This is a legacy website featuring a collection of work by the Carnegie Endowment’s global network of scholars on topics including Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, and the post-Soviet states. This site is a product of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Washington, D.C. For more recent work by Carnegie scholars in this field, please visit Carnegie Politika.
The possibility of a Russian military operation in Ukraine that is not limited to Crimea is real. Russia and the West are on the verge a confrontation far worse than over Georgia in 2008.
Some kind of political crisis in Crimea looks almost inevitable. At the moment the priority has to be stop having a military one as well.
The voices from India in world discussions about Ukraine are of particular importance due to long tradition of non-alignment policy of this country and its good relations with both USSR/Russia and the West.
With all eyes on the simmering crisis in Crimea, the new provisional Ukrainian government in Kyiv is sending few, if any signs that it is seeking reconciliation.
It is not clear how long the uncertainty over Ukraine’s new course will last. But the challenges that the country is facing are more obvious.
The situation in Ukraine is very unstable and dangerous, and Moscow's support of the delayed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and non-recognition of the new authorities in Kyiv only adds to the tension.
Crimea is the most serious potential conflict in postrevolutionary Ukraine. The crisis could lead to a hot war in Ukraine and dramatically increase tensions between Russia and the West—no effort should be spared to avert this scenario.
The collapse of the Yanukovych regime in Ukraine became another posthumous chapter in the breakup of the Soviet Union. It will severely curtail Russia’s leadership ambitions in the post-Soviet space.
As more or less the last international player that can make a pitch to all of Ukraine, the EU will need to re-tool the Eastern Partnership to make a credible offer to all Ukrainian citizens.
Russia and the EU are trying to pull Ukraine into their orbit rather than cooperating on what would be best for the country.