Constantine Pleshakov - The Crimean Nexus

“Organizing principle” is an attractive expression, and when applied to foreign policy makes it sound as if the chaos of international relations could be scientifically controlled, like nuclear synthesis or tomato growing. It seems that for the interventionist the method is never to visit a developing country empty-handed, that is without non-negotiable gifts—business models, progressive mores, societal structures, political institutions, or “freedom” and “justice.”

In the course of The Atlantic interview, Clinton blamed Obama for the emergence of ISIS, quoting his “failure” to help Syrian anti-Assad rebels as resolutely as she had helped the anti-Gaddafi rebels in Libya in 2011. But her critics may point out that it was the interventionist policy of blanket endorsement of the “Arab Spring,” culminating in the NATO bombing of Libya, that made ISIS possible.

Taking out dictatorial regimes in North Africa and the Middle East created a structural void, where warlordism and lawlessness thrived. Libya is now a failed state in a key geopolitical location, and it is unclear whether the damage done to the nation is even repairable. Civil war rages, jihadism soars, and on the Libyan coast swarms of migrants fight for a place on a boat to cross the sea to Europe, the continent stupefied by the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have already arrived.

Compared with the brazen use of force in Libya, U.S. interference in Ukraine in 2013–2014 had been “soft.” Yet its underlying principle was the same—impose a gift of “freedom” on a divided nation, and take it from there—again, in the spirit of the infamous Napoleonic motto On s’engage, et puis on voit .

“Do no harm” and “organize”: the balance between the two in U.S. foreign policy will determine the fate of the unsettled parts of Eastern Europe, but also America’s gains and losses on that gigantic isthmus stretching between the Baltic and the Black seas.

