Michelle Hennessy – News Writer
Southern held a discussion panel about the problems in Ukraine last week, focusing on what has happened and what’s next for the country. News anchor Chris Verlardi moderated the event, with Southern professors and Matthew Schmidt from the University of New Haven leading the discussion.
Chairman of Southern’s sociology department, Greg Adams, who had initially proposed the idea of a discussion, firstly outlined how the crisis unfolded.
“It started with the former president, Viktor Yanukovych, refusing to sign a deal with the European Union,” said Adams. “By doing this they accepted a large sum of money from the Kremlin which angered many pro-European Ukrainians. Many of the young people in Ukraine felt as if their country was for sale and took to the European Square in Old Town Kiev, Ukraine, in protest. Eventually the president fled the country and is now in exile.”
But Schmidt said there’s not likely to be a “blood bath” in Ukraine, as Putin is using a different type of military.
“What’s happening today I believe is driven by Russian Special Forces,” said Schmidt. “Now Putin can decide if he wants to take Eastern Ukraine or more likely, he’s going to use this to push for a strong Eastern Ukraine that is heavily autonomous from Kiev so then he can control it without having to take it.”
As for what’s next for the country, political science professor, Kevin Buterbaough, said he had a “very pessimistic” opinion for the country’s future, suggesting that even the increased sanctions on Russia will do little to ease tensions.
“The Obama Administration has already began to put sanctions on Russia but the problem with this is there are a lot of people in Russia who are only wealthy because of Putin,” said Buterbaugh. “They know if they stand against him he can throw them in jail or exile them, so they won’t do it. You also have the problem that if you put sanctions on imported goods, they’ll become increasingly scarce so then they can be used by the government to bribe people to support them.”
Schmidt said Russia’s only “serious threat” would be if energy trade was cut with Europe, but Buterbaugh said even that wouldn’t suffice in weakening Putin.
“The energy level is a weak one, because even if the West stops buying, there will always be other customers,” said Buterbaugh. There has been increased speculation in the news that Putin will create new trade links with China when he visits next month.
Tensions came to a head in the region after Russia annexed Crimea in a referendum the rest of the world deem illegal. Adams said though a large number of people on the Crimean peninsula may have advocated some increased autonomy, the referendum held was illegitimate.
“When you have guns and trucks full of soldiers coming down your streets, you have ultimately an occupied territory,” said Adams. “There might be some popular support for it, but the results they published of the 95 per cent, when I see that I see there was no interest in collecting a minority opinion so I don’t consider it to be legitimate.”
During the referendum, no foreign moderator was present, further delegitimizing the vote. Schmidt said this was a calculated move that enabled a 95 percent majority.
While the fate of Ukraine has created tensions many are describing as the worst East-West relations since the Cold War, for now it’s only speculation as to how far Putin will go, though freshman Eleanor Higgins who attended the discussion said more people should be aware of what’s happening.
“I think not enough students have an interest in this, probably because it’s not affecting us directly in this moment in time,” said Higgins. “I think it’s something that more people should know more about because it has the potential to do a lot of damage.”
