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| (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?
