The Nuances Of The Ukrainian Conflict

Former President Viktor Yankovich made a phone call to Vladimir Putin seeking help. He had called while he was in hiding fleeing to Russia right after that conversation, around a two years ago shortly after over a 100 people were killed in a 48 hour protest. He fled his own country for his own safety. The fact that he fled as president to a neighboring countryRussia, shows just what type of situation this man was left

Ukraine is granted a market economy status by the EU and USA. The sharp economic decline in the 90s resulted in deteriorating living standards for most citizens and widespread poverty. However, during the 21st century, there has been some positive economic growth in Ukraine, as well as Eastern Europe as a whole. Ukraine’s currency, the Hryvnia, was introduced in September 1996 and has remained relatively stable. The unstable political situation in Ukraine hardly influences its economic development. GDP has been growing steadily since 2005 at an average growth rate of 7% and industrial production has been expanding by 12%. The Ukrainian economy was hit by the harsh effects of the global financial crisis but managed to attain a 4.2%

In the first days of Putin's presidency, he made state media and private owned broadcast media under Kremlin surveillance, to filter what the Russian citizens are watching and perceiving. He began by destroying the NTV news, as the president of the station Dobrodeev was expelled from his position. Ostrovsky comments, “Tempting though it may be to portray NTV journalists as altruistic defenders of freedom and speech, this would be misleading as presenting their opponents as stewards of justice. Many of the journalists, spoiled and compromised by their inflated status and their own cynicism, which they had seen as an asset when they were in power, now invoked moral values in their time of need. 282. Furthermore, Putin begins his widespread propaganda movements with his now state-controlled media. The bombing of the apartments in Moscow by the alleged Chechen terrorists, instills fear in citizens as they realize the print and television towers will not protect them from danger. Therefore, the media influence began to self-destruct. Putin then begins to utilise his control panel, by using media as a tactic of spreading false but undeniably fearsome stories of ethnic cleansing of Georgian villages by South Ossetian irregulars. This was proved false, but the idea of Georgia as an aggressor and threat to the Russian people helped the

The news reported from the ravaged cities within Chechnya is more than disturbing, but as disturbing as this is, media bias does need to be accounted for. The eyewitness accounts and the various reports from Human Rights activists are all informative but of a distinct nature, to disgrace the west into doing some thing about the disintegrating situation in the state. Russian forces have committed grave abuses, but the situation is one that needs to be rendered regardless of how it is reported. Human Rights Watch have documented both Russian and Chechen acts of war crimes. The situation is dire in all cases from massacres, rapes and beatings, to completely ignoring the well fair of civilians. The Russians have disregarded completely the Geneva Convention obligations, with central market bombings; civilians’ deaths in Chechnya weigh heavily in the total death toll of the war. This situation is unacceptable for wartime in the twenty first century. The war has taken its toll on many parts of Chechnya; most areas look more like wasteland, especially the capital Grozny.

government, a deliberate act of killing 7-10 million Ukrainians. It was not a result of any

However, Russia refused to acknowledge the new leadership stating that it came into power through unconstitutional means and armed insurrection. This was cited as the major excuse for Russia to deploy troops in Crimea to protect the majority Russian residents from extreme right forces.

The world political conversation today is the state of affairs in the Ukraine with protester in recent months protesting for a more pro-western European influence of government. Since the Ukraine has been in an economic crisis in the last few years, the current President Viktor F. Yanukovich decided to take an aid package from the Russian’s. This acceptance of the Russian aid package infuriated many in the Ukraine and has stifled the government with impeachments and newly elected officials that the Russian government does not support. Now with Russians soldier on the outskirts of the Ukraine’s boarder undertaking practice exercises and ready to enter on a moment’s notice. The Russian’s are

Russian government and Putin have shown almost no reaction to the most important fact happened since Soviet times. It was stressed that it was normal that the opposition were not pleased with the election results, but those people are a minority. Navalny was accused of extremism and working at the behest of the US state department to generate an Orange-style Revolution. The following government-organized protest actions called the "Anti-Orange protest" were meant to show that the pro-Putin part is the majority. Those Russians who are against Putin and his politic were named extremists, who are “against Russia” and “for Revolution”. Putin compared the opposition white ribbon symbol to a condom and said that 50000 people who took part in the protests must have received money for this action which is sponsored by the US government.

In the same way that both the banana republic leaders and magical realist writers tried to present their versions of what was happening in Latin America as the truth, an equally sour relationship has developed between the Russian government and its opposition. While Putin is constantly trying to justify his own action, and deny any allegations of involvement in corrupt practices, bands like Pussy Riot and news outlets like the ones in America work day in and day out to present a narrative on the opposite end of the spectrum. Similar to the way in which the Times Magazine reported that only 8 “bandits” were killed in the Cienega massacre (Times 1) while Marquez claimed in his magnum opus, “Cien Años de Soledad” that 3000 were killed (Marquez 318), Putin and his opposition produce narratives on opposite ends of the spectrum. Putin, like leaders of the banana republics, seeks to build and strengthen the Russian nation at whatever cost, while dissenters like Nemtsov, Pussy Riot, and others seek to dethrone Putin at whatever cost.

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 the Ukrainian crisis with Russia, there have been many non-state actors involved since the beginning of the invasion of Crimea. “From the Russian diaspora, non-governmental organizations, paramilitary groups and volunteer militias, there are a diverse range of non-state actors involved in the crisis” (German and Karagiannis, 2016). There has been a large impact in regards to religious groups with the Ukrainian conflict, such as the Russian Orthodox Church being able to rationalize why there was a need to invade Crimea. In Ukraine, a subset church of the Russian Orthodox Church broke off from the Russian Church to play a proactive role in assisting the pro-Ukrainian militias during the conflict. Organized crime and rise of militias have caused uncertainty for the country of Ukraine as the country lacks the ability to stabilize its regions against the crisis from the militias to Russia’s invasion.

The Ukraine is already in a civil war type state; this is due to the economic downfall of the country. The Ukraine was given two options, join with the EU or join with Russia, but there are downsides to both options and the Ukraine is left to pick the lesser of two evils. This has split the country causing the citizens to not only fight with each other but also with the government. The situation has reached the point of no return and there seems to be little to no hope of civil peace in Ukraine. Citizens within the Ukraine do not want to join with Russia because they want to remain their own country but with Putin, an extreme authoritarian leader that will not happen. Putin had recently offered to give the Ukraine a loan of 15 billion dollars to get them out of debt; it is assumed that Putin wants to overtake the Ukraine because of the abundance of minerals. Also Russia is the Ukraine’s biggest trading partner, if the Ukraine was to join with the EU Russia will no longer have them as a trading partner. Other Ukrainians don’t want to join with the EU because they are having little to no success with the countries they have already overtaken. Greece is currently in a really bad state and is bringing down the euro with it, which has started to affect other countries in the EU like Italy. Joining with the EU right now does appear to be a wise choice do to the current situation; it could make their economy worse than it already is. The people of Ukraine are at a standstill and

Simmering dissension burst into flames when the Georgian military rolled into South Ossetia on Aug. 7 in response to Russian troop movements near the border. The Russian army crossed into the region the next day. President Dmitry Medvedev challenged Georgia’s sovereignty by sending troops onto foreign, though familiar, soil. The Russians maintain their presence is to preserve Ossetian autonomy. Vigorous land and air assaults, coupled with encroachment further south beyond South Ossetia’s border, imply more complex political motives.

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.