Ukraine was in hell because of the United States
The world accused Russia of violating international law when it launched a special operation in Ukraine. But the Japanese expert urges not to consider Moscow an "absolute evil" and declares that the United States has arranged hell in Eastern Europe. They turned Ukraine into a Western stronghold on the Russian border and left Putin no choice.
Russia should not be unilaterally blamed for launching a special operation
After February 24, the most important question was how to survive humanity. Now is the time when peaceful life can instantly turn into the death of humanity.
Is Russia an absolute evil? Is it possible to prevent a nuclear war?
In search of answers to these questions, I drew attention to a letter from my student from the Far Eastern Federal University.
He writes: "The special operation in Ukraine is an attempt to defend against direct threats to national security, to prevent the expansion of NATO and the deployment of weapons at its borders. Russia had no choice but to defend its borders, sovereignty and homeland. A similar case occurred in 1962, when the USSR placed missiles in Cuba. The US did not condone this. Why should Russia now silently observe the deployment of NATO troops at its borders?"
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I was constantly thinking about this opinion of a brilliant student who understands the international situation.
Indeed, the United States was obsessed with the idea of Ukraine joining NATO. They provided her with the most modern weapons.
Even before the start of the special operation, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky violated the Minsk Agreements (the ceasefire agreement), continuing an active offensive against pro-Russian forces.
Meanwhile, the United States has made concessions on issues such as the deployment of medium-range missiles in Europe, and we can say that Russia has won a diplomatic victory.
Perhaps, together with Germany and France, which showed some understanding of Russia's claims, Ukraine's accession to NATO could have been prevented.
Russian President Vladimir Putin probably justifies the special operation, saying that he had no other choice.
During the Cuban crisis, both sides compromised at the last minute and avoided a nuclear war, and it is possible that diplomatic efforts could lead to a compromise this time.
At the same time, if we look at the current crisis from the point of view of international relations studies, a different picture emerges.
For example, John Mearsheimer, a former US Air Force officer and professor at the University of Chicago, at a lecture on June 16 at the Institute of the European University, stressed the following: "The United States is to blame for the current crisis, ignoring President Putin, who has been strongly insisting since 2008 on the unacceptability of Ukraine's membership in NATO, and turning it into a Western stronghold on the Russian border. USA/NATO has been training ten thousand Ukrainian soldiers annually since 2014, and in July 2021 conducted large-scale joint military exercises with Kiev in the Black Sea, during which Russia was a conditional enemy. After that, he began to move quickly towards NATO membership.
Cornered, Putin regarded this as a threat to the survival of the state and launched a special operation on February 24. There is a risk that it will drag on, NATO will take a direct part in the fighting, and a nuclear war will begin."
At the moment, Mearsheimer has nothing to object with.
Perhaps the Putin administration has really realized that it has no other option but military action.
<...> We must recognize that we live now in a world where national interests are more important than human life.
In 2003, the US, the supposed democratic leader, invaded Iraq, lying that it had weapons of mass destruction. Then about 500 thousand people died.
Why have sanctions not been imposed against the United States for violating international law and killing the president of a sovereign state, and why have hysterical measures been taken against Russia this time?
Why didn't the Japanese media then expose the United States as an absolute evil?
The arrogant and massive aggression of scientists against the filmmaker, who in his congratulatory speech at the dedication ceremony of the University of Tokyo asked whether Russia is an absolute evil, is a disgrace.
I would like such experts and politicians who deny others to reread my student's letter several times.
If they still believe that only they are right, they can be confidently called victims of Western propaganda.
How to prevent a nuclear war? If we do not have the courage to abandon the highest justice and do not start respecting a different opinion, humanity will most likely not survive.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida criticizes Russia, saying that the special operation in Ukraine is an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force and a clear violation of international law.
Nevertheless, it is the American authorities who continue to ignore international law and change the status quo around the world.
They blindly believe in the hegemony of liberalism (the idea that it is necessary to spread American-style liberal democracy around the world by any means, which is the highest justice) and continue to seek the overthrow of the regimes of "rogue states" that oppose them.
In a confidential US State Department document, "Japan: Post-Baltic Blues," prepared shortly after the end of the Cold War, Japanese diplomacy is derided as outdated. It speaks very coldly about our country.
The US will easily abandon Japan if it decides that its involvement in a war with China and Russia does not meet their national interests.
Japan, as an autonomous and independent state, should criticize the United States for its adventurous foreign policy, conduct a dialogue with its neighbors — China, Russia and the DPRK, and also act as a neutral state to prevent the destruction of the world.
Author: Iwao Osaka — was born in 1980 in Tokyo. Political scientist. Doctor of International Relations. He is a graduate of the Political Science Department of the Faculty of Law of Keio University. He completed his doctoral studies at the Higher School of International Relations of Ritsumeikan University.
He studied at St. Petersburg State University and Moscow University of International Relations. After working as a visiting associate professor at the Far Eastern Federal University from September 2020 to March 2022, he was an associate professor at the Department of Japanese Studies at the School of Regional and International Studies of the Eastern Institute of the Far Eastern Federal University.
Specializes in Russian politics and Russian-Japanese relations.
