Author: Tang Bohu
Not long ago, former Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Omelyan stated in an interview with the American “Political News Network” that if Ukraine wins, the United States and its allies will receive Russian natural resources as compensation.
He said, “If Ukraine wins, the United States will receive Russian oil, natural gas, diamonds, and fur in return. And if Ukraine loses, it’s not about money, but about the life and death of the West.”
Omelyan’s statement was in response to recent U.S. aid legislation for Ukraine. Republicans in the U.S. Congress recently proposed an idea to convert one-fifth of the $60 billion in aid to Ukraine into loans, which is still under discussion within the Republican Party.
However, Ukraine can’t wait any longer. From internal discussions to becoming legislation passed by Congress, it will take at least several months, but the Russian military on the front lines won’t wait.
Indeed, Ukraine has no other choice, so it has come up with this plan to suggest “dividing Russian natural resources” to attract Americans and the West, evoking memories of the division feast 30 years ago after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Of course, the West is not easily fooled. Compared to distant benefits, they are more concerned about immediate issues—the $300 billion in Russian overseas assets that the West still dares not touch, only giving Ukraine the interest generated, indicating that they still have many concerns.
Targeting Russia’s land and its natural resources, Ukraine’s idea may be naive, but from another perspective, we have to say that similar ideas are not unique to Ukraine. Many neighboring countries of Russia actually have such ideas, but hindered by Russia’s “nuclear deterrent,” they cannot speak openly, but they are widely circulated among the people.
This is also a source of insecurity for some Russians, or “Imperial Russians.” From the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union to modern Russia, the more the “warlike nation” desires for expansion of land, the more their insecurity increases. Looking at the world, no country currently has as many territorial entanglements with so many countries as Russia. And many “restless” neighboring countries of Russia have increasingly more ideas during this Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
No need to say much about Ukraine, just add a point here. Despite now legally incorporating only the eastern Ukrainian territories and Crimea into its territory, in the eyes of many Russians, Kharkiv, Odesa, and even Kyiv should also be part of Russia, with Ukraine only deserving the small piece of land in western Lviv, and eventually accepting the fate of being annexed by Poland.
In addition to the eastern Ukrainian territories and Crimea, Russia also controls three pieces of land internationally recognized as territories of other countries, namely South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, and the left bank of the Dniester River in Moldova, generally referred to as “Transnistria,” where Russian “peacekeeping forces” are stationed.
Among them, Transnistria has recently shown some movement. On March 28th, the Transnistrian government held a representative assembly, requesting Russian protection from pressures imposed by the Moldovan government and to protect the 220,000 Russian citizens in the region. In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated: “Protecting our compatriots in Transnistria is our priority, and Russia will always pay attention to and consider all relevant requests.”
Moreover, Russia’s exclave, formerly German Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, and the Republic of Karelia, originally Finnish but bordering Finland, although the situation there has been relatively stable, it doesn’t mean that all Germans and Finns have completely forgotten their history. Especially in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the global trend towards the “right,” the contradictions here are becoming increasingly prominent.
It is worth mentioning that on the issue of Kaliningrad, Poland and the Baltic states are even more agitated than the Germans themselves. In May last year, the Polish government officially changed the name of Kaliningrad to “Königsberg” in official documents, which was the German name of the city before World War II. Subsequently, Estonia also decided to rename Kaliningrad.
In the Asian direction, discussions at the grassroots level between China and Russia about the Far East issue have never ceased. As for the official level, the dispute between Russia and Japan over the Northern Territories has lasted for more than half a century.
The Northern Territories, called the “Southern Kuril Islands” by Russia, have long been controlled by Russia. In 2018, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed the “return of two islands” to Putin, where each side would take two islands and sign a peace agreement. But later, with Abe’s resignation, the matter was left unresolved.
All of the above areas are currently controlled by Russia, but the “ideal map” in the minds of many Russians is far more than that. The Russian ethnic areas in northern Kazakhstan and even Alaska in the United States should be part of this map.
As the representative of the Imperial Russian faction, Strekov, said: “Our footsteps should not be limited to Ukraine alone. The Russian military should continue to advance until the local people no longer support us.”
It can be said that from the era of the Russian Empire to the present hundreds of years, the desire of the “warlike nation” for land conquest has not diminished in the slightest, always plundering territories under various pretexts and resorting to violence.
Therefore, don’t blame other countries for eyeing their 17 million square kilometers of land. After all, this is the inevitable consequence of Russia’s territorial expansion through violence over the past few centuries, and it is also the potential crisis that Moscow must face in the future.