WASHINGTON, D.C. — It has now been more than four long years ago since Russian dictator Vladimir Putin shattered the post-war world order by invading and annexing Crimea and then sparking the conflict in eastern Ukraine which has so far claimed more than 10,000 lives. Moscow marked this ignominious anniversary by opening a bridge connecting Russia with Crimea on May 15.
Putin himself opened the bridge, hailed as Europe’s longest, by driving the first vehicle to officially make the 19 kilometer journey across the Azov Sea’s Kerch Strait.
Known for loving to dress up in tough-guy costumes – he’s previously appeared as an air force pilot, biker, rally driver, diver and hang-glider – a Truckin’ Putin, wearing jeans and wind-cheater jacket rolled into the occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
However, as he purposefully shifted the gears of his big truck, it must have been difficult for him to maintain a smile when he considered that the bridge, far from being a monument to martial triumph, is a stark symbol of the Kremlin’s failed plans to rebuild a new Russian empire.
When his secret agents, rent-a-crowds and special forces surfaced in eastern Ukraine in spring 2014, Putin was confident that Russian-speaking Ukrainians would overwhelmingly support him. He expected to snatch a huge crescent of Ukraine from its eastern borders, sweeping south and westwards to Moldova.
That would have created a land corridor from Russia to Crimea, which received most of its utilities, including water, food, fuel etc by road and rail from the Ukrainian mainland.
But that didn’t happen and Putin’s ambition to carve out a Novorossiya from Ukrainian territory was stopped in its tracks but not before Russian forces occupied much of the country’s eastern Donbas region.
Most of the world does not recognize Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula and has stopped trade with it. Everything to keep Crimea going had to be expensively brought in by ferry or plane from Russia so that the cost of living soared for those on the peninsula.
Much of Crimea’s economy depended on tourism. Most of the tourists came from Ukraine and the vast majority of this stopped their vacations on the peninsula. Russians had mainly driven to Crimea and most were uneasy about making the trip across Ukrainian territory while their army was killing Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
So the bridge became an obsession for Putin, who devoted billions of dollars to the project and wanted it built fast. Sure enough, in a way reminiscent of Soviet Stakhanovite Herculean labors, the bridge was completed six months ahead of schedule and Putin called the structure “a miracle.”
Conditions for bridge building are notoriously difficult there because of the seabed conditions and frequent stormy weather. A previous bridge, built decades ago by Soviet authorities, soon collapsed and some engineers are skeptical about how this one will fare. Russian engineering hasn’t, after all, got a golden reputation.
The European Union, U.S., Canada and many others condemned the bridge as an attempt to tighten Moscow’s illegal occupation.
The U.S. State Department said that the U.S. had already imposed sanctions upon some of those involved in building the bridge including Arkady Rotenberg, a developer close to Putin. A State Department official said: “These and our other Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine.”
So the bridge is failing to make any diplomatic connections and Ukraine says it is determined to eventually take back the peninsula. President Petro Poroshenko said on his Facebook page: “The invaders will need the bridge when they have to urgently leave our Crimea.”
Despite the hoopla surrounding its “opening,” the bridge isn’t much use yet as the roads leading up to it on both the Russian side and in Crimea won’t be ready until at least 2019.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, tweeted: “Both ends of the bridge lead nowhere.”
So like the Minsk peace process, which was supposed to end the conflict in Donbas, the bridge exists but isn’t leading to anything for the moment.
Earlier this month Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, said he had laid out proposals, last January, to his counterpart in Moscow Vladislav Surkov, to prod forward the mired peace process. However, Surkov, credited (or blamed) for being the architect of the Novorossiya project, has so far not responded to the scheme for the withdrawal of pro-Russian forces in Donbas and the introduction there of UN-mandated peacekeepers.
Putin will resist anything that looks like an acknowledgement that his imperial ambitions have failed. So, for the foreseeable future, bluster and theater – like the grand opening of a bridge that hasn’t really opened – will continue as a substitute for genuine and serious consideration of how to end the conflict causing death and misery in eastern Ukraine.
