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Collapse of the Soviet Union
On December 22nd, 1991, representatives from 11 Soviet republics met in the Kazakh city of Alma-Ata and announced that they would no longer be part of the Soviet Union. These nations did this because three baltic nations had already declared their independence from the USSR due to radical reforms soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had implemented. This marked a peaceful ending to an oppresive and bloody era. -
Ukrainian independence
Ukraine gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and has since veered between seeking closer integration with Western Europe and reconciliation with Russia, which supplies most of the country's energy. -
NATO Expansion
the process of including new member states in NATO. NATO is a military alliance of twenty-six European and two North American countries that constitutes a system of collective defence. The process of joining the alliance is governed by Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which allows only for the invitation of "other European States". Ukraine aspires to Join NATO, but due to clultural ties to Russia, it creates rising tension between NATO countries and Russia. -
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Russo-Georgian War
The Russo-Georgian War was an armed conflict between Georgia, the Russian Federation, and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.[note 3] The war took place in August 2008 amidst worsening relations between Russia and Georgia, which were both formerly constituent republics of the Soviet Union. The fighting took place in the strategically important Transcaucasia region, which borders the Middle East. -
Russo-Georgian War
The Russo-Georgian War was an armed conflict between Georgia, the Russian Federation, and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.The war took place in August 2008 amidst worsening relations between Russia and Georgia, which were both formerly constituent republics of the Soviet Union. The fighting took place in the strategically important Transcaucasia region, which borders the Middle East. -
Russian Annexation of Crimea
The Republic of Crimea, officially part of Ukraine, lies on a peninsula stretching out from the south of Ukraine.It is separated from Russia to the east by the narrow Kerch Strait Crimea became the focus of the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, after Ukraine's pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych was driven from power by violent protests in Kiev. Russian forces seized control of the Crimean peninsula.
