US & Russia Reportedly In Truce Talks
Proposed deal -- ceding Russian-speaking Donbas to Russia -- does not affect interests of the American people.
In 2015 I wrote the first draft of a book about the so-called “Pipeline Opera” in Europe—that is, the rivalry between Russian pipelines for supplying natural gas to Europe and the U.S./EU-backed “Nabucco Pipeline” for transporting gas from the Caspian Sea to Austria “to reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian gas.”
My story opens with a murder in Vienna, and the suspects include a Ukrainian agent and a Russian agent, with the Ukrainian agent being the more sympathetic character.
At the time I submitted the (admittedly awkward) first draft to my agent, he told me that one of the problems I faced was that it would be hard to get Americans to care about the Ukrainian female character, given that most Americans couldn’t locate Ukraine on a map.
You can therefore imagine my surprise when, seven years later, millions of American citizens suddenly perceived the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine to be something akin to sacred territory, worth fighting over at the expense of hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded, and even elevating the risk of nuclear confrontation with Russia.
Now comes the news—reported in Bloomberg—that the U.S. government is in truce talks with Russia that would cede the 75% Russian-speaking Donbas region to Russia.
At the risk of making “the sacred Ukrainian territory of Donbas” crowd angry, I would like to point out that this region—which became famous in the 19th century for its coal deposits—is of no interest whatsoever to American taxpaying citizens.
What is in the interest of American taxpayers is to have good relations with nuclear-armed Russia.
Like the United States—which has maintained the Monroe Doctrine of rejecting any European military alliance in the Western Hemisphere since 1823—Russia has legitimate security interests and understandably does not want NATO assets on its border, 350 miles from Moscow.
If the Ukrainians want to fight “bis zur letzen Patrone” (“until the last cartridge”) over the sacred Ukrainian territory of Donbas, I wish them the best of luck. However, the United States should cease arming this pointless and destructive conflict and make peace with Russia.
Let’s also remember that these sacred regions were being regularly shelled by Kyiv and oppressed in other ways. And that they voted to rejoin Russia.
Good work by Putin. Recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and refusing Ukraine NATO membership are also required.