What To Do About Ukraine?
Russian is currently putting tens of thousands of troops at the Russia-Ukraine boarder, with the clear goal of building up for an invasion of Ukraine. Putin, in general, seems to have an odd interest in imperialism. This is the same man who invaded Georgia in 2008 and annexed Crimea in 2014.
Despite all the talk of Putin as some kind of nationalist, Putin — much like his good friends Viktor Orban and Benjamin Netanyahu, also loved by the modern American right — is an imperialist interested in making all of Europe fit his image. It makes sense Putin is also working with authoritarian dictator and fellow imperialist Xi Jinping, with the obvious goal of establishing some kind of global oligarchy where they share power.
Of course, Xi Jinping has spent the past two years aggressing against Hong Kong, and clearly plans to do the same with Taiwan. I mention this because it seems Putin is building a minor cabal of imperialists across the world — maybe he’s trying to create some kind of unofficial alternative to NATO — and that should certainly be concerning to everyone who cares about national sovereignty.
President Biden says he will not send troops to defend Ukraine if Vladimir Putin invades. However, while the state department has said it will defend Ukraine’s sovereignty, Biden has failed to make it clear what exactly he will do. Of course, when Putin annexed Crimea in 2014, the Obama Administration — during which Biden was Vice President — famously didn’t do anything.
Does Biden plan another round of sanctions and embargoes against Russia? How about making Ukraine part of NATO — which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said he wanted. If Biden has an actual plan here to help the people of Ukraine, he has not said so publicly.
This is not to say Biden hasn’t tried to put Putin on notice. Biden recently had a video conference with Putin, which appears to have had exactly that goal. Biden is also currently hosting a democracy summit with over one hundred nations, specifically to produce some kind of plan for stopping authoritarianism and dictatorship worldwide.
Personally, I do believe that a war against Russia over Ukraine would be a bad idea. However, this does not mean that we can simply allow Russia to take over Ukraine without any kind of opposition, if only because that sets the stage for future imperialism by Russia and the creation of further empires. President Biden must lay out a clear plan for stopping Russia from expanding, or risk a Russian empire the likes of which we have not seen since the Soviet Union.
