AbstractsPolitical Science

Russia’s position in world politics remains an ongoing debate in academic discourse. While the West, especially the United States of America, tries to make the Ukraine crisis seem to the world that it is Russia’s fault, other scholars write in defense of Russia, justifying why the Ukraine crisis is in no way Russia’s fault but the West’s and therefore acknowledge Russia’s current power status as a re-emerged one since the end of the Cold War. While Russia takes a relaxed approach in dealing with the West by finding the slightest opportunity to show its strength, it has used the Crimea annexation as an opportunity to communicate a message to the world that the power that it possessed during the Soviet era is back. This study set out to explore Russia’s power play as it is involved in the Ukraine crisis and how the domestic crisis in Ukraine, Russia’s backyard, could be so significant in showing forth Russia’s re-emerged status in world politics. Putin’s outstanding role is also explored to show how his assertiveness contributes to setting Russia on the world stage as a re-emerged super power. To adequately explore this complex topic, secondary sources of data were used to carry out a pure qualitative research. Falling heavily on published scholarly online journals and books, the findings of the study revealed that using the Ukraine Crisis and particularly Crimea annexation, Russia has successfully proven to the world how strong it is to resist the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) expansions as well as any country which tries to get closer to its borders and pose a threat to its interests. Also, Putin’s leadership style has portrayed Russia’s show of Resilience and Rhetoric in world politics. The implications for Russia’s actions have been positive as it has been evident that sanctions from the West, in fact, have had no effect on Russia. On the contrary, the effect is felt by Europe which depends heavily on Russia’s gas and energy resources. Thus, Russia continues to build alliances with other emerging powers like China and India while building the Eurasia integration as well. The United States of America has, thus, eventually admitted that Russia is today its greatest threat. Advisors/Committee Members: Gebe, B. Y (advisor).