As expected, libertarians are divided over Ukraine.  I don’t know if the Western sanctions currently planned against Russia are indicated or effective. But I emphatically reject the notion that Ukraine “is none of our business.”  Freedom outside the United States matters, folks. Freedom-lovers must side with Ukraine against Russia, for several reasons. First, history matters. The Soviet Union was a criminal outfit morally comparable to the Nazi killing machine or Mao’s “great leap forward.” Stalin deliberately starved millions of persons in Ukraine for the sole purpose of breaking their will. This recent past should not be ignored in any reasonable approach to the problem. Second, Putin is not the Soviet Union, but this demarche into Ukraine shows that he has all but decided not to join the family of free nations. He has decided instead to try the old Cold War tricks, cynically exploiting misguided Russian feelings that pass for patriotism. In doing so he fuels the old fears of Soviet domination, turns the world arena again into a zero-sum game, and harms everyone in the process. There is no “essential national interest” (a putative interest to recover Crimea, for example) in Russia distinct from the interest of Vladimir Putin to restore the old Soviet-like superpower with himself as the leader-savior. Third, Ukrainians desire ties with the West, and all of those who prize freedom and prosperity should encourage them. It is painfully obvious that Putin’s blocking this move harms the people of Ukraine. Free nations and persons should trade with whomever they choose. The era of commercial monopolies imposed on the weak is long gone. War? No. Just a bit of moral clarity.