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Igel

(37,676 posts)
10. Were all the warships docked there when Crimea stopped being part of the USSR Russia's?
Sat Mar 22, 2014, 02:14 PM
Mar 2014

No.

In the case of the USSR, there was no clear successor "owner" so things were divvied up. Russia may have wanted the nukes in Ukraine because Russians often believed the USSR was just the Russian empire, but in the end that's not how it turned out. They were forced to abide by their propaganda. The nukes stayed put, simply because moving them was a risk and there was no clear owner, just sites that they were stored at with difficulty in easily moving them. Naval and military assets were also divided up. The ships in the naval yards in the newly independent Ukraine were divided between Russia and Ukraine. Not because of any clear democratic or moral or intellectual principle, but just because Russia was rattling sabres and wanted its hardware and military capability, with an implicit (and sometimes explicit) threat of force.

The West rewarded a bully. Those who don't want to fight bullies tend to find justifications. "The homophobe's a fine person because he votes like I do on most issues. The anti-Semite might give my cousin a job. The Muslim basher doesn't affect me, I'm a Presbyterian. The jock threatening my friend might beat me up, too, and I'm afraid of him and have homework to do at home. The drug dealer's threatening my brother ... but he might cut me off if I challenge him, and I have a date tonight anyway." Lots of justifications.

In this case, there is a clear owner and it's not Aksenov and his Muscovite or Chechnya-based "local self-defense forces."

They blocked the ships from leaving, so the ships that were there when it declared independence weren't the ships that the Ukrainians would willingly have had there. They were trapped, blocked, threatened if they should leave, and even under seige. It's sleight of hand (and slight of intellect) that leads to your conclusion.

It's like repossessing a house, but for the month after eviction you issue the eviction notice you make sure nobody takes anything out of it. You keep the cars there. Keep them from removing the tv. Then, when the time comes, you insist that they come out, hands up, as squatters, and remove their wallets.

It's called "despoiling" and it's what a combatant does to the vanquished to humiliate him. Or, between equals, what the arrogant do to reinforce their egos. With some vicariously buying into the whole dynamic because they're really into solidarity with the winners.

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