2014 Crimean Crisis

As 2014 began, Russia, lead by Vladimir Putin, decided that the area of Crimea in Ukraine should be part of Russia. Crimea has beneficial factors to contribute to Russia and many of the people currently living there are Russian. When polls were taken, most of the people living in Crimea said that they would rather be a part of Russia than Ukraine. The main problem with Putin’s decision to annex Crimea is that it breaks several national treaties. Even though the annexation of Crimea is not allowed, the benefits for Russia were too good to pass up.

Crimea is a location that gives advantages to whoever owns it. Crimea is an area known for it’s resource rich land. This is an ideal place for oil and gas. Russia will have much less oil and gas expenses if they control Crimea. Russia’s current oil and gas sources are currently not as effective as Putin would hope, and having control of new sources would be beyond beneficial.

The Ukraine crisis was the talk of the world for about a month or so, but why was this conflict given so much attention? The people of the U.S wanted the annexation of Crimea to be stopped. President Obama announced future punishments to Russia if they continued. This action brought even more attention to the topic. Many Americans agreed with the punishment. After this, however, debates began on whether or not outside countries should take military action against Russia.

One of the ways Russia was punished was by being temporarily suspended from the G8. The other seven countries in the G8 were allied against Russia since they did not agree with the annexation of Crimea. Russia’s response to being removed was predictable. They did not care. “Maybe, for a year or two, it will be an experiment for us to see how we live without it” stated a Russian official when speaking about Russia’s reaction to the removal. Many people opposed outside countries getting involved with the crisis.