Paul Goble: Putin should be stopped

The famous American political scientist and expert on Russia and the former Soviet space Paul Goble believes that Putin's military intervention in the Crimea is the greatest threat to international stability since the Second World War.

Annexing the territory of a sovereign state, and enduring to the fore the ethnicity of the citizens, Putin rejected the principles underpinning peace and stability.

In an interview with the Azerbaijani service of Radio Voice of America Goble said that the international community should punish Russia for these acts and send a clear message that trample on state sovereignty by force is inadmissible .

According to him, Russia's actions in the Crimea have jeopardized the international consensus in 1945 and 1991.

"Putin has put ethnicity in the Russian nation above the principle of Ukrainian citizenship. This argument opens the way not to world order, but to confusion and it can cost thousands of lives and create a great threat to humanity," said Goble.

The political scientist rejected the arguments and justification of Russia's actions that cause of the seizure of the Crimea was the humiliation of Russia and belonging of the peninsula to Russia in the past.

According to Goble, the boundaries of the USSR were determined not by nations, but by Moscow and Stalin personally.

Therefore, attempts to morally justify the annexation of the Crimea are groundless.

On the other hand, in 1992 the international community, including Russia, agreed that the administrative borders of the former Soviet Union were recognized as international borders.

"With regard to the allegations that the U.S. drove Russia into a corner, it 's not serious. There was geopolitical competition and the USSR lost and the USA is not to blame.

But Russia did many things that would not be worth doing. For example it waged two wars in Chechnya, leading to the deaths of thousands of people.
In fact, the Crimea belongs to the Crimean Tatars and currently Russian forces want to remove them from the peninsula," said Goble.

As for the talk that Ukraine has lost the Crimea, Russia has lost Ukraine.
"Vladimir Putin has achieved what any Russian ruler could not. He turned the Ukrainians into an anti-Russian nation. Perhaps, the Russian government has won the Crimea, but it has lost Ukraine forever. The Poles will never forget what was done to them in 1863 and in Katyn.

And no one will ever forget the Ukrainian Crimea capture by Putin and Russia will strongly regret it. I am convinced that with his recent actions Putin opened the way to such forces, which sooner or later will dismember Russia," said Goble.

For all this Russia should be faced serious sanctions and measures. We clearly need to tell Putin that he committed a mean action and it isolates him from other people committed to peace and stability," said Goble.

How should the GUAM member states, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Moldova respond?

On this question Goble said that after the capture of part of Georgia in August 2008, the country withdrew from the CIS. The Ukrainian government also intends to leave the CIS. Such a move would have sent a strong signal to Russia that taking one peninsula on the Black Sea, it caused heavy damage to relations with its neighbors and should refrain from other similar steps. -06B-