Why do I think the year 2014 is important? "Russia Annexes Crimea and Threatens the Rest of Ukraine. Russia’s mid-March annexation of Crimea raised the specter of a new Cold War. The crisis was triggered by the collapse of the government of Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich. He resigned from office in February and fled the country in the wake of protests that began three months earlier over his decision not to sign a much anticipated trade deal with the EU. Ukraine, which has been caught between the East and the West for much of its history, quickly found itself at the mercy of its much larger Russian neighbor once again. On February 27, pro-Russian militants, in all likelihood acting at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, seized the Crimean capital. In a questionable referendum, 95 percent of the Crimeans who voted favored rejoining Russia, which had controlled the peninsula before 1954. Moscow’s efforts did not stop there. In May, pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine declared independence; six months later they held their own elections. Meanwhile, the rest of Ukraine elected pro-Western “chocolate king” Petro Poroshenko in May as its new president. The West immediately recognized Poroshenko’s victory. Western criticism of Moscow’s aggression was more bark than bite until late July when a Malaysian passenger jet was shot down over rebel-held territory. The United States and EU responded by ratcheting up sanctions against Russia. The moves did little to change Russian behavior. Conflict persists despite a ceasefire agreement reached in September. So far more than four thousand people have been killed in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Even if the crisis ends soon, we will be living for years with its fallout: increased tensions between Russia and the West that could potentially remake the geopolitical map."