Ukraine Crisis - Putin Taunts The West

As Russia marks the centenary of the founding of the Soviet Union, President Vladimir Putin seems to be using the Ukraine crisis to reassert Russian hegemony in erstwhile Soviet republics and regain influence at the global high table

- Anita Pratap

The essence of the “Putin doctrine” is this: “Russia Matters”. The west, however, sees Russian President Vladimir Putin as an inscrutable, stealthy and sinister Cold War ninja. His grievance is that since the Cold War ended, a triumphalist west has neither treated Russia with respect nor taken its security concerns seriously. Instead, NATO has steadily advanced into Russia’s “sphere of influence”. William Burns, CIA director and former US ambassador to Russia, warned that Ukraine’s entry into NATO would be the “brightest of all redlines for Putin”.

To signal that he will invade Ukraine if this redline is crossed, Putin has more than a lakh soldiers almost encircling the country and has forced the US to the negotiating table. Said Russian foreign policy expert Andrei Kortunov, “The military buildup is aimed at getting Washington’s attention and he has got it.” President Joe Biden said he expected Russia to invade Ukraine in February. Admiral Sir Antony David Radakin, the UK’s chief of the defence staff, warned that a Russian invasion “would be on a scale not seen in Europe since World War II.” There would be mass casualties, waves of refugees and occupation or partitioning of Ukraine.

The US and Britain have evacuated all non-essential staff from their embassies in Kyiv. But Europeans do not share the Anglo-American threat assessments. Their staff remain in Ukraine. To America’s embarrassment, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, too, did not agree that an invasion was imminent and urged everyone, including Biden, to calm down as war cries were spooking investors.