... Any different reaction to yesterday’s clear, if unfair, results, will seem much too cynical even to Russians, who now — thanks to the lies seen on television —overwhelmingly believe that Putin is fighting to save Russian-speakers in Ukraine, put in real danger by the ‘fascists in Kiev’. The accession has, of course, been planned by the Kremlin — but it is hard to comprehend why.
From the beginning, Russia’s primary interest has been to maintain the ability ...
March 16, 2014 marks the day when the people of Crimea go to the voting booths to decide whether they will be part of Ukraine or part of Russia. While the referendum is no doubt important to people living in Crimea, I for one remain highly skeptical that the results will actually be the ultimate arbiter on the territorial decisions made about Crimea. The outside players,...
... the past it has warned Russia about how it acted with Chechnya, China, Venezuela, Iran, and Syria, but ultimately did nothing. It is now warning Russia that ‘there will be costs’ if it acts inappropriately in Crimea and onward with greater Ukraine. One might forgive Russia if it reacts to such warnings with a giant foreign policy yawn. Let us look briefly at Ukraine: Yanukovych was a thug. But he was a thug popularly elected in his own country. But he was elected via means that were clearly ...
Five Leaders Call for Contact Group on Ukraine
Today Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Kerry will meet in London to discuss the Ukrainian crisis. The situation that we now see in Ukraine graphically demonstrates the inadequacies of the current Euro-Atlantic security ...
Many comments have been published about the outcomes of the Ukraine-Crimea crisis and Russia’s policy toward it with respect to the existing crises in the Middle East — Syria, Iran and Israel-Palestine. A lot has been said about a possible shift in Russia’s approach toward cooperation with the ...
... the crisis in Crimea and the possibility of a worsening situation remains high as the new Ukrainian Prime Minister heads to Washington DC while local Crimean authorities, with Russian support, promise to hold a referendum on basically seceding from Ukraine and rejoining the Russian Federation. Many respected and accomplished voices have written eloquently on both sides of this dilemma, testifying to the complexity of the situation and affirming how little global affairs ultimately have to do with ...
The disputes over Crimea and the Fleet’s base are going to continue
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine, fraught with a serious destabilisation of the country, concerns Russia’s interests too, some of the most important being the fate of the Black Sea Fleet, its status in Crimea and its historic main base in Sevastopol.
The struggle for the ...
RIAC Experts' comments
The fast evolving crisis in Ukraine is causing concern to governments of neighbouring countries and post-Soviet states. We have asked RIAC experts specialising in the politics of the Baltics, the Balkans, the Trans-Caucasus and Central Asia to comment on the events in Ukraine and ...
Scenarios of the future development of the ukrainian crisis
Experts from Russia and Ukraine comment current events and suggest their scenarios of the future development of the crisis.
Gevorg Mirzayan
(RAS U.S. and Canadian Studies Institute)
:
Interests Always Need to be Protected
,
Alexander Gushchin
(Russian State University for the ...
... Republic after the dissolution of the German Empire. However, the west has done more or less everything it could to prevent this legitimate rapprochement.
The Ukrainian elite has been unable to steer its country towards a more prosperous future. In 1990 Ukraine’s gross domestic product per capita was similar to that of Belarus; today, it is half. Each change of government has brought a worse cadre of incompetents and thieves into Kiev’s corridors of power. The elections in 2004 – in ...
