The crack of rifles can once again be heard along the blood-soaked shore of the Black Sea. Last winter, a violent mob overran the capital of Ukraine. The rabble killed 20 police officers and ousted an elected president, in violation of the Ukrainian Constitution. The terrible war that resulted from this revolution has already killed 5,000 people. This was the “Euromaidan” movement, hailed by western media as a victory for democracy.

The event that triggered the putsch in Kiev was President Viktor Yanukovych’s refusal to sign the “Ukraine – European Union Association Agreement.” The treaty required, among other things, that Ukraine begin converging its economy, legislature and borders with the European Union. Americans have been told again and again that this is a battle between freedom and oppression. Why then are these Ukrainian freedom fighters so excited to merge their nation with a European super state? Ukraine is merely shedding one empire to be gulped up by another.

What’s really occurring in Ukraine is a struggle between two power blocks — the German dominated European Union and the Russian Federation. The European Union is seeking to extend its border across the Dnieper River. In pursuit of this goal, the European Union supported the Euromaidan movement. After the rabble was victorious at the siege of Kiev, the Russians invaded Crimea to secure their strategic interests. Most news outlets seek to portray Russia as the aggressor. It would seem, however, that the true aggression is from the West.

Ukraine is independent only because of the anomalous circumstances of the Cold War. When the Soviet Union fell, President George Bush the Elder imposed very similar borders upon Russia to which Kaiser Wilhelm imposed on the country in 1918. The countries that were created in the 1990s are independent only because of a spasm of Russian weakness. That period is now over. Many Russians today, including Putin, believe that Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Estonia should return to the motherland.

Vladimir Putin assumes the role of arch villain in our propaganda. The president of Russia is indeed a gangster, but is he acting irrationally? Putin sees a hostile Europe pushing its border right up to the frontier of the Rus. The Westerners bring the anti-Russian alliance known as NATO. The warm water port of Sevastopol, which has belonged to Russia since Catherine the Great, almost fell into the clutches of NATO. How could any Russian leader not react?

An equivalent could be drawn between the United States and Panama. Had the Russians sent agitators to overthrow the elected government of Panama, seize the canal and expel American military personnel, then Obama would have reacted in much the same way.

Vladimir Putin is hated for what he isn’t, not for what he is. He is not a globalist, which earns him disdain from both American neocons and left-wingers alike. He is not a pushover in world affairs, which makes him an automatic enemy of our State Department. He does not believe in the dogmas of free trade, global warming and open borders. The fact that he’s a Christian makes him the ideological enemy of Western Europe’s nihilistic atheism. In short, Putin belongs to the Europe of Victoria and Bismarck, not of Cameron and Hollande.

There’s much to be said in favor of Putin and the Russians. Before we set out on our moronic intervention in Libya, which turned that country into a chaotic inferno, we had been warned by one man. His name was Putin. The only world leader to oppose Barack Obama and David Cameron in aiding the Syrian rebels, whom we now know as ISIS, was that same KGB Colonel.

What’s to make us believe the new government in Kiev is more liberal and democratic than the last? The Ukrainian parliament is a circus. Opposition members are regularly beaten on the floor of the parliament by the ruling party. The Ukrainian military fires rockets and artillery indiscriminately into crowded cities where civilians are inevitably killed. These are the actions of liberal democrats who we should support? It’s absolutely true that Russia is also ruthless, but Ukraine is no lamb.

In the years that follow, I suspect we’ll regret treating Russia the way we have. Putin is compared to Hitler by the likes of Hillary Clinton and John McCain. In our ignorance, we’ve inflicted unsustainable borders and a currency collapse that wiped out many people’s savings upon Russia. Lest we forget, it was a currency debacle and unsustainable borders that led directly to Hitler’s rise to power. If we continue on this course, genuine extremists may usurp Putin and then we’ll find out what a Russian Hitler is really like.