Publication

This paper wonders whether the August 2016 arrest of alleged Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea was a gambit by Russia to expedite the implementation of the Minsk Agreement. More specifically, the text’s author 1) examines the accusation made by Russia’s Federal Security Service; 2) places the accusation within the region’s current political context; and 3) argues that aggravating tensions with Ukraine enables Russia to further its own regional agenda, which includes deteriorating Ukraine’s diplomatic position.