Putin's Grand Plan: What Russia Wants with Ukraine
There's countless theories of what made Putin trigger full-scale war with Ukraine and what he wants from it.
Putin's motivations for fully invading Ukraine are disputed. But what's clear was his desire to change its relationship to Russia for the long term.
Jake Broe and l hotly exchange perspectives about what is driving Putin, how this is changing, and what the impacts are for Russians in Russia, Ukrainians in and out of Ukraine and NATO.
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One such idea l have long felt plausible, was Putin’s aspiration to recreate the model he has with Belarus, which acts as a much ‘buffer state’ between eastern NATO, and also somewhere to dump some of his nuclear stockpile - which he has done during the past 2 years.
Adding Ukraine would give me two large land mass ‘client states’ he can command via pro-Russian installed leaders, much as Lukashenko - despotic leader of Belarus right now, is.
It would also be a nice firm resurgence of Russia in Eastern Europe, satisfy Putin’s imperialistic values, and embolden the Kremlin further over ‘protecting more ethnic Russians’ in say, the Baltics.
However, as the initial phase of the war went starkly unlike what Putin expected nor desired, he reorientated to focusing on the ‘Novorossyia’ (New Russia).
This part of Ukraine was largely under the Russian Empire, and when compared to current areas under Russian control now - mirrors it well. It would also enable him to connect to the strip in Moldova - Transnistria - and so ‘liberate’ more Russians from another ‘oppressive’ country.
Obviously, this is war and events move rapidly - Im not pretending to know what’s in a head like Putin’s.
There are simply a few factors that add up quite neatly from a long-term strategic outlook, and have since adjusted based on here-and-now.
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