Wednesday, February 04, 2009

The fateful line for the West

In recent time, I have been blogging exclusively about Bulgarian and personal matters, neglecting international affairs (except the most vital ones such as shoe-throwing). Let me now just translate a small section of the article Ukraine - the fateful line for the West, by Vadim Belotserkovsky. It was published in last week's issue of Pro & Anti and is available online here. The author is a former Russian dissident, now human rights activist.
"What is most important here, and what I think must be said in a loud voice, is that Europe - and, in a broader sense, the West - is now standing at the fateful line. It is marked by the wars between Russia and Georgia, between Israel and Hamas and between Russia and Ukraine (the latter one is just a gas war, yet). In front of this line, the West must decide: How far are democratic countries allowed to go in appeasing the destroyers of the world? For how long may democracies apply double standards in their approach to big and small countries, to aggressors and their victims? What more is needed for Western politicians and nations to realize with whom they are dealing?"

2 comments:

programmer craig said...

Thanks for translating that, Maya. I hate to say it, but I think there are bad things coming your (Europe's) way. I don't know any European politicians, but the impression I get from what Europeans say on blogs is that opinion is split... some people think there are no threats to European stability and that anyone who thinks otherwise is worthy of ridicule, and others think that NATO is sufficient to stave off such threats. Nobody seems very realistic about it. And that's alarming.

Maya M said...

Thank you! I fully agree.