The Ukrainian Shatter Belt: a new cold war. The pro-Russian Yanukovych government was powerless against the popular movement of the Ukrainian people demanding European integration after the government's decision to stop negotiations on the Association Agreement with the European Union and focus instead on Ukraine joining the demonstrations peaceful events that began in November 2013, lasted for months and turned violent in 2014. The pro-European opposition clashed with the pro-Russian government. In regions where European influence was strong, local governments were occupied by protesters. The culmination of the Euromaidan was the February clashes, which later became a revolution. Even though the movement ended with the signing of the Association Agreement, the new government had to face the difficult consequences. With the fall of the pro-Russian government, Russia has essentially lost a very important ally for the European Union and NATO. President Vladimir Putin took a big risk and invaded Crimea, provoking strong reactions from the West. Russia's closest allies also supported Ukraine's territorial integrity. The information war between the West and Russia has intensified once again and has reached levels higher than those of the Russo-Georgian War (2008). The Russian media obviously defends the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol as a democratic referendum and justifies the military intervention as protection of the rights of the Russian population of Crimea. The referendum was highly controversial as it had an unusually high voter turnout and the pro-Russian vote created speculation that the referendum was falsified by the Russian government. Western media condemn Russia for annexing... middle of paper... international community, but isolating the government does not mean isolating the Russian people, due to the current technological development which was not present time, even if the government it is trying to suppress freedoms. (McFaul, 2014) Current events have shown that there are many more potential seat belts in the world than it might seem at first glance. While the Ukrainian security belt still has potential, it has created a deterioration in international relations not seen since the Cold War. The Russian economy cannot potentially last another Cold War. Current events will most likely lead to Russia's relative isolation from the international community and bring its economy to stagnation, because there is no prospect of Russia giving up Crimea. The “sanctions war” between Russia and the West will continue until a consensus is reached.