Experts comment on the Ukraine crisis: the root causes of the crisis are in the United States

Editor's note: The Ukraine crisis enters its ninth day. Our domestic self-media are still arguing endlessly about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict over who is right and who is wrong. How should the Russian-Ukrainian conflict be viewed? Where are the roots of the crisis in Ukraine? Experts from the Chinese think tank gave their own answers.

First, the criterion for judging international right and wrong must have a position

Li Yizhen (Senior Researcher of Chinese Think Tank, Senior Editor of Xinhua News Agency, Former Director of the Editor-in-Chief Office of Reference News):

Zhe Yuyun: There are only eternal interests, no eternal enemies and friends! Believe in what I said. Like any incident, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has also triggered various discussions among the people of the country criticizing the United States and criticizing Russia and Ukraine, and some even sharp confrontations, which is very normal! There is some truth in looking at it from different perspectives. But the criterion for judging the right and wrong of international issues is, in the final analysis, the national interest, which is called the position!

Second, the root causes of the Ukraine crisis are in the United States

Shen Xiaoquan (Senior Researcher, Chinese Think Tank, Researcher, World Studies Research Center, Xinhua News Agency):

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Soviet-European Front meant the end of the Cold War between East and West, but the United States did not abandon its strategic repression of Russia.

The Warsaw Pact was dissolved, but nato, which confronted it, remained and became the world's largest political-military organization.

The United States vigorously promoted nato's eastward expansion, expanding a total of 12 countries from 1999 to 2009, all of which are located in Central and Eastern Europe, encircling Russia. Next, NATO wants to accept Ukraine, Georgia, etc., once these countries join, then NATO's defense will directly reach Russia's doorstep, and Russia's western security will be directly threatened.

So russia fought back and fought a Russian blitzkrieg, which stopped NATO's continued eastward expansion. At this time, there were huge differences within the West over NATO's eastward expansion: France, Germany and other Western European countries resolutely opposed NATO's continued eastward expansion and challenged the United States.

The divergence between Europe and the United States stems from different strategic interests. The United States has resolutely suppressed Russia and wants to put it to death. Europe, on the other hand, has beaten and pulled Russia to avoid pushing Russia into a hurry and taking risks to ensure European security. The clash of strategic interests has caused the gap between Europe and the United States to widen their positions toward Russia. This also causes Europe to have a certain space for activities between Russia and the United States.

In 2014, the Ukrainian crisis broke out, Russia recovered Crimea and intervened in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, in the case of extreme confrontation between the United States and Russia, France and Germany used France to hold the "70th Anniversary of the Normandy Landing" commemoration to promote a direct dialogue between the leaders of the Franco-German-Russian-Ukrainian quadripartites, known in history as the "Normandy model", and the quadripartite meeting later formed the "Minsk Agreement" on the ceasefire. It can be seen that What Russia pursues is its own strategic security.

This time Putin's "special military operations" against Ukraine are also centered around this goal. On February 24, the day the Russian army entered Ukraine, Moscow proposed negotiations with Ukraine. According to the convention of warfare, the demand for negotiations should generally be negotiated by the losing side of the battlefield to negotiate peace, and Russia is obviously not the loser. In the first six days of action, the Russian army is far from fully exerting its combat effectiveness, which reflects that Putin's intention to use troops is not entirely on the battlefield, but the more far-reaching meaning is to "promote talks with war". On the other hand, the Russian side proposed three conditions for reconciliation in the negotiations: recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea; de-militarization and de-Nazismization of Ukraine; and guarantee of neutrality in Ukraine. In addition to the Crimean issue, the core is that Ukraine cannot join NATO. This demand is consistent with NATO's request to stop eastward expansion in the "security guarantee agreement" previously proposed by Russia to the United States.

It can be seen that Since the Ukraine crisis, Russia's demands have been consistent, that is, to maintain its own strategic security. The United States has always ignored this demand, but has used Ukraine as a chip to force Russia to make concessions, which will eventually lead to the current Russian-Ukrainian military confrontation. Therefore, Putin wants to achieve the goal of "killing two birds with one stone", one is to teach a lesson to Ukraine, which has been provoking trouble, and the other is to urge the United States to return to the negotiating table on NATO's suspension of eastward expansion.

The genes of war in Western civilization

Xiangsui Wang (Senior Researcher of Chinese Think Tank, Professor of Beihang):

Western civilization has war genes, so as to forge military alliances.

The great battles between military alliances are the tumors of Western civilization. After the Cold War, as in World War I and After World War II, the Warsaw Pact nato should be returned to dust. But why is NATO going to be there (and a few battles) to push Russia to its knees? This system of military alliances is a cancerous change in the era of globalization, and it has become a cancer. The West (Europeans) are anti-war and not anti-military alliances, forcing Russia to constantly show its nuclear weapons, preparing to break the net of fish, and the West/Europeans are looking for their own death.

As a Western civilization based on monotheism, it has a strong exclusivity in identity, has a crusader tradition, pursues its own absolute security in security, and ignores or even threatens the safety of others. There is no sense of harmony and difference, and harmony is precious, which excludes the concept of common security. This is the ideological root of NATO's continuous eastward expansion and even its involvement in the Asia-Pacific region.

Fourth, the United States' wishful thinking cannot succeed

Xu Changyin (Executive Director of Chinese Think Tank, Researcher of World Studies Research Center of Xinhua News Agency):

A few days ago I attended a video conference with Japanese experts discussing the Ukraine crisis. A Japanese woman said that from a geopolitical point of view, the United States regards Ukraine as a sharp knife placed on Russia's belly, ready to stab this sharp knife into Russia's stomach. This metaphor is very graphic and accurate. It is rare for a Japanese scholar to come to such a conclusion, which may make some of our scholars ashamed.

Kissinger has stated that Ukraine should not be a front-line post for the Western camp, but a bridge between the West and Russia. Kissinger is supposed to say this from the west's standpoint, but he said at least one thing to the truth: Don't push Russia too hard, or there will be chaos.

Russia's military strikes against Ukraine have been met with severe sanctions by the United States and the West. Russia was unyielding, and Putin ordered russia's nuclear deterrent to be put on the highest alert.

The United States began to panic. U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said on March 2 that there is no winner in nuclear war, that nuclear war must be avoided, and that the door to U.S. diplomacy with Russia remains open.

In order to avoid irritating Russia, the US Department of Defense announced on the 2nd that the United States postponed the original plan to test the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said: "At this tense time, we realize that it is critical that both the United States and Russia should be aware of the risk of miscalculation and take steps to reduce it." He noted that the decision to postpone the test "shows that the United States has no intention of participating in any action that could lead to misunderstandings and miscalculations."

If you knew that, why did you do it in the first place?

The United States instigated the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and united allied forces to severely sanction Russia, which is to subdue and bring down Russia. The United States miscalculated, the United States did not do it after the end of the Cold War, and now it is even more difficult.