By Kacey Mahoney
On December 17, 2014, NDU's Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) presented a panel discussion on the current situation in Russia and Ukraine. The panel was comprised of two long-serving diplomats including Dr. John W. Parker, a Visiting Fellow at INSS and Dr. Eugene Rumer, a senior associate and the director of Carnegie's Russia and Eurasia Program, along with other analysts and scholars with close and lasting ties to NDU and in the greater national security community. The main areas of discussion focused on Russia's motive behind the annexation of Crimea and the security implications stemming from the invasion; Russia's spiraling economic situation; and future implications for Russian relations with the international community. Russia, a member of the UN Security Council and home to the world's largest nuclear arsenal, remains an extremely strategically important region.