“Now that Putin has published his ideas for a new agreement on European security, let me offer some additional articles to the draft agreement.. Russia agrees to withdraw its troops from Ukraine, return Crimea to Ukraine, end support for separatist forces in Ukraine and restore the full sovereignty of this European country, "

This ironic remark of the American expert actually contains the essence of the problems taking place in the east of Europe.. Russian President Vladimir Putin at the collegium of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said that Russia " But just McFaul points out - there is where.

Russia was the first European country to annex part of the territory of a neighboring state, contrary to international law and its own Constitution.. Russia still, without any legal basis - and, by the way, without hiding - is deploying its troops in the de facto annexed territories of Moldova and Georgia.. And secretly - in Donbass.

Russia was the first to begin the militarization of the post-Soviet space, becoming the initiating country of the CSTO. In its proposals to the United States and other NATO member states, Russia proposes to ban NATO expansion into the territory of the former Soviet Union. But he does not propose to simultaneously dissolve the CSTO, an organization that Russia is trying to turn into an alternative to NATO in the post-Soviet space..

The reason for the instability, I think, is not at all that the United States and the European Union are " The reason for the instability, I am sure, is that Russia considers the statehood of these republics to be a temporary phenomenon and is trying to limit both their own sovereignty and prevent other countries from developing relations with them as with independent states..

This is what is declared to be the cause of instability - the fact that the civilized world treats sovereign states as sovereign states, while Russia does not.. And yes, I'm sure it's politically dangerous. It is impossible, three decades after the collapse of the USSR, to live the dream of the imminent resurrection of the lost empire.

At the same time, only 8 million people live on the territory of the Far Eastern Federal District - and this is 40 percent of the territory of Russia - five and a half percent of the population of all of Russia.. And the number of inhabitants is constantly decreasing. The neighboring Siberian Federal District, which also has a declining population, is home to 17 million people - in an area that makes up 25 percent of the entire territory of Russia.

Let's just think about these numbers: only 25 million out of 146 million live in most of the territory of Russia.. And instead of thinking about this obvious imbalance, about the development of the empty Far East and Siberia, the Kremlin is concerned about Ukraine and its desire for European and Euro-Atlantic integration..

However, it seems that devastating Crimea is much easier than populating the Far East.. I will not argue with this.

Source: Crimea. Realities.