Double Standards in the West

Since then President Putin of Russia has gradually attempted to re-unite the Soviet Union by re-staking claims to certain of the previous member states. This post-cold war resurgence by Russia to dominate other states is another illustration of the struggle between power and freedom or

In 2014, Russia captured the Crimea and Sevastopol, and unfurled tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine border. This is where the conflict flashed between pro-Russian separatists and the new government in Kiev. Russia's actions, including reported military aid for separatist troops, mark a serious major threat to generally accepted principles of world order, such as, sovereignty and

To modify Winston Churchill’s quote on Russia Putin “…is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” We can unwrap this mystery by analyzing Putin’s foreign policy through the eyes Morgenthau which will be the basis of this paper. By understanding the mystery we can say that Putin is following a Realist perspective and not the liberalist perspective especially with the Crimean Conflict.

While chaos continued to spread across the country, Russia began to eye the territory of Crimea, one if Ukraine’s most southwestern territories and an area that used to belong to Russia until it was transferred to Ukraine in 1954. By the end of February, masked Russian troops without insignias took over the Supreme Council of Crimea and several strategic sites across Crimea. This event led to the installation of the pro-Russian Aksyonov government in Crimea and the declaration of Crimea 's independence. This spurred the Ukraine’s provisional government to request an emergency meeting with the U.N. Security Council in which they called on Russia to stop all military action in Crimea. By Mach 1st, Russia’s parliament approves President Putin 's request to use force

Russia’s geopolitical strategic goals in the region involve exerting control over the Caucasus region, particularly energy resources, pipelines, and infrastructure. Moreover, Russia may press for the eventual annexation of several separatist territories, such as South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Additionally, Russia’s long-term strategic goals include preservation of their maritime dominance in the Black Sea region, home to the Russian Black Sea fleet. However, what may be the most dangerous course of action as highlighted by Cohen and Hamilton is, Russia’s intent to

The Soviet Union was a socialist state located on the Eurasian continent, which existed from 1922 to 1991. It was a conglomeration of a number of subnational Soviet republics with its government and economy centralized. The Soviet Union was based on a one-party system under the governorship of the Communist Party, with Moscow as its capital. Since the decline of the Soviet Union, Russia has been on the forefront seeking to bring about a resurgence of the socialist state. Current political events in Europe and in particular, those that revolve around Russia, demonstrate efforts directed towards reviving the Soviet Union. In more than one occasion, news releases have alleged that Vladimir Putin has plans underway to reignite the Soviet Union gradually and that the annexation of Crimea is evidence of this. In an article, journalist Adam Withnall noted that “…Vladimir Putin will not stop trying to expand Russia until he has “conquered” Belarus, the Baltic states and Finland,” (para. 1). Thus, there is increased tension in countries around the region, which was initially considered as being part of the Soviet Union. In truth, the Ukrainian revolution is demonstrative of Russia’s attempt to reignite the Soviet Union following the acquisition of Crimea, which will result to limiting the influence and expansion of NATO and the United States in Europe. Thus, Russia’s motivation to expand her influence

2. Russia has a long history of invasions, uprisings, external influences, and revolutions which have caused its borders to expand and contract over time.1 Heroes of mythic proportion such as Alexander Nevsky earned their fame by defending the homeland in these times of strife. Nevsky, in particular, inspired in the Russian people a strong sense of Slavic nationalism that persists to this day.2 Throughout Russia’s many fluctuations, however, some factors never changed. For the vast majority of its existence, Russia has been viewed as a global power. It was not until the fall of the Soviet Union that Russia lost its global eminence. Another constant has been the need for access to warm-water ports on the Baltic and Black Seas. Russia has fought many campaigns to push its borders to these waters.1 These campaigns along with expansion eastward to the Pacific have left modern day Russia with an important legacy – access to

The two countries, Russia and Ukraine, had different reactions towards the armed violence and impeachment of the Ukrainian president. Although the majority of the Ukrainians opposed Viktor’s decision to procrastinate the signing the EU-Ukraine integration agreement, all the ex-presidents accused for its interference with the affairs of Crimean. The former presidents of Ukraine, including Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma described the present crisis as Russia’s political interventions designed to interfere with the internal affairs of Ukraine and its relationship with the European Union (Hanschke 1). The people of Crimea have not been seeking for secession from Ukraine, but their interest is to have extended autonomy and rights to govern the Crimean affairs with minimum involvement of the government of Ukraine. Russia, on the other hand, have dismissed the accusation and stated that it is pursuing the interest of the people of Crimea to join the Federation of Russia. Russia holds that the people of Crimea have the power to decide the future of their territory and Russia will be ready to respect their decision. Study shows that about 90

