For Europe, the defining event of 2014 was Russia’s annexation of Crimea and military intervention in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. The Kremlin’s actions directly challenged key principles that have guided Europe for more than six decades, particularly the renunciation of the use of force to alter national borders. But Russia is in no position to sustain its aggressive foreign policy.
It has often been argued that Russia was reacting to the perceived encroachment on its ‘near abroad’ by the European Union and NATO. But history suggests a simpler explanation: a decade of steadily rising oil prices had emboldened Russia, leaving it …read more
Source: European Voice
