(WSJ) An Important Graphic–Half of Russia's natural gas exports to Europe run through Ukraine
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Obviously the Ukraine is in Russia’s back yard. I think US foreign policy has been pushing our sphere of influence into Russia’s backyard over 20 years, pushing NATO east and encouraging pro-western political movements against Russia’s allies. People my age remember how the US reacted when the Soviet Union encouraged socialistic political movements in the Americas (our back yard) in the Cold War decades.
Part of the US justification for engineering coups to overthrow the socialistic movements was that the Monroe Doctrine gave us the right to keep foreign powers out to the Americas. I understand, however, that the doctrine declared by President James Monroe said that we would stay out of European geopolitics, and we expected European powers to stay out of American geopolitics. Might we now go back to that concept? Let Russia have its backyard and let the Ukrainians work out their political future without our trying to draw them into the European Union-NATO orbit.