After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's connection with Ukraine, I have long wanted to do this aspect, in order to prepare for this episode, I also browsed the relevant video on the Internet, found that there are several flaws worth adding.
Additional note on Ukraine
The first and most comments emphasize that the root cause of the crisis in Ukraine is NATO's eastward expansion, which is undoubtedly right, but he ignores the role of the EU, in fact, the role of the EU in the previous Ukrainian crises is very important, and even often goes to the front of the United States, after all, the EU and Ukraine are the same as the border;
Map of Ukraine
Second, most commentators attach great importance to the impact of the geopolitical contradictions between the United States and Russia on the crisis in Ukraine, but ignore the problems of the Ukrainian system, the Ukrainian crisis is the result of comprehensive factors, the division of the internal political system provides opportunities for the intervention of external forces, and the intervention of external forces further contributes to the Ukrainian problem, the interaction between internal factors and external factors, the interaction of internal ethnic contradictions and the defects of the political system, resulting in an unmanageable situation in Ukraine;
Tymoshenko, the representative of the Ukrainian oligarchy
Third, we all know that the oligarchic forces in Ukraine are very rampant, and many commentators like to simply regard the Ukrainian oligarchy as a lackey or agent of the United States and the West, in fact, many of the oligarchs in Ukraine are pro-Russian, and Ukraine does not follow the West from the beginning, he has not tried to seek a balance between Russia and the West.
What it is today is the product of a series of political events, of which the two color revolutions in 2004 and 2014 are important turning points, after the Crimean crisis in 2014, the contradictions between Ukraine and Russia have no way to reverse, and what is in front of Zelenskiy is not a choice question.
Ukraine's path to nuclear abandonment
On August 24, 1991, the Ukrainian government issued a declaration of national independence, officially declaring independence from the Soviet Union, and on December 25, Gorbachev declared the Soviet Union cease to exist, marking the first time in Ukraine's history that it has truly become an independent sovereign state.
The collapse of the Soviet Union
From the book, Ukraine inherited the extremely rich legacy of the Soviet Union, is the second largest economy after Russia, but the problem is that Ukraine's industrial structure is highly dependent on the Soviet system, in a building every steel bar is very important, but the building collapsed these steel bars are not scrap copper rotten iron? Ukrainian industry in the Soviet system in the middle of the industrial chain, neither responsible for the production of raw materials nor responsible for the production of products, once the Collapse of the Soviet Union Ukraine's industrial system is difficult to operate independently, according to statistics, from 1991 to 2000 in the 10 years: "Ukraine's GDP fell by 40.4%, Russia fell by 35%, Ukraine's industrial production fell by 36%, Russia fell by 34%, Ukraine's agricultural output fell by 31%, Russia fell by 29%", What a pair of brothers and sisters.
Logically speaking, Russia and Ukraine are highly complementary in industrial production, and should vigorously develop friendly bilateral relations, but at the beginning of independence, the two countries were constantly contradictory because of the separation of family property, especially the nuclear weapons issue Crimean issue and the Black Sea Fleet issue as the focus of contradictions, here I focus on the issue of Ukraine's strategic nuclear weapons during the period of The first President of Ukraine Kravchuk, Ukraine inherited 20% of the Soviet Union's strategic nuclear weapons, including: "176 intercontinental ballistic missiles, Among them, 130 SS-19 missiles and 46 SS-24 missiles have the technology of sub-missile multi-warheads, which can carry up to 6 and 10 nuclear warheads respectively, in addition to 41 strategic bombers, which can carry 650 nuclear warheads, in addition to strategic nuclear weapons, Ukraine has inherited as many as 2500 tactical nuclear bombs. ”
Ukrainian nuclear bomb
On paper, Ukraine, which spends independently, is the world's third nuclear power, so there is a saying circulating on the Chinese Internet that Ukraine is killing itself, being fooled by the West, giving up its huge nuclear weapons arsenal, and falling into today's beaten situation, this statement ignores an important problem, Ukraine actually does not have a complete nuclear industry, it can produce nuclear weapons carriers, but it can not produce nuclear warheads, even the ability to independently maintain nuclear weapons is not available, and the Ukrainians are not stupid. It is not that they do not know what nuclear weapons mean for national security, and an independent Ukraine wants to retain nuclear weapons, so in the negotiations on nuclear weapons, Ukraine has been procrastinating and repeating.
