Peter Zalmayev, the Director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, spoke for Ukraine while Professor Arman Grigoryan, part of Lehigh’s Department of International Relations, shared the Russian perspective. Both also touched on the U.S.’s role in the conflict. Before beginning their speeches, Mr. Zalmayev provided some background information on what was happening with Crimea.
One of my best friends here is Ukrainian, and when she found out that an event would be comprised of a debate that would share both the Ukrainian and Russian perspectives on the 2014 Crimean Crisis (the annexation of Crimea), she was excited beyond belief. One of my greatest interests outside of the math and sciences is current events in politics (I was actually considering being a political science major at one point), so we made it a priority to attend the event.
Peter Zalmayev, the Director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, spoke for Ukraine while Professor Arman Grigoryan, part of Lehigh’s Department of International Relations, shared the Russian perspective. Both also touched on the U.S.’s role in the conflict. Before beginning their speeches, Mr. Zalmayev provided some background information on what was happening with Crimea. As someone who is not very familiar with European affairs, this proved to be extremely helpful and I was able to understand a large part of their debate. They were both extremely eloquent speakers and took questions after their debate. What I found incredible was how diverse the audience was — there were international students from Russians and Ukrainians that you could tell felt passionately about this issue, students from Asia, and many who came thirsting for knowledge. However, the discussion never got out of hand and everyone was super respectful of everyone else’s opinions.
If you haven’t read on the Crimea Conflict, I would highly suggest doing so. Personally, I sometimes forget to keep up with current events while being here, because I get so absorbed with balancing studying, classes, extracurricular activities, watching your health and getting enough sleep. This actually upset me at the beginning when I found out how much I was missing on the outside world, especially because I was someone who tried her hardest to read the news daily in high school. Going to this debate was a breath of fresh air for me.
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