The Resurgence of the Black Bear that is USSR

(Statues of President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minster Mikhail Gorbachev
at the Reagan Presidential Library)

     The West left the Black Bear for dead twenty-three years ago, wounded and battered on the side of the road.  Her ferocious growl faded into a whimper and her vicious claws no longer feared by those around her.  For some time, she laid on the ground abandoned, her body broken and her spirit crushed. 

     The once mighty Black Bear that ruled her dominion with an iron fist had become an ordinary onlooker from the backwoods while nursing a bruised ego. 

     The disintegration of the Black Bear in 1991 has resulted to the formation of the Russian Federation (composed of 83 federal subjects, 22 of them are republics with the recent addition of Crimea) and the creation of independent countries in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. 

     Eight new countries in Central Asia emerged, such as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.  Six were in Eastern Europe, and they are Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Lithuania, and Ukraine.

     The fall of the Black Bear ended control of its eight satellite-countries, and these are East Germany, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, Yugoslavia, and Romania.

     Six years ago, the Black Bear came out from her long recuperation, fully recovered and eager to regain control of her old empire, and with Vladimir Putin riding on her shoulders. 

     She tested the ground by attacking Georgia in 2008, and the West, particularly United States, shrugged the invasion nonchalantly. 

     Last month she took Crimea by force, and all she got was a slap on the hand and a light warning to stop her bullying behaviors.  The United States responded by blacklisting Bank Rossiya and several Russian politicians and entrepreneurs.  It was a sanction directed not against Russia’s economy, but on Putin’s close political allies and wealthy friends.

     The Black Bear observed the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries’ reaction to the invasion of Crimea region.  The light response she received was an indicator that her old-time nemeses don’t have the political and military will to stop her rampaging acts.  And that bolster her spirit even more to pursue her plan to revive her glory years, knowing she can get away with her exploits without dire consequences to her actions.

     One Western official commented, “"We are in new territory . . .  realistically there is little the West can do to prevent Putin invading Ukraine or other non-NATO former Soviet states except for applying diplomatic and economic pressure.  The priority now is to deter any aggression against NATO."

     The Black Bear is now poised to get Kiev, and if the West still sits idly on its bottom, her conquering exploits wouldn’t stop in Ukraine, but it would go as far as Lithuania to the East and Kyrgyzstan to the West until she fulfills her grand design of restoring the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. 

     Georgia is the first on the list.  Ukraine is second and halfway through completion phase.  Which former USSR country is next on the Black Bear’s list?