Armed men in unmarked combat uniforms seize Simferopol International Airport and a military airport in Crimea. Moscow claims this military movement is within the line of previous agreements to protect its fleet in the Black Sea. Putin then got the rights from the Russian government to wage war against the Ukraine to protect the ethnic russians that are in the area of Crimea. The Crimea then holds a referendum to leave the Ukraine and to join Russia, of which the world condemns and Russia welcomes with open arms. They vote to join Russia and they do with an overwhelming majority on May 6. As Moscow welcomes their newly acquired land into the Russian Federation with open arms, western nation explode in disapproving comments and minor threats. Sanctions are placed on Russian individuals who are close to Putin and his Regime while western leaders condemn the referendum, claiming it was set up by the Russian government and did not actually convey the will of the people of Crimea. Russian troops were planted in the Crimea and Russian troops were lined up along the border of Ukraine, creating fear that may have swayed people’s opinions. In fact, the vote received very little ethnic Ukrainians and the vote had a 97% approval to joining Russia. Since then, the mainland of Ukraine has been facing a lot of upheaval. Pro-Russian protesters have been fighting for their turn to be a part of Russia. All along the Eastern side of the Ukraine, protesters have been taking over

In 1944, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR, invaded the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine. Almost instantly, nearly all of the local the Crimean Tatars, Muslim Turkic people, were brutally murdered by the Red Army. Those who were not killed, were rounded up and deported to the brutal conditions of the Siberian forest. Over 40 percent of the Turkic people died enroute. Fast forward to modern day, Reshat Ametov, a Crimean Tatar, from the Simferopol region of Crimea, disappeared in March of 2014. Ametov was last seen during a protest in the center of Simferopol, where three unidentified men, presumably Russian forces, in military-style clothing, led him away. Ametov is one of the many examples of how Crimean citizens have been forced to endure unjust hardships from Kremlin takeover of Crimea. The Kremlin has violently attacked a sovereign nation and continuously violated basic human rights. However, as Russia continuous to viciously violate nearly every human right, the rest of the world just sits as watches. Better yet, most people do not even know that Russia is murdering innocent Crimeans. Though the US has introduced a few sanctions, political and economic tools that work to force

While the Crimean question remained subdued for a long time, in September 2008 it was brought back into the forefront of global politics when the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko accused Russia of giving out Russian passports to the population in the Crimea and described it as a "real problem" given Russia's declared policy of military intervention abroad to protect Russian citizens.

The conflict between the Ukraine and Russia is the Ukraine's most long-standing and deadly crisis; since its post-Soviet independence began as a protest against the government dropping plans to forge closer trade ties with the European Union. The conflict between Russia and the Ukraine stems from more than twenty years of weak governance, the government’s inability to promote a coherent executive branch policy, an economy dominated by oligarchs and rife with corruption, heavy reliance on Russia, and distinct differences between Ukraine's population from both Eastern and Western regions in terms of linguistics, religion and ethnicity (Lucas 2009).

In early 2014, Russia made the decision to conduct an illegal military intervention into Ukraine. It all began when there was a dispute over whether Ukraine should accept financial help from Russia or Europe, which then ascended into the ousting of the Ukrainian president and then invasion of Ukraine. More specifically, Russia began to taking over the Ukraine territory of the Crimean Peninsula through illegal use of force (Global Security, 2016). During that time, the Russian government voted to place Crimean’s into the Russian Federation, which had been rapidly accepted by the President of Russia himself, Vladimir Putin. Most of the Crimean population is ethnic Russians, although there are also the pro-Ukraine Tatar minorities that make

Russia’s Return as a Superpower. There are concerns that Russia may once again “reassert itself militarily” (Wood 7). After the original fall of communism in 1991, Russia seemed to be on a path to democracy. Currently the notion of a democratic Russia seems to be fading as Russia “has been centralizing more and more power in the Kremlin” (Putin 2). Regional governors, who were once elected by the people, are now being appointed by Moscow.

The political relations between Ukraine and Russia as the two independent subjects of international relations were established in 1991 after the eighth December of the same year signed the Belavezha agreement between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which marked the end of the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as " subject of international law and geopolitical reality "and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States. From that moment we can talk about the beginning of the existence of full political relations between Russia and Ukraine.