Frome the Archives —— Crimea: History and Politics

JAMES MERSOL ‘14

While Russia’s invasion of the Crimean Peninsula was alarming to many, it was not at all that surprising. Crimea is historically Russian, dating back to the days of Peter the Great, who conquered the region to ensure that Russia had a warm water port. It remained Russian until 1954, when Soviet Leader Nikita Kruschev transferred it to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. At this point, he believed that the Soviet Union would be eternally united, so it was a purely symbolic gesture aimed to please Kruschev’s native Ukraine. Not only were the two politically united, but also, thanks to centuries of Russian rule, the eastern regions of Ukraine had become ethically Russian. Even the name “Ukraine” roughly means “borderlands” in Russian. When the Soviet Union collapsed, however, Russia lost Crimea along with the essential port of Sevastopol, and now had to work out an international agreement to even use the facility for its navy. As long as there was a pro-Russian leader to negotiate with, Russia more or less had a guarantee that it could lease the port for as long as it needed.

That guarantee changed in 2004, when protesters successfully challenged the election of Viktor Yanukovych and elected their own pro-Western government. In the following six years, the Russian government fought the Ukrainian government on numerous political issues, from Ukraine joining NATO to the yearly gas transport dispute. In 2010, when Viktor Yanukoych was surprisingly reelected, he and then-president of Russia, Demitry Medvedev, worked out a number of pro-Russia agreements, most notably one that extended the Russian lease on Sevastopol until 2042. Although the Russian government has only implied as much, I believe that the Putin administration felt that the Ukrainian revolt threatens that agreement—at best, the new Ukrainian government would declare the old agreement null and void and demand a renegotiation; at worst, Ukrainian protestors might try to oust Russia from its port all together. This explanation does not justify Russia’s actions, but it does give some reason to the invasion beyond pure aggression. With that in mind, I doubt that Russia has the intention to annex all of Ukraine, and it certainly does not plan to start World War III by invading Poland or the Baltic countries.

On March 16 [2014], 95% of Crimean voters elected to secede from Ukraine and rejoin Russia. This vote was not particularly surprising, given Crimea’s ethnic and historical ties to Russia, but it leaves both Russia and the West in an odd situation. Although they will most likely vote to do so, the Russian Duma (parliament) has yet to accept Crimea into the Russian Federation, and the Obama administration has already asserted that they will not recognize the March 16 referendum or Russia’s decision. Even with that pledge, neither America nor its allies can realistically stop Russia from annexing Crimea if it chooses to.

Moreover, the current dispute is part of larger ideological tensions that few Americans think about. Just as we are aware that we “won” the Cold War, the Putin administration is aware that it “lost” the Cold War. Overnight, Russia went from a world power to a radically impoverished and insecure state, which most importantly lost its global influence. To the Putin administration, Russia needs to gain that influence back, starting at the regional level. If Russia is going to have international power anywhere, it needs to start with the former Soviet states. Ukraine is an especially important country to Russia, given the number of ethnic Russians that still live there. This belief has been reflected in official ory and practice to be wedded?

There is no Respon - sibility Code signing. The Responsibility Council is frankensteined from faculty and “randomly chosen” (I cite Davidson’s website) students pulled from the Honor Council. I am not advocating for the creation of either of these, but I am advocating for wider education about the Responsibility Code and its contents. Even if just an email that might end up buried in 1,927 Outlook inboxes (I checked—I have no such email), the College will have done its perhaps abstract, but nevertheless relevant, civic duty. The important thing is the email’s existence. It might end up between a Moodle notification and a Door Dash receipt, but at least a valuable olive branch will have been extended, a helping hand on the other end of it.

Avedis Reid ‘26 (he/him) is a Linguisitcs major from McLean, Virginia. He regularly reads administrative emails. He can be reached at avreid@davidson.edu.

Russian foreign policy since 2008. Furthermore, while some Americans may wonder why Russia has to be so antagonistic, the Russian government sees most negotiations with America as inherently unequal and therefore unfair to Russia. The Russian invasion of Crimea could easily be seen as one in a series of events—following Snowden, Syria, and Sochi—for Russia to regain its global influence and show America that it is not as powerful as it would like to think. Right now, all America can do is condemn Russia’s actions, but there is no reason why Putin feels like he has to listen.