The genesis of the Ukrainian crisis and its significance for post-Soviet space

Abstract

The post-Soviet space is once again in turbulence. It is difficult today to predict how such reorganization will play out and what consequences it will have for Russia, its neighbouring states and forthe international order as a whole. Nevertheless, we are already witnessing the most extensive changes in the former Soviet Union since the collapse of what was once a single state. It is necessary, however, to separate the legal process ofthe collapse ofthe USSR from the historical dimension of the phenomenon. In legal terms, the USSR does not exist, and in historical terms, the end of the single state could not automatically ensure the viability and legitimacy of the new independent entities that emerged from its ruins. At the present stage, it is indisputable that the Belovezha Accords failed to provide a real guarantee against a repetition, to one degree or another, of the Yugoslav scenario.