In the meantime, Russia is consolidating her sphere of influences.

While every body is preoccupied with the escalations of the bickering between the Israels and the Palestinian on the Gaza strip, a far more important geopolitical event has occurred in Ukraine that, if not properly dealt with, may prove catastrophic to the West's interests in containing the resurgence of Russia.

According to Stratfor.com, the Ruthenians, a small ethnic group living in the Carpathian Mountains, asked Russia on Dec. 23 to recognize their independence from Ukraine. To begin with, the Ruthenia is a geographic and culturo-ethnic name applied to the parts of Eastern Europe populated by Eastern Slavic peoples. Essentially, the word is a Latin rendering of the ancient place name Rus. Today, the historical territory of Rus, in the broadest sense, is formed with parts of the lands of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, a small part of northeastern Slovakia and a narrow strip of eastern Poland.

The Ruthenians residing in Ukraine, throughout the past couple of years, have annually petitioned Kiev for greater and better-defined autonomy. Now, the Ruthenians have simply skipped the petition and turned to Ukraine’s large neighbor, Russia, to recognize their independence.

Apparently, it is encouraged by the Russians.

Very similar to the game plan played on Georgia with respect to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Kremlin has cherry-picked the friendly Slav people - the Ruthenians - and through their fight for independence destabilized pro-Western Yushchenko government. As a matter of fact, the oppostion coalition the Party of Regions, which is warm to Russia, has already called the shot last month, accusing the President Yushchenko of improper arm sales to Georgia during the small country's brief war with Russia.

Steps by steps, the Russia is consolidating her sphere of influences. And it seems the next target is Ukraine.