A bigger and disturbing social and political script is being written in Ukraine. It has the ingredients for a gripping climax, but one that may come about after blood has been spilt on the streets of Kiev and its regions. This scenario must be avoided at all costs as the country spirals into a vortex of anarchy.
Ordinary Ukrainians currently spend too much time looking behind their backs for the enemy to creep up. In actual fact, the adversary is standing right across the street, unseen, unheard, but waiting to strike at the state’s vital organs.
The plot in the Ukraine will get muddled as different side shows are being played out by separatists, nationalists and oligarchs as the date for this fractured country’s presidential elections draws near on May 25. There is, however, another contestant who lurks amongst the fringes of this turmoil: the radicals on the ground. They owe their allegiance to no one, but they are more detrimental to the welfare of the state.
Agendas are diverse, there is no cohesion, or discipline, in parliament and this is what bears down on the stuttering functions of the state. Russia’s separatists want to disable Kiev’s authority while nationalists seek more control amidst fears that the Kremlin is gnawing away at their authority and territories, by stoking Russian patriotism. Putin is hoping that Kiev will bear down heavily on separatists as this will give him the excuse that he is looking for — to intervene on a larger scale by playing the patriotic card.
While the Ukrainian question has now dominated the agendas of the bigger global powers the manoeuvres of lurking extremists cannot be predicted or controlled. The history in the region suggests that there is enough potential for breakaway states and militant organisations to stoke the fires of internal unrest in order to accomplish their schemes.
Neither Kiev nor the Kremlin can achieve their goals in the face of further polarisation. The ordinary Ukrainian, however, has become the sacrificial lamb in this madness.
