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One of the reasons that the ability to keep order is failing is because the police are passive. To some extent this is because they are incompetent, but at another level I wonder if a lack of motivation is at work here. These Ukrainian copes are getting paid something like $200 a month. Russian cops get ten times that. Maybe before the West dumps small arms, we ought to consider fronting the cash to immediately bring police pay into line with that in Russia. This could generate a lot of "motivation," but alas austerity. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
Russia wants Ukraine to remain in their sphere of influence, and are prepared to go clear up to "tanks in the streets" levels of escalation to get their way.
The Americans are not politically prepared to go there, and the European countries which are politically prepared to go there lack the military wherewithal to follow through, while the ones who could go to war from a military perspective lack the political inclination to do so.
So Ukraine is going to end up in the Russian camp. The only question is how many people are going to get shot first.
In that context, the best thing that can happen to Ukraine is losing quickly and decisively, because the alternative is to lose slowly and painfully.
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
Use of military force to quell protests shows how desperate the authorities in Kiev are. Army is too blunt of a tool to resolve political discourses, and very inefficient in urban areas, unless the government is prepared to kill scores of civilians and can expect the military to carry out orders without questioning. Russia learnt this lesson the hard way in Chechnya.
Where will the crisis go from here? I'm afraid making any forecast in this situation is virtually impossible. There are too many moving parts in it. But without dialogue between the government and leaders of the protesters, and the West keeping the pressure of further sanctions on Russia, the likelihood of Eastern provinces peeling off looks pretty high to me.
Maybe before the West dumps small arms, we ought to consider fronting the cash to immediately bring police pay into line with that in Russia. This could generate a lot of "motivation," but alas austerity.
Austerity: the self-defeating population-defeating Washington-Brussels consensus.
FTFY
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