Ignore or Gore: Should the U.S. get involved in Crimea or not? In the past several years, there

Vladimir Putin, who is the president of Russia, the man that is held responsible for tearing Ukraine apart into a battlefield. The eastern region of Ukraine withheld a city (Crimea), which became the headlines of all western and global war for its significant role in the Ukrainian-Russian Conflict. This was due to the city that was being fought over by the two countries. As Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin was bashed by the world for being the new modern Hitler; which Hilary Clinton had compared Putin’s strategical methods on this crisis to. She compared it to the similar Nazi’s of 1930; which she had said in her speech at the University of California. Although, no one can really understand why Vladimir Putin was the most hated man of his time. Later it became evident that it was because of the propaganda that was created by the western media and news. We must really think the fundamentals as to why Putin really entered Crimea, and who really is behind the new regime that has settled in Ukraine as well as which part of the world is standing behind Ukraine.

The Ukraine crisis has emerged from a domestic conflict and developed into an international issue because of the Russian federation intervention. The evolution of the Ukrainian crisis demonstrated the inability of the international community to handle it in a timely manner and prevent conflict escalation and ultimate stalemate. Although Ukrainian separatists seek to follow the Crimean strategy, many Western countries are strongly opposing to the Russian annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts due to concerns of aggressive geostrategic objectives. U.S. and the European Union are still struggling to implement coordination and cooperation tactics to deal with the conflict. In addition, Russia’s position also contributed to the complexity of the situation because of its hasty decisions as the conflict evolved.

“The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country. Russian history began in what was called Kievan-Rus. The Russian religion spread from there. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before then.” (Kissinger). Ukraine has been a focal point in Eastern Europe and foreign policy for hundreds of years. From the Crimean war, to Hitler’s operation Barbarossa the territory we know today as Ukraine has fallen under multiple conflicting spheres of influence. Over the past year it has been difficult to avoid hearing of the crisis in Ukraine; but depending on who you ask, the responses are just as confusing as the questions at hand. How do we respond? Why should we care? The ongoing crisis is important for a multitude of reasons, mainly because it sets a very dangerous precedent on the world stage. Starting a crisis is surprisingly easy, but it is dealing with it and ending it which is incredulously difficult. It is easy to use the intelligence and special operations arms of a country to agitate situations and create unrest, like in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. The problem is once you get the ball rolling it adopts a dangerous dynamic all on its own, and can quickly fester into a firestorm. Russia’s tactics in Ukraine and Crimea have been dubbed by many as what it is, ‘Hybrid War’. Despite being war wary, the U.S. must

While chaos continued to spread across the country, Russia began to eye the territory of Crimea, one if Ukraine’s most southwestern territories and an area that used to belong to Russia until it was transferred to Ukraine in 1954. By the end of February, masked Russian troops without insignias took over the Supreme Council of Crimea and several strategic sites across Crimea. This event led to the installation of the pro-Russian Aksyonov government in Crimea and the declaration of Crimea 's independence. This spurred the Ukraine’s provisional government to request an emergency meeting with the U.N. Security Council in which they called on Russia to stop all military action in Crimea. By Mach 1st, Russia’s parliament approves President Putin 's request to use force

For decades, the United States and Russia, formerly The Soviet Union, have held tensions with each other over different political stances and military actions and intelligence. Starting from the late years of World War II - when the Soviet Union had aggressively spread communism throughout Eastern Europe - up to a couple years ago when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine out of nowhere; their relationship has been a rollercoaster of a ride for these two countries. Even though the United States and Russia are no longer in a Cold War, there has been and continues to be tension between the two countries as exemplified by many events of conflict including the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Russian military’s current presence in Syria.

The Soviet Union was a socialist state located on the Eurasian continent, which existed from 1922 to 1991. It was a conglomeration of a number of subnational Soviet republics with its government and economy centralized. The Soviet Union was based on a one-party system under the governorship of the Communist Party, with Moscow as its capital. Since the decline of the Soviet Union, Russia has been on the forefront seeking to bring about a resurgence of the socialist state. Current political events in Europe and in particular, those that revolve around Russia, demonstrate efforts directed towards reviving the Soviet Union. In more than one occasion, news releases have alleged that Vladimir Putin has plans underway to reignite the Soviet Union gradually and that the annexation of Crimea is evidence of this. In an article, journalist Adam Withnall noted that “…Vladimir Putin will not stop trying to expand Russia until he has “conquered” Belarus, the Baltic states and Finland,” (para. 1). Thus, there is increased tension in countries around the region, which was initially considered as being part of the Soviet Union. In truth, the Ukrainian revolution is demonstrative of Russia’s attempt to reignite the Soviet Union following the acquisition of Crimea, which will result to limiting the influence and expansion of NATO and the United States in Europe. Thus, Russia’s motivation to expand her influence

