The United States, NATO and the European Union review their relationship and with the Eurasian country.
In recent weeks, Russia has been present in world political discussions due to its movements in the area of influence of the former Soviet Union, which have provoked these days reactions and warnings from the United States, NATO and the European Union (EU), to which has responded in the same way, even mentioning actions in Latin America.
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is the center of the matter, since the former has wanted to be part of the EU for several years and the latter says that this decision must also be agreed by him, for his security.
Everything has been escalating and Russia even annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 after a unilateral referendum that was never approved by Kiev. In addition, Ukraine accuses Russia of aiding pro-Russian separatists with whom it is fighting in the east of the country.
The United States and the EU put sanctions at the time and the relationship was continuously tensed until it reached the current point.
In this scenario, last week representatives of the Eurasian country met with envoys from the United States and NATO to try to lower the tension, but without results. Meanwhile, the European Union analyzes what actions to take.
The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, yesterday demanded that Russia take “unequivocal steps” towards the de-escalation on the border with Ukraine after meeting with the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez.
“The inviolability of the borders is something we have to respect,” the chancellor stressed, warning that the clear message from Germany is that “any threat to the integrity of Ukraine will have a high cost.”
Analyst Michel Leví, coordinator of the Andean Center for International Studies at the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, comments that the steps taken by Moscow are a geopolitical strategy to increase its influence.
“Russia, like China and the United States, and to a lesser extent the European Union, is demarcating its capacity for action and power as an international actor that can have certain levels of hegemony in the structure of the international system (…), it sends signals to all the other actors to show that they have a capacity for action and influence that can be similar or much more selective than others”, says Leví.
For him, Russia is an innate power and after the fall of the Soviet Union, of which it was its center, he has tried to claim that international position.
Another example of this is his role in the political controversies and repression in Kazakhstan or Belarus. In addition, it supports and cooperates in Latin America with Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
“In the context of the current situation, Russia is thinking about how to guarantee its own security,” he said at his press conference, commenting on the possibility suggested last week by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Riabkov, who did not deny or confirm that Moscow consider placing missiles in Cuba and Venezuela.
According to Esteban Santos, what ends up happening is that the escalation becomes a kind of “cold war 2.0″ with the underlying issue of security, because the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, says that it is unacceptable for Russian interests that the NATO continues to expand to Eastern Europe, up to its border.
“That’s why it’s so delicate. Ukraine wants to join NATO and Putin says that would be understood as a declaration of war. Direct cooperation is taking place, but while it happens, Putin raises the bar and begins to carry out military maneuvers,” says Santos, who adds that the greatest danger is that there may even be false positives of attacks and everything ends up escalating with reserved results. .
To this is added that Europe is in a strong winter and they cannot have an alternative source of gas to Russia. There is even an emblematic project called Nord Stream, which is a huge gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, this raises the bills for Europe. Everything is related to the energy issue, since Russia is the main provider of this issue to Europe.
Russia urged Germany and the EU not to politicize “or artificially delay” the certification of the controversial Nord Stream gas pipeline (part 2), which will transport Russian gas to Germany through the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
The German Federal Network Agency provisionally suspended the certification process in November until the company Nord Stream 2 AG -based in Switzerland, but controlled by the Russian giant Gazprom- creates a subsidiary under German law to manage the German section. of the gas pipeline as an independent operator.
In EU relations with Russia, trust between the former and the United States is also relevant, which has not been completely restored after the Trump administration in the United States and the hasty withdrawal from Iraq by the Biden administration.
The EU is already considering creating its own armed force to defend its borders. (I)
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