Unlock document.
This document is partially blurred.
Unlock all pages and 1 million more documents.
Get Access
Alexander Ubbink
04/25/2017
A Critical Analysis of the Russian separatist movement in Ukraine from the Realist Paradigm.
In February 2014, Crimea a city in Ukraine with great oil reserves and its access to ports, was
invaded by the Russian separatist movement and was annexed with military power by the Russian
military. According to the Russian president Vladimir Putin it was to “preserve the peace”, in the region.
Realists would use this invasion as a perfect example of how the balance of power politics, relative
gains, and the need to direct hard and soft power over another state applies to this region of the world.
Since Ukraine’s separation from the Soviet Union, tension between the Russian and Ukrainian
populations in Ukraine have been high and with the Ukrainian president backing out of the European
Union and taking a bail out from Russia the situation got from bad to worse. Articles read that, “…
thousands of protesters stormed the streets of Kiev (the capital of Ukraine) to renew their cry for
economic reform and voice their opposition to the president’s decision, calling for his immediate
resignation.” (Curran)
When Russia was known as the Soviet Union its grasp on the world was far and harsh including
the takeover of Ukraine. As other political states started to rise, Russia’s power slowly declined and the
balance of power was in jeopardy. On August 24th 1991, Ukraine declared it was no longer an entity of
the USSR but that it was an independent state. Even though Ukraine was no longer part of the USSR, the
communist ties to Russia are harder to get rid of then it was thought to be. Ukraine started to make its
own political and social rules that were not governed by the needs and want of Russian. The Russian
population in Ukraine never forgets its ties to the motherland, and feeling cut off resulted in the
separatist movement which was an attempt to divide the country where the Russian population can live
in Ukraine and not be part of Ukraine but once again be on Russian owned soil. Russia like all the states
in the world do everything in the arena of politics for the need and constant fight for power. So, when it
saw the country in unrest, it declared that it would send military aid to help when in fact it instead
invaded the city of Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine.
For this topic, realism is the best paradigm to use because this tension in Ukraine is all about
power, possession and the fear of Russia’s neighbors being influenced by democratic governments such
as Europe and United States. Russia has such great influence in Ukraine as to even have the Ukrainian
citizens doubt the banks owned by Russians. A Ukrainian student said, “We have a war with Russia, but
we have a Russian bank open in Kiev,” which was evident of the divisions of the two populations as
Ukrainians protested at these banks and told people to take their money out. (Peterson) Realism unfolds
the layers and reasons behind the Russian separatist movement in Ukraine. It was by no accident that
the Russian military was preparing troops before the protestors started to protest. If Ukraine had taken
the offer to join European Union, Ukraine wouldn’t need the financial backing of Russia and they would
