It was no mystery why these nations would want to be part of an alliance that obligated the U.S. Most Americans paid scant attention to the expansion of NATO in the late 1990s and early 2000s to countries in Eastern and Central Europe like Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, all of which had been part of the former Soviet Union or its sphere of influence. Putin has utterly failed to build Russia into an economic model that would actually attract its neighbors, not repel them, and inspire its most talented people to want to stay, not get in line for visas to the West. in the 1990s to expand NATO after - indeed, despite - the collapse of the Soviet Union.Īnd the second and far bigger log is how Putin cynically exploited NATO’s expansion closer to Russia’s borders to rally Russians to his side to cover for his huge failure of leadership. The first log was the ill-considered decision by the U.S. In my view, there are two huge logs fueling this fire.

And if I have to club your government to death and drag you back home, I will.” You will not run off with either NATO or the E.U. Putin is basically saying to Ukrainians ( more of whom want to join the European Union than NATO): “You fell in love with the wrong guy. In his speech on Monday, Putin literally said Ukraine has no claim to independence, but is instead an integral part of Russia - its people are “connected with us by blood, family ties.” Which is why Putin’s onslaught against Ukraine’s freely elected government feels like the geopolitical equivalent of an honor killing.

How so? Putin views Ukraine’s ambition to leave his sphere of influence as both a strategic loss and a personal and national humiliation. Putin is the most powerful, unchecked Russian leader since Stalin, and the timing of this war is a product of his ambitions, strategies and grievances.īut, with all of that said, America is not entirely innocent of fueling his fires. The only place to be for understanding this war is inside Russian President Vladimir Putin’s head. When a major conflict like Ukraine breaks out, journalists always ask themselves: “Where should I station myself?” Kyiv? Moscow? Munich? Washington? In this case, my answer is none of these.

Putin's no 1 enemy