The "Near-Abroad" Factor: Why Putin Stands Firm over Ukraine
05/23/14
Hilary Appel
Security, Ukraine
"Western leaders should assume that averting conflict is not the priority for Russia if it means losing Ukraine in the long term."
President
Vladimir Putin has been hesitant to acknowledge Russia’s role in the
escalating violence and instability in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Striking a more conciliatory tone, Mr. Putin recently announced a plan to pull back Russian troops from the border
in order to ease tensions. Few in the West seem to be buying it,
however. Mr. Putin’s credibility was deeply undermined by his past
denials of Russian special forces in Crimea, and by the absurd claims
that last month’s military exercises on Ukraine’s border were simply
routine. As much as the recent aggression in Ukraine flies in face of
Mr. Putin’s oft repeated mantra of Russia’s commitment to international
law and respect for national sovereignty, in fact his stance is
compatible with the ways past Russian leaders have often treated the
“near abroad.”
For
centuries, Russia has sought to ensure its physical security through
its control over neighboring territory. In Russia, the notion of
“empire” was not based upon acquiring control over distant unconnected
territories on faraway continents, as the British and the French did.
Rather, for Russia, an empire was built through acquisition of
contiguous territories. This approach to security has left Russia, even
after losing its Soviet empire, the largest country in the world
geographically. Furthermore, Russia has always made the near abroad—as
the territory surrounding Russia’s borders is called—a priority. And
while Mr. Putin acknowledged the impossibility of restoring the Soviet
Union, he also found unacceptable any further unraveling of Russia’s
territorial integrity, for example through the loss of secessionist
regions in the Caucasus. His first actions as Prime Minister and acting
President were to prevent Chechen independence, even if this required tremendous brutality and violence against Russian citizens in Chechnya.
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-near-abroad-factor-why-putin-stands-firm-over-ukraine-10517
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