Europe and Russia’s Complex Relationship : PART - 1

“2023” is a year that’s been significantly important, financially disruptive, and socially transformative but most importantly a year full of trust issues in the storage of a relationship.

A multifaceted relationship that has survived the troll of time, tracing its way back to the deepest corners of history ever known to mankind.

These are times when the world is haunted by a bigger possibility of an upsurge than that from the times of the Cold War. The Ukraine-Russia Conflict has yet again resurfaced in the most hideous faces that our political leaders have tried to bury for a very long time. But It is also necessary that to understand today, we need to look at the wholesome past these nations have had.

The year was 2014, Ukraine erupted into crisis, gaining momentum is a courteous progression. The Euromaidan protests led to the revolution of Dignity and as a result, The Government of Ukraine fell due to massive protests in the Ukrainian Capital “Kyiv”. The Back-then President Viktor Yanukovych fled the nation. This in its literal term caused the Dynamics of the Ukrainian Society to shiver. Shortly after this, the current Russian President Vladimir Putin along with 1000 unmarked soldiers marked and annexed Crimea (A legal Territory of Ukraine). Surprisingly, this date was very close to when the talks of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had resurfaced. Russia felt threatened that NATO would reach its doorsteps if Ukraine became a member for which it demanded a written guarantee from the US stating that Ukraine would not be allowed to join NATO. The US didn’t give in to them, increasing tensions in Europe.

If anyone were to summarize this plethora of looks of these nations, most global citizens would deduce that Europe and Russia have grown to hate each other but the numbers tell a different story. According to Wikipedia, up until 2022, The European Union was the largest trading partner of Russia, accounting for 52.3% of all foreign Russian trade in 2008, and 75% of the foreign direct investment(FDI) stocks in Russia also came from the EU. In terms of denomination, these figures are as high as € 140 billion (EU to Russia) and € 185.7 billion (Russia to EU). The two factors on which 30% of the Russian Economy thrives, Oil and Natural Gas trade also have mainland Europe as the largest buyer.

After World War II, two major players emerged, which the Western journalists would assume as “The United States of America” and the Soviet Union. From sports to space to atomic bombs, the race between these two developing powers was endless which in turn ended up pushing the rest of the world into turmoil. To protect themselves from the gaining strength of the Soviet Union, The Western powers intertwined themselves in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the basic reason for the formation was to protect the Western interests from the Soviet Power. It also has a policy that says If any third party attacks a member nation, it would directly be considered as a straight attack on all NATO member nations. In response to this, The Soviets also formed the Warsaw Pact with 7 East European nations similar to that of NATO which fell when the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. However, the fact people overlook is that since the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO has been continuously expanding even taking in nations that were earlier part of Warsaw. Nations like Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic became a part of NATO in 1999. Economics experts and geopolitical analysts from all across the world feared that these series of incidents would make NATO “The World’s Police” and give them the power to decide the degree of Right and Wrong.

NATO has been growing even though the very agenda of its existence does not exist anymore. But What’s the problem now?

NATO on its every digital branch has reiterated the fact that it is a DEFENSIVE ALLIANCE but on the contrary, NATO has achieved many feats that in fancy language they call, “Bring Peace to war-affected zones”. Even after the United Nations Security Council Resolution 816 on 9 October 1992 ordering a no-fly zone over central Bosnia and Herzegovina, NATO attacked the area shooting down four Bosnian Serb aircraft violating the no-fly zone which is famously known as the Banja Luka Incident. Despite continuous condemns and warnings from Russia, NATO along with its so-called-poster-guy USA continued its interventions, which are aggregated as 81 overt and covert known interventions. These reasons do not give anyone the power and justification to attack a member nation and disregard its territorial integrity, but it indeed help us understand the reason and motive behind Russia’s Aggression.