Several friends and colleagues have asked me why President Putin was threatening to make war on the Ukraine. The answers are very plain and obvious if you think about it.
1. The Soviet Union (USSR) represented Russia as the head of a large multi-lingual and cultural empire. The USSR collapsed in the early 1990s as all member states left the empire to become independent nations. Putin and many of his followers clearly want to build a new empire by taking over as many of their former states as possible. The Ukraine is Putin’s first attempt to develop an expanded Russia and to recover lost prestige and humiliation.
2. Germany invaded Russia twice in the 1900s (World War I and World War II) inflicting huge losses for the Russians who suffered terribly. Historically Russia has always wanted a barrier region to separate itself from a renewed Western attack. Russia felt secure as long as it had control over Eastern European nations like Poland and Hungary.
But now Poland and other countries like Lithuania which border Russia are full members of NATO. This terrifies the Russians who logically fear the West and who want to remove NATO from its door step.
These two points explain why Russia (invaded) the Ukraine. The whole idea is to Make Russia Great Again. No wonder Putin and Trump understood each other so well.
DANIEL METRAUX
Staunton
— Metraux is a professor emeritus and adjunct professor of Asian studies at Mary Baldwin University, studied modern Japan at Columbia University and studied international relations at Beloit College.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Mary Baldwin professor: Reasons why Putin’s Russia has invaded Ukraine
