With the recent advent of U.S. troops moving into NATO countries, the situation in Ukraine is heating up. Considering that the United States and Russia haven't had this much conflict since the cold war, to put it lightly, it's a pretty big F'n deal.
What's going on in Ukraine is fairly complicated, so if you're in the dark as to just how things have gotten to this point, here is a fairly easy to follow, succinct video that should have you relatively caught up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pWtDF5-ddk
So, you have the problem and how it came to be, but now we have two different competing narratives. You have the West on one hand which insists that Russia is aggressively expanding, owing it's militaristic actions to some long lost desire to be a shadow of its former self. The U.S. insists that Russia illegally annexed the Crimea, and now have their eyes set on taking over the whole of Ukraine. Russia maintains that the referendum that brought Crimea into the Ukraine was uncoerced, and that the West has ulterior motives for being involved in Ukraine, and that it has staged a coup.
I currently agree with this analysis in the guardian.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict
This analysis is also very well supported by Steven Cohen, a professor at Princeton that specializes in U.S. - Russia relations. I very highly recommend watching his commentaries on YouTube.
How best do we solve this crisis? Who's to blame? What will happen? I'm of the opinion that the Ukraine will inevitably be split between East and West. While both sides clearly have vested interests in the outcome of Ukraine's future, any suggestions that the Kremlin is actually ready to takeover and roll tanks into Ukraine are way, way off the mark. This wouldn't be remotely advantageous to Russia, considering its close links with Ukraine on all levels. So the hysteria surrounding the Russian involvement in Crimea at the moment is either caused by ignorance or is a result of the deep suspicions that the West still has about Russia, Cold War or no Cold War.
A sudden regime change that has happened in Ukraine could never result in a swift and peaceful resolution. We saw that during the Arab Spring and, less recently, in the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. That is why all sides in the Ukrainian crisis need to keep a cool head and refrain from one-sided propaganda and provocative, inflammatory statements. If one thing that we have learned from history it's that it doesn't take a lot for a big war to erupt in Europe. :/
What's going on in Ukraine is fairly complicated, so if you're in the dark as to just how things have gotten to this point, here is a fairly easy to follow, succinct video that should have you relatively caught up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pWtDF5-ddk
So, you have the problem and how it came to be, but now we have two different competing narratives. You have the West on one hand which insists that Russia is aggressively expanding, owing it's militaristic actions to some long lost desire to be a shadow of its former self. The U.S. insists that Russia illegally annexed the Crimea, and now have their eyes set on taking over the whole of Ukraine. Russia maintains that the referendum that brought Crimea into the Ukraine was uncoerced, and that the West has ulterior motives for being involved in Ukraine, and that it has staged a coup.
I currently agree with this analysis in the guardian.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict
This analysis is also very well supported by Steven Cohen, a professor at Princeton that specializes in U.S. - Russia relations. I very highly recommend watching his commentaries on YouTube.
How best do we solve this crisis? Who's to blame? What will happen? I'm of the opinion that the Ukraine will inevitably be split between East and West. While both sides clearly have vested interests in the outcome of Ukraine's future, any suggestions that the Kremlin is actually ready to takeover and roll tanks into Ukraine are way, way off the mark. This wouldn't be remotely advantageous to Russia, considering its close links with Ukraine on all levels. So the hysteria surrounding the Russian involvement in Crimea at the moment is either caused by ignorance or is a result of the deep suspicions that the West still has about Russia, Cold War or no Cold War.
A sudden regime change that has happened in Ukraine could never result in a swift and peaceful resolution. We saw that during the Arab Spring and, less recently, in the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. That is why all sides in the Ukrainian crisis need to keep a cool head and refrain from one-sided propaganda and provocative, inflammatory statements. If one thing that we have learned from history it's that it doesn't take a lot for a big war to erupt in Europe. :/
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