Russia, the Ukrainian challenge, and the return of the Cuban Bay of Pigs crisis

 Russia, the Ukrainian challenge, and the return of the Cuban Bay of Pigs crisis

First: What is the cause and history of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis?

The main cause of the crisis in Ukraine's desire to join NATO, which Russia strongly opposes.

We know first of all that the fall and disintegration of the former Soviet Union in the nineties of the last century and the subsequent agreement between the West led by America under the rule of George Bush Sr. and Mikhail Gorbachev, who was ruling the former Soviet Union not to expand the alliance to the east and not to include any of the countries that were within the Soviet Union Previous.

However, America and the West did not abide by these pledges and began to annex some Eastern European countries that were allies of Russia.

But NATO did not include a country like Ukraine because it is on the Russian border, which is Russia's backyard.

Until George Bush Jr. came to power and invited Ukraine to join the alliance in 2004, and this was what Russia rejected, but with the weakness that Russia was in after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union.

Then, after the arrival of pro-Western rule in Ukraine, the invitation was renewed for Ukraine to join NATO in 2008.

But in this case, Russia refused this more forcefully and invaded a large part of Ukraine to cut off the path for NATO to include Ukraine in the alliance.

Second: What is the reason for Russia's refusal to join Ukraine in NATO?

Because Russia considers Ukraine to be an integral part of it, the southeastern part of Ukraine has about 40% of the population speaking Russian.

Also, Ukraine, with its riches, is coveted by the Russians. It is also an important and major outlet for the Russian fleet on the Black Sea and from there to the Mediterranean.

But what are Russia's demands during the recent crisis between it and the West over Ukraine?

1- Obtaining a written commitment from the West not to annex Ukraine or any other country neighboring Russia.

2- Reducing the deployment of advanced weapons in the countries neighboring Russia and joining NATO

3- Not to conduct military exercises in those countries

This is what America and the West reject, for the following reasons:

* So as not to give Russia the right to veto the decisions of the NATO alliance

* In order not to turn a blind eye to what Putin is doing and the mistake of the West, the same historical mistake that it made with Hitler before.

* In order not to open the way for the Chinese dragon, who is expected to do as Russia does.

Third: Do America and NATO have the right to force Russia to accept what it wants, given that Ukraine is a sovereign country and has the right to join NATO as it pleases?

In theory, every free, sovereign country has the right to choose who it wants to join.

But this is practically not possible.

This happened in 1962 in socialist Cuba, when the former Soviet Union wanted to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba. So America threatened a third world war if the Soviet Union continued to implement what it wanted.

The whole world stood on tiptoe at that time, until the crisis was resolved and the Soviet Union dismantled the nuclear missiles from Cuba and returned them to Russia after it reached an agreement to dismantle the American nuclear missiles in Turkey, which is close to the former Soviet Union.

If in practice, if you are near an elephant, you must act carefully.