February 11, 2015
Countering Putin’s Grand Strategy
The heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine this week isn’t the only reason to be skeptical about the prospects for the peace summit that began Wednesday in Minsk, Belarus. Even if the meeting among Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Russian President Vladimir Puti n, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande produces a cease-fire agreement that holds up—unlike the one signed last fall—the conflict’s underlying reality will remain unchanged: The Russian-backed separatist revolt in eastern Ukraine is part of Moscow’s larger grand strategy.
President Putin, who is consumed by historical humiliations, knows that Russia was invaded not only by Napoleon and Hitler, but before that also by the Swedes, Poles and Lithuanians. And so the Russian president seeks a post-Warsaw Pact buffer zone in Central and Eastern Europe. The Kremlin play book: imperialism by way of forcing energy dependence, intelligence operations, criminal rackets, buying infrastructure and media through third parties, the bribing of local politicians and playing off the insecurities of ethnic minorities.
Read the entire op-ed at The Wall Street Journal.
More from CNAS
-
Podcast
Transatlantic Security / Energy, Economics & Security
From Russia with RiskHere on the Bear Market Brief, a lot of what we focus on is, simply put, risk: what might happen, and what might it mean? On this episode, Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fel...
By Rachel Ziemba
-
Trump Should Walk from Putin Negotiations
Video
Trump will walk from the Ukraine-Russia negotiations as his lack of “patience” means its “just a matter of time”, says Jim Townsend, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a ...
By Jim Townsend
-
Commentary
Transatlantic Security / Energy, Economics & Security
Putin’s Pressure PointTrump’s handling of Russia diverges sharply from his approach to every other country....
By Edward Fishman
-
Podcast
Transatlantic Security / Technology & National Security
Ukraine Strikes Military and Psychological Blow to RussiaUkraine attacked targets deep inside Russia yesterday, in what Kyiv called “Operation Spiderweb.” The Security Service of Ukraine claimed responsibility for the attack using d...
By Samuel Bendett
