March 5, 2014

United States Secretary of State John Kerry and the foreign ministers of key European Union (EU) member nations meet in Paris with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to try to resolve the political crisis in Ukraine. Earlier, the EU offered Ukraine an €11-billion ($15-billion) aid package. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso stated that the package of grants and loans was “designed to assist a committed, inclusive, and reforms-oriented government” in Ukraine. The Ukrainian finance ministry has calculated that it needs €25.5 billion ($35 billion) to keep the economy from default. Officials from Russia and NATO were also scheduled to meet in Brussels.

Yesterday, Secretary Kerry visited Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and offered the Ukrainian government $1-billion in loan guarantees and pledges of technical assistance.  Also on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin held a press conference in Moscow which he defended his government’s military occupation of Crimea, the southernmost region of Ukraine. Putin characterized the collapse of the government Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych “as an unconstitutional coup.” He also expressed contempt toward the United States government, which he declared had interfered in Ukraine “from across the pond in America as if they were sitting in a laboratory and running experiments on rats, without any understanding of the consequences.”

John Kerry (U.S. Senate)

President Putin said that he saw no reason for Russian forces to intervene in eastern Ukraine at the moment but “reserves the right to use all means at our disposal to protect” Russian speakers in the country’s south and east if they are threatened. While in Kiev, Secretary Kerry disputed the idea that ethnic Russians in Ukraine are in danger. Surveying a series of improvised memorials where protesters opposed to what was then Ukraine’s pro-Russian government were gunned down,  he said, “Here in the streets today I didn’t see anybody who feels threatened except for the potential of an invasion by Russia.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Russia in the Post-Soviet World (a special report)
• Ukraine 1994 (a Back in Time article)

October 11, 2013

The 2013 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) “for its extensive efforts” to rid the world of such arsenals. “The conventions and the work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law,” declared Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland in the announcement. “Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons.”

The OPCW, based in The Hague, Netherlands, was established to enforce the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which has contributed to the destruction of nearly 80 percent of the world’s stockpile of chemical weapons. OPCW inspectors are currently overseeing the dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons–the first time OPCW inspectors have worked in an active war zone.

A United Nations inspector examines dismantled equipment used during the 1980's and 1990's in Iraq's chemical weapons program. (Reuters/Getty Images)

In late September, Syria began reporting details of its chemical weapons stockpile as part of a U.S.-Russia brokered deal. The deal–a framework for a plan to secure and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014–was brokered on September 14 by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. It specified that Syria was to submit a “comprehensive listing, including names, types, and quantities of its chemical weapons agents. . . .  .”  Among other provisions, Syria must also give United Nations inspectors, scheduled to be on the ground by November, “immediate and unfettered” access to all chemical weapons storage, production, research, and development sites.

The deal put on hold the threat of a U.S. military strike against Syria for allegedly using chemical agents in an attack on August 21. The attack left more than 1,400 Syrians dead, including hundreds of children. In a nationally televised address, President Barack Obama argued that the United States had a moral obligation to consider a military strike against Syria for the alleged chemical attack. “Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria,” the president declared.

Additional World Book articles:

• Arab Spring
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of Rebellion (a special report)
• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)