World War 3: Vladimir Putin Threatening Ukraine and Europe, But Thousands of Russians Protesting

Zachary Stieber
9/28/2014
Updated:
9/29/2014

Tens of thousands of Russians are displeased over president Vladimir Putin’s recent actions, including the fighting in Ukraine.

Putin recently threatened European governments, claiming that Russia could invade many capitals--including Kiev, Warsaw, and Bucharest--in just two days, while Russia allegedly continues supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

Russia’s actions in and around Ukraine have brought increasing amounts of attention and action, especially after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was allegedly shot down by pro-Russian separatists. But while many believe that a majority of Russians are supportive of attacking Ukraine, there’s also apparently many against them.

Many Russians took to the streets of Moscow this past week, with unofficial figures counting tens of thousands.

Boris Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister who helped organize the march, said via Facebook that that march “had a very important psychological effect.”

“Supporters all over the world saw each other and it turned out that there’s a lot of us! It brings strength, and faith in our victory,” he said.

He added that the anti-war movement is “serious” and includes tens of thousands of “educated, free” people who have been “marginalized” by Putin.

Smoke rises after shelling near the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that the crisis in Ukraine was the result of a coup d'etat in that country supported by the United States and the European Union. He made no mention of Western allegations that Russia has sent troops and heavy weapons into eastern Ukraine in support of pro-Russian rebels who have taken over a number of cities. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Smoke rises after shelling near the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that the crisis in Ukraine was the result of a coup d'etat in that country supported by the United States and the European Union. He made no mention of Western allegations that Russia has sent troops and heavy weapons into eastern Ukraine in support of pro-Russian rebels who have taken over a number of cities. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

 

A member of the Ukrainian government forces, who is a prisoner-of-war, watches a Pro-Russian rebel through the window of a bus, near the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
A member of the Ukrainian government forces, who is a prisoner-of-war, watches a Pro-Russian rebel through the window of a bus, near the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

 

A Ukrainian soldier stands guard at a road during prisoner exchange near the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
A Ukrainian soldier stands guard at a road during prisoner exchange near the town of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

“Putin’s freaks could not even muster deceitful propaganda to derail the march,” he said. The protesters chanted “No Putin, no war! Russia without Putin, a world without war!”

Meanwhile, an important distinction between actions was highlighted in a poll late last month of 1,600 adults in Russia. It showed that many Russians believe supporting pro-Russian separatists is not the same as going to war with Ukraine.

“The perception among Russians that the country is principally providing support to the separatists and has not entered the war itself is an important one,” reported the Pew Research Center.

“The public is split on whether they would support the Kremlin in the event of open military conflict with Ukraine: 41 percent say yes, 43 percent say no, while 16 percent are unsure. And, the share of Russians prepared to back the government in the event of war with Ukraine has fallen dramatically from this past spring, when seven-in-ten or more in March and May (74 percent and 69 percent, respectively) said they would back such intervention.”

Also, most Russians said in a different poll that the main reason they thought the new Ukrainian government was seeking to distance itself from Russia and draw closer to Europe, was that “Ukraine had become a puppet in the hands of the West and U.S.A., who are pursuing an anti-Russian policy.”

See an Associated Press update below.

Russian FM issues blistering attack on US, NATO

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, of Russia, delivers his address the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

UNITED NATIONS—The Russian foreign minister issued a blistering attack on the West and NATO on Saturday, accusing them of being unable to change their Cold War “genetic code” and saying the United States must abandon its claims to “eternal uniqueness.”

Sergey Lavrov’s assault appeared to be an extension of the increasingly anti-Western stance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is riding a wave of popularity at home with his neo-nationalist rhetoric and policies.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, Lavrov said the crisis in Ukraine was the result of a coup d'etat in that country backed by the United States and the European Union for the purpose of pulling Kiev out of its “organic role as a binding link” between East and West, denying it the opportunity for “neutral and non-bloc status.”

Lavrov also said the Russian annexation of Crimea earlier this year was the choice of the largely Russian-speaking population there. Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred control over the strategic Black Sea region to Ukraine from Moscow in the 1950s.

While the rhetoric was tough, Andrew Weiss, a top Russia expert at the Carnegie Foundation, said the Lavrov speech “hewed closely to themes the Russians have put forward throughout the Ukrainecrisis.”

Immediately before Lavrov spoke, the German foreign minister said Russia’s actions to retake Crimea were a crime.

“Russia has, with its annexation of Crimea, unilaterally changed existing borders in Europe and thus broke international law,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in his address to the world body. He spent considerable time speaking about what the West sees as Russian meddling in Ukraine, a nation on the verge of bankruptcy after a series of corrupt post-independence regimes.

Lavrov made no mention of Western allegations that Russia has sent troops and heavy weapons into eastern Ukraine in support of pro-Russian rebels there who have taken over a number of key industrial cities after the ouster of former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich. His departure followed months of demonstrations against his corrupt rule.

Russia routinely denies its forces are involved.

Lavrov rejected that Western economic sanctions would cause Russia to reverse course on the issue ofUkraine.

“Attempts to put pressure on Russia and to compel it to abandon its values, truth and justice have no prospects whatsoever,” Lavrov said.

The regime has been using the sanctions in a propaganda drive to build support at home, creating anger against the U.S. and Europe as a distraction from the pain that Russia’s citizens absorb from the punitive measures.

The Kremlin’s growing anger with the United States and Western Europe springs from long-standing and bitter complaints over the past two decades about NATO expansion into former Soviet satellite nations in Eastern Europe and some Baltic nations, once Soviet republics. Lavrov insisted Russia was promised, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, that the expansion would not occur.

There now is a cease-fire, though routinely violated, in eastern Ukraine. Lavrov and other Russian officials now say they believe a settlement is possible, given the wobbly cease-fire and new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s decision to delay implementation of the country’s economic association agreement with the European Union.

But, Lavrov said, the Ukraine crisis should be a lesson to Washington and NATO against trying to break “the deep-rooted and fraternal ties between the two peoples” of Russia and Ukraine.