Russo-Ukrainian War, Crypto Surge and World Peace
Russo-Ukrainian War
Russia and Ukraine are countries that are in a common union called the Soviet Union especially after the boulseviek revolution of 1917, but after the dissolution of the Sovet Union and the fact warsaw in 1991 through its referendum Ukraine broke away from the union, as well as Russia and Belarus. In 1997 a comprehensive agreement between Russia and Ukraine confirmed the integrity of Ukraine’s borders — something also guaranteed by Russia and Western nuclear powers in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, when Ukraine agreed to give up its Soviet-made nuclear arsenal. The agreement expires on March 31, 2019.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine began to warm in 2014, when there was a revolution against Russian supremacy and anti-government mobs succeeded in overthrowing pro-Russian former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych amid the outbreak of nearly a year of unrest that ended with the Minsk accords, the Revolution also opened ukraine’s desire to join the European Union and NATO. But in 2014 Russia also managed to control Crimea and supported separatists in Eastern Ukraine namely Donetsk and Luhansk to oppose the Ukrainian government.
In December 2021 the mobilization of a Russian army estimated at 100,000 troops along with tanks and other military hardware was concentrated on Russia’s border with Ukraine, western intelligence said. Russia has denied carrying out an attack, but called on NATO to suspend all military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, and called on NATO not to accept Ukraine or other former Soviet states as members. Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia, Lyudmila Georgievna Vorobieva, said Russia never intended to attack its neighbor. He said the issue came after the U.S., NATO and its allies expanded five phases from 1999 to 2020, and nato’s infrastructure is now closer to Russia’s borders.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LRP), two regions against the Ukrainian government, as independent states. To “keep the peace”, Putin signed a decree sending troops to Ukraine. “Circumstances require us to take decisive and immediate action,” Putin said “The Donbass (pro-Russian militia region in eastern Ukraine) requests assistance to Russia, in this case, in accordance with Article 51, section 7 of the UN Charter, with the sanctions of the Federation Council and in accordance with the friendly agreement ratified by the Federal Deliberations and cooperation with the Dpr and lpr, I decided to conduct special military operations, “Vladimir Putin is firm.
Experts believe Putin is to restore Ukraine’s pro-Russian leadership. Quoted from CNN International, in a long essay published by Putin in July 2021, he had mentioned Russia and Ukraine are “one person”. “The West has damaged Ukraine and pulled it out of Russia’s orbit through forced identity changes,” the paper said.
Crypto Surge
Donations in the form of Bitcoin came amid Russian attacks on Ukraine and the implementation of a state of emergency in Ukraine. According to data from one of the blockchain analytics companies, Elliptic showed that for 12 hours starting Thursday (24/2/2022) local time, almost collected funds of US $ 400,000 or around Rp 5.7 billion in bitcoin. Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization that provides support to the armed forces, has received the call.
Activists in Ukraine have deployed cryptocurrencies for a variety of purposes, including equipping Ukrainian soldiers with military equipment, medical supplies, and drones, as well as funding the development of facial recognition apps designed to identify whether a person is a Russian mercenary or spy. Cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used for crowdfunding wars, with tacit approval from the government according to Tom Robinson, Elliptic’s chief scientist.
When ukraine’s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, volunteer groups in Ukraine supported protesters who were members of organizations that received funds from private donors via bank transfers or payment applications. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have become more popular in Ukraine, as they make it possible to bypass financial institutions that might block payments to Ukraine. Collectively local volunteers and NGOs secured more than $1 million in cryptocurrency, although that amount appears to be quickly moving higher as donations come amid still-happening Russian attacks.
Ukrainian volunteer organizations such as Come Back Alive, which has been receiving cryptocurrency since 2018 provide the military with weapons equipment, training services, and medical supplies. The Ukrainian Cyber Alliance has secured nearly $100,000 in Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and a mix of stablecoins over the past year. Since 2016, the group’s activists have been involved in cyberattacks against Russian targets. Pro-Russian separatists have also raised funds in Bitcoin since the beginning of the conflict.
