The stakes of the Ukrainian crisis in the Black Sea

Abstract

Among the most significant security concerns involving a confrontation between the Euro-Atlantic community and Russia since 1991, the Ukrainian crisis seems to reveal a greater geopolitical game, which cannot be understood without analyzing the strategic issues in the Black Sea region. The North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union on the one hand and the Russian Federation on the other hand, have indeed conflicting interests regarding security, energy and economy in the Pontic area. The annexation of Crimea is only a crisis within a deeper crisis, in which a zero-sum game takes place, and where Ukrainian interests seem subsequently relegated as secondary ones.