Conflicto De Rusia Y Ucrania

Introduction

The history and relationship between Ukraine and Russia goes beyond centuries to a numerous sets of encounters, both positive and negative, which have defined today´s situation and the national identity of the two countries.

In the 9th century, Ukraine, known as Kievan Rus was the major political and cultural center in eastern Europe. Kievan Rus reached the height of its power in the 10th century and adopted Christianity. Afterwards, The Mongol conquest in 1240 ended Kievan power, and caused Kiev to be under the influence of Poland and western Europe. In consequence on 1654, Ukraine asked the czar of Moscow for protection against Poland, and the Treaty of Pereyasav signed that year recognized the suzerainty of Moscow. The agreement was interpreted by Moscow as an invitation to take over Kiev, and the Ukrainian state was eventually absorbed into the Russian Empire. (Curtis, 2006)

After the Russian Revolution, Ukraine declared its independence from Russia, and in 1920 Ukraine became a Soviet republic. The next decade, the Soviet government's enforcement of collectivization had a conflict with the peasant resistance, which in turn prompted the confiscation of grain from Ukrainian farmers by Soviet authorities; the resulting famine took an estimated 5 million lives. Ukraine was one of the most devastated Soviet republics after World War II. (Zickel, 1989)

Then in 1954, back in the time, the Soviet Union gave Crimea to Ukraine.This sudden change did not felt anormal by the citizens of both countries, until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when Ukraine held a referendum to certify the independence from Russia, election that were favoured by the majority and Crimea, territory which was for both countries a strategic geopolitical location for different utilities, remained part of Ukraine, but with autonomy, its own Constitution and legislative power, and in turn, a president. (Calamur, 2014)

The history of Ukraine between 1991 and 2004 was marked by the presidencies of Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma. This was a time of transition for Ukraine. While it had attained nominal independence from Russia, its presidents maintained close ties with their neighbours.

On June 1, 1996, Ukraine became a non-nuclear nation when it sent the last of its 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads it had inherited from the Soviet Union to Russia for dismantling. Ukraine had committed to this by signing the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances in January 1994. The country adopted its constitution on June 28, 1996. (Zickel, 1989)

But then a big event took place on December 26, 2004, “The Orange Revolution”, which was a turning point for Ukraine where Viktor Yanunkovych supported the close ties with Russia, with Vladimir Putin while the prime minister Viktor Yushchenko had close ties with the EU. Protests began because it was claimed that the election was corrupted by intimidating the voters, an electoral fraud; protests succeeded by the annulation of the original run-off to make a second run-off under intense security by international observers. The outcome declared Yushchenko winner with 52% of the votes. This revolution left around 100 deaths. (Karatnycky, n.d.)

There was a dispute over the price of natural gas with the Russian monopoly of gas, Gazprom, to which the Ukraine government was acquiring very favorable rates before Yushchenko, but after he won, Gazprom demanded higher market rates, this was soon solved but it was a proof of the heavy response of Russia to the Yushchenko’s victory.

In 2006, there was a coalition of governments, the Tymoshenko bloc, Our Ukraine and the Socialist party1, but the president did not recognized it under the law but still Yanukovych became prime minister.

In 2008, confrontations in the Party of Regions because of the desire to join NATO, created opposition from Russia, there were cuts from gas supply from Gazprom because they demanded the payment of debts from the government. In May, Ukraine became a member of the World Trade Organization.

Another round of elections took place in 2010 where Yanukovych was placed first and Tymoshenko second. Yanukovych had the Russian-speaking east and south while Tymoshenko had the Ukranian-speaking west and center but she lost due to a lack of confidence by the parliament. She was later arrested and charged with a variety of criminal offenses and abuse of power, later on the charges were dropped but they reached the EU believing that the charges were politically motivated, this situation only tensed the political situations in Ukraine.

By 2012, Russia blamed Ukraine for the gas transshipments in Europe, this led Russia to ban cheese imports from Ukraine producers and bann also the export to other nation-states. (Copsey, n.d.)

In October, according to European monitors, the elections held were even less fair than others held in the past because there were several irregularities and vote counting took weeks to end which led to the thought of the election being stolen by the Party of Regions which had several seats in the parliament. The last months of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 had trade tensions between the EU and Ukraine in which Russia had played role in, but this only led to the government to decline agreements with the EU and to gain gas rates and loans from Russia. This actions produced the late 2013 protests against Russia and in favor of the EU which were attacked by security forces after the anti protests laws were passed in 20142.

1 Ukraine: elections held in 2006. (2006). Retrieved from Inter - Parlamentary Union: http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2331_06.htm

2Ukraine Crisis: Timeline. (2014, September 9). Retrieved from BBC Europe: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26248275

Definitions

Nationalism has an important role in this crisis because the current issue is the independence of this state and the outcomes have to do with it in terms of defeating the best interest of the country.

Nationalism can be described as an ideological instrument that looks for the creation of new political entities in a place where there is an ethnic, linguistic or cultural union. These similitudes are managed by a principal actor, the government, who elects the ones that should be referred to as common and national, making them a part of everybody’s identity and causing that people learn to recognize and find familiar the aspects that makes the individual be part of the whole.

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