... two states share a common history and why is it so important to possess a unique past?
History for Substantiating Legitimacy
In his address to the Federal Assembly last December, President Vladimir Putin mentioned Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev in the Crimean context, which was perceived by many that the affiliation of the peninsula was being legitimized through the myth of restoration, the historical truth and the preservation of continuity in traditions, culture and statehood. To this end, Moscow ...
The one-year anniversary of the takeover of Crimea sparked renewed debate over what that means for Russia's history. Perhaps the main result is that it put a definitive end to the history of the Soviet state.
The Crimea question has been around since 1991, when the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and ...
America seems reluctant in accepting the fairly benign fact that countries do not like to be dictated to and thus misses opportunities for creating new dialogues. This is especially prominent in explaining the poor relationship at the moment with Russia. There seems to be an element of purposeful animosity in the way Russia is viewed, analyzed, and engaged, especially at the so-called expert level and most prominently within the now Republican-controlled United States Congress. Perhaps one of the...
... peoples who have been linked to Russia for centuries. It is also obvious that the entire geographic area of the former USSR is a sphere of vital interest to us." http://www.nato.int/docu/review/1993/9301-1.htm Yet, excepting the special case of Crimea, there has never been any indication that Russia has been interested in annexing Ukraine, even eastern Ukraine or, for that matter, any of the former Soviet republics. Why should it? Moscow does regard a hostile Ukraine as unacceptable, but this ...
The Ukrainian crisis gave to Moscow a unique opportunity to annex Crimea, the independence of which had never been fully accepted by Russia after 1991. The regime change occurred in Kiev in February 2014, after Viktor Yanukovich’s running away during the night of February 21-22, brought to power a ruling elite ...
Ankara has taken a rather passive position on the “Crimean question”
Despite the obvious differences on a number of major issues in global politics (such as the Ukraine crisis and the civil war in Syria), Russia and Turkey have managed to minimize their negative impact on bilateral cooperation and ...
Russia’s March 2014 annexation of Crimea has overthrown the maritime context in the Black Sea region. The full sovereignty recovered by Moscow over the Crimean peninsula is likely to tremendously sustain Russia’s maritime power in the region and beyond, in the Mediterranean[1]. ...
... caused a total crisis in relations, but in 2014 it led to a much more serious situation, although both then and now the way Russia acted was essentially a knee-jerk reaction.
washingtonpost.com
Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and President
Poroshenko
The Crimea issue, like the situation in South-East Ukraine, was primarily caused by problems concerning Ukraine’s internal development. For all the shortcomings in Russia’s policy in the post-Soviet area which occurred especially in the 1990s,...
... separating the west, on the one hand, and the then-united political leanings of the centre and east of the country, on the other. He also talks about the likelihood of a split occurring in Ukraine along this fault line, pointing to the experience of Crimean separatism in 1992–94
[6]
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For Vladimir Putin, cooperation with Ukraine at the political level began in January 2005 with a dialogue that took place between Putin and Leonid Kuchma who won those 1994 elections, In May 1997, during Boris ...
... the mistaken belief that the only reason they have not been solved is because of Russia’s alleged propensity to make trouble.
Some of these unresolved, and poorly-resolved issues are at the roots of the current crisis in Ukraine. The fate of Crimea, for example, was a highly complex matter. It should have been carefully examined and negotiated, instead of being left to Yeltsin’s whim. A decision affecting the fate of 2 million people was made without even being seriously discussed. ...
