PUTIN: Ukrainian Gamble by Edward Grishin

Author:Edward Grishin [Grishin, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2022-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

WARS

In its short history as an independent state Russian Federation has been involved in numerous conflicts and wars.

1991 - South Ossetian war

1992 - War in Abkhazia

1992 - War in Transnistria

1992 - Nagorno-Karabakh war

1994 - First Chechen War

1999 - Second Chechen War

2008 - Russo - Georgian War

2014 - First invasion of Ukraine

2015 - Sirian War

2018 - Central African Republic Civil War

2022 - Full-scale invasion of Ukraine

The Soviet Union advertised itself as a happy family of different nations. The Soviet empire incorporated various ethnicities with their local disputes and ongoing feuds. These conflicts were frozen as it made no difference. Both dispute parties were subjugated and lived under Moscow’s rule.

The Soviet Union also implemented the Russification policy. The primary language throughout the empire was Russian. Local languages were suppressed, as their use was discouraged. The Soviet policy entailed sending a large number of Russian people to peripheral countries to increase the Russian population, which was more loyal to Moscow than locals.

The Soviet Union occupied Latvia in 1940. The first thing occupiers did was send thousands of people to GULAG or torture and kill “unreliables.” This went on until the Nazis replaced the Soviets. Many in the Baltic States joined the German army not because they shared Nazi beliefs but because they wanted to avenge the Soviets.

Persecution resumed when Germans were expelled from Latvia, and the Soviet Union reoccupied it. Partisan fight against occupation lasted till 1954.

The Soviet Union sent a vast number of Russians to Latvia and neighboring Estonia. By the time the empire crumbled, Russians had constituted approximately thirty-five percent of the population in these countries. Lithuania escaped this fate.

The increase in the Russian population can not be explained by natural migration. Since the beginning of the occupation, the number of Russians had increased by 4.5 times. Their relative share in the ethnic composition of Latvia had increased 3.5 times. This was a predetermined policy, which became a source of instability once Estonia and Latvia regained independence. Russian Federation continues to use the Russian diaspora in former Soviet countries.

Transnistria is the region of Moldova. It is an industrial region of the country. The Soviet Union sent a large number of Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians to manage and work in those factories. It was also home to the Fourteenth Guard Army. In 1989 Moldova signed a law that made Moldovan an official language.

Opportunists have used language laws to stir up the situation to a breaking point. Moldova proclaimed its independence in 1992. In response, local authorities in Transnistria did not accept that they were a part of the Republic of Moldova and declared themselves the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR). Armed clashes escalated to a small war.

Russian Fourteenth Army officially claimed neutrality, but they covertly supported the PMR. Army servicemen joined PMR fighters, but they were not prosecuted for desertion. Weapons and even armed vehicles were “stolen” from army storage. With Russian political and military support, this breakaway state was able to fight off Moldavian attempts to regain control of the renegade region.

Russia never recognized the independence of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

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