What does Moscow want?

The Ukraine crisis eventually revealed Russia’s goals and intentions. Only this large-scale aggression by Moscow against its neighbor Ukraine forced the world to open its eyes over the Kremlin’s ambitions, which have become a real headache for the former Soviet Union countries.

According to Moscow, the entire neighborhood should adhere to Russian conditions, otherwise economic sanctions, ethnic conflicts and military intervention will be used as punitive measures for disobedient countries.

The world has to ask once and for all: what does Moscow want? The next crucial question is whether Russia’s neighbors will have a chance to live peacefully on their own territories or not?

Famous political analyst Zbignev Bzhezinsky highlighted certain directions of Russian geo-political approaches.

He believes that Russian policy is based on aggression that is wrapped-up in the idea of protecting Russian citizens everywhere around the world. The analyst also stressed that Russia has significant pretensions on former Soviet Union republics.

Russia is using various approaches in this context. For instance, in terms of Georgia, Russia is providing the idea of uniting South Ossetia with North Ossetia, which is being controlled by Russia. Concerning Ukrainian territory of Crimea Moscow used the slogan that Crimea was a historical part of Russia.

As for Eastern Ukraine, there is an ethnic Russian population who are being used by Russia for its own interests.

There are ethnic Russian people in Kazakhstan, as well as in Latvia and Estonia.

In fact, Russia considers the former Soviet Union states as a Russian zone of influence. Moscow sees clearly that Russian power over those countries is becoming weaker gradually.

Thus, the current Russian leadership is trying to maintain the previous influence through a forcible way and bring the countries back under the Russian umbrella.

Moscow wishes to recover its past glory by means of the Eurasian Union as well. Putin wants to see all the post-Soviet countries in the union.

Therefore, he opposes the membership of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine in the EU and NATO. Signing the Association Agreement with the EU was a crucial decision in distancing Georgia from Russian influence.

The battle in Ukraine is the battle of evil against good. The evil Soviet Union has been transformed into Russia and the West should be very attentive not to lose the battle.