US And Russia Tension Rising After Crimea Vote

Residents of Ukraine's Crimea region went to the polls Sunday (3/16) to vote in a disputed referendum on whether to join Russia or become an effectively independent state connected to Ukraine. The vote will likely influence future international relations in the region and beyond and put the United States and Russia on the kind of collision course not seen since the end of the Cold War. The referendum has been condemned as illegal by the United States and European countries. The vote took place several weeks after Russia-led forces took control of Crimea, a predominantly ethnic Russian region. Dr. Joe Dondelinger, professor of Government and International Affairs/Political Science at Augustana College, was born in Luxembourg and before becoming a U.S. citizen, he twice served as a member of the Luxembourg Mission to the United Nations. Besides teaching at Augustana, from 1985 to 2012, Dr. Dondelinger regularly offered courses for senior U.S. government executives at the prestigious Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Va., first on Soviet and Russian politics and, starting in the late 1990s, on racial, ethnic, religious, cultural and nationalist conflicts. Dr. Dondelinger joined the program to discuss the ongoing situation in Ukraine.