Timothy Snyder’s latest Thinking About covers Russia’s Crimea Disconnect.
On 7 October, an explosion destroyed some of the Kerch Bridge, which connects Russia to Crimea. It is a new construction. When Russia invaded Ukraine the first time, in 2014, there was no such bridge, no road connection between Russia and Ukraine's Crimean province. From the perspective of Ukraine, Crimea is a peninsula. From the perspective of Russia, Crimea is an island.
in a lengthy but fascinating account, Snyder looks at Putin’s claims to Crimea (and Ukraine) as having a centuries-old basis. The disconnect is about more than a bridge.
Crimea is a district of Ukraine, as recognized by international law, and by treaties between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Putin, however, has taken the view, for more than a decade now, that international law must yield to what he calls "civilization," meaning his eccentric understanding of the past. The annoying features of the world that do not fit his scheme of the past are classified as alien, and illegitimate, and subject to destruction (Ukraine, for example).
The example of Crimea lays bare a problem within Putin's thinking. The idea that there is some sort of immutable “civilization,” outside of time and human agency, always turns out to be based upon nothing. In the case of Crimea, Putin's notion that the peninsula was "always" Russia is absurd, in almost more ways than one can count.
Snyder lays out the history of the region — the panoply of peoples and empires that have risen and fallen over time. The tankies who claim the Russian invasion is the fault of American imperialism are totally clueless about how many different imperial adventures have played out across the region, and how many different empires have come and gone.
It’s an excellent read — find time to go through the whole thing.
Snyder concludes with this:
To end where I began, though: in the basic legal sense, none of this matters. Legally speaking, Crimea is part of Ukraine for the same reason that Maine is part of the United States, or Provence is part of France: international law and the principle of mutual state recognition. Even were Putin's arguments about Crimea and Ukraine something else than multidimensional nonsense, they would provide no justification for invasion and annexation. That said, the history of Crimea is fascinating on its own (see excellent books by Kelly O'Neill, Charles King, Neal Ascherson, Natalia Królikowska-Jedlińska, and the late Patricia Herlihy, among many others, on Crimea and New Russia.)
Some knowledge of Crimean history also gives fresh angles on the history of eastern Europe - and on contemporary Ukrainian and Russian proposals for the peninsula. Russia's idea is to treat Crimea as a base for present-day empire, with more state terror and naval bases, and further oppression of the indigenous Crimean Tatar population. The Ukrainians are proposing that Crimea become a demilitarized zone with a national park, and with recognition of its indigenous people.
Read the whole thing.
It may be the 21st Century, but some minds are still stuck in an imagined past. If you give credence to Snyder’s analysis of what is driving Putin’s thinking, it goes a long way towards explaining the irrational elements of the ‘reasons’ for the invasion, and why negotiations to end the conflict on the basis of ‘common sense’ assumptions are likely to miscarry.