The war is not just in Ukraine

All throughout this summer, Russia was in Ukraine with its weapons, ammunition and direct support for the Ukrainian rebels, now it appears that it is there also with its troops, tanks and aerial combat capabilities. Russia’s iron-handed leader Vladimir Putin has started showing the military, particularly nuclear capabilities of the “new Russia,” reminding NATO in a way pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be kept) principle or else face the consequences.

What was the pact? It was the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation signed in Paris on May 27, 1997. Not only the Russian bear tilted toward domestication for the first time in recent history, but NATO directly or tacitly agreed to respect Russia’s economic, political and even military lebensraum (to put it mildly, living area) in its former republics, particularly Ukraine. Why Ukraine? Because Russian nationalism considers Ukraine territory as Novorossiya or “New Russia” and thus, as part of their historical heritage. Well as regards Novorossiya there is a Turkish connection (and a British and Cypriot one), as Turkey leased Cyprus for 92,799 sterling pounds to the British in exchange for support in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1778. After the area was captured from the Turks, the region that constitutes most of today’s Ukraine was named Novorossiya.

Pacta sunt servanda easier said than done. The conditions of 1997 and of 2014 are two totally different things. In 1997, the conditions of “membership for peace” and such formulae could help save face and hush up the former Soviet republics demanding NATO membership. Yet, the Russia in despair in the dissolution-era of the Soviets and the Russia of...