Richard Sakwa: Frontline Ukraine; Crisis in the Borderlands

I found this a rivetingly thoughtful book and one that seemed to take a very balanced view of current recent history and the situation the country finds itself in today.

I think that the book’s greatest strength is that it looks at the current situation through the lens of history and sees actions and situations as a result of what has happened in the past and the actions of the present-day players, both in the country and outside (the rest of the world) often reflect the extent to which they undersyand, or do not understand, this dynamic.

Perhaps what some might see as the most controversial asepct of the book is that Russia/Putin is not simplistically demonised and I felt that I gained a fair and honest picture of the situation that now exists. A key thesis of the book seems to be that, in the author’s eyes, Russia post Communism’s fall was seen by the West as a defeated organism and the author argues that this was a major and early error on the part of the West that set up walls of misunderstanding. He argues that Russia dod not and could not see itself as that and that the West’s failure to acknowledge this was a key element in setting attitudes in stone.

In Ukraine, history caused, th authro argues, three political elements (characterised by colours by the author) to arise which, since Communism’s fall, have circled and edged around each other in various combinations and forms (and all with an element on their fringes which gained and lost influence at various times).

The ‘Orange’ element had a view of Ukraine that the author calls ‘monist’ where the emphasis is on the unique elements of Ukraines society and history are paramount and the Russian/Soviet elements andaspects are radically diminished of not cleared out e.g. Kiev very much as the centre of the whole country, Ukranian as the only official language - and many other elements too of course but these seems to be the most central.

The ‘Blue’ element saw Ukraine as a more diverse entity than the Orange and looked more towards a federal model where the different ethnic make-ups of the country could be acknowledged -particularly in th much more Russo-centric south-east of the country.

the third element (and, to be honest I think, perhaps the most consistent one), was the ‘Gold’ by which the author means the central and crucial importance of the super-wealthy oligarchs. They to seemed moved from one gropu/view to another asrime concern was, naturally, to keep and maximize their wealth.

Combined with this there were in Europe two views of the future of Europe/EU post Communism’s fall. A Wider Europe concept which centred on EU as is (although with additions from the old Soviet bloc) and, crucially, the supreme importance of NATO and USA leadership

The other was Greater Europe which seemed to see Europe/EU as a larger growing organism, stretching further East and, I felt, perhaps longer term moving towards a federal Europe.

The story on this book is of these different elements batting back and forth against each other sometimes it seemed almost at random, forming a constantly changing pattern, like a series of squares on a screen moving seemingly at random, periodically banging into each other but never settling into one fixed entity.

The EU does not come put well in this and neither does Obama and the USA. There seem to be a series of clashes between groups of fixed views with very litttle flexibility to think creatively or in new ways for a potentially new world and political order - and where there was not strong leadership from the top (Obama a major culprit here I am afraid) ideologues tended to make the running.

The picture of Putin seems to me to be quite a nuanced one - he is not drawn as the Machievellian villain of popular belief; how accurate and fair this is of course, I do not know. Someone far more versed in this area would need to make that call but as an outsider reading this, this was the sense that I gained.

Anyway, a fascinating book and I want to now find alternative views on this fascinating history and country.