Here's what Obama should do about the Ukraine protests: Nothing
Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor
Things are getting hot in Ukraine's capital. After more than two weeks of growing, mostly peaceful protests — a statue of Vladimir Lenin was destroyed last weekend — riot police stormed into the heart of the anti-government demonstrations Tuesday night, clearing much of the protest camp in Kiev's Independence Square with the help of heavy machinery. The protests resumed as soon as the police withdrew.
Earlier, President Viktor Yanukovych — the focus of the protests — had met with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and other Western diplomats seeking to defuse the crisis. The spark for the mass demonstrations was Yanukovych's decision to scrap a free-trade agreement with the EU that he'd pledged to sign, and his signaling that he would join a Russian-led trade bloc instead. Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened punishing sanctions if Ukraine finalizes the EU deal.
The Western diplomats were not pleased with the overnight crackdown. Neither were the protest leaders. "We won't forgive this," said Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a protest organizer and opposition leader in parliament. Yanukovych just "spit in the face of America, EU countries, and 46 million Ukrainians," he added.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
There's a lot at stake in this standoff between the Russia-leaning Yanukovych and the EU-aspiring protesters. It has increasingly become a proxy battle between an interventionist Russia and the eastward-creeping European Union. Russia has the cheap natural gas Ukraine relies on; Europe has the type of economic and political systems many Ukrainians want to emulate.
It's hard for the U.S. to refrain from throwing itself into a popular protest seeking greater freedom, especially when that freedom involves diminishing the heavy-handed influence of Vladimir Putin's Russia — home to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, protector of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, quasher of gay rights, and, of course, longtime Cold War arch-rival.
Already, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed strong U.S. "disgust" at the crackdown on nonviolent protesters. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who was in Kiev before and during the police raid, issued a more nuanced statement saying the police action was "absolutely impermissible in a European state, in a democratic state," but leaving the door open if Yanukovych wants to cut a deal "to save Ukraine's European future."
And as The Nation's Bob Dreyfuss notes, "the neoconservative anti-Russia lobby" is pushing hard to turn this into the second coming of 2004's Orange Revolution, "a good-vs.-evil struggle of titanic, Manichean proportions."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
But President Obama should seriously consider leaving this fight to Europe.
First of all, the U.S. already has its plate full, diplomatically speaking: Iran is the prime example, but the Obama team is also trying to get something going in the stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks, smooth Saudi Arabia's ruffled feelings, figure out how to handle increasingly authoritarian Egypt, push back against China's claim of expansive sovereign air space, weather the constant crisis-in-waiting that is North Korea, and fight a thousand other little fires. If the Europeans can handle this, let them.
With the U.S. in a particularly isolationist mood, there's no political upside to getting involved in another foreign spat — even one against the remnants of the Evil Empire. Conservative hawks might be pushing for it, but that's not where the energy of the Republican Party is — remember how well Obama's push to slap Russian-aligned Syria went?
And finally, and most importantly, robust U.S. involvement would likely backfire. The U.S. does and should want Ukraine to move into Western Europe's orbit. But if the U.S. takes the role of "leading the Western charge, Moscow would regard it is a particularly dangerous geopolitical challenge," says the Brooking Institution's Steven Pifer:
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
When families cross the aisle against presidential candidates
In The Spotlight Tim Walz's cousins, Donald Trump's niece and nephew, RFK Jr.'s siblings: When it comes to running for office, blood is not necessarily thicker than water
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Boeing's Starliner to come home empty
Speed Read Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore will return on a SpaceX spacecraft in February
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Hunter Biden pleads guilty to tax charges
Speed Read In an unexpected move, President Joe Biden's son pleads guilty to tax fraud and avoids a trial
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
A brief history of third parties in the US
In Depth Though none of America's third parties have won a presidential election, they have nonetheless had a large impact on the country's politics
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Biden, Trump urge calm after assassination attempt
Speed Reads A 20-year-old gunman grazed Trump's ear and fatally shot a rally attendee on Saturday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Supreme Court rejects challenge to CFPB
Speed Read The court rejected a conservative-backed challenge to the way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published