London-based fintech data analyst Boaz Sobrado said there was a long history of crypto fundraising for controversial purposes, from WikiLeaks to Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who has also raised funds in Bitcoin. Ukraine has also taken steps to recognize cryptocurrencies at the national level.
In 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian parliament officially legalized cryptocurrencies in law. This move greatly helped lift cryptocurrencies from the gray area to become clearer in the eyes of Ukrainian law. Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that Ukraine is ready to modernize its payment market so that national banks will be able to issue digital currencies.
In the midst of the correction zone Friday, February 26, 2022 Bitcoin and several other major cryptocurrencies began to rise from its correction zone after briefly falling drastically on February 24, 2022, following the movements of the U.S. and Asian stock markets. Crypto market capitalization in the whole fell to USD 1.5 trillion or 9 percent ambles, Bitcoin became the largest decline in its market capitalization, which is as much as 7 percent, although Bitcoin has cut its correction and returned to the psychological level of USD 38,000 according to Andrew Suhalim CEO of Litedex Protocol in a release on Friday (25/2/2022).
Investors seemed to be ignoring sentiment for a moment from Russia’s attack on Ukraine. They instead take advantage of the momentum by buying cryptocurrencies at correction prices or the term buy on dip. The improvement in market participants’ sentiment came after U.S. President Joe Biden did not respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with military action. Biden only imposed economic sanctions on Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would not damage the world economy.
Assets that strengthened were cut, namely some commodity assets such as gold and crude oil, because investors immediately realized their profits after the price shot up quite high. In addition to the direct impact of the war in Ukraine, asset traders are trying to assess the impact of the war on monetary policy around the world. Meanwhile, investors and some U.S. officials say the war is likely to slow but not stop short of a rate hike. Federal Reserve policymakers have been openly debating whether to start with a 25 or 50 basis point rate hike at its March 2022 meeting.
World Peace
Russia’s incursion into Ukraine related to the facts on the ground about humanity and the historical history of fellow soviet states or Russia’s move to be able to “secure” some ex-Soviet states in Eastern Europe from the dominance of the U.S. and NATO as its military organization, has provoked the potential for world war III, because currently Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) deploy nato rapid response force. The NRF, which was formed in 2003, boosts defenses in NATO territory to confront Russia, as Russia’s offensive to Ukraine poses a security threat to Europe.
In a meeting with media attended by CNBC Indonesia last week, a senior U.S. Embassy official in Jakarta said Russia’s blatant violation of international law poses a direct challenge to the international rules-based order. Ukraine itself is a member of the United Nations, which means an independent and sovereign country. If Russia is allowed to limit Ukraine’s sovereignty by dictating Ukraine’s alliance and foreign policy choices, by blackmailing it and violating its territorial integrity, it could embolden others who want to expand illegal territorial claims including in the South China Sea (LCS). “Undermining the principles of an international rules-based order undermines the foundations of international cooperation and Russia’s violations threaten peace and stability on the European continent.” It is said.
Another geopolitical condition of concern is the high tension between China and the US. The U.S. government recently planned to allow its diplomats who are in China to leave the country.
The impact of geopolitical tensions also has a big effect on Indonesia. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said tensions between Russia and Ukraine were fuelling instability in global markets. Russia’s main stock index fell and the central bank halted foreign currency purchases after the ruble slumped. If these conditions are not controlled, it can affect commodity prices, especially energy. Indonesia as an importer of fuel oil (BBM) will be affected quite severely in terms of state budget and inflation.
Above all, world peace will be a comfortable place to realize a modern human civilization with technology as its embodiment device. But sometimes conflict will lead to increased quality, speeding up blocked communication channels to open, in order to lead to similarities in existing understanding. Criptograph as a technology that has been used in World War II, as a cipher and code code, is currently used cryptocurrency with its blockchain as if again the answer to financial solutions in the midst of war conditions though, where when government banks close their transactions crypto assets become an increasingly non-restrictive solution between givers and users.
But still once again above all else, peace and tranquility are the main conditions for the growth of an advanced world, a higher human civilization.
By. Rio Solehuddin