To better understand whats happening between Russia and Ukraine in their dispute over Crimea, think of the following analogy: the US leases from Cuba about 45 square miles of land and sea on the south eastern tip of the island, where the US has long maintained a naval base known as Guantanamo Bay. If all of the civilians who live and work on and around the naval base voted in a referendum to separate from Cuba and become one of the United States, do you think Cuba would object? So does Ukraine. While its true that the mixing of ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians living around the Russian naval base at Sevastopol complicates the Crimean situation (since Ukraine claims it has a duty to protect ethnic Ukrainians living in Crimea from Russian hegemony) in a way not present in Cuba (since almost all of the civilians living around Gitmo actually are Americans and none are Cubans, and thus Cuba couldnt claim it has a duty to protect Cubans living in the leased area from American hegemony), I nevertheless hope the analogy helps you understand the territorial, if not the social, aspect of the dispute.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 18:54:00 +0000
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