On February 27 of 2014, masked Russian troops without insignia infiltrated in south Ukraine and captured strategic sites across Crimea, a rugged peninsula that strategically juts in the Black Sea. Within a few days Crimea was under Russian control and by July 2015 Crimea was formally integrated into Russia. The whole episode drew international consternation against Russia, which resulted in successive rounds of economic sanctions. A few days after the annexation, Ms. Clinton likened the move to the actions of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler (Rucker, 2014), a sentiment that was quickly adopted by the media; for example, on March 2, 2014 Bloomberg published an article entitled, “In Ukraine, Echoes of the Anschluss” (Bershidsky, 2014) and a few days later, on March 7, 2014, BBC published an article entitled, “Crimea seen as ‘Hitler-style’ land grab” (Kralova, 2014). This is a very grave accusation and, given that the USA and Russia collectively hold 90% of all nuclear weapons, prudence is in order.

Since then, the peninsula has been administered as two Russian federal subjects- the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol, which, until 2016, were grouped in the Crimean Federal District. The annexation was brought by a military intervention by Russia in Crimea, which took place in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and was part of wider unrest across southern and eastern Ukraine. On February 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin conducted an all-night meeting with security services chiefs to discuss elimination of the Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, and at the end of that meeting Putin had stated that, "We must start working on returning Crimea to Russia." On February 23, 2014, pro-Russian acts were held in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. On February 27 masked Russian troops without markings took over the Supreme Council of Crimea, and captured strategic sites across Crimea, which led to the installation of the pro-Russian Aksyonov government in Crimea, and making the Crimean status and the declaration of Crimea's independence on March 16, 2014. Then, only two days later, Russia claimed

"America … has an interest in a strong and responsible Russia, not a weak one. We want the Russian people to live in security, prosperity and dignity like everyone else -- proud of their own history. But that does not mean Russia can run roughshod over its neighbors. Just because of Russia’s deep history with the Ukraine, does not mean it should be able to dictate Ukraine’s future.” (state.gov). President Barack Obama, in March 2014, expressed the need for a more accountable and mindful Russia.

The roaring anti-Americanism proclaimed by Russian leaders and reflected on government-controlled television has provoked an ugly point with shameless capture of Crimea. Putin has made clear that he doesn’t care about international norms and

After the break up of the Soviet Union it became obvious that the leaders of the Russian Federation didn’t welcome attempts by the European Union and NATO to extend their sphere of influence into countries once part of the Soviet Union nor did they approve of any of the former Soviet satellite states encouraging this influence. Furthermore, it has also become well known that Putin and many others within the Russian government, along with his allies elsewhere, dislike the detachment of Crimea from Russia for a multitude of reasons, not limited to the historic and

Invasion of Ukraine A. Russia’s position/reaction: President Putin believes that Russia did not violate international law in any way. i. Putin says the annexation of Crimea was legitimate and democratic due to both regional parliaments and the people voting for it in. ii. From Russia’s view on the situation, the troops were deployed to prevent bloodshed. B. U.S. position: U.S. says Russia’s actions are in violation of international law.

This was an appropriate policy of Putin’s because it allowed for Russia to become known to the world again after the Soviet Union had fallen. Concerning the relations between Russia and the United States under Putin, many believe that the relations between these two countries had reached their lowest point in 2013. This was eventually resolved when Putin went to a United Nations meeting in order to discuss the anti-terrorist policies and what to do in regards to Syria and Ukraine. This helped to strengthen the relationship between the two countries

On November of 2013 the citizens of Ukraine took to Kiev’s streets. Mass protests broke out in dispute of the governments plan to drop agreements with the European Union and instead seek closer economic ties with Russia. Since the protests broke out Ukraine has seen an ongoing conflict in the east of the country. In order to illustrate a clearer understanding of the current situation in Ukrainian I will first discuss a brief history of Ukraine and its relationship with Russian since the fall of the Soviet Union.

In early 2014, Russia made the decision to conduct an illegal military intervention into Ukraine. It all began when there was a dispute over whether Ukraine should accept financial help from Russia or Europe, which then ascended into the ousting of the Ukrainian president and then invasion of Ukraine. More specifically, Russia began to taking over the Ukraine territory of the Crimean Peninsula through illegal use of force (Global Security, 2016). During that time, the Russian government voted to place Crimean’s into the Russian Federation, which had been rapidly accepted by the President of Russia himself, Vladimir Putin. Most of the Crimean population is ethnic Russians, although there are also the pro-Ukraine Tatar minorities that make