Its Too Cold for Another War

The current crisis in the Ukraine has grabbed the attention of several countries, including its neighbor Russia. In order to protect citizens in Ukraine who are of Russian ethnicity from the grueling conflict, Russia has bestowed it upon itself to take the initiative and station several troops in Crimea. Crimea is a fairly autonomous region of Ukraine and rests on the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea. 60% of this sovereign republic consider themselves ethnically Russian. However, they are still considered a part of the Ukraine. The stationing of Russian troops has angered the Ukrainian government, and although they have demanded Russia to leave the region, Russia is resistant, stating that they are answering a plea for help from the residents of Crimea. Obama and Putin, Russia's President have been speaking, but their words have not reached a compromise yet. Putin believes that he is doing the right thing and protecting Russia's interest. Obama states that Putin's actions are in violation of Ukraine sovereignty. In response to Russia's actions, the United States has decided to ban all visas of Russian and Ukrainian officials who are believed to be responsible for the crisis. Obama is also constructing a plan to place sanctions on corporations and people who have contributed to the crisis. Secretary of state John Kerry has also been negotiating with Russian and Ukrainian officials, but the discussion seems have become stagnant. Given the history of Russia, Ukraine and Crimea as a separate entity, I believe that the best solution that the United States can offer for this predicament is to enforce sanctions on both Russia and Ukraine until they allow the residents of Crimea to vote on whether they would like to be a part of Russia or Ukraine.Although we are no longer in an era where we play scribble lines on maps and call them countries, I believe that we need to correct a wrong that was done decades ago and not allow it to blow out of proportion. Crimea was originally a part of Russia but was given to the Ukraine in 1954. This is the origin of the cultural differences that we see today in the region. However, giving Russia more land from Ukraine can be very detrimental to Ukraine, so perhaps another solutions is to recognize Crimea as an independent country. This is if Russia absolutely refuses to remove itself from Crimea. If the United States uses any kind of hard power to remove the Russian soldiers, Obama will find himself in an entangled situation that could have the potential to give rise to a war. However, as I am writing this, I am realizing that there is not a panacea for this problem and for every argument I formulate, I come up with an equally reasonable counterargument. If Crimea were to become its own country, how will it be able to sustain a government and economy without the help of its neighboring countries? Most likely Russia and Ukraine will fight each other to "help" the newly founded country build its economy and Crimea will be too dependent on the winning nation to the extent that it will cease to become its own nation. This situation is too convoluted for me to decipher and i will end it with saying that Russia needs to to.