Russia has been limited and hampered by the fact that their only port for trade has been on the Arctic Ocean. That has meant that Russia has been able to do international trade for the warm months of the year. Russians have for centuries has wanted a warm water port. The Russian invasion of the Crimea means after many centuries of longing and dreaming Russia at long last has their warm water port.
The Ukrainians are fighting a war hoping to get their borders back to what they were. There is no way on God’s earth that Russia is going to give ip their warm water port. I think they would throw the world back into another World War first. Forget NATO. The USA did not fight to take the Crimean Peninsula. We just imposed a round of sanctions and other penalties. I think the sanctions would have worked better if the sanctions had hurt Putin’s personal wealth rather than the general Russian economy.
If the west would accept the reality of Russia hanging on to their warm water port could an agreement be reached where Russia got it’s port and access to the port, Ukraine got back a substantial part of Easter Ukraine with out winning it by war. Could Ukraine have working economic relation ship Russia and Western Europe.
It is possible. In matters of the Space Station cooperation benefited Russia and the USA to work together. The issue is not could it be but could we work on reducing completion between the East and the West and work to develop cooperation.
There goes impractical naive George dreaming again. Maybe be so but maybe another endless war with the possibility of a horrid expanding war is the the alternative. What seems so obvious to me to me is our current methodology has zero chance of working.
Could the future be forty years from now the East and the west working together to help poor developing countries. When I was at Union Rescue Mission of Los Angeles I was asked if homelessness could be addressed. I answered Yes but not with any ides I could suggest. I just think God is ion the side of those who were trying to impact homelessness therefore any thing was possible if we had the faith to believe. I think of moving mountains in this regard.
I think of nations beating their swords into Plowshares. Peace on earth is a viable option because God has long since said it is what she/he wants. However impractical this appears to those of us who have become naturalists I believe in miracles. I am one. When I consider what God has given me after the harshness and immorality of the way I was I was raised I have lived a miracle so I believe in them. I refuse to believe in hopelessness.
George Caywood 