Europe and Russia
Tying in Putin, NATO, & EU
Debt Crisis
We don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Freedom is like that. It's like air. When
you have it, you don't notice it.
Boris Yeltsin, 1995
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
wklk123BIa0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
7Y49WSc_swo
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/eur
ope-july-dec13-ukraine2_12-17/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/wh
y-russia-is-flexing-muscle-crimea/
Putin’s Rise to Power
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KGB from the mid 1970 to 1991
Leningrad city council from 1991-1994, then
mayor’s aide
1996-1998: Yeltsin advisor
1998: named head of federal security agency
1999: appointed Russian prime minister by
Yeltsin
Rise to Power continued…
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Elected President March 2000
Re-elected 2004
Highlights of presidency
• Butted heads with powerful oligarchs
and media tycoons
• 2002 Dubrovka theatre and 2004 Beslan
school hostage situations
• Chechnyan war
• Growing economy thanks to rising oil
prices
Tandemocracy
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Russian constitution bars a third
term so…
• Putin supported Dmitry Medvedev in the
2008 election
• Medvedev easily won, nominated Putin
his Prime Minister
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Medvedev stepped down in 2012,
Putin ran again and won
US-Russian Tensions
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2008: Georgia was pushing to join NATO
• parts of Georgia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) wanted
independence,
• Russia recognized and sent troops to “keep peace”
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2013: US wanted to strike Syria,
• Putin (ally of Bashir) refused to let UN strike,
• brokered a weapons surrender instead
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Human rights:
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banned US adoption of Russian kids,
jailed Pussy Riot,
banned gay couples from adopting kids,
cracked down on homosexuality in general
2013: granted Edward Snowden asylum
Western European Cooperation
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1948: Belgium, the Netherlands, and
Luxembourg form the Benelux trade union
1957: West Germany, France, Italy join Benelux
to form European Economic Community
1968: Denmark, UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal,
Greece join EEC
Maastricht Treaty: January 1992
• Economic union
• Single currency (Euro)
• Coordination of foreign and defense
policy
European Union
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There are currently 28 members in the EU
List of members
500 million citizens
Largest and wealthiest trading block
30% of the world’s economy
17 countries use the Euro (not the UK)
The monetary union (Eurozone) did not include a
fiscal union with central financial planning
authority
• This worked fine from 1999 to 2009
• Lack of central authority allowed countries to grow large
debts, made it difficult to resolve the cirisis
EU Constitution
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Proposed in June 2004
Purpose: Centralize decision making, unify
treaties and agreements that governed
the EU
France and Netherlands said no, it would
take away national sovereignty
• Common thread throughout history of
EU
Treaty of Lisbon was passed in 2009 as a
compromise – streamlined EU institutions,
less central authority
Debt Crisis
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Fall 2009: The EU begins to realize that Greece
(2001) had been hiding the true size of their debt
• Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain too
The EU, European Central Bank and the IMF put
together a $171b emergency loan package to
Greece, Ireland, Portugal to avoid bankruptcy
To get the loans, the countries needed to adopt
fiscal austerity measures: slash social programs
and wages, raise retirement age and taxes, etc
Greek citizens were not happy
Debt Crisis continued
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Debt crisis caused a rift:
• stronger economies like Germany are resentful
• economic progress put in danger by the weaker
members
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December 2011: France and Germany lead
negotiations for an EU-wide fiscal agreement
• All members would have to strictly limit debts
and deficits relative to the size of their
economy
Turning Point
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Economic growth stayed stagnant or even
contracted through 2012
Unemployment in Greece and Spain rose to
20+%
In response
• voters in many countries tossed out incumbents
• electing radicals that promised to move from austerity
to stimulus
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If Greece could not pay its bills, it would have to
abandon the Euro and go back to its own
currency – this could collapse other weaker
Eurozone countries
Current State of Crisis
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If the debt crisis spreads beyond Europe, could
lead to a worldwide recession
More critics of austerity have emerged (Obama)
• US stimulus package in 2009 helped pull the
US out of recession
• Austerity measures were failing to pull Europe
out of debt
Pro-austerity leaders (Merkel) are still unwilling
to negotiate
• European social programs have overspent for
decades, it’s time to scale them back