The crisis in Ukraine becomes more dangerous by the day. It is not clear whether Russia will bite off another large chunk of the country, as it did when Joe Biden was vice president in 2014. But two things are clear. The first is that Vladimir Putin’s Russia continues its aggressive offense, forcing other countries to step back or respond. The second is that the Russian president sees his U.S. counterpart as weak and current U.S. foreign policy as scattered and unprincipled.
Much of Eastern Europe is already under tremendous stress. Belarus, which shares a border with Ukraine and is backed by Russia, is pushing thousands of Asian migrants to the Polish border. Poland and three NATO countries, including the U.K., have sent military engineers and troops to fortify the border. Russia’s controversial Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline will give Russia even more power to turn off the heat in Western Europe, as climate idealists in Berlin and Paris shut down their own nations’ nuclear and coal plants. Russia’s air force and navy routinely stray over international boundaries—and not by accident.
Putin’s rise to power came as Russia’s economy was in turmoil, as NATO had expanded to Russia’s borders (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), and as Russia’s global influence was on the wane. As Putin and his cronies began to rebuild the nation as an oligarchy, they felt routinely disrespected by the West. A notable example of this is that Putin believes President Barack Obama lied to him when choosing to topple Libya’s dictator.
Read more at:
Who will blink first? | WORLD
No comments:
Post a Comment