#7 Understanding: The Ukraine Situation

The Olympics went without a hitch, however, someone decided to turn the political switch on right when it ended. Wherever I go, whenever I turn on the Tv, the news is reporting about Crimea, Ukraine. Since this topic is being analyzed in every which way possible, I wanted to gain my own perspective of what is actually going on. After much needed research, I understood that president Vladimir Putin, of Russia, is trying to "take over", Crimea, which is part of Ukraine. The reason why Russia is trying annex this region of Ukraine is because they are trying to take advantage of a political instability in the country. Crimea was originally part of Russia, but Russia gave the region to Ukraine in the 1950's. President Putin grabbed the opportunity to take back that region of Ukraine, maybe because he felt that it "really belonged to Russia". Since Crimea is in close proximity to Russia, it makes it easier for Russian military force to enter, which is what they are currently doing.  The whole debate on this problem is that everyone is looking to America, the leader of the free world, on what to do.

Let's look at this sociologically, everyone is looking at America on what to do with this situation. Many believe that America is a strong democracy that has the ability to help out with the world's problems. Basically, in this situation, Russia is breaking international law. Although Crimea has close ties with Russia, it is still part of another country; Putin can't just claim that region for his own. Many on the right side of this debacle are critical of Obama's actions, claiming that they are weak and that he is not enforcing how important this issue is to Putin. Many believe that Obama needs to clarify to Putin the repercussions that will develop out of his actions if he decides to annex Crimea. However, the left side sees this as an important issue that leads to an unclear solution, so what more can Obama do? We are not going to get into a war with Russia and negotiating hasn't proved to be successful. One option that Obama can choose to proceed with is implementing economic sanctions. Economic sanctions can be briefly described as various forms of trade barriers and restrictions on financial transactions. If other countries join in this threatening economic stand, then it will punish Russia and force them to pull their troops out of Crimea. However, if America stands alone then Russia will not feel threatened and will continue to annex Crimea. Putin is impersonating a child and seeing how far he can go until he is stopped by a greater authority. If a child has parents that are lenient on punishments, then that child will continue to misbehave. However, if the parents of a child are more strict on moral issues, the child will be more hesitant to disobey in fear of being put in "time out". In a way, Putin is just testing the American leaders' political ability. Putin has to realize that he isn't hoarding a toy that doesn't belong to him, but land that belongs to another country.