What Putin Fears Most

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6287458
AutoresRobert Person, Michael Mcfaul
Ano2022
Volume33
Fascículo2
Páginas18-27
Data de publicação2022-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of democracy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1045-5736 • E-ISSN: 1086-3214
EditoraProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/jod.2022.0015
OpenAlexW4223925222
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas36

Russian president Vladimir Putin wants you to believe that NATO is responsible for his February 24 invasion of Ukraine—that rounds of NATO enlargement made Russia insecure, forcing Putin to lash out. This argument has two key flaws. First, NATO has been a variable and not a constant source of tension between Russia and the West. Moscow has in the past acknowledged Ukraine's right to join NATO; the Kremlin's complaints about the alliance spike in a clear pattern after democratic breakthroughs in the post-Soviet space. This highlights a second flaw: Since Putin fears democracy and the threat that it poses to his regime, and not expanded NATO membership, taking the latter off the table will not quell his insecurity. His declared goal of the invasion, the "denazification" of Ukraine, is a code for his real aim: antidemocratic regime change

Alliance · Argument (complex analysis · Democracy · Economics · European union · International trade · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Resizing · Sociology · European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies · Law · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics