Posted at 12:00 p.m.
Living under the yoke of Russia
I think that in this article, we do not take into account the free choice of countries and peoples bordering Russia not to want to live under the yoke of this authoritarian, autocratic and corrupt regime. Vladimir Putin’s warlike act of sowing destruction and death in Ukraine to impose his hegemony is in no way justifiable, no matter what US and NATO policies or military exercises.
Jacques Boucher
The blinders of certain intellectuals
I have a little difficulty with this point of view which seems to me biased more than necessary. First, Russia’s attack on Ukraine seems pretty direct to me, thank you. Secondly, was it not also Russia that wanted to achieve regime change in Ukraine by treating this “sovereign” country as a servitude of Russia? Just as we shouldn’t support US intervention in Iraq, why should we accept Russian-like interventions in Syria and Ukraine long before 2021? Even if it is completely legitimate to wish for the end of American hegemony, is it necessary to put on the blinders that certain Western intellectuals of the 1950s had long worn in the face of Stalin’s regime? Why would the abuses of an “imperialist” regime excuse those of another regime? Do we only have this defeatism animated by a revengeful anti-Americanism to offer to the citizens of Ukraine who would like to enjoy the same sovereignty that Canadians have enjoyed since 1867?
Lydia Dumais
Ukraine sacrificed
Ukraine is being sacrificed on the altar of a resurrected Cold War through NATO spurred on by a struggling Biden inside the United States and once again seeking to stem Russia from Putin as in the days of Bolshevism. The military build-up on Russia’s borders has pushed it into a war from which it will probably emerge weakened. The Ukrainian population, led by an inexperienced Zelensky, is the first victim of this indirect war between the United States and Russia.
Laurent Gingras
The agony of human rights
The interpretation fails to mention Russia’s equally provocative and hegemonic actions towards Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, not to mention the populations under the yoke of puppet governments in Belarus, Chechnya. Russia, which has never known democracy any more than China, has nothing to offer the peoples it subjugates beyond an agony of human rights and a return to exercise of brutal authority for the sole benefit of a tiny corruptible minority.
Marie-Luce Abarrategui
Conquerors without humanity
Yes, the war in Ukraine is a proxy war like many others since World War II. The hateful imperialism of the United States clashes with the equally hateful imperialism of Russia and it is the Ukrainians who pay the main price. However, Russian imperialism is not addressed by the authors of the letter. It presents Russia and China as rebels while they are also conquerors without much humanity. And we, little Canada, neighbor of the United States, we have to choose which camp we are on, a choice which is not really one!
Carole Héroux, Mercier
Russian aggression
As far as I know, it was the Russians who started the war and not the Americans or the American allies. I feel like I’m reading an essay from the 1970s. You can blame the Americans for a lot of things in the past, but not that one. The Russians were not threatened by NATO, but rather boosted by a thriving global economy. They simply destroyed the fragile balance.
Ghislain Gendron
Soft dictatorships
A little more and you might think, reading you, that it was the United States that attacked Ukraine. What bastards, as always, these Amerloques, much more to be feared than the sweet Russian and Chinese dictatorships! But what exactly do you propose, dear clairvoyant intellectuals, so much more lucid than ordinary mortals? Let the Russian dictatorship swallow Ukraine and the Chinese dictatorship eat Taiwan, just to fulfill your fantasy of the (long) announced death of US hegemony?
A little reminder for our great geostrategic thinkers: no one is putting, or has ever done, any pressure whatsoever on Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and now the countries Baltic States, and Sweden, for these nations to become members of NATO or earnestly wish to become so. Knowing the Russian nation and the roughness (to be polite) of its mores, having experienced it first hand, these satellite nations rightly fear Russia, and the invasion of Ukraine has only confirmed their worst apprehensions.
Frankly, Russians have historically had tremendous difficulty making friends. Go find out why…
Perhaps because those who have tasted their medicine have bitter memories of it. Talk to Chechens and Georgians, among others.
But well, apparently, according to you, learned professors, the greatest urgency for humanity, at this moment, would be to replace American unipolarity by Russian-Chinese multipolarity!
Luckily we have you, scholarly scholars, to guide the good people through the darkness of war. Without you, we would have unfortunately and naively thought that it was the Russians, those service bastards, who had attacked the poor Ukrainian people. Thank you for your lights !
Richard Verdon, Montreal