Art Laffer who is an old school Republican and not a fraud like these chest pounding diarrhea mouth neo-con pundits writes his take on the Ukraine crisis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin really had no choice except to act on annexing Crimea. The reasons go back many years and involve politics, the economy and the fact that many Crimeans identify more with Russia than Ukraine.
America should have been prepared for Russian actions in Crimea, yet, it was not. Those who fail to plan plan to fail.
The incentives for Russia to enter Crimea are obvious.
• First, the Black Sea port city Sevastopol provides Russia with year-round access to the high seas.
• Second, Crimea was transferred from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954 by Communist Party First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev’s unilateral decree – no vote.
• Third, Russia has maintained the Sevastopol naval base since the fall of the USSR more than two decades ago.
• Fourth, the Ukrainian Parliament, after long periods of street riots in the capital Kiev, ousted the elected, pro-Russian president of Ukraine and replaced him with somebody decidedly anti-Russian.
• Fifth, approximately 60 percent of Crimeans are of Russian descent. As a whole, Ukraine’s population is 78 percent Ukrainian and 17 percent Russian.
• Sixth, Crimeans identify themselves as Russians rather than Ukrainians.
• Finally, a tremendous amount of Russian natural gas flows to Western Europe via pipelines through Ukraine.
Based on these facts, it should surprise no one that Putin’s domestic approval ratings last week – after the annexation – were at their highest level ever, 71.6 percent. President Obama, on the other hand, has approval ratings in the mid-40s.
Art Laffer helped engineer the 1980’s boom, that is more than any of these chest pounding clowns have accomplished in their collective lives.
