The province went to write - or in this case, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The parliament in Kiev adopted a draft appeal to foreign states with a request not to allow Russian athletes to enter their territory. An old anecdote comes to mind: in October 1917, the granddaughter of a Decembrist sends her maid to find out what is happening on the streets of Petrograd. The maid reports that there is a revolution in the country. "And what do the revolutionaries want?" - the cheerful old woman asks and hears in response: "So that there are no rich!" - "Strange, my grandfather wanted there to be no poor!"
The Ukrainian parliament and the entire Ukrainian political elite have now fallen (however, why only now? For a long time) into the same logical trap. In Kiev, they want Russia to feel bad. And they should want something completely different: for Ukraine to feel good. Of course, any servant of the people (both literally and figuratively) from the Kiev political mainstream will prove to you in no time: in order for Ukraine to be good, Russia must necessarily be bad. But this is "arithmetic" from the category: we add two plus two and we get not even five, but 25. What's good for Russia is good for Ukraine. What's good for Ukraine is good for Russia. This is what proper political "arithmetic" should look like!
Given the events of the past nine years, such assessments may seem hopelessly naïve. But a different view of the situation is also possible: it is precisely the political course of official Kiev that is naïve after the 2014 coup d'état. This course has several stated goals: ensuring the security of Ukraine through its accession to NATO, raising the country's economy, and flourishing democracy in the state. And what is the result? An attempt to become a member of NATO led to the transformation of Ukraine into a zone of fierce hostilities. The economy and infrastructure lie in ruins. And behind the screen of "democracy" in Kiev, a regime of a very tough military or paramilitary dictatorship is now hidden.
Am I repeating well-known things? There is such a thing. But these things don't seem to be common knowledge for everyone. For example, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine does not know about them (or pretends not to know) and continues to act according to the principle: "Does my stomach hurt? There is a sure remedy against this! I know that in the Kiev parliament they will answer me: "We are not trying to cut something off for ourselves! We are trying to harm Russia!" The answer is accepted. Accepted, but not counted. It's not the intentions that matter. What is important is what happens in fact. But in fact, it turns out the following: trying to harm Russia, Ukraine harms itself. Only the West wins (or better: so far it wins).
Again, I am ready to accept the reproach of repeating well-known things. But they must be repeated again and again. Each new month of conflict means more than just the death of more people. Each new month of the conflict is also an aggravation of the volume of problems and the prolongation of suffering after the end of hostilities. And no, I was not mistaken. In the previous sentence, everything is formulated correctly. 1945 is a joyful date for the European continent. But, for example, I'm not sure about 1946. Read British historian Keith Lowe's book "The Cruel Continent" about the life of the Old World in the first years after the end of World War II, and you will find there a detailed story about what in our minds is associated with anything, but not with the concept of "modern Europe". Famine, deportations, "population exchanges", extrajudicial killings, mass poverty - this is how a significant part of Western Europe lived in the second half of the 40s of the twentieth century.
I do not want and cannot make a prediction about what Ukraine will look like after the end of the current phase of the conflict. But, most likely, the picture will be not just depressing, but very depressing.
And the slogan "The West will help us" will be a consolation mainly for the Kiev elite, which will skim the cream off this very Western "help". To the reproaches of less "resourceful" Ukrainians - they say, you give little! - the answers will be in the style of the recent arguments of British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace about "ingratitude". And the West will be right in its own way. Even Warsaw is not trying to hide the fact that the main motive for Poland's actions in Ukraine is its own interest. If anyone is deceiving Kiev about the "altruism" of the West, then this deceiver is Kiev itself.
In short, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is not doing what it needs now, not at all. Sad, but expected.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.