To stop Russian expansionism, take away the excuse for it

by | Sep 3, 2008 | Europe and Central Asia

I’ve argued before that if the West wants to stop Russian expansionism, it has to take away the excuse for that expansionism – the oppression of Russian citizens in former colonies like Georgia, Ukraine or the Baltics. This oppression is real, and as long as it exists, as long as the EU isn’t really pro-active in protecting the rights of Russian citizens outside of Russia, then Russia will use this as an excuse for its military sorties.

An interesting historical parallel for this strategy was drawn to my attention today. It turns out that, during the Great Game of the 18th and 19th century, the Russian empire used exactly the same strategy, using the excuse of Russian slaves in central Asia as an excuse to invade the khanates of Khiva and Bukhara and extend the borders of the Russian empire.

The British empire, realizing what Russia was up to, dispatched two secret agents to the khan of Khiva, in what is now Uzbekistan, to persuade him to release all his Russian slaves, which he did, thus removing the excuse for Russian aggression.

You can read about the incident here.

Whoa!

by | Sep 3, 2008 | North America

There’s brave. Then there’s Alaska brave:

The boyfriend of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s unwed, pregnant daughter will join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Levi Johnston’s mother said her 18-year-old son left Alaska on Tuesday morning to join the Palin family at the convention where Sen. John McCain will officially receive the Republican nomination for president. The boy’s mother, Sherry Johnston, said there had been no pressure put on her son to marry 17-year-old Bristol Palin and the two teens had made plans to wed before it was known she was pregnant.

“This is just a bonus,” Johnston said.

She took the words right out of John McCain’s mouth, I’m sure.

UPDATE: curse my cynicism.  McCain stands by his fellow maverick!

This image will probably reassure the pro-life lobby that the candidate is very, very committed to defending the unborn.  But after Barack Obama sportingly declared that he’d stay out of Palin family affairs, should Mr. McCain be getting involved?