I’ve been thinking about the crisis in the Ukraine, as Russia seemingly threatens military incursion with a goal of protecting themselves against NATO expansion and preserving their strategically important naval base in Crimea. This has been an ongoing source of tension ever since the fragmentation of the former Soviet Union and the steady increase in NATO members from the western part of the old Soviet bloc. NATO was formed specifically to protect western Europe from Soviet aggressiveness, when it annexed much of eastern Europe after World War II. It justified those annexations because of prior invasions by France and then Germany over literally centuries. Russia wanted a buffer zone. At that time, in post-World War II politics, Russia also wanted to expand its form of autocratic, forced communism. Things have changed in that Russia isn’t necessarily desiring to export its form of government any longer. But it still feels insecure with more and more countries joining NATO, whose purpose is to oppose Russian expansion of influence and possible military aggression.
