Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Follow Carnegie
- Search
- Global Resources
Global Centers
Languages
What originated as the European Union’s modest Eastern Partnership program is likely to be the end of the notion of the “lands between” Russia and the EU.
Moscow has long been unhappy about some of the rules of the game set after the end of the Cold War, such as the West’s dominance, but now it feels strong and confident enough to challenge them.
The West’s sanctions will be damaging to Russia and its people. However, standing up to Western pressure is likely to become the main feature of a newborn Russian patriotism and the central element of national consolidation.
Putin sees himself as repairing the damage done a quarter century ago by Gorbachev and Yeltsin. He is challenging not only the 1991 geopolitical arrangements but an entire world order in which only the United States has the right to decide what is right and what is wrong.
The Crimea referendum, in which the people of the region have massively voted to join Russia, marks a watershed in Russia’s foreign policy: Russia has stopped walking backward and has made a step forward. As for Ukraine, it will be for the foreseeable future a geopolitical battleground.
Western leaders need to craft a long-term strategy that reckons with the immense challenge of deterring further overreach or provocative moves by Moscow in eastern Ukraine and beyond.
While the West accuses Putin of dealing with Ukraine over the barrel of a gun, Russians largely commend his role in helping Crimea make the right historical choice, in their view, to side with Russia.
In the lead up to Crimea’s referendum to join Russia, experts discuss the Ukrainians’ true aspirations, Putin’s thinking, the West’s leverage, and the impact of the Ukraine crisis on the Russia-China relationship.
The recent developments in Ukraine have effectively put an end to the interregnum of partnership and cooperation between the West and Russia that generally prevailed in the quarter-century after the Cold War.
The crisis in Crimea is perhaps the most dangerous point in Europe’s history since the end of the cold war. It is likely to alter fundamentally relations between Russia and the West and lead to changes in the global power balance.
