Putin’s Unacknowledged Weakness

Russia's Foreign Policy Response to the End of the Cold War

1 May 2019

From influencing their close neighbours to supporting far-flung military efforts, understanding Moscow’s policies today requires a look back at the course the country has taken over the past several decades.

The news that Russia is providing passports to residents of Ukraine’s two breakaway regions in the Donbas region came at an inopportune moment for the Ukrainian leadership.

The current president, Petro Poroshenko, was defeated in a landslide in the second round of the Ukrainian presidential elections on April 21, and his successor, the TV comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, had not yet been sworn into office. Why did Russia choose this moment? Is it a signal of further Russian ambitions to undermine Ukraine?

The end of imperial ambitions

When assessing Russian actions in 2019, one needs to go back in time to find the root cause, which is tied to the end of the Cold War in the late Soviet period.

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