WASHINGTON, May 16 (RIA Novosti), Leandra Bernstein – The US orchestrated the crisis in Ukraine while not understanding the circumstances and history of the region, Suzanne Massie, a Russia expert and former unofficial advisor to Ronald Reagan, told RIA Novosti Friday.
“We were so stupid in this case, just walking in there ... It was so heavy-handed in so many ways, but also so arrogant,” she said.
The expert compared the US intervention in Ukraine to “putting a stick in a hornets nest.”
“I think that anybody with a third grade education about Russia would know that if you're going to go into Ukraine at all, you better go in carefully, and you better know its going to touch a raw nerve in Russia because they have been together since the ninth century,” she stressed.
Ukraine, said Massie, is a deeply divided country that has yet to find a government to unify it in the 23 years since independence.
“If I had been asked [what the US should do about Ukraine] I would have said, 'Stay impartial.' Don't take sides, wait to see what happens. Then if you're going to do something, impartially try to bring the two sides of Ukraine together with the help of our allies, France and England, and also Russia, as a matter of courtesy. That's what I would have done.”
Commenting on current US-Russian relations, Massie said it was “painful” to see Reagan's “legacy of peacemaking” destroyed.
Massie operated as an unofficial advisor to President Reagan as a backchannel to the Soviet Union from 1984-1988. Through her dealings with the White House, she introduced the traditional Russian expression, “trust but verify” to Reagan who used it “to great effect” in his negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev.
Massie recently revealed the extent of her dealings with Reagan, as well as both Soviet officials and Russian citizens in her book “Trust But Verify: Reagan, Russia and Me.”
Following a regime change in late February, the citizens of the predominantly Russian-speaking southeastern regions of Ukraine refused to recognize the legitimacy of the country’s interim government and called for federalization and referendums on greater autonomy, with rallies sweeping through the region.
Acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov launched a special operation last month to crack down on pro-federalization protests.
Russia has called the Western-backed military operation against the protesters a “punitive act,” and accused Ukraine’s authorities of waging a war against their own people.
During a visit to Kiev in April, US Vice President Joe Biden said the United States would provide the crisis-hit country with a new $50 million aid package to help with economic and political reforms.
The visit of US Vice President Joseph Biden to Kiev and the subsequent restart of a military operation against protesters demonstrated Washington’s control over the actions of Ukrainian authorities, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an English-language interview with the RT network.
