Paul
Goble
Staunton, December 14 -- In five key
areas, many commentators in the West are holding Ukraine to a very different
and much higher standard than Russia, an example of the double standards others
regularly complain about but that in this case are being used to suggest that
Ukraine should not get the support it deserves as a victim of aggression.
These include the presence of
fascism, the realization of federalism, the maintenance of democracy and
freedom, treatment of ethnic minorities and the level of corruption. In all five, Russia ranks much worse than
does Ukraine, something one would now know from reading the Moscow media or
much of commentary in the West.
To say all this is not to say that
Ukraine does not have shortcomings in each of these, but it is to insist that
those examining the situation should recognize that the sins that they are
holding Ukraine responsible for are incomparably smaller and less significant
than those of which Russia is guilty.
First of all, Vladimir Putin and his
regime have made the presence of what they say is fascism in Ukraine a core
part of their propaganda effort in support of Russia’s military activities, but
it is clear that for Moscow, “fascism” applies to anyone who resists Russia and
has no more content than that.
There are right-wing extremists in
Ukraine, and they must be weeded out. But there is no equivalent in Kyiv to
the kind of statements in support of Hitler and policies that resemble those of
the fascist leaders of the 1930s that are very much on offer in Moscow and at the highest levels. Where are the critics of Ukrainian “fascism”
with regard to that Russian reality?
Second, many in Moscow say and many
in the West accept the idea that Russia’s call for the federalization of
Ukraine is reasonable and proper. After all, they say, Russia is a federal
state. But under Putin, it is a federal state only on paper and with
constitutional reform looming perhaps soon not even there. Indeed, calls for
federalism in Russia are now a criminal offense.
Ukraine is not a federal state, but Moscow
is not interested in having it become one. Rather, Moscow is promoting the
creation of irridenta it can exploit to ensure that Ukraine will remain weak. And those who ignore this reality also ignore another:
federal states inevitably become more centralized when they are faced with an
external threat as Ukraine now is.
Third, Ukraine is a democratic state
with all the messiness that entails. It
has genuinely competitive elections, a parliament with a very real opposition,
and the kind of media freedom that make all those things possible. Russia has
none of those things: its elections are rigged, its parliament is a shadow of
the real thing, and its media is increasingly controlled by the Kremlin.
Despite that, many in Moscow talk about
Ukraine as if it were a dictatorship and about Russia as if it were a
democracy, and many in the West follow suit – even though some in the Russian
Federation are now discussing the tragic reality that under Putin, it is not
just authoritarian but moving toward totalitarianism (novayagazeta.ru/comments/66502.html).
Ukrainian
democracy is not perfect, but democracies – and Ukraine is one -- by their very
nature aren’t: they provide the opportunity for citizens to complain.
Authoritarian and totalitarian states don’t provide such opportunities, and
thus many are inclined to assume that if there are no complaints, there are no
problems.
Fourth,
Ukraine does not have a perfect record on treating ethnic minorities, although
it is improving, but it already has a better one that does the Russian
Federation of Vladimir Putin. Ukraine today supports the language and cultural
rights of ethnic groups within its borders far more than Putin’s Russia does
those within its.
But
for Putin and his regime, ethnic Russians in Ukraine deserve more rights than
anyone else, including those of the titular nationality, and if they do not get
such treatment, then Moscow is justified in intervening. No one is making a
similar argument about any nation currently within the borders of the Russian
Federation even though Moscow is mistreating many of them.
And
fifth, while there is a great deal of room for economic reform and fighting corruption
in Ukraine, the situation in that regard is far worse in the Russian Federation
where the fusion of public and private power is now so great that one has to
draw on models of the fascist corporate states to begin to understand it.
In one sense, these comparisons are or
should be irrelevant, even though Ukraine comes out on top. Ukraine is the
victim of aggression, and Russia is the aggressor, the violator of
international law and its own much-ballyhooed commitments to the territorial
integrity of Ukraine.
But because Ukraine comes out on top, it
is even more deserving of Western support and assistance, and Russia is even
more deserving of Western condemnation and isolation until and unless it not
only changes course in Ukraine but changes course at home and broad more
generally.
.
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