What Russia won in Ukraine and what NATO learned

Research Fellow at International Centre for Defence and Security in Tallinn Maksym Bugriy believes that it’s NATO that has been reacting to Russia’s actions. Not the other way round.

“One could argue, of course that the Crimean operation was motivated by seeming inconvenience in renting the Sevastopol base from the West-leaning and thus strategically unreliable neighbor, Ukraine. Yet, was the NATO threat in place at that time?“ asks Bugriy. “While presently, Russia turned itself into NATO’s adversary and with Crimea, finds itself in a more vulnerable position than previously did without it. For example, Russian militarization of Crimea confronts the US forward presence, which by far exceeds the economic and military power Russia has,” said Bugriy.
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