In a hunting lodge

When the leaders of the three Slavic republics of the Soviet Union met on December 8, 1991, in a secluded hunting lodge, the fate of the vast country hung in the balance.

With one stroke of the pen, they dealt a deadly blow to the USSR, causing shock waves that are still reflected three decades later in tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

The agreement they signed at the hunting lodge near Viskuli, in the Belovezhskaya Gora, near the Polish border, states that

"The USSR ceases to exist as a subject of international law and as a geopolitical reality."

This agreement also established the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose union of former Soviet republics that still exists but is of little importance.

 Two weeks later, eight other Soviet republics joined the union, effectively ending the rule of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. He withdrew on December 25, 1991. The flag with a sickle and hammer flying over the Kremlin was taken down.

 The agreement, between Russia in the person of Boris Yeltsin, Stanislav Shushkevich, leader of the Republic of Belarus, and Leonid Kravchuk on behalf of Ukraine, was a "diplomatic masterpiece."

A great empire, a nuclear superpower, split into independent states that could cooperate as closely as they wanted, and not a drop of blood was shed. But that blood was shed later - in many conflicts in the former Soviet republics that were once under Moscow's strict control.

President Putin, who describes the collapse of the Soviet Union as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century," has repeatedly argued that Ukraine unjustly inherited historical parts of Russia during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

 President Putin has sought assurances from President Biden that NATO's military alliance will never expand to include Ukraine, which has long aspired to join. The Americans and their NATO allies have said this request cannot be granted. "Modern Ukraine is entirely a product of the Soviet era," Putin said. "We know and remember well that Ukraine was formed - to a large extent - on the lands of historical Russia. It is crystal clear that Russia was in fact plundered."

 But after 30 years, this "dance" continues with another tune.

I will be grateful if you appreciate my work and vote for my blog at: 

Follow Reflect4u