Russia's War Against Ukraine
Andrew Wilson: Belarus wants out
Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speak during their meeting with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev in Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, on March 5, 2014. Western and Russian leaders headed today into a day of diplomatic wrangling over the Ukraine crisis, a day after US President Barack Obama warned Moscow was not \"fooling anybody\" over its role i
There is a bitter irony at the heart of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea. Putin’s short-term victory is already coming at the expense of his most cherished long-term strategy -- the creation of a Eurasian Union, a trade union linking Russia and its closest neighbors. In other words, as the invasion expands Russian territory, it will diminish Russian influence in the very places he’d like to increase it. One need only look to Belarus, which is already beginning to hedge against its alliance with Moscow, to see why.