Abkhazia, 30, 165

Akhmatova, Anna, 108

Aksyonov, Vasily, The Island of Crimea , 150–151

Albright, Madeleine, 24–25, 28, 166

Alexander II (emperor of Russia), 104, 107

Alma Ata Protocols (1991), 154

Amanpour, Christiane, 54–55

Anderson, Benedict, 40, 76

Andreotti, Giulio, 23

“Arab Spring,” 170

archeology, marine, 3–4

Armenians in Crimea, 5, 66, 81, 82, 88, 90, 151

Ascherson, Neal, 3, 6

Assad, Bashar al-, 137

Azov, Sea of, 4, 37, 40, 68, 99, 110, 121, 129, 140

Azov Battalion, 130, 133

Baker, James A., 23

Bakhchisaray, 71–72

Barak, Ehud, 47

Bashmet, Yury, 122

Bastion missile system, 121

Belorussia (Belarus), 40, 43

Belovezh Accords (1991), 154

Billington, James H., 75

Black Death, 69–70

Black Sea, 6, 16, 37, 83

archeology of, 3–4

balance of power in, 136–140

Convention on the Law of the Sea, 136, 140

environmental degradation of, 145

gas reserves in, 140–141

Montreux Convention (1936), 138, 139

naval bases, 45–46, 64

in Ottoman era, 71

and Russian Crimea myth, 98–100. See also Sevastopol

Black Sea Fleet, 109–110, 136, 137, 139

Blue Stream gas pipeline, 162

Bohlen, Charles E., 90

Breedlove, Philip, 136

Brezhnev, Leonid I., 43, 91

Brodsky, Joseph, 74, 94, 96, 100, 111

“Homage to Yalta,” 101

Brooks, David, 154

Budapest Memorandum (1994), 154–155

Bulgakov, Mikhail, Flight , 102–103

Bulgaria, 137, 138

Bulgarians in Crimea, 5, 66, 81, 82, 88, 90, 151

Bush, George H. W., 21, 23, 166

Bush, George W., 30, 166

Byelorussians in Crimea, 5

Byzantine Greeks in Crimea, 67, 70

Cameron, David, 165

Camus, Albert, 130

Caspian Sea, 71

Catherine II, the Great (empress of Russia), 5, 77–79, 82, 106

Chabot, Steve, 165

Charles XII (king of Sweden), 19

Chekhov, Anton, 9, 111

“The Lady with the Dog,” 94–95, 105–106

Three Sisters , 93–94

Chervonnaya, Svetlana, 117

China, 28, 137, 156

Chirac, Jacques, 25

Churchill, Winston S., 5, 90

Clark, Wesley, 29

Clinton, Bill, 21, 32, 47, 113, 166

and Kosovo intervention, 28

and NATO expansion, 24–25, 27

Clinton, Hillary, 64, 169–170

Cohen, Stephen F., 60

Cohen, Steve, 165

Connolly, Gerry, 165

Constantinople, fall of, 75, 76

Convention on the Law of the Sea, 136, 140

Cossacks, 39, 41, 120

Craven, Elizabeth, 150

Crimea: cultural and ethnic diversity, 5, 6–9, 66, 80–82, 85–86, 88, 151

ethnic minorities deported from, 90

geography of, 1–4, 65–66

historical remains in, 4–5, 67, 68

history of colonization, 6, 66–69

Khanate of, 39, 40, 70, 71–74, 77–78, 114

modernization in, 85–86

Mongol conquest of, 38, 69–70

Nazi occupation of, 88–90

organized crime in, 11–12

Ottoman control of, 70–71

Romanov conquest and occupation of, 74, 77, 78–86

Russian civil war in, 87, 102–103

Russian naval bases in, 45–46, 64

Russian revolution in, 86–88

Slavic settlers in, 85, 90–91

Soviet republic, 88

Tatar minority in ( see Tatars, Crimean); Ukrainian rule of, 43, 46, 64, 91–92, 112–114, 116–117, 144

—Russian annexation of (2014), 18, 22

economic consequences of, 143–147, 151–152

European response to, 162–166

Kosovo precedent for, 119

militarization as consequence of, 136–137

preparations for, 117–119

Russians’ support for, 122–123

strategic consequences of, 136–140

and Tatars, 147–150

treaty of ascension, 123

U.N. resolution on, 127

U.S. response to, 127–128, 129, 157

Crimean Mountains, 2–3, 88, 101

Crimean War (1853–1856), 83–84, 138

siege of Sevastopol, 84, 107, 110–111

Czech Republic: NATO membership, 24, 27

and Ukraine crisis, 164

Donbass region, 8, 37

coal mining in, 128

Russian invasion of, 22, 129–132

separatist insurgency in, 128–129

Donetsk republic, 128, 129

Dzhemilev, Mustafa, 114, 115, 118, 148

Engel, Eliot, 165

Erdogan, Recep Tayyip, 149

Euromaidan movement, 52–53, 55, 64, 119

European Union (EU): expansion of, 24

and Russian annexation of Crimea, 162–166

sanctions against Crimea, 146–147

and Ukraine cooperation agreement, 50, 51–52

and Ukrainian regime change, 55, 56, 164

Fabius, Laurent, 57

Faymann, Werner, 163

Feodosia (Kaffa), 6, 68, 69–70, 71, 74, 77, 78, 99

Firtash, Dmitry, 53

France, 17, 23, 57, 150, 155

in Crimean War, 83–84, 110, 138

and Russian annexation of Crimea, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165–166

Francis (pope), 153

Friedman, Thomas L., 26

Fukuyama, Francis, 10–11

Galeotti, Mark, 120

Galicia, 40, 42, 43, 129

Garton Ash, Timothy, 29

gas. See natural gas

Gazprom, 49, 141, 163, 165

Genghis Khan, 70, 114

Genghizid dynasty, 70, 72

Genoese in Crimea, 68, 69, 70

Georgia, 132, 138

and NATO membership, 137, 158

naval bases in, 45

and Russian annexation of Crimea, 139–140

separatists in, 30, 165

Germans in Crimea, 5, 66, 80–81, 88, 90, 151

Germany, 157

international agreement on Ukraine, 55–56, 57

and NATO expansion, 23, 24

Nazi occupation of Crimea, 88–90

and Nord Stream pipeline, 48

and Russian annexation of Crimea, 162, 165

Giray, Khan Devlet, 73

Giray, Khan Shagin, 77–78

Giray dynasty, 72

Giuliani, Rudolph W., 157