Playing Russian Roulette in Kiev

Ukraine has always been divided between east and west, and the politics has always been focused on staying united as a bridge between Europe and Russia. When US pushes NATO on Ukraine they build a wall instead of a bridge in their attempt to "contain" or isolate Russia. 2/3 of Ukraine dont want to join a anti-russian NATO, respect democracy and stay out of Ukraine! Next election I hope America can avoid pouring in millions to "support of the democratic process" to buy a puppet and let them have a free election instead

The USA needs to have someone as an enemy all the time. So if nobody attacks them, they start rocking the boat or keep poking any trouble spot in the world until someone says 'I do not like it'. As soon as that happens, everything is forgotten and the whole USA concentrates on the new 'enemy' and how to break them. It is like a genetic part of their cowboy heritage and nothing can change their way to thinking.

This article reminds me of the attitude of fear of Hitler's Germany as it began its expansion.

A strong europe is not the one that plays not to the kremlin is it the one that neither is it the one that runs behind evrything said from the Whitehouse.If Europe wants to remain a credible international player in conflict resolutions,it must respond to crises emanating from ethnic insurgence with impartiality.It is wrong for the song to be be an anti russian rhetoric ringing from Paris to Budapest ....whi.sssssssssssssSsssSSSSaakhavili whwhwhy he had to attack

Nikos Retsos, it's funny how Western magazines always seem to understand the problems and implications, but when they try to come up with a solution, their solutions only seem to be catalysts for the problems themselves. What this article tries to plant for a solution is exactly what will create a crisis in the Ukraine. What NATO should do to avert a crisis is not try to court the Ukraine into its sphere, but to try and come out with a compromise with Russia making it known that Ukraine is in Russia's sphere of influence while Poland and the Baltic States can remain within NATO's sphere of influence. If the Ukraine ever manages to join NATO, that would just be the catalyst for an internal civil war that would split the country in two. The solution that the article provides is therefore not a solution but the problem itself. And this is the inherent flaw in most Western articles about any issue. They like to see the fantasy, and not the reality.

Nikos Retsos,
Funny how Western magazines understand the problem, but always come up with the wrong solution. The solution to avoid a crisis is not to allow Ukraine to be part of NATO, but for NATO to work with Russia and come to an understanding that Ukraine is in Russia's sphere of influence. What this magazine article proposes as a solution to the conflict is the exact thing that will make the conflict boil into an all-out civil war between the Western and Eastern spheres of the Ukraine and, possibly, between the West and Russia.

This article "Playing Russian Roulette in Kiev" is actually missing the most important Ukrainian politician
if the Russian Roulette game ever plays out in Ukraine. He is the boss of the Party of the Regions, Victor
Yanukovich, a former two times Prime Minister. He is very close to Russia, and controls the Eastern Ukraine industrial region established by the Soviet Union with its mostly Russian population. If the Yushchenko and Tymoshenko uneasy alliance alienate more Ukrainians, or disband again like the first time, Yanukovich would likely be the next president.

There will be no necessity for a Russian Roulette in Ukraine because Yushchenko has lost his credibility,
and he is a lame-duck with no chance of re-election or any future in Ukrainian politics. And cavorting with
Dick Cheney was certainly the last straw for many Ukrainians who do not want to see the George Bush-Dick Cheney bedlam tit for tat warmongering game with Russia to spill into their country - as it happened in neighboring Georgia.

Yushchenko's Orange Revolution is a deflated balloon now, and the Ukrainians realize that the pauper Russia during the Ukrainian Orange Revolution era is now a superpower to reckon with. And they know that if they allow Yushchenko to bring Nato in with interceptor missiles -as Poland does- then the Eastern
Ukraine with the Russian population will become a new independent state like South Ossetia and Abkhazia. That is a real Russian Roulette possibility that the Ukrainians are not as stupid as Mikheil Saakashvili to play. Nikos Retsos, retired academic