Time (January 1)
“Russia’s President Vladimir Putin needs a time machine to take him back to March 2014, so he can stop at Crimea. Look at his poll numbers: the bump topped out when Putin added Crimea to the trophy case. The continuing fight in Ukraine’s eastern provinces has brought him nothing of value. He’ll be re-elected in March, but given the state of Russia’s economy, it won’t be long before he’s pining for a return to simpler times.”
Wall Street Journal (June 9)
With the unfolding FIFA scandal, the legitimacy of Russia’s successful bid to host the World Cub may be called into question. To some, the bribery is irrelevant. “Why not at least threaten a boycott of the Cup for as long as Russian troops remain in Ukraine? The average Russian couldn’t care less that the deputy prime minister is under international sanctions for Moscow’s seizure of Crimea. But soccer-mad Russians would care, a lot, if the games were taken from them.”
The Atlantic (November Issue)
China is “intensifying efforts to remake the maritime borders of” the South and East China Seas, “just as surely as Russia is remaking Europe’s political map in places like Crimea and Ukraine—only here the scale is vastly larger, the players more numerous, and the complexity greater.”
Tags: Borders, China, Complexity, Crimea, East China Sea, Europe, Map, Maritime, Russia, South China Sea, Ukraine
Washington Post (June 26)
With “gestures suggesting de-escalation,” Vladimir Putin has been working to avoid additional sanctions. But “Russia’s behavior remains unacceptably provocative. Russia continues to occupy Ukrainian territory in Crimea, it has not applied its influence to end the uprising it sponsored in eastern Ukraine and it continues to deploy forces to Ukraine’s border.”
New York Times (March 19)
Will Crimean exuberance over a Russian homecoming soon turn to disappointment? History suggests as much. When South Ossetia was liberated from Georgia in 2008 “people were delighted to see the Russian soldiers…. But within a few months of Russia’s recognition, shivering through the winter behind windows made of plastic sheeting, people began to wonder when the billions of rubles of aid pledged by Russia would reach them.”
Tags: Aid, Crimea, Disappointment, Exuberance, Georgia, Rubles, Russia, Soldiers, South Ossetia
