Vladimir Putin is showing no signs of easing his hostile policy towards Ukraine. In recent comments to Austria’s ORF network and a nationwide phone-in on Russia TV channel Rossiya, he stressed that Russia will not return the annexed area of Crimea to Kyiv – and warned that any attempt to recover areas of Ukraine’s Donbas will result in “dire consequences for Ukraine’s statehood.”
Moscow is skillfully exploiting Western leaders’ divisions and disagreements on issues ranging from the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear accord, to the Nord Stream 2 gas project that will increase gas flow from Russia to Western Europe, to U.S. tariffs on its trading partners. In addition, Putin has fomented nationalism in Europe by supporting far-right parties; generated political tension through Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S presidential election and allegedly made donations to prominent supporters of Britain’s Brexit campaign – all the while continuing to threaten and bully countries like Ukraine and Georgia.