It was not until mid-1992, under pressure from all sides, that it was agreed to ship tactical nuclear weapons to Russia for destruction, but the strategic nuclear weapon Ukraine did not give up so easily, as early as July 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Phase 1 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which stipulated that strategic nuclear weapons deployed in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan needed to be completely destroyed by the end of the 20th century.
Treaty signing
It didn't take long for the Soviet Union to disintegrate, and the original treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union suddenly became a matter between the United States and Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, and this treaty required five countries to ratify it to enter into force Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan soon ratified the treaty.
Only Ukraine was slow to ratify the treaty, not only was it unwilling to ratify the treaty, but in June 1993, with an overwhelming advantage of 226 votes in favor of 15 against, it adopted a resolution on the main direction of Ukraine's foreign policy, declaring That Ukraine a nuclear state, and on the second day of the adoption of the resolution, Ukrainian Defense Minister Morozov issued an order to assign a part of the strategic nuclear weapons to the Rocket Force, on July 2, The Government of Ukraine has further declared that strategic nuclear weapons deployed on its territory are the property of ukraine,
Ukrainian President Kravchuk has publicly stated that we are not willing to give up nuclear weapons to win applause and then be forgotten, it is precisely because of Ukraine's tough attitude that the United States and Russia regard Ukraine as the main obstacle on the road to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, but the desire is a beautiful reality is very bone-chilling, Ukraine does not have enough financial resources and lacks enough technology to maintain the daily maintenance of nuclear weapons, so that most of the nuclear weapons in Ukraine, The risk of nuclear proliferation, which has already passed the safety period, is constantly increasing.
Kravchuk
Even President Kravchuk has privately admitted that technically Ukraine does not have the ability to retain nuclear weapons for a long time, and a country with a huge number of nuclear weapons does not have a complete nuclear industry, which can only occur in the CIS countries, and it is difficult for us to imagine Chinese, so everyone should understand that Ukraine's abandonment of nuclear weapons is not because they are stupid, it is really incapacitated.
Therefore, the Kravchuk government has undergone some changes in its attitude toward nuclear weapons, from possessing nuclear weapons to using nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip to obtain as much benefit as possible, for which the Ukrainian government has even made such a demand, the heads of state of the five benevolent people of the United States, China, the United States, Russia, Britain and France in the Security Council, collectively signed a legal document bearing military and political obligations to ensure the national security of Ukraine, and asked all nuclear countries to pay money and set up funds in the United Nations to compensate for the losses suffered by Uhan due to nuclear abandonment.
But the problem is that Ukraine's shortcomings are also obvious, it is not an energy-powered rocket, oil and gas have long relied on Russian imports, the strategy of the Yeltsin government is also very simple, you Ukraine is not willing to obey, I will cut off oil and gas with you in this way to force the Ukrainian authorities to make concessions, in short, on the one hand, the United States and Russia join forces to threaten the use, on the other hand, Ukraine lacks the ability to maintain nuclear weapons, and also lacks the necessary energy security. These factors prompted Ukraine to eventually change its attitude and embark on the path of abandoning nuclear weapons.
After a difficult bargain, it was not until November 1993 that the Ukrainian parliament ratified the First Phase START Treaty, please note that as early as 10 months ago, the United States and Russia had signed the Second Stage START Treaty, on January 14, 1994, Russian President Yeltsin, United States President Bill Clinton and Ukrainian President Kravchuk signed a tripartite declaration document between the Presidents of Russia, the United States and Ukraine in Moscow, with several main contents:
A Ukraine transports all strategic nuclear weapons on its territory to Russia for destruction;
The United States and Russia respect ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and cannot exert political pressure on Ukraine on the grounds of economic issues;
Three U.S. and Russian will provide security guarantees to Ukraine;
The United States agreed to provide a total of $800 million worth of aid to Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, of which at least $175 million was provided to Ukraine
On March 6, 1994, the first Ukrainian special military train carrying 60 nuclear warheads arrived at the Ural River factory in Russia, which marked that Ukraine was officially on the road to denuclearization.
Before this time, Ukraine was still repeatedly elected president of Ukraine in July 1994, as the world's largest strategic missile production enterprise in the Soviet era, the head of the Southern Machinery Factory Kuchma has a special feeling for nuclear weapons, he has been strongly opposed to Ukraine's abandonment of nuclear weapons after the election of president, Kuzima publicly stated that Ukraine could not ratify the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons before 1995.
