Crimea

It seems that the only thing preventing the media from talking 24/7 about the missing Malaysia Airlines flight is the situation in Crimea.  If you’re reading this blog right now, then that means you have access to modern channels of communication, and thus, you’re probably somewhat familiar with the recent string of events. 

Over the past couple of weeks, the Russian Federation has seized de facto control over the Crimea.  The new pro-Russian Crimean government held a referendum in which a supposed 97% of the electorate voted for Crimea to join Russia.  The West quickly denounced the election as illegitimate and has promised to punish Moscow for its act of aggression.

President Putin has tried to spin Russia’s intervention in Ukraine as an effort to “protect ethnic Russians.”  One has to seriously doubt this claim given that there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that the Ukrainian government is or was discriminating against ethnic Russians.

And if there are any countries in the world that act on behalf of idealist, altruistic principles rather than calculated self-interest, Russia is certainly not among of them.  The Kremlin is not fooling anyone here!  Russia’s actions over the past few weeks are clearly part of their design to reclaim its former glory.  (After all, Putin once remarked that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical calamity of the 20^th century.)

No matter how selfish, aggressive, or power-hungry nations may be, they often will exert surprising amounts of time and effort attempting to frame their blatantly reprehensible actions as altruistic.  The Crimean referendum was held under crisis conditions, there was no option on the ballot to maintain the status quo, and many ethnic Tatars chose not to even come out to vote out of protest.  Putin has also been claiming (confusingly) that many of the armed, uniformed men who took over airports and government buildings in the Crimea are simply not Russian.

If President Putin was really feeling altruistic--and felt compassion for all minority groups that want to determine the status of their own borders independently--then he should also be okay with holding a secession referendum in Chechnya!  And Dagestan!  Somehow, I think he might just not be okay with that...

This phenomenon is not unique to Russia.  Some might argue that President Obama’s “Asia Pivot” strategy is not an attempt to maintain stability in the Asia-Pacific and promote free trade and human rights, but rather, a design to contain China’s rise and to cling to regional hegemony.  To those who believe that power politics are the only factor behind the behavior of nations, all principles—including human rights—are just facades.

In essence, President Putin is making use of the principle that we inherently would prefer that others behave altruistically than out of self-interest.  The problem is, no one’s buying Putin’s definition of altruism. It's just an effort to save face or to whip up domestic support.  Well played.