Russia, abbreviated as the Russian Federation, Russia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic composed of 22 autonomous republics, 46 oblasts, 9 krai regions, 4 autonomous regions, 1 autonomous prefecture and 3 federal municipalities directly under the central government. Located in the northern part of Eurasia, spanning two continents of Eurasia, with a land area of 17.0982 million square kilometers, it is the largest country in the world in terms of land area, and it is also a unified multi-ethnic country composed of 194 ethnic groups, the main ethnic group is Russians, accounting for about 77.7% of the total population of the country. Russian (Русский язык) is the official language of the Russian Federation. The republics have the right to prescribe their own Chinese, which are spoken in more than 30 languages and spoken in conjunction with the Russian language in the territory of the republic. Russian is also the official language of the four CIS countries.
Russia's military strength ranks second in the world. The Supreme Commander is the President of the Russian Federation, and the Russian armed forces consist of two main components: the "Armed Forces of the Russian Federation" under the Ministry of Defense, other military forces belonging to the powerful sector and other paramilitary forces.
Satellite image of Russia
Ukraine (Ukrainian: Украина; English: Ukraine), located in eastern Europe, is the intersection of the European Union and the CIS, especially with Russia' geopolitics. In 1654, the Ukrainian Cossack chief Khmelnytsky signed the Pereyaslav Treaty with the Russian Tsar, and Ukraine and Russia were formally merged. Since then, Ukraine has had its own Government, but it has not played a substantive role. Joined the Soviet Union in 1922 (Western Ukraine joined in 1939). On July 16, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine adopted the Declaration on the Sovereignty of the State of Ukraine. On August 24, 1991, Ukraine declared its independence.
Ukraine is the third largest food exporter in the world. In 2017, Ukraine's GDP was about $95 billion, an increase of 2.5 percent over 2016. In 2017, the foreign trade volume was 107.3 billion US dollars, an increase of 18.5% over 2016, of which exports were 52.33 billion US dollars and imports were 54.96 billion US dollars. In 2020, Ukraine's GDP was about $155.499 billion.
The official language is Ukrainian Since January 2020, Ukraine has stipulated that the service industry will be fully converted to Ukrainian, and the use of Russian is prohibited. From 16 January 2022, the relevant legal provisions on the use of the language of the national print media in Ukraine will be implemented. Newspapers, magazines, and even crossword puzzle books will only be published in Ukrainian. According to the latest law, from July 16, 2022, those who communicate with customers in Russian in the service sector will be fined up to 11,900 hryvnia (about 2,760 yuan). In February 2021, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine approved a law prohibiting the broadcasting of Russian films and television programs on state television.
Map of Ukraine
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine can be analyzed from several aspects.
The first aspect is the external environmental cause. Although the decisive factors in the development of things are determined by the internal environment, the external pressure of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict far exceeds the carrying capacity of the two countries involved. The Russian side has been constantly provoked and squeezed out by the so-called developed countries of the Western countries led by the United States, which have used NATO and the European Union to continuously challenge Russia through multiple channels and in all directions; the Western countries headed by the United States on the Ukrainian side have issued him two "empty checks" that are "admission tickets" to NATO and the European Union.
The first aspect is historical origin. The dominant ethnic groups of both countries belong to the Slavic peoples. Ukraine and Russia have a close historical connection. Although there are people with the same ancestry in history, after hundreds of years of historical development and the intensification of ethnic contradictions, the relationship between the two nationalities has reached the point where it is impossible to be together. During the Tsarist Empire and the Soviet Union, the Russian community as the ruling nation, the Russian language and Russian culture had a great adverse impact on the Ukrainian language and national culture, and the Great Russian chauvinism of the ruling class staged many tragedies in history. After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's political orientation changed, turned pro-Western and tried to dominate Russia according to the United States, which led to the prominent ethnic contradictions within Ukraine and also led to the political relations between Russia and Ukraine falling into a state of confrontation. Russia is concerned that a pro-Western Ukraine may even join NATO, completely eliminating its strategic buffer belt and allowing Western military power to reach its doorstep completely, thus becoming a strategic and direct threat to Russia.
The second aspect is domestic and international political reasons. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's politics were more stable than those of Ukraine, and Russia's great power strategy was almost Putin's domestic and international political activities. Ukraine's political turmoil, the government is not strong, the centripetal force of political parties is not weak, the relationship between the local and central governments is sensitive, and the unstable political situation puts the central government at a disadvantage. There is a structural contradiction between transatlantic and Europe and Russia, including Russia and NATO, Russia and the United States, and Russia and Europe. At present, the two sides are in a situation of direct confrontation under the continuous stimulation of the United States.
From the perspective of the Western international political tradition, European and American countries have a concept of geopolitical theory, believing that Russia, as a land power country, is located in the heart of Eurasia and has always constituted a huge oppressive force from land to sea to European countries and even to Atlantic countries on both sides of the strait. This has been the case for hundreds of years.
The Soviet Union during the Cold War, and now Russia, maintained a prominent and oppressive geopolitical advantage over Europe or NATO countries. In order to eliminate this threat, Western countries have tried to push the source of this threat outward as much as possible through NATO's eastward expansion, and even extended eastward to Russia's borders, thus greatly restricting Russia's strategic behavior and ensuring the absolute security of NATO or Europe.
During the Cold War, the United States developed a theory of controlling the "fringes" of Eurasia to suppress the Soviet Union's "foreign expansion." To this day, the United States has tried to exploit the worries of European powers and Russia to provoke European allies to oppose Russia.
In this way, the United States has better pulled Europe, brought Germany and France and other European powers into the geostrategic orbit of the United States, supported the united states' position as an ally, and fully served the strategic interests of the United States in pursuing global leadership. To do this, the United States needs to control Russia as an important strategic adversary and push Russia into the trap of confrontation with Europe.
The third aspect is caused by the current complex geopolitical changes around Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a series of independent sovereign states emerged around Russia, but these countries have complex historical ties with Russia. The geographical proximity and historical connection have led to a geopolitical contradiction between Russia's neighboring countries and Russia itself.
Russia has complex geopolitical relations in three directions around it, one is the Central Asian region, as exemplified by the recent turmoil in Kazakhstan and the intervention of the Russian-led "Collective Security Treaty Organization"; the second is the Caucasus region, where the war between Russia and Georgia broke out in 2008; and the third is the Eastern European region where Ukraine is located, where the geopolitical relationship is at stake with Russia.
Some of the information comes from Baidu.