An Iranian university professor and expert on international affairs says the incursion of Russian troops into Ukraine can be analyzed through historical and cultural factors.
In an interview with Radio Goftogoo, Dr. Rahmat Hajimineh said that Russia regards NATO’s expansionist policies and Ukraine’s bid to join it as a threat to its security.
He said three factors should be taken into consideration for analyzing of such a political phenomenon: The reason for doing something; the cause or causes for it; and the consequences or aftermaths for that particular act.
“For the first factor, which is the reason, Russians point to the atrocities against Ukrainians of Russian stock in the eastern parts of Ukraine, as well as breach of the Minsk Accord by the Ukrainian government and its attempts to join NATO”, said Professor Hajimineh.
He added, “The second factor, that is, the cause, is based on historical and cultural links in view of the fact, the Russians and the Ukrainians share a common ancestry and ethnically both are Slavs. Culturally these two nations share strong bonds with each other, while in eastern Ukraine there is a significant Russian population.”
Hajimineh further said: “Certainly, without a historical perspective, it is not possible to examine the relations between the two countries. Even the Russian attack should be analyzed from this angle. Russian President Vladimir Putin in an article had also mentioned about the deep historical and cultural ties between Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.”
Analyzing the current situation in Ukraine through a geopolitical perspective, he said: “After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, we saw the formation of 15 new republics. Although the end of the Soviet Union was without bloodshed, now after two decades of the collapse and due to geopolitical factors, violence has dominated in the region.”
Regarding the collapse of USSR and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the Iranian expert said: “By exploiting the situation, NATO started its expansionist policies, while member states re-defined new goals and missions to the extent that they tried to introduce it as a military arm of the United Nations.”
The Russians, however, he noted, “view NATO’s presence on their borders as a threat to their national security. Their position was strengthened on the international arena in recent years, and this was due to their positive role in the crisis created by the West in Syria, where on the official request of the Syrian government, Russia curbed the violence created by the Western-backed terrorists.”
Professor Hajimineh concluded: “Russia, prior to its launching of the military strike on Ukraine, had over the recent years considerably increased its domestic reserves, calculating that the only US-European reaction to such an attack would be some new sanctions on Russia. Thus, in view of Putin's personality which influences the decisions, the Russians took the step of attacking Ukraine, after analyzing the economic, cultural, historical and geopolitical factors.”
