The Annexation Of Crimea To Russia, Conflict Between Ukraine-Crima-Russia.

The annexation of Crimea to Russia, conflict between Ukraine-Crima-Russia.

Crimea is a black sea peninsula that is connected to southern Ukraine, which is a country in Europe. For a long time Crimea was part of the Russian Federation, however in 1954 it became part of Ukraine and as part of the most recent history, specifically in 2014 Russia annexes Crimea to its territory, which leaves Ukraine in a Non -compliance with the decision made by Vladimir Putin, the current president of Russia.

In the territory of Crimea, around 2 million people live, around 60% are identified as ethnic Russians and its language is Russian, another percentage of the population are those that are identified as ethnic Ukrainians, which feel closer to Ukraine and finally a percentage of the Crimean population called Tartars; The latter are mostly Muslims.

Russia attached to Crimea in 2014 in the midst of political tensions and military interventions, there is a surprising division between Ukrainians who want to be closer to Western Europe and those who want to be closer to Russia. Before the actions of Russia, the international population was surprised and not happy with what happened, governments of the West imposed sanctions on Russia for annexation and the Ukrainian prime minister, Aseniy Yatsenyuk, said that Russia’s actions were “a robbery at scale international"; However, in Russia, President Vladimir Putin was benefited in great way thanks to the approval rates he received from the Russian population.

Between Ukraine, Crimea and Russia, there is a story that goes from many years, history that is very useful to take into account to be able to understand the current context in which these three nations are and clearly explain how the annexation of Crimea to Russia.

1783, Crimea becomes part of Russia because Catalina the great defeat to the Ottoman Empire, at that time, the Tartars were the main ethnic group in the area. While the Russian Empire was established, the Tartars received discriminatory deals.

After the Russian Empire falls and the Soviet Union is instituted the treatment of this ethnic group did not change for a benefit of them, quite the opposite, between 1917 and 1933 about 50% of the Tartar population of Crimea was killed or He was forced to leave Crimea. By 1944, the Soviet government deported the remaining population of Tartars towards Asia Central. The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, in 1954 he gave Crimea as a gift to Ukraine, a country that had been of great importance for the Soviet Union and with which he had important links; Like Russia and Ukraine, they were "affected to the Soviet Union, the action of giving Crimea not created much stir among countries, much less internationally. In addition to being commemorating the anniversary of the inclusion of Ukraine in the Russian Empire.

In 1967, the Tartos began to return to their homeland gradually, yet.

With the fall of the Soviet Union in Ukraine. The way to democracy and capitalism was not simple, a large percentage of Ukrainians sought that their country looks more like Russia and another percentage sought that their country resembled Western Europe.

What is Euromaidan and why it is important in the Ukraine-Crima-Russian relationship?

It was a wave of civil manifestations and disturbances in Ukraine, began in November 2013 in the Plaza de la Independencia (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) in kyiv. El Maidan was occupied and blocked by protesters along with some administrative buildings.

In kyiv important events have emerged after the Ukrainian revolution, such as the crime crisis and pro-ruso discomfort; However, the protests continue to pressure the government in Ukraine to reject any influence of the Russian Federation in Ukrainian territory. This wave of manifestations can be perceived as a struggle between western pro-Europe and the east pro-ruso, are the Ukrainians rising against Russian domain.

The protests were caused because the Ukrainian government headed with Viktor Yanukovich decided to suspend the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union to be able to strengthen ties with Russia. The scope of the protests began to be higher and more until it began to ask for the resignation of the president and his cabinet, requests that were argued with the perception of government corruption, abuse of power and violation of human rights. 2013, in Crimea El Parliament requests to join Russia and declares itself independent of Ukraine, about 96% of the population of Crimea was in favor of joining Russia.

They decided to declare themselves independent despite the fact that Ukraine plays a great role in Crimea’s resources; For example, Ukraine is responsible for approximately 27% of gas, 70% of water and 93% of electricity, basically the basic resources that a country must have without problem and the most important. Ukraine was expected to reduce supplies after Crimea’s action, however, it would create a case throughout the region. The protests led to the Ukrainian revolution in 2014 and culminated in February of the same year with the flight of President Viktor to Russia.

