With its actions Russia is building grounds to bargain with the west
Vladimir Putin couldn’t help responding to the activities in Ukraine because not doing so would mean going against the principles of the country. Therefore, in the post-soviet territory it is conducting the policy it should have done.
This is how the deputy-director of Moscow’s state university IT department Alexander Karavaev interpreted the actions of Russia. In the words of Karavaev, the opinions about the steps of Russia vary in the country. A part of the people thinks that there was no sense to interfere. Another part thinks that Russia should have stationed its troops in the eastern parts of Ukraine as well not only Crimea because it is a matter of self-defense.
Let’s mention that during the March 4 press conference of Putin he mentioned that he doesn’t consider the current government of Ukraine legitimate. In the meantime he mentioned that he had ordered the Russian government to resume talks with them. Putin also assured that the troops that have sieged the airport of Crimea, supreme Rada and other strategic objects don’t have any connection with the troops of Russia located in Crimea. He believes that these troops are self-organized. To the question that the uniforms of these soldiers resemble a lot to those of Russian troops, Putin assured that all types of uniform could be purchased in stores. This is what Karavayev said about Putin’s statement, “This is a very good sense of humor on part of Putin. Anybody who has any kind of relations with army can assure you that these are regular Russian troops with uniforms and all. He can’t full everybody”.
Russians are trying to be sleek but we should also remember how the US entered Iraq. Everything is possible in this world. The Ukrainian authorities and the western states announce that by its actions Russia is violating the territorial integrity of Russia and in particular Russia is violating the Budapest agreement, signed in 1994 between Great Britain, Russia, USA and Ukraine. It relates to the security and sovereignty of Ukraine. By interpreting this matter Karavaev expressed an opinion that the actions of Russia have political incentives. The first incentive is that the Russian diplomats will have arguments during negotiations and secondly, Russia will be able to maintain its presence in Crimea. “I think this will cause constitutional amendments in Ukraine in order to make Ukraine a federative state from an unitary one. But we should first wait for the results of Referendum to take place in Crimea on March 30, which will show in which direction Crimea will go.
It is a fact that Russia signifies its presence and influence in Crimea. Of course, it’s important what the formulation will be in regard to Ukraine’s legislation. But in general, Putin is correcting the mistakes of Yeltsin. At least the status of Sebastopol city should be changed,” said Karavaev. The chair of the supreme Rada of Ukraine, the acting president of Ukraine Turchinov stated that Russia is trying to repeat the Abkhazian scenario in order to annex Crimea. To our question whether Russia is violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine, Karavaev said, “it is a matter of interpretations.”
“The problem is that during the recent decades these matters are solving at the level of super states,” said our respondent. Karavaev also added that Russia’s deployment of troops has more of a de jure character than de facto. It means the Federal Council gave the permission but no practical steps are taken. As of the provisions of Budapest memorandum and the territorial integrity of Ukraine, Karavaev mentioned that these are important issues and should be discussed at high platforms, for example by the OSCE and UN. “The Ukrainian crisis has maximally instigated the absence of clear rules of geopolitical balance. Nobody took into account the fact that a new pole was formed in the person of Russia and Eurasia. And if this crisis exists we should discuss the borders of this pole. I am really sorry that it had to be Ukraine to go through the division of this pole,” said Karavaev.
When asked of the consequences of the conflict between Russia and the west Karavaev said that it’s possible that the sanctions against Russia will be much less than what is claimed by Obama and Kerry. “It means that only the list of Magntisky is expanded or certain Russian companies are blocked in the US they will hardly become a reason for the start of a new Cold War,” said Karavaev.
Aleksey Martinov, director of Moscow Modern History Institute repeated some statements from Putin’s interview in a conversation with us and said that the new government of Ukraine was not legitimate, and what Russia is doing was lawful.
“The Russian military navy of Black Sea is in the Crimea based on legal grounds. Russia is paying Ukraine for that, even though some Western politicians pretend that they do not know about it. By the way, some countries, and Turkey is one of them, support Russia’s policy in the Crimea. China has even called on the United States not to use tools of the Cold War in this issue. I believe the G8 summit will take place this summer, and Russia is going to take part in it. What the members of the G8 are saying about cancelling it now is simply a mechanism of pressure. The thing is that it is the other 7 countries that are primarily interested in the G8 format but not Russia, and that is the reason why the G8 was launched. This will have no significant impact on Russia,” said Aleksey Martinov.
By Aram Sargsyan
