Forget Crimea

The recent meeting between Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin is just the latest attempt by a European leader to bring Russia closer. They discussed sanctions, the Donbass and the Minsk agreements. What about Crimea?

Angela Merkel is not the first trying to find a way to go back to business with Moscow and save her face, although she’s been so far one of the vocal critics of Putin’s foreign policy. Formally, the position of Moscow’s first commercial partner in Europe hasn’t changed. Merkel said it is important to go back dealing with Moscow (read: do business) but that the Kremlin’s support toseparatists in Donbass is an obstacle that must be overcome. Merkel, as was foreseeable, also indicated the way: the Minsk agreements. “I hope to arrive at the withdrawal of sanctions against Russia, following the implementation of the Minsk agreements,” she said at a press conference.

Minsk agreements, it is good to remember it, provide for a hypothetical peace plan for the Donbass, but so far – apart from a too often violated truce – they have just offered to each of the parties the opportunity to do nothing concrete for peace, while blaming each other.

And the annexation of the Crimea?

Illogical sanctions

The Crimea has disappeared from the radars of European leaders. It is never on the table when dealing with Putin, is not part of Minsk’s protocols, there is no plan for its legal status. We could almost say that Russia does not even face sanctions for its forced annexation. Individual and economic sanctions packages that have direct effects on Moscow are those related to the Donbass. Many are interested in eliminating them as soon as possible because they stop trading with Russia and are the basis of Moscow’s counter-sanctions over some European products.

The sanctions imposed on the aftermath of the Crimean annexation, however, have effectslimited on the territory of the peninsula. Paradoxically, crushing the economy of the Crimea, they end up punishing Crimean citizens, even those who – more or less legitimately but in good faith – voted ‘yes’ to the far-referendum, as well as those who have always opposed the annexation. We could even say that, being the Crimea formally Ukrainian territory under Moscow’s unlawful control, sanctions hit Ukraine.

An international crime

We need a change of perspective. We must say that the international crime committed by Russia in Crimea is even worse than the one committed in Donbass. That the military invasion of a territory of a sovereign state and the subsequent unilateral annexation are something that the international community does not have and can not accept. An Anschluss of the twenty-first century. That it is a crime reiterated every day that passes without the Crimea returning to being Ukrainian. And that, for once, the author of the crime is certain and identified. It is necessary to foresee a package of sanctions directly affecting Moscow for its annexation, with an automatic toughening mechanism over time. It is necessary to bring the Crimea back to the agenda of the Western leaders, to put it on the table at each meeting with the Russian authorities. And finally, remembering that letting this crime go unpunished creates a dangerous precedent for all Europeans. Because it takes nothing to organize a referendum at gunpointin any corner of Europe.

@daniloeliatweet