Garry Kasparov: US cannot lead from behind
US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly on Sept. 29, 2015 at the UN in New York.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2014, eventually annexing the Crimean peninsula, the world seemed stunned. Yet it is difficult to see why. After all, there had been months of menacing rhetoric from the Kremlin as Ukraine's Maidan revolution cast out Russian President Vladimir Putin's ally Viktor Yanukovych. But the West had apparently forgotten Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia, the other non-NATO, former Soviet state that was leaning westward and embracing democracy -- positions unacceptable to Putin.
