Ukraine War

An international border was, after all, an international border, not to be violated by a powerful neighbor when it suited his interests. The Helsinki Accords of 1975, signed by Russian and Western leaders, specifically stated that Europe’s borders would henceforth be regarded as “inviolable.” More relevant, perhaps, ever since the Soviet Union and its creaky East European empire disintegrated in late 1991, Russia has signed a string of solemn agreements with the West guaranteeing the “territorial integrity” of all of the newly independent nations in Eastern Europe, those that were formerly component parts of Moscow’s communist empire. Yet, despite these agreements, Putin gobbled up Crimea and, in short order, instigated a pro-Russian rebel in the southeast corner of Ukraine. One felt the chill of a new cold war. For a time, with the demise of the Soviet empire, many of us, in a blush ,hoped that a new dawn in international cooperation was rising, one in which Russia would play a positive role. From Western capitals came well-intentioned invitations to Moscow: opening doors and opportunities to this and that, even to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), constructed, ir