Tony Gosling, a British historian and investigative journalist, referred to the precedent of the Kosovo secession, stressing that when tiny Kosovo decided to break away from Yugoslavia, the United States and its NATO allies unanimously supported the secessionists by launching a full-scale military campaign against Belgrade.
Surprisingly, in a strikingly similar situation in Ukraine, where vast regions with predominantly Russian-speaking population expressed their will to become an independent entity, the West has made every effort to stop these people from breaking away from Kiev.
This illustrates that the West continues to disregard international laws, while pursuing its own geostrategic goals, Tony Gosling pointed out. The historian also was reminded of the Six-Day War of 1967, when the West and the UN did nothing to stop Israel from occupying Palestinian territories.
In the Soviet period the Ukrainian Republic was established as an "artificial" entity, which incorporated large territories, including Crimea, with a predominantly ethnic Russian population. However, these people were not feeling anxious about the future, since most all of them consider themselves Soviet citizens.
At the same time, the journalist pointed out that European governments feel divided on whether to extend the anti-Russian sanctions and have failed to reach a consensus. Tony Gosling noted that US intelligence services had admitted there was no evidence of Russia's involvement in Malaysia's MH17 tragedy, which was supposed one of the main reasons to impose sanctions on Moscow.
In fact, Washington is trying to bully the EU into breaking down all relationships with Russia, the historian said.