April 02, 2023
Putin’s Shakespearean Demons
Geopolitics will take you only so far in explaining foreign affairs. The more important element is Shakespearean. Ukraine is a perfect example.
Ukraine is engulfed by Russia on the north and east, its history and language entwined with its neighbor’s. But the greater part of the story concerns the personality of Vladimir Putin. The geopolitical argument that Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine because the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was expanding completely disregards the Russian leader’s Shakespearean demons.
Imagine the condition in the heart of Europe today had NATO’s boundaries remained frozen after 1989.
Mr. Putin’s decision to invade represented not the collective thinking of the Russian elite but his own thoughts. Many oligarchs and security heavies near him were as surprised by the decision as people in the West. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, pressed by an oligarch to explain how Mr. Putin could have planned such an invasion without his inner circle knowing, reportedly replied: “He has three advisers. Ivan the Terrible. Peter the Great. And Catherine the Great.”
Given Mr. Putin’s paranoia, isolation and delusions of grandeur, the question arises: Would Europe today be at peace with Mr. Putin’s Russia had NATO not expanded east after the Cold War and had there been a Western guarantee of recognizing Russian interests in Ukraine? Certainly not.
Read the full article from The Wall Street Journal.
More from CNAS
-
Transatlantic Security / Energy, Economics & Security
LISTEN: Why It’s So Hard to Go After Russia’s Oil RevenueEmily Kilcrease, senior fellow and director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, joins the show to talk about secondary ta...
By Emily Kilcrease
-
Russia's Lavrov: Security Talks without Moscow a "Path to Nowhere" | CNN
Andrea Kendall-Taylor, senior fellow and program director at the Center for a New American Security, joins CNN to explain about the difficulties of negotiations are not territ...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor
-
Our Experts Put the Kibosh on Hopes for Ukraine Peace Anytime Soon
There has been a diplomatic flurry around Ukraine in recent days, yet the theme of progress has been hollow words and flip-flopping. Is the White House serious about peace, or...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor
-
Trump and Putin Could Be Pursuing a WW1 German-Style Neutral State for Ukraine | Jim Townsend
Donald Trump needs to decide whether he wants Ukraine to be a "frontline for European security" or a "buffer zone" whereby the country would have no military power once a ceas...
By Jim Townsend