One crucial question on which the West has not found a unanimous answer: How to deter Russia from widening its aggression?
Was the West asleep, ignorant, naïve, too conciliatory or the victims of Russian propaganda not to have detected the obvious symptoms of an expansionist Russia? Putin’s long-term ambitions in Eastern Europe were perfectly apparent.
He aspired to recapture those nations, which he so “catastrophically” lost 30 years ago with the collapse of the Soviet Union. He wanted Russia to regain the super-power status and the fearsome influence of an empire.
The warning signs were starkly visible to the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, now independent, but suppressed for 50 years as captive nations. They said early on that the Kremlin was ready to proceed in any way suitable.
(Read more: Estonian Life No. 26 2022 paber- and PDF/digi)
Laas Leivat, Toronto
