HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — When the Soviet Union collapsed back in December of 1991, borders were drawn throughout Eastern Europe, creating 15 different countries.
The largest of them is Russia; the second largest is Ukraine.
Ukraine wants to join the EU and NATO, but Russia doesn't want that to happen.
Dr. George Liber, Ph.D., is a professor in UAB's Department of History. He explains, “What Ukraine seeks to do is to find protectors, in terms of the European Union in building up its economy and NATO in terms of building up its defense capability. Well, President Putin doesn't want that. And what Russia under President Putin wants to do is to prevent Ukraine from becoming a member of NATO as well, although they don't say it publicly, as well as the European Union. Since 2004, no other former Soviet republics outside of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have joined NATO or the European Union."
But during a conversation between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Putin made some demands, one of them being that NATO withdraw from all of the countries which joined NATO since 1997.
Those countries are protected by NATO, the same group Ukraine wants to be a part of but can't. And because of this, Ukraine is vulnerable to Russian attacks.
Liber says, “NATO offers the Article Five guarantee and the article five guarantee is that if one country attacks another NATO country, all of NATO come together and defend it in push back.”
But what does all of this mean for us? Americans? Alabamians? Liber explains the issue President Biden and his cabinet currently face. “How does he stop this without going to war and if war breaks out, how does he, what's the response of the United States and what's the response of NATO?”
The professor expresses that he doesn't think this will be a war of guns and tanks, at least on our part. “I don't think it will be a physical war. But in terms of the United States, but it would certainly be a financial problem.”
It will definitely be an issue that impacts the economy worldwide, whether that be through cyber attacks or inflation.
And, of course there's this possibility of sanctioning Russia's three largest banks, which do international business. Sanctioning Russia would consist of essentially freezing their economy. This would be a consequence or sanction that the US and NATO would take if necessary in order to mediate.