. The rationale behind this tactique has been always to sustain the sovereign character of the nation in point and promote its political, economic and military vested interests on the international anarchical system.
What happens, however, when these vested interests shake the harmonically chaotic political gravure by causing irreversible fatalities? A case in point is the current shooting down of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 plane that leaded to the death of 298 people and plunged into bereavement their families. This tragic event comes to be added as a thorny issue to the chronicle of the insurgency that has erupted in Eastern Ukraine since the end of February 2014. The pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian pro-government supporters are the fundamental pieces of the besieged geopolitical puzzle that has been formed in Eastern Ukraine for the last six months and has transformed the political equilibrium in the borders of the European Union with the eastern part of the European continent.
In the light of this event, is it the right time to finally bring this war to a responsible end that could guarantee the stability in the Eastern European arch? When a war cannot be contained between two fighting parties and is expanded beyond the afflicted areas by posing threats to neighboring states and by extension to their citizens, it is well beyond doubt that it has lost its point of existence and continuation. This war cannot be continued when it endangers the life of innocent people both inside and outside Ukraine and causes more chaos in the region. Any lack of Western immediate action on this matter endangers the European stability and the fundamental linchpins of the Eurasian cortex. Europe has not participated actively in the Ukrainian revolution, leaving the unfolding of the fight between Ukraine and the always intimidating Russia. This sluggish reaction might have worked so far as an appeasement trick towards the imperialistic Russian interests, but it has failed to veto the European prerequisites to safeguard its regional stability.
After the current dreadful developments, there is no way that Moscow could be seen as a peacemaker in the region. On the contrary, the West could be evidently more supportive to the effort of the Ukrainian government to reconcile the internal dissident voices that have been leading the insurgencies for the last months and halt the hegemonic Russian penetration in its territory. After the success in Crimea, Putin is not willing to lose the battle of power in the region, but he might be forced to do so if he wants to stay alive in the international power poker. If Moscow does not temper its position and way of action, the sanctions posed by the international community might be harsher, although pro-Russian lobbyists have been doubting for so long time the long-term effects of sanctions posed to Russia. This doubt towards the dynamic of sanctions stems from the course of actions taking by Russia under the auspices of the Eurasianistic rhetoric. The belief in a Greater Russia and the authority that Russia thinks it has over all of the other republics of the former Soviet Union bolsters Vladimir Putin’s interference politics through which he mistakenly thinks that he can win the hearts and minds of the local population.
There is an immediate need to end Vladimir Putin’s brinkmanship and deescalate the diplomatic tension that has been bumped up in the last days. A first good step could be the Australia-proposed UN Security Council resolution that is due to be voted by the UN Security Council in order to gain full access to air crash site and to guarantee a cease-fire around the area. Any attempt of Russia to boycott the voting of this resolution would be confronted with an international outcry and taken as “completely unacceptable”, according to the statement of Aussie Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek. A second step, however, should be taken by Ukraine per se. It is about time that Ukraine rose to the occasion and shaped its own political identity without being a satellite of the Russian imperialistic goals. The Russian bear is always awake trying to take advantage of its neighbors’ pitfalls. It is in Ukraine’s hands to put it on hibernation and create its unbiased political future.
Politicator 