Putin’s takeover of Crimea is part of a larger strategy
By Stephen J. Hadley and Damon Wilson, WashPost, Published: March 3
Stephen J. Hadley was national security adviser from 2005 to 2009 and is a member of the executive committee of the Atlantic Council’s board of directors. Damon Wilson was senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council from 2007 to 2009 and is executive vice president of the Atlantic Council.
Vladimir Putin has done this before. When he invaded Georgia in August 2008, Western diplomacy and pressure denied him his ultimate goal: marching to Tbilisi and deposing Georgia’s democratically elected government. But Putin seized two areas, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, that Russian troops occupy to this day.
The United States and its European allies imposed diplomatic and considered economic sanctions on Russia. The goal was to convince Putin that the strategic costs of his action outweighed the tactical benefits and to deter him from similar actions. These measures were reversed in the “reset” of relations with Russia that began in 2009. In retrospect, the measures were inadequate and their reversal premature. Putin was not deterred. Crimea is now in the hands of the Russian military, and Putin is projecting military power into the heart of Europe.
When the Cold War ended and the Soviet empire dissolved, the United States and its allies sought to build a Europe whole, free and at peace — one with which Russia would find its peaceful place. Europeans increasingly, and rightly, took the lead.
(More here.)
Stephen J. Hadley was national security adviser from 2005 to 2009 and is a member of the executive committee of the Atlantic Council’s board of directors. Damon Wilson was senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council from 2007 to 2009 and is executive vice president of the Atlantic Council.
Vladimir Putin has done this before. When he invaded Georgia in August 2008, Western diplomacy and pressure denied him his ultimate goal: marching to Tbilisi and deposing Georgia’s democratically elected government. But Putin seized two areas, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, that Russian troops occupy to this day.
The United States and its European allies imposed diplomatic and considered economic sanctions on Russia. The goal was to convince Putin that the strategic costs of his action outweighed the tactical benefits and to deter him from similar actions. These measures were reversed in the “reset” of relations with Russia that began in 2009. In retrospect, the measures were inadequate and their reversal premature. Putin was not deterred. Crimea is now in the hands of the Russian military, and Putin is projecting military power into the heart of Europe.
When the Cold War ended and the Soviet empire dissolved, the United States and its allies sought to build a Europe whole, free and at peace — one with which Russia would find its peaceful place. Europeans increasingly, and rightly, took the lead.
(More here.)
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