Timothy Snyder: Russia's Crimea Disconnect

[Nevilledog]

https://snyder.substack.com/p/russias-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.

The Kerch Bridge was completed in 2018, as a way for Russia to control Crimea, which it claimed to have annexed from Ukraine. This year, it has been used to supply Russian troops, carrying out a war of atrocity in Ukraine. The damage to the bridge will make it harder for Russia to supply the troops occupying Crimea and other parts of southern Ukraine. The explosion was also a blow to Vladimir Putin's prestige, since the bridge is a monument to his personal imperialism. Its vulnerability suggests not only the foolishness of this war for Russia, but more generally the self-destructiveness of Russian attempts to extend empire by force.

Most fundamentally, the burning bridge suggests tenuousness of Russia's connection to Crimea. The explosion gives us a chance, therefore, to consider the history of the Crimean Peninsula, and so to reflect, from a perhaps unfamiliar angle, on the histories of Ukraine and Russia.

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).

*snip*

[crickets]

1. Fascinating trip through history there. K&R for visibility.

[Sneederbunk]

2. There should have been a concerted effort to take that bridge out before now.