Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Is This Putin's Best Summer Ever?

Nathan Kohlenberg, Defense One: Vladimir Putin’s Best Summer Ever

Hacking the Democratic Party’s servers is part of Putin’s plan to prove that democracy doesn’t work.

Vladimir Putin has a grand strategy for Russia, and he has not exactly been secretive about its goals.

“First and foremost, it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” Putin said in a 2005 national address. Through bodies like the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Eurasian Customs Union, he has sought to build Russian-dominated institutions to rival NATO and the European Union as part of his plan to return Russia to its 20th-century glory.

Putin’s efforts have met with some success. Russia is a far bigger player on the international stage than it was 20 years ago, and some former Soviet republics have maintained or returned to close ties with Moscow, including Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. But others, like Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan have, in varying ways and to varying degrees, rejected Russian involvement in their affairs and sought closer ties with the West.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I disagree. The Ukraine conflict continues to fester .... and there is no sign of any reconciliation. The war in Syria drags on. Sanctions are still in force. U.S./NATO - Russian tensions are on full display. Russia's opposition parties are getting their act together. Infighting within his own political party on what happens when he is gone is becoming a distraction. And a Trump victory at the U.S. polls will not change the U.S.- Russian dynamic for the first year or two. So no .... this has not been Putin's best summer ever.

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