Well Flieger, that's the opinion of part of the Ukrainians.
The problem is that the remaining Ukrainian population still believes in Russia. The current leadership has not been elected by the people, they are the result of a coup, hence are as bad as their predecessor. By giving them the power, the remaining pro-Russian population is under threat and the risk is civil war.
So I think that Russia is doing a good thing by protecting the pro-Russian population, the same way the new regime will protect, the pro-West population through its military.
source:reuters
IMO those pro-European rebels think that they would be better off being part of Europe, when none of Europe is better off being part of Europe... wherever we go in Europe, dirty buildings, misery, hate, poverty, no money, no jobs.
Russia has granted Ukraine independence before. They have also provided continued support to its military but also to the large industry. Think about Antonov for instance.
In the same period of time, Europe and the U.S. had all the possibilities to provide support to Ukraine.
But has any European airline bought a single Antonov aircraft? The answer is no. So it would be easy to take over Ukraine, shed Ukrainian blood and claim the country as being part of Europe, but will we be able to support them afterwards, when we can't even take care for the current countries inside the EU?
I remind you, this is a huge country in deep poverty, worse than Romania and Bulgaria.
I think that Ukraine would be better off by itself. A modernised political system would help rebuild its industry. Ukrainians are highly educated and have huge farmland to harvest, as sales of farmland is prohibited in Ukraine. In September 2013, a Chinese consortium tried to lease/buy a huge portion of their farmland but it was blocked by the government.
If the Ukrainian youth want to do something, they need to work for it, and not expect that a few weeks of violent demonstrations on the streets are going to make it any better. All the youth want to do nowadays is work in ICT and office jobs palying on computers, but in a poor country you first need a stable primary sector before you can start to build the secundary sector.
How it relates to Belgium?
Well, if we want to resolve this kind of conflicts more diplomatically in the future, Belgium has to set the example for the rest of the EU, by getting closer to Russia through trade and cooperation. Allienating oneselves will not be in anyone's interest... except for the Americans who will sell us more arms that we don't need, at a price we can't afford.
If Belgium wants to stay on top of the EU project that it has pushed, it has to behave as a modern open-minded, quasi-neutral financial and political entity that pushes for the interest of Belgium first, the EU second, the world third.
NATO is a tool created against the Russians. It works on a "friend or foe" basis.
NATO is also a barrier for trade... as proven here, NATO membership impedes closer ties with Russia.
I think that Russia represents a larger interest for Europe than the United States, both economically (natural resource imports and export of finished goods such as cars) and politically (future relations between Europe and China/India, etc..)
Hence military alliances should not be mixed with trade alliances IMO.
Many EU countries are not part of NATO, they only help as partners.
I see NATO more as a problem to Belgium than any form of support. Belgium has spent billions being part of NATO, while there has been no return on the investment. Sure we have the headquarters here, but isn't that a liability in the first place? If any country would go to war against NATO, the first place they would nuke is the NATO headquarters...
Belgium will not buy or build the PAK FA, ever.
But that doesn't mean that we should triumph on that. The loss will be all ours.
In 20 years, this country will be in ruins with no national airlines, no maritime industry, no automobile industry, no aerospace industry, no chemical industry, no energy nor telecom industry as foreign companies start to settle and grow, no land to harvest, hospitals filled with incompetent doctors and nurses, an old population, crumbling pre-war brick buildings and the old same political debate between the North and the South.