A few months later, on November 16, 1994, the Ukrainian "Dokna radda" (Parliament of Ukraine), although ratifying the decree on Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, was in decree. It is clearly stipulated that Ukraine is a "nuclear weapons holder" inherited from the Soviet Union, thus legally stating that Ukraine has the right to acquire nuclear weapons, this annex out of the United States and Russia will explode, the Russian Foreign Ministry on the second day asked Ukraine to explain how many meanings this is, but Kuchma is also powerless, he admitted in his speech in parliament that the production of nuclear weapons under closed conditions, a cycle needs to invest at least 160 billion to 200 billion US dollars, Ukraine simply can not afford
The ukrainian nuclear weapons problem is a microcosm, condensing the relations between Russia and Ukraine at the beginning of independence, that is, the contradictions between the two sides in dealing with the soviet legacy, and the struggle between control and counter-control, and its subsequent influence continues to this day, under the shadow of these contradictions and struggles, Ukraine officially entered the crucial Kuchma era.
Kuzina is the most important president of Ukraine to date, he laid the foundation of the Ukrainian state system, of course, but also for Ukraine to create a large oligarchy, everyone knows that the Ukrainian oligarchy originated from the frenzy of the division of state assets after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the Kravchuk period, the Ukrainian authorities established the competent body responsible for privatization - the Ukrainian State Assets Foundation, which established the first privatization projects, In other words, the first batch of public enterprises that can be leased or purchased by social capital have been established, and a large number of former state-owned enterprise management and government officials have begun to take over public ownership in the name of reform or use their power to establish new companies.
Ukrainian Kuchma era
Ukraine's oligarchic economy began to embark on a stage with the primitive accumulation of capital, which was also called the "non-competitive privatization stage" by some scholars, to put it in layman's terms, this is still a stage of dividing the cake, such a large piece of cake, the elected people have picked up knives and forks like hungry wolves to eat as much as they can scrape, but in the Kuchma period, the big cake is gradually scraped.
Kuchma
According to Kuchma's point of view, the contradictions in all aspects of Ukraine after independence have not been straightened out, and if you want the country to live for a long time to avoid the tragedy of the "Bosnia and Herzegovina War", you can only rely on the so-called "group consensus", what is the group consensus everyone tastes.
From 1995 onwards, Ukraine began the road to state privatization, and until the end of 1998, there were more than 50,000 industries, trade and public food, and enterprises changed the ownership structure, the most notable of which was the privatization of the energy industry in Kuchna.
For example, in 1995, the original state-run natural gas import industry was completely transferred to private companies, making natural gas imports a major source of rapid growth in oligarchic wealth.
Speaking of this, I believe that everyone will be able to come up with a beautiful figure of a "natural gas princess", by 1997, Tymoshenko's unified energy company became the largest customer of Russian natural gas exports in Ukraine, using this rich capital strength, Tymoshenko Group has mastered more than 20 large enterprises, including airlines, banks and media and other fields, which has a huge impact on the international livelihood of Ukraine.
It turned out that these crazy bloodthirsty oligarchs could never form any group consensus, they could only produce group splits, and on October 15, 1995, the donetsk oligarchs and the chairman of the famous football club Shakhartsk Miners, Saudi Gilblazin, were killed along with 6 bodyguards while watching the game in their own box at home.
On October 3, 1996, the head of The Ukrainian financial company Atone, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, Yevgai Sheshirban, was shot dead at Donetsk airport, and the murders were closely related to Ukraine's complex political struggles.
On December 29, 1999, kuzi President Ma issued an executive order on accelerating the privatization of Ukrainian property. As well as measures, the Ukrainian government is accused of accelerating the privatization of state property, which marks the rapid expansion of the Ukrainian oligarchy from the energy trade and financial sectors to metallurgical machinery manufacturing, coal mining and the food sector.
Under fierce competition, different political groups were formed between the various oligarchs in a network of regions or industries, such as the Kiev group founded the Social Democratic Party, the Dnipropetrovsk group created the workers' party, and the Doneesk group formed the regional party.
Ukrainian oligarchs
This table simply lists the chaebols and political agents behind the network of these three oligarchs, and at the same time that the oligarchies have devoted themselves to the political field, Ukraine has begun its own constitutional path.
