Powell, Brzezinski and Kissinger on Ukraine

From a recent AP report:

While decrying what he considers widespread fraud in the elections, Powell has said nothing about Russia's position. His view is that quiet diplomacy is the best hope to induce the Russians to shift course and contribute to a democratic outcome in Ukraine, a former republic of the Soviet Union.

Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski is less constrained. "The stakes are of truly historic proportions," Brzezinski said last week in discussing what he sees as a Russian power grab in Ukraine.

"If Ukrainian democracy prevails, Russia has no choice but to go to the West and to be a democracy," Brzezinski told a gathering at the American Enterprise Institute. "If Ukraine democracy fails, Russia and imperial ambitions are awakened."

Much like Brzezinski, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger believes Moscow's propensity for acquiring client states was undiminished by the collapse of the Soviet empire 15 years ago.