All’s not quiet on the eastern front

François Valentin and Jorge González-Gallarza | 28th January 2022 | Uncategorised

PABRADE, LITHUANIA - JANUARY 27: Lithuanian Soldiers from the King Mindaugas Hussar Battalion during shooting training in Silvestras Zukauskas landfill on January 27, 2022 in Pabrade, Lithuania. Tensions between the NATO military alliance and Russia are intensifying due to Russia's move of tens of thousands of troops as well as heavy weapons to the Ukrainian border, causing international fears of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. The U.S., Great Britain and other NATO countries have sent arms in recent days to Ukraine in a bid to deter an invasion. (Photo by Paulius Peleckis/Getty Images)

With armed conflict now a serious possibility, it would be a huge risk to call out Putin’s bluff

Some quotes do not age well. In October 2012, then incumbent president Barack Obama lambasted Governor Mitt Romney in a presidential debate after the latter claimed that Russia was America’s #1 geopolitical foe. Obama quipped “the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back”, adding that the Cold War had been dead for over 20 years. The bipartisan consensus in Washington at the time was emphatically in favour of a “reset” with Russia. Yet just 16 months later, Russia annexed Crimea and sent “little green men” to back separatists in eastern Ukraine. The result has locked large parts of that country into a permanent state of civil war. And while the international focus on Ukraine waned in the intervening years, the conflict has remained at boiling point: 13,000 have been killed and 30,000 wounded since 2013. Another 2 million have been displaced. Ukrainians have adapted to this horrific new normal by attempting to live their lives with carefree fatality. This month has see...

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