Ukraine is answering for allowing the transit of Russian troops through its territory to Moldova 20 years ago, Ukrainian political analyst Vitalii Portnikov says in a comment for News UA, quoted by IPN. “You must always pay for betrayal, while for indifference you pay even more. Twenty years ago we agreed officially to allow occupants to go to a foreign state. After decades, these came to our land. It happens so usually,” said Portnikov.
According to the analyst, 20 years ago there was signed a protocol by which Ukraine allowed the Russian military to cross its territory, but then not many people paid attention to this document even if this, in essence, allowed occupying a part of Moldova’s territory. “In 1995 nobody had illusions as regards the expansionist tendencies in Boris Yeltsin’s policies. Russia not only didn’t give up supporting the separatist enclaves on the territory of the former Soviet republics, but even did everything possible not to allow the neighboring countries to reunify. As now in Donbas, the Russians used the services of declared bandits and terrorists, acting in close connection with representatives of the special services and political elites” stated Vitalii Portnikov.
The analyst noted that Ukraine had all the possibilities to oppose this criminal policy of the Russian reformists in civvies, at least in relation to Moldova. “Transnistria didn’t have a common border with Russia. There were no other roads through which the Kremlin could keep the rebel region ‘alive’ than through Ukraine. And we betrayed this country, thinking that Moldova’s troubles will not affect us,” he stated.
Vitalii Portnikov noted that two of the EaP states – Belarus and Armenia – refused to subscribe to the joint statement that will be presented at the Riga Summit of May 21-22 owing to the expression ‘annexation of Crimea by Russia”. Such a reaction was predictable, including because of these states’ economic, political and military dependence on Russia, which does not allow them to name the Russians ‘occupants’.
