Putin’s Endgame
Moscow’s military forces threaten Ukraine, but the bigger prize is restoration of Russia’s sphere of influence stretching through Eastern Europe
The Russian leader is now seeking to create a buffer zone around his country, as it had in Soviet times, Ms. Sarotte said, and muscle Moscow’s way back to the superpower table alongside the U.S.
“Although I think that Western diplomacy was arrogant and incompetent in the 1990s, and we’re paying the price now, that is not a reason for Putin to put himself in a posture that makes other people think he’s about to launch a war,” said Rodric Braithwaite, who was British ambassador to Moscow when the Soviet Union collapsed.
Yet in 1994, Russia joined with the U.S. and U.K. in committing “to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine” and “to refrain from the threat or use of force” against it, a security guarantee that helped persuade Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons.
Stephen Fidler Wall Street Journal 22 Februaryh 2022
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