NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia’s military takeover of Crimea, in spite of a transparent public referendum to validate it, is “the most serious crisis in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall.” Meanwhile, U.S.
Air Force General Philip Breedlove, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said a Russian force that began massing on Ukraine’s eastern border could be able to slice across southern Ukraine and reach the Transdniestria (alternately spelled Transnistria) region of Moldova, immediately west of Ukraine.
Transdniestria declared independence from Moldova in 1990, after Moldova itself had split from Romania in the collapse of Communist governments. Transdniestria has a high percentage of Russian-speaking citizens, and Russia, according to Breedlove and others, might be moving to unite an arc such regions from Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, through Crimea, and to the Transdniestria. Russia backed the secession of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia in 2008.
The international community has never recognized Transdniestria’s independence, and Transdniestrians have asked Moscow to facilitate incorporation.
Reuters reported Breedlove as saying, “There is absolutely sufficient (Russian) force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Transdniestria if the decision was made to do that, and that is very worrisome.”
Whether Russia enacts a southern sweep toward Transdniestria, Rasmussen said its current behavior is unacceptable. “Our vision of a Europe whole, free, and at peace has been put into question because this is not an isolated incident,” he said. He said Russian actions from South Ossetia through Crimea follow a “pattern of behavior.” He said:
What connects those crises is one big country unilaterally deciding to rewrite international rules overnight and on its own and recreate new dividing lines in Europe 25 years after the free peoples of Europe had erased them. We had hoped this kind of revisionist behavior was confined to the 19th century, but we see it is back in the 21st century. It is based on confrontation, not cooperation, and it poses a real threat to the global order based on our values and the rules that we all agreed to respect.
Rasmussen pledged NATO to three response “priorities.”
- One: Reaffirm NATO’s commitment to collective defense. He said no one should doubt NATO’s resolve to defend member nations, and he reinforced that resolve was real and not just words. That includes manpower, equipment, and surveillance. “Make no mistake,” he said. “We will defend our allies.”
- Two: Strengthening NATO support for Ukraine. That includes “support of the transformation of Ukranian armed forces into modern and effective organization able to provide credible deterrents and defense against military threats . . . .”
- Three: (This may be the most definitive of Rasmussen’s priorities.) NATO must make it “clear that we can no longer do business as usual with Russia.”
And the Ukrainian crisis obviously forced the United States to reconsider its unilateral relationship with Russia. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said much of American post-Cold War policy with Russia was about integrating the country into the “fabric of the international system and the global economy. But that was predicated on an expectation that Russia would play by the rules of the road . . . that govern responsible international action.”
She called the Ukraine crisis an “egregious departure” from those rules, one that is causing the US, Western Europe, and the international community to “reassess what does this mean and what are the implications.”
Sources:
Croft, Adrian, and Alexsander Vasovic. “NATO Commander Warns of Russian Threat to Separatist Moldova Region.” Reuters. March 23, 2014; accessed March 23, 2014.
NATO. “Ukraine Crisis Is A “Game Changer” for Allies.” March 21, 2014; accessed March 23, 2014.
NATO. Full Text: “NATO In Transition,” Brussels Forum. March 21, 2014; accessed March 23, 2014.