 Topic: The Baltic States and Border Nations  Content Objective: Would you expect to find a higher standard of living in the Baltics or the Border nations? Explain.  TLWBAT:

Former republics of USSR

 1990 independence  Former USSR  Parliamentary Democracy

 1991 independence  Former USSR  Parliamentary Democracy

 1991 independence  Former USSR  Parliamentary democracy

Former republics of the USSR

 Belarus  Moldova  Ukraine – short history  1 st Russian state 1,000 years ago  1700s Russians take control  1917 Communist Revolution in Russia  Chernobyl 1986  1991 fall of Soviet Union

 Ukraine vs. Russia  November 2013  Pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned an EU deal  Favored stronger ties with Russia  Violent protests in the country's capital Kiev  Referendum  97% of voters backed joining Russia  Vladimir Putin  Kremlin-backed forces seized Crimea

 Crimea is an autonomous republic within Ukraine, electing its own parliament, with a prime minister appointed with approval from Kiev. But now Crimean MPs have appointed a pro-Moscow leader, Sergei Aksyonov, who wants Crimea to unite with Russia, and has called the referendum.

 Peninsula on the Black Sea coast  Crimea's 2.3 million population  identify themselves as ethnic Russians  Russia's Black Sea Fleet  In 2010 lease was extended to 2042 in exchange for Russia supplying discounted natural gas

 Putin has obtained parliamentary approval for troop deployments not just in Crimea, but Ukraine as a whole. Moscow, which regards the new authorities in Kiev as fascists, could send troops to "protect" ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine. That would enrage nationalists in western Ukraine, who hold positions in the new government.  Western powers have strongly condemned the Crimea takeover. NATO is unlikely to react militarily, but has sent extra fighter planes to Poland and Lithuania and is conducting exercises.  The US and EU are considering sanctions, but President Putin may believe that they will not last - as was the case after the Georgian war of Then, Georgian forces were routed by the Russian military when trying to retake the Georgian breakaway territory of South Ossetia. Russian forces are still in control, and Moscow has recognized both South Ossetia and a second Georgian region, Abkhazia, as independent.

 Ukraine would freeze without Russia  Some 60% of Ukraine's consumed gas comes from Russia  Over the years this reliance has given rise to a so-called gas mafia in Kyiv  Ukrainian oligarchs, working closely with Russian suppliers, have taken advantage of the dependency. It is widely believe that these elites siphon money from state coffers and actively prevent Ukraine from developing a sustainable energy sector. All the while, foreign investors are scared away.

 Russia supplies, but Ukraine is the middleman. This helps to explain why some European states (like Germany) have been cagey about imposing sanctions on Russia. Germany and Ukraine are Gazprom's biggest foreign purchasers.  Russia is Europe's largest natural gas supplier, supplying about one-third of the continent's natural gas, more than half of which travels through Ukraine. Important pipelines pass through Ukraine to Slovakia, and then on to Germany, Italy and Austria.

 Russia needs Europe too. Oil and gas trade accounts for half of Russia's annual export revenue and more than half of Russia's federal budget  Important to note is that many of Russia's important gas pipelines go through Western Ukraine, which is decidedly pro-Europe.  "I would argue that Russia has more to lose than Europe at the moment,“ says Tim Boersma of the Brookings Institution. "Russia needs European demands. It is making roughly $100 million a day from hydrocarbons.

 Washington is making moves. The U.S. doesn't export natural gas yet. But congressional Republicans especially are calling to loosen U.S. export restrictions, with the idea that if Washington puts more gas on the market, it can (economically) cut Russia down to size.  The U.S. Department of Energy is issuing permits to American corporations that will let them start exporting gas in 2015.

 In recent weeks Eurasia experts and political hacks have been talking big about a new global energy order inspired by events in Ukraine.  Chaos in Ukraine, goes this logic, will threaten natural gas supplies and push Europe to look for non-Russian gas sources.  It's already happening. U.S. energy behemoth Halliburton Co. will soon start fracking in Poland.  In fact, Europe is already way less energy-dependent on Russia than it was in 2009, the last time Moscow switched off the Ukrainian pipelines. Germany, for instance, has found alternative energy sources in Norway and Algeria.  2009 was a turning point. And 2014 could be Russia's biggest mistake yet