During the most peaceful time period in recent history one country fights to demolish what the world’s nations have fought so hard to build and maintain, a harmonious peaceful world. The Russian Federation is attempting to re-acquire it’s previous Soviet Era role of strength and influence over the world and should be considered a threat to global freedom. Either via the new hybrid cyber warfare or more brasin acts of troops on the ground Russia is stepping up its military muscle and dipping their balaclava clad noses into Ukraine and Syria. This type of influence over smaller dependent countries who gained independence less than 30 years ago in Ukraines case can’t be allowed by the free world who have struggled to build the most peaceful time period in human history shouldn’t become complacent with their actions and allow Russia to push its influence and control over the world.
The Russian Federation’s most recent step in pushing its world influence is Ukraine. Prior to the euromaidan unrest, Ukraine had made plans to become a NATO country in 2008. In 2010 Viktor Yanukovych was elected president of Ukraine by a vote of 48.95%. After Viktors election he withdrew his promises for Ukraine to become a member of the EU and later NATO, rather betraying his voters and Ukraine as a whole by seeking closer ties with Russia, this led to protests and later riots in Ukraines capital that lasted 10 months before Viktor was ousted and hosted by Russia. This led to multiple Russian backed separatists uprising and armed conflicts against the democratic Ukraine government. Due to the backing of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine by Russia it has allowed them to continue the aggression against Ukraine and it’s people, which has led to ‘10,000 casualties more than 1.7 million displaced’. At the same time of the pro-Russian aggression the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation was occuring, armed Russian forces, war ships and jets all armed for war entered Ukraine waters, airspace and land, respectively. This choice by Putin to get revenge on Ukraine for siding with the EU and NATO rather than Russia shows another aggressive step Russia has taken to re-acquire it’s old power.
Chechnya first began their fight for independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Indepence movement wanted their own republic as Chechnya’s culturally different,speak their own language and are not Orthodox Christian like Russia. During the spark up in conflict Boris Yeltsin the Russian President at the time of the conflict was determined to keep Chechnya apart of Russia despite the uprising. 100,000 people, which is almost four times the population of London, Ont were killed by the Russian invasion over the course of 1.8 years. Years later Russia continues these aggressive acts. On February 5th, 2000 the Chechen capital of Grozny was home to widespread arson, rape, looting and killing perpetrated by Russia’s Armed forces. Forty confirmed killings of a population begging for freedom from the Russian Federation. This brutality shown towards a smaller nation by a much larger and more powerful country shows a desperate hold on their Soviet-era territories and need for control in the modern world, though warfare has changed alot since then Russia still finds a way to poke and probe around nations sovereignty and freedom.
Having control over a state’s infrastructure via computers often called a godzilla attack is something Russia has been pursuing for years, shutting down power plants or even compromising their security is a large threat to any modern nation. In 2007 while Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, debated over moving a World War Two memorial to soviet soldiers. Ethnic Estonians saw this statue as oppressive. Russian speakers were misled by Russian language new sources into thinking Soviet graves and statues were being destroyed. Creating a divide between Estonian speakers and Russian speakers a large two day riot sparked in the capitol due to fake news from Russian media. Estonian business and government websites all suffered from Denial of Service Attacks (DDOS) from Russian IPs, meaning withdrawing cash or accessing online banking or any news agency in Estonia was impossible. More recently in 2014 Ukraine suffered at the hand of Russia again after a large ‘cyber snake’ nicknamed Ouroboros infected power plant systems and government computers. This type of control gives a “Digital beachhead” to hackers. The code of the cyber attack had documents with Russian text in them, pointing towards Russia again. The complexity of the virus is more than one person or a small group could come up with, pointing towards a nation’s backing to create the virus. Canada has also been the target of Russian cyber attacks and fake news to misguide citizens in Canada and around the world. Multiple Russian fake news websites, showing “11 Canadian Mercenaries” killed in Donetsk region of the Ukraine. The pictures shown in the articles are of Canadian soldiers killed in Iraq and around the world. Mostly pictures of Corporal Frank Cirillo’s funeral who was shot while guarding parliament hill, from 31 Cbg based out of London, Ont. The pictures of the funeral were given misleading descriptions, trying to deceive the Canadian populace and NATO allies. This many repeated attacks and provocations from The Russian Federation shows a clear need for the global community to intervene.
