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{
  "authors": [
    "Ulrich Speck"
  ],
  "type": "legacyinthemedia",
  "centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
  "centers": [
    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
    "Carnegie Europe"
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  "collections": [
    "Europe’s Eastern Neighborhood",
    "Transatlantic Cooperation"
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  "englishNewsletterAll": "ctw",
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  "primaryCenter": "Carnegie Europe",
  "programAffiliation": "EP",
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    "Europe"
  ],
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  "regions": [
    "Russia",
    "Europe",
    "North America",
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    "United States",
    "Ukraine",
    "Western Europe",
    "Iran"
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  "topics": [
    "Foreign Policy"
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}

Source: Getty

In The Media
Carnegie Europe

Putin Planning “Soviet Union Lite”

If Vladimir Putin’s Russia succeeds in Ukraine, it will conclude that it can act like an empire. An empire has no borders and does not respect the borders of others.

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By Ulrich Speck
Published on Mar 4, 2014
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Europe

The Europe Program in Washington explores the political and security developments within Europe, transatlantic relations, and Europe’s global role. Working in coordination with Carnegie Europe in Brussels, the program brings together U.S. and European policymakers and experts on strategic issues facing Europe.

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Source: CNN

What's at stake in the conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine is not just the future of Crimea, it's the future of international order.

Some weeks ago, Crimea was a remote place, to historians known as the center of a war in the 1850s, while ordinary people would have associated it with some kind of sparkling alcoholic beverage. But suddenly and unexpectedly, Crimea has become a geopolitical hotspot in a conflict between Russia and the West that seems to be straight out of a Cold War playbook.

Moscow has raised the stakes dramatically with a de facto annexation of this region, which is home of an important Russian naval base and inhabited by a population whose majority is oriented towards Russia (while an important minority, among them the Cossacks, is strongly attached to Ukraine).

Read the full text of this article on CNN.

About the Author

Ulrich Speck

Former Visiting Scholar, Carnegie Europe

Speck was a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, where his research focuses on the European Union’s foreign policy and Europe’s strategic role in a changing global environment.

Ulrich Speck
Former Visiting Scholar, Carnegie Europe
Foreign PolicyRussiaEuropeNorth AmericaEastern EuropeUnited StatesUkraineWestern EuropeIran

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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