Russia 's National Security And Geopolitical Motives

The foreign policies of Russia also compliments in many ways its domestic policies, both in the apparent want for dominance and security in the focal point on sovereignty. These aims lead to an importance on bringing back Russia’s international status and removing positions of power that Western states have had in Russia

For example, Russia helped to clear unexploded ordnance left behind by NATO’s bombing during the Kosovo war of 1999, and in 2014, helped fly in emergency relief when floods hit the region. Since then, Russia has regularly been helping with forest fires, providing tents for migrants and training emergency responders. To the citizens, Russia’s consistent involvement, on top of its historically strong ties, creates a sense of trust and goodwill. This also increases their likelihood of buying into Russian propaganda against the West. Although the EU has provided $3.16bn in aid since 2000, an amount that dwarfs Russia’s in comparison, a recent poll showed that Serbs wrongly believe Russia to be one of their main benefactor and 64% view NATO as a threat. However, this does not mean that Serbia is entirely pro-Russia, as 40% of the population is in favour of joining the EU.

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

Russia has built a strong, but stagnating economy on several natural resources to include the refinery and export of natural gas and oil. According to the Jim Picht (2014) exportation of natural gas and oil to Eastern Europe account for 70 percent of Russia’s exports and 53 percent of the government’s revenue. Along with exporting oil to Eastern Europe, Russia also exports too many countries to include China and Belarus. Europe fueled majority by Russian supplied natural gas and oil, the dependency of Europe’s need for this natural resource is the reason Russia’s economy is so strong. In 2014, when Russia decided to invade the neighboring country of Ukraine has led Europe to begin searching for other suppliers of their natural resources. If Europe finds other countries to supply the natural resources

From the Beginning of the Soviet Union, the West opposed the communist nation ideologically, the capitalist West feared communism. Communism was the reason that the Soviet Union was not compatible with the Western capitalist nations. With the end of the Soviet Union and the birth of capitalism in Russia, the West believed that their eastern problem was over, although as time would tell this assumption would be incorrect. Over the next decade, Russia would exert their power over boarding nations trying to join NATO, even invading Georgia, and Ukraine. Furthermore, they would back anti-West dictators such as Assad, proving Western tensions with Russia are far from over. Political and military tensions between the West and Russia persisted after the end of the Cold War because of the rise of anti-west military elites in Russian politics. This occurred because of Russia’s inability to properly implement a free market economy. Instead, Yeltsin, the Russian president at the time, enacted “shock therapy” capitalism. This process led to corruption in Russian politics and consolidation of power among anti-western Russian elites. The anti-west security elites, such as Putin, were able to rise to power by vowing to eliminate this corruption. These elites pose a threat to the West due to their dislike and aggressiveness towards the West.

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

The issue raised within the article is the increased tension between Russian and the United States caused by Russia’s decision to back out of a ‘ landmark agreement on disposing weapons-grade plutonium’ added to its deployment of ‘ new nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad on the baltic sea’ these two actions by Russia occurred due to Russia’s annoyance at the US’s military exercises in eastern Europe both of these actions have negatively affected interstate relations between the two world powers. Russian president Vladimir Putin’s military aggression has worried both european and american officials leaving them with a very difficult decision on how to deal with the issue and Putin because Washington’s attempts to deter Russia have failed

Secondly, NATO enlargement was not necessarily Russia’s containment by the United States. Some experts indicate that there was no consensus on the issue in American political landscape. At the same time, many countries in East Europe, especially the Baltic ones, expressed their willingness to enter the EU and NATO because they feared imperialistic comeback of Russia. Though this “the chicken or the egg” argument (Russia behaves aggressively because of NATO enlargement, or NATO expanded to prevent Russia from striking back) still corresponds with realist logic of insecurity, it largely disapproves that the Ukraine crisis is great powers clash.

The crisis in Ukraine and Crimea’s recent accession to Russia are events that clearly highlight the underlying sources of conflict in global politics. While Russia sees its actions in Crimea as a “reunification” and the respect for the right of self-determination, the West views it as a threat to European security and a violation of territorial integrity. Crimea has been a debatable topic from the time it came under the control of the Russian Empire in 1783 during the reign of Catherine the Great. The justification then was similar to the reasoning being used by Vladimir Putin today. Catherine declared that she was protecting ethnic Russians in the region from the Ottoman Empire, much as Putin is claiming to protect Russians from Ukrainian

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).

2. BACKGROUND / NATIONAL INTERESTS. With the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, U.S. changed its relations with Russia, formulating new policy away from containment. More than 25 years later, Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, intervention in Syria, unchecked cyber-attacks, and human rights violations are undermining the U.S. security,

This is in context to the trade agreement between the European Union and Ukraine. The European Union has continued to expand eastward and this has been one of the causes of the reaction from Russia. Russia also has feared that the expansion of the European Union will cause NATO to expand into Ukraine as well (Higgins and Herszenhorn). In this even realist theory does an excellent job of explaining the actions taken by Russia.

Future relationships between NATO and Russia are very uncertain. These uncertainties are due primarily to geopolitical factors like globalization, economic interdependence and international law. This leaves the world to question the possibility of a conflict arising from these clashing geopolitical factors. First, Russia, one of the major powers, has expanded economically and militarily by increasing trade, communication and even showing military force in other countries with the fight against ISIL. This expansion, known as globalization, has lead to the interdependence between states, specifically, dependence of the production process, investment, consumption, foreign trade, and inflows of foreign currency (Vorobyov 2). Next, the issue of economic interdependence has many wondering about the state of conflict between NATO members and Russia. Economic interdependence refers to a state’s need to rely on other states for resources through trade and investment. Liberalist and realist views of economic interdependence shine light on the last question about causes for concern for war between Russia and any NATO members. In the following paragraphs, these contradicting views will be closely analyzed in order to help get a sense for how interdependence between major powers will have an effect on potential future conflict. Lastly, Russia and NATO have very conflicting views when it comes to international laws and how they ought to be

The crisis Ukraine is facing with the battle over Crimea is one that started more than twenty years ago. August twenty-first, 1991, fifteen independent states crawled out from the strong hold of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R). This new found independence from one of the most powerful countries in the world ceased the existence of the U.S.S.R. It was the Soviet people who destroyed the Soviet Union, not outsiders, and not through violent conflict. Ukraine, one of the fifteen states that emerged, was a particular cause of concern with its ethnic Russian majority in Crimea, but Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Republic, was in no position to oppose this

For example, nearly 80% of all gas exports from Russia to Europe cross Ukraine. On numerous occasions, Russia has shut off energy supplies to Europe, which often pass by way of Ukraine. For the EU, the conflict showed that Ukraine is perhaps more strate-gically located than was thought before. The EU is also interested in stabilising the wider region which is plagued by many problems: the breakaway republic of Transnistria, the tension between Georgia and Russia, but also more di-rectly relevant issues such as organised crime, illegal migration and the environment.