Western commentators insist that U.S. interest in Ukraine’s recent presidential election was an altruistic gesture with the purest intentions; it merely wanted to crack open the blackened windows of the former Soviet frontier to some democratic sunshine, and other such poetical pretensions. It would be truly heartwarming if this was really the whole story, but unfortunately it is not.
Western commentators insist that U.S. interest in Ukraine’s recent presidential election was an altruistic gesture with the purest intentions; it merely wanted to crack open the blackened windows of the former Soviet frontier to some democratic sunshine, and other such poetical pretensions. It would be truly heartwarming if this was really the whole story, but unfortunately it is not.
When the Baltic countries entered NATO and the European Union a couple of years ago, many thought it was the end of the centuries-old "red line." Euro-Atlantic organizations had crossed into the former Russian and Soviet empires.
In September 2004, the Russian city of Novgorod hosted an international conference entitled Russia at the Turn of the Century: Hopes and Reality. Its organizers were the RIA Novosti news agency, the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Russia in Global Affairs, and The Moscow Times.