In February 2014, after the government that was in favor of Western Europe took power in kyiv, Russian officials began arriving at the Crimean Peninsula, this began to create rumors in the country on a possible military confrontation of part of Russia in Ukraine; In Crimea, troops began to be seen but they could not be recognized where they came from, they took important infrastructure in the country and the Ukrainian military bases, Russia has rejected the reports that indicated that the troops in question were troops from Russia, shortly after that same year, Ukrainian troops withdraw. On March 18, 2014 in Moscow, a statement with Crimea officials is signed, this makes the annexation official, however, the vote or annexation managed to be recognized by the United Nations.

Ukraine signed a peace agreement with the rebels in 2015 which demanded a high fire and negotiation for a political agreement east of Ukraine. This decreased fighting in the country however I did not help its political position, which lasted a time in stagnation.

In a final attempt to manifest any relationship with Russia, kyiv has been striving to seek independence from his orthodox church, it is no surprise that the official religion in Russia is orthodox Christianity, therefore Ukraine if he maintained his church would feel that It is tied to Russia for religious reasons, an interesting fact is that due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia many churches have requested their independence from Moscow, Ukraine was granted independence, however this was convicted with the Russian Orthodox Church and for The Kremlin.

The president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, challenged the US government and the Western European authorities with the annexation of Crimea. In March 2014, the president declared that Crimea’s claim were within his rights, followed by the firm that gave him the necessary validity and a speech in which the Russian president compared the event with the declaration of independence of Kosovo in 2008 And the gathering of Germany in 1990, however, since World War II, this is the first time that within Europe a nation takes the territory of another.

Definitely the fact that Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea to Russian territory causes great impression in the international system since there are rumors about whether the argument of protecting the Russian population that is located in other countries, will be used again in order to cover more territory or have power and influence on another fundamental part on the world map.

What consequences did Crimea’s annexation?

After the annexation that the West declared as illegal, Russia began to interfere in eastern Ukraine and the West responded to this action with economic sanctions. In the same year of annexation in July, the sanctions were released in a coordinated manner by the European Union, the United States, Canada, among other allies around the world, in addition to that as the United Nations Organization did not recognize Crimea’s annexation to Russian territory. Three types of economic sanctions were imposed:

• Restrict access to Western Financial Markets and Services for Russian state companies designated in the banking, energy and defense sectors.
• Imposes an embargo on exports to Russia of high -tech designated equipment for oil exploration and production.
• However exports to Russia of designated and double -use military products.

Although within the international system there is an understanding about these sanctions, Russia did not stay with crossed arms; The response to these sanctions imposed was the prohibition of food imports from Western nations in August 2014 and is a prohibition that is still in force by the Russian government. However, this action caused food.

Western European economies are also affected at a certain level and especially as a consequence of the recession in Russia due to losses in export income, losses were caused by the following reasons:

• Directly due to Western sanctions
• Directly for the prohibition of imports
• Indirectly due to the recession of Russia and the lowest exchange rate, which from anywhere in the world lead to a much lower import demand.

In the same way, the European Union imposed restrictive measures against the Russian Federation due to the annexation of Crimea, this act has been convicted and is not recognized by the EU, imposed the first prohibitions of travel and the freezing of assets against people involved in actions against actions against The territorial integrity of Ukraine:

• Instead of the G8 summit, the G7 was held in Brussels from June 4 to 5, 2014. The EU member states supported the suspension of negotiations on Russia’s accession to the OECD. 
• The UE-Russia Summit was canceled and the EU Member States decided not to celebrate bilateral summits on a regular basis.
• The prohibition of importing products from Crimea or Sevastopol (within the EU) unless the products have certificates from Ukraine.
• Prohibition of EU Member States to invest in Crimea.
• Prohibition of providing tourist services in Crimea or Sevastopol.

The European Union is willing to reverse its decisions and return to their relations with Russia when it begins to actively contribute to finding a solution to the Ukrainian crisis.