🧵 I have a question: amid the Ukraine crises, while some reports look at Russia’s context, l see very few reports appear to be looking at the US context; how Ukraine was entwined with Trump era scandals and also Biden in previous admins.
Doesn’t it seem strange the way Ukraine became this kind of key issue in US policy, but not just policy the way the US may support Poland or Estonia…but it looks MUCH larger. The last admin literally had an impeachment over this…and Biden and son had this whole contretemps too
There is a deep connection in US politics to Ukraine. It’s but just happenstance. And yet now the crisis there is seen as kind of in a vacuum. But those like Biden have a long historic knowledge of this, one might argue even controversial background, but the point is it’s not new
In 2009 “Biden was scheduled to hold talks Tuesday with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych before travelling Wednesday to Georgia to meet leaders there.” amp.france24.com/en/20090721-bi…
Biden was deeply interested in Ukraine’s NATO bid and also concerned about the “reset” which failed anyway 
Under Obama the admin backed Ukraine’s protests against Yanukovych in 2013 and the new leadership in 2014 “Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state, has called for a stronger response to Russia's actions in Ukraine” rferl.org/amp/russia-us-…
The admin had been dealing with Russia at the time and Biden was involved deeply foreignpolicy.com/2013/01/30/bid…
2014 was an interesting time wsj.com/amp/articles/b…
In 2015 we have this NYT report nytimes.com/2015/12/09/wor…
More background theintercept.com/2019/09/25/i-w…
Back in 2016 “Vice President Joe Biden led the administration’s support of Ukraine. But Kiev worries whether the next White House will have its back as Putin looks to ramp up pressure.” foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/30/wha…
Then comes 2017 “Kiev officials are scrambling to make amends with the president-elect after quietly working to boost Clinton” politico.com/story/2017/01/…
The Trump admin was deeply involved in Ukraine issues, often to its detriment washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/…
The way Ukraine became part of US politics was toxic amp.usatoday.com/amp/4483807002
The 2016 elections were part of this politico.eu/article/ukrain…
It got worse buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/christ…
It got even worse thehill.com/homenews/admin…
This brings us to the spring of 2021, Biden has just begun his presidency and tensions are rising usnews.com/news/politics/…
This brings us to the fall of 2021 as tensions rise nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna8…
And now full circle to today bbc.com/news/world-eur…
I think any account of the current crisis needs to consider the long history here. While some of this is just US foreign policy and Russia’s long-term interests, there’s a lot of water under the bridge and background
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