10/14/2014 19th-century diplomacy can help deal with 21st-century Russia https://theconversation.com/19th-century-diplomacy-can-help-deal-with-21st-century-russia-31085 1/4 Alexander Titov 11 September 2014, 5.52pm BST 19th-century diplomacy can help deal with 21st-century Russia AUTHOR Lecturer in Modern European History at Queen's University Belfast There is at last perhaps some cause for optimism in the Ukraine crisis. A ceasefire agreement has so far held, and the Kiev government has announced that the bulk of Russian forces in Ukraine appear to have withdrawn. But despite the dialling down of combat, this is still a crisis. It’s been confirmed that new EU sanctions on Russia will begin from September 12, though they will apparently be reversible if the situation in Ukraine improves; the US is expected to implement new sanctions of its own as well. All this shows how much damage the Ukraine crisis has already done to the fragile order that has kept Europe relatively stable since the Cold War ended – and how ill-equipped the EU and US are to ensure stability in the future. Russia’s current stand-off with the West reflects its deep frustration with the post-1991 order. Russian foreign policy has reverted to its traditional great power pattern, which it briefly abandoned under Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s. The EU’s response has been painfully slow and ineffective – while Russia’s behaviour, when viewed from the Kremlin’s perspective, has been perfectly understandable. Minding their business Russia’s concerns centre on what it sees as NATO’s insidious eastward encroachment and its Okay…what now? EPA/Mykola Lazarenko