The post World War II cold war between USSR (Russia) and the Western Bloc (the US and it’s NATO allies) ended over 20 years ago (early 1990s). Yet today with Russia officially an ally with it’s former political western adversaries has annexed the Crimean Peninsula and could be on the verge of a full scale invasion of Ukraine.
When Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine the west punished the Russian president Vladimir Putin’s actions with feeble economic sanctions which have had little to no impact on the current Russia Ukraine military conflict.
Russia Ukraine Conflict
As Russia looks set to take control of more Ukrainian sovereign territory, the west sits idly by. Are the West on the verge of a new cold war with Russia, to afraid of Russia to stop Vladimir Putin’s war mongering?
If Russia invades and annexes the rest of Ukraine like they did with Crimea and the west makes no move to stop Russia, what will stop Russia moving on Finland for example in the future, where is the red line a the Russian nuclear power can not cross?
Clearly it is not Crimea or Ukraine!
Russian Land Borders
Kazakhstan – 6,846km
China (SE) – 3,605km
Mongolia – 3,441km
Ukraine – 1,576km
Finland – 1,313km
Belarus – 959km
Georgia – 723km
Latvia – 292km
Estonia – 290km
Azerbaijan – 284km
Lithuania – 227km
Poland – 210km
Norway – 196km
China (S) – 40km
North Korea – 17.5km
Totals over 20,000km of land borders, only China have more borders (by length) than Russia.
Could Finland be Russia’s Next Military Conflict?
Finland shares a 1,300km border with Russia which is more than all other EU countries put together. The Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb will soon meet with other Northern European leaders at a conference in Helsinki where the Russian Ukraine crisis is likely to be discussed at length.
The Finnish PM told the Guardian newspaper “We have a long tradition of keeping out of conflict with Russia… though we did not succeed in the second world war. We can’t change geography. We have a 1,300km border. That is more than all other EU countries together. The NATO Russia border would be doubled. We have to consider that too.
My main worry is the larger picture of getting close to a cold war. That would be a very uncertain situation and that worries us. But if you are asking are we afraid, directly or indirectly, of Russia, I would say no.”
Is there anything the United States and NATO can do to stop Russia annexing all of Ukraine?
News Sources
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/05/finland-warns-cold-war-russia-eu
