No place for Soviet symbols on V-Day
Published: 05 May, 2009, 15:41
A district court in Ukraine’s Chernigov region has ruled to ban on its territory the use of any Soviet symbols during the Victory Day celebrations on May 9.
According to a suit, and under the pressure of the regional branch of the all-Ukrainian ultra-national movement Svoboda, the court ruled to leave in force the decision on "the use of symbols of the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945, on the V-Day," which had been rendered by the district council on April 15.
The prospect of the red Victory Flags appearing on administrative buildings, offices, and enterprises caused the followers of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera to fly into a rage.
Elsewhere, members of Svoboda, the former Social-Nationalist Party of Ukraine, fell over themselves to rehabilitate Nazi collaborators. The press service of the Ternopol city council, where they hold the majority of the seats, has voiced their plans to erect a memorial tablet to soldiers of the Galichina Division in this western Ukrainian city.
The 14th SS Galichina Division was formed from among Ukrainians, and was used in the struggle against anti-Nazi guerrillas. It participated in outrages against the innocent population, including women and children. In 1944, the division participated in quashing the anti-fascist Slovak uprising. The remnants of the division surrendered to Americans and Britons at the end of the war.
Earlier, authorities in another western Ukrainian city, Lvov, ruled to dismantle a Soviet liberator monument, as well as to fix posters emblazoned with the name of a Nazi SS Galichina division right in the center of the city.
05.05.2009, 13:48
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Russia refuses participation in Russia-NATO meetingRussia will not participate in an upcoming NATO-Russia meeting in light of the expulsion of two Russian envoys to NATO in Brussels. |
05.05.2009, 17:32
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“It seems to be a coup d’etat imitation”Saakashvili badly needed arguments both to convince NATO that he is still threatened by Moscow, and to repress his opposition, says Kirill Koktysh from the Moscow State University of International Relations. |
Pt.2: First they made for sure wrong choices: US, NATO and EU. NATO: It could be naïve thinking that in case of military hostilities according to NATO agreements countries like Italy, France or Germany would send their young guys to die fighting the Russians (who by now almost brothers for us). Therefore you are in an alliance which is too large to guarantee to you the security you need. America with its 13 trillion$ debts cannot afford neither a war against the Tonga Islands, imagine against a country with 9000 combat-ready tanks... In case of a war with the Baltics the only risk for Russia would be the dissolution of the NATO alliance since it does not grant any security to its members, the complete political isolation and condemnation of Russia for a couple of years, but the business as usual between the West and Russia would not be affected due to the west dependency of Russian raw materials. US: They are struggling to maintain its positions in Afghanistan, its economy is loosing 30 million$ per day, definitely a country in downfall. The current and future administrations will not risk a war with Russia for tiny countries with low geopolitical importance. They did neither intervene during the war in the Caucasus, a geopolitical pillar for US. EU: the union serves only to the interests of Gemany, UK, France and Italy. Baltics nations are considered only as a market where they can sell their products without any custom duty. By not joining a custom union with Russia the Baltics are giving up cheap gas, electricity and oil which mean that due to the “averaged” market price of supplies they will never be able to build up big companies able to impose themselves in the world market. The option of becoming new Switzerlands is not foreseeable due to the new stance of the West against the “fiscal paradises”.
Pt1: Marzipan6, I can understand your reasons sitting behind your words against the soviet occupation, but I can see also from other posts of yours that you have kind of antipathy against the current Russia. I think you should understand that modern Russia now and in the near future cannot recognize the soviet occupation as well as all the soviet misbehaviours. It’s clear that after the liberation from the Nazis the Soviets occupied the Baltic nations. As long as one country does not want to be ruled by another one, any forced join must be considered as pure occupation. Russian people suffered as well from the Soviet rules, and paid for that regime with many lives especially during the purges of the 30s. All soviet nations (also Russia) were victims of soviet dictatorship, but due to its size and population Russia should accept the legacy of CCCP. I think that Baltic nations should close one eye and try to be more pragmatic. Baltic nations are pretending and try to convince themselves that they can live and prosper without Russia. They turn their back against Russia in its worst time which matched the best best of US history, thinking that that it would have been the future status quo of the world. It’s enough looking at a map of Europe to understand that Baltic nations they cannot be and will never be out of the sphere of influence of Russia.
Pt.3: In conclusion, regrettable or not, it’s not questionable that the future of Baltics depends on Russia. Pragmatically those countries should try to forget about the past as all European nations have made in regard with Germany, to please Russia as much as they can and take advantage of what the biggest country in the world can offer them, which is a lot. At the end Russia acts like a good father to loyal countries. Baltics unfortunately in the modern era of a multi-polar world can afford their own pride only paying an unbearable toll. I want to mention also Ukraine which is another issue. That country should be split in two tomorrow morning Ukraine from a pure academic perspective does not exist as country, but only as an administrative entity with recognized boundaries. That’s made of two populations which would well fight each other if only a conflict brought up. The basic rule of political sciences is “a nation is its own foreign policy” and when a country has a foreign policy against its population, it’s basically not a country.