Ukraine today, China tomorrow

Sergei Yastrzhembsky, a top Putin aide for EU matters, complained that new EU members - with their Solidarity movements and Velvet Revolutions - have helped to export street anarchy to Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries. The new EU members jumped from a Communist yesterday to a hyper-democratic today but got no schooling in political maturity or tolerance and kept their complexes, esp. their Russophobia, he said. He suggested that Russia might move eastward if it's cut off from its near-abroad. Speaking in India a few days later, Putin accused George W. Bush of wrapping dictatorship in democratic-sounding words. President Václav Klaus told Czech Radio (belatedly) that he has never visited Ukraine, because he didn't want to give legitimacy to the regime. For better or for worse, if Russia falls into China's or India's arms, the CR will have played a role in it. Czech Republic Soviet Union United States of America