America's struggle for world supremacy

Peter Schwarz, in wsws.org, relates that in 1997, Zbigniew Brzezinski published The Grand Chessboard.

Brzezinski argued that “America’s capacity to exercise global primacy” depends on whether America can prevent “the emergence of a dominant and antagonistic Eurasian power.”

When the Western-oriented Viktor Yushchenko became president of the Ukraine, the US captured a strategically important position on the global chessboard.

The US aims to control the states that emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The first Iraq war in 1991 undermined Russian influence in the Middle East.

The same process took place in the Balkans following the war on Serbia in 1999 in the Balkans.

In 2001 the US established military bases in former Soviet republics in Central Asia.

Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and to some extent Azerbaijan have allied themselves to the US.

Georgia now has a pro-Western regime.

In Europe, most members of the former Warsaw Pact have now joined NATO and the European Union.

Brzezinski wrote: “a Russia that retained control over Ukraine could still seek to be the leader of an assertive Eurasian empire.... But without Ukraine and its 52 million fellow Slavs, any attempt by Moscow to rebuild the Eurasian empire was likely to leave Russia entangled alone in protracted conflicts with the nationally and religiously aroused non-Slavs, the war with Chechnya perhaps simply being the first example.”

The Stratfor news web site states: “without Ukraine, Russia’s political, economic and military survivability are called into question... To say Russia is at a turning point is a gross understatement. Without Ukraine, Russia is doomed to a painful slide into geopolitical obsolescence and ultimately, perhaps even non-existence.”

Eighty percent of Russian gas and oil exports to Europe flows through Ukrainian pipelines.

Peter Schwarz writes: 'The break-up of Yugoslavia left the country in ruins, wracked by continuous ethnic tensions and hatred, which regularly erupt into violence. Corrupt regimes with connections to organised crime predominate, and bitter poverty and unemployment are widespread.

'Germany and the US went to considerable lengths to promote the downfall of Yugoslavia, by supporting the independence of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia.'