International relations is a very important segment of the UPSC syllabus. In this series, we present an analysis of the most important international issues and developments that occurred over the past week relevant for the IAS exam. In this article, you can learn more about the Russia – Ukraine crisis, the latest developments between Turkey and Ukraine.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Ukraine-Russia Conflict 2. Turkey Ukraine Crisis
Context: This article examines the criticality of sanctions being imposed on Russia and the role of NATO in the crisis.
Image source: Al Jazeera
Sanctions:
What is a sanction?
- A sanction is a penalty imposed by one country on another, often to stop it from acting aggressively or breaking international law.
- Sanctions are often designed to hurt a country’s economy, or the finances of individual citizens such as leading politicians.
- They are among the toughest measures nations can use, short of going to war.
What are Economic Sanctions?
- Economic sanctions are defined as the withdrawal of customary trade and financial relations for foreign and security policy purposes.
- Sanctions may be comprehensive, prohibiting commercial activity with regard to an entire country, or they may be targeted, blocking transactions by and with particular businesses, groups, or individuals.
- Sanctions take a variety of forms, including travel bans, asset freezes, arms embargoes, capital restraints, foreign aid reductions, and trade restrictions.
When are sanctions used?
- National governments and international bodies such as the United Nations and European Union have imposed economic sanctions to coerce, deter, punish, or shame entities that endanger their interests or violate international norms of behaviour.
- Sanctions have been used to advance a range of foreign policy goals, including counterterrorism, counternarcotics, nonproliferation, democracy and human rights promotion, conflict resolution, and cybersecurity.
What are Smart Sanctions?
- Smart Sanctions are targeted sanctions intended to be directed at individuals, companies and organizations, or restrict trade with key commodities.
- The following instruments can be applied: Financial sanctions, Trade restrictions, Travel restrictions, Diplomatic constraints, Cultural and sports restrictions, Air traffic restrictions.
Sanctions on Russia
- Hindering Russia’s Central Bank
- The United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom have limited the ability of Russia’s Central Bank to draw on more than $600 billion in foreign currency reserves.
- That has left the bank with few tools to prop up the rouble and prevent it from crumbling in value.
- Russia cut from SWIFT
- The West has cut key Russian banks out of a financial messaging system known as SWIFT.
- The EU finalised a list of banks it would remove from SWIFT which included seven Russian banks but excludes two of the country’s largest banking institutions.
- Russia has declared that kicking it out of SWIFT would be equivalent to a declaration of war.
- Cutting Russia off from technology
- The US said that it would limit exports of technology such as semiconductors to Russia, and allies in Europe and Japan cooperated in the move.
- The US announced that it would extend export controls to Russian oil refineries and Belarus.
- However, the restrictions could simply cause Russia to turn to China to meet its needs for those devices and their components.
- Energy sanctions
- Exports of oil and natural gas are vital to Russia’s economy, but those products have largely been spared sanctions because Western leaders are wary of moves that might hurt their own consumers.
- Oil prices have already moved higher since Russia’s invasion.
- The US is clearly worried about rising gasoline prices heading into the mid-term elections this year, having announced the release of oil from the federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
- Aerospace closures to Russian airlines
- The United States closed its airspace to Russian airlines.
- The move came, however, only after the European Union and Canada had already barred Russian planes.
- Aerospace closures are having a much greater impact in Europe, with neutral Switzerland and Sweden also choosing to follow the example of other European nations.
Role of NATO in Russia-Ukraine Conflict
- What is NATO?
- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established in 1949 by the US, Canada and several Western European countries to ensure collective security against the Soviet Union.
- It was America’s first peacetime military alliance outside the Western Hemisphere.
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Image source: BBC
- NATO’s open-door policy with Russia
- After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Eastern European military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, disbanded in 1991.
- However, there was disagreement over whether that was an alternative to NATO membership or a pathway to it.
- In 1997 NATO and Russia signed the “Founding Act” on mutual relations, cooperation, and security, and the NATO-Russia Council was founded in 2002.
- Moscow received access and a permanent presence at NATO headquarters in Brussels. But this exchange has been largely halted since Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2014.
- NATO maintains an open-door policy to “any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic”.
- Who controls NATO?
- The Military Committee, NATO’s highest military authority, is in charge of NATO’s Command Structure (NCS).
- Why is Ukraine not a member of NATO?
- Ukraine is formally not a member of NATO, but it has long wished to join.
- In 2002, Ukraine’s former president, Leonid Kuchma, indicated an interest in joining NATO.
- NATO formed a Ukraine-NATO Commission in 1997, which allowed for discussions on security matters and allowed the NATO-Ukraine relationship to progress without a formal membership agreement.
- NATO’s support is restricted without membership. It does not, for example, commit to sending troops to non-member countries.
- It has, however, dispatched troops to neighbouring nations and expressed public support for Ukraine.
- What does Russia want from NATO?
- Ukraine’s separation from the Soviet Union and ties with NATO are at the root of the current tensions.
- Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, NATO moved eastward to include Baltic republics such as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, which were originally part of the Soviet Union.
- As a result, NATO, which was formed to fight the Soviet Union, drew closer to Moscow, bordering it directly.
- Russia issued an eight-point draft security pact for NATO by the end of December 2021. The proposal included conditions such as prohibiting Ukraine from joining NATO, limiting NATO’s future expansion, and prohibiting drills in the region, among others.
How has Turkey responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?
- The Turkish government has designated the Russian invasion as a “war,” giving it the right under the 1936 Montreux Convention to close the Bosporus Strait to warships.
- Although this action applies to any naval vessel, it is clearly aimed at Russia’s fleet in case Moscow seeks to reinforce the firepower it already has there.
- Turkey’s decision is an important symbolic one in support of Ukraine.
What’s behind Turkey’s response?
- Though Turkey voted for a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia, it has not sanctioned Russia or closed its airspace to Russian aircraft.
- Some observers have been quick to highlight the differences between Turkish policy and the definitive pro-Ukraine approaches of the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), implying that Ankara is trying to have it both ways—remaining rhetorically committed to Ukraine’s independence and offering to mediate the conflict while tilting toward Russia.
- There is some logic to this, especially after the purchase of the Russian-made air defense system known as the S-400.
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