Tag: #Lavrov

Putin’s Odds (Part 3) – Hopes of a Dictator

February 18, 2024

Like-minded authoritarian leaders seem inclined to form alliances to provide some assurance that their conduct, however corrupt and brutal, at least finds approval by their colleagues. These leaders tend to find their own justification in the role they have played in advancing some national purpose. It is actually more the case that they have elevated themselves to a place that allows them to adopt any form of aberrant conduct necessary to achieve goals more suitable for themselves than their nations. When such goals are threatened, as inevitably occurs, the desperate dictator will reach out to his authoritarian colleagues for support hoping it to be available for the duration of his troubles. … More Putin’s Odds (Part 3) – Hopes of a Dictator

Mr. Lavrov

May 25, 2023

There has been indication that Lavrov’s luster has diminished and his status in Putin’s orbit  has drifted into an extraplanetary domain. … More Mr. Lavrov

Moldova and the Putin Playbook

March 11, 2023

Moldova, a nation of 2.62 million people, shares a 759-mile border with Ukraine to the latter’s southwest. It emerged from a troubled history in the 20th century having gained its independence in 1991 from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), only to be threatened again by Russian authoritarianism and imperialist aspirations as it enters the 21st. The country possesses a pro-Russian separatist territory to its east, a situation not unlike its neighbor, Ukraine, that is now in open conflict with Russia and also not unlike that in the Republic of Georgia, invaded by Russia in 2008 for similar reasons. The pattern is quite familiar and it underlines Russia’s intent to retake territory that history has somehow proclaimed belongs to it. … More Moldova and the Putin Playbook