At that time, there were two main opinions, one was represented by President Kuzima and his supporters, who believed that ukraine's future political system should ensure the supremacy of presidential power, so it should learn from the American system, do not set up the position of prime minister, the president directly leads the government department, and the president has the right to dissolve the parliament, and the interest faction, represented by the opposition party of the Ukrainian parliament, advocates the implementation of a parliamentary system, and limits the power of the president under the quarrels of the forces on both sides.
On June 28, 1996, this difficult constitution finally stumbled to the human world, about the specific content of this constitution, we will talk later, it can be said that the introduction of the 1996 constitution provided a more legal channel for the Ukrainian oligarchs to enter politics, but it did not make the Ukrainian oligarchs stop using illegal means to eliminate the government, even President Kuchma's ass, is very unclean.
According to the law, Ukraine was to hold a presidential election in November 1999, and as early as March, Kuchma's rival Jonoville died suddenly in a car accident, and the relevant evidence showed that this was most likely done by Kuchma himself, and the subsequent presidential election Kuzima was suspected of manipulating the election by controlling the media, threatening officials, distributing money, etc., and the scandal continued.
By September 2000, Gerki Gongadze, a journalist known for his reporting on political corruption in Ukraine, had mysteriously disappeared, and two months later the police found a headless body in the woods, identified as Gerki Gongadze himself.
According to the tape left by Kuchma's bodyguard Maininichenko, Kuchma once ordered his subordinates to do gongarze, the above series of scandals, so that Kuchma's image in the Western media is notorious, the Ukrainian people even launched the "Don't Kuchma Movement", speaking of which, I would like to ask everyone what they think of Kuchma as a person, think he is a Ukrainian sinner or what?
I say a basic fact, don't be shocked, this is such a person, in his presidency, turned out to be the best level of development in Ukraine, what is not the worst, only worse.
Kuchma was able to do this in large part thanks to a flexible diplomatic strategy, which is simple to say that Ukraine should be a bridge between Russia and the European Union, in Kuchma's own words, "Ukraine, as an independent country, did not climb to Russia, but did not run to Europe for the time being." Ukraine stands where she has been standing – between the Carpathians and the Sea of Azov, between Europe and Russia."
During his term of office, Kuchma changed the strategy of former President Kravchuk to embrace the West and instead actively participated in the development of friendly relations with Russia in CIS affairs, and he solved the problem of the stationing of the Black Sea Fleet that plagued Russian-Ukrainian relations at the beginning of his term of office.
On May 30, 1997, the two sides signed a treaty of friendship, cooperation and partnership between Ukraine and Russia, which stipulates that the two sides promised not to participate in the third-party treaty against each other, and in May 2003, Russia and Ukraine signed the Declaration of Strategic Partnership, which marked a new level in relations between the two countries. Under the premise of maintaining macroeconomic stability, realize the free flow of capital and labor in goods and services,
On December 24, 2003, Kuchma and Putin again solved the problem of the demarcation of the border between the Sea of Azov and the Strait of Restraint, under the efforts of Kuchma, Russian-Ukrainian relations reached an unprecedented height, at the same time Kuzima also paid attention to the development of relations with Western countries, in 1997 Ukraine and the European Union reached a strategic goal of integration, which is an important step for Ukraine to actively integrate into Europe, on May 29 of the same year, Ukraine signed a charter with NATO on special relations between Ukraine and NATO, without exaggeration, The Kuchma era was the most relaxed external environment in Ukraine, and despite the high degree of domestic politics and the viciousness of the oligarchy, Ukraine's annual economic growth rate reached 7%.
summary:
However, this development based on corrupt rule is destined to be fragile, a single Spark may detonate the whole situation, and the turmoil in Ukraine's domestic situation will greatly worsen its external environment, and in 2004, Kuchma, who was plagued by the scandal of the Ukrainian election, had to abandon the idea of seeking a third term under pressure from the West and the domestic opposition, and instead supported Prime Minister Yanukovych to participate in the general election, what he did not expect was that a huge political storm was about to hit. This political turmoil directly changed the course of Ukraine's history.
In the end, this is just a transcript of Fu Zheng's video, if you want to watch that video, search for "Comprehensive Review of the History of Ukrainian Losers 1" on the beep station