Ted Galen Carpenter
NATO’s European members, especially the newest members in
eastern Europe, incessantly fret about the threat that Vladimir
Putin’s Russia poses to their countries and the continent. Their
worries were noticeable even before the eruption of the Ukraine
crisis in 2013 and 2014. Moscow’s 2008 military intervention in
Georgia to support South Ossetia’s secessionists alarmed those
countries. So, too, did Russia’s gradual but significant military
restoration and modernization programs.
But it was Putin’s reaction to the overthrow of the pro-Russian
government of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in early 2014
that greatly intensified their worries and led to a surge of
warnings to NATO partners that the alliance must become more
serious …read more
Source: Cato Institute
