In August 2008, Russian-backed separatists demanded independence in the areas of Georgia known as South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Soon afterwards, Russian tanks rolled into the area and ejected Georgian forces. Since then, the territories have been a frozen conflict, with Russian forces standing inside Georgia to secure the areas. The territories then proclaimed independence…
In the spring of 2014, something happened that has not happened in Europe after World War II. One country annexes part of another country. In this case, it was Crimea that was annexed by Russia. A carefully planned annexation as a direct result of Putin’s desire to control his Slavic neighbors as he has…
Do you remember back to the winter of 2013-14 when Ukraine was in the news all the time. A conflict that turned into a war and is still ongoing. Europe’s Forgotten War. The cause of the war In February 2010, Viktor Yanukovych was elected President of Ukraine. A rapprochement with Western Europe was among…
Negotiations are ongoing between Russia and Belarus on some form of union. There is little information about what this union actually entails, but there is a lot of speculation. The Union from 1999 Russia’s influence in Belarus is strong. Since 1996, the countries have been in a commonwealth between the countries, which in 1999…
In 1994, the 3 nuclear powers, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom, signed an agreement with Ukraine. The agreement obliged them to defend Ukraine’s borders. 20 years later, Ukraine was attacked by Russia, fighting is still going on in the country. Who took over Ukraine’s nuclear weapons? Yes, Russia. At this time,…
Holodomor is Ukrainian and means something like “To kill with hunger”. I’ll tell the story you may have heard of but do not fully understand the scope of. We’ll go back in time to 1932-33. Between 3 and 10 million Ukrainians died of starvation. The reason may be that some claim bad politics on…