By Patrick Sullivan, Contributing Writer
On Tuesday, March 1, International and Global Studies presented a panel on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with three professors from the History, Economics, and Political Science departments: Professor William Bowman, Assistant Professor Lindsay Reid, and Associate Professor Rimvydas Baltaduonis.
Bowman spoke first about the history of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. He began by challenging President Vladimir Putin’s “inverted” historical thinking regarding claims that Ukraine was “created” by Russia and that it had no real independence.
After discussing the background of the conflict, Bowman described the more recent historical developments throughout the late 20th century.
Bowman said, “the 1980s saw Mikhail Gorbachev’s profound experiments with the economy which were ultimately unsuccessful as he was toppled from power.” The Soviet Union “imploded” and broke into constituent republics with the eventual emergence of independent states, such as Ukraine. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the 1990s saw a “plummet of the Russian economy” with the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, Bowman explained.
Bowman concluded his remarks by stating how Putin emerged out of the 1990s and fall of the Soviet Union as a “young, tough, and anti-Yeltsin” politician. Putin’s grievances were “what did we [the Russians] lose” and the more ominous question of “how might we get it back.”
Reid began her remarks by noting her expertise in mainly international relations and conflict management.
Prior to the invasion, Reid believed conflict to be unlikely because of theories showing war to be a rare occurrence. She added that her “mind was biased towards peace” as a result of the long, relatively peaceful period since 1945.
“Putin miscalculated Ukraine and the West’s response,” Reid said. She added that negotiated peace settlements will be difficult given that Putin “couldn’t credibly not commit to violence,” making “peace overtures fragile.”
Then, Baltaduonis, who is originally from Lithuania, spoke about economic issues relating to the conflict. He began his speech by reminding the audience that Russia invaded Ukraine eight years ago in the Crimean and Donbas regions.
“The core of the problem is energy,” Baltaduonis explained. “Forty percent of Europe’s gas comes from Russia.” He added that Putin is using the geopolitics of energy to “divide the world.”
Baltaduonis then went into detail about the former and proposed pipelines that have gained considerable attention prior to the conflict. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would have supplemented the original Nord Stream pipeline, was built to ship natural gas directly from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, explained Baltaduonis.
Baltaduonis explained that Europeans were “lining the Russian treasury” through oil and gas profits. The overall gas pipelines of Russia supply much of Europe and largely run through Ukraine. Professor Baltaduonis explained how Europe was divided over the issue, especially over the ability of Russia to use energy as a weapon against the region.
Baltaduonis described Putin as being “afraid of a successful democracy right next door,” especially one with “historic ties.” He concluded with a plea to realize the scale of Ukrainian heroism.
The panel then switched to an open discussion where the panelists responded to questions from the audience. The International & Global Studies panel on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was recorded and will be available on the Gettysburg College YouTube channel.
