West Should Stop Dragging Ukraine into NATO - Gorbachev [View all]

[newthinking]

This is worthy of posting - unfortunately it is not being printed in the US press so I have to use the RT link.

Be sure to read the entire writeup. Gorbachev presided over and reflects on the period when the USSR was broken up, the arguments that occurred even then about the boundaries of Ukraine, and why this issue threatens to potentially cause great damage to the region if it is not well resolved diplomatically.

http://rt.com/politics/185308-gorbachev-ukraine-crisis-dialogue/

[font size=2]West Should Stop Dragging Ukraine into NATO - Gorbachev

Excerpts:

However, according to Gorbachev the main role in the settlement must be played jointly by Russia and the United States. These nations stand out because they are permanent members of the UN Security Council and can wield significant influence on the organization. The jointly prepared resolution could become a powerful factor with the potential to reverse the negative course of events.

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The ex-president again repeated his opinion that the roots of the current turmoil lie in the hasty breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. He added that back then the Ukrainian authorities sabotaged the process of the peaceful transformation of the USSR, despite Gorbachev’s best efforts.

“They did not listen to my suggestions and warnings. They forgot that relations between peoples always require extreme caution and attention to the consequences of every step. Some people might say that this is a thing of the past. But the past is connected with the present by many threads and it again and again reminds us of politicians’ mistakes,” the ex-Soviet leader writes in his book.

In March this year, Gorbachev wrote about the Ukrainian turmoil on his website and called for mass media to stop adding to the tension in order to prevent what he called “a tragic schism between two brotherly nations.” At the same time, Gorbachev stated that he would prefer not to get personally involved in any talks and diplomatic contact.

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