As Vladimir Putin continues to mass troops on the Ukrainian border and as Russia and Belarus prepare for a fresh round of joint military exercises, fears of war in Eastern Europe are real and palpable.
And Putin is trying to leverage this crisis that he manufactured to get what he has always wanted: Western acquiescence for a sphere of influence — which is a polite way of saying imperial dominance — over the former Soviet space.
This year marks the centenary of the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922. And it appears that Putin intends to mark this anniversary by trying to put some of the old empire back together again.
How far will he go? And What can a divided and distracted West do to stop him? On this week’s Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks with former Estonian President Toomas Ilves and former Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer about how far Putin may go and what a divided and distracted West can